MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY,

Received
Accession No.

Given by
Place,

VNo book op pamphlet is to
oratory without the permiss 8 -

be removed from the Uab-
ion of the Trustees.

Branch Library, 426 Fifth Avenue.

ESTABLISHED BY EDWARD L. YOUMANS.

THE

POPTJLAK SCIENCE

donated ** s90C a*t*»

,-jANTlLfi LIBRARY ASS

MONTHLY.

*

:

^ano^

EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS.

B-JWHMr9i

VOL. XXXVII.

MAY TO OCTOBER, 1890.

NEW YORK :

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, and 5 BOND STREET.

u ? "j

1890.

COPTBIGHT, 1S90,

By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

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POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

MAY, 1890.

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS:*

THE MAN AND HIS ^VORK.

Br JOHN FISKE.

IN one of the most beautiful of all the shining pages of his His-
tory of the Spanish Conquest in America, Sir Arthur Helps
describes the way in which, through " some fitness of the season,
whether in great scientific discoveries or in the breaking into
light of some great moral cause, the same processes are going on
in many minds, and it seems as if they communicated with each
other invisibly. We may imagine that all good powers aid the
' new light/ and brave and wise thoughts about it float aloft in
the atmosphere of thought as downy seeds are borne over the
fruitful face of the earth " (vol. iii, page 113). The thinker who
elaborates a new system of philosophy deeper and more compre-
hensive than any yet known to mankind, though he may work
in solitude, nevertheless does not work alone. The very fact
which makes his great scheme of thought a success and not a
failure is the fact that it puts into definite and coherent shape
the ideas which many people are more or less vaguely and loosely
entertaining, and that it carries to a grand and triumphant con-
clusion processes of reasoning in which many persons have al-
ready begun taking the earlier steps. This community in mental
trend between the immortal discoverer and many of the brightest
contemporary minds, far from diminishing the originality of his
work, constitutes the feature of it which makes it a permanent
acquisition for mankind, and distinguishes it from the eccentric
philosophies which now and then come up to startle the world
for a while, and are presently discarded and forgotten. The his-

* An Address before the Brooklyn Ethical Association, March 23, 1890.

TOL. XXXVII. — 1

3176G

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tory of modern physics — as in the case of the correlation of forces
and the undulatory theory of light — furnishes us with many in-
stances of wise thoughts floating like downy seeds in the atmos-
phere until the moment has come for them to take root. And so
it has been with the greatest achievement of modern thinking —
the doctrine of evolution. Students and investigators in all de-
partments, alike in the physical and in the historical sciences,
were fairly driven by the nature of the phenomena before them
into some hypothesis, more or less vague, of gradual and orderly
change or development. The world was ready and waiting for
Herbert Spencer's mighty work when it came, and it was for that
reason that it was so quickly triumphant over the old order of
thought. The victory has been so thorough, swift, and decisive
that it will take another generation to narrate the story of it so
as to do it full justice. Meanwhile, people's minds are apt to be
somewhat dazed with the rapidity and wholesale character of the
change ; and nothing is more common than to see them adopting
Mr. Spencer's ideas without recognizing them as his or knowing
whence they got them. As fast as Mr. Spencer could set forth
his generalizations they were taken hold of here and there by
special workers, each in his own department, and utilized therein.
His general system was at once seized, assimilated, and set forth
with new illustrations by serious thinkers who were already
groping in the regions of abstruse thought which the master's
vision pierced so clearly. And thus the doctrine of evolution has
come to be inseparably interfused with the whole mass of think-
ing in our day and generation. I do not mean to imply that peo-
ple commonly entertain very clear ideas about it, for clear ideas
are not altogether common. I suspect that a good many people
would hesitate if asked to state exactly what Newton's law of
gravitation is.

Among the men in America whose minds, between thirty and
forty years ago, were feeling their way toward some such unified
conception of nature as Mr. Spencer was about to set forth in all
its dazzling glory — among the men who were thus prepared to
grasp the doctrine of evolution at once and expound it with fresh
illustrations — the first in the field was the man to whose memory
we have met here this evening to pay a brief word of tribute. It
is but a little while since that noble face was here with us and the
tones of that kindly voice were fraught with good cheer for us.
To most of you, I presume, the man Edward Livingston Youmans
is still a familiar presence. There must be many here this even-
ing who listened to the tidings of his death two years ago with a
sense of personal bereavement. No one who knew him is likely
ever to forget him. But for those who remember distinctly
the man it may not be superfluous to recount the principal in-

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 3

cidents of his life and work. It is desirable that the story
should be set forth concisely, so as to be remembered ; for the
work was like the man, unselfish and unobtrusive, and in the
hurry and complication of modern life such work is liable to be
lost from sight, so that people profit by it without knowing that
such work was ever done. So genuinely modest, so utterly desti-
tute of self -regarding impulses was our friend, that I believe it
would be quite like him to chide us for thus drawing public at-
tention to him, as he would think, with too much emphasis. But
such mild reproof it is right that we should disregard ; for the
memory of a life so beautiful and useful is a precious possession
of which mankind ought not to be deprived.

Edward Livingston Youmans was born in the town of
Coeymans, Albany County, N. Y., on the 3d of June, 1821. From
his father and mother, both of whom survived him, he inherited
strong traits of character as well as an immense fund of vital
energy, such that the failure of health a few years ago seemed (to
me, at least) surprising. His father, Vincent Youmans, was a
man of independent character, strong convictions, and perfect
moral courage, with a quick and ready tongue, in the use of which
earnestness and frankness perhaps sometimes prevailed over pru-
dence. The mother, Catherine Scofield, was notable for balance
of judgment, prudence, and tact. The mother's grandfather was
Irish ; and, while I very much doubt the soundness of the gener-
alizations we are so prone to make about race characteristics, I
can not but feel that for the impulsive — one had almost said ex-
plosive — warmth of sympathy, the enchanting grace and vivacity
of manner, in Edward Youmans, this strain of Irish blood may
have been to some extent accountable. Both father and mother
belonged to the old Puritan stock of New England, and the fa-
ther's ancestry was doubtless purely English. Nothing could be
more honorably or characteristically English than the name. In
the old feudal society the yeoman, like the franklin, was the small
freeholder, owning a modest estate yet holding it by no servile
tenure, a man of the common people yet no churl, a member of
the state who "knew his rights and knowing dared maintain."
Few indeed were the nooks and corners outside of merry England
where such men flourished as the yeomen and franklins who
founded democratic New England. It has often been remarked
how the most illustrious of Franklins exemplified the typical
virtues of his class. There was much that was similar in the tem-
perament and disposition of Edward Youmans — the sagacity and
penetration, the broad common sense, the earnest purpose veiled
but not hidden by the blithe humor, the devotion to ends of wide
practical value, the habit of making in the best sense the most out
of life.

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When Edward was but six months old, his parents moved to
Greenfield, near Saratoga Springs. With a comfortable house
and three acres of land, his father kept a wagon-shop and smithy.
In those days, while it was hard work to wring a subsistence out
of the soil or to prosper upon any of the vocations which rural
life permitted, there was doubtless more independence of charac-
ter and real shiftiness than in our time, when cities and tariffs
have so sapped the strength of the farming country. In the fam-
ily of Vincent Youmans, though rigid economy was practiced,
books were reckoned to a certain extent among the necessaries of
life, and the house was one in which neighbors were fond of gath-
ering to discuss questions of politics or theology, social reform or
improvements in agriculture. On all such questions Vincent
Youmans was apt to have ideas of his own ; he talked with enthu-
siasm, and was also ready to listen ; and he evidently supplied an
intellectual stimulus to the whole community. For a boy of
bright and inquisitive mind listening to such talk is no mean
source of education. It often goes much further than the reading
of books. From an early age Edward Youmans seems to have
appropriated all such means of instruction. He had that insa-
tiable thirst for knowledge which is one of God's best gifts to
man ; for he who is born with this appetite must needs be griev-
ously ill-made in other respects if it does not constrain him to
lead a happy and useful life.

After ten years at Greenfield the family moved to a farm at
Milton, some two miles distant. Until his sixteenth year Edward
helped his father at farm-work in the summer and attended the
district school in winter. It was his good fortune for some time
to fall into the hands of a teacher who had a genius for teaching
— a man who in those days of rote-learning did not care to have
things learned by heart, but sought to stimulate the thinking
powers of his pupils, and who in that age of canes and ferules
never found it necessary to use such means of discipline, because
the fear of displeasing him was of itself all-sufficient. Experience
of the methods of such a man was enough to sharpen one's dis-
gust for the excessive mechanism, the rigid and stupid manner of
teaching, which characterize the ordinary school. In after-years
Youmans used to say that " Uncle Good " — as this admirable ped-
agogue was called — first taught him what his mind was for.
Through intercourse and training of this sort he learned to doubt,
to test the soundness of opinions, to make original inquiries, and
to find and follow clews.

But even the best of teachers can effect but little unless he
finds a mind ready of itself to take the initiative. It is doubtful
if men of eminent ability are ever made so by schooling. The
school offers opportunities, but in such men the tendency to the

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 5

initiative is so strong that if opportunities are not offered they
will somehow contrive to create them. When Edward Yonmans
was about thirteen years old he persuaded his father to buy him a
copy of Comstock's Natural Philosophy. This book he studied
at home by himself, and repeated many of the experiments with
apparatus of his own contriving. "When he made a centrifugal
water-wheel, and explained to the men and boys of the neighbor-
hood the principle of its revolution in a direction opposite to that
of the stream which moved it, we may regard it as his earliest at-
tempt at giving scientific lectures. It was natural that one who
had become interested in physics should wish to study chemistry.
The teacher (who was not " Uncle Good ") had never so much as
laid eyes on a text-book of chemistry ; but Edward was not to be
daunted by such trifles. A copy of Comstock's manual was pro-
cured, another pupil was found willing to join in the study, and
this class of two proceeded to learn what they could from reading
the book, while the teacher asked them the printed questions —
those questions the mere existence of which in text-books is apt to
show what a low view publishers take of the average intelligence
of teachers ! It was not a very hopeful way of studying such a
subject as chemistry ; but doubtless the time was not wasted, and
the foundations for a future knowledge of chemistry were laid.
The experience of farm-work which accompanied these studies ex-
plains the interest which in later years Mr. Youmans felt in agri-
cultural chemistry. He came to realize how crude and primitive
are our methods of making the earth yield its produce, and it was
his opinion that, when men have once learned how to conduct
agriculture upon sound scientific principles, farming will become
at once the most wholesome and the most attractive form of
human industry.

Along with the elementary studies in science there went a
great deal of miscellaneous reading, mostly, it would appear, of
good solid books. Apparently there was at that time no study of
languages, ancient or modern. At the age of seventeen the young
man had shown so much promise that it was decided he should
study law, and he had already entered upon a more extensive
course of preparation in an academy in Saratoga County when the
event occurred which changed the whole course of his life. He
had been naturally gifted with keen and accurate vision, was a
good sportsman and an excellent shot with a rifle, but at about
the age of thirteen there had come an attack of ophthalmia which
left the eyes weak and sensitive. Perpetual reading probably in-
creased the difficulty and hindered complete recovery. At the age
of seventeen violent inflammation set in, the sight in one eye was
completely lost, while in the other it grew so dim as to be of little
avail. Sometimes he would be just able to find his way about the

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

streets, at other times the blindness was almost total, and this
state of things lasted for nearly thirteen years.

This dreadful calamity seemed to make it impossible to con-
tinue any systematic course of study, and the outlook for satis-
factory work of any sort was extremely discouraging. The first
necessity was medical assistance, and in quest of this Mr. You-
mans came in the autumn of 1839 to New York, where for the
most part he spent the remainder of his life. Until 1851 he was
under the care of an oculist. Under such circumstances, if a man
of eager energy and boundless intellectual craving were to be
overwhelmed with despondency, we could not call it strange. If
he were to become dependent upon friends for the means of sup-
port, it would be ungracious if not unjust to blame him. But
Edward Youmans was not made of the stuff that acquiesces in
defeat. He rose superior to calamity, he won the means of liveli-
hood, and in darkness entered upon the path to an enviable fame.
At first he had to resign himself to spending weary weeks over
tasks that with sound eye-sight could have been dispatched in as
many days. He invented some kind of writing-machine which held
his paper firmly and enabled his pen to follow straight lines at
proper distances apart. Long practice of this sort gave his hand-
writing a peculiar character which it retained in later years.
When I first saw it in 1863 it seemed almost undecipherable ; but
that was far from being the case, and, after I had grown used to
it, I found it but little less legible than the most beautiful chi-
rography. The strokes, gnarled and jagged as they were, had a
method in their madness, and every pithy sentence went straight
as an arrow to its mark.

While conquering these physical obstacles Mr. Youmans began
writing for the press, and gradually entered into relations with
leading newspapers which became more and more important and
useful as years went on. He became acquainted with Horace
Greeley, William Henry Channing, and other gentlemen who
were interested in social reforms. His sympathies were strongly
enlisted with the little party of abolitionists, then held in such
scornful disfavor by all other parties. He was also interested in
the party of temperance, which, as he and others were afterward
to learn, compounded for its essential uprightness of purpose by
indulging in very gross intemperance of speech and action. The
disinterestedness which always characterized him was illustrated
by his writing many articles for a temperance paper which could
not afford to pay its contributors, although he was struggling
with such disadvantages in earning his own livelihood and carry-
ing on his scientific studies. Those were days when leading re-
formers believed that by some cunningly contrived alteration of
social arrangements our human nature, with all its inheritance

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 7

from countless ages of brutality, can somehow be made over all
in a moment, just as one would go to work with masons and car-
penters and revamp a house. There are many good people who
still labor under such a delusion.

Though Mr. Youmans was brought into frequent contact with
reformers of this sort, it does not seem to me that his mind was
ever deeply impressed with such ways of thinking. Science is
teaching us that the method of evolution is that mill of God, of
which we have heard, which, while it grinds with infinite efficacy,
yet grinds with wearisome slowness. It was Mr. Darwin's dis-
covery of natural selection which first brought this truth home
to us ; but Sir Charles Lyell had in 1830 shown how enormous
effects are wrought by the cumulative action of slight and unob-
trusive causes, and this had much to do with turning men's minds
toward some conception of evolution. It was about 1847 that Mr.
Youmans was deeply interested in the work of geologists, as well
as in the nebular theory, to which recent discoveries were adding
fresh confirmation. Some time before this he had read that fa-
mous book, Vestiges of Creation, and, although Prof. Agassiz truly
declared that it was an unscientific book crammed with antiquated
and exploded fancies, I suspect that Mr. Youmans felt that amid
all the chaff there was a very sound and sturdy kernel of truth.

Among the books which Mr. Youmans projected at this time,
the first was a compendious history of progress in discovery and
invention ; but, after he had made extensive preparations, a book
was published so similar in scope and treatment that he abandoned
the undertaking. Another work was a treatise on arithmetic, on
a new and philosophical plan ; but, when this was approaching
completion, he again found himself anticipated, this time by the
book of Horace Mann. This was discouraging enough, but a
third venture resulted in brilliant success. We have observed
the eagerness with which, as a school-boy, Mr. Youmans entered
upon the study of chemistry. His interest in this science grew
with years, and he devoted himself to it so far as was practicable.
For a blind man to carry on the study of a science which is pre-
eminently one of observation and experiment might seem hope-
less. It was at any rate absolutely necessary to see with the eyes
of others if not with his own. Here the assistance rendered
by his sister was invaluable. During most of this period she
served as amanuensis and reader for him. But, more than this,
she kept up for some time a course of laboratory work, the results
of which were minutely described to her brother and discussed
with him in the evenings. The lectures of Dr. John William
Draper on chemistry were also thoroughly discussed and pon-
dered.

The conditions under which Mr. Youmans worked made it

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

necessary for him to consider every point with the extreme de-
liberation involved in framing distinct mental images of things
and processes which he conld not watch with the eye. It was
hard discipline, but he doubtless profited from it. Nature had
endowed him with an unusually clear head, but this enforced
method must have made it still clearer. One of the most notable
qualities of his mind was the absolute luminousness with which
he saw things and the relations among things. It was this quality
that made him so successful as an expounder of scientific truths.
In the course of his pondering over chemical facts which he was
obliged to take at second hand, it occurred to him that most of
the pupils in common schools who studied chemistry were practi-
cally no better off. It was easy enough for schools to buy text-
books, but difficult for them to provide laboratories and appara-
tus ; and it was much easier withal to find teachers who could ask
questions out of a book than those who could use apparatus if
provided. It was customary, therefore, to learn chemistry by
rote ; or, in other words, pupils' heads were crammed with unin-
telligible statements about things with queer names — such as
manganese or tellurium — which they had never seen, and would
not know if they were to see them. It occurred to Mr. Youmans
that, if visible processes could not be brought before pupils, at any
rate the fundamental conceptions of chemistry might be made
clear by means of diagrams. He began devising diagrams in dif-
ferent colors, to illustrate the diversity in the atomic weights of
the principal elements, and the composition of the more familiar
compounds. At length, by uniting his diagrams, he obtained a
comprehensive chart exhibiting the outlines of the whole scheme
of chemical combination according to the binary or dualist theory
then in vogue. This chart, when published, was a great success.
It not only facilitated the acquirement of clear ideas, but it was
suggestive of new ideas. It proved very popular, and kept the
field until the binary theory was overthrown by the modern doc-
trine of substitution, which does not lend itself so readily to
graphic treatment.

The success of the chemical chart led to the writing of a text-
book of chemistry. This laborious work was completed in 1851,
when Mr. Youmans was thirty years old. Prof. Silliman was
then regarded as one of our foremost authorities in chemistry,
but it was at once remarked of the new book that it showed quite
as thorough a mastery of the whole subject of chemical combina-
tion as Silliman's. It was a text-book of a kind far less common
then than now. There was nothing dry about it. The subject
was presented with beautiful clearness, in a most attractive style.
There was a firm grasp of the philosophical principles underlying
chemical phenomena, and the meaning and functions of the sci-

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 9

ence were set forth, in such a way as to charm the student and
make him wish for more. The book had an immediate and
signal success ; in after-years it was twice rewritten by the au-
thor, to accommodate it to the rapid advances made by the sci-
ence, and it is still one of our best text-books of chemistry. It
has had a sale of about one hundred and fifty thousand copies.

The publication of this book at once established its author's
reputation as a scientific writer, and in another way it marked an
era in his life. The long, distressing period of darkness now came
to an end. Sight was so far recovered in one eye that it became
possible to go about freely, to read, to recognize friends, to travel,
and make much, of life. I am told that his face had acquired an
expression characteristic of the blind, but that expression was
afterward completely lost. When I knew. him it would never
have occurred to me that his sight was imperfect, except perhaps
as regards length of range.

Mr. Youmans's career as a scientific lecturer now began. His
first lecture was the beginning of a series on the relations of
organic life to the atmosphere. It was illustrated with chemical
apparatus, and was given in a private room in New York to an
audience which filled the room. Probably no lecturer ever faced
his first audience without some trepidation, and Mr. Youmans
had not the main-stay and refuge afforded by a manuscript, for
his sight was never good enough to make such an aid available
for his lectures. At first the right words were slow in finding
their way to those ready lips, and his friends were beginning to
grow anxious, when all at once a happy accident broke the spell.
He was remarking upon the characteristic instability of nitrogen,
and pointing to a jar of that gas on the table before him, when
some fidgety movement of his knocked the jar off the table. He
improved the occasion with one of his quaint bons mots, and, as
there is nothing that greases the wheels of life like a laugh, the
lecture went on to a successful close.

This was the beginning of a busy career of seventeen years of
lecturing, ending in 18G8 ; and I believe it is safe to say that few
things were done in all those years of more vital and lasting
benefit to the American people than this broadcast sowing of the
seeds of scientific thought in the lectures of Edward Youmans.
They came just at the time when the world was ripe for the doc-
trine of evolution, when all the wondrous significance of the
trend of scientific discovery since Newton's time was beginning
to burst upon men's minds. The work of Lyell in geology, fol-
lowed at length, in 1859 by the Darwinian theory ; the doctrine of
the correlation of forces and the consequent unity of nature ; the
extension and reformation of chemical theory ; the simultaneous
advance made in sociological inquiry, and in the conception of the

io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

true aims and proper methods of education — all this made the
period a most fruitful one for the peculiar work of such a teacher
as Youmans. The intellectual atmosphere was charged with con-
ceptions of evolution. Mr. Youmans had arrived at such concep-
tions in the course of his study of the separate lines of scientific
speculation which were now about to be summed up and organ-
ized by Herbert Spencer into that system of philosophy which
marks the highest point to which the progressive intelligence of
mankind has yet attained. In the field of scientific generaliza-
tion upon this great scale, Mr. Youmans was not an originator ;
but his broadly sympathetic and luminous mind moved on a
plane so near to that of the originators that he seized at once
upon the grand scheme of thought as it was developed, made it
his own, and brought to its interpretation and diffusion such a
happy combination of qualities as one seldom meets with. The
ordinary popularizer of great and novel truths is a man who
comprehends them but partially and illustrates them in a lame
and fragmentary way. But it was the peculiarity of Mr. You-
mans that, while on the one hand he could grasp the newest sci-
entific thought so surely and firmly that he seemed to have en-
tered into the innermost mind of its author, on the other hand he
could speak to the general public in a convincing and stimulat-
ing way that had no parallel. This was the secret of his power,
and there can be no question that his influence in educating the
American people to receive the doctrine of evolution was great
and wide-spread.

The years when Mr. Youmans was traveling and lecturing
were the years when the old lyceum system of popular lectures
was still in its vigor. The kind of life led by the energetic lect-
urer in those days was not that of a Sybarite, as may be seen from
a passage in one of his letters : " I lectured in Sandusky, and had
to get up at five o'clock to reach Elyria ; I had had but very little
sleep. To get from Elyria to Pittsburg I must take the five o'clock
morning train, and the hotel darkey said he would try to awaken
me. I knew what that meant, and so did not get a single wink of
sleep that night. Rode all day to Pittsburg, and had to lecture
in the great Academy of Music over foot-lights. . . . The train
that left for Zanesville departed at two in the morning. I had
been assured a hundred times (for I asked everybody I met) that
I would get a sleeping-car to Zanesville, and, when I was all
ready to start, I was informed that this morning there was no
sleeping-car. By the time I reached here I was pretty completely
used up."

Such a fatiguing life, however, has its compensations. It
brings the lecturer into friendly contact with the brightest minds
among his fellow-countrymen in many and many places, and en-

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. n

larges his sphere of influence in a way that is not easy to estimate.
Clearly an earnest lecturer, of commanding intelligence and
charming manner, with a great subject to teach, must have an op-
portunity for sowing seeds that will presently ripen in a change
of opinion or sentiment, in an altered way of looking at things
on the part of whole communities. No lecturer has ever had a
better opportunity of this sort than Edward Youmans, and none
ever made a better use of his opportunity. His gifts as a talker
were of the highest order. The commonest and plainest story, as
told by Edward Youmans, had all the breathless interest of the
most thrilling romance. Absolutely unconscious of himself, sim-
ple, straightforward, and vehement, wrapped up in his subject,
the very embodiment of faith and enthusiasm, of heartiness and
good cheer, it was delightful to hear him. . And when we join
with all this his unfailing common sense, his broad and kindly
view of men and things, and the delicious humor that kept flash-
ing out in quaint, pithy phrases such as no other man would
have thought of, and such as are the despair of any one trying
to remember and quote them, we can seem to imagine what a
power he must have been with his lectures.

When such a man goes about for seventeen years, teaching
scientific truths for which the world is ripe, we may be sure that
his work is great, albeit we have no standard whereby we can
exactly measure it. In hundreds of little towns with queer
names did this strong personality appear and make its way and
leave its effects in the shape of new thoughts, new questions, and
enlarged hospitality of mind, among the inhabitants. The results
of all this are surely visible to-day. In no part of the English
world has Herbert Spencer's philosophy met with such a general
and cordial reception as in the United States. This may, no
doubt, be largely explained by a reference to general causes ; but
as it is almost always necessary, along with our general causes, to
take into the account some personal influence, so it is in this case.
It is safe to say that among the agencies which during the past
fifty years have so remarkably broadened the mind of the Ameri-
can people, very few have been more potent than the gentle and
subtle but pervasive work done by Edward Youmans with his
lectures, and to this has been largely due the hospitable reception
of Herbert Spencer's ideas.

It was in 1856 that Mr. Youmans fell in with a review of Spen-
cer's Principles of Psychology, by Dr. Morell, in the Medico-
Chirurgical Review. This review impressed him so deeply that
he at once sent to London for a copy of the book, which had been
published in the preceding year. It will be observed that this
was four years before the Darwinian theory was announced to the
world in the first edition of the Origin of Species. Toward the

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

end of that book Mr. Darwin looked forward to a distant future
when the conception of gradual development might be applied
to the phenomena of conscious intelligence. He had not then
learned of the existence of such a book as the Principles of Psy-
chology. In later editions he was obliged to modify his state-
ment and confess that, instead of looking so far forward, he had
better have looked about him. I have more than once heard Mr.
Darwin laugh merrily over this, at his own expense.

After struggling for a while with the weighty problems of this
book — the most profound treatise upon mental phenomena that
any human mind has ever produced — Mr. Youmans saw that the
theory expounded in it was a long stride in the direction of a gen-
eral theory of evolution. His interest in this subject received a
new and fresh stimulus. He read Social Statics, and began to
recognize Mr. Spencer's hand in the anonymous articles in the
quarterlies in which he was then announcing and illustrating
various portions or segments of his newly discovered law of
evolution. One evening in February, 1860, as Mr. Youmans was
calling at a friend's house in Brooklyn, the Rev. Samuel Johnson,
of Salem, h%nded him the famous prospectus of the great series
of philosophical works which Mr. Spencer proposed to issue by
subscription. Mr. Johnson had obtained this from Edward Sils-
bee, who was one of the very first Americans to become interested
in Spencer. The very next day Mr. Youmans wrote a letter to
Mr. Spencer, offering his aid in procuring American subscriptions
and otherwise aiding in every possible way the progress of the
enterprise. With this letter and Mr. Spencer's cordial reply be-
gan the life-long friendship between the two men. It was in that
same month that I first became aware of Mr. Spencer's existence,
through a single paragraph quoted from him by Mr. Lewes, and
in that paragraph there was immense fascination. I had been
steeping myself in the literature of modern philosophy, starting
with Bacon and Descartes, and was then studying Comte's Phi-
losophic Positive, which interested me as suggesting that the spe-
cial doctrines of the several sciences might be organized into a
general body of doctrine of universal significance. Comte's work
was crude and often wildly absurd, but there was much in it that
was very suggestive. In May, 1860, in the Old Corner Bookstore
in Boston, I fell upon a copy of that same prospectus of Mr. Spen-
cer's works, and read it with exulting delight, for clearly there
was to be such an organization of scientific doctrine as the world
was waiting for. It appeared that there was some talk of Tick-
nor & Fields undertaking to conduct the series in case subscrip-
tions enough should be received. Mr. Spencer preferred to have
his works appear in Boston ; but when in the course of 1860 his
book on Education was offered to Ticknor & Fields, they declined

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 13

to publish, it, which, was, of course, a grave mistake from the
business point of view. Mr. Youmans, however, was not sorry
for this, for it gave him the opportunity to place Mr. Spencer's
books where he could do most to forward their success.

Some years before, during his blindness, his sister had led him
one day into the store of Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. in quest of a
book, and Mr. William H. Appleton had become warmly inter-
ested in him. I believe the firm now look back to this chance
visit as one of the most auspicious events in their annals. He
became by degrees a kind of adviser as regarded matters of publi-
cation, and it was largely through his far-sighted advice that the
Appletons entered upon the publication of such books as those
of Buckle, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Haeckel, and others of like
character, always paying a royalty to the authors, the same as to
American authors, in spite of the absence of an international
copyright law. As publishers of books of this sort the Appletons
have come to be pre-eminent. It is obvious enough nowadays
that such books are profitable from a business point of view.
But thirty years and more ago this was by no means obvious.
We were very provincial. Reprints of English books, transla-
tions from French and German, were sadly behind the times. In
the Connecticut town where I lived people would begin to wake
up to the existence of some great European book or system of
thought after it had been before the world anywhere from a
dozen to fifty years. In those days, therefore, it required some
boldness to undertake the reprinting of new scientific books, and
none have recognized more freely than the Appletons the impor-
tance of the part played by Mr. Youmans in this matter. His
work as adviser to a great publishing house and his work as
lecturer re-enforced each other, and thus his capacity for useful-
ness was much increased.

When Mr. Spencer's book on Education failed to find favor
in Boston, the Appletons took it, and thus presently secured
the management of the philosophical series. This brought Mr.
Youmans into permanent relations with Mr. Spencer and his
work. In 1861 Mr. Youmans was married, and in the course of
the following year made a journey in Europe with his wife. It
was now that he became personally acquainted with Mr. Spencer,
and found him quite as interesting and admirable as his books.
Friendships were also begun with Huxley and other foremost
men of science. From more than one of these men I have heard
the warmest expressions of personal affection for Mr. Youmans,
and of keen appreciation of the aid that they have obtained in
innumerable ways from his intelligent and enthusiastic sympa-
thy. But no one else got so large a measure of this support as Mr.
Spencer. As fast as his books were republished, Mr. Youmans

i 4 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

wrote reviews of theni, and by no. means in the nsnal perfunctory
way ; liis reviews and notices were turned ont by the score, and
scattered abont in the magazines and newspapers where they
would do the most good. Whenever he found another writer who
could be pressed into the service, he would give him Spencer's
books, kindle him with a spark from his own magnificent enthu-
siasm, and set him to writing for the press. The most indefati-
gable vender of wares was never more ruthlessly persistent in ad-
vertising for lucre's sake than Edward Youmans in preaching in
a spirit of the purest disinterestedness the gospel of evolution. As
long as he lived, Mr. Spencer had upon this side of the Atlantic
an alter ego ever on the alert with vision like that of a hawk for
the slightest chance to promote his interests and those of his sys-
tem of thought.

Among the allies thus enlisted at that early time were Mr.
George Ripley and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, both of whom did
good service, in their different ways, in awakening public interest
in the doctrine of evolution. In those days of the civil war it
was especially hard to keep up the list of subscribers in an
abstruse philosophical publication of apparently interminable
length. Mr. Youmans now and then found it needful to make a
journey in the interests of the work, and it was on one of these
occasions, in Xovember, 1SG3, that I made his acquaintance. I
had already published, in 1861, an article in one of the quarterly
reviews in which Mr. Spencer's work was referred to ; and another
in 1863, in which the law of evolution was illustrated in connection
with certain problems of the science of language. The articles
were anonymous, as was then the fashion, and Mr. Youmans's curi-
osity was aroused. There were so few people then who had any
conception of what Mr. Spencer's work meant, that they could have
been counted on one's fingers. At that time I knew of only three
— the late Prof. Gurney, of Harvard ; Mr. George Roberts, now an
eminent patent lawyer in Boston ; and Mr. John Clark, now of
the Prang Educational Company. I have since known that there
were at least two or three others about Boston, among others,
my learned friend the Rev. W. R. Alger, besides several in other
parts of the country. "When we sometimes ventured to observe
that Mr. Spencers work was as great as Xewton's, and that his
theory of evolution was going to remodel human thinking upon
all subjects whatever, people used to stare at us and take us for
idiots. Anv one member of such a small communitv was easv to
find ; and I have always dated a new era in my life from the Sun-
dav afternoon when Mr. Youmans came to my room in Cam-
bridge. It was the beginning of a friendship such as hardly
comes but once to a man. At that first meeting I knew nothing
of him except that he was the author of a text-book of chemistry

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 15

which I had found interesting, in spite of its having been
crammed down my throat by an old-fashioned memorizing teach-
er who, I am convinced, never really knew so much as the differ-
ence between oxygen and antimony. At first it was a matter of
breathless interest to talk with a man who had seen Herbert
Spencer. But one of the immediate results of this interview was
the beginning of my own correspondence with Mr. Spencer, which
led to manifold results. And from that time forth it always
seemed as if, whenever any of the good or lovely things of life
came to my lot, somehow or other Edward Youmans was either
the cause of it or at any rate intimately concerned with it. The
sphere of his unselfish goodness was so wide and its quality so
potent that one could not come into near relations with him
without becoming in all manner of unsuspected ways strengthened
and enriched.

In the autumn of i860 we were dismayed by the announce-
ment that Mr. Spencer would no longer be able to go on issuing
his works. In London they were published at his own expense
and risk, and those books which now yield a handsome profit did
not then pay the cost of making them. By the summer of 1865
there was a balance of £1,100 against Mr. Spencer, and his prop-
erty was too small to admit of his going on and losing at such a
rate. As soon as this was known, John Stuart Mill begged to be
allowed to assume the entire pecuniary responsibility of continu-
ing the publication ; but this, Mr. Spencer, while deeply affected
by such noble sympathy, would not hear of. He consented, how-
ever, with great reluctance, to the attempt of Huxley and Lub-
bock, and other friends, to increase artificially the list of sub-
scribers by inducing people to take the work just in order to help
support it. But after several months the sudden death of Mr.
Spencer's father added something to his means of support, and he
thereupon withdrew his consent to this arrangement, and deter-
mined to go on publishing as before, and bearing the loss.

But, as soon as the first evil tidings reached America, Mr. You-
mans made up his mind that 85,500 must be forthwith raised by
subscription, in order to make good the loss already incurred. It
is delightful to remember the vigor with which he took hold of
this work. The sum of 87,000 was raised and invested in American
securities in Mr. Spencer's name. If he did not see fit to accept
these securities, they would go without an owner. The best Wal-
tham watch that could be procured was presented to Mr. Spencer
by his American friends ; a letter, worded with rare delicacy and
tact, was written by the late Robert Minturn ; and Mr. Youmans
sailed for England to convey the letter and the watch to Mr.
Spencer. It was a charming scene on a summer day in an Eng-
lish garden when the great philosopher was apprised of what had

16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

been done. It was so skillfully managed that lie could not refuse
the tribute without seeming churlish. He therefore accepted it,
and applied it to extending his researches in descriptive sociology.

Of the many visits which Mr. Youmans made to England, now
and then extending them to the Continent, one of the most impor-
tant was in 1871, for the purpose of establishing the International
Scientific Series. This was a favorite scheme of Mr. Youmans.
He realized that popular scientific books, adapted to the general
reader, are apt to be written by third-rate men who do not well
understand their subject ; they are apt to be dry or superficial or
both. No one can write so good a popular book as the master of a
subject, if he only has a fair gift of expressing himself and keeps in
mind the public for which he is writing. The master knows what
to tell and what to omit, and can thus tell much in a short com-
pass and still make it interesting ; moreover, he avoids the inaccu-
racies which are sure to occur in second-hand work. Masters of
subjects are apt, however, to be too much occupied with original
research to write popular books. It was Mr. Youmans's plan to
induce the leading men of science in Europe and America to con-
tribute small volumes on their special subjects to a series to be
published simultaneously in several countries and languages.
Furthermore, by special contract with publishing houses of high
reputation, the author was to receive the ordinary royalty on
every copy of his book sold in every one of the countries in ques-
tion, thus anticipating international copyright upon a very wide
scale, and giving the author a much more adequate compensation
for his labor. To put this scheme into operation was a task of
great difficulty, so many conflicting interests had to be consid-
ered. Mr. Youmans's brilliant success is attested by that noble
series of more than fifty volumes, on all sorts of scientific sub-
jects, written by men of real eminence, and published in England,
France, Italy, Germany, and Russia, as well as in the United
States.

A word is all that can be spared for other parts of our friend's
work, which deserve many words and those carefully considered.
His book on Household Science is not the usual collection of
scrappy comment, recipe, and apothegm, but a valuable scien-
tific treatise on heat, light, air, and food in their relations to every-
day life. In his Correlation of Physical Forces he brings together
the epoch-making essays of the men who have successively estab-
lished that doctrine, introducing them with an essay of his own
in which its history and its philosophical implications are set forth
in a masterly manner. In his book on the Culture demanded by
Modern Life we have a similar collection of essays with a simi-
lar excellent original discussion, showing the need for wider and
later training in science, and protesting against the excess of time

EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. i 7

and energy that is spent in classical education where it is merely
the following of an old tradition.

As a crown to all this useful work Mr. Youmans established, in
1872, The Popular Science Monthly, which has unquestionably
been of high educational value to the general public. It was not
the aim of this magazine to give an account of every theory ex-
pounded, every fact observed, every discovery made from year to
year, whether significant or insignificant. The mind of the peo-
ple is not educated by dumping a great, unshapely mass of facts
into it. It needs to be stimulated rather than crammed. Educa-
tion in science should lead one to think for one's self. The scien-
tific magazine, therefore, should present articles from all quarters
that deal with the essential conceptions of science or discuss prob-
lems of real theoretical or practical interest, no matter whether
every particular asteroid or the last new species of barnacle re-
ceives full attention or not. The Popular Science Monthly has
now been with us eighteen years ; its character has always been of
the highest, and it must have exerted an excellent influence not
only as a diff user of valuable knowledge, but in training its readers
to scientific habits of thought in so far as mere reading can con-
tribute to such a result.

In concluding our survey of this useful and noble life, what
impresses us most, I think, is the broad, democratic spirit and the
absolute unselfishness which it reveals at every moment and in
every act. To Edward Youmans the imperative need for edu-
cating the great mass of the people so as to use their mental
powers to the best advantage came home as a living, ever-present
fact. He saw all that it meant and means in the raising of man-
kind to a higher level of thought and action than that upon
which they now live. To this end he consecrated himself with
unalloyed devotion ; and we who mourn his loss look back upon
his noble career with a sense of victory, knowing how the good
that such a man does lives after him and can never die.

[Mr. Fiske's address was followed by appreciative remarks from
several gentlemen who had known Mr. Youmans, and who gave
many interesting reminiscences of him. We append a letter from
Mr. Spencer, which arrived too late to be read at this meeting.]

64 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London, N. W., March 13, 1890.

Dear Mr. Skilton : I received your telegram last night, and
from the wording conclude that you wish some letter from me
about Youmans which Fiske may read in his lecture on the 23d. I
am very glad to respond to the request, and I can not do this better
than by giving you the following copy of a passage in my Auto-
biography concerning him :

"The relation thus initiated was extremely fortunate; for

TOL. XXXTII. — 2

18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Prof. Edward L. Youmans was, of all Americans I have known
or heard of, the one most able and most willing to help me.
Alike intellectually and morally, he had in the highest degrees
the traits conducive to success in diffusing the doctrines he es-
poused ; and from that time to this he has devoted his life
mainly to spreading throughout the United States the doctrine
of evolution. His love of wide generalizations had been shown
years before in lectures on such topics as the correlation of the
physical forces ; and from those who heard him I have gathered
that, aided by his unusual powers of exposition, the enthusiasm
which contemplation of the larger truths of science produced in
him was in a remarkable degree communicated to his hearers.
Such larger truths I have on many occasions observed are those
which he quickly seizes — ever passing at once through details
to lay hold of essentials ; and, having laid hold of them, he
clearly sets them forth afresh in his own way with added illus-
trations. But it is morally even more than intellectually that
he has proved himself a true missionary of advanced ideas.
Extremely energetic — so energetic that no one has been able to
check his overactivity — he has expended all his powers in ad-
vancing what he holds to be the truth ; and not only his powers
but his means. It has proved impossible to prevent him from in-
juring himself in health by his exertions ; and it has proved im-
possible to make him pay due regard to his personal interests. So
that toward the close of life he finds himself wrecked in body and
impoverished in estate by thirty years of devotion to high ends.
Among professed worshipers of humanity, who teach that human
welfare should be the dominant aim, I have not yet heard of one
whose sacrifices on behalf of humanity will bear comparison with
those of my friend."

Though the volume containing this passage will not be pub-
lished until after my death, I am very willing that this tribute of
admiration to my late friend should be made public now.

I am, faithfully yours, Herbert Spencer.

A committee of the British Association is charged with the collection of infor-
mation respecting the disappearance or threatened disappearance of rare plants.
While instances of complete extinction of any species within recent times may be
rare, there are more of local extinction or of apparent extinction for a time, and
the cases of threatened extinction are numerous enough to he alarming. A potent
factor in the changes that have taken place is " the injudicious action of botanists
themselves, and of botanical exchange clubs. The 'dealer' and 'collector' also
figure largely in the process, while tourists are not responsible for much damage
except indirectly by patronizing dealers. It is too often forgotten that the very
rarity of a plant is the sign, and in great degree also the measure, of the acuteness
of its struggle for existence, and that, when a plant is in unstable equilibrium with
its environment, a small disturbance may have di?proportionately great effects."

ON JUSTICE. 19

ON JUSTICE.

By HERBERT SPENCER.

TN" the January number of this Review* (page 126), I made
L-L the incidental statement that "should I be able to complete
Part IV of the Principles of Ethics, treating of Justice, of which
the first chapters only are at present written, I hope to deal ade-
quately with these relations between the ethics of the progressive
condition and the ethics of that condition which is the goal of
progress — a goal ever to be recognized, though it can not be actu-
ally reached." These chapters were written nearly a year ago :
the fourth, not quite finished, having been untouched since May
last. In view of the possibility that the division of which they
form part may never be completed, or otherwise that its comple-
tion may be long delayed, it has occurred to me that as the topic
dealt with is now being discussed, these first chapters may, per-
haps with advantage, be published forthwith. The editor having
kindly assented to my proposal to issue them in this Review, I
here append the first three : reserving two others, conveniently
separable in subject-matter, for another article.]

I. Animal-Ethics. — Those who have not read the first division
of this work f will be surprised by the above title. But the chap-
ters on Conduct in General and The Evolution of Conduct will
have shown to those who have read them that something which
may be regarded as animal-ethics is implied.

It was there shown that the conduct which Ethics treats of is
not separable from conduct at large ; that the highest conduct is
that which conduces to the greatest length, breadth, and complete-
ness of life ; and that by implication there is a conduct proper to
each species of animal, which is the relatively good conduct — a
conduct which stands toward that species as the conduct we mor-
ally approve stands toward the human species.

Most people regard the subject-matter of Ethics as being
conduct considered as calling forth approbation or reprobation.
But the primary subject-matter of Ethics is conduct considered
objectively as producing good or bad results to self or others
or both.

Even those who think of Ethics as concerned only with con-
duct which deserves praise or blame, tacitly recognize an animal-
ethics ; for certain acts of animals excite in them antipathy or
sympathy. A bird which feeds its mate while she is sitting is re-
garded with a sentiment of approval. For a hen which refuses to

* Nineteenth Century ; also Popular Science Monthly for March, page 616.
f Reference is here made to the Data of Ethics.

20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sit upon her eggs there is a feeling of aversion ; while one which
fights in defense of her chickens is admired.

Egoistic acts, as well as altruistic acts, in animals are classed
as good or bad. A squirrel which lays up a store of food for the
winter is thought of as doing that which a squirrel ought to do ;
and, contrariwise, one which idly makes no provision and dies of
starvation, is thought of as properly paying the penalty of im-
providence. A dog which surrenders its bone to another without
a struggle, and runs away, we call a coward — a word of repro-
bation.

Thus then it is clear that acts which are conducive to preser-
vation of offspring or of the individual we consider as good rela-
tively to the species, and conversely.

The two classes of cases of altruistic and egoistic acts of ani-
mals just given, exemplify the two cardinal and opposed principles
of animal-ethics.

During immaturity benefits received must be inversely propor-
tionate to capacities possessed. Within the family-group most
must be given where least is deserved, if desert is measured by
worth. Contrariwise, after maturity is reached, benefits must
vary directly as worth : worth being measured by fitness to the
conditions of existence. The ill fitted must suffer the evils of un-
fitness, and the well fitted profit by their fitness.

These are the two laws which a species must conform to if it
is to be preserved. Limiting the proposition to the higher types
(for in the lower types, parents give to offspring no other aid than
that of laying up a small amount of nutriment with the germ ;
the result being that an enormous mortality has to be balanced by
an enormous fertility) — thus limiting the proposition, I say, it is
clear that if, among the young, benefit were proportioned to effi-
ciency, the species would disappear forthwith ; and if, among
adults, benefit were proportioned to inefficiency, the species would
disappear by decay in a few generations (see Principles of Soci-
ology, section 322).

What is the ethical aspect of these principles ? In the first
place, animal life of all but the lowest kinds has been maintained
by virtue of them. Excluding the Protozoa, among which their
operation is scarcely discernible, we see that without gratis bene-
fits to offspring, and earned benefits to adults, life could not have
continued.

In the second place, by virtue of them life has gradually
evolved into higher forms. By care of offspring which has be-
come greater with advancing organization, and by survival of the
fittest in the competition among adults which has become keener

OJST JUSTICE. 21

with, advancing organization, superiority -has been perpetually fos-
tered, and further advances caused.

On the other hand, it is true that to this self-sacrificing care
for the young and this struggle for existence among adults, has
been due the carnage and the death by starvation which have
characterized the evolution of life from the beginning. It is also
true that the processes consequent on conformity to these prin-
ciples are responsible for the production of torturing parasites,
which outnumber in their kinds all other creatures.

To those who take a pessimist view of animal-life in general,
contemplation of these principles can of course yield only dissatis-
faction. But to those who take an optimist view, or a meliorist
view, of life in general, and who accept the postulate of hedonism,
contemplation of these principles must yield greater or less satis-
faction, and fulfillment of them must be ethically approved.

Otherwise considered, these principles are either, according to
the current belief, expressions of the Divine will, or, according to
the agnostic belief, indicate the mode in which works the Unknow-
able Power throughout the Universe ; and in either case they have
the warrant hence derived.

But here, leaving aside the ultimate controversy of pessimism
versus optimism, it will suffice for present purposes to set out
with a hypothetical postulate, and to limit it to a single species.
If the preservation and prosperity of such species are to be de-
sired, there inevitably emerge one most general conclusion and
from it three less general conclusions.

The most general conclusion is that, in order of obligation, the
preservation of the species takes precedence of the preservation of
the individual. It is true that the species has no existence save as
an aggregate of individuals ; and it is true that, therefore, the wel-
fare of the species is an end to be subserved only as subserving the
welfares of individuals. But since disappearance of the species,
implying disappearance of all individuals, involves absolute fail-
ure in achieving the end, whereas disappearance of individuals,
though carried to a great extent, may leave outstanding such
number as can, by continuance of the species, make subsequent
fulfillment of the end possible ; the preservation of the individual
must, in a variable degree according to circumstances, be subordi-
nated to the preservation of the species, where the two conflict.
The resulting corollaries are these :

First, that among adults there must be conformity to the law
that benefits received shall be directly proportionate to merits pos-
sessed : merits being measured by power of self-sustentation. For,
otherwise, the species must suffer in two ways. It must suffer
immediately by sacrifice of superior to inferior, which entails a

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

general diminution of welfare ; and it must suffer remotely by
furthering increase of the inferior and, by implication, hindering
increase of the superior, and by a consequent general deterioration
which, if continued, must end in extinction.

Second, that during early life, before self-sustentation has be-
come possible, and also while it can be but partial, the aid given
must be the greatest where the worth shown is the smallest —
benefits received must be inversely proportionate to merits pos-
sessed : merits being measured by power of self-sustentation.
Unless there are gratis benefits to offspring, unqualified at first
and afterward qualified by decrease as maturity is approached,
the species must disappear by extinction of its young. There is, of
course, necessitated a proportionate self-subordination of adults.

Third, to this self-subordination entailed by parenthood has,
in certain cases, to be added a further self -subordination. If the
constitution of the species and its conditions of existence are such
that sacrifices, partial or complete, of some of its individuals, so
subserve the welfare of the species that its numbers are better
maintained than they would otherwise be, then there results a
justification for such sacrifices.

Such are the laws by conformity to which a species is main-
tained ; and if we assume that the preservation of a particular
species is a desideratum, there arises in it an obligation to conform
to these laws, which we may call, according to the case in ques-
tion, quasi-ethical or ethical.

II. Sub-Human Justice.— Of the two essential but opposed
principles of action by pursuance of which each species is pre-
served, we are here concerned only with the second. Passing over
the law of the family as composed of adults and young, we have
now to consider exclusively the law of the species as composed of
adults only.

This law we have seen to be that individuals of most worth, as
measured by their fitness to the conditions of existence, shall have
the greatest benefits, and that inferior individuals shall receive
smaller benefits, or suffer greater evils, or both results — a law
which, under its biological aspect, has for its implication the sur-
vival of the fittest. Interpreted in ethical terms it is that each
individual ought to be subject to the effects of its own nature and
resulting conduct. Throughout sub-human life this law holds
without qualification ; for there exists no agency by which, among
adults, the relations between conduct and consequence can be in-
terfered with.

Fully to appreciate the import of this law we may with advan-
tage pause a moment to contemplate an analogous law ; or, rather,
the same law as exhibited in another sphere. Besides being dis-
played in the relations among members of the species, as respect-

ON JUSTICE. 23

ively well or ill sustained according to. their well-adapted activi-
ties or ill-adapted activities, it is displayed in the relations of
parts of each organism to one another.

Every muscle, every viscus, every gland, receives blood in pro-
portion to function. If it does little it is ill-fed and dwindles ; if
it does much it is well-fed and grows. By this balancing of ex-
penditure in action and payment in nutriment, there is, at the
same time, a balancing of the relative powers of the parts of the
organism ; so that the organism as a whole is fitted to its exist-
ence by having the proportions of its parts continuously adjusted
to the requirements. And clearly this principle of self -adjustment
within each individual is parallel to that principle of self -adjust-
ment by which the species as a whole keeps itself fitted to its en-
vironment. For by the better nutrition and greater power of
propagation which come to members of the species that have fac-
ulties and consequent activities best adapted to the needs, joined
with the lower sustentation of self and offspring which accompany
less adapted faculties and activities, there is caused such special
growth of the species as most conduces to its survival in face of
surrounding conditions.

This, then, is the law of sub-human justice, that each individual
shall receive the benefits and the evils of its own nature and its
consequent conduct.

But sub-human justice is extremely imperfect, alike in general
and in detail.

In general, it is imperfect in the sense that there exist multitu-
dinous species the sustentation of which depends on the wholesale
destruction of other species ; and this wholesale destruction im-
plies that the species serving as prey have the relations between
conduct and consequence so habitually broken that in but very few
individuals are they long maintained. It is true that in such cases
the premature loss of life suffered from enemies by nearly all mem-
bers of the species, must be considered as resulting from their na-
tures — their inability to contend with the destructive agencies they
are exposed to. But we may fitly recognize the truth that this vio-
lent ending of the immense majority of its lives, implies that the
species is one in which justice, as above conceived, is displayed in
but small measure.

Sub-human justice is extremely imperfect in detail, in the sense
that the relation between conduct and consequence is in such an
immense proportion of cases broken by accidents — accidents of
kinds which fall indiscriminately upon inferior and superior in-
dividuals. There are the multitudinous deaths caused by inclem-
encies of weather, which, in the great majority of cases, the best
members of the species are liable to like the worst. There are

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

otlier multitudinous deaths caused by scarcity of food, which, if
not wholly, still in large measure, carries off good and bad alike.
Among low types, too, enemies are causes of death which so oper-
ate that superior as well as inferior are sacrificed. And the like
holds with invasions by parasites, often widely fatal. These at-
tack, and frequently destroy, the most perfect individuals as read-
ily as the least perfect.

The high rate of multiplication required to balance the immense
mortality among low animals, at once shows us that among them
long survival is not insured by superiority ; and that thus the sub-
human justice, which consists in continued receipt of the results
of conduct, holds individually in but few cases.

And here we come upon a truth of great significance — the truth
that sub-human justice becomes more decided as organization be-
comes higher.

Whether this or that fly is taken by a swallow, whether among
a brood of caterpillars an ichneumon settles on this or that, whether
out of a shoal of herrings this or that is swallowed by a cetacean,
is an event quite independent of individual peculiarity : good and
bad samples fare alike. With high types of creatures it is other-
wise. Keen senses, sagacity, agility, give a particular carnivore
special power to secure prey. In a herd of herbivorous creatures,
the one with quickest hearing, clearest vision, most sensitive nos-
tril, or greatest speed, is the one most likely to save itself.

Evidently, in proportion as the endowments, mental and bodily,
of a species are high, and as, consequently, its ability to deal with
the incidents of the environment is great, the continued life of each
individual is less dependent on accidents against which it can not
guard. And, evidently, in proportion as this result of general
superiority becomes marked, the results of special superiorities
are felt. Individual differences of faculty play larger parts in
determining individual fates. Now deficiency of a power short-
ens life, and now a large endowment prolongs it. That is to say,
individuals experience more fully the results of their own natures
— the justice is more decided.

•

With creatures which lead solitary lives, the nature of sub-
human justice is thus sufficiently expressed ; but on passing to
gregarious creatures, there enters into it a new element.

Simple association, as of sheep or deer, profits the individual
and the species only by that more efficient safeguarding which
results from the superiority of a multitude of eyes, ears, and noses
over the eyes, ears, and nose of a single individual. Through the
alarms niore quickly given, all benefit by the senses of the most
acute. Where this, which we may call passive co-operation, rises

ON JUSTICE. 25

into active co-operation, as among rooks where one of the flock
keeps watch while the rest feed, or as among beavers where a
number work together in making dams, or as among wolves
where, by a plan of attack in which the individuals play different
parts, prey is caught which would otherwise not be caught ; there
is still greater advantage to the individuals and to the species.
And, speaking generally, we may say that gregariousness, and co-
operation more or less active establish themselves in a species
only because they are profitable to it ; since, otherwise, survival
of the fittest must prevent establishment of them.

But now mark that this profitable association is made possible
only by observance of certain conditions. The acts directed to
self-sustentation which each performs, are performed more or less
in presence of others performing like acts ; and there tends to re-
sult more or less interference. If the interference is great, it may
render the association unprofitable. For the association to be
profitable the acts must be restrained to such an extent as to
leave a balance of advantage. Survival of the fittest will else ex-
terminate that variety of the species in which association begins.

Here, then, we find a further factor in sub-human justice.
Each individual, receiving the benefits and the injuries due to its
own nature and consequent conduct, has to carry on that conduct
subject to the restriction that it shall not in any large measure
impede the conduct by which each other individual achieves bene-
fits or brings on itself injuries. The average conduct must not
involve aggressions of such amounts as to cause evils which out-
balance the good obtained by co-operation. Thus, to the positive
element in sub-human justice has to be added, among gregarious
creatures, a negative element.

The necessity for observance of the condition that each mem-
ber of the group while carrying on the pursuit of self-sustentation
and sustentation of offspring, shall not seriously impede the like
pursuits of others, makes itself so felt, where association is estab-
lished, as to mold the species to it. The mischiefs from time to
time experienced when the limits are transgressed, continually
discipline all in such ways as to produce regard for the limits ; so
that such regard becomes, in course of time, a natural trait of the
species. For, manifestly, regardlessness of the limits, if great and
general, causes dissolution of the group. Those varieties only
can survive as gregarious varieties in which there is an inherited
tendency to maintain the limits.

Yet, further, there arises such general consciousness of the
need for maintaining the limits, that punishments are inflicted on
transgressors — not only by aggrieved members of the group, but
by the group as a whole. A " rogue " elephant (always distin-

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

guished as unusually malicious) is one which, has "been expelled
from the herd : doubtless because of conduct obnoxious to the rest
— probably aggressive. It is said that from a colony of beavers
an idler is banished, and thus prevented from profiting by labors
in which he does not join : a statement made more credible by
the fact that drones, when no longer needed, are killed by worker-
bees. The testimonies of observers in different countries show
that a flock of crows, after prolonged noise of consultation, will
summarily execute an offending member. And an eye-witness
affirms that among rooks, a pair which steals the sticks from
neighboring nests has its own nest pulled to pieces by the rest.

Here, then, we see that the a priori condition to harmonious
co-operation comes to be tacitly recognized as something like a
law ; and there is a penalty consequent upon breach of it.

That the individual shall experience all the consequences, good
and evil, of its own nature and consequent conduct, which is that
primary principle of sub-human justice whence results survival
of the fittest, is, in creatures that lead solitary lives, a principle
complicated only by the responsibilities of parenthood. Among
them the purely egoistic actions of self-sustentation have, during
the reproductive period, to be qualified by that self -subordination
which the rearing of offspring necessitates, but by no other self-
subordination. Among gregarious creatures of considerable in-
telligence, however, the welfare of the species occasionally de-
mands a further self -subordination.

We read of bisons that, during the calving season, the bulls
form an encircling guard around the herd of cows and calves, to
protect them against wolves and other predatory animals : a
proceeding which entails on each bull some danger, but which
conduces to the preservation of the species. Out of a herd of
elephants about to emerge from a forest to reach a drinking-
place, one will first appear and look round in search of dangers,
and, not discerning any, will then post some others of the herd to
act as watchers; after which the main body comes forth and
enters the water. Here a certain extra risk is run by the few that
the many may be the safer. In a still greater degree we are
shown this kind of action by a troop of monkeys, the members of
which will combine to defend or rescue one of their number ; for
though in any particular case the species may not profit, since
more mortality may result than would have resulted, yet it profits
in the long run by the display of a character which makes attack
on its groups dangerous.

Evidently, then, if by such conduct one variety of a gregarious
species keeps up, or increases, its numbers, while other varieties,
in which self -subordination thus directed does not exist, fail to do

ON JUSTICE. 27

this, a certain sanction is acquired for -such conduct. The preser-
vation of the species being the ultimate end, it results that where
an occasional mortality of individuals in defense of the species
furthers this preservation in a greater degree than would pursuit
of exclusive benefit by each individual, that which we recognize
as sub-human justice may rightly have this second limitation.

It remains only to point out the order of priority, and the re-
spective ranges, of these principles. The law of relation between
conduct and consequence, which, throughout the animal kingdom
at large, brings prosperity to those individuals which are struct-
urally best adapted to their conditions of existence, and which,
under its ethical aspect, is expressed in the principle that each
individual ought to receive the good and the evil which arises
from its own nature, is the primary law holding of all creatures ;
and is applicable without qualification to creatures which lead
solitary lives, save in that self-subordination needed among the
higher of them for the rearing of offspring.

Among gregarious creatures, and in an increasing degree as
they co-operate more, there comes into play a law, second in order
of time and authority, that those actions through which, in ful-
fillment of its nature, the individual achieves benefits and avoids
evils, shall be restrained by the need for non-interference with the
like actions of associated individuals. A substantial respect for
this law in the average of cases being the condition under which
alone gregariousness can continue, it becomes an imperative law
for creatures to which gregariousness is a benefit. But, obviously,
this secondary law is simply a specification of that form which
the primary law takes under the conditions of gregarious life ;
since, by asserting that in each individual the interactions of
conduct and consequence must be restricted in the specified way,
it tacitly reasserts that these interactions must be maintained in
all other individuals.

Later in origin, and narrower in range, is the third law, that
under conditions such that, by the occasional sacrifices of some
members of a species, the species as a whole prospers, there arises
a sanction for such sacrifices, and a consequent qualification of
the law that each individual shall receive the benefits and evils of
its own nature.

Finally, it should be observed that whereas the first law is
absolute for animals in general, and whereas the second law is
absolute for gregarious animals, the third law is relative to the
existence of enemies of such kinds that, in contending with them,
the species gains more than it loses by the sacrifice of a few mem-
bers ; and in the absence of such enemies this qualification im-
posed by the third law disappears.

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

III. Human Justice. — The contents of the last chapter fore-
shadow the contents of this. As, from the evolution point of
view, human life must be regarded as a further development of
sub-human life, it follows that from this same point of view, hu-
man justice must be a further development of sub-human justice.
For convenience the two are here separately treated, but they
are essentially of the same nature, and form parts of a continuous
whole.

Of man, as of all inferior creatures, the law by conformity to
which the species is preserved is that among adults the individu-
als best adapted to the conditions of their existence shall prosper
most, and that individuals least adapted to the conditions of their
existence shall prosper least — a law which, if uninterfered with,
entails survival of the fittest, and spread of the most adapted
varieties. And as before so here, we see that, ethically consid-
ered, this law implies that each individual ought to receive the
benefits and the evils of his own nature and consequent conduct :
neither being prevented from having whatever good his actions
normally bring to him, nor allowed to shoulder off on to other
persons whatever ill is brought to him by his actions.

To what extent such ill, naturally following from his actions,
may be voluntarily borne by other persons, it does not concern us
now to inquire. The qualifying effects of pity, mercy, and gen-
erosity, will be considered hereafter in the parts dealing with
Xegative Beneficence and Positive Beneficence. Here we are con-
cerned only with pure justice.

The law thus originating, and thus ethically expressed, is ob-
viously that which commends itself to the common apprehen-
sion as just. Sayings and criticisms daily heard imply a percep-
tion that conduct and consequence ought not to be dissociated.
When, of some one who suffers a disaster, it is said — u He has no
one to blame but himself/' there is implied the belief that he has
not any ground for complaint. The comment on one whose mis-
judgment or misbehavior has entailed evil upon him, that " he
has made his own bed, and now he must lie in it," has behind it
the conviction that this connection of cause and effect is proper.
Similarly with the remark — " He got no more than he deserved."
A kindred conviction is implied when, conversely, there results
good instead of evil. " He has fairly earned his reward " ; " He
has not received due recompense"; are remarks indicating the
consciousness that there should be a proportion between effort put
forth and advantage achieved.

The truth that justice becomes more pronounced as organiza-
tion becomes higher, which we contemplated in the last chapter,
is further exemplified on passing from sub-human justice to

ON JUSTICE. 29

human justice. The degree of justice and the degree of organi-
zation simultaneously make advances. These are shown alike by
the entire human race, and by its superior varieties as contrasted
with its inferior.

We saw that a high species of animals is distinguished from a
low species in the respect that since its aggregate suffers less mor-
tality from destructive agencies, each of its members continues on
the average for a longer time subject to the normal relation be-
tween conduct and consequence ; and here we see that the human
race as a whole, far lower in its rate of mortality than nearly all
races of inferior kinds, usually subjects its members for much
longer periods to the good and evil results of well-adapted and
ill-adapted conduct. We also saw that as, among the higher ani-
mals, a greater average longevity makes it possible for individual
differences to show their effects for longer periods, it results that
the unlike fates of different individuals are to a greater extent
determined by that normal relation between conduct and conse-
quence which constitutes justice ; and we here see that in mankind
unlikenesses of faculty in still greater degrees, and for still longer
periods, work out their effects in advantaging the superior and
disadvantaging the inferior in the continuous play of conduct
and consequence.

Similarly is it with the civilized varieties of mankind as com-
pared with the savage varieties. A still further diminished rate
of mortality implies that there is a relatively still larger propor-
tion, the members of which, during long lives, gain good from
well-adapted acts, and suffer evil from ill-adapted ones. While
also it is manifest that both the greater differences of longevity
among individuals, and the greater differences of social position,
imply that in civilized societies more than in savage societies, dif-
ferences of endowment and consequent differences of conduct are
enabled to cause their appropriate differences of results, good or
evil : the justice is greater.

More clearly in the human race than in lower races are we
shown that gregariousness establishes itself because it profits the
variety in which it arises, partly by furthering general safety and
partly by facilitating sustentation. And we are shown that the
degree of gregariousness is determined by the degree in which it
thus subserves the interests of the variety. For where the variety
is one of which the members live on wild food, they associate only
in small groups : game and fruits widely distributed can support
these only. But greater gregariousness arises where agriculture
makes possible the support of a large number on a small area ;
and where the accompanying development of industries intro-
duces many and various co-operations.

3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

But that which, was faintly indicated among lower beings is
conspicuously displayed among human beings — that the advan-
tages of co-operation can be had only by conformity to certain
requirements which association imposes. The mutual hindrances
liable to arise during the pursuit of their ends by individuals liv-
ing in proximity, must be kept within such limits as to leave a
surplus of advantage obtained by associated life. Some types of
men, as the Abors, lead solitary lives, because their aggressiveness
is such that they can not live together. And in view of this ex-
treme case it is clear that though, in many primitive groups, indi-
vidual antagonisms often cause quarrels, yet the groups are main-
tained because their members derive a balance of benefit — chiefly
in greater safety. It is also clear that in proportion as commu-
nities become developed and their division of labor complex, the
advantages of co-operation can be gained only by a still better
maintenance of those limits to each man's activities necessitated
by the simultaneous activities of others. This truth is illustrated
by the unprosperous or decaying state of communities in which
the aggressions of individuals on one another are so numerous
and great as to prevent them from severally receiving the normal
results of their actions.

The requirement that individual activities must be mutually
restrained, which we saw is so felt among certain inferior grega-
rious creatures that they inflict punishments on those who do not
duly restrain them, is a requirement which, more imperative
among men, and more distinctly felt by them to be a require-
ment, causes a still more marked habit of inflicting punishments
on offenders. Though in primitive groups it is commonly left to
any one who is injured to revenge himself on the injurer, and
though even in the societies of feudal Europe, the defending and
enforcing of his claims was in many cases held to be each man's
personal concern ; yet there has ever tended to grow up such per-
ception of the need for internal order, and such sentiment accom-
panying the perception, that infliction of punishments by the com-
munity as a whole, or by its established agents, has become habit-
ual. And that a system of laws enacting restrictions on conduct,
and punishments for breaking them, is a natural product of human
life carried on under social conditions, is shown by the fact that
among multitudinous nations composed of various types of man-
kind, similar actions, similarly regarded as trespasses, have been
similarly forbidden.

Through all which sets of facts is manifested the truth, recog-
nized practically if not theoretically, that each individual carrying
on the actions which subserve his life, and not prevented from
receiving their normal results good and bad, shall carry on these
actions under such restraints as are imposed by the carrying on of

ON JUSTICE. 3 i

kindred actions by other individuals, who have similarly to receive
such normal results good and bad. And vaguely, if not definitely,
this is seen to constitute what is called justice.

We saw that among inferior gregarious creatures, justice in its
universal simple form, besides being qualified by the self-subordi-
nation which parenthood implies, and in some measure by the
self-restraint necessitated by association, is in a few cases further
qualified in a small degree by the partial or complete sacrifice of
individuals made in defense of the species. And now in the high-
est gregarious creature we see that this further qualification of
primitive justice assumes large proportions.

No longer as among inferior beings demanded only by the
need for defense against enemies of other kinds, this further self-
subordination is, among human beings, also demanded by the
need for defense against enemies of the same kind. Having be-
come the predominant inhabitants of the Earth, and having
spread wherever there is food, men have come to be everywhere
in one another's way ; and the mutual enmities hence resulting,
have made the sacrifices entailed by wars between groups, far
greater than the sacrifices made in defense of the groups against
inferior animals. It is doubtless true with the human race, as
with lower races, that destruction of the group or the variety
does not imply destruction of the species ; and it therefore follows
that such obligation as exists for self-subordination in the inter-
ests of the group or the variety, is an obligation of lower degree
than is that of sustentation of offspring, without fulfillment of
which the species must disappear, and of lower degree than the
obligation to restrain actions within the limits imposed by social
conditions, without fulfillment of which the group will dissolve.
Still, it must be regarded as an obligation to the extent to which
the maintenance of the species is subserved by the maintenance
of each of its groups.

But the self-subordination thus justified, and in a sense ren-
dered obligatory, is limited to that which is required for defensive
war. Only because the preservation of the group as a whole
conduces to preservation of its members' lives and their ability to
pursue the objects of life, is there a reason for the sacrifice of
some of its members ; and this reason no longer exists when war
is offensive instead of defensive.

It may, indeed, be contended that since offensive wars initiate
those struggles between groups which end in the destruction of
the weaker, offensive wars, furthering the peopling of the Earth
by the stronger, subserve the interests of the race. But even sup-
posing that the conquered groups always consisted of men having
smaller mental or bodily fitness for war (which they do not ; for

3 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

it is in part a question of numbers, and the smaller groups may
consist of the more capable warriors), there would still be an
adequate answer. It is only during the earlier stages of human
progress that the development of strength, courage, and cunning,
are of chief importance. After societies of considerable size have
been formed and the subordination needed for organizing them
produced, other and higher faculties become those of chief im-
portance ; and the struggle for existence carried on by force, does
not always further the survival of the fittest. The fact that but
for a mere accident Persia would have conquered Greece, and the
fact that the Tartar hordes very nearly overwhelmed European
civilization, show that offensive war can be trusted to subserve
the interests of the race only when the capacity for a high social
life does not exist, and that in proportion as this capacity de-
velops, offensive war tends more and more to hinder, rather than
to further, human welfare. In brief we may say that the arrival
at a stage in which ethical considerations come to be entertained,
is the arrival at a stage in which offensive war, by no means cer-
tain to further predominance of races fitted for a high social life,
and certain to cause injurious moral reactions on the conquering
as well as on the conquered, ceases to be justifiable; and only
defensive war retains a quasi-ethical justification.

And here it is to be remarked that the self-subordination
which defensive war involves, and the need for such qualification
of the abstract principle of justice as it implies, belong to that
transitional state necessitated by the physical-force-conflict of
races; and that they must disappear when there is reached a
peaceful state. That is to say, all questions concerning the ex-
tent of such qualifications pertain to what we distinguished as
relative ethics ; and are not recognized by that absolute ethics
which is concerned with the principles of right conduct in a
society formed of human beings fully adapted to social life.

This distinction I emphasize here because throughout succeed-
ing chapters we shall find that recognition of it helps us to
disentangle the involved problems of political ethics. — Nine-
teenth Century.

The constantly receding character of the unexplained was illustrated by Dr.
Burdon Sanderson, in his address at the British Association, by reference to the
discovery of the cell, which seemed to be a very close approach to the mechanism
of life ; " but now we are striving to get even closer, with the same resnlt. Our
measurements are more exact, our methods finer ; but these very methods bring
us to close quarters with phenomena which, although within reach of exact inves-
tigation, are, as regards their essence, involved in a mystery which is the more
profound the more it is brought into contact with the exact knowledge we possess
of surrounding conditions."

SUMPTUARY LAWS AND THEIR SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 33
SUMPTUARY LAWS AND THEIR SOCIAL INFLUENCE.*

By WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M. D.

THERE are many persons who have what they conceive to be
the good of their fellow-creatures so greatly at heart that,
when they can not succeed in making them conform to a standard
of right and wrong that they have set up for themselves, endeavor
to accomplish their object by legal enactments. It is true they
are very apt to do this under the fiction of insuring the public
welfare ; but it is none the less a fact, even if we admit the force
of their alleged motive, that such laws as those to which I refer
interfere with the personal liberty of those against whom they
are aimed, and this to an extent incompatible with that degree of
freedom of will and of action which is inseparable from the indi-
vidual in all communities founded upon what we call liberty.
Moreover, they are inquisitorial in their nature, and, what is per-
haps a point of even still greater importance, they fail to accom-
plish the object in view; and being continually evaded on one
pretext or another, tend to diminish that respect for the majesty
of law which all well-ordered citizens should entertain.

The history of sumptuary laws, or laws tending to limit luxury
and expense, shows how truly the remarks just made are founded
on fact ; and yet in all ages of the world such laws have been
passed, to be disobeyed, held in contempt, remaining on the statute-
book unenforced, and finally either passing into oblivion or being
formally repealed. As we are apparently passing through a stage
of our national existence in which sumptuary laws are making
their appearance, it seemed to me that the Society for Medical
Jurisprudence and State Medicine might very properly have its
attention directed to the subject.

Among the first within our knowledge to provide by law for
the regulation of the appetite, the taste, the affections, the dress,
and the most minute details in the life of a citizen was Sparta,
Sparta was a small country and its people were few ; they were
surrounded by powerful neighbors. The first principle instilled
into the mind of every individual was, that the state had a claim
upon him superior to that of parents or of any relational or social
bond. He was from the very cradle trained for war ; luxury, being
regarded as incompatible with true manliness, was to be sup-
pressed at all hazards. Foreigners, being liable to become a dis-
turbing factor in the system of discipline enforced, were not
allowed to enter Sparta ; even the feeble children, as being unfit

* Read before the New York Society for Medical Jurisprudence and State Medicine,
June 3, 1889.

vol. xxxvii. — 3

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for war and liable to become burdens on the community, were
put to death. Gold and silver wer*e excluded, and the coinage was
of iron. As far as possible the whole nation was fed alike. That
the system was effectual in accomplishing the object that Lycur-
gus had in view, is probably true. It succeeded just as persecu-
tion succeeds when it is thorough and implacable. A half-hearted
system of persecution not only fails in its object, but invariably
advances the cause against which it is directed. If, for instance,
we could kill all those who oppose us in our efforts to make mat-
ters accord with our own way of thinking, we should undoubtedly
be triumphantly successful ; but if we only killed a few of them, it
would not be long before the number of the remainder would be
so augmented that they would kill us.

Nowhere has the inefficacy of sumptuary laws been more
thoroughly demonstrated than in Rome. There the dress, the
food, the furniture of the houses, were attempted to be regulated
by law after law, which were either openly or secretly disobeyed,
and which eventually disappeared from the statute-books. The
cost of entertainments was limited ; the number of guests a person
might have at his house was restricted. No woman was allowed
to have more than half an ounce of gold, or to wear a dress of
more than one color, or to ride in a carriage. In France, during
the Celtic period, a law was passed that women should drink
water only. In 1188 or thereabout no person was allowed to wear
garments of vair, gray, zibeline, or scarlet color. No laced or
slashed garments were allowed, and no one could have more than
two courses at meals. In 1328 scarlet was only permitted to be
worn by princes, knights, and women of high rank. The use of
silver plate was prohibited except to certain high dignitaries ; and
women were frequently sent to prison in forties, fifties, and sixties
at a time for wearing clothes above their rank. Even as late as
the seventeenth century gold, as an ornament on carriages, build-
ings, and gloves, was prohibited.

In England, during the reign of Edward IV, cloth of gold or
silk of a purple color was prohibited to all but members of the
royal family. Lords were allowed to wear velvet, knights satin,
and esquires and gentlemen camelet. None but noblemen were
allowed to wear woolen clothes made out of England, or fur of
sables, and no laborer, servant, or artificer might wear any cloth
which cost more than two shillings a yard. In the year 1336 an
act of Parliament was passed which I quote in full, as showing to
what extremes law can go in the way of interfering with the
interior life of the citizens :

" "Whereas heretofore, through the excessive and over-many
sorts of costly meats which the people of this Realm have used
more than elsewhere, many mischiefs have happened to the

SUMPTUARY LAWS AND THEIR SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 35

people of this Realm : for the great men by these excesses have
been sore grieved, and the lesser people who only endeavor to
imitate the great ones in such sorts of meats are much impover-
ished, whereby they are not able to aid themselves nor their liege
lord in time of need as they ought, and many other evils have
happened as well to their souls as to their bodies, our Lord the
King, desiring the common profit as well of the great men as of
the common people of his Realm, and considering the evils, griev-
ances, and mischiefs aforesaid, by the common assent of the prel-
ates, earls, barons, and other nobles of his said Realm and of the
commons of the said Realm, hath ordained and established that no
man, of what state or condition soever he be, shall cause himself
to be served in his house or elsewhere, at dinner-meal or supper,
or at any other time, with more than two courses and each mess
of two sorts of victuals at the utmost, be it of flesh or fish, with
the common sort of pottages without sauce or any other sort of
victuals. And if any man choose to have sauce for his mess he
may, provided it be not made at great cost ; and if flesh or fish be
to be mixed therein it shall be of two sorts only at the utmost,
either flesh or fish, and shall stand instead of a mess except only
on the principal feasts of the year, on which days every man may
be served with three courses at the utmost, after the manner
aforesaid."

But laws and proclamations were of no avail, though they
continued to be issued and passed down to the reign of Queen
Elizabeth ; and in the reign of James I all sumptuary laws were
repealed. Since then the people of England have been allowed to
wear, to eat, and to drink what they pleased.

In our own country the experiment has been tried with as
much thoroughness and with practically as little result as has
attended the attempt by other nations. As early as the year 1639
we have the prototype of that curious law enacted a few years
ago in the State of Iowa, which prohibits one person from invit-
ing another to take a drink, or treating, as it is called.

In the records of the colony of Massachusetts for the year
mentioned we find as follows :

" Forasmuch as it is evident unto this Court that the common
custom of drinking one to another is a mere useless ceremony,
and draweth on that abominable practice of drinking healths,
and is also an occasion of much waste to the good creatures and
of many other sins," such things are declared to be a reproach
to a Christian commonwealth and are not to be tolerated. How-
ever, invectives of the council appear to have been of little effect,
notwithstanding the severity of the punishments which were
meted out to those who infringed the laws. Drunkenness, which
is at most only a vice, was made a crime ; and in 1636 one Peter

3 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Bussaker was condemned for drunkenness to be whipped with
twenty stripes well laid on. Robert Coles, for drunkenness com-
mitted at Roxbury, was condemned to be disfranchised, and to
wear about his neck so that it would hang upon his outward gar-
ment a letter D, made of red cloth, and set upon white, to con-
tinue this for a year, and not to leave it off at any time in public,
under penalty of forty shillings for the first offense and five
pounds for the second. Severity of punishments appeared only
to aggravate the evil against which they were directed, for in
1648 the Court was forced to declare that " it is found by experi-
ence that a great quantity of wine is spent and much thereof is
abused to excess of drinking and unto drunkenness itself, not-
withstanding all the wholesome laws provided and published for
the preventing thereof." It therefore orders, with a blind per-
versity which is a remarkable instance of the fatuity which actu-
ates people when they endeavor to accomplish the impossible,
that those who are authorized to sell wine and beer shall not har-
bor a drunkard in their houses, but shall forthwith give him up
to be dealt with by the proper officer, under penalty of five pounds
for disobedience.

Tobacco, for some cause or other, was especially obnoxious to
the early colonial authorities of Massachusetts. The trade in the
weed was only allowed to the old planters, but the sale or use of it
was absolutely forbidden unless upon urgent occasion for the
benefit of health and taken privately. It was also ordered that
victualers or keepers of an ordinary shall not suffer any tobacco
to be taken into their houses, under penalty of five shillings for
every offense, to be paid by the victualer, and twelvepence by the
person who takes it. Further, it was ordered that no person
should take tobacco publicly, under the penalty of two shillings
sixpence, nor privately in his own house or in the house of an-
other before strangers ; and that two or more shall not take it
together anywhere, under the aforesaid penalty for every offense.

It is true these laws against the use of tobacco are not so severe
as some that have been enacted in other countries, but they were
equally inefficacious. Thus, a Sultan of Turkey issued an edict
to the effect that any one of his subjects detected in the act of
smoking should for the first offense have his cheeks bored and
transfixed by his pipe ; for the second offense he was to have
his nose cut off ; and for the third he was to lose his head.
Fines in the case of the New-Englanders, and mutilation and
death in the case of the Turks, have not in the slightest degree
prevented the use of tobacco ; and that some recent laws to
which I shall presently draw attention will prove equally futile
there can be. no doubt.

In all these instances of sumptuary laws the ground has been

SUMPTUARY LAWS AND THEIR SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 37

taken that not only was the individual to be benefited, but that
society as a whole was to be improved. Prohibitory laws relative
to the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors which have been
enacted in this country in our own times are based upon this
assumption, but the arguments that have been used by those ad-
vocating such laws show that this is not the only motive by
which they are governed. It has been and still is repeatedly
asserted in the speeches and writings of these people that those
who indulge in alcoholic liquors or in the use of tobacco spend
money which could otherwise be more profitably used, and that
indulgence in the habit of drinking or smoking directly conduces
to idleness and luxurious habits. These assertions are probably
true, and the laws against which the practices in question are
directed are essentially sumptuary laws.

The laws which several States have enacted relative to the
manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors are true sumptuary laws,
notwithstanding the fact that it is claimed by their adherents that
they are measures which every independent State having a regard
for the welfare of society is in duty bound to enforce. On that
ground there are many other acknowledged evils against which
the law-making power might very properly direct its energies,
and which would interfere scarcely less with personal rights. One
chief difficulty with such laws is that if thoroughly enforced, they
do harm to those who never under any circumstances drink intoxi-
cating liquors to excess, and yet who are benefited by their mod-
erate use. As a matter of fact they never are enforced equally
upon all classes of the community. In the most severe of all the
States it is perfectly practicable for any person with pecuniary
means to import as much alcoholic liquor for his own use and
that of his family and friends as he chooses. The poor man, to
whom a glass of beer or of wine taken decently and in order
might not only do no harm, but might supply a positive want of
his system, has to go without, or else resort to all kinds of deceit
and subterfuge to get what he wants. States exceed their legiti-
mate powers when they undertake to prevent a person doing that
which is beneficial to him, and which does no harm to any one
else. Moreover, as I have already said, such laws, being in this
age of the world impossible of enforcement, tend to bring all law
into contempt. It is not necessary for me to go into detail on
this point ; every one who hears me knows how the prohibitory
liquor laws of the various States that have passed them are dis-
regarded and ridiculed. Every now and then we hear of some
instance where an offender is arrested and punished, but for every
one brought before the courts a thousand go unnoticed. In the
States of Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island I know from my own
personal experience that, notwithstanding the stringent liquor

4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

indignant at being treated in so outrageous a manner, and utters
his protest in no measured language ; his conduct only serves
to convince his captors that the charge based upon the odor of
alcohol is well founded, and he is mulcted in forty or sixty dollars,
or sent to the workhouse for ninety days, as the case may be. No
one is safe under such a law ; it is often a very difficult matter to
determine whether a person is drunk or sober, and frequently it is
impossible even by the most minute examination. Again, some
people become intoxicated from a single glass of champagne,
while others will drink two or more bottles with impunity. It
is manifestly unjust to allow an individual peculiarity like this
to establish the guilt or innocence of an accused person.

As I have said, why stop at making drunkenness a crime when
there are other vices far more immoral and more destructive to
the character of the perpetrator ? Why not enact a law against
lying ? There are laws against slander, which injures the one
against whom it is directed, and they are well enough, for to injure
another is a crime. But lying in the abstract remains unnoticed
by the penal statutes, though a more degrading vice in the eyes of
all civilized mankind than mere drunkenness.

On the first of June of the year 1889 a statute went into effect
in the State of New York which prohibits, under severe penal-
ties, the selling of cigarettes to minors under the age of sixteen ;
and the State of Michigan has recently not only enacted a similar
law, but goes farther, and interdicts the manufacture of cigarettes
within the limits of the State. Is it to be supposed for one mo-
ment that minors under the age of sixteen in either State smoke
fewer cigarettes than they did before these laws were passed ?
How is the vender to know in many cases whether the applicant
for cigarettes is over sixteen or not ? And is there any difficulty
for any minor to get a companion who is undoubtedly over six-
teen, or some one else, to buy cigarettes for him ? Legislatures,
that pass such laws, and governors that sign them, are apparently
ignorant of the first principles of jurisprudence. I venture to say
that even now, although not two weeks have elapsed since the act
went into effect, it is practically a dead letter in the city of New
York and throughout the State generally, and I am quite sure
that not a single conviction will ever be obtained under its pro-
visions. I am not certain that our society did its full duty in
not protesting against the statute-books being encumbered with
such rubbish. Cigarette-smoking by minors is an evil to be sup-
pressed by proper instruction and by the intervention of parents
and guardians. If these latter can not prevent it, it is quite cer-
tain that all the policemen in the State, backed by all the majesty
of this particular law, will have their labor for their pains.

THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS. 41
THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS.*

By HENEY C. McCOOK, D. D.

T

IHE frailty of a spider's web has passed into a proverb. Yet,
comparatively, the silken line of an orb-weaver is very
strong. According to Schaffenberger, it requires ninety spinning
threads of an Epe'ira to yield one thread of the thickness of a
caterpillar's thread ; and, according to Leeuweiihoek, it requires
eighteen thousand spider lines to make the thickness of a hair of
the beard. These comparisons are suggestive, although in a meas-
ure deceptive, since there are vast differences in the size of the
threads woven by Epeiroids. It is probable that the extraordinary
strength of the thread is due to the superposition of a large num-
ber of extremely minute threads. However, after the thread is
woven, Meckel could not recognize it as consisting of more than
eight to ten strands. A geometric snare, whether vertical or hori-
zontal, must be strong enough to sustain the weight of a spider of
considerable size, such as Argiope cophinaria or Epe'ira insularis,
particularly when the female is heavy with eggs.

Blackwell thus determined by experiment the strength of a
line by which a female Epe'ira diademata, weighing ten grains,
had sustained itself from a twig : He attached to the extremity
of the line a small piece of muslin with the corners nearly drawn
together, so as to form a minute sack, into which he carefully
introduced sixty-one grains' weight in succession, being more than
six times the weight of the spider. On the addition of half a
grain more the line broke.

Not only must an orb sustain the weight and movements of its
maker, but it must also have sufficient strength to hold the various
insects which strike upon it. Bees and wasps are sometimes able
to break through the spiral meshes of a large snare, but generally
the threads are strong enough to hold them, in spite of their
struggles, until the proprietor can enswathe them. Moreover, the
orb-web must be able to sustain the weight of evening dews. One
who has seen such snares in the early morning, when every viscid
bead appears to have attracted to itself an incasing armor of sil-
very dew, and has noticed how the spiral strings are bagged down
under the weight of the same (Fig. 1), must have inferred that the
snare was able to support a comparatively heavy burden. The
same is true concerning summer showers, which must fall very
heavily, and be driven before a pretty strong wind, in order to
batter down a well-constructed orb-web.

* Reprinted from Vol. I of American Spiders and their Spinning- Work, by the kind
permission of the author, to whom we are also indebted for the accompanying illustrations.

4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

indignant at being treated in so outrageous a manner, and utters
his protest in no measured language ; his conduct only serves
to convince his captors that the charge based upon the odor of
alcohol is well founded, and he is mulcted in forty or sixty dollars,
or sent to the workhouse for ninety days, as the case may be. No
one is safe under such a law ; it is often a very difficult matter to
determine whether a person is drunk or sober, and frequently it is
impossible even by the most minute examination. Again, some
people become intoxicated from a single glass of champagne,
while others will drink two or more bottles with impunity. It
is manifestly unjust to allow an individual peculiarity like this
to establish the guilt or innocence of an accused person.

As I have said, why stop at making drunkenness a crime when
there are other vices far more immoral and more destructive to
the character of the perpetrator ? Why not enact a law against
lying ? There are laws against slander, which injures the one
against whom it is directed, and they are well enough, for to injure
another is a crime. But lying in the abstract remains unnoticed
by the penal statutes, though a more degrading vice in the eyes of
all civilized mankind than mere drunkenness.

On the first of June of the year 1889 a statute went into effect
in the State of New York which prohibits, under severe penal-
ties, the selling of cigarettes to minors under the age of sixteen ;
and the State of Michigan has recently not only enacted a similar
law, but goes farther, and interdicts the manufacture of cigarettes
within the limits of the State. Is it to be supposed for one mo-
ment that minors under the age of sixteen in either State smoke
fewer cigarettes than they did before these laws were passed ?
How is the vender to know in many cases whether the applicant
for cigarettes is over sixteen or not ? And is there any difficulty
for any minor to get a companion who is undoubtedly over six-
teen, or some one else, to buy cigarettes for him ? Legislatures
that pass such laws, and governors that sign them, are apparently
ignorant of the first principles of jurisprudence. I venture to say
that even now, although not two weeks have elapsed since the act
went into effect, it is practically a dead letter in the city of New
York and throughout the State generally, and I am quite sure
that not a single conviction will ever be obtained under its pro-
visions. I am not certain that our society did its full duty in
not protesting against the statute-books being encumbered with
such rubbish. Cigarette-smoking by minors is an evil to be sup-
pressed by proper instruction and by the intervention of parents
and guardians. If these latter can not prevent it, it is quite cer-
tain that all the policemen in the State, backed by all the majesty
of this particular law, will have their labor for their pains.

THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS. 41
THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS.*

By HENRY C. McCOOK, D. D.

T

IHE frailty of a spider's web has passed into a proverb. Yet,
comparatively, the silken line of an orb-weaver is very
strong. According to Schaffenberger, it requires ninety spinning
threads of an Epeira to yield one thread of the thickness of a
caterpillar's thread ; and, according to Leeuwenhoek, it requires
eighteen thousand spider lines to make the thickness of a hair of
the beard. These comparisons are suggestive, although in a meas-
ure deceptive, since there are vast differences in the size of the
threads woven by Epeiroids. It is probable that the extraordinary
strength of the thread is due to the superposition of a large num-
ber of extremely minute threads. However, after the thread is
woven, Meckel could not recognize it as consisting of more than
eight to ten strands. A geometric snare, whether vertical or hori-
zontal, must be strong enough to sustain the weight of a spider of
considerable size, such as Argiope cophinaria or Epeira insularis,
particularly when the female is heavy with eggs.

Blackwell thus determined by experiment the strength of a
line by which a female Epeira diademata, weighing ten grains,
had sustained itself from a twig : He attached to the extremity
of the line a small piece of muslin with the corners nearly drawn
together, so as to form a minute sack, into which he carefully
introduced sixty-one grains' weight in succession, being more than
six times the weight of the spider. On the addition of half a
grain more the line broke.

Not only must an orb sustain the weight and movements of its
maker, but it must also have sufficient strength to hold the various
insects which strike upon it. Bees and wasps are sometimes able
to break through the spiral meshes of a large snare, but generally
the threads are strong enough to hold them, in spite of their
struggles, until the proprietor can enswathe them. Moreover, the
orb-web must be able to sustain the weight of evening dews. One
who has seen such snares in the early morning, when every viscid
bead appears to have attracted to itself an incasing armor of sil-
very dew, and has noticed how the spiral strings are bagged down
under the weight of the same (Fig. 1), must have inferred that the
snare was able to support a comparatively heavy burden. The
same is true concerning summer showers, which must fall very
heavily, and be driven before a pretty strong wind, in order to
batter down a well-constructed orb-web.

* Reprinted from Vol. I of American Spiders and their Spinning- Work, by the kind
permission of the author, to whom we are also indebted for the accompanying illustrations.

4 2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

An illustration of the remarkable strength and elasticity of the
foundation lines of orb-webs appears in a biographical notice of the
distinguished astronomer, the late General Ormsby M. Mitchell,

printed with an
edition of his lect-
ures. Prof. Mitch-
ell directed his
great ingenuity to
the problem of
causing a clock to
record its beats
telegraphically,
and at the same
time perfectly per-
form the work of
a time - keeper.
The required
makes and breaks
in the battery
were effected by
means of a cross
of delicate wire
and a mercury-
cup. Many obsta-
cles having been
overcome, there
arose the great
difficulty of pro-
curing a fiber suf-
ficiently minute
and elastic to con-
stitute the physical union between the top stem of the cross
and the clock pendulum. Various materials were tried, among
others a delicate human hair, the very finest that could be ob-
tained, but this was too coarse and stiff. Its want of pliancy
and elasticity gave to the minute " wire cross " an irregular mo-
tion, and caused it to rebound from the globule of mercury into
which it should have plunged. " After many fruitless attempts,"
says Prof. Mitchell, " an appeal was made to an artisan of wonder-
ful dexterity — the assistance of the spider was invoked ; his web,
perfectly elastic and perfectly pliable, was furnished, and this
material connection between the wire cross and the clock pendu-
lum proved to be exactly the thing required. In proof of this
remark I need only state the fact that one single spider's web has
fulfilled the delicate duty of moving the wire cross, lifting it, and
again permitting it to dip into the mercury every second of time

Fig. 1.— Sector of a Dew-laden Orb-web. (Magnified.)

THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS. 43

for a period of more than three years ! How much longer it
might have faithfully performed the same service I know not, as
it then became necessary to break this admirable bond, to make
some changes in the clock. Here it will be seen that the same
web was expanded and contracted each second during the whole
period, and yet never, so far as could be observed, lost any portion
of its elasticity."

At various times there have been placed on record accounts of
the capture by spiders of small vertebrate animals, as snakes, mice,
and birds. Popular stories to the same effect have from time to
time been sent the rounds of the daily press, and found utterance
and often illustration, the latter sometimes of a most original and
remarkable character, in popular magazine literature. The great
seeming disparity, in such cases, between the size and vigor of
captive and prisoner ; the confusion of the various narratives in
details as to the species and behavior of the spider, and the charac-
teristics of her snare ; the radical departure from known food
habit of species that are insectivorous ; together with the fact that
the accounts all have come from lay observers, have been more or
less lacking in scientific accuracy and minuteness of detail, and
wholly without scientific verification — these considerations have
caused such records and reports to be discredited by arachnologists
and naturalists generally. But there are a few cases, confirmed
by circumstantial evidence, and reported by observers of good
reputation and careful habit, which deserve notice.

The physical powers of the Lycosidce, the popular running,
ground, or wolf spiders, are well illustrated by an instance recorded
in the proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia. The result as reported was achieved by pure strength
and activity, without any of the mechanical advantages of a
snare. Mr. Spring, while walking with a friend in a swampy
wood, which was pierced by a dike three feet wide, was attracted
by the extraordinary movements of a large black spider in the
middle of a ditch. Closer examination showed that the creature
had caught a fish ! She had fastened upon it with a deadly grip
just on the forward side of the dorsal fin, and the poor fish was
swimming round and round slowly, or twisting its body as if in
pain (Fig. 2). The head of its black enemy was sometimes almost
pulled under water, but the strength of the fish would not permit
an entire submersion. It moved its fins as if exhausted, and often
rested. Finally it swam under a floating leaf near the shore and
made a vain effort to dislodge the spider by scraping against the
under side of the leaf.

The two had now closely approached the bank. Suddenly the
long black legs of the spider emerged from the water, and the
hinder ones reached out and fastened upon the irregularities of

44

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the sides of the ditch. The spider commenced tugging at his
prize in order to land it. The observer ran to the nearest honse
for a wide-mouthed bottle, leaving his friend to watch the strug-
gle. During an interval of six or eight minutes' absence the spi-
der had drawn the fish entirely out of the water ; then both creat-
ures had fallen in again, the bank being nearly perpendicular.
There followed a great struggle, and on Mr. Spring's return the
fish was already hoisted head first more than half its length out
upon the land. It was very
much exhausted, hardly mak-
ing any movement, and was
being slowly and steadily
drawn up by the spider, who
had evidently gained the vic-
tory. She had not once quit

Fig. 2.— A Fish captured by a Dolomede Spider.

her hold during the period of a quarter to half an hour of obser-
vation. Her head was directed toward the fish's tail ; she stepped
backward up an elevation of forty-five degrees, dragging her cap-
tive with her.

The observers were unfortunately unable to await the issue of
the matter, and therefore caught the combatants in the bottle,
partly filled with water. The fish swam languidly at the bottom
of the vessel, and the spider stood sentinel on the surface, turning
when the fish turned and watching every motion. The bottle was
set aside and visited after an interval of three hours. The spider
was then found dead at the bottom of the jar, but the fish was
alive and lived twenty-four hours afterward. The spider was
three fourths of an inch long and weighed fourteen grains; the
fish was three and one fourth inches long and weighed sixty-six
grains. The spider was probably bruised by the catching.

THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS. 45

One of the most remarkable records of the physical and me-
chanical powers of spiders is made in Silliman's Journal. The ac-
count is authenticated by the names and statements of a number
of gentlemen resident in the vicinity of the occurrence, Batavia,
N. Y. One evening Hon. David E. Evans found in his wine-cel-
lar a live striped snake, nine inches long, suspended by the tail in
a spider's web between two shelves. The snake hung so that its
head could not reach the shelf below it by about an inch. The
shelves were about two feet apart, and the lower one was just be-
low the bottom of a cellar window, through which the snake prob-
ably passed into it. From the upper shelf there hung a web in
the shape of an inverted cone, eight or ten inches in diameter at
the top, and concentrated to a focus about six or eight inches from
the under side of this shelf. From this focus there was a strong
cord made of the multiplied threads of the spider's web, appar-
ently as large as sewing-silk, and by this cord the snake was sus-
pended. A rude sketch of the serpent
suspended in the web was made by
an eye-witness, and is exactly repro-
duced at Fig. 3. A close examination
showed that the snake's mouth was
entirely closed by a number of threads
wound around it. Its tail was tied in
a knot so as to leave a small loop or
ring, through which the cord was
fastened, as seen in the figure.

Accepting the account as true, or
at least probable, I would make the
following inferences : First, the de-
scription of the web, although suffi-
ciently indefinite, leaves little doubt
that the snake was originally taken
in a snare of a species of tube-weaver,
and most probably by the medicinal
spider, Tegenaria medicinalis (Hentz). The broad-sheeted web
of this spider is frequently found in cellars, which are favorite
haunts. It builds near windows, in the angles and along the sides
of walls, having its tubular den in a crack or opening laid along
an angle (Fig. 4). The sheet is usually drawn upward until its
exterior margin is higher than the plane of the entrance of the
tube. There is thus formed a sort of pouch within which insects
often fall, and so are readily captured by the spider, who mounts
guard at the door of her den. Over the door the tube frequently
rises into a sort of tower.

I had often wished for an opportunity to follow up critically
one of the recurring reports of the physical powers of spiders.

Pig. 3.

-A Snake entangled in a
Spider's Web.

4 6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This wish was gratified in the summer of 1882. An article drifted
through American newspapers which detailed the ensnaring of a
living mouse by a Kentucky spider. I was fortunately able to
trace the story to its origin in the Lebanon (Ky.) Standard and
Times. Correspondence with its intelligent editor, Mr. J. W. Hop-

Fig. 4. — The Pouch, Web, Tower, and Cocoon of the Medicinal Spider.

per, brought me entire confirmation of the report from a number
of trustworthy sources. I think the incident of sufficient impor-
tance to justify a somewhat detailed presentation. The original
account, as published by Mr. Hopper, is as follows :

" A very curious and interesting spectacle was to be seen
Monday afternoon in the office of Mr. P. C. Cleaver's livery-stable
in this city. Against the wall of the room stands a tolerably tall
desk, and under this a small spider, not larger than a common
pea, had constructed an extensive web reaching to the floor (Fig.
5). About half past eleven o'clock Monday forenoon, it was
observed that the spider had ensnared a young mouse by passing
filaments of her web around its tail. When first seen, the mouse
had its fore-feet on the floor, and could barely touch the floor
with its hind-feet. The spider was full of business, running up
and down the line and occasionally biting the mouse's tail, mak-
ing it struggle desperately. Its efforts to escape were all un-
availing, as the slender filaments about its tail were too strong

THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS. 47

for it to break. In a short time it was seen that the spider was
slowly hoisting its victim into the air. By two o'clock in the
afternoon the mouse could barely touch the floor with its fore-
feet ; by dark the point of its nose was an inch above the floor.
At nine o'clock at night
the mouse was still alive,
but made no sign except
when the spider descend-
ed and bit its tail. At
this time it was an inch
and a half from the floor.
Yesterday morning the
mouse was dead, and
hung three inches from
the floor. The news of
the novel sight soon be-
came circulated, and hun-
dreds of people visited
the stable to witness it.
The mouse was a small
one, measuring about an
inch and a half from the
point of its nose to the
root of the tail."

The space given the
above facts may seem to |||
some to be in undue pro-
portion to their impor-
tance. But, apart from
the value of positively
determining any point in
natural history, the dis-
cussion has this conclusion : The capture of small vertebrate ani-
mals by both sedentary and wandering spiders is possible; the
one by the mechanical strength of their snares, the other by their
physical strength. There is thus laid the foundation, at least, for
the presumption that such animals may be or become natural
food for the larger species of araneads. This is certainly a most
important fact in the life-history of spiders, and would greatly
enlarge the range of their habits.

Fig. 5.— A Mouse hanging in a Spider's Snare.

Me. F. J. Moss, of the New Zealand Legislature, and an extensive traveler in
Polynesia, suggests that the deterioration of the natives of those regions may be
partly due to faulty instruction. It is neither desirable nor expedient to thwart Na-
ture too much. What is most needed, this author thinks, is to allow the islanders in
their work and their amusements free scope for the imaginative powers with which
they are endowed, and the exercise of which is too often foolishly discouraged.

48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES— FRENCH AND

AMERICAN.

By GEOEGE W. BEAMAN.

THE general subject of American secondary school programmes
has been of late years a most prolific one. What with the
relative or particular importance of the mother-tongue, classical
studies, history, modern languages, and, more recently, manual
training, the educational essayist has been rather embarrassed by
the multitude of the topics presented him. As the result of much
discussion, contention, and wordy warfare, we have, however, to-
day, certain secondary school programmes, generally speaking
quite similar in their character, marking in a more or less defined
manner the routes along which our boys are traveling on their
respective journeys to college, to scientific school, or to practical
business life. While there is to be noted a decided advance and
improvement in pedagogical methods in our secondary schools
within the last few decades, it yet remains true that no intelligent
reader of the programmes, as exhibited in the catalogues of our
leading endowed fitting schools, and public grammar and high
schools, can fail to be struck by a certain lack of co-ordination,
system, and, in most instances, by an apparent want of a genuine
appreciation of the real demands that the present age makes
upon modern secondary schools. Once outside the old fixed lim-
its of the classics, there is to be observed much disagreement
among the schools themselves, both as to the proper subjects to
be included in the programme and the relative time to be devoted
to the studies that are placed in the school curriculum. When
comparison of these programmes with those of other countries is
made, we have at once afforded us a most striking exemplification
of how far we still are in this country from any well-defined con-
sensus as to what the modern secondary school programme really
should be. In view of the revolutionary period through which
the schools have been passing during the past thirty years, this is
perhaps hardly to be wondered at. The broadening of the college
requirements for entrance, largely brought about by the demands
of a public sentiment, no longer fully satisfied with purely medi-
aeval curricula, has in itself served to call for many modifications
of the secondary schools' programme. With Harvard and Johns
Hopkins opening their doors to students unequipped with the tra-
ditional Greek, there has of course arisen a demand for prepara-
tion in other prerequisites which have necessarily been substi-
tuted for- Greek. In response to the general outcry for them, the
courses in modern languages, in the mother-tongue, history, and

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 49

particularly in science studies, have had to be greatly extended
or recast. The many admirable scientific schools and colleges
throughout the country have made demands for special prepara-
tion that have had to be met. Furthermore, it has come to pass
that the college prerequisites in the old classical studies even have
been very considerably increased. Altogether it may be stated
that the demands made upon the preparatory schools to-day are
probably at least twenty-five or thirty per cent in excess of the
demands of twenty-five or thirty years ago. Coincident with this
multiplication and extension of preparatory studies, there has
arisen in our country a sentiment which to no inconsiderable ex-
tent has reduced the hours devoted to study. A few decades since
a boy fitting for college with its limited requirements in Latin,
Greek, and mathematics, spent six hours per diem in school, and,
as a matter of course, expected to give two, three, or possibly
more hours to study at home. Now, he spends four or five hours
in the school-room ; and the sight of a text-book under his arm as
he idly saunters homeward excites comment in the community as
to the severe mental strain to which school-children are nowa-
days subjected by rigorous masters.

The result of all this is a state of affairs to which President
Eliot, of Harvard University, has recently invoked the serious
attention of the American public* He states that the average age
of admission to Harvard University has been gradually rising for
many years, and has now reached the extravagant age of eighteen
years and ten months. He also notes that in view of the increased
time required for the completion of his professional education,
after leaving college, it follows that a man, thoroughly preparing
himself for life, finds himself unprepared for self-support much
before he is twenty-seven years old. This result is by no means
peculiar to Harvard or to Harvard graduates, but holds true as
to all colleges in the United States. Its remedy, in the opinion of
President Eliot, is in both shortening and enriching our second-
ary school courses of study. As illustrating what other countries
have succeeded in doing in this direction, he cites the school
courses of France. The hours of recitation of these courses, less
elaborate and difficult than those of Germany, are, he claims, so
far as hours of recitation are concerned, substantially the same as
those of this country ; yet, under them, the French boy is better
prepared for matriculation at seventeen years of age than ours are
at nineteen. He therefore calls for a serious examination of the
programmes of Venseignement secondaire class ique of France in
comparison with the programmes of American preparatory

* A paper read before the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational
Association at Washington, February 16, 1888, published in the Atlantic Monthly, August,
1888. Remarks before the Commercial Club, Providence, R. I., March, 1889.
vol. xxxvn. — 4

5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

schools, as likely to yield results which, can not but be conducive
to educational progress in this country.

As might be expected from the eminence of its author, the
paper of President Eliot has excited much interest in regard to
the French secondary school programmes. Much comment has
resulted both as to the facts and the conclusions arrived at. The
facts represented in the address as to the age of matriculates in
American colleges are only too patent. The defects of the pro-
grammes of the preparatory schools of this country are unfortu-
nately equally patent. The great need of some readjustment of
existing methods of our fitting schools and schools of grammar
and even primary grades, for the benefit of boys preparing for
modern collegiate, scientific, and university training, is so impera-
tive that no friend of educational advance in this country can fail
to welcome this valuable contribution to the literature of the sub-
ject given by the President of Harvard University. But, not-
withstanding his admirable paper, and the comment which has
followed, so far as one can judge from the literature of the con-
troversy, no one has apparently made haste to follow President
Eliot's advice and make any serious comparative examination of
the French and American school programmes. On the contrary,
there are indications that, with true American inconsequence,
many persons are already either clamoring for the adoption of the
French curricula forthwith, as a panacea for all our secondary
school deficiencies, or, with great lack of knowledge and accurate
information, are condemning them outright as a foreign growth
quite unsuited to American soil. This is to be regretted ; for as-
suredly the comparative study of the programmes of the two coun-
tries would give American school boards and American parents
much information that should be known and accurately known.
This examination is additionally desirable from the fact that, in
his felicitous presentation of some characteristics of the lyce'e cur-
riculum, Dr. Eliot seems to have omitted to note some of the
more important features of the programmes that give them their
strength, and has quite failed to point out how it happens that the
French boy is really enabled to pass his examinations for the
baccdlaureat es lettres at the early age of seventeen years. It may
also be said that the examination is likewise desirable for the rea-
son that President Eliot has inadvertentlv made some statements
as to the French courses of study that the official programmes
hardly seem to warrant.

In the present paper the attempt will be made to present, in a
somewhat more precise manner than has been undertaken by
President Eliot, certain details of the curricula of not only the
classical lyce'es, but also of the secondary special schools of
France. In connection with this, the attempt will also be made to

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 51

exhibit, with, equal precision, some facts as to comparative courses
in vogue in typical preparatory schools of the United States.
Following the suggestion of Dr. Eliot, particular reference will be
made to the Public Grammar and Public Latin School of the city
of Boston. To obtain the requisite data the writer has first tabu-
lated the hours of recitation per week entering into the enseigne-
ment secondaire classique and the enseignement secondaire spe-
cial of France. These tables have then been brought into com-
parison with similar tables, prepared on precisely the same plan,
of the courses of study in both the classical and scientific depart-
ments of certain typical fitting schools in the United States. The
hours of recitation having been made the unit of the tabulation,
the tables thus exhibit the total number of recitations in every
subject taught, each year, and for the entire course of every school
subjected to this examination. From the resultant figures the
percentage of each study to the whole course has been also de-
rived. The data as to the French courses were collated from the
latest official programmes of the schools, as prescribed by the order
of January 22, 1885, for the classical lycdes,* and by the order of
August 10, 1886, for the secondary special schools, f The data
as to American schools were derived from information supplied
by the head masters of the schools in question. The result of this
tabulation has been to exhibit in full relief the curricula of both
countries, and to bring into graphic view some very striking
points of difference in the courses of study as carried out in the
French and American schools, as well as to expose many singular
differences of practice obtaining in our own schools. The large
space that these tables would occupy precludes their publication
in connection with this paper, but the methods of compilation are
here mentioned, in order that such statements as may be made by
the writer as to the details of the courses of instruction in both
countries may be depended on as being as absolutely correct as a
careful and conscientious tabulation can make them.

The programmes thus compared, at once exhibit two most im-
portant facts to which President Eh'ot has made no reference
whatsoever, viz. : that if a boy in France is prepared for matricu-
lation at seventeen years of age, instead of nineteen, as with us, it
is due (1) to the fact that, between the ages of eight and seven-
teen, the French boy devotes more time to study than the Ameri-
can boy; and (2) to the further fact that, with his increased
amount of reading, the French lad has had eliminated from his
preparatory course the serious study of subjects considered by the

* Plan d'Etudes des Lycees — Programmes de l'Enseignement classique. Paris: Mai-
son Delalain Freres.

f Plan d'Etudes et Programmes de l'Enseignement secondaire special dans les Lycees
et Colleges present par Arete du 10 Aout, 1886. Paris : Maison Delalain Freres.

5 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

French, school authorities non-essential to that particular course,
but which with us are still firmly intrenched in every prepara-
tory school programme ; in brief, that the results obtained under
the French programmes, in both the classical and scientific pre-
paratory schools, are due to honest hard work, persistently con-
tinued for a term of years on a well-defined plan, which is char-
acterized by a complete disjunction of the courses that lead to
college, from those that are intended for youth for whose antici-
pated career in life a knowledge of the classical languages is not
deemed essential.

A comparative examination of the programmes of the Boston
Latin School with the French lyce'e course brings out this excess
of hours in the French school very prominently. The French
boy, in his ten years' sojourn in the lyce'e, spends 8,560 hours in
the recitation-room, while in the corresponding course in Boston *
the recitation hours are 7,790 only. With a ten-per-cent excess
in recitation hours, and a corresponding increase of study, it is
evident that the two courses can not be considered " as substan-
tially of the same strength." However much we might " enrich "
our curricula by imitating French methods, it seems quite clear
that we certainly could not, by this process, hope to " shorten "
them any.

Turning to the relative assignment of time to the subjects
taught in common by the two schools, there is to be noted also
one other point where the statistics and Dr. Eliot are at variance.
One searches in vain for that " preponderance " of time given to
the French language in the lyce'es as compared with the instruc-
tion in the English language in the Boston Latin School. In fact,
the " preponderance " is, on the contrary, altogether on the side of
the Boston schools, where over twenty-eight per cent of the whole
course is devoted to the mother-tongue, to only 20'8 per cent in
the lyce'es. This is an interesting fact, which will doubtless be
surprising to most readers. It is a prevalent opinion in the United
States that in our schools too little time is devoted to the study of
our own language. And lest it may be urged that this " prepon-
derance " is offset by the nine hours' course per week in philosophy,
given in the last year, where, President Eliot states, " French re-
sumes almost exclusive possession of the programme," it may be
said that, according to the official programme, this claim can not
be legitimately made. The course of philosophy in question em-

* The programme of the Boston Latin School, embracing six years of study, and that
of the French lycees ten years, there have been prefixed to the tables of the Latin School
— for purposes of comparison — the recitation hours of four years of the grammar-school
courses preliminary to it. All references to the Latin School courses in this paper will,
therefore, be understood as embracing the result of tabulation of ten years' school work —
not that of the six years' course of the Latin School proper.

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 53

braces the elements of psychology, logic, morals, and metaphysics,
with a study of the principal schools of philosophy and the vari-
ous philosophical authors. In connection with the last-mentioned
branch of the course, as is natural, considerable prominence is
given to the French philosophical writers, and one hour per week
of the nine is expressly devoted to the Latin and Greek authors.
This course of philosophy, admirable as it is, and interesting as
(perhaps) it may be to the average youngster of seventeen years,
can in no sense be properly classed as an adjunct to the mother-
tongue instruction, except in so far as history, geography, or any
other branch of study, carried on in the vernacular, can be so con-
sidered. In the programme it is very properly classified by itself.

Referring to the courses in modern languages, there is certainly
here no question as to where the preponderance lies. In the French
lycde the living languages are made prominent from the prepara-
tory year, and the strength of the course developed in the first
three years. The total is 1,000 hours, or 117 per cent of the whole
hours, compared with 380 hours, or 4*9 per cent only in the Bos-
ton Latin School. Latin and Greek, which naturally form the
pieces de resistance of the French classical course, are, as one
might expect, much more prominent than with us. The Latin is
begun in cinquieme, the pupil eleven' years of age, with ten hours
of recitation per week, and is continued with reduced hours for
six years, giving a total of 1,500 hours, against 1,293 hours at
the Boston Latin School. In the last year (classe de philosophie)
the technical study of Latin is omitted, but, as above stated, one
hour per week of the nine allotted to philosophy is devoted to
Greek and Latin authors, the original texts being freely employed.
Greek is begun in the second term of the fourth year of the course,
the pupil twelve 'years of age, with two hours per week for the
rest of the year, and is continued through the classe de rlietorique.
Taken together, the Greek and Latin recitations of the French
course occupy 2,340 hours, contrasted with 1,805 hours in the Bos-
ton Latin School.

The importance attached to drawing in the French scheme of
instruction is shown by the considerable time devoted to it. This
is in most striking contrast to the almost general neglect of this
important branch of education, not only at the Latin School of
Boston, but at nearly all classical fitting schools in the United
States. In the French lyce'e 7'9 per cent of the whole course is
devoted to drawing ; in the Boston Latin School the percentage
is 2'9.*

Among the various illustrations of the difference of the two

* In the Latin School proper no instruction in drawing is given. The percentage referred
to is derived from the preceding grammar-school courses.

S4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

programmes, none is more interesting than that of the rela-
tive number of hours devoted to mathematics in the French and
American courses. The figures are as follows : French lycee,
740 hours ; Boston Latin School, 1,387 hours. The French boy-
arrives at the end of his classical preparatory course of study,
having been subjected on an average to less than two hours of
recitation per week in mathematical subjects. The average Amer-
ican pedagogue would certainly rise with protests deep, and dis-
gust profound, if ever it were proposed to him to fit a boy for
college with an allowance of only 8'7 per cent of the whole school
course for his arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.* Yet this is
precisely what the French do — in their classical course. In the
Boston representative course the percentage is 17*8 per cent.

As the treatment of mathematics in the French classical course,
with the limited time allotted to this study, is of general interest,
a resume of it is given here. In the preparatory class of the lyce'e,
as well as in the classe de liuitieme following, the allotted time is
devoted to simple arithmetical work in whole numbers, mental
work, and to the solving of easy problems. In septieme (third
year of the course) are added decimal numbers and the metric
system, with drawing of geometrical figures. In the next year
there is a review of work oh whole numbers, a continuation of
mental exercises and problems, and decimals ; work on fractions
is entered upon, and elementary geometry is begun. In the suc-
ceeding year arithmetic is continued, with the study of the rule of
three, interest, discount, with simple problems in alligation, a
detailed review of the metric system, and with further very ele-
mentary geometrical exercises. In quatrieme, theoretical geom-
etry is begun, with one recitation per week. In troisieme, the two
hours per week are devoted to a review of ' arithmetical subjects,

* The percentage of hours devoted to recitations in mathematics, in such typical fitting
schools of the United States as have supplied data to the writer, is as follows : Boston Latin
School (with four years' grammar-school course added), 17*8 per cent. Boston English High
School (with two years' grammar-school course added), 16'6 per cent. Phillips Academy
Exeter, N. H., classical course, 26*5 per cent ; scientific course, 26*9 per cent. Williston
Seminary, Easthampton, Mass., classical course, 26*7 per cent; scientific course, 25'7 per
cent. Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., classical course, 25*7 per cent ; scientific course,
28*8 per cent. St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., classical course, 24*9 per cent ; scientific
course, 27*8 per cent. Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, X. J., classical course, 17 per
cent ; scientific course, 22*7 per cent. St. Mark's School, Southborough, Mass., exclusively
classical, 21*6 per cent. Doubtless these percentages may, in some of the schools cited, be
increased or decreased in the case of certain pupils ; but they represent the mathematical
courses as prescribed for the major portion of them. How strikingly the figures illustrate
the different methods of treatment of the mathematical question, in the United States and
France, will be understood when it is further stated that the percentage allowed to math-
ematics in the French lycee course is only 8*7 per cent, and in the secondary special course,
where mathematical studies are considered by the French to be especially prominent, only
17 per cent.

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 55

elementary algebra is begun, and geometry is continued. In
classe de rhetorique (ninth year of the course), two hours a week
are devoted to recitations in solid geometry and cosmography;
and in the last year (classe de philosophic), four hours per week,
are devoted to a complete review of the work of the previous years
in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.

It must be admitted that in this country the mathematical in-
struction, sketched above, would be thought to afford a somewhat
meager outfit for a young man intending to present himself for
examination at any of our American colleges,. with their present
mathematical prerequisites. It is also obvious that the French,
who, according to President Eliot, " are quite as skillful with num-
bers as the Americans," do not gain a skill in " ciphering " in the
classical lyce'e course. This proficiency is obtained elsewhere, as
will be further shown. The French are, indeed, not only skillful
with numbers, but are as a nation eminent for their mathematical
ability ; and their management of the much-vexed problem of the
relative time to be devoted to elementary mathematical branches
in the classical fitting schools commends itself to the serious con-
sideration of American educators. A comparative exhibit of the
classical lyce'e and Boston School courses clearly shows that it is
to the excess of hours of recitation as a whole, and in no small
degree to the holding of mathematical studies in abeyance, that
the French are enabled to accomplish what they do in the way of
bringing their boys to college at an early age. Give to the Boston
course, for instance, ten-per-cent increase of recitations, plus the
difference existing at present between the respective hours given
to mathematical studies in the lyce'e and Latin School courses, and
we have 1,426 hours. This is more time than is at present devoted
to Latin, in the Boston Latin School, during its entire six years'
course. It still more closely represents the difference in the re-
spective hours given in the two countries to modern languages and
drawing, with the hours of the entire course in philosophy added.
It clearly follows — reversing the point of view — that Harvard has
but to slightly reduce its requirements in mathematics to the
French lyce'e standard, to enable it to obtain from its matriculates
— those coming at least from the Boston Latin School — not only
the attainments in philosophy considered so desirable by its presi-
dent, but also considerable proficiency in such other branches of
the French programme as its honorable faculty may " elect " to
receive.

With the present public sentiment, and especially in view of
the present requirements in mathematics on the part of American
colleges, it is not probable that we can look for a reduction in
mathematical studies in our classical preparatory courses to the
point exhibited by the programmes as existing in France. But

5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that tlie protest against the excessive and unnecessary time given
to mathematical instruction in all our schools which has begun,
will continue, none can doubt. As is well known, no primary or
secondary school programme of this country can be scratched
without revealing an omnipresent Tartar known as arithmetic.
This mathematical Cossack is ever found firmly settled in his
saddle, and foraging for subsistence hither and yon, upon friend
and foe alike. The result is, that in the classical preparatory school
the boy is hampered and handicapped by serious mathematical
studies which absorb time that he could more profitably devote to
his mother-tongue, to modern languages, and to science studies.
On the other hand, in the scientific or English courses, the pupil
fitting for the scientific school, or for business, is forced to take
unwelcome draughts of Latin. These last are somewhat diluted,
it is true, and are given perhaps on the general principle entering
into the administration of certain family medicines, viz., that if
not of any direct service to the patient, they can do him no pos-
sible harm. But in point of fact, while as a rule the Latin given
in these brief courses can be of little or no value to a pupil fitting
for the scientific school, time is taken from subjects having a
direct personal bearing on his future career. It is interesting to
note how, in France, this feature of instruction is managed.

A French boy having passed through the grades of the lyce'e
classique, as exhibited in the preceding table, and intending to
devote himself to a literary profession, proceeds without further
ado to his examination for the baccalaureat es leitres wherein
mathematics plays but a subordinate part, as is indicated by the
small percentage of time given it in the lyce'e course. But, for
the benefit of graduates designed for the national schools, or for
those who prefer to present themselves for examination for the
baccalaureat es science instead of es lettres post-graduate lyce'e
mathematical courses are instituted. The classe de rnathema-
tiques elemehtaires , for instance, has for its object the study of
matters comprised in the programmes of the baccalaureat es sci-
ences, as well as those of the military (Saint-Cyr), the naval, and
forestry schools and the central school. The curriculum of this
class devotes seven and a half hours per week to mathematics,
four and a half hours to science studies, two each to the mother-
tongue, Latin and modern languages, three hours to history and
geography, one hour to philosophy, and four hours to drawing.
This course is of but one year. It is usually taken by pupils from
the classe de rhetorique, but may be taken by pupils from the
classe de philosophic who wish to review and increase their mathe-
matical attainments. A much stiffer and more comprehensive
drill in mathematics is afforded by the classe de mathematiques
speciales. This course is also of but one year. The instruction

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 57

given in this class has for its object the preparation of pnpils who
have completed the lyce'e course, and who purpose entering the
polytechnic, the superior, or the central schools. None are ad-
mitted to this course who have not previously manifested an apti-
tude for it. The hours of recitation per week are, mathematics
eleven hours, descriptive geometry three hours, physics and
chemistry five hours, natural history three hours, French lan-
guage two hours, modern languages two hours, history and geog-
raphy three hours, and drawing two hours ; total, thirty -one
hours.

The instruction to-day given in France under the name of Ven-
seignement secondaire special has found a secure footing only
after many years of violent discussion and constant opposition.
Its career, however, has been steadily advancing and gaining in
public consideration ever since its organization in 1865. Its pro-
gramme was extended and revised in 1881, and in 1886 it was
organized on its present basis. The courses of study have been
framed with especial reference to the requirements of a large class
of pupils of good social position, who have neither the desire, the
tastes, nor perhaps the leisure for long years' study of dead lan-
guages. It is a response to the needs of a large class for a prepa-
ration for actual life in various careers, which the classical
courses are incapable of giving. The school is in a sense the
Realschule of the French, differing from its German congener,
however, by the entire elimination of Latin from its programme.
The course comprises six years of study, crowned, at its success-
ful termination, by the diploma of bachelier de Venseignement
secondaire special, the possession of which entitles the holder to
admission to the examinations for the baccalaureat es sciences, for
the military school of Saint-Cyr, and, with the exception of the
Polytechnic School, which still holds to its classical requirements,
to other national schools with requirements of a general similar
character.

However interesting, as an illustration of French school meth-
ods, the curriculum of the secondary special schools may be, the
severity of the course, as a whole, renders it unlikely that it will
ever be very closely imitated in this country. The recitations
here range from twenty-five to twenty -nine hours per week, giv-
ing, for the whole course, 6,360 hours, against 4,360J hours in the
American representative of the same type of school.* The official

* As the secondary special schools of France occupy about the same place in the
French system as the upper classes of grammar schools and the English high schools
occupy in ours, the French programmes of these schools have been brought by the writer
into comparison with a typical American school — the courses of the two upper classes of
the grammar schools and those of the English High School of Boston being employed as a
fair American representative.

5 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

programme shows that the instruction of these 6,360 recitation
hours are distributed as follows : Mother-tongue, 1,000 ; modern
languages, 1,160; history, 360; geography, 280; mathematics,
1,080 ; science studies, 960 ; drawing, 960 ; penmanship, 160 ; book-
keeping, 80 ; morals, 40 ; legislation, 80 ; political economy, 40 ;
philosophy, 160. The ages of the pupils average eleven years in
the first and sixteen in the last class. The recitation hours of
a pupil passing through the last two grades of the grammar
school, and the four years' course of the English High School in
Boston are, barring certain changes on account of options, as fol-
low : Mother-tongue, l,illi ; modern languages, 494 ; history,
570 ; geography, 152 ; mathematics, 722 ; drawing, 760 ; book-keep-
ing, 95.

Here, again, as in the case of the French classical lyce*e course,
the instruction in the mother-tongue is found to be less than in
the American representative school. The hours devoted to mod-
ern languages (1,160) are, in fact, somewhat in excess of those
given to French (1,000), and, it may be added, are in most marked
contrast to the time allotted to the same study in the Boston
High-School programme (494), even after the latter has received
a credit under this head for a certain number of hours that in
point of fact are used by many pupils for Latin.

Mathematics, which, as has been seen, plays but a subsidiary
role in the classical lycee course, in the secondary special course
assumes more prominence comparatively, the average being 4£
hours against 3-J- hours' recitation per week in the typical Ameri-
can programme. Yet even here it is not up to what may be
termed the United States standard. A tabulated exhibit of the
hours of the classical courses of the two countries shows that an
average of only one hour and fifty minutes per week is given to
mathematics in the classical lyce'e course, compared with an aver-
age of three hours and forty minutes in the Boston classical school
course. A comparison of that course with the French secondary
special programme develops also the fact that a typical American
classical school not only devotes more hours to mathematics than
the French consider essential for a preparatory scientific course,
but also exhibits the further surprising fact that the Boston Eng-
lish High-School course, with two years of grammar-grade school
prefixed to it, actually gives less time to mathematics than is de-
voted to that study in the six years' course proper of the Latin
School. And this is not by any means peculiar to the Boston
school courses. The programmes of other schools exhibit a treat-
ment of the mathematical subjects quite similar. At Phillips
Exeter precisely the same number of hours is given to mathemat-
ics in the classical and scientific courses. At Williston, even
after adding the course in surveying to the mathematics, the per-

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 59

centage of the latter to the whole course is less than on the clas-
sical side.

From the data here given it seems clear that if we are to hope
to pnt our schools on anything like an equality with those of
France, to say nothing of those of other civilized countries of the
world, certain modifications of our school programmes have cer-
tainly to be made. First and foremost among those changes there
would seem to be indicated a need for a certain specialization of
our school courses with reference to the different demands made
upon the schools by different classes of pupils. That our schools
of primary and secondary grade, as they stand to-day, do not re-
spond to the varied requirements of American society, seems quite
obvious. The complaint of President Eliot sufficiently indicates
their shortcomings, so far as a preparation for college is con-
cerned. For many years professors and teachers at scientific and
technical schools have mourned the dearth of preparatory schools
that should give them pupils not handicapped by great deficien-
cies in training of the powers of observation. Business men are
quite unanimous in their belief that the schools do not afford
a satisfactory training for commercial pursuits, while he who
runs may read their many deficiencies for the constantly increas-
ing class of pupils whose period of school life terminates in the
grammar grade.

The main cause of the present stage of development of the
school system is not so deeply hidden that one has to search long
for it. The average American school programme at the present
time is simply a living illustration of a development, on Amer-
ican lines — influenced and modified by national characteristics
— of the old educational theory that literature and language are
the basis of all mental culture and training. The educational
structure reared on this theory, beset and more or less dam-
aged by modern assaults, has been repaired here and patched
there, but the old framework and the old foundations have ever
remained to cramp intelligent reconstruction and practical re-
form. The result is in the main a hotchpotch with which no one
is thoroughly satisfied. It would seem to be a clear case of the
old house repaired and refurnished, until it is satisfactory to no
one. It is passing strange that the school system of the United
States, in respect to its want of specialization, should stand almost
unique among the many examples of the national aptitude in
adopting means to ends. In business life, in professional life, in
industrial pursuits, our nation has shown itself peculiarly clever
in its concentration of labor in systematic, well-defined channels
having special reference to the results to be attained. Yet, when
we come to compare our school programmes with those of other
nations, we not only find that we do not do as much school work,

60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nor as satisfactory work, but that what we do is done in an anti-
quated and unscientific manner. • In France, for example^ we
find a school system that in its superior primary course gives
to the child of the humblest artisan not only a solid foundation
in all essentials of mother-tongue instruction, but, by means of
its complementary courses, in manual training and modern lan-
guages as well. We likewise find a clean-cut, well-defined course
in the special secondary schools for the child who seeks prep-
aration for commercial or professional life by modern meth-
ods ; while, by the systematic arrangement of its classical lycee
course, results are achieved which excite the admiration and envy
of the president of one of our most honored universities. Turn-
ing to our own programmes, we find what can only be character-
ized as a more or less futile effort to build on one foundation
several distinct structures, each one of which is diverse in the
special ends sought to be accomplished. In our effort to do
everything, we have failed to do anything sufficiently well to
entitle it to favorable comparison with the results attained by a
more skillful apportionment of labor.

We can also learn from the French programmes that if Amer-
ican schools are to accomplish results comparable with those
attained in France, American children have not only to work on
more specialized lines, but have also to work more. There can
be no doubt that the outcry against "long school hours" and
" home study," which for many years past has been so resonant
in this country, has seriously affected the efficiency of our schools.
As the exhibit of school programmes here given shows, the average
hours of recitation in American fitting schools are very consid-
erably less than in those of France. And those of France are to
about an equal degree less than the hours of' the German gymna-
sia and Realschulen. It is full time that a halt be called on the
further progress of this absurd clamor. The idea that a healthy
American boy, between the age of eight and fifteen years, let out
of school, as he generally is in these days, at from one to two
o'clock, should not do a certain amount of systematic study at
home, certainly can but be characterized as absurd. It is probable
that but few persons, who have not made special inquiry in regard
to it, appreciate the extent to which this sentiment against out-of-
school study now prevails in this country. If it has had the effect
of crippling the public schools, it may be said that it has really par-
alyzed many private ones where this feeling is pandered to. The
advanced age of pupils entering the private fitting schools, as
well as the advanced age of college matriculates, is to a great
extent due to this disinclination of parents to submit their chil-
dren to regular systematic study in their earlier school life. In
collecting the data for this paper the writer has been pleased to

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 61

ascertain that on the part of certain endowed home fitting schools
established on recent foundations, direct efforts are being made to
counteract these deficiencies of earlier years by a systematic reg-
ulation of pupils' time — both as regards study and recreation.
The result, as could be anticipated, is a marked broadening of the
school course, as well as a decided decrease in the ages of the
senior class pupils. It is because of the possibilities in this direc-
tion, as well as to respond to the rapidly increasing demand in
the United States for them, that thoroughly good preparatory
home schools, which shall fit boys for college and scientific school
in a rational manner, are now especially in request. The average
home school that fits for everything or anything, and that is a
fraud from its glossy catalogue to its ornate diploma, is suffi-
ciently well known to the average parent, and is not here alluded to.
The home schools now needed to meet our modern requirements
can have an existence only by virtue of some man or men willing
to liberally endow them. It would seem, too, that the ideal pre-
paratory home school should embrace at least six years of instruc-
tion. It should be fully equipped and prepared in all respects to
respond thoroughly to the three distinct demands that are now
made upon the modern fitting school, viz. : (1) preparation for
college with all the maximum requirements in the classics ; (2)
preparation for college without Greek, but with adequate modern
language and science-study substitutions ; (3) preparation for the
scientific school without Latin or Greek, but with equivalent and
honest substitutions of somewhat increased mathematical instruc-
tion (as compared with the classical branches), together with
modern languages and science studies, so taught that in all re-
spects of severity of course they shall equal in disciplinary results
the drill given in the classical courses.

To the response that may be made, to the effect that we already
have preparatory schools doing precisely this work, and doing it
well, it is claimed that the few facts presented in connection with
this paper are in themselves a sufficient refutation. There is
another point. The writer would be among the last to impugn
the ability, the conscientious devotion, the peculiar fitness, even,
of the heads, and, generally speaking, of the staffs of these classical
schools, for he has the highest appreciation of them. But the fact
remains that, with hardly an exception, the faculties of the old clas-
sical preparatory schools that have been erected on the old endow-
ments seem to be incapable of giving absolutely fair and honest
treatment to their so-called preparatory scientific or English ad-
juncts. They are bound hand and foot in the old traditional
bonds. By reason of their educational bias they are precluded
from yielding a hearty, enthusiastic response to any demand that
a classical curriculum does not meet. In point of fact, why should

62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they ? They have personally no faith whatever in the real value
of any training except that gained by the study of the classics.
They appreciate that the scientific course is but a graft on the old
trunk, made in great measure for the pecuniary advantage of
their establishment, and in response to a popular demand, which
they hope and pray may soon find a speedy death. They have no
hesitation in proselytizing in the ranks of the brighter " scien-
tific" pupils sent them, for the benefit and glory of the "full
rounded course " — in embryo. Here again they are justified, for
the preparatory scientific courses are in fact but indifferent patch-
work compromises between the claims of the past and the de-
mands of the present. These courses really do give no thorough
secondary school work in any one subject, except possibly mathe-
matics. With an apparently semi-superstitious feeling as to the
mysterious results produced on the human mind by communion
with a Latin grammar, for even a limited period, little dabs of
Latin have been introduced into these courses. This study ex-
tends in the scientific course of some preparatory schools through
one year, sometimes two, rarely three years. With no desire what-
ever to depreciate the undoubted value, to certain pupils, of an
honest, bona fide study of the classical languages, continued for
years, it is submitted that these cursory courses of Latin can give
no results in any way commensurate with the time expended on
them. In Germany the classicists have ever stoutly maintained
that any reduction of hours devoted to Latin in the gymnasium
course would deprive it of all value ; yet they there give to it
nine hours per week for five years, and eight hours for four years
more. In the Realschulen they devote to it eight hours a week
for two years, six hours for three, and five hours for four years.
The value that the German school authorities would place upon
a course of Latin of three or four hours per week for one, two,
or even three years, affords a pretty little arithmetical problem
whose solution is respectfully relegated to the designers of these
American courses. Beyond this Latin and the regulation four or
five hours a week in mathematics, what else does one find in our
preparatory " scientific " courses ? As but few of the more modern
scientific schools or schools of technology have requirements in
Latin— and as one and all of them are desirous of obtaining from
their matriculates all, and more than they often get, in the way
of modern languages— one could properly expect that the fitting
schools would afford opportunities for solid preparation in French
and German. As will be seen, this demand is by no means well
responded to. In the scientific courses of one prominent fitting
school consulted by the writer, no instruction whatever in mod-
ern languages is given. In the programme of another of these
schools—which is also the most modern, therefore lending some

SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. 63

encouragement to the hope of more enlightened procedure as time
rolls on — we find that modern languages enter into but three of
the four years' course. Leaving the modern languages, and look-
ing at the time devoted to science studies, the same desultory
treatment is found. There is encouragement to be had in the
assurances of laboratories erected and in course of erection, and in
the information that in some fitting schools Harvard's require-
ments in experimental physics and chemistry can be fully met ;
but, so far as the curriculum itself of the scientific course is con-
cerned, we have but the hope of something better in the future.
If one glances at the time allotted to the education of the hand
by means of drawing, or if one is curious in the matter of history
and mother-tongue instruction, almost equally unsatisfactory
work is encountered. Yery properly, any intelligent parent,
studying such courses with a view of submitting to one of them
a boy whom he has decided to educate on modern methods, hesi-
tates. It is not strange that in his extremity he finally concludes
that a serious, well-defined course in the ancient languages is of
more value than the olla podrida preparation presented him on
the " scientific " side. As this is precisely what the makers of the
programmes themselves believe, this conclusion is applauded — and
there is rejoicing over the rescue of another boy from a " one-
sided education " !

A comparative examination of French and American prepara-
tory school programmes, therefore, at least yields this much ; that
our educational methods are in great need of thorough revision if
we are to hope to stand well alongside the French in all that per-
tains to judicious preparation for college, for scientific school, or
for the general demands of modern life. This examination further
shows that we stand in pressing need not only of fitting schools
that meet these demands as they exist to-day, but so untrammeled
and free from all sort of sectarian or educational bias that they
can freely expand and respond to the demands that will assuredly
follow as years roll by, and colleges and universities still further
yield to the influences that are slowly but surely liberating them
from the traditions of the past. An honest home fitting school,
firmly founded on the principle of responding to the demands as
they exist to-day — not as they existed a century or two ago — suffi-
ciently endowed to render it free to maintain firmly all the re-
quirements of its different rational courses of instruction, seems
to be the great educational need of the day. As the weakest link
of dur educational chain lies most undoubtedly in the earlier years
of the preparatory course, this school should be prepared to take
pupils at twelve years of age ; it would be better if they could be
taken at ten, and the course be made to embrace eight years in-
stead of six. It should be a home school, for the reason that, with

6 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the prevailing habits of American family life, it is becoming with
us every day more and more impossible to obtain from pupils the
proper amount of work, associated with the proper regime as to
exercise and recreation— and diet even— so long as they remain
under the parental roof. Such a school could not fail to soon
stand as an exponent of the development of a higher, better, and
truer secondary education. It would be a model for the encour-
agement of other schools of a similar character that would soon
come into existence, and it would make its impress upon the pro-
grammes of public secondary schools. Any man of wealth who is
animated by the ambition of sending his name down to a grateful
posterity linked with a noble educational benefaction, could not
to-day find a more deserving field for the investment of a spare
million than in the founding of such a school. To the colleges, to
the universities, to the schools of industrial science, would the
money thus invested be of as great benefit as if donated directly
to them. For, as the gentle rain sinking far down into the earth
among the rootlets refreshes and revives the mature tree, so would
a preparatory school of this character give to the higher institu-
tions of learning strength at a vital point where it is peculiarly
needed.

-♦•♦«•-

SCENES ON THE PLANET MERCURY.*

Br G. V. SCHIAPAEELLI,

OF THE OBSEBVATOBY OF MILAN, ITALY.

"VTO one of the planets that were known in ancient times is so
-i-N difficult to observe as Mercury, and none presents so many
obstacles to the study of its orbit and physical constitution. As
to its orbit, Mercury is the only planet the course of which seems
even now to have partly cut loose from the laws of universal
gravitation, and the theory of which, although well built up by
the genius of Leverrier, is still in considerable disagreement with
the observations. The little we know of its physical construc-
tion is derived from the observations made a hundred years ago by
Schroeter at Lilienthal. A telescopic examination of this planet
is really a difficult affair. Describing a small orbit around the
sun, Mercury is never seen so far from it as to make it possible
to observe it, in temperate latitudes, in the full darkness of night.
It is rarely possible to observe it in the twilight before sunrise
or after sunset ; it being then so near the horizon and so affected
by the agitations and unequal refractions of the lower strata of
the atmosphere that it usually presents itself to the telescope with

* Address before the Royal Academy Dei Lincei, December 8, 1889.

SCENES ON THE PLANET MERCURY. 65

an uncertain and flaring aspect which appears to the naked eye as a
strong scintillation. For this reason the ancients called it SrtX/W,
or the scintillating star. No other resource is left than to essay
observations in broad daylight, in the presence of the sun always
near, and in an always illuminated atmosphere.

Some efforts I made in 1881 persuaded me that it was possible
both to see the spots of Mercury and to get sufficiently connected
and continuous observations of them in broad daylight, and I de-
cided in the beginning of 1882 to make a regular study of this
planet. During the eight years since then, I have had Mercury in
the field of my telescope several hundred times ; often, it is true,
with little profit and at the expense of great loss of time, either be-
cause of the agitation of the atmosphere, which is often strong
during the day — especially in the summer months — or on account
of the insufficient transparency of the air. But by patience I have
succeeded in seeing the spots on the planet one hundred and fifty
times with more or less precision, and in making also fairly satis-
factory drawings of them, employing at first, for the purpose, our
eight-inch Merz equatorial, but afterward our great eighteen-inch
Munich instrument.

I found the rotation of the planet quite different from what it
has hitherto been supposed to be, on the basis of insufficient obser-
vations made with imperfect telescopes a hundred years ago. I
may describe it in a few words by saying that Mercury revolves
around the sun in the same manner as the moon revolves around
the earth. As the moon's journey around the earth is performed
in such a way that it always shows nearly the same face and the
same spots, so Mercury, in traversing its orbit around the sun,
constantly presents nearly the same hemisphere to that source
of light. I say nearly — not exactly — the same hemisphere. For
Mercury is subject, like the moon, to the phenomenon of libration.
In observing the full moon, even with a small telescope, we re-
mark that the same spots generally occupy the central regions of
its disk ; but, if we study them and their distances from the east-
ern and western borders more minutely, we shall soon perceive,
as Galileo first did about two hundred years ago, that they oscil-
late to a considerable degree, now toward the right and now
toward the left — exemplifying the phenomenon called libraiion in
longitude. . This arises from the moon's directing one of its diam-
eters perpetually and almost exactly, not toward the center of the
earth, and not toward the center of the elliptical lunar orbit, but
toward the one of the two foci of its orbit which the earth does
not occupy. To the observer occupying this point, the moon
would consequently always present the same appearance. But to
us, who are at a mean distance of forty-two thousand kilometres
from that point, the moon presents somewhat different aspects

VOL. XXXVII. — 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

according to the time when we look at it, sometimes showing us a
little more of its eastern, sometimes a little more of its western,
regions. Mercury presents itself to the sun in different phases of
its cycle in a similar manner. It constantly directs one of its
diameters, not toward the focus of its elliptical orbit which is
occupied by the sun, but toward the second focus. These two
foci being distant from one another not less than a fifth of the
whole diameter of the orbit of Mercury, the libration of the planet
is enormous. The point that receives the rays of the sun verti-
cally changes its place on the surface of the planet, and performs
an oscillatory movement along the equator forty-seven degrees in
amplitude, or through more than one eighth of the equatorial
circumference. The whole duration of this oscillation, including
the going and returning, is equal to the time employed by Mer-
cury in traversing its orbit, or about eighty-eight terrestrial days.
Thus Mercury stands oriented toward the sun like a magnet
toward a mass of iron ; but this orientation is not constant to
the point of excluding a movement of oscillation of the planet
to the east and to the west, like that which the moon performs
toward us.

This oscillation is of great importance for the physical con-
dition of the planet. Suppose, for instance, that it did not exist,
and that Mercury always turned the same hemisphere to the light
and heat of the sun, the other hemisphere remaining plunged in
perpetual night. The point of the surface situated at the central
pole of the illuminated hemisphere would have the sun eternally
in the zenith ; the other points of the planet accessible to the
solar rays would have the sun always at the same point in their
horizon, at the same height, without any apparent movement,
without any perceptible change ; consequently, no alternation of
night and day, no variety of season ; the stars eternally invisible
because of the perpetual presence of the sun ; and, Mercury hav-
ing no moon, we can hardly imagine how the inhabitants of those
regions, condemned to an endless day, could find a means of regu-
larly computing time.

Such are, in fact, nearly the conditions that prevail in Mercury,
but only approximately. The oscillating movement of the Mer-
curial globe as toward the sun would be attributed by an observer
on the surface of the planet to the sun, as we attribute to the sun
the diurnal movement which really appertains to the earth. To
us the sun seems to circle regularly from east to west, defining in
twenty-four hours the period of day and night ; to the observer
on Mercury, the sun will describe a back-and-forth movement
through an arc of forty-seven degrees in the celestial vault, while
the position of the arc as toward the horizon will always be the
same. The complete period of the double oscillation will com-

SCENES ON THE PLANET MERCURY. 67

prise almost exactly eighty-four terrestrial days. According as
the arc of solar oscillation is all above the horizon of the observer
or all below it, or partly above and partly below it, there will be
different appearances and a different distribution of light and
heat. In the regions, covering three eighths of the planet, where
the arc is all below the horizon, the sun will never be seen, and
the darkness will be perpetual. Thick and eternal night will
reign there, except perhaps from the accidental appearance of
some light produced by refraction and atmospheric glows, or phe-
nomena like the aurora borealis ; together with the light emitted
by the stars and planets.

Another part of Mercury, including also three eighths of its
surface, will have the arc of oscillation all above its horizon, and
will be continually exposed to the rays of the sun, without any
other change than the variations in the obliquity of the rays
through the different phases assumed during the period of eighty-
eight days. Night is absolutely impossible. In other regions, cov-
ering a quarter of the planet, in which the arc of oscillation is
partly above and partly below the horizon, there will be alterna-
tions of light and darkness. In these privileged regions the pe-
riod of eighty-eight days will be divided into two intervals, one
characterized by a continuous light, the other by darkness ; the
two intervals will be equal in some places, of different length in
others, according to the position of the place on the surface of the
planet, and the length of the part of the solar arc which appears
above the horizon.

The possibility of organic life in a planet constituted after this
manner depends on the existence of an atmosphere capable of dis-
tributing heat into different regions, in such a way as to diminish
the extremes of heat and cold. Schroeter, a hundred years ago,
suspected the existence of an atmosphere round Mercury; my
observations afford more definite indications of it, and affirm its
existence with a much greater probability. The spots of the
planet are most clearly visible when they are in the central parts
of the disk, and grow dimmer and ultimately disappear as they
approach the border. I have been able to assure myself that this
phenomenon is not merely due to the greater obliquity of the per-
spective, but is because some obstacle is really presented to the
view of spots situated in such positions. That obstacle can hardly
be anything else than the greater extent of atmosphere that the
light-rays have to traverse in coming from the edges than from
the center of the disk. We have, therefore, reasons for believing
that the atmosphere of Mercury is less transparent than that of
Mars, and more nearly like that of the earth. The circular contour
of the planet, moreover, in which the spots become less visible,
always appears more luminous than the rest, but often irregularly

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

luminous, more so at some points than at others ; and sometimes
we can see on its borders bright white regions that remain in
sight several days in succession, but are generally changeable, and
show themselves sometimes in one place and sometimes in another.
I attribute these phenomena to condensations going on in the at-
mosphere of Mercury, which reflects more light into space the
more opaque it becomes. Similar white regions are also often
seen in the interior of the disk, but they are not so brilliant there
as on its border. Further, the dark spots of the planet, while
they are permanent as to form and arrangement, are not always
equally evident. They are sometimes more intense, at other times
paler. Sometimes, also, one or another of them will become mo-
mentarily invisible. Such peculiarities can not be attributed to
any other cause than atmospheric condensations similar to our
clouds, which veil the ground of the planet in different degrees,
sometimes in one region, sometimes in another. An observer,
looking from the depths of space upon the countries of our earth
covered with clouds, would perceive a like spectacle.

Very little can be said of the nature of the surface of Mercury.
We must recollect that three eighths of it are inaccessible to the
solar rays and to sight ; on that side, therefore, we have but slight
hopes of ever learning anything certainly. It will also be hard
to gain a correct and sure knowledge of the part we can see. The
dark spots, even when they are not clouded, usually appear under
the form of extremely thin trails of shadow. In ordinary con-
ditions they are distinguishable only at the expense of much atten-
tion and weariness. Under the best conditions they have a brown,
warm tint, like that of sepia ; of a tone very indistinct upon the
general color of the planet, which is usually of a clear rose bor-
dering on copper. Forms or bands so vague and diffuse, with
indistinct borders, always leaving a place for arbitrary definition,
are not easily represented in a satisfactory manner. Still, I be-<
lieve the indeterminateness of outlines is, in the majority of cases,
only apparent, and a result of the insufficient optical power of the
instrument ; for the more perfect the view and the finer the image
we get of the shadows, the more do we find them disposed to break
up into a multitude of smaller details. By employing more pow-
erful telescopes, they could doubtless be resolved into more re-
duced forms.

While it is so hard to make a good study of the dark spots of
Mercury, it is not easy to express a well-founded opinion upon
their nature. They might be attributed to the different materials
composing the solid surface of the planet or to its structure, as we
know is the case with the moon. But if we are disposed to con-
sider them as in some way resembling our seas, and to suppose
the existence of an atmosphere around the planet, with condensa-

SCENES ON THE PLANET MERCURY. 69

tions and precipitations, I do not know of any decisive arguments
that can be opposed to the opinion. The spots are not gathered
in large masses, but are disposed in areas and zones of small
extent ; are greatly ramified, and alternate with considerable uni-
formity with clear spaces. We may, therefore, conclude that no
vast oceans or great continents exist on Mercury ; but that land
and sea interpenetrate one another and give rise to conditions
very different from those which exist on the earth, but which
may be more desirable.

Mercury is a world that differs from ours as much as Mars
does. The sun lights it and warms it much more intensely than
it does the earth, and in a very different way. If life exists in
that world, it is doubtless under conditions so different from ours
that we can hardly imagine them. The eternal presence of the
sun, darting its rays almost vertically on some regions, and its
perpetual absence in the opposite countries, would seem intoler-
able to us. And yet, if we reflect upon it, we shall remark that
such a contrast would produce a more rapid, more powerful, and
more regular atmospheric circulation than that which spreads the
elements of life over the earth ; and it possibly is brought about
in this way that as complete and even perhaps more perfect equi-
librium of temperature is produced on the whole planet than
with us.

Mercury, by directing the same face toward the sun during its
whole revolution, is peculiarly distinguished from the other plan-
ets, all of which the length of whose rotation has been determined,
turn round their axes in a few hours. This mode of rotation, how-
ever, which would be unique among the planets, seems common
enough among the satellites. All testimony is to the effect that
our moon has always conformed to it. The first three satellites
of Jupiter probably behave in the same way, and the observations
of Auwers and Engelmann demonstrate that the fourth does so.
Cassini verified the same fact for Japhet, the eighth satellite of
Saturn. It may, therefore, be considered the rule among the sat-
ellites, while it is an exception among the planets.

The exception may probably be attributed to the proximity of
Mercury to the sun, and perhaps also to the fact that it has no
satellites ; and depends, I think, on the way Mercury was formed
when the solar system took its present shape. The peculiarity
constitutes a new datum to be added to those which astronomers
will have to take account of in studying solar and planetary cos-
mogony. — Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from a
French version by F. Terby in del et Terre.

7 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ARTIFICIAL HONEY AND MANUFACTURED SCIENCE.

Br ALLEN PRINGLE,

PRESIDENT OF THE ONTARIO BEE-KEEPEBS' ASSOCIATION.

TTTE are often told that this is a scientific age, and the state-
VV ment is undoubtedly true. The world now more than ever
before looks to science as a secular if not a spiritual guide. How-
ever much their speculations may be questioned and controverted,
the scientific book and the scientific man are popularly accepted
as authority, at least on matters of physical and historical fact.
The veracity of science therefore is, or ought to be, above suspi-
cion. How careful, then, ought the teacher and exponent of sci-
ence to be that his assertions are true ; that his alleged facts are
facts ; and that even his speculations are free from the appearance
of dogmatism ! He needs to be especially particular when writing
for the general public, for people untrained in science will accept
his statements as expert testimony. Errors will thus be sure to
mislead his readers, many of whom are without the knowledge
that would enable them to discriminate between the true and the
false in his assertions.

In The Popular Science Monthly for June, 1881, appeared an
article on Glucose and Grape-Sugar, by Prof. H. W. Wiley. In
that article the following unfortunate statement was made : " In
commercial honey, which is entirely free from bee mediation,
the comb is made of paraffin, and filled with pure glucose by
appropriate machinery/' To say that there was not one word of
truth in that extraordinary assertion is the short and proper way
to put it, and that is exactly what I undertake to say. There was
not a tittle of evidence that any such honey had ever been made
up to that time, nor is there a particle of evidence that any such
honey has since been made.

Nevertheless, this vile slander on an honest and honorable in-
dustry has done incalculable injury to bee-culture in America, if
not throughout the world. A lie is said to travel half round the
world while the truth is getting ready to start, and this one
proved no exception. Though contradicted and refuted over and
over again, it still lives and is still going. Newspapers still keep
iterating and reiterating Prof. Wiley's slander, but they seldom
publish a correction. Thousands of people, common and uncom-
mon, still believe that scientific yarn that comb-honey is manu-
factured throughout without " bee mediation," and why shouldn't
they ? The former believe it because the newspapers say so, and
the latter because the magazines and encyclopaedias say so ; for it
is a fact that this itinerant fiction has actually found a place in

ARTIFICIAL HONEY AND MANUFACTURED SCIENCE. 71

the American Cyclopaedia and the American supplement to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica. In justice to the latter, however, it
mnst be said that the British work, whose publishers repudiate
the American supplement, contains nothing of this.

Here is what the American Cyclopaedia says on the subject:
" Glucose is very extensively fed to bees, which eat it with great
avidity, and store it away unchanged as honey. It is also put up
directly in trade as honey — with which bees have had nothing to
do — being put by means of appropriate machinery into artificial
combs made of paraffin " (page 834, vol. viii, edition of 1883).

The American supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica
has this information on the subject : " Honey is manufactured on
the same plan, only here the bees are employed to assist in the
fraud. They are furnished with a supply of starch-sugar, which
they store in their combs, when these combs are also fraudulent,
being made from paraffin and furnished to the bees, who fill them
with glucose and cap them with genuine wax. It is difficult
to see how the art of adulteration could be carried further"
(page 41, vol. i, Hubbard Brothers, Philadelphia and New York,
1885).

Argument and refutation failing to kill the falsehood, the ed-
itor of Gleanings in Bee-Culture — a responsible man financially
— offered a reward of one thousand dollars to any one (including
Prof. Wiley) who would produce some of the so-called " manu-
factured " honey, or designate the place where it was made or
could be found. This offer is still open and good. The writer of
this article also offered through the press a reward of one hun-
dred colonies of bees (equal to about one thousand dollars) to any
one who would produce some of this "artificial honey." This
offer also is still open and good. None, however, has ever been
produced. No one has yet come forward to claim the cash or the
bees.

Prof. Wiley had supplemented the assertion above quoted with
the following additional information, probably to encourage the
manufacturers : " This honey " (that is, the manufactured article)
" for whiteness and beauty rivals the celebrated real white-clover
honey of Vermont, but can be sold at an immense profit* at one
half the price." Now, had that business of honey manufacture
been as practicable as profitable, the temptation to embark in it
would have been almost too much for human nature to resist.
But it seems nobody went in, while nearly everybody believed
that other bodies were in.

However, Nature's dearth is likely to produce conviction
where facts, arguments, and rewards failed to do so. The seasons
of 1887 and 1888, especially the latter, were unpropitious for the
" busy little bee," and yielded but little honey. The crop was a

7 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

general failure, not only in America but in Europe. The modi-
cum of honey produced, especially of comb-honey, was soon ex-
hausted, and the dealers as well as consumers, North, South, East,
and West, were crying out for honey. The producers were inun-
dated with letters and orders which they could not fill. Now, here
was the grand opportunity for the manufacturers of "artificial
honey." If the article could be sold "at an immense profit at half
the price " of the genuine article, as Prof. Wiley assures us, these
bogus manufacturers could have coined money — there were " mill-
ions in it " apparently. But they failed to appear. The glucose
was available, the paraffin ditto, and the " appropriate machinery "
ought, in the interval under the law of progress, to have become
still more " appropriate " and perfect in its work ; but, strange to
say, the famine of honey continued. The tempting prices were
offered in vain. Not a pound of the stuff ever " materialized/' so
far as anybody could find out. Nor was this gap in the extracted
honey, caused by the drought, filled by any artificial substitute,
which also goes to prove that the prevalent notion that honey is
extensively adulterated has very little foundation in fact. Con-
sidering the comparatively low market prices of honey the past
few years, and the facility with which the genuine article can be
produced in modern scientific bee-culture, adulteration would
hardly pay for the trouble.

That there is but very little adulteration either of comb or
extracted honey may be safely asserted. The prevalent popular
belief to the contrary may be accounted for in two ways — by the
prevalent ignorance of the character and what I might call the
habits of honey, and by the erroneous teachings and misleading
reports of the authorities under review. While it may be said, in
general terms, that honey chemically consists of sugar and water,
in the proportion usually of about seventy-five per cent of the
former to twenty-five of the latter,* these elements vary so much
in their proportions in different grades of honey gathered from so
many different flowers at different seasons of the year that there
is no sure test, chemical or other, of honey. Even the polari-
scope, but recently considered a certain test of its purity, and
still so considered by some analysts, is found to be uncertain and
unreliable. While generally in pure honey the ray of light is
turned to the left, some samples, equally pure, though perhaps
stored rapidly and capped prematurely, may contain so much
cane-sugar that the ray is turned to the right. Hence the mis-
takes of chemists, relying upon the integrity of the polariscope,
in passing up on the purity or impurity of honey. They have

* According to C. Tomlinson, F. R. S., F. C. S., dextrose thirty-eight per cent, levulose
thirty-six, water twenty-two, and the remaining four, salts, wax, pollen, gluten, and aromatic
and coloring matters.

ARTIFICIAL HONEY AND MANUFACTURED SCIENCE. 73

pronounced samples adulterated which were known to he the
pure products of the flowers gathered by the bees. Every apia-
rian specialist knows that during the course of one good honey
season, beginning with the early spring bloom of willow, maple,
fruit, etc., and ending with the fall bloom of golden-rod, buck-
wheat, etc., he can get nearly a dozen different grades or kinds
of honey — in color from the very light, almost transparent linden
to the turgid and black buckwheat, and in flavor from the mild
and delicious sweet to that which is strong, rank, and quite un-
palatable to some tastes. Let a person with no special knowl-
edge of honey be presented with the former for his sight and
palate, and then with the latter, and, ten to one, he will declare
that the one sample is not honey at all, but a vile imitation.
Then, again, good, pure honey, through mismanagement, may be-
come so deteriorated in quality and altered in taste as to at once
provoke suspicion of adulteration.

Granulation was also regarded as a sure test of the purity of
honey, but it is not so, as some pure grades, containing only the
non-cry stallizable sugar, will not granulate ; while other samples
mixed with glucose will granulate. The light-colored and best
grades of honey will be fine-grained ' in granulation, while other
grades will be coarse-grained and present the appearance of sugar
for certain to the uninitiated.

When an honest man falls into an error, he is always willing
to correct it as soon as it is pointed out to him and proved to be
such. Prof. Wiley was expected to do that much at least toward
repairing the injury he had wittingly or unwittingly done the
whole fraternity of bee-keepers. But Prof. Wiley failed to do so,
so far as the public knows. He neglected — I may safely say
refused — to make the amende honorable. The apiarists became
incensed, indignant, and demanded proof of his assertion or a
retraction. The professor of science vouchsafed neither the one
nor the other. Finally, after years had elapsed, being still hotly
pursued by the apiarists and bee journals, especially the Ameri-
can Bee Journal, Prof. Wiley did manage to make an explana-
tion or "statement"; which, however, in no way improved his
position before the public either as an honorable man or a pro-
fessor of science. About seven years after uttering the slander to
the world, he speaks, and makes this astounding admission :

" At the time, I repeated this statement more in the light of a
pleasantry than as a commercial reality, for I did not believe that
it was possible commercially to imitate the comb." (Letter dated
Washington, D. C, May 29, 1888, addressed to W. M. Evans, and
published in the American Bee Journal of June 13, 1888.)

In this attempted justification of himself Prof. Wiley says he
had heard from a friend of his (now deceased) that comb-honey

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was manufactured in Boston as stated above. On the strength of
that, and that alone, he made the deliberate assertion which I
have quoted from The Popular Science Monthly.

Now, after reading and re-reading the context in The Popu-
lar Science Monthly article, I find not a shadow of evidence that
this statement was meant for a fiction and not for a fact. It is
given seriously and deliberately, along with other alleged scientific
facts, with no intimation or indication whatever of its spurious
character. The readers (and no doubt the publishers) of The
Popular Science Monthly accepted the statement in good faith
as a fact. The newspapers, of course, accepted it as true from so
respectable an authority as The Popular Science Monthly, and
even the encyclopaedias finally took it in. Indeed, nobody, it
seems, took it as a fictitious " pleasantry," or even dreamed it was
meant for one, till the exigencies of the case required such a con-
struction (or misconstruction) from the author himself. If it
really was meant as a harmless scientific squib, with no malice
'prepense, the question arises, How is it that the professor neg-
lected to set the matter right when he found that everybody was
taking his joke seriously, to the great detriment of an important
industry, and the calumnious aspersion of honest honey-pro-
ducers ?

Another example of spurious science is now before me. The
Medical Standard for June, 1889, contains a leading article on
Embryology, by a learned New York doctor, in which we are
gravely informed that " a worker bee is a highly organized creat-
ure, with a well-developed brain, wonderful sense-organs, intricate
muscular apparatus, and yet it is an offspring of an unimpreg-
nated queen bee." Now, this is all well put and quite true, except
the last clause, which is just the opposite, of the truth. Any
apiarian specialist could have told the doctor that while it is true
that the virgin queen bee lays eggs which produce drones or
males, she never deposits eggs which produce females — that is,
workers and queens — until after she is impregnated by the drone.
Hence, the worker bee is not " an offspring of an unimpregnated
queen bee."

"While it would be obviously unfair and unreasonable to hold
the Monthly morally responsible for the specimen of wily science
and its results to which this article refers,- it is, perhaps, not en-
tirely free from blame in allowing the matter to rest uncorrected
so long. I take the liberty of here suggesting to publishers of
encyclopaedias and scientific works the wisdom of first submitting
doubtful points and dubious assertions, made by men outside
their special departments, to practical men in such departments,
whether the latter be learned or unlearned, for the knowledge of
an unlearned man touching his own particular line of business

WALLACE OX "DARWINISM." 75

(even the science of it) may exceed that of the scientist both in
accuracy and extent. Such a course would often save the special-
ist from humiliation, and spare the* public the infliction of some
very queer science, which, not infrequently, fails to dovetail with
every-day facts.

•»•»

I

WALLACE ON "DARWINISM."

By the LORD BISHOP OF CAELISLE.

HAVE read with deep interest, as doubtless have many other
persons, Mr. Wallace's volume entitled Darwinism, which
appeared in the month of March last year. No one has a higher
right to teach the world on this recondite subject ; and when it is
borne in mind that Mr. Wallace was himself an independent dis-
coverer of the principle associated with the name of Darwin, and
that, nevertheless, no sentence indicative of rivalry or jealousy —
in fact, no sentence laying claim to original discovery — occurs
throughout the book, it is impossible not to be struck with a feel-
ing of reverence toward a writer who combines such remarkable
ability with no less remarkable modesty. Reference is made to
this point in an article in the Contemporary Review (August, 1889)
by Prof. Romanes, who writes thus :

It was in the highest degree dramatic that the great idea of natural selection
should have occurred independently and in precisely the same form to two work-
ing naturalists ; that these naturalists should have been countrymen; that they
should have agreed to publish their theory on the same day ; and last, but not
least, that, through the many years of strife and turmoil which followed, these
two English naturalists consistently maintained toward each other such feelings
of magnanimous recognition that it is hard to say whether we should most
admire the intellectual or the moral qualities which, in relation to their common
labors, they have displayed.

Prof. Romanes further lays stress upon the fact that, whereas
opinion has lately tended, as between the two naturalists, toward
Wallace and away from Darwin, there is no sign of triumph in
the book.

If ever there was an occasion (writes Prof. Romanes) when a man of science
might have felt himself justified in expressing a personal gratification at the turn-
ing of a tide of scientific opinion, assuredly such an occasion is the present ; and,
in whichever direction the truth may eventually be found to lie, historians of
science should not omit to notice that in the very hour when his life-long belief is
gaining so large a measure of support, Mr. Wallace quietly accepts the fact with-
out one word of triumph.

It is very pleasant to read this record of forgetfulness of self
in the feeling of complete devotion to the cause of science and of
truth ; possibly instances of such self -forgetfulness are not so un-
common as they are sometimes supposed to be.

7 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But Mr. Wallace needs no compliments from me, and it is not
for the purpose of paying them that I have taken pen in hand.
My purpose is rather to commit to paper certain thoughts which
have occurred to me during the reading of his most interesting
volume, and which it may perhaps be worth while to record. It
seems to me that the publication of Mr. Wallace's work affords
an occasion for taking stock, as it were, of that which the author
describes as "Darwinism." It is needless to say that in the
author's use of the word there is nothing vague, much less dis-
paraging, in this term. The term is used in a certain definite
sense, and is intended to express, not evolution in general, but
evolution by those special processes to which Mr. Darwin believed
evolution to be due. It is, I think, manifest that much advantage
may accrue even from a declaration at the hands of such an
authority as Mr. Wallace of what " Darwinism " is ; but, besides
this, it is specially advantageous, now that a quarter of a century
has passed since the great revolution in thought on this class of
subjects commenced, that we should know what is the real position
of the controversy ; there has been sufficient time for the smoke
and din of the battle to pass away, and we can now form a better
estimate than was possible in earlier days of the actual result of
the engagement. I propose, therefore, to offer some remarks upon
Mr. Wallace's volume, chiefly from the point of view just indi-
cated; observing in general that the conclusion which seems to
me to be of chief importance is this — that while Mr. Wallace
holds to Darwin's views in the most important particulars, he
does not regard " Darwinism " as any explanation of some of the
most important phenomena which the living world presents.

This observation, however, must stand on one side for the
present. The point which must occupy us just now is the actual
meaning of '"' Darwinism," upon which possibly not a few persons
have somewhat hazy notions. Let me quote Mr. Wallace : *

In order to show the view Darwin took of his own work, and what it was that
he alone claimed to have done, the concluding passage of the introduction to the
Origin of Species should he carefully considered. It is as follows: "Although
much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, I can entertain no doubt,
after the most deliberate and dispassionate judgment of which I am capable, that
the view which most naturalists until recently entertained, and which I formerly
entertained — namely, that each species has been independently created — is erro-
neous. I am fully convinced that species are not immutable ; but that those
belonging to what are called the same genera are the lineal descendants of some
other and generally extinct species, in the same manner as the acknowledged
varieties of any one species are the descendants of that species. Furthermore, I
am convinced that natural selection has been the most important, but not the
exclusive, means of modification." It should be especially noted, adds Mr. Wal-

* Page 9.

WALLA CE ON "DARWINISM." 77

lace, that all which is here claimed is now almost universally admitted, while the
criticisms of Darwin's works refer almost exclusively to those numerous ques-
tions which, as he himself says, will long remain obscure.

Mr. Wallace then proceeds to explain precisely what is meant
by natural selection, and what, therefore, the Darwinian theory
really is :

The theory of natural selection rests on two main classes of facts, which
apply to all organized beings without exception, and which thus take rank as
fundamental principles or laws. The first is the power of rapid multiplication in
a geometrical progression ; the second, that the offspring always vary slightly from
the parents, though generally very closely resembling them. From the first fact
or law there follows, necessarily, a constant struggle for existence; because,
while the offspring always exceed the parents in number, generally to an enor-
mous extent, yet the total number of living organisms in the world does not, and
can not, increase year by year. Consequently, every year, on the average, as
many die as are born, plants as well as animals ; and the majority die premature
deaths. They kill each other in a thousand different ways; they starve each
other by some consuming the food that others want ; they are destroyed largely
by the powers of nature — by cold and heat, by rain and storm, by flood and fire.
There is thus a perpetual struggle among them which shall live and which shall
die ; and this struggle is tremendously severe, because so few can possibly remain
alive — one in five, one in ten, often only one in a hundred or one in a thousand.

Then comes the question, Why do some live rather than others ? If all the
individuals of each species were exactly alike in every respect, we could only say
it is a matter of chance. But they are not alike. We find that they vary in
many different ways. Some are stronger, some swifter, some hardier in constitu-
tion, some more cunning. An obscure color may render concealment more easy
for some, keener sight may enable others to discover prey or escape from an
enemy better than their fellows. Among plants the smallest differences may be
useful or the reverse. The earliest and strongest shoots may escape the slug ;
their greater vigor may enable them to flower and seed earlier in a wet autumn ;
plants best armed with spines or hairs may escape being devoured ; those whose
flowers are most conspicuous may be soonest fertilized by insects. We can not
doubt that, on the whole, any beneficial variation will give the possessors of it a
greater probability of living through the tremendous ordeal they have to undergo.
There may be something left to chance, but on the whole the fittest will survive*

Upon this statement of what " Darwinism " is, coming to ns as
it does from the highest authority, certain observations suggest
themselves.

In the first place, objection may be taken to the phrase, the
fittest will survive. The phrase, if I am not mistaken, was not
originally devised by Mr. Darwin, and seems open to criticism.
For fitness implies something of moral superiority ; you can not
measure it in respect of length, or breadth, or strength, or any
other quality capable of being tested by strictly physical condi-
tions. Moreover, there is some danger of being betrayed by the

* Pages 10, 11.

7 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

phrase into the error of arguing in a circle ; for, in the case of not
a few creatures which have survived, it is difficult to give any
good reason for their survival except upon the assumption of
their fitness as proved by the very fact of their survival. Thus
their fitness leads to their survival, and this survival leads to the
conclusion that they must have been the fittest. Which is argu-
ing in a circle. Still further, it is not difficult to suggest exam-
ples in which the expression, survival of the fittest, manifestly
breaks down. Sir Isaac Newton was, as is well known, a very
delicate child, difficult to rear. Suppose that Newton and a pow-
erful navvy, or coal porter, or grenadier, had been compelled to
rough it as children at Dotheboys Hall or some similar establish-
ment, which would have survived ? Not Newton ; and yet it may
be fairly argued that in many respects he would have been the
fittest. Nor is this imaginary case an altogether unfair test of the
propriety of the phrase ; for it is impossible to give any true defi-
nition of fitness which shall exclude all moral and intellectual
qualities, all qualities in fact which are of the highest value, and
which shall simply include those elements of toughness and wiri-
ness, and strength of sinew or stomach, which are chiefly calcu-
lated to prolong life in trying circumstances.

Putting out of consideration, however, the propriety of the
language by which survival in the struggle for life, whether
among vegetables or animals, is expressed, it is to be admitted
that the principle indicated is a true one. That is to say, it may
be regarded as admitted by all persons whose studies and natural
powers render their opinion of any real value, that modification
by natural selection is an element in that evolution of living
forms of which the evidence appears to be irresistible. Natural
selection is a vera causa ; the question is, What is the extent of
its action ? how much can it do ?

Darwin considered it necessary to supplement natural by that
which he termed sexual selection ; in doing which he was quite
consistent, because he speaks (as we have already seen) of natural
selection as " the most important, but not the exclusive, means of
modification " of species. This supplemental hypothesis, however,
does not commend itself to Mr. Wallace's judgment.

Mr. Darwin (he writes), as is well known, imputed most of the colors and
varied paterns of butterflies' wings to sexual selection — that is, to a constant
preference, by female butterflies, for the more brilliant males ; the colors thus
produced being sometimes transmitted to the males alone, sometimes to both
sexes. This view has always seemed to me unsupported by evidence, while it is
also quite inadequate to account for the facts.

Again, after explaining his own views on the subject of orna-
mental appendages of birds and other animals, he writes :

The various. facts and arguments now briefly set forth afford an explanation

WALLACE ON "DARWINISM." 79

of the phenomena of male ornament as being due to the general laws of growth
and development, and make it unnecessary to call to our aid so hypothetical a cause
as the cumulative action of female preference.'

Whether the views put forward by Mr. Wallace do in reality-
render unnecessary the Darwinian hypothesis of sexual selection
will not be here discussed ; it is sufficient to note that the conclu-
sions of Mr. Darwin in this not unimportant matter have, after
abundant time for examination and reflection, been rejected by
the naturalist who more perhaps than any other has a right to
criticise him.

But Mr. Wallace rejects also the evolutionist views of another
very competent naturalist, Prof. Romanes ; and it will aid in the
development of the purpose of this paper if I refer in passing to
this rejection. The theory of Prof. Romanes is described by him
under the phrase physiological selection ; it is not necessary in
this place to explain what the theory is ; it is sufficient to say it is
regarded as highly important by Prof. Romanes, and as utterly
unfounded by Mr. Wallace. It would be impertinent on my part
to offer any opinion as between these two authorities; but the
conclusion may be fairly drawn that there is probably much at
present unknown in the subject of evolution, as well as not a little
doubt with regard to some fields of inquiry into which our knowl-
edge is supposed to extend.

But the most striking and interesting feature of Mr. Wallace's
book, from what I may describe as the human point of view, is to
be found in that part of his work in which he denies, and (as he
believes) proves himself to be justified in denying, the application
of the principle of natural selection to the evolution of the human
faculties. This denial is a fact of the first order of magnitude ;
and I confess that I can see no ground for the language of strong
depreciation in which Prof. Romanes, in the article already re-
ferred to, describes this portion of Mr. Wallace's book. He speaks
of the substance of the concluding chapters as being " sadly like
the feet of clay in a figure of iron, marring by its manifest
weakness what would otherwise have been a completed and self-
consistent monument of strength." No argument in the article
justifies this condemnation ; and it is, perhaps, not too much to
say that many of his readers will find in the condemned portion
of Mr. Wallace's book that which has the deepest interest for
themselves, while it must not be forgotten that the views put
forward are alleged by Mr. Wallace to rest upon proofs which he
formally submits for examination. Let us see, then, what this
clay formation contains.

Mr. Wallace fully accepts " Mr. Darwin's conclusion as to the
essential identity of man's bodily structure with that of the higher
mammalia, and his descent from some ancestral form common to

80 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

men and to the anthropoid apes." But he observes that u although
perhaps nowhere distinctly formulated, his (Mr. Darwin's) whole
argument tends to the conclusion that man's entire nature and all
his faculties, whether moral, intellectual, or spiritual, have been
derived from their rudiments in the lower animals, in the same
manner and by the action of the same general laws as his physical
structure has been derived/' This conclusion Mr. Wallace con-
siders to be " not supported by adequate evidence, and to be di-
rectly opposed to many well-ascertained facts."

I will not endeavor to reproduce the whole of Mr. Wallace's
argument on this subject, but will present what appears to me to
be the pith of it; and I do this with the greater satisfaction,
because what is here advanced seems to harmonize with what I
have already written in criticising the phrase survival of the
fittest.

Let us confine ourselves, for simplicity's sake, to one human
faculty, namely, the mathematical. The problem is, how to pro-
duce a mathematician by the process of natural selection. The
reader must bear in mind clearly what the theory of natural
selection is, as already expounded. It is the survival in the strug-
gle for life of those individuals which possess variations from
their fellows favorable to their preservation. In order, therefore,
that the mathematical faculty should be evolved by the process
of natural selection, it is necessary to suppose that those individ-
uals, which have an advantage in the possession of rudimentary
mathematical faculties somewhat in excess of their fellows, should
be the survivors in the struggle for life. The mere possession of
this rudimentary advantage must be an aid toward life preser-
vation. This in itself is hard to understand ; but it becomes
harder still when we bear in mind the rareness of the mathe-
matical gift. In our own time it would be perhaps an over-
estimate to say that the mathematical faculty existed in any
marked degree in one per cent of the population; assume such
a proportion to have generally held in human history, then it
would be necessary to suppose that these rare specimens of rudi-
mentary mathematical ability had some very decided advantage
in the struggle for life : but what ground is there for such a sup-
position ? Grant that ten men in a tribe of a thousand had dis-
covered how to count upon their fingers, or suppose them to have
discovered some elementary geometrical theorem, how would this
help them when a neighboring tribe attacked them, or when fam-
ine and pestilence were abundant ? It is difficult or impossible
to say.

And the same argument would seem to apply to other human
faculties, music and all forms of art, writing, even speech. Con-
sider speech for a moment as the most universal and most dis-

WALLACE ON "DARWINISM." 81

tinctive of human faculties. Here the problem is just the reverse
of that which occurred in the case of mathematics : in that the
favorable variation to be preserved is rare, in this the variation
scarcely exists ; the faculty of speech is universal ; how, then, can
there be a survival of the fittest where all are equally fit ?

It seems difficult to resist this kind of argument, and I should
not be surprised to find the opinion gain ground, and ultimately
become established, that while the human faculties have undoubt-
edly been developed gradually, the development can not in any
way be traced to the process of natural selection.

But if it be once admitted that the principle of natural selec-
tion is inadequate to explain the development of specially human
qualities, there is a temptation to go back to the consideration of
the powers and instincts of some of the inferior creatures, and to
inquire whether natural selection may not be inadequate also in
their case, as in that of man. I confess that I have never been
able to perceive how the principle can be brought to bear upon
such phenomena as the architecture of insects — for example, that
of bees and wasps. What, I suppose, ought to have happened is
this, that some variation of an ancient form of bee made a rough
approximation to a modern honeycomb, that they who made the
best honeycomb were the fittest to survive, and that in this way
by slow degrees and by natural selection a race of bees was pro-
duced capable of performing the geometrical wonders which mod-
ern bees perform. But there are two difficulties : First, in con-
ceiving the original start of insects in the direction of architect-
ure ; and, secondly, in perceiving the connection between good
architects and survival in the struggle for life. Certain bees
might make their wax go further than other bees, and our actual
bees use their wax with absolutely mathematical economy ; but it
is difficult to perceive how this economy is helpful in the struggle
for life. Can we get over these difficulties ? If it were a case of
some device for self-preservation, the conclusion might be differ-
ent. For example, if we can imagine some variation of a race of
spiders devising, in ever so rough a form, those curious houses
which have attained such perfection in the hands of the trap-door
spider, we can also easily believe that this variation would be
likely to survive, and that while less ingenious spiders became
the prey of their enemies, those which were concealed in their
cunning castles would escape. But there is nothing parallel to
this in the case of wasps and bees ; here we have a beautiful geo-
metrical problem somehow solved, apparently without connection
between the solution and the preservation of life. One of two
conclusions seem inevitable — either the geometrical skill has be-
longed in its perfection to bees and wasps ever since those insects
existed ; or else the geometrical skill has been developed by some

VOL. XXXVII. — 6

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

internal law of 'growth, independently of all questions of natural
selection.

There is another class of natural phenomena upon which Mr.
Wallace writes much that is deeply interesting, but to which it
may possibly be questioned whether the principle of survival by
natural selection is applicable — namely, the phenomena of mimic-
ry. Of course it is quite intelligible, to take an instance, that a
living creature which is very much like a leaf will escape many
enemies, and even have such an advantage in the struggle for life
that many other living creatures would be like leaves if they
could. But when we endeavor to go back in imagination to the
commencement of the mimicking process, we must conceive of a
creature not at all like a leaf, but among whose offspring there
are certain individuals which have a slightly leaf -like appearance,
and that these survive in preference to others not having the ap-
pearance in question. The conception involves two difficulties :
First, the notion of certain individuals having a slightly leaf -like
appearance is eccentric and hard to accept. It is different from
that of individuals varying by length of leg, or strength of wing,
or what not. It is a variation, so to speak, not of degree but of
kind. And, secondly, it is difficult to see why a resemblance to a
leaf, admitted to be slight, and therefore one would imagine not
easily perceived, should be any substantial protection from ene-
mies, and so an appreciable advantage in the struggle for life.

Similar difficulties occur with regard to other cases of mimicry.
My space does not permit me to examine them in detail ; but I
have come to the conclusion that, while mimicry may probably
be always connected with some advantage which it confers on the
animal, it is difficult to conceive of the mimicking transformation
being originally brought into operation by any process of natural
selection.

This failure of the principle of natural selection to explain
much that is connected with the evolution both of men and of
inferior creatures may lead us to inquire, to what extent the prin-
ciple satisfies etiological requirements even in those cases in
which its application appears most complete. The modification
and multiplication of species require three conditions to be post-
ulated : (1) an original species; (2) the power of multiplying that
species by reproduction ; and (3) the occurrence of variations in
the successive generations.

Now (1) the existence of the original living germ or germs
must, I suppose, be left by universal consent in mystery. Mr.
Darwin treated of the Origin of " Species," not the Origin of " liv-
ing tilings" This latter question is not likely ever to come within
the reach of human science ; certainly it has not done so yet.
Given the existence of the material universe, or the existence of

WALLACE ON "DARWINISM." 83

living things, and there is abundance of opening for discovery
with respect tb the laws of matter and the laws of life ; bnt mat-
ter and life must first be given : this is sufficiently obvious ; but
it is worth noting, because there is sometimes a tendency to make
a confusion between creation and the laws of created things ;
whereas it is obvious that creation is one thing, and the law gov-
erning created things is quite another. But (2) as the original
existence of living things is a mystery, so also is the reproduction
of them. The continuity of life on the earth's surface, insured in
various ways more or less resembling each other, and all agreeing
in this, that there is apparently no tendency in vital power to de-
generate or wear itself out in the course of ages, is, as it were, a
standing mystery of creation. The scientific man has nothing to
do with this mystery ; to him it is simply a fact or phenomenon ;
but he who tries to go beyond phenomena and to get at the cause
behind them will recognize reproduction as being etiologically
equivalent to continuous creation. The great feature, however,
of the principle of natural selection is (3) the occurrence of varia-
tions. Mr. Wallace lays great stress on the abundance of the
variations which occur in nature, and the corresponding impor-
tance of this element in the Darwinian theory ; and he is obviously
wise in doing so. But it is well to observe that it is impossible to
regard variations either on the one hand as a necessary feature of
reproduction, or on the other as simply fortuitous. With regard
to the latter supposition it is, certainly, difficult to conceive of
chance as being a principal factor, say, in the production of a
horse, to say nothing of a man. But even the former supposition
is not quite an easy one : it is difficult to see why variations capa-
ble of being made permanent should occur, and why (if there be
offspring at all) the offspring should not be exactly like the parent ;
in not a few cases this seems to be the law of living things. What
I wish to point out, however, is this, that from the etiological
point of view there ought to be a cause for variations as well as
for other phenomena ; and that, therefore, when we use the phe-
nomenon of variations as a part of the machinery of natural selec-
tion, we do not get rid of the task of inquiring, as philosophers,
why those useful variations occurred. In fact, in this as in many
other instances, what is done is to shift the process one stage back-
ward, but to leave the question of the primary cause very much
where it was. Variations are abundant, says the student of natu-
ral history, and advantageous variations are preserved and made
permanent by the process of natural selection : let it be granted.
But the philosopher may still say : How comes it that advan-
tageous variations should occur ? Must not this occurrence be the
result of some pre-established principle or law of development ?
Take the case of the horse, which Mr. Wallace has dwelt upon

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

at some length, and has illustrated by a diagram. The evolution
of the horse of historical times, and of the present day from the
orohippus of the Eocene period, as exhibited to the eye by Mr.
Wallace's diagram, is as interesting a presentation of a physical
pedigree as can well be conceived. We see, as it were, the progress
of Nature's work ; the transformation from several toes to one toe,
which was, in reality, the operation of thousands of years, is visi-
ble as a connected continuous process from beginning to end. But
what the diagram does not, and can not, put in evidence is this —
namely, the marvelous beauty of the horse in his ultimate con-
dition. So far as any conclusions can be drawn from the diagram,
the top and the bottom of the page stand upon an equal footing ;
there would seem to be no reason why orohippus should not have
been derived from equus by expansion, as easily as equus has
been derived from orohippus by contraction. When, however,
we look, not at the equus of science, but at the horse of the hunt-
ing-field or the race-course, or at our own stable friend, who has
carried us safely for hundreds of miles, we perceive that, somehow
or other, we have, in these modern days, an animal of the most
perfect kind with regard to speed, beauty, and mechanical perfec-
tion. We feel convinced that it would be in every way a mistake
that he should develop toes and become orohippus ; we are sure
that orohippus has rightly been improved off the face of the earth
in order to make room for equus. All this is, in the best sense of
the phrase, in accordance with the principle of the survival of the
fittest ; but I confess that I find it difficult to realize the transfor-
mation of orohippus into equus upon the pure and simple notion
of advantageous variations in the struggle for life ; for, in truth,
if the question be one of mere survival, it is difficult to say, when
the earth was inhabited by wild creatures, in what manner the
possession of one toe instead of three or four should give equus
any advantage over orohippus. One can quite understand that a
jury of Newmarket jockeys would decide that equus was fittest to
survive ; but in the absence of human judgment the conclusion is
not so easy to reach. At all events, it seems more probable that
the transformation was originally ideally contained in the concep-
tion of this class of creature, and that equus may be regarded as
bearing to orohippus something of the same kind of relation as is
borne by a frog to a tadpole, or by a moth to a caterpillar.

May it not well be that predetermined transformation has as
real a place in the genesis of species as it certainly has in that of
individual creatures ? Nothing, perhaps, strikes most minds as
more surprising than insect and reptile transformation. That a
crawling animal should, by a complicated process, involving a
condition of motionless helplessness, be ultimately transformed
into a creature of active life spent in flying through the air, or

WALLA CE ON "DARWINISM." 85

that toads and frogs should find it necessary to pass through the
fish-like life of tadpoles — this class of facts may well puzzle the
thinking mind ; but the advantage of them is that they are facts ;
no one can dispute them ; and taking our stand upon them we
may guess that the processes of Nature are analogous, in cases in
which we can not distinctly prove that they are so. May it not
be, then, that the Eocene period of creation presented a condition
of things out of which a higher condition was evolved, not simply
by the perpetuation of advantageous variations, but much more
by virtue of an internal principle of growth, similar to, or at least
comparable with, the principle which develops the foetus or which
transforms tadpoles and caterpillars ? Adopting this view, we
should have in both cases a limit toward which transformations
tended ; as the butterfly is the ultimate form of the caterpillar,
and the caterpillar was the forerunner and necessary ancestor of
the butterfly, so equus may perhaps be regarded as the ultimate
form of orohippus, and orohippus as the forerunner and necessary
ancestor of equus. At all events, this view of the facts seems to
be tenable, and it is free from certain difficulties by which the
hypothesis of natural selection pure and simple is undoubtedly
beset.

The question of growth, evolution, development, by an internal
power similar to, and comparable with, that which we see daily
and hourly at work all round about us, leads to the discussion of
another and very interesting question — namely, whether man can
perfectly be described as " derived from the lower animals." The
expression is Mr. Wallace's. He speaks of "man in his bodily
structure " as having been " derived from the lower animals, of
which he is the culminating development." * I venture to ques-
tion whether this is a correct statement of the facts of the case. I
am not venturing to throw doubt upon Mr. Wallace's scientific
deductions ; on the other hand, their correctness shall for the sake
of argument, if on no other ground, be fully granted ; all the
more readily in consideration of the important limitations of the
principle of natural selection made in the case of man, as already
noticed and discussed. What I venture to doubt is, whether the
process of human evolution, as accepted by Mr. Wallace, can be
rightly described by the terms which he applies to it. Certainly
there is something in the conception of such derivation from
which the feelings of most of us not unnaturally shrink, and from
which they would gladly be free, if freedom can be had consist-
ently with scientific truth. There is something in it of that " let-
ting the house of a brute to the soul of a man," of which Lord
Tennyson sings in his most recent volume. It may be worth

* Page 454.

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

while, therefore, to consider whether the phrase, " derivation from
the lower animals," is one which can be maintained as rightly ex-
pressing the truth which it is intended to express concerning the
physical history of our race.

Now it is manifest that if we look back, so far as is possible,
into the remote past, when the first germ of animal life appeared
upon the globe, two conditions of things, and two only, are con-
ceivable. Either (A) there was a single germ of life, from which
all subsequent living forms have been evolved or developed ; or
(B) there were several or many germs of life, from which, in sepa-
rate streams, so to speak, the evolution of living creatures took
place. Mr. Darwin inclined, I think, to the latter supposition ; but
either A or B must be accepted by all evolutionists of all schools.
Let us consider them successively.

A. If we make the supposition that living forms commenced
upon the globe from a single germ, then it follows that all living
creatures now existing — insects, fishes, birds, beasts, man — have
been evolved by some process or processes from one and the same
origin : whether the process of variation and natural selection be
sufficient to account for the development, it is not necessary for
the purpose of this argument to decide ; it is sufficient to say, and
this can scarcely be denied, that by some process or processes the
development has taken place. Therefore, ascending to the hy-
pothesis now under consideration, it will be true that the lower
animals and man had a common origin ; but this is manifestly a
different thing from asserting that man is "derived from the
lower animals." If we go up to the hypothetical origin of life, or
the single germ, this latter assertion is obviously untrue, because,
as by hypothesis there was then only one germ, there could be no
distinction of superior or inferior ; but if we stop short of the ori-
gin and observe the condition of things at any period subsequent
to the hypothetical beginning, we shall find progress being made
toward the development of man and simultaneous progress being
made toward the development of the lower animals. But it does
not follow that, because this simultaneous development is taking
place, therefore we can say that one form of life is developed from
the other ; it might be as correct to say that the inferior animals
were developed from man, as man from the inferior animals.
Take an illustration from that which is possible in the case of
rivers. Conceive of two rivers running into the sea ; trace their
course, and suppose that ultimately you come to the same source
in the distant mountains ; it would not be correct to say that one
of these rivers was derived from the other. The correct state-
ment would be that they sprang from one and the same source,
that they had different histories, and that they terminated in dif-
ferent streams.

WALLACE ON "DARWINISM." 87

When we speak of the lower animals, do we not in fact postu-
late the existence of man ? Lower .than what ? Surely lower
than man : therefore inferiority can not be predicated until man's
existence has been assumed, or has become a fact ; and therefore
to speak of man being derived from the lower animals in the
remote past, when, if you only go far enough, there is no higher
or lower, would seem to be a confusing use of language.

If it be urged that the objection now made to the phraseology
used by Mr. Wallace is merely a verbal quibble, I venture to
argue, on the other hand, that there is not a little importance in
the objection. I quite admit that if the creation of man be a
merely fortuitous fact, a lucky hit, so to speak, in the infinite
variety of living forms developed from a single original living
germ — if, in fact, creation be without the high purpose which
human life, as distinguished from all other forms of life, seems to
make manifest — it is scarcely worth while to argue the question
whether man was derived from the inferior animals or not. But
if man be the intended crown of creation existing in the determi-
nate counsel and foreknowledge of God from the beginning, then
it does seem to be worth while to argue that the derivation of
man and beast from the same living germ is not the same thing
as the derivation of one from the other. A sane man may have
the misfortune to have an idiot brother ; the sane man and the
idiot are derived from the same parents, but it would be incorrect
to say that one was derived from the other. May there not be
some analogy between a case of this kind and the case of man
and beast ?

B. So much, then, for the hypothesis of one original germ of
life ; the argument becomes perhaps more simple if we adopt the
second hypothesis, namely, that of several or many germs.

For in this case it is not unreasonable to suppose that specific
differences existed among the original germs. I confess that the
notion of the development of all forms of life from one original
germ offers to my own mind an almost insuperable difficulty.
The arguments drawn from the experimental facts of variation
and natural selection, from the observed progression of animal
forms in successive geological strata, and the like, seem to me
quite inadequate to explain the development of insects, fishes,
birds, mammals, from one stock. Consequently, to my own mind
it is a relief to be able to think of several, and if of several then
possibly of any number, of original germs. The hypothesis is not
opposed to, but quite in accordance with, Mr. Darwin's own
views ; in fact, he was far too cautious a man to dogmatize con-
cerning the unity of the origin of living forms, when all attempt
at the examination of the question of origin would necessarily
carry him far beyond the limits of possible experiment. Let us

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

then adopt provisionally the hypothesis of a multiplicity of germs
of life ; and if we do this, there is nothing wild or strange in the
supposition that the germ of man was different from other germs.
It would be beyond all that scientific caution would justify to
assume that, given a number of original germs of life, it is matter
of chance into what each will develop. It is contrary, I think, to
the whole analogy of Nature to suppose that a living germ, which
is to all intents and purposes an ovum or egg, may ultimately
develop into an oak, or a fish, or a man, according to its surround-
ings or according to mere chance. At all events, it is much more
probable, much more according to analogy, that each germ should
have its specific character, and that so man should have been man
in intention and preparation from the very beginning of things.
It may have been — in fact, according to the supposition of evolu-
tion it must have been — that in the early condition of life upon
the globe there was no man (in the full and proper sense of the
word) in existence, but his progenitors would be there ; and what
is submitted is this, that those progenitors were undeveloped
men, and not " lower animals." What they visibly were scientific
discovery has not yet put in evidence ; it is admitted that there
is a " missing link " between the present and the past. Some sci-
entific men hope that the link may be found, some think that it
is hidden under the sea ; but, whatever the truth may be with
regard to this point, what is maintained is this, that, on the
hypothesis of a multiplicity of original germs of life, it is
more probable than otherwise that certain germs contained the
promise of men, others of " lower animals " ; and that, if so,
it is incorrect to speak of the lower animals as the progenitors
of men.

This view of the case, though founded upon a criticism of Mr.
Wallace's language, would seem nevertheless to be consistent
with his real views concerning the origin of man. In the last
chapter of his work, entitled Darwinism applied to Man, to
which reference has been already made, it is contended, as
we have seen, that the principle of natural selection will not
account for the development of the human faculties. I recur to
that chapter chiefly for the purpose of making two extracts, which
will, I think, tend to strengthen the arguments which have been
already advanced. After rehearsing three stages of progress in
creation — the change from the inorganic to the organic ; the in-
troduction of sensation or consciousness, constituting the funda-
mental distinction between the animal and vegetable kingdoms ;
and the existence in man of a number of his most characteristic
and noblest faculties, those which raise him above the brutes and
open up possibilities of almost indefinite advancement — Mr. Wal-
lace writes thus :

WALLACE ON "DARWINISM." 89

These three distinct stages of progress from the inorganic world of matter and
motion up to man, point clearly to an unseen universe — to a world of spirit, to
which the world of matter is altogether subordinate.*

And again :

Those who admit my interpretation of the evidence now adduced — strictly
scientific evidence in its appeal to facts which are clearly what ought not to be on
the materialistic theory — will be able to accept the spiritual nature of man, as not
in any way inconsistent with the theory of evolution, but as dependent upon those
fundamental laws and causes which furnish the very materials for evolution to
work with.t

Declarations such as these, coming from such an authority,
must doubtless be very comforting to those minds which feel
themselves compelled to receive the evidence for evolution but
shrink from materialism, which feel convinced that materialism
can not be true, and yet have an uneasy suspicion that evolution
points to it as a logical conclusion. But if we admit with Mr.
Wallace that variation and natural selection are not adequate to
explain the evolution of man's higher qualities and faculties, we
are not merely delivered from the acceptance of materialism, we
are invited and even compelled (as has been urged in a former
part of this paper) to review the whole question of the extent of
the application of Mr. Darwin's great principle. He would be a
rash man who, in the face of Mr. Darwin, Mr. Wallace, and the
whole generation of naturalists who have followed in their steps,
should deny that natural selection was a vera causa in creative
work ; but there is no rashness or audacity in maintaining what
Mr. Darwin did not deny, and what Mr. Wallace emphatically
affirms, namely, that there is needed for the explanation of phe-
nomena something beyond, and essentially different from, the
process of natural selection. All seems to point beyond matter
into the region of mind, beyond mechanical sequence to purpose,
beyond all verai causm to the causa causarum, beyond Nature
to God.

I will close this paper by recording an incident which was
communicated to me some years ago in the course of conversa-
tion by Dr. Thompson, the late Master of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge.

Dr. Thompson was walking, in his college days, with two com-
panions, one of whom was Alfred Tennyson ; of the name of the
other I am not sure. The path by which they went was one
which all Cambridge men know, namely, that which leads from
the backs of the colleges through the fields toward Coton. After
passing the brook, which used to be crossed (and perhaps is now)
by a rude wooden bridge, it was perceived that Tennyson had

* Page 476. t Ibid.

VOL. XXXVII. — 7

9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

lagged behind. He had paused by the side of the brook, brought
his eyes as near as he could to the surface of the water, and was
examining with intense interest the subaqueous life which the lit-
tle stream contained. After a time he rejoined his companions,
and this was his utterance when he joined them : "What an imagi-
nation God has ! * The words must have made a deep impression
upon my informant's mind ; otherwise he would not have re-
tained them in memory, and would not have thought it worth
while to repeat them to me. They made a similar impression
upon myself when so repeated ; and I can not but regard them as
containing a true philosophy of Nature. Whatever may be the
power of natural selection, and whatever causes may be at work
to produce the varied scene of life which the world contains, you
need some underlying cause, both of life itself and of reproduc-
tion and variation, and of all natural phenomena ; and if causally
the existence of the universe may be attributed to God's will and
purpose, so the endless variety of vital manifestations may be
attributed to that which in the case of man we should call imagi-
nation.

In reality, whatever may be the actual historical genesis of
Nature, we seem to need a guasi-Platonic doctrine of antecedent
ideas in the divine mind as the basis, the underlying condition, of
the existence of things as we see them. It is matter for fair
discussion among naturalists how much may be attributed to
natural selection, how much to sexual, how much to physiologi-
cal, and so forth. But such discussions can not go to the root of
things ; they do not reach the original thought out of which the
works of Nature, as we call them, originally spring. Michael
Angelo, as we are told, used to sit with his hammer and chisel
before his marble block, and shape it without any previous mod-
eling process into the figure which he intended to produce ; other
sculptors, I believe, with only this one grand exception, make
their model in clay, and thence proceed by semi-mechanical steps
to the finished work ; but Michael Angelo and all other sculptors
have alike the seminal idea in their minds, and the manner of its
evolution is comparatively a matter of detail. Something of the
same kind may be said of the production of natural things. It
may be possible for naturalists to discover some of the steps by
which the finished work comes to be what it is ; but the actual
origin of natural things — the wonders of life, the varied beauties
of the universe, above all, the mind of man, which is capable of
understanding, appreciating, and discussing the problems to which
natural things give rise — is to be sought in no region lower than
that which may, with all reverence, be described as the mind, or
as the imagination of God.— Nineteenth Century.

CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS. 91

CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS.

By W. H. LAERABEE.

I HAD for ten years a cat whose intelligence interested me
greatly and was considered remarkable by all persons who
took notice of her. Her confidence in her master and mistress,
her evident enjoyment of their society, her happy faculty of put-
ting herself upon an understanding with them, her familiar inter-
est in matters of the household, the shifts and devices of which
she was master, and her sagacity manifested in ways as various
as the exigencies she had to meet, evoked frequent admiration
and praise. These manifestations led me to look into the subject
of knowledge in cats, and I have found that she was not singular,
or even exceptional, in the quality of her faculties. She appears
to have been a type to which a great many of the more happily
trained members of her race can easily measure up. My observa-
tions have been naturally extended to other animals, and have led
to the conclusion that most domesticated species and many wild
ones are capable of and often manifest equally high degrees of
mental development. But cats — and dogs too — are more at home
with us, have more opportunities to learn, and come under closer
and more constant observation than the others.

The cat belongs to a large and highly specialized family ; to
one that is clearly distinguishable from the other families of ani-
mals, while the resemblances between its own members is so
strong that even the careless, unprofessional observer will hardly
fail to assign at a glance an individual of any of its species to it.
All the members of the family are, according to Wood, light,
stealthy, and silent of foot, quick of ear and eye. They are ex-
ceedingly graceful in form and movement, have flexible bodies
and limbs — walk, we might say, on tiptoe — are alert and swift in
action, and are exceedingly cunning. Between many of them and
the cat itself there is hardly any prominently visible difference
except in size. Curious resemblances in features of line or ex-
pression may be remarked between the portraits of the Felidce
in Wood's Natural History and cats with which the observer is
acquainted. A copy of the photograph of the head and breast of
a tiger at rest, in a portfolio by our side, might be easily mis-
taken, except for a few differences in the shading of the hair, for
a life-size portrait of the cat that has given the occasion of this
article. St. George Mivart recognizes fifty living species of the
cat family, forty-eight of which he includes in the genus Felis.

The history of the domestic cat has been traced back to the
ancient Egyptians, among whom the earliest notices of it appear

9 2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 1.— Egyptian Cat (Felis maniculata.)

on the monuments of the second empire of the twelfth dynasty
(about 2400 b. a), at Beni Hassan. It seems to have appeared
there just after the Egyptians had made considerable conquests
in Nubia, whence it may have been brought, already domesticated,
among the spoils of war. The mummified cats in the Egyptian

tombs are not identical with
our house cat, but seem to
belong to a native species
(Felis maniculata, Pig. 1)
which is said to be still in-
digenous in Nubia, where it
is found on the western side
of the Nile, in a stony dis-
trict in which brushwood
grows.

The domesticated animal
was slow in making its way
from Egypt into the neighboring nations. The Hebrews were ap-
parently without it, and it is not once mentioned in the Bible. No
evidence has been found that the Assyrians and Babylonians were
acquainted with it. According to authors who have investigated
the philological branch of the history, these people possessed a
binary nomenclature for animals, with generic and specific names,
and included their lions and panthers among the dogs — a thing
they would hardly have done if they had been familiar with house
cats. It was not known to the Greeks and Romans till a compar-
atively late period ; and all the earlier representations of cats on
their monuments are referred by the authorities to the wild cat
or some other animal than the domestic cat. According to the
most careful conclusions on this subject, the mouser of the Greeks
and Romans was a weasel, and led an independent, not a domestic,
life. The Aryans of India had cats at a very early but not at
their earliest period ; for while the names of the animal are all
Aryan, it was not, according to Pictet, designated by any simple
term such as would have been given it in primitive times, but by
composite names, having such meanings as "house-animal," " rat-
eater/' and " mouse-enemy." The name of the wild cat (Fig. 2),
however, embodied a root common to many of the European lan-
guages. It becomes in Persian, pushak ; in Afghan, pishik ; in
Kurdish, psiq; in Lithuanian, pnije ; in Irish, pus and feisag ;
and in Erse, pusag and piseag ; whence the English "puss." It is
derived by Pictet from a Sanskrit root puclilia or pitclilia, that
means ''tail/' and therefore points to one of the most striking
external features of the animal. The name by which the cat
was known to the later Greeks — alXovpos — and which was origi-
nally applied to the weasel, refers to the same feature. It is

CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS.

93

Fig. 2.— Wild Cat (Felis catus.)

compounded from two words that give the meaning of "wavy

tail."

The Latin name of the cat tribe (Felis) appears to have been
originally applied to the weasel and other mousers, and after-
ward to the wild cat. The word catus or cattus came into nse
in about the fourth century, and is found first in the agricultural
writer, Palladius, who recommends that cats be kept in artichoke-
gardens for protection against mice and moles, and remarks that
men had previously been served for this purpose by weasels. The
name catta is found later in
the Greek church histo-
rian, Evagrius Scholasticus,
about a. d. 594. Historical
inferences have been drawn
from the absence of the re-
mains of cats in the ruins of
Pompeii, and from the fact
that the name common to
all the other Romance lan-
guages does not occur in
Wallachian. It is concluded

that the domesticated animal had not become common when Pom-
peii was destroyed, in a. d. 79, or when Dacia was isolated from
the rest of the Roman world by barbarian conquest, in the third
century. Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins infers, from his researches in the
caves in which the Celts took refuge from the Saxons, that cats
were unknown in Great Britain before about the year 800.

Cats easily commended themselves as efficient vermin-destroy-
ers to such extensive grain-raisers as the ancient Egyptians ; and
a people so ready to deify everything needed little prompting to
put them in their pantheon. They may also have made them-
selves useful in killing snakes, an occupation in which, if the sto-
ries are true, they sometimes become very expert. Rengger, who
has written of the mammals of Paraguay, declares that he has
more than once seen cats pursue and kill snakes, even rattle-
snakes, on the sandy, grassless plains of that land. " With their
rare skill," he says, " they would strike the snake with their paw,
and at the same time avoid its spring. If the snake coiled itself,
they would not attack it directly, but would go round it till it be-
came tired of turning its head after them j then they would strike
it another blow, and instantly turn aside. If the snake started to
run away, they would seize its tail, as if to play with it. By virtue
of these continued attacks they usually destroyed their enemy in
less than an hour, but would never eat its flesh."

Cats are represented on some of the Egyptian monuments as
accompanying their masters on hunting expeditions. In a wall-

94

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

picture on a tomb at Gurneh, a hunter is represented in his boat
in the marshes as about to hurl his throw-stick at a covey of
birds, while a cat by his side is on the alert to spring upon the
game he is expected to bring down. Another picture (Fig. 3) rep-
resents the cat seizing a bird. This would involve going into the

Fig. 3.— An Egyptian Fowling Scene. 1. Sportsman using the throw-stick. 2. Keeps the boat
steady by holding the stalks of a lotus. 4. A cat seizing the game in the thicket. 5. A decoy
bird. 6. Fishes, the emblem of water.

water, an act to which our modern cats usually have a very
strong dislike. If the Egyptian cats had the same feelings, they
must have come under the discipline of skillful trainers. But
there have been fisher cats in modern times. Mr. Ross, in his
Book of Cats, tells of one that lived in 1829, which caught fish
with great assiduity, and frequently brought them home alive.
She taught another cat to fish, and they used to go out together,

sometimes taking opposite sides of the
river. Another story is quoted by the
same author, of a cat at the battery in
Plymouth, England, that was in the
habit of diving into the sea, bringing
up fish, and leaving them in the guard-
room for the sailors. She was seven
years old, and " as fond of the water as a Newfoundland dog,"
and hunted regularly along the rocks at the water's edge for
her game, " ready to dive for it at a moment's notice/ 7 A cat
described by Mr. Lawson Tait was a remarkable fisher, and would

Domestic.

Wild.

Fig. 4.— Cats' Tails.

CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS.

95

wade into a small pond up to her shoulders to catch her game.
She was " always fond of dabbling in the water." Mr. Harrison
Weir * tells of a cat which used to go into the water up to her
shoulders to bring in the fish which her master drew up with the
hook, and which stole out the minnows that had been placed, for
safe keeping, in a well of cold spring-water.

The domestic cat is not identical with the Egyptian cat, and,
therefore, if descended from it, must have undergone modifica-
tions in the process. It is not known whether it has interbred
with the wild cat ; but it is possible that some of the varieties
have originated in that way. The marks of difference between
the species are very plain. The most obvious one is the shape of
the tail (Fig. 2), which in the domestic cat is long, slender, and
tapering, while in the wild cat it is shorter, stumpy, and bushy.
The fact that no tendency has been observed in either of these

Fig. 5.— Mrs. Scott's English Taebt " Coppa." First Prize at the Crystal Palace Cat

Show, 1886.

forms of tail to revert to the other is in favor of a permanent
specific difference. The minor varieties of cats are numerous, but
the important ones are not many. A line is drawn between the
short-haired and the long-haired varieties. Of the former are the
tabbies (Figs. 5 and 10) — brown, blue, or silver ; red and spotted
tabbies — of various colors, with their delicate stripings, cloudings,
or spots ; the Chartreuse, blue, or Maltese, which has long, slate-
colored fur, and a bushy neck and tail ; the Spanish, or tortoise-
shell (Fig. 11) — white, black, and reddish-brown, mixed, whose

Our Cats and all about Them. Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

9 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

closer resemblance than that of the others to the Egyptian cat has
suggested that the animal may have come to Europe by way of
the Strait of Gibraltar ; and the Manx (Fig. 6), a curious variety,
says Wood, on account of the entire absence of a tail, the place of
which member is only indicated by a rather wide protuberance.
" It is by no means a canny animal, for it has an unpleasant,
weird-like aspect about it. ... A Manx cat, with its glowing
eyes and its stump of a tail, is a most unearthly-looking beast."
The manner in which its peculiarity has been perpetuated has not
been accounted for. The long-haired cats include the Persian

(Fig. 7), a gray -blue and
silky animal, having a tail
of great length and covered
with hair six inches long,
which it carries arched over
its back like a squirrel's ;
and the Angola, a beautiful
animal, and knowing it —

fig. 6,-manx cat. "gorgeous in its superb

clothing of long, silky hair
and bushy tail." It is one of the largest of domestic cats, and
one of the heartiest eaters. Then there are the Chinese cat,
large, with fine, glossy hair and hanging ears ; the royal cat
of Siam (Fig. 8), clear tawny or buff, with black muzzle, face,
ears, and feet, suggesting the figure of a pug dog ; black cats,
which belong among the tabbies; and white cats, concerning
which the belief prevails that if they also have blue eyes they are
deaf. This connection has been accepted by Mr. Darwin as an in-
stance of correlated variability, and is explained by Mr. Lawson
Tait — the white color or albinism being regarded as a result of
arrested development — by the fact of the common origin in the
epiblast of the three structures affected — the fur, the iris, and
the tympanic membrane.

The bent of the cat's mind was pleasantly defined a few years
ago by a writer in the London Spectator, who said there could
be no doubt as to the view Puss took of the philosophy of nature
and life. She is quite satisfied that the world and everything in
it were made and exist for cats. This appears in all that well-
bred and cared-for cats do, and in every accent and tone of their
voice. Puss possesses herself with the air of a proprietor of the
best place and the best food ; expects to be waited upon ; demands
a share of every dish ; and looks upon us as at once her Provi-
dence and her servant.

Cats are not demonstrative like dogs, and do not submit to
training like the horse. The dog has been credited with un-
bounded affections, and the horse with almost human sagacity ;

CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS.

97

but the cat still suffers under the bad character that Buffon —
who can not have been acquainted with any reputable specimens
of the race — gave her. She is said to be selfish, spiteful, cruel,
crafty, treacherous, loving places and not persons, and in every
way unworthy of fellowship in the household. J. G. Wood an-
swers these accusations by saying that the cats with which he
has been most familiar " have been as docile, tractable, and good-
tempered as any dog
could be, and dis-
played an amount
of intellectual pow-
er which would be
equaled by very few
dogs, and surpassed
by none." To all per-
sons who have given
their confidence to
Puss and received
hers in return, they
need no answer.

Numerous traits of
the sort that make
all the world kin ap-
pear in the cats —
human-like qualities
and affections that
bring them into sym-
pathy with their mas-
ters. Such traits will

be made manifest to any one who even partially takes Puss into fel-
lowship ; and whoever puts himself on good terms with her will
find his association marked by wonderful examples of intelligence
and affection, and will be ready to declare that there is no cat
like the particular one with which he is dealing. The declaration
will be true in a measure, for individuality is one of the most
conspicuous traits of the species. A considerable literature has
been written in demonstration and illustration of the more pleas-
ing aspects of feline character, on which I have drawn for inci-
dents from works that will be mentioned in course; and more
freely from articles on animal intelligence in Nature and the Re-
vue Scientifique, and from a Cat Competition, organized several
years ago by the Republican Journal, of Belfast, Maine, in which
many contributors gave the stories of their pets. Evidences are
afforded in these observations of the habitual exercise by cats, in
the ordinary course of their lives, of such qualities as recognition
of their friends and attachment to them, capacity to form friend-

Fig. 7,

-Mrs. Valance's Persian, " Fluffy II."
Cat Show, 1886.

Crystal Palace

9 8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

By per-
Pub-

ships with men and animals, exercise of self-denial, willingness
to do favors or to help, understanding of language, ability to make
their wants intelligibly known, humor, foresight, knowledge of
right and wrong, the use of means to ends, capacity to adapt
means to circumstances, the time-sense, and many other forms of
intelligence. Lindsay, in his Mind in the Lower Animals, shows
also that they, with other brutes, are liable to mental diseases
not unlike those to which the human mind is subject.

Thoophile Gautier, remarking on the difficulty of conquering
the friendship of a cat, says that " she is a philosophical animal,

orderly, quiet,
tenacious in her
habits, a lover of
order and propri-
ety, and one who
does not bestow
her affections
blindly. She will
gladly be your
friend if you are
worthy of it, but
not your slave.
In her tenderness
she regards her
own free will, and will not do for you what she judges to be unrea-
sonable ; but once she has given herself to you, what absolute con-
fidence, what fidelity of affection ! " Wood says that there is per-
haps no animal so full of trust as a cat that is kindly treated, as
there is none which, when subjected to harshness, is so nervously
suspicious. Cats keenly recognize these distinctions in character,
even among members of the same family, and govern themselves
accordingly. Pertinent to this point is the newspaper squib of the
maid who told her master that she knew Tom had returned from
school, though she had not seen him, because the cat was hiding
under the stove.

1 Tad," of Burnham, Maine, used to meet his master, a night
watchman, every morning at the store-door, and accompany him
home. After the master died, " Tad *' continued to go for him
and wait ; then, not finding him, would return home and wander
about the house as if in search of him. " Hannah/' of North
Monroe, Maine, began to take care of the baby as soon as it came ;
increased its attentions when the child could walk ; would go after
him and call him back when he started to wander out of bounds,
and then go to the house and mew for help till some one came to
take the truant in charge. "Thomas," of Sandy Point, Maine,
was accustomed to be fed with crumbs from the table by a single

Fig. 8.— Mrs. Vyvtan's Rotal Cat of Siam. Prize-winner
mission, from Harrison Weir's Onr Cats and all about Tbem.
lished by Houyhton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York.

CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS. 99

member of the family, and to go and call him to dinner if he was
tardy. My cat in like manner nsed to look to her mistress and to
no other person for tidbits from the breakfast-table. " Daisy," of
Belfast, who stayed with her mistress during an illness, missed
her from the room and went out to look for her. Meeting her
unexpectedly, she looked np, says the mistress, " as frightened as
if she had seen a ghost. My voice, however, reassured her, and,
if ever a cat smiled, I am sure she did." Another cat of the
Belfast group, not a favorite and shy toward all other persons,
became attached to a sickly infant and its faithful nurse, never
failing to respond to its cries by going to its cradle and soothing
it by purring and caresses till it became quiet. The cat of M.
Arbousset, a French missionary in Africa, refused food when the
child to which it was attached died, sought and mourned for its
friend in a marked manner, and in a few days was found dead on
its grave. The suggestion has been made, and is worthy of con-

Fig. 9. — Archangel Blue Cat. By permission, from Harrison Weir's Our Cats and all about
Them. Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York.

sideration, that when pets die in this way soon after their human
companions, it may be because they caught the disease from them
rather than from intensity of affection. But this can not apply
to the cat told of in the Leisure Hour, which, when the child its
playmate died, refused food at first, but afterward, having found
its companion's grave, spent most of its time there, going to
the house for its meals. A critic, in the Saturday Review, claims
to have known more than one instance of a cat, ordinarily con-
stant to its own habits of comfort, breaking through its self-made
rules to sit outside the door of an invalid as if waiting for news.
The Rev. J. G. Wood's " Pret " was capable of the most earnest
manifestations of gratitude. One day, when, having been forgot-
ten, she had become very hungry, she flew " like a mad thing " at
the meat and milk her master gave her ; but hardly lapped a
drop before she went to him purring loudly and caressing him to
express her thanks ; then went to the plate, " but only just touched

lOO

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

her nose, and again came to thank me " — actually refraining from
enjoying the food she was so much in want of till she had repeat-
edly acknowledged her obligations for it.

A story is quoted by Mrs. Cashel Hoey from the London
Spectator, of " Nero/' who, loving all the family and showing his
love for each in different ways, especially loved his master, and
was usually the first to hear his step. He could distinguish the
click of his master's door-key, and would run to answer it ; was
distressed if his master failed to return at evening, and would go
look for his portmanteau, to see if that was gone too — that being
his sign that master was taking a journey. If the portmanteau
was in its place, he was satisfied ; if not, he would lie down and
refuse food. If he knew the master was going away, he would

try to hide himself in
the cab ; and if mas-
ter appeared with his
hat on in the day-
time, supposing he
was going out, would
try to take it off ; but
if at night, was con-
tented, for master
had come home.

The cat's strong
attachment to its
home, and indispo-
sition to change it,
are not peculiar to it,
but are common to
all animals, includ-
ing man. The trait
is often manifested,
and sometimes in
remarkable ways, in
dogs, horses, and cat-
tle. In man it is fre-
quently illustrated in
the affection known
as " homesickness."
The ability which
animals display un-
der its influence in finding their way back to their old accustomed
haunts from long distances and by difficult or tortuous ways, or
even by roundabout roads, when return over the direct route (as
when it includes the crossing of bodies of water) is impossible, is
the wonder of naturalists, and up to this time one of the unsolved

Fig. 10.— Finely Marked Spotted Tabby Cat. By permission,
from Harrison Weir's Our Cats and all about Them. Pub-
lished by Hougbton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York.

CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS. 101

problems of animal psychology. It has received the name of " the
homing instinct/' and is regarded by some naturalists as constitut-
ing an additional sense. The dog seems usually to be more ready
than the cat to follow his master in a change of home, and to recon-
cile himself to the new place, but this may be because he stands in
a different relation toward him. The dog is sure of at least one
fast friend wherever he lives, while the cat can not always reckon
even upon that. In many families, where she is tolerated, as,
according to Buffon, only because she is less objectionable than
the rats and mice, she has no one to caress her or show affection
to her. In this case, when her situation is barely endurable, she
naturally fixes her attachment on the place where she has found
cozy retreats and knows all the hunting-grounds, rather than
upon persons who have given her no consideration, and of whom
she perhaps stands in fear. Whether the cat will in the long run
prefer its old home, deserted or inhabited by strangers, to a new
home, along with the persons it has been accustomed to meet, may
depend very much upon the treatment it has received from those
persons. My cat was removed three times in ten years ; and, aside
from the temporary embarrassment caused by finding herself in
a strange place, readily adapted herself to the new quarters, and
showed no disposition to go back to the old haunts. Lindsay, in

Pig. 11.— Finely Marked Tortoise-Shell Cat. By permission, from Harrison Weir's Onr Cats
and all about Them. Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York.

his Mind in the Lower Animals, refers to cases of cats following
their masters from house to house, from place to place, and accom-
panying them on visits to other people's residences, as uncon-
cernedly as a dog. Wood tells of a family on the coast of Scot-
land who removed to the opposite shore — sailing around instead
of crossing the country — leaving their cat with a neighbor. But
the animal followed them, and found them in some way, present-
ing itself after a few weeks at their door, " weary, ragged, and
half starved." It had left its old home and gone out into the
unknown to seek the family with whom it had lived. A case pre-

102

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cisely similar, except as to the local topography, is related in
Chambers's Journal, of a cat in a military chaplain's family at
Madras. This animal also, having found its old friends on the
other side of the city, several miles from their former home,
went back and brought her kitten. Some of the incidents bear-
ing upon this feature have an aspect of eccentricity. The young
cat of a neighbor of the writer's disappeared from the house
and was not found or heard of for six months. At the end of that
time it returned and made itself at home at once, but grown
and so changed that, though its familiarity was remarked upon as
singular, it was not recognized till its identity was accidentally
established by the discovery of a peculiar though obscure mark.
Dr. A. Corriveau tells in the Revue Scientifique of a cat which was
lost in a similar way. Five months afterward it was found in
the house by the side of its companion, travel-soiled but plump,
and recognizable by a red spot on its forehead. It had a very
pleasant visit with its old mate and friends for a week, and then
disappeared as unaccountably as it had done before. It is told in
the Life of Sir David Brewster, by his daughter, that a cat in the
house entered his room one day and made his friendship in the
most affectionate manner — "looked straight at him, jumped on
his knee, put a paw on each shoulder, and kissed him as distinctly
as a cat could." From that time the philosopher himself provided
her breakfast every morning from his own plate, till " one day she
disappeared, to the unbounded sorrow of her master. Nothing was
heard of her for nearly two years, when Pussy walked into the house,
neither hungry nor thirsty nor foot-sore — made her way without
hesitation to the study — jumped on my father's knee — placed a paw
on each shoulder — and kissed him exactly as on the first day."

These incidents pertain to only one of the human-like traits
that have been named as to be found in cats. The study to which
they introduce us is an alluring one, and opens the more expan-
sively the further we proceed in it.

Prof. Mendelejeff, in his Royal Institution lecture, found an analogy between
the unseen world of chemical changes and the visible world of the heavenly bodies.
Our atoms, he said, form distinct portions of an invisible world, as planets, sat-
ellites, and comets form distinct portions of the astronomer's universe; "our
atoms may therefore be compared to the solar system, or to the systems of double
or of single stars ; for example, ammonia may be represented in the simplest man-
ner by supposing the sun nitrogen, surrounded by its planets of hydrogen, and
common salt may be looked upon as a double star formed of sodium and chlorine.
Besides, now that the indestructibility of the elements has been acknowledged,
chemical changes can not otherwise be explained than as changes of motion; and
the production by chemical reactions of galvanic currents, of light, of heat, of
pressure, or of steam-power, demonstrates visibly that the processes of chemical
reaction are inevitably connected with enormous though unseen displacements,
originating in the movements of atoms in molecules."

REGENT GLACIAL WORK IN EUROPE. 103

RECENT GLACIAL WORK IN EUROPE.

Bt Mrs. K. B. CLAYPOLE.

AT the recent meeting of the British Association at Newcastle,
Prof. James Geikie opened the Section of Geology with a
summary of the results obtained during the last few years by
continental glacialists. Sketching the steps by which the iceberg
theory has been abandoned by German and Swiss geologists, he
dwelt on certain features of the drifts of the peripheral areas,
which for some time were hard to account for by land-ice. Of
these, the bedded deposits occurring so frequently in the bowlder-
clays of the peripheral regions, and the occasional silty and un-
compressed character of the clays themselves, remained unex-
plained until a clew was found to their origin in the geographical
distribution of the clays in which they occur. ' These stony clays,
of inconsiderable thickness in Norway, the higher parts of Sweden,
and in Finland, reach a thickness of about forty-three metres
in southern Sweden, and eighty metres in the northern parts
of Prussia ; and in Holstein attain a depth of one hundred and
twenty to one hundred and forty metres, and still greater depths
in Hanover, Mark Brandenburg, and Saxony. The aqueous de-
posits associated with the stony clays also gradually acquire more
importance as they are followed from the mountainous and high-
lying tracts to the low ground, until, along the southern margin
of the drift area, the " diluvium " appears to consist of aqueous
accumulations alone. The explanations of these facts by German
geologists have been summed up recently (1884) by Dr. Jentzsch,
from whom Prof. Geikie quoted enough to show that they are
quite in accordance with the views long held by glacialists else-
where.

The general conclusions reached by continental glacialists, and
summarized by Prof. Geikie, are :

1. Before the invasion of northern Germany by the inland
ice, the low grounds bordering on the Baltic were overflowed by
a sea which contained a boreal and arctic fauna.

2. The next geological horizon in ascending order is that which
is marked by the glacial and fluvio-glacial detritus of the great
ice-sheet which flowed to the foot of the Harz Mountains, and has
been traced by the occasional presence of rock-strise and roches-
moutonnees, of bowlder-clay and northern erratics, rather than
by recognizable terminal moraines.

3. A well-marked temperate fauna and flora marks the inter-
glacial beds which follow, and which, in their geographical dis-
tribution and the presence in them of such forms as Elephas
antiquus, Cervus elephas, and C. megaceros, and a flora compar-

io 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

able to that now existing in northern Germany, justify geologists
in concluding that this era was one of long duration, and charac-
terized in Germany by climatic conditions apparently not less
temperate than those that now obtain.

4. To this well-marked interglacial era succeeded a second
overflow of Scandinavian inland ice, confined to a region much
narrower than that covered by the first. Its boundaries are shown
not only by the geographical distribution of the youngest bowlder-
clay, but by the direction of rock-striae, the trend of erratics, and
the position of well-marked moraines.

Concerning the ground-moraines of the Alpine lands of cen-
tral Europe, the only question that has recently given rise to
much discussion is the origin of the materials themselves. The
observations of able investigators appear to Prof. Geikie to
have demonstrated that these materials have been derived, in
chief measure, from the underlying rocks by the erosive action
of the ice that overflowed them. German geologists are not
agreed upon this much-debated question of glacier-erosion — a few
still maintaining that glaciers have little or no eroding power.
But where the evidences of erosion have been studied over a
wide region, from which the ice has completely disappeared,
rather than at the lower ends of existing glaciers, some of the
strongest opponents of glacier-erosion have been compelled to go
over to the other camp. As an example, Prof. Geikie quoted
Dr. Blaas, who, through his observations on the glacial forma-
tions of the Inn Valley, has recanted his former views and be-
come a formidable opponent of the very theory which he once
upheld. To his books and to memoirs by Penck, Bruckner, and
Bohn, and especially to the chapter on glacier-erosion by the last-
named author, Prof. Geikie refers those who may be anxious to
know the last word on this question.

Observations by Drs. Bruckner and Penck have led to the
opinion that the loess is of interglacial age. Examining a wider
range of evidence, Prof. Geikie has little doubt that the loess be-
longs to no particular horizon, though it must be considered
strictly a Pleistocene accumulation. Concerning its mode of
formation he discussed the various theories advanced, and gave it
as his opinion — an opinion formed from what he has himself seen
of the loess in various parts of Germany, from reading, and from
conversation with those who have worked over loess-covered re-
gions — that it is for the most part of aqueous origin, formed in
the slack waters of the great rivers, and in the innumerable tem-
porary lakes which occupied or partly occupied many of the val-
leys and depressions of the land. Probably some may have been
derived from the denudation of bowlder-clay, some from " rain-
wash/' while much of the so-called Bergloess with its abundant

RECENT GLACIAL WORK IN EUROPE. 105

land-shells, and its generally unstratified character, owes its ori-
gin to rain, frost, and wind. Admitting that some of the loess of
the lower grounds may have been reworked by the same agents,
Prof. Geikie fonnd no evidence in the facts adduced by German
geologists of a " dry-as-dust " epoch having obtained in Europe
during any stage of the Pleistocene period.

Within recent years the fossils of the loess have received close
attention, and through them so much knowledge has been gained
of the various modifications experienced by Pleistocene organ-
isms that, taken with other evidence of interglacial conditions,
there is little room to doubt that this period was characterized
by great changes of climate. How often arctic, steppe, prairie,
and forest faunas and floras have replaced each other is yet a
matter of dispute. The occurrence of fossiliferous deposits inter-
calated among glacial accumulations throughout all the glaciated
tracts of Europe show that however many advances and retreats
of the ice there may have been, they were on a gigantic scale
characterizing all the glaciated areas.

The bearing of the establishment of at least two eras of glaci-
ation on the position of Palaeolithic man was pointed out by
Prof. Geikie. The mere occurrence of glacial deposits under-
neath implement-bearing beds no longer proves these latter to be
post-glacial. The horizon of glacial accumulations underlying
Palaeolithic gravels must now be determined by ascertaining
their relative position ; and it is a remarkable fact that the bowl-
der-clays which occur beneath such old alluvia belong, without
exception, to the earlier stages of the Glacial period. In 1871- , 72
Prof. Geikie published a series of papers in the Geological Maga-
zine, maintaining that the alluvial and cave deposits must be
assigned to preglacial and. interglacial times, and in chief to the
latter. Evidence was adduced to show that during the last stage
of the Glacial period man lived contemporaneously with a north-
ern and Alpine fauna, in such regions as southern France ; and
that Palaeolithic man and the southern mammalia never revisited
northwestern Europe after extreme glacial conditions had disap-
peared. Prof. Geikie at the same time colored a map to show at
once the areas covered by the glacial and fluvio-glacial deposits
of the last Glacial era, and the districts in which the implement-
bearing and ossiferous alluvia had been found ; and this clearly
brought out that the latter never occurred at the surface within
the regions occupied by the former. Similar evidence has been
recently obtained by continental geologists ; and a map published
by Dr. Penck in 1884, showing the areas covered by the earlier
and later glacial deposits in northern Europe and the Alpine
lands, and indicating at the same time the various localities
where Palaeolithic finds have occurred, does not give a single

VOL. XXXVII. 8

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

locality within the regions covered by the accumulations of the
last Glacial era. So greatly are students of the Pleistocene ossif-
erous beds influenced by what is known of the interglacial depos-
its and their organic remains, that many do not now hesitate to
correlate with those beds the old ossiferous and implement-bear-
ing alluvia which lie altogether outside of glaciated regions. In
France, where the relation of Pleistocene alluvia has been espe-
cially canvassed, these alluvia have been also included among
interglacial deposits. M. Boule also, in the Revue d'Anthropolo-
gie, 1889, correlates the Palaeolithic cave and river deposits of
France with those of other countries, and shows that they must
be of interglacial age. He is satisfied that in France there is
evidence of three glacial and two well-marked interglacial eras.
The oldest of the Palaeolithic stages of Mortillet culminated
during the last interglacial era, while the more recent Palaeolithic
stages coincided with the last great development of glacier ice.
The Palaeolithic age, so far as Europe is concerned, came to a
close during this last cold phase of the Glacial period.

Interesting as is the development of the climatic and geo-
graphical changes of which our Palaeolithic predecessors were the
witnesses, the clearing up of the history of Pleistocene times is
not the only end that workers in this field have in view. Prof.
Geikie, therefore, closed his address with a hope that the definite
knowledge of the conditions of the Pleistocene period and of the
causes which gave rise to them would lead to the better under-
standing of the climatic conditions of still earlier ages ; the suc-
cess with which other problems have been attacked by geologists
forbidding him to doubt that ere long we shall have done much
to dispel some of the mystery still enveloping the question of geo-
logical climates.

■♦•»

THE BOTANIC GARDENS AT KEW.

By FKEDEK1K A. FERNALD.

"T is now about two hundred years — the exact date is not
-L known — since Lord Capel laid out the garden that has become
a scientific institution of world-wide fame and influence. Switzer
says, in his quaint Ichnographia Rustica, 1718, " The earliness
with which this lord appeared in gardening merits a very great
place in my history, and a better pen than mine to draw it." On
the death of Lord Capel, in 1696, the estate of Kew House, includ-
ing the garden, passed into the hands of his son-in-law, who added
to its importance for a while by making it the headquarters of
English astronomy. It was afterward leased by Frederick, Prince
of Wales, son of George II. The garden was made a scientific es-

THE BOTANIC GARDENS AT KEW. 107

tablishment— what they called a " Physic Garden" in those days—
by the widow of Frederick, the dowager Princess Augusta, under
the advice of the Earl of Bute. She employed William Aiton to
direct the scientific work, and Sir William Chambers to superin-
tend the decorative gardening. " Science will ever be grateful to
the one," says a writer in The Saturday Review,* "and Taste
will never forgive the other while his constructions remain." In
1768 Sir John Hill published a catalogue of the plants at Kew.
There were fifty ferns, about six hundred trees and shrubs, and
several thousands of herbaceous plants. The list was not greatly
lengthened twenty-one years after, when Aiton issued the Hortus
Kewensis with the aid of Dr. Solander. But the collections
made by Sir Joseph Banks in Captain Cook's famous voyage were
deposited here ; then those of Robert Brown and Allan Cunning-
ham, who had accompanied Captains Flinders and King respect-
ively to Australia; then the plants of Brazil and the Cape of
Good Hope, gathered by Messrs. Bowie and Masson; those of
Caley, and Ker, and Menzies, and a host of smaller collections.
In 1810 William Aiton the younger published a new edition of
his father's work, which contained nearly ten thousand descrip-
tions. About 1789 the estate was bought by George III, who
devoted much of his leisure to its improvement. But evil days
followed the death of Sir Joseph Banks, in whom Kew had a friend
at court. For all Aiton could do, the gardens sank into neglect,
and in 1838 it was proposed to disestablish and disendow them.
A protest was raised, and, after further consideration, the gardens
were surrendered by the crown and became a national establish-
ment in 1810. Sir W. J. Hooker was appointed director in the
following year. Kew has been fortunate in having had few
changes in directors. It was in charge of William Aiton from
1759 to 1793 ; of William Aiton, Jr., from 1793 to 1840 ; Sir W. J.
Hooker was director from 1841 to 1866 ; his son, Sir Joseph D.
Hooker, from 1866 to 1886 ; and to him has succeeded Mr. W. T.
Thiselton Dyer.

Under the directorship of Sir W. J. Hooker the Royal Botanic
Gardens rapidly advanced in importance. During his term of
ofiice a report of the Progress and Condition of the gardens was
made annually. This was superseded in 1883 by a monthly Bul-
letin of Miscellaneous Information. The early reports of Sir
William Hooker are interesting, besides their historic and scien-
tific value, for the evidence they give of his sturdy, ceaseless bat-
tles with the Treasury. The director is pathetic, indignant, and
argumentative by turns, and one way or another he contrived to

* The writer is indebted to an appreciative article in The Saturday Review (Lon-
don), of October 5, 12, and 19, 1889, for the material of this sketch.

io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

worry on till better times. In 1844 Sir William took the first
important step of his administration by petitioning for a grant of
the Royal Fruit House, which he offered to fill with his private
collection of plant products. It was allowed in 1847, and thus the
Museum of Economic Botany had its origin. This branch of the
establishment now occupies three buildings. Every tree and
plant which is known to serve a useful purpose is represented
there, with illustrations of the manner of its employment, if pos-
sible. While the collection is very popular with the holiday vis-
itor who comes only to be entertained, any one can understand its
serious value to an ingenious and thoughtful mechanic or manu-
facturer. The Museum of Timber is largely used already. Cabi-
net-makers and furniture manufacturers quite recognize by this
time what a store of hints for their craft is garnered here. The
utility of the economic section, moreover, is by no means confined
to the inhabitants of the British Isles. From every quarter of the
globe samples of new products are sent for examination and report.
So long ago as 1815 an Herbarium and Botanical Library had
been projected at Kew. George III, doubtless persuaded by Sir
Joseph Banks, even raised a building for the purpose. After
Sir Joseph's death, however, the scheme lapsed, and the building
was granted to the King of Hanover. On his decease, Sir William
Hooker urged the fulfillment of the old design, and his petition was
granted when Mr. Bentham and Dr. Bromfield bequeathed their
collections to the nation. The Herbarium of Kew is the largest
in the world, and by far the most useful, because it is also most
admirably arranged. The number of specimens in it is not on
record. At Sir William Hooker's death, twenty-four years ago
a rough estimate made the number a million, exclusive of dupli-
cates. The written catalogue fills two gigantic volumes, and has
to be continually posted up, for the collection increases by twenty
thousand or so yearly. The dried plants in their portfolios stand
in cases, and all are arranged upon the system of Sir Joseph
Hooker's great work, the Genera Plantarum. The student has
only to give the number attached to any genus in that book, and
the case is unlocked and the portfolio laid before him in a mo-
ment. There are no formalities to check the young scholar here.
He has but to present his credentials to Prof. Oliver, keeper of
the herbarium, sign his name, and get to work. There are inter-
esting features at every step of this noble collection, fascinating
bits of history connected with every group of cases which bears
the name of some distinguished botanist, the fruits of whose life-
long labor are stored here. Of all these, perhaps the herbarium
of Dr. Lindley is the most attractive. It occupies only four small
cabinets, but the contents will surpass the visitor's utmost expec-
tations. On the lower floor is preparing the catalogue of all plants

THE BOTANIC GARDENS AT KEW, 109

known, for which Mr. Darwin left a bequest. Mr. Daydon Jack-
son, Secretary to the Linnsean Society, has had the work in hand
over three years, and it is not nearly finished. He employs a staff
at the British Museum also, The catalogue of the library is not
printed, but is contained in a ponderous manuscript volume in the
keeper's room. The books include, besides all modern volumes
and pamphlets on botany, a great number of those antique curios-
ities which bibliomaniacs treasure.

The work at Kew covers a vast field. In the first place officially
stand the botanic interests — to study new plants and class them.
Next, where plants are wanted for cultivation, which can not be
obtained readily in the market, or which the service of the public
demands, the Royal Gardens will supply them if possible. Where
diseases, vegetable or animal or insect pests, threaten local plan-
tations, Kew will look into the matter and consult with experts
at home. Kew is ready also to report and to obtain advice upon
new-industries which those upon the spot suggest. Furthermore,
it keeps an eye on all institutions of the same class through-
out the British Empire, which act in concert with their great
model in the mother-country, and through it with one another.
Foreign institutions co-operate in like manner with Kew to a cer-
tain extent. From time to time the authorities of Kew publish a
list of new plants, which at present seem to average five hundred
to six hundred a quarter, including those renamed for scientific
purposes. From time to time, also, they publish a list of the seeds
matured in the Royal Gardens, which are exchanged, on appli-
cation, with all regular correspondents. One of these seed-lists
includes something like four thousand species. This magazine of
seeds is collected, nominally, for the benefit of institutions which
may be able some time to return the favor in part, but in practice
no one who applies with a serious purpose for seeds or plants is
refused. How the rapidly increasing population of the globe is to
be provided with food and clothing is a problem which the au-
thorities of Kew believe falls within their department. They wel-
come every vegetable product which is reported to have qualities
that make it useful to mankind, whether as a food, a medicine,
a convenience, or a substance useful in manufactures. They are
glad to report upon specimens of such substances, or to obtain
the reports of trustworthy experts.

The story of the cinchona plantations is a good instance of the
work of the Royal Gardens. Some forty years ago both the Eng-
lish and the Dutch authorities in the East Indies took alarm at
the growing price of quinine, due to the rapid decrease of the for-
ests of cinchona in Peru. The Dutch moved first, and imported
a great number of seeds and seedlings, which they planted in Java
at a heavy cost. But, probably because they had no Kew to advise

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

them, the Dutch had chosen a species which was hardly worth
growing, and the plantations have been long since nprooted. For
some years the English Government confined itself to importing
seeds and plants, which died on the passage to India. This was
evidently futile, and Sir William Hooker urged a systematic pro-
cedure. Mr. Clements Markham, in 1859, was sent to Peru to col-
lect seeds and young trees. When he returned, his precious stores
were received at the Gardens, nursed, and transmitted to India
with trifling loss. This effort was successful. In the plantations
of Bengal, laid out and managed by officers recommended by Sir
William Hooker, there were, at the date of the latest report, about
five million trees. From Kew cinchona-trees have been distrib-
uted also to all parts of the world where there was a chance for
successful cultivation. The plantations of Ceylon are only infe-
rior to those of Bengal ; in Jamaica the sales of bark exceed
£5,000 a year ; the tree has been introduced also into St. Helena,
Trinidad, Mauritius, Cape of Good Hope, Queensland, and many
other settlements. The output of the cinchona drugs from these
sources up to 1880 was 87,704 pounds, which, taking quinine at an
average value of two dollars an ounce, would represent $2,806,528.
Ipecacuanha is a plant scarcely less important than cinchona
itself. But few members of the vegetable kingdom so absolutely
refuse to exist under anything short of perfectly satisfactory con-
ditions. In 1866 Sir Joseph Hooker sent a specimen to the Bo-
tanical Gardens at Calcutta, which promptly died. Then a strug-
gle began in which the advantage was now on one side, then
on the other. In 1875 the Director of the Calcutta Gardens tri-
umphantly reported that he had one hundred thousand nice young
plants, but in 1886 the strain received from Kew direct alone sur-
vived — less than five per cent — and all hope of successful cultiva-
tion in India has been abandoned long since. Plants had been
sent out to Singapore, however, in 1875, # with much more lively
confidence, and there perseverance found its reward. Ipecacuanha
is established in the Old World at last, and the authorities of Kew
may be trusted to diffuse the cultivation. Another instance is
Liberian coffee, distributed from Kew to take the place of that
grown in the East Indies, which was affected by a fungoid pest,
and that of the West Indies, which suffered from the white fly.
Liberian coffee, moreover, will thrive in hot and moist situations,
where the Arabian variety is unable even to live. It has been
introduced in a great many places, but, although its growth is
very promising, it has nowhere become the general crop. This
imperfect success was another problem for the investigators of
Kew, and the solution is now believed to be found in the fact that
the treatment proper for the Arabian berry after gathering is not
suited to the Liberian, with a widely different pulp.

THE BOTANIC GARDENS AT KEW. m

Among the many questions sent to Kew from all parts of the
world, there must "be some of trivial importance, or which could
be perfectly well answered at the local* botanic gardens. But all
genuine inquiries receive attention. Debate has been gravely
held, opinions even have been formed and reported upon such
matters as a South African cane which some gentleman in those
distant parts thought adapted for fishing-rods ; upon the value of
West African palm-kernels as material for coat-buttons ; upon a
pithy stem which the government of a West India island believed
suitable for razor-strops.

One function of a national institution very seriously regarded
at Kew is the training of young men to fill botanic situations in
the colonies. Something is demanded of such young men beyond
the practical knowledge which suffices at home. Instruction is
given them in the principles of scientific botany, and those general
conditions which rule the practice of horticulture under differing
circumstances. The advantage of this system all around scarcely
needs illustration. While serving the interest of the colonies, it
increases the sources of information for Kew, since all these emi-
grants keep up more or less of a correspondence with the institu-
tion in which they were trained.

The village of Kew lies on the south side of the Thames, about
six miles westward from Hyde Park Corner in London. " The
Gardens " are a favorite resort for holiday-makers and tourists,
being visited by six or seven hundred thousand persons yearly.
Painters also flock there in summer-time. When the crown sur-
rendered its rights to them in 1840, the Gardens had an area
of eleven acres, and contained ten greenhouses of one sort or
another. Sir William Hooker promptly begged permission to
annex the Orangery and the land adjacent ; then a part of the
Pleasure Grounds ; and after that the Royal Kitchen and For-
cing Grounds. All these petitions being granted, by 1847 the
Gardens had reached their present dimensions — about seventy
acres. Three years later the rest of the Pleasure Grounds was
granted for the establishment of an Arboretum, making the total
area little less than two hundred and fifty acres. " The Arbore-
tum is the richest in Europe, no doubt," says the writer in The
Saturday Review, "but probably inferior to that of Harvard
University, where special attention has been paid to this depart-
ment." This admission in a British journal, and The Saturday
Review above all others, should be very gratifying to Ameri-
cans. The failure of Kew's Arboretum to be the finest in the
world is explained on the ground that the soil — sandy and shal-
low, resting on a stratum of gravel — is unsuited to many kinds of
trees. In former times, also, when an imperial collection had to
be got together as quickly as possible, and as cheaply, specimens

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

were not planted with the care which might have overcome the
disadvantage. It became necessary to reconstruct the Arboretum
twenty years ago on this account. A singular example of the in-
fluence of fashion in gardening then came to light. The British
public had been running after evergreens so hotly that nursery-
men had ceased to grow deciduous species. It seems incredible
that the authorities of Kew should have asked in vain for months
throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, for young aspens.
As for American oaks, maples, etc., they absolutely could not
be found in the kingdom. Unscientific lovers of the beautiful
may rejoice that it has not yet been found necessary to interfere
with the old forest trees, planted, perhaps, by Lord Capel. The
new-comers are arranged by genus — all the willows, for example,
with the alders, around the pretty lake, pines here, cedars there,
oaks, nuts, maples, tamarisks, camellias, ranunculus, etc., etc.

In the Garden proper the smaller plants are found in bewilder-
ing array. No list of the species represented at Kew has been
taken since that of the younger Aiton in 1810, but one is now
being made. Some departments have been catalogued already.
Of orchids, there are about 1,400 species ; ferns, 1,100 ; stove plants,
2,500 ; succulents, 1,000 ; palms and cycads, 500 ; greenhouse plants,
3,000 ; herbaceous, 4,000 ; trees and shrubs, 3,000 ; in several cases,
however, the figure is but a guess as yet. The total, great as it
will prove to be, bears but a small proportion to the sum of Na-
ture's wealth. If we take the flowering plants alone, as enumer-
ated in Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum, there are two
hundred natural orders, 10,000 genera, and 100,000 species; and
this leaves out of account the ferns and all the lower orders of
Cryptogamia. The Economic Section has few visitors, and they
are not tempted to carry exploration far. Not a few of the culi-
nary and medicinal herbs in use are found here. If by some
fatal chance the onion of commerce should be exterminated in the
back-gardens of England, Kew is prepared to replace it. Side by
side therewith grow the patience-dock and the skunk-cabbage,
the briony, the cuckoo-pint, the Japanese yam, and the all-good.
In ferns the Kew collection is exceedingly rich. It has had three
special benefactors in this department, to the first of whom, Mr.
George C. Joad, the public is indebted for the charming rock-gar-
den opened in 1881. Sir Joseph Hooker had long been working
for one, and the bequest of Mr. Joad's collection of ferns brought
the matter to a crisis. Dr. Cooper Forster was an enthusiast upon
the culture of filmy ferns, and Mr. W. C. Carbonell was specially
interested in the cultivation of hardy ferns, particularly in the
crossing of them, and the development of sports. Both these gen-
tlemen bequeathed their treasures for the nation's enjoyment when
their own power of enjoying them ended.

SKETCH OF HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 113

The glass houses at Kew are extensive structures. The Win-
ter Garden covers more than an acre and a half of ground. The
Palm House is three hundred and sixty-two feet long and one hun-
dred feet wide. The new Orchid House is one hundred and forty
feet in length, adding the two wings together. This last is not
wholly satisfactory — to the orchid enthusiast an orchid house
never is, nor can be. Supplemented, however, by a low, neat
range, from which the public is excluded, nearly all the 1,400 spe-
cies which form the national collection thrive admirably. British
orchidists are proud of Kew — nowadays — for it was not so satis-
factory in this department a few years since.

+•»

SKETCH OF HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.

MR. SCHOOLCRAFT was a conspicuous figure in the scien-
tific life of the early part of the century. A pioneer in
some fields, the immediate follower of the pioneers in others,
he was, in all the branches of research to which, he gave atten-
tion, earnest, ready, diligent, sagacious, original, and modest. As
among his titles to be remembered, the biographer who prefaces
his Personal Memoirs names the early period at which he entered
the field of observation in the United States as a naturalist ; the
enterprise he manifested in exploring the geography and geology
of the Great West ; and his subsequent researches as an ethnolo-
gist in investigating the Indian languages and history. " To him
we are indebted for our first accounts of the geological constitu-
tion and the mineral wealth and resources of the great valley
beyond the Alleghanies, and he is the discoverer of the actual
source of the Mississippi River in Itasca Lake. For many years,
beginning with 1817, he stirred up a zeal for natural history from
one end of the land to the other, and, after his settlement in the
West, he was a point of approach for correspondents " — on these
topics and for all the Indian tribes.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was born in Albany County, K Y.,
March 28, 1793, and died in Washington, D. C, December 10, 1864.
He was the descendant, in the third generation, of an English-
man, James Calcraft, who, having served with credit in the armies
of the Duke of Marlborough, came to America in the reign of
George II, in the military service, and was present at operations
connected with the building of Forts Anne, Edward, and William
Henry. After these campaigns he settled in Albany County as a
land-surveyor, married, and in his old age conducted a large
school — the first English school that was taught in that frontier
region. In connection with this incident his name became

TOL. XXXYII. — 9

ii 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

changed to Schoolcraft. He died at the age of one hundred and
two years. John, his third son, was a soldier under Sir William
Johnson. Lawrence, John's son, distinguished himself during the
siege of Fort Stanwix. He was afterward director of the glass-
works of the Hon. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, at Hamilton, near
Albany ; and established the manufacture of glass in western
New York.

Henry Schoolcraft spent his childhood and youth in Hamilton,
cultivated poetry, and maintained an excellent standing in schol-
arship. At an early age he manifested a taste for mineralogy
and natural science, which were then (about 1808) almost un-
known in the country ; formed the beginnings of collections ;
and organized an association for mental improvement. He inves-
tigated the drift stratum of Albany County as seen in the bed of
Norman's Kill ; and afterward, while living at Lake Dunmore,
Vt., put himself under the teaching of Prof. Hall, of Middlebury
College; added chemistry, natural philosophy, and medicine to
his studies ; erected a chemical furnace, and went into experi-
menting ; and picked up a knowledge of Hebrew, German, and
French. He began writing for books and periodicals in 1808 —
contributing, among other things, papers on the Burning Springs
of western New York, and on archaeological discoveries that had
been made in Hamburg, Erie County. In the last paper, which
was published at Utica in 1817, he pointed out the necessity of
discriminating between the antique French and European, and
the aboriginal period, in American antiquity. He was engaged
for a time in directing the building of works connected with his
father's glass-making enterprises in Vermont, New Hampshire,
and western New York. The ideas and knowledge gained in
these operations supplied the material for his proposed work on
Vitreology, or the application of chemistry to glass-making, the
publication of which was begun in 1817. The supervision of
these works required the making of considerable journeys, and
these created in him the desire to travel through the wilds of the
" Far West," which then hardly extended beyond the Missouri
River.

He made some " preliminary explorations " to his contemplated
journey in western New York in 1816 and 1817, and started from
Olean on the Alleghany River for a journey down the Ohio and
up the Mississippi in 1818. A large company of intending emi-
grants had gathered there waiting for the season to open, and
Schoolcraft took passage in the first ark. Arrived at Pittsburg,
he stopped to explore the geology of the Monongahela Valley, and
was greatly interested in the rich coal and iron beds. He stopped
to visit the Grave Creek mound and the ancient works at Mari-
etta. At Louisville he found " organic remains " of several spe-

SKETCH OF HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 115

cies in the limestone rocks of the falls, and published anony-
mously in the paper some notices of its mineralogy. At the
month of the Cumberland River he exchanged the ark for a keel-
boat or barge, with which, propelled by poles pushing on the bot-
tom, he made from three to ten miles a day against the swift cur-
rent of the Mississippi to Herculaneum, Mo. On this voyage he
traveled over a large part of the west bank on foot, and gleaned
several facts in its mineralogy and geology which made it an
initial point in his future observations. He spent three months
in examining the lead mines, personally visiting every mine or
digging of consequence in the Missouri country and tracing its
geological relations into Arkansas. Hearing of syenite suitable
for millstones on the St. Francis, he visited that stream and dis-
covered the primitive tract ; and he pushed his examinations west
beyond the line of settlement into the Ozark Mountains. He now
determined to call the attention of the Government to the impor-
tance of its taking care of its domain in the mines, and with this
purpose packed his collections and took passage in the new
steamer St. Louis for New Orleans. Hence, having inquired into
the formation of the delta of the Mississippi, he sailed by brig for
New York. He opened his collections and invited examination
of them, published a book on the mines and physical geography
of the West and a letter on its resources, and went to Washing-
ton to present his views on the care of the mines to the officers of
the Government. While he was looking for a secretary within
whose purview the matter fell, Mr. Calhoun invited him to ac-
company General Cass, Governor of Michigan, as naturalist and
mineralogist on an expedition to explore the sources of the Mis-
sissippi and to inquire into the supposed value of the Lake Supe-
rior copper mines. He accepted the position, though the compen-
sation was small, because, he says, " it seemed to be the bottom
step of a ladder which I ought to climb."

Mr. Schoolcraft left New York in March, 1820, reached Niag-
ara Falls on the 1st of May, and Detroit by steamer a week later.
While waiting for the completion of arrangements for embar-
kation, he attended to the correspondence which had been pro-
voked by the publication of his work on the mines and the re-
sultant awakening of interest in the varied resources of the
Mississippi Valley and the subject of geographical and geological
explorations. He determined to reply to all letters that appeared
to be honest inquiries for geographical facts, " which I only, and
not books, could communicate." The route of the expedition " lay
up the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers and around the southern
shores of Lakes Huron and Superior to Fond du Lac, thence up
the St. Louis River in its rugged passage through the Cabotian
Mountains to the Savannah summit which divides the Great Lakes

n6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from the Mississippi Valley. The latter was entered through the
Cantaguma or Sandy Lake River. From this point the source of
the Mississippi was sought up rapids and falls and through lakes
and savannahs, in which the channel winds. We passed the inlet
of Leech Lake, which was fixed upon by Lieutenant Pike as its
probable source, and traced it through Little Lake Winnipeg to
the inlet of Turtle Lake in upper Red Cedar or Cass Lake in lati-
tude 47°. On reaching this point the waters were found unfavor-
able to proceeding higher. The river was then descended to the
falls of St. Anthony, St. Peter's, and Prairie du Chien. From the
latter point we ascended the Wisconsin to the portage into Fox
River, and descended the latter to Green Bay." At this point the
expedition was divided. The party to which Mr. Schoolcraft was
attached proceeded to Chicago, thence traced the eastern coast of
Michigan, and rejoined the other party, which had gone north
to trace the shores to Michilimackinack. About four thou-
sand miles were traversed. Reports were made to the Govern-
ment by Mr. Schoolcraft on the mineralogy and geology of the
region ; on the copper deposits of Lake Superior ; on the botany,
fresh-water conchology, zoology, and ichthyology; soil, produc-
tions, and climate received attention ; and the Indian tribes were
subjects of observation by General Cass. " In short, no explora-
tion had before been made which so completely revealed the feat-
ures and physical geography of so large a portion of the public
domain." A new interest in mineralogy and geology was awak-
ened by this expedition, and Mr. Schoolcraft's narrative of it was
hurried into press under the pressure of the public clamor for its
results. The book was published in May, 1821.

Mr. Schoolcraft shortly afterward embarked, with General Cass,
on another expedition. The route lay. from the present site of
Toledo, up the Miami of the lakes, down the Wabash and Ohio to
Shawneetown, overland across the " knobs " and prairies, taking
a famous locality of fluor-spar on the way, to St. Louis ; thence
up the Illinois to the rapids and on horseback to Chicago, stopping
to find the fossil tree in the bed of the Des Plaines. In Chicago,
a treaty was made with the Pottawattamies for the surrender of
about five million acres of land, to which Mr. Schoolcraft should
have given his signature among the others, but he was too ill —
{ did not, indeed, ever expect to make another entry in a human
journal." The incidents and observations of the journey have
been published as Travels in the Central Portions of the Missis-
sippi Valley. In the next year (1822) Mr. Schoolcraft was ap-
pointed Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie, of which he says, giving
his reasons for accepting it : "I had now attained a fixed posi-
tion ; not such as I desired in the outset and had striven for, but
one that offered an interesting class of duties, in the performance

SKETCH OF HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 117

of which, there was a wide field for honorable exertion, and, if it
was embraced, also of historical inquiry and research. The taste
for natural history might certainly be transferred to that point,
where the opportunity for discovery was the greatest." The posi-
tion afforded him excellent opportunities for studying the Chip-
pewa language and Indian mythology and superstition, character-
istics, and customs, of which he made the best use. He deter-
mined to be a laborer in the new field of Indian studies. His
diary during the whole term of his office shows him leading a
busy and varied life. We find in it notes on his subjects of
study, of his readings on various general topics, observations
on the natural features of the region, remarks on mineralogical
specimens, and incidents of official work.

Mr. Schoolcraft spent the winter of 1824- J 25, on leave of ab-
sence, in New York, where he superintended the printing of his
Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley. " So-
ciety " was much interested in Mrs. Schoolcraft, the Northern
Pocahontas," a lady of aristocratic Irish descent on one side, and
tracing her ancestors on the other side to the royal house of the
Chippewas, who was withal, having been educated abroad, highly
accomplished and refined in her manners. She was the daughter
of Mr. John Johnston, of Sault Ste. Marie, who had married the
daughter of Wabojeeg, a distinguished Chippewa chieftain. In
1825 he attended a convocation of the Indian tribes at Prairie du
Chien, where a treaty was signed, through which it was hoped
internal disputes between the tribes might be settled by fixing the
boundaries to their respective territories. In the next year he at-
tended a similar gathering of the Chippewa tribes at Fond du Lac,
where the principles of the treaty of Prairie du Chien were reaf-
firmed, and a new treaty was made, under which the Indians ac-
knowledged the sovereign authority of the United States ; ceded the
right to explore and take away the native copper and copper ores,
and to work the mines and minerals in the country ; and provision
was made for the education of the Indians and their advancement
in the arts. The system of Indian boundaries established by these
treaties was completed by the treaty of Butte des Morts, August,
1827. The three treaties embodied a new course and policy for
keeping the tribes in peace, and were founded " on the most en-
larged consideration of the aboriginal right of fee simple to the
soil." In 1827 he was elected a member of the Legislative Council
of the newly organized Territory of Michigan — an office which was
not solicited, and was not declined. As a member of this body
during four sessions, he directed his attention to the incorporation
of a historical society ; to the preparation of a system of township
names derived from the aboriginal languages ; and to some efforts
for bettering the condition of the natives.

n8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A proposition was made to Mr. Schoolcraft in 1828 to go as
one of the scientific corps of an exploring expedition which the
Government contemplated sending to the south seas, under the
direction of the Secretary of the Navy. In his reflections on the
prospects of this expedition and the acquisitions to knowledge
that might be expected to accrue from it, he regarded the experi-
ments of Dr. Maskelyn, denoting a greater specific gravity in the
central portion of the globe than in its crust, as opposed to a
theory that was then advocated of an interior void. Yet he
thought " we are advertised, by the phenomena of earthquakes,
that this interior abounds with oxygen, hydrogen gas, caloric,
and sulphur, and that extraordinary geological changes are af-
fected by their action. It does seem improbable that the pro-
posed expedition will trace any open connection with such an
interior world ; but it may accumulate facts of the highest impor-
tance." There was something, however, about the getting up
and organization of the expedition which he did not like, and an
apprehension whether Congress would not cripple it by voting
meager supplies and outfits. He declined to go.

A note from Mr. G. W. Featherstonaugh, giving a disparaging
view of American scientific achievement, and inclosing the pro-
spectus of a journal designed to correct these things, gave Mr.
Schoolcraft opportunity for bearing strong tribute to the genu-
ineness of real American scientific research. The critic's remarks
might be true as to a certain class, who had not made science a
study; but, if applied to the power and determination of the
American mind devoted to natural history, it was " not only un-
just in a high degree, but an evidence of an overweening self-
complaisance, imprecision of thought, or arrogance. No trait of
the American scientific character has been more uniformly and
highly approbated by the foreign journals of England, France,
and Germany than its capacity to accumulate, discriminate, and
describe facts. For fourteen years past, Silliman's Journal of
Science, though not exclusively devoted to natural sciences, has
kept both the scientific and the popular intelligent mind of the
public well and accurately advised of the state of natural science
the world over. Before it, Bruce's Mineralogical Journal, though
continued but for a few years, was eminently scientific; and
Cleaveland's Mineralogy has had the effect to diffuse scientific
knowledge not only among men of science, but other classes of
readers. In ornithology, in conchology, and especially in botany,
geology, and mineralogy, American mind has proved itself emi-
nently fitted for the highest tasks."

The Michigan Historical Society was founded, chiefly through
Mr. Schoolcraft's instrumentality, in 1828, and the Algic Society
on February 28, 1832. The latter organization had in view the

SKETCH OF HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 119

reclamation of the Indians, and, connected with, this, the collec-
tion and dissemination of information respecting their language,
history, traditions, customs, and character; their numbers and
condition ; the geological features of their country, and its natural
history and productions. It also proposed some definite means of
action for furthering the moral instruction of the Indians, and
for helping the missionaries in all work for their benefit. As
president of this society, Mr. Schoolcraft was asked to lecture on
the grammatical construction of the Algonquin languages as
spoken by the Northwestern tribes, and to procure a lexicon of
it ; also to deliver a poem on the Indian character at the annual
meeting of 1833. Other literary efforts of this period were, an
address before the Historical Society of Michigan in 1830, and an
address, in 1831, before the Detroit Lyceum, on the natural history
of the Territory. In the summer of 1832 Mr. Schoolcraft, under
a commission from the Government, organized and commanded
an expedition to the country upon the sources of the Mississippi
River. The primary object of the expedition was to extend to the
Indians living north of St. Anthony's Falls the measures previous-
ly taken with those south of that point, to effect a pacification ; also,
to endeavor to ascertain the actual source of the river. He ascend-
ed the St. Louis from Lake Superior to Sandy Lake summit, and
passed thence direct to the Mississippi six degrees below the central
island in Cass Lake, which was till then the ultimate point of geo-
graphical discovery. Thence he went up the river and its lakes,
avoiding too long circuits of the stream by portages, to the junc-
tion of the two branches, where by the advice of his Indian guide
he took the left-hand, or Plantagenian branch, to Lake Assawa, its
source. Thence he went by portage, a distance of " twelve rest-
ing-places," to Itasca Lake, which he struck within a mile of its
southern extremity. The lake was judged to be about seven
miles in length, by one or two broad ; " a bay, near its eastern
end, gave it somewhat the shape of the letter y." The discoverer
returned, through the stream and its lakes,, to St. Peter's.

The narrative of this expedition was published in 1834 ; and
was republished, with the account of the expedition of 1820, in
1853, under the title, Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to
the Sources of the Mississippi River in 1820, completed by the
Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake in 1832. The whole of Mr.
Schoolcraft's earlier life and work up to this time is recorded,
mostly from day to day, in his Personal Memoirs of a Residence
of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Front-
iers, etc., 1812 to 1842, a book having " the flavor of the time, with
its motley incident on the frontier, with Indian chiefs, trappers,
government employe's, chance travelers, rising legislators, farmers,
ministers of the gospel, all standing out with more or less of indi-

120

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

viduality in the formative period of the country." This book
abounds with evidence of Mr. Schoolcraft's scientific and literary
activity, as well as of his efficiency in work in whatever field.
As early as 1820 we find a letter from Amos Eaton, asking him
for information for the second edition of his Index to Geology,
respecting the secondary and alluvial formations and the strata
of the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Samuel Mitchell writes him, in
1821, about the shells and other specimens he has sent, including
a " sandy fungus," and inviting specimens for the cabinet of the
Emperor of Austria. Profs. Silliman and Hall acknowledge the
value of his examination of the mining regions of Missouri ; Prof.
Silliman asks for articles for his journal ; and Sir Humphry Davy
thinks his book would sell well in England. Prof. Cleaveland
writes him, in 1827, that he is about preparing a new edition of
his work on mineralogy, and solicits the communication of new
localities. In the same year Mr. Schoolcraft himself writes that
the collection he made in Missouri, etc., in 1819, appears to have
had an effect on the prevalent taste for those subjects, " and at
least it has fixed the eyes of naturalists on my position on the
frontiers." Mr. Peter S. Duponceau addresses him, in 1834, on
the structure of the Indian languages, " in terms which are very
complimentary, coming, as they do, as a voluntary tribute from a
person whom I never saw, and who has taken the lead in investi-
gations on this abstruse topic in America." He pronounces Mr.
Schoolcraft's book on the Chippewa languages one of the most
philosophical works on the Indian languages which he has ever
read. In another letter Mr. Duponceau acknowledges having
used Mr. Schoolcraft's grammar, giving due credit, in preparing a
prize essay for the Institute of France, on the grammatical struct-
ure of Indian languages. Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of Providence,
in 1835, notifies him of his election as an honorary member of the
Rhode Island Historical Society, and asks about aboriginal in-
scriptions on rocks. The Massachusetts Historical Society, in
1836, asks him to proceed with his work on the Ojibway lan-
guage, complete it, and let the society publish it. John J. Audu-
bon asks for aid in preparing his work on American quadrupeds.
There are numerous notices of specimens that have been sent to
Mr. Schoolcraft to pass upon, and solicitations from persons rep-
resenting the principal magazines, to contribute of the results of
his researches.

A new disposition of official posts having been made, Mr.
Schoolcraft transferred his residence in 1837 to Michilimackinac
or Mackinaw. Thence he removed, in 1841, to New York, where
he expected to find the surroundings more favorable to the col-
lation and publication of the results of his observations on the
red race, whom he " had found in many traits a subject of deep

SKETCH OF HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 121

interest ; in some things wholly misunderstood and misrepresent-
ed ; and altogether an object of the highest humanitarian inter-
est." But the publishers were not yet prepared in their views to
undertake anything corresponding to his ideas. In the next year
he carried out a long-deferred purpose of visiting England and
continental Europe, attending the British Association at Man-
chester. On his return he made a tour through western Vir-
ginia, Ohio, and Canada. In 1875 he was appointed by the Legis-
lature of New York as a commissioner to take the census of the
Indians of the State, and collect information concerning the Six
Nations. The results of this investigation were embodied in his
Notes on the Iroquois, a second enlarged edition of which was
published in 1847. The latter part of his life was spent in the
preparation — under an act passed by Congress in 1847 — of an
elaborate work on all the Indian tribes of the country, based upon
information obtained through the reports of the Indian Bureau.
This work — which was published in six quarto volumes — is de-
scribed in Duyckink's Cyclopaedia of American Literature as cov-
ering a wide range of subjects in the general history of the race ;
their traditions and associations with the whites ; their special
antiquities in the several departments of archaeology in relation
to the arts ; their government, manners, and customs ; their phys-
iological and ethnological peculiarities as individuals and na-
tions ; their intellectual and moral cultivation ; their statistics of
population ; and their geographical position, past and present.

Mr. Schoolcraft became interested in religion at an early pe-
riod in his career, and his journals show him ever more earnestly
co-operating in local religious movements ; furthering the prog-
ress of missionary effort among the Indians, by whatever de-
nomination ; laboring for the promotion of temperance among
them ; and taking the lead in whatever might contribute to their
well-being or to the repression of wrong against them. His
literary activity was prolific, and appears to have .been nearly
evenly divided between poetry, Indian lore and ethnology, and
the objects of his explorations and scientific investigation. Be-
sides books of poems and the narratives already named, he pub-
lished Algic Researches, a collection of Indian allegories and
legends (1839) ; Oneota, or the Characteristics of the Red Race in
America (1844-'45), republished in 1848 as The Indian and his
Wigwam; Report on Aboriginal Names and the Geographical
Terminology of New York (1845) ; Plan for investigating Ameri-
can Ethnology (1846) ; The Red Race of America (1847) ; A Bib-
liography of the Indian Tongues of the United States (1849) ; and
American Indians, their History, Condition, and Prospects (1850).
He received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Geneva
in 1846 ; and was a member of many learned societies.

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

AGRICULTURE 02T THE PLAINS.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

IN the February number of The Popular
Science Monthly was published an arti-
cle, by Stuart 0. Henry, entitled Rainfall
on the Plains. Mr. Henry claims that the
rainfall on our plains has not increased to
any appreciable extent since the first settle-
ment ; and he says that the general impres-
sion that settlement and cultivation traveling
westward have been attended by a gradual
increase of rainfalls is a " remarkable falla-
cy." He concludes that agricultural opera-
tions can never be successfully carried on
west of a line about the ninety-eighth me-
ridian, and that attempts to utilize the regions
named for purely agricultural purposes, with-
out artificial irrigation, will only result in
calamitous failure. Mr. Henry makes the
statement that " the reports of the Kansas
and Nebraska Boards of Agriculture will
show that, in the territory lying west of the
ninety-eighth meridian in those States, the
acreage of land actually under cultivation,
when compared with the whole area of that
territory, is almost insignificant." After
seventeen years of residence in southwestern
Nebraska, near the one hundredth meridian,
I am convinced that Mr. Henry is correct as
to the absence of an increase of rainfall ;
but his conclusions are very erroneous, and
must have been formed without informa-
tion as to the great growth in wealth and
population in the region west of the ninety-
eighth meridian during the last ten years.
The statement that the cultivated land west
of the ninety-eighth meridian in Kansas and
Nebraska is insignificant when compared with
the whole area of that territory may have
been true ten years ago, but at the present
time it is far from the truth. The writer
believes that no increase of rainfall has ever
been necessary to fit the country named for
profitable farming, but that the rainfall has
always been sufficient, and that the obstacles
to farming that have existed resulted from
the newness of the country, rather than from
lack of rain, and that these obstacles are
gradually disappearing as the country settles
up, and will wholly disappear when the coun-
try becomes as densely settled as are the
States of Iowa and Illinois.

Mr. Henry's gloomy statements seem like
an echo of predictions made by sundry scien-
tific gentlemen twenty years ago concerning
the plains of Kansas and Nebraska ; and he
might be aptly compared to a modern Rip
Van Winkle, who has just awakened after a
twenty years' sleep, ignorant of the wonderful
growth that the country west of the ninety-
eighth meridian has made. When he penned
the lines quoted, was he aware that Jewell

County, Kansas, which lies west of the ninety-
eighth meridian, is the champion corn-pro-
ducing county in the Union ? Was he aware
that nearly one half of the wealth and pop-
ulation of the State of Nebraska is to be
found west of the ninety-eighth meridian?
The report of the Nebraska Board of Agri-
culture for the year 1889 has not been issued,
but we have the report for 1888. The crops
in Nebraska in 1888 were not as good as in
1889, nor was there as much ground in culti-
vation. I give below some statistics taken
from the report for 1888 making a compara-
tive statement of the amount of wheat, corn,
and potatoes raised east of the ninety-eighth
meridian and west of that meridian in the
State of Nebraska. It will be admitted by
all that wheat, corn, and potatoes require as
much moisture as do any farm products. It
must be borne in mind that many of the
western counties are very new and their capa-
bilities not developed ; but enough is shown
to completely disprove Mr. Henry's state-
ments. In the counties of Nebraska that lie
west of the ninety-eighth meridian there were
raised in 1888 of corn, wheat, and potatoes:

Corn 52,847.469 bushels

Wheat 7,038.688 "

Potatoes 8,626,145 "

In the counties in Nebraska lying east of

the ninety-eighth meridian there were raised

in 1888:

Cora 93,379,370 bushels

Wheat 4,876,190 "

Potatoes 2,724,996 "

It will thus be seen that the counties
west of the ninety-eighth meridian produced
about thirty-six per cent of all the corn,
about sixty per cent of all the wheat, and
about seventy-six per cent of all the pota-
toes that were raised in 1888 in Nebraska,
and as a matter of fact a good portion was
raised west of the one hundredth meridian.
Reference to the same report shows that in
1888 there were 2,611,33V acres of improved
land in the Nebraska counties lying west of
the ninety-eighth meridian. These statistics
clearly demonstrate that the improvements
there made are far from " insignificant,"
and, could the statistics for 1889 be had, we
would, without doubt, have a still more en-
couraging showing. A. E. Harvey.
Orleans, Nebraska, March 26, 1890.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS AFFECTING CRIME
AND VICE.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Under the above heading Mr. Reece
presented some statistics in The Popular
Science Monthly for January, apparently
showing a high and increasing per cent of
crime in those communities where there

EDITOR'S TABLE.

123

were the fewest illiterates as compared with
those where there were the most. In the
succeeding numbers of the Monthly two
writers, apparently accepting the statistics
without question, have proceeded to draw
conclusions from them. Some one has wit-
tily said that " nothing can lie like fig-
ures " ; and certainly any one who deals
much with statistics knows that unless care-
fully and thoughtfully handled they are
capable of giving the most deceptive re-
sults. For this reason startling conclusions
should not be accepted without careful con-
sideration. There is getting to be too wide
a tendency to accept statistics as decisive
proof on any subject without regard to how
they were prepared or discussed.

In the January Lend a Hand, Mr. David
C. Torrey carefully discussed the records of
crime in Massachusetts, which was one of
the States where Mr. Reece found his high-
est per cent of criminals, and some of his
results seem worthy of quoting, as throwing
much light on this subject :

From 1350 to 1835 the total commitments in-
creased from 8,761 to 26,651 ; in the first-mentioned
year, 1 to 113 inhabitants : in the second, 1 to 72 in-
habitants. It is found, however, on investigation,
that the increase is almost entirely confined to crimes
against public order and decency, while the commit-
ments for the more serious crimes against persons
and property have not even kept pace with the
growth of population. The following statistics for
the years since 1865 in which a census has been
taken proves this statement. This division by
crimes was first made in the returns to the State in
1865, and was not made in 1875:

COMMITMENTS FOB CEIMES AGAINST

YEAR.

Persons and
property.

Order and
decency.

1365

3,975
5,097
3,779
4,339

5,760
11,290

1370

1S80

13,274

1335

21,812

For the more serious crimes in 1S65 and 1870, the
average commitments were 1 to 301 inhabitants,
while in the years 1880 and 1S35 they were 1 to 436
inhabitants. The increase in commitments was for
less serious crimes exclusively, and there was an
actual decrease in commitments for more serious
crimes, in proportion to population, of forty-four per
cent. The larger portion of the less serious crimes,

those for which commitments are increasing, are
crimes of intemperance; so Mr. Torrey makes a sec-
ond division of crimes, separating those of intem-
perance from all other crimes. The returns to the
State permit of this division for a longer period :

YEAR.

Commitments
for intem-
perance.

Commitments

for all other

crimes.

Total com-
mitments.

1850

3.341

8,221
3,442
4.302
9,350

10,962
18,701

5,420
7.-11

8,322
5,616
7,250

6,091
7,950

8.761

1855

16,032

I860 ..

1865

11,764
9,918

1870

16,600

1875

24,548

1880

17,053

1885

26,651

This division shows that the total increase in all
crimes other than intemperance, taken together, has
been only fifty per cent (population not considered),
but that commitments for intemperance have in-
creased nearly five hundred per cent. The commit-
ments which were not for intemperance are com-
pared with the population of the State with the fol-
lowing results : In 1850, 1 commitment to 183 in-
habitants; in 1S55, 1 to 144; in 1S60, 1 to 147:. in
1865, 1 to 225; in 1870, 1 to 201; in 1875, no statis-
tics ; in 18S0, 1 to 280 ; in 18S5, 1 to 244. From 1350
to 1865 the average commitments for crimes other
than intemperance were 1 to 174 inhabitants, while
from 1870 to 1835 it was 1 to 241 inhabitants. Thus
a decrease of thirty-eight per cent is shown in all
crimes other than intemperance during a period of
seventeen years.

The question of crime in Massachusetts thus re-
solves itself into a question of intemperance, pure
and simple for it is owing to intemperance alone
that there is an increase of commitments. Mr. Tor-
rey proceeds to show that the increasing commit-
ments for intemperance do not necessarily prove an
increase of intemperance. The public has a different
opinion of the crime of intemperance from what it
has of other crimes. The commitments for more
serious crimes could not increase without an increase
of those crimes ; but, because so few of the men who
drink to excess are committed, there is abundant
opportunity for an increase in commitments for in-
temperance without an actual increase of intemper-
ance. In thirty-five years public sentiment has been
aroused against intemperance, and the increased
commitments caused by this sentiment and the
changes in law which it has brought about are the
inadequate grounds which warrant claims that crime
is increasing in Massachusetts. The State seems
still to have encouragement to continue its schools
and its reformatories and its churches, with faith
that it can not only take care of the children born to
it, but also that it can assimilate to its social order
those which it is forced to adopt. — Boston Post.

H. Helm Clayton,
Bute Hill Observatoet, JSeadville, Mass.,
March 30, 1890.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

PRACTICAL ECONOMICS.

IN" last month's Table we had a few
words upon the discredit into which
what is sometimes called the M or-
thodox" political economy has fallen
among practical men. It is a pleasure
to be able to call attention to a book
which furnishes a signal example of the
way in which economical studies should
be pursued. We refer to the volume

brought out a few months ago by Mr.
D. A. Wells, under the title of Recent
Economic Changes. Mr. Wells is not a
dogmatist, though it is evident he has
sufficiently definite opinions of his own.
He conceives it to be his main business
to marshal the facts that seem to him
capable of explaining the present mate-
rial condition of society, and of indi-
cating the course that things are likely

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to take in the future. He has no spe-
cial theory to advocate, and he prom-
ises no speedy renovation of society if
only his advice be taken. He knows
too much to be a visionary ; he has too
firm a hold on the actual to be carried
away by the merely ideal or fanciful.
He finds no fatal flaw in the present so-
cial system ; he does not see, in fact, how,
given human nature as it is, things could
be very different from what they are.
At the same time he is an earnest be-
liever in progress ; but he thinks that
progress depends more npon individual
adaptation to necessary conditions of
existence than upon any cunningly con-
trived devices for an improved distri-
bution of the products of industry. In
a word, he is a man whom the devour-
er of contemporary socialistic romances
would tind a little dull, but whom the
practical man of business would find
both interesting and instructive in the
highest degree. As a large part of Mr.
"Wells's book appeared originally in the
pages of this magazine, we may pre-
sume that many of our readers have a
more or less vivid recollection of the
course of his argument. What Mr. "Wells
set himself chiefly to do was to trace to
its cause or causes the present disturbed
condition of the world from an eco-
nomic point of view. Given such a
problem, a writer who wished to create
an immediate sensation would bring
forward some theory about the land, or
about the currency, or about monopo-
lies, or about the waste involved in com-
petition, and would declare with much
emphasis and vainglory that he alone
had the true key to the whole situation.
Mr. Wells is more modest. All he pro-
fesses to see is that the rapid pace of
invention and discovery in the modern
world is sufficient to account for enor-
mous vicissitudes both in the money
market and in the labor market. Capi-
tal has been destroyed in huge blocks
and recreated by new methods; labor
has been forced to quit one employ-
ment after another and find new open-

ings for itself. The course of business
has become more and more difficult to
calculate, and only the stronger heads
and more resolute wills have been able
to hold their own amid the changes and
chances of the hour.

Mr. Wells does not deal in mere gener-
alities. He treats separately each aspect
of his subject, and under every head gives
facts in abundance — "modern instances,"
as Shakespeare expresses it. He shows
what has been done in the way of open-
ing new routes ; and, in the case of the
Suez Canal, he traces to that one cause
the most momentous results as regards
the course of trade. He discusses very
fully the effects of the cheapening of
transportation by land and by sea, show-
ing how, to this cause, must be attrib-
uted much of the agricultural depression
existing in different parts of the world.
He dwells on the inventions and dis-
coveries by which manufactures have
been cheapened, and labor constantly
displaced and again provided for. He
shows how improved methods of farm-
ing render less efficient ones unprofit-
able, and how little good has been done
to the farming population by the home-
stead and other exceptional laws passed
for their benefit— nay, how they have
been injured by the overzeal of their
friends in the Legislature. He discusses
the effect of restrictions on trade, and
shows in what idle fashion the govern-
ments of the world, with one or two ex-
ceptions, handicap their own commerce
in the effort to injure that of their neigh-
bors, and how the effect of the whole
protectionist madness is simply to place
a heavy drag upon the industrial energy,
not to say upon the conscience, of man-
kind. We can not pretend, however, in
this place to give even the most rapid
summary of the contents of Mr. Wells's
volume. Suffice it at present to say that
he has described with great fullness and,
so far as we can judge, with great accu-
racy, the conditions under which the
business of the world is now being car-
ried on, and the circumstances that have

EDITOR'S TABLE.

125

concurred to make the present epoch
one of peculiar commercial and industrial
unrest.

What is the lesson, then, we are to
draw from Mr. "Wells's pages, so far as
the social problems of our own time
are concerned ? We learn from it that
there is nothing radically unsound in
our social system ; and, further, that the
total effect of all the changes of the last
twenty-five or thirty years has been to
improve materially the condition of the
working classes. Hours of labor are
not as long on the whole as they used
to be ; wages are higher ; and the pur-
chasing power of money is greater.
What is the case, however, is that, in
the rush of change which has marked
recent years, there is a constant selec-
tion and reselection of the better men,
and that the worse — the less competent,
the less efficient in every way — find them-
selves relegated to poorer conditions of
life. There is an upward current and
there is a downward current : those who
move up do not spend much time or en-
ergy in singing the beauties of the pres-
ent system ; but those who are moving
down waste no small amount of the little
energy they have in bewailing its de-
fects, and, with the help of a few liter-
ary gentlemen of lively sympathies and
facile speech, manage to create a wide-
spread impression that a world in which
they do not get all they would like must
be a very badly governed world indeed.
The whole social question seems to lie
here, that some, through natural defi-
ciencies of one kind or another, can not,
in any satisfactory degree, adapt them-
selves to the world as it is. We should
be sorry to profess, or to feel, indiffer-
ence to the problem even as thus stated ;
but what are we going to do about it ?
The true methods of reform are of slow
application ; and immediate suffering it
is impossible altogether to prevent. The
path of social reform, we are strongly
persuaded, lies mainly along these three
lines :

1. Diminution of state interference

with private liberty, including state re-
strictions on trade and state encourage-
ment of trade.

2. Constant inculcation of the doc-
trine of individual responsibility, and
constant effort to mold better individ-
uals.

3. An honest, vigorous, and simple
administration of justice.

These three conditions (to which
many minor but still important ones
might be added) are all intimately con-
nected. For example, how can we
preach the doctrine of individual re-
sponsibility with any success, if the in-
dividual is daily surrounded by a closer
and closer network of arbitrary enact-
ments, designed at once to abridge his
liberty and to relieve him of the exer-
cise of judgment and caution ? And how
can we have a really efficient adminis-
tration of law, till law itself undergoes
a pruning, and is brought down to its
necessary elements?

To return, however, to Mr. Wells's
book. We are glad to see its merits
very frankly acknowledged in an article
published in the March number of Mac-
millan's Magazine, the writer declaring
that Mr. Wells deals with his subject " in
a manner altogether superior to any-
thing which this country (England) can
show." We shall only say in conclusion
that the book is an eminently useful one
to-day and will remain so for many
years to come. A careful perusal of its
pages would clear infected brains of
many sickly fancies.

TRAINING IN REALITIES.

It is a long time since an earnest
thinker proclaimed that wisdom was the
principal thing, and that with all a man's
gettings he should strive to get under-
standing; but whether the world to-day
— even those who regard the utterance
as carrying with it more than human
authority — can be said to pay due heed
to the maxim is more than doubtful.
Instead of wisdom, men exalt opinion,

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and traditions are taught where truth
should be explored. We have large and
influential schools decrying the use of
reason, and we have millions of people
to-day trying to think true what their
common sense tells them is not true.
All this does not make for the world's
peace or stability. It will not be really
well with society until men generally
are brought to recognize that there is
such a thing as truth, and that its claims
upon them are paramount. Our systems
of education need to be revolutionized.
"When a young person leaves school or
college nowadays, do we expect to find
that his or her judgment has been de-
veloped in practical things ? Do we ex-
pect to find a keen sense of what is true,
a quickness in distinguishing shams from
realities, and a well-established habit of
yielding, upon all disputed questions, to
the greater weight of evidence ? Nothing
of the kind. We look for a little knowl-
edge of arithmetic and mathematics
generally, a modicum of geography and
grammar, a smattering of literature, a few
confused notions of natural science, a dis-
continuous skeleton of historical knowl-
edge, and not much else. The judgment
has not been trained, the sense of truth
has not been trained, nor has any insight
worth mentioning been given into the
realities of life and duty. We do not
blame the teaching fraternity for this ;
society as a whole is responsible. The
want of interest in truth as truth, the
lack of perception of its importance, is
a broad social characteristic of the time,
and floods the schools just as it floods
the market-place, the press, and the pul-
pit. But, while we do not in any special
manner blame the teaching profession,
we feel like summoning all serious men
to consider whether a very decided and
vigorous effort should not be made to
place our schools upon a higher level in
this respect. No one can doubt that,
if our minds were set upon it, a sim-
ple gymnastic might be devised which
would, from the outset, train childish
minds in the perception of truth and

lead them on from stage to stage in the
acquisition, not of sham but of real
knowledge. A child in course of edu-
cation should never be removed from
actual contact with the world about him.
He should be made to feel that every
general rule given to him is merely a
summary expression of a number of con-
crete examples. He should be early
familiarized with the method of proof,
and in every possible way encouraged
to ask for proofs. He should be made
to realize the activity of his own senses ;
to feel that knowledge is coming to him
through those avenues ; and that, only
as it so comes, is it entitled to be con-
sidered real knowledge.

Such a system of education as we
have hinted at would banish the intel-
lectual poverty and squalor of our time;
and this could not be done without an
immense improvement of general social
conditions. The sentimentalists of our
day bestow a huge amount of sympathy
upon the victims of poor wages ; but
they do not grieve as they might over
the victims of poor thoughts and disor-
dered imaginations. The dust and dirt
heaps that obstruct the entrance to thou-
sands of minds are not visible as material
masses ; but they are there all the same,
and the injury they cause is greater than
any due to mere limitation of material
conditions. The land is full of delusions,
and scarcely anywhere do we see any
clear consciousness of the grand possi-
bility open to the human race of co-op-
erating in the discovery and application
of truth, including, of course, and in the
first place, the laws of social well-being.
"We too readily resign ourselves to the
idea that men's opinions must differ by
the whole circle of possible thought, and
that a common standard of truth is un-
attainable. Well might the reproach be
launched against this generation, " O
ye of little faith ! " Amid the manifold
and ever-widening discoveries of science
we resign ourselves to intellectual chaos,
as if there were no common heritage of
truth for us all, or as if human minds

LITERARY NOTICES.

127

were not all made essentially on the
same pattern. What the times seem to
call for is some association of men and
women bent on nothing else than the
introduction, primarily into our educa-
tional systems, but as much as possible
into social life generally, of a supreme
regard for that which is real.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Practical Hints for the Teachers op Pub-
lic Schools. By George Howland. In-
ternational Education Series, Vol. XIII.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 198.
Price, $1.50.

This volume deals with the practice
rather than with the theory of education. It
tells what to do, and does not concern itself
with any comprehensive scheme of educa-
tional philosophy. The author is superin-
tendent of the public schools of Chicago,
and the several chapters of this volume are
based upon papers read before the teachers
of that city and vicinity. The author has
not aimed to produce an exhaustive and
systematic treatise, but has confined his at-
tention to the following ten topics : Moral
training in city schools, the character of
the teacher, the place of memory in school
instruction, elements of growth in school-
life, the scholarship aimed at in the school,
the teacher in the school-room, how the
school develops character, the class recita-
tion, the school principal, and the work of
the superintendent. The pages of the book
are dominated by the personality of the au-
thor, and the things and practices recom-
mended are such as his experience tells him
are good. In regard to moral training, the
subject that he treats first, he has no faith
in text-books or special instruction ; he would
trust entirely to " the quiet suggestion, the
fitly chosen word, the interested inquiry, the
look, the unfeigned sympathy, the favored
opportunity, the firm but calm decision of
the loved and loving teacher." In other
subjects, however, he would depend al-
together upon books. The sesame to all
progress, he says, is found inscribed on the
printed page. In the six years before the
child comes to school he has had a training
without books which, as Mr. Howland affirms,
has been very effective. " He has early

learned that fire will burn, that cold will
freeze, and knows, beyond the power of
Webster or Worcester to tell him, the mean-
ing of burn and freeze ; and by many a
bump has the force of attraction been im-
pressed upon him." He has learned a lan-
guage, and has acquired much other knowl-
edge. By similar means the Indian acquires
a wonderful training of his senses, his hands,
and his mental powers. " He learns to do,"
says Mr. Howland, " in the only true way,
by the doing." In acquiring a knowledge
of language the author recommends this
same process. Correct use of words and
a nice appreciation of their meanings and
force are to be secured, he says, " not from
dictionary, but from use alone." That the
teacher should learn by this method, how-
ever, he deems inadmissible. In his chap-
ter on " The School Principal " he says :
" We learn to do by doing, is one of those
aphoristic half-truths well suited to catch
the ear and delude the mind of the un-
thinking. We may acquire a mechanical
facility by repeated doings of what we al-
ready know how to do, but we learn to do
by learning how other people do, and by the
aid of this knowledge striving to do some-
thing better." The volume is especially
marked by an energetic character and a
confident tone which assure the reader of
the real interest of the author in the work
of the teacher.

First Lessons in Political Economy. By
Francis A. Walker. New York : Henry
Holt & Co. Pp. 323. Price, $1.25.

The special purpose of this book is to
bring political economy within the grasp of
youth from fifteen to seventeen years of age.
The author has not made it childish by re-
stricting himself to " words of two sylla-
bles," or by any similar device. The char-
acter which he has aimed to give the volume
in order to adapt it to young pupils consists
in " a clear arrangement of topics ; a simple,
direct, and forcible presentation of the ques-
tions successively raised ; the avoidance, as
far as possible, of certain metaphysical dis-
tinctions which the author has found very
perplexing to students of even a greater age ;
a frequent repetition of cardinal doctrines ;
and, especially, a liberal use of concrete
illustrations, drawn from facts of common

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

experience or observation." The fact that
one purpose of the treatise is to interest be-
ginners in the subject of political economy
has also modified its character. " The author
has not held himself, as strictly as he has
sought in previous works to do, to the treat-
ment of political economy as a science, to be
distinguished from the art of political econ-
omy. He has allowed himself great freedom
in assuming that certain results are desirable
in themselves, and certain other results un-
desirable ; and he has sought to show how
these may be avoided and those attained.
Much, which, in his other works, has been
treated as belonging to the applications of
political economy, is wrought into the sub-
stance of the present treatise." The work
is divided into two chief parts, one treating
of " Production and Exchange," the other of
" Distribution and Consumption." Each
section is numbered and has a title, and the
volume is indexed.

Fuel and its Applications. By E. J. Mills
and F. J. Rowan. Illustrated. Phila-
delphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp.
xx + 802. Price, $7.50.

It is one of the obstacles to gaining a
competent knowledge of technology that its
manuals become almost worthless when a
few years old, but it is the glory of the sci-
ences on which technology depends that
they advance fast enough to make these
books antiquated so quickly. This is espe-
cially true of the group of industries based
upon the science of chemistry. In order to
supply the lack of a comprehensive, authori-
tative new work dealing with these indus-
tries, a series ' of volumes has been pro-
jected, under the general title "Chemical
Technology, or Chemistry in its Applica-
tions to Arts and Manufactures." It will
be edited by Charles E. Groves, F. R. S.,
editor of the " Journal of the Chemical So-
ciety," and William Thorp, B. Sc. As much
of the matter of Richardson and Watts's
"Chemical Technology " as is available, es-
pecially the historical portions, will be incor-
porated in the new work. Of this series the
present volume is the first. The most im-
portant sections of the general field, to be
covered in later volumes, are "Lighting,"
"Acids and Alkalies," "Glass and Pottery,"
"Metallurgy," "Textile Fabrics," "Leather,

Paper, etc.," " Coloring Matters and Dyes,"
"Oils and Varnishes," "Brewing and Dis-
tilling," "Sugar, Starch, Flour," etc. The
present volume treats of "Fuel and its Ap-
plications " generally ; its special employ-
ment in various branches of chemical manu-
facture being preserved for detailed consid-
eration in the volumes devoted to the special
subjects enumerated above. In the chapters
devoted to the production of fuel, tables are
given showing the composition of the differ-
ent woods and coals, together with informa-
tion concerning the formation of peat, lig-
nite, and coal, the world's production of coal,
explosions in mines from fire-damp and coal-
dust, etc. The figures representing the out-
put of coal in Britain and other countries
show the enormous development which has
taken place in the fuel industry all over the
world. Methods of burning charcoal, both
in heaps and kilns ; and methods of coking,
in heaps and in ovens, are described, with
illustrative views and diagrams. On the
continent of Europe, methods of cleaning,
washing, and classifying coal have reached
a great degree of elaboration, and the prac-
tice in Britain has progressed somewhat in
the same direction. Considerable space is
devoted to these methods, and the machines
employed in them. The most marked ad-
vance in respect to the manufacture and
application of fuels in the past generation
has been in the control and utilization of
gases. The waste gases from coking ovens
are now collected for their ammonia, tar,
and other by-products, the gases from blast-
furnaces using coal and from gas-producers
are also made to yield these products ; and
great advance has been achieved in the ex-
traction of ammonia in shale distillation.
More important than these is the use of
coal-gas, and in America of " natural " gas
also, as fuel. The methods and appliances
for using gaseous and also liquid fuel re-
ceive a general representation in this vol-
ume, and copious references are given for
specialists who may wish to study particular
branches of the subject. The portion of the
volume devoted to the application of fuel is
introduced by chapters on the theory of heat
and the nature of flame. The matters of
chimney - draught, forced combustion, and
smoke prevention are then taken up. The
special application of fuel considered first

LITERARY NOTICES.

129

is in domestic heating. The open fireplace
and several ventilating fireplaces, and the
" American " stove, are mentioned ; but most
space is given to gas heating and cooking
stoves. Heating by means of hot air, hot
water, and steam also receives attention. The
application of fuel to vaporization, i. e., the
heating of boilers, is next treated ; and from
this subject the authors pass to the evapora-
tion of liquids and distillation. The drying
of wood and malt, baking bread, and firing
brick and porcelain, also have a place. Fur-
naces for metallurgical and other technologi-
cal operations are next treated, and an im-
portant chapter follows on gas-furnaces, in-
cluding those using the regenerative prin-
ciple. The closing chapter deals with the
practical effect of fuel. A series of tables
giving analyses of coals follows. Through-
out the book exact information in regard to
the several divisions of the subject is fur-
nished in tables and diagrams. The volume
contains seven plates and six hundred and
seven other illustrations, and is provided
with an adequate index.

Liberty and a Living. By Philip G. Hu-
bert, Jr. New York and London : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 239.

This book is described in its sub-title as
the record of an attempt to secure bread and
butter, sunshine and content, by gardening,
fishing, and hunting. One of its mottoes is,
" The royal peace of a rural home." The
author, a writer on New York newspapers,
wearied with the monotony and drudgery
of city life, sought a way in which he could
spend his time in the outdoor season prof-
itably in the open air, and without giving
up the winter residence in the city which
his profession demanded. He found a place
on the sea coast of Long Island which af-
forded a home, garden, wood-lot, access to
the water for boating and fishing, and hunt-
ing privileges. The book describes his life
there, and the moral and practical lessons
derived from it. The transcript of the
diary of a week gives a realistic picture of
the average life. The home and its arrange-
ments, the garden-work and its returns, the
fishing, the bee-raising, the advantages de-
rived from the possession of a wood-lot, and
the balance of advantages and disadvantages,
are described in successive chapters. The
vol. xxxvii. — 10

balance is shown to be decidedly in favor of
the country, pre-eminently so to those who
seek quiet, rational enjoyment, with health,
who desire leisurely culture without excite-
ment, who are willing to live independently
of fashion, and who do not attach an exag-
gerated importance to show.

Jonathan Edwards. By Alexander V. G.

Allen, D. B. Boston and New York :

Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 401. Price,

$1.25.

This is the first volume of the series of
"American Religious Leaders," or biogra-
phies of men who have had great influence
on religious thought and life in the United
States, in which it is intended, besides de-
picting great figures in American religious
history, to indicate the leading character-
istics of that history, the progress and pro-
cess of religious philosophy in America, the
various types of theology which have shaped
or been shaped by the various churches, and
the relation of these to the life and thought
of the nation. The present volume relates
to the earliest and probably the greatest of
those leaders — the thinker who, along with
Benjamin Franklin, American and foreign
critics agree in naming as representative of
American intellectual activity in the eight-
eenth century. Prof. Allen's aim in this bi-
ography has been "to reproduce Edwards
from his books, making his treatises, in their
chronological order, contribute to his por-
traiture as a man and as a theologian." Some-
thing more than a mere relation of facts
seemed to be demanded in order to justify
the endeavor to rewrite his life. What we
most desire to know is, what he thought,
and how he came to think as he did. " Ed-
wards is always and everywhere interesting,
whatever we may think of his theology. On
literary and historical grounds alone no one
can fail to be impressed with his imposing fig-
ure as he moves through the wilds of the New
World." Edwards's life is full of dramatic
incident, and his writings furnish ground
for fruitful study — a study which he that
would understand the significance of New
England thought in the last century, and un-
der its later aspects as well, will find indis-
pensable. The summation of the result of
Edwards's work is concluded with the asser-
tion that " all who accept the truth that
divine things are known to be divine be-

13°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cause humanity is endowed with the gift of
direct vision into divinity, are accepting
what Edwards proclaimed, what constitutes
the positive feature of his theology. There
are those who have made the transition from
the old Calvinism, through the mediation of
this principle, to a larger theology as if by a
natural process. Among these typical think-
ers were Thomas Erskine, McLeod Camp-
bell, and Bishop Ewing in Scotland, or the
late Mr. Maurice in England. These and
such as these, in whom the God-conscious-
ness is supreme, are the true continuators of
the work of Jonathan Edwards."

Exercises in Wood-working; with a Short
Treatise on Wood. By Ivin Sickels.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 158,
with Plates.

This book is written for manual train-
ing classes in schools and colleges, having
been prepared in the first instance in manu-
script for the students in the College of the
City of New York. The manuscript was
copied for other schools. Many changes and
additions were made under the suggestions
of subsequent teaching ; and it is now print-
ed and published, for all who desire a vol-
ume of the kind. Being the product and
result of work in teaching, it could hardly
be other than a working book ; and a work-
ing book, so far as it reveals itself to a critic's
ken, it is. Its scope is the presentation of
the facts which are most essential to the
wood-worker's success and the good execu-
tion of his work, and of directions for the
use of his tools and for manipulation. These
facts and directions are given in a simple,
concise style, intelligible to any pupil of or-
dinary sense. The book deals particularly
with carpentry and joinery, and is divided
into two parts. The first part treats of the
structure, properties, and kinds of wood ;
its manufactures and economic relations to
other substances ; parasitic plants and in-
sects, and means of preserving wood ; under
these heads are articles on the structure and
composition of wood, branching of stems,
age of trees, their decay, the season for
cutting, milling, drying, and warping, the
properties and defects of wood, its measure
and values, and the kinds of wood. The
several species used in wood-work, coarse
and fine, are named and described; their
value is estimated, their special qualities are

pointed out, and the purposes indicated to
which they are applied. This is followed by
a tabular exhibit of the qualities of the va-
rious kinds of wood. A few words are given
to the relations of wood and iron, and the
wood-working trades are mentioned, and car-
pentry and joinery defined. A description of
parasitic plants or fungi injurious to living
trees and lumber follows ; an account of in-
jurious insects, prepared expressly for the
book by Mr. Bashford Dean, and directions
concerning the preservation of wood are given.
The second part contains the exercises, pre-
ceded by a description of tools. The directions
for the care and use of tools are explicit, and
are illustrated by drawings representing the
method of handling each tool, and the mark
it makes. These exercises are followed by
those concerning the forming and fixing of
the several kinds of joints, gluing, making
boxes, with hinging tops, drawers, and gen-
erally on uniting several pieces to make a
complete structure; a series on the details
of ordinary house carpentry, whence models
may be constructed and the building of the
various parts making up a wooden dwelling
learned; the use of the frame-saw and meth-
ods of bending wood ; pattern-work ; shap-
ing (boat model) by the use of templets ; and
veneering, with directions for painting and
polishing.

The National Medical Dictionary. Two
vols. By John S. Billings, M. D., etc.,
and Collaborators. Philadelphia : Lea
Brothers & Co. Price, $12.

This work aims to define " every medical
term in current use in English, French, Ger-
man, and Italian medical literature, including
the Latin medical terminology of all of these
languages." The pronunciation' of English
and Latin terms is indicated, and the deriva-
tion of most English and Anglicized Latin
words (except names of drugs and plants) is
given. The dictionary does not attempt to
be cyclopedic, but gives simply brief defi-
nitions of the words and phrases included in
its list. Prefixed to the first volume is a
number of tables, including a table of doses,
of antidotes, of the inch and metre system
of numbering spectacle-glasses, of thermo-
metric scales, of the average dimensions of
the foetus at different ages, of the average
dimensions of the parts and organs of the
adult human body, and of the weights of the

LITERARY NOTICES.

131

organs. Among these tables, also, there is
a series, prepared by Prof. W. 0. Atwater,
showing the percentages of nutrient ingredi-
ents in a large number of food-materials, the
fuel-values in the same, and standards for
dietaries for different classes and occupa-
tions. Another table shows the expectation
of life as derived from records of life-insur-
ance companies, and from the last United
States census.

The Anatomy op the Frog. By Dr. Al-
exander Ecker. Translated, etc., by
George Haslam, M. D. Illustrated. Ox-
ford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 449, with Colored
Plates. Price, $5.25.

The frog is aptly designated by the au-
thor as eminently the physiological domestic
animal. It is kept in every physiological
laboratory, and is daily sacrificed in num-
bers on the altar of science. The physiolo-
gist has recourse to it, not only to obtain an-
swers to new questions, but for the sake of
demonstrating easily and quickly the most
important known facts of the science. It
has furnished the means through which many
most important discoveries in physiology have
been made. It has " afforded almost the only
material for the investigation of the excita-
bility of nerves and its associated electro-
motive changes, and also no inconsiderable
part of the remaining nerve and muscle
physiology." Much of our knowledge of the
functions of the spinal cord is derived from
experiment upon it. Its muscles have served
for the investigation of the phenomena and
the conditions of contraction. But for the
web of its foot and the gills and tail of its
tadpole, " we should not perhaps for a long
time have arrived at a satisfactory knowl-
edge of the existence and the conditions of
the capillary circulation. Acquaintance with
the constituents of the blood directly con-
cerned in nutrition ; important facts in the
physiology of the blood and lymph ; and in-
sight into the laws of the heart's action,
have all been obtained by observations and
experiments on the frog. To it, also, in his-
tology, we owe much of our knowledge of
the structure of nerve-fibers, their origin
and termination, their relations within the
ganglia, and the structure of muscular fiber ;
and for the study of reproduction and devel-
opment the frog has, next to the chick, af-

forded the most important material." The
importance of students being well acquaint-
ed with the anatomy and structure of an ani-
mal which plays so prominent a part in their
researches is obvious ; and it is this which
Dr. Ecker, who is Professor of Human and
Comparative Anatomy in the University of
Freiberg, and Dr. Haslam, have furnished
in the present book. The original work of
Prof. Ecker was published in 1864. A second
part, embodying, besides the author's work,
fruits of the researches of Prof. Wieders-
heim, appeared in 1881-82. The transla-
tion was undertaken by Dr. Haslam at the
suggestion of Prof. A. Gamgee, and was ac-
cepted by the delegates of the Clarendon
Press as one of the series of Foreign Bio-
logical Memoirs published by them. But it
soon became evident that a mere translation
would be unsatisfactory, and that it would
be desirable to recast and modify parts of
the book, and to give descriptions of the
minute structure of the several organs. The
translator has included the results of recent
researches, and has added facts derived from
his own observations.

The Elements op Astronomy. With an
Uranography. By Prof. Charles A.
Young. Boston : Ginn & Co. Pp. 470.
Price, $1.55.

Prop. Young has prepared this text-book
for use in high schools and academies, using
in it much of the material and many of the
illustrations of his larger work, General As-
tronomy. The author has tried to avoid
going to an extreme in cutting down and
simplifying, while giving a clear treatment
of every subject. From the number of
pages in the book it may be inferred that he
has provided abundant material for a high-
school course in astronomy. He has paid
special attention to making all statements
correct as far as they go, though many of
them, on account of the elementary charac-
ter of the book, are necessarily incomplete.
No mathematics higher than elementary
algebra and geometry is introduced into the
text. In an appendix of some seventy pages,
methods of making certain calculations and
the construction of astronomical instruments
are described. The Uranography comprises
a brief description of the constellations vis-
ible in the United States, with four maps,
from which the principal stars may be iden-

132

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tified ; also a list of such telescopic objects
in each constellation as are easily found, and
lie within the power of a small telescope.
The volume is illustrated with one hundred
and fifty-eight cuts.

American Spiders and their Spinning-Work.
Vol. I. By Henry C. McCook, D. D.
Published by the Author: Academy of
Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Pp. 372.
Price $30 (set of three volumes).

The naturalist who takes dried or alco-
holic specimens as the subjects of his study
can prosecute his researches at all times and
seasons, and independently of the will of the
creatures that he is studying. But this ad-
vantage is offset by the limitation that the
habits of the creatures, the kind of places
they live in, the sort of structures they make,
the way they move about, obtain their food,
and rear their young, are a sealed book to
him. The observations of the field natural-
ist, on the other hand, are attended by many
more difficulties than those of the laboratory
student. He must go to his specimens in-
stead of having them brought to him. Per-
haps they are not to be found at all seasons,
and, when they are accessible, many hours
must be spent in watching familiar actions
in order not to miss a chance of seeing a
new operation. He has the compensation,
however, that he studies the creatures alive ;
hence the things which are hidden from the
laboratory naturalist are revealed to him,
and the knowledge that he gains arouses the
widest interest and wins the greatest appre-
ciation. The results which Dr. McCook lays
before us in the present volume belong
mainly in the latter class. They relate to
the spinning-work of spiders, as performed
in the making of webs and dens. With this
is naturally connected some account of the
methods of procuring food and the nesting-
habits of these creatures, and the intelli-
gence that they display in adapting their
operations to particular circumstances. In
order to give the reader a correct idea of
how spiders form their threads, a fully illus-
trated chapter on the structure of the spin-
ning-organs has been introduced. The whole
work will be confined to the orb-weavins:
spiders of the United States, but a vast
amount of material relating to other tribes,
which the author has collected, has been
drawn upon in order to make comparisons

between the habits of the orb-weavers and
other spiders. To the general reader, who
sees no important difference between any
two common wheel-shaped spider-webs, the
distinct varieties of orb-weavers' snares de-
scribed by Dr. McCook will be a revelation.
Artists, too, who are supposed to be careful
about the correct shapes of the things they
draw, seem to have looked only carelessly at
spiders' webs, for our author states that he
has never seen but one in art work or book
illustrations that gave proof of having been
drawn from a natural web, by one who knew
its characteristics. In three chapters the
general features, the mode of constructing
in detail, and the armature of orb-webs
are presented. Passing to varieties of
the orb, Dr. McCook describes the web
with its center of closely woven silk tis-
sue and a zigzag ribbon extending upward
and downward, which is made by Argiope, a
spider whose large size and beautiful mark-
ings make it conspicuous in our autumn
fields. The round vertical webs made by
Epe'ira and other spiders are then touched
upon. An account is given of the composite
snares, which consist of a wheel-shaped web
combined with a maze of intersecting lines ;
also of the sectoral orb, in which there is
always one division of the wheel that is not
crossed by the concentric rings.

Among the other peculiar features in webs
that the author describes are the domed orb
of the basilica spider, the ribbon decorations
of the feather-foot, the triangle or part of a
circle constructed by the triangle spider, and
the somewhat irregularly radiating snare of
the ray spider. A chapter on the engineer-
ing skill of spiders gives instances of their
using weights to hold their webs taut, their
placing of stay -lines in the best position al-
lowed by circumstances, using unfamiliar
substances for building a nest, etc. Espe-
cially interesting is a chapter on the me-
chanical strength of webs and the physical
power of spiders, in which cases are given
of spiders capturing and hoisting from the
ground animals many times as large as them-
selves. Other topics that are fully treated,
but which can be only mentioned here, are
feeding habits, uses of poison, and nest-
making habits. In a concluding chapter on
the genesis of snares, the author traces the
relations which exist between the various

LITERARY NOTICES.

J 33

forms of spinning-work treated in the fore,
going pages. The volume contains three
hundred and fifty-four illustrations, the au-
thor being convinced that a drawing is bet-
ter to communicate some facts than pages
of words. The pictures, moreover, are of
artistic quality, and the mechanical work of
the volume is of a high grade, making the
book a remarkably handsome one. In the
second volume of this work the author will
treat the habits and industry associated with
mating and maternal instincts, life of the
young, etc. The third volume will be a sys-
tematic presentation of the orb-weavers of
the United States, the descriptions being ac-
companied by a number of lithographic
plates colored by hand. The work, aside
from its scientific value and its popular in-
terest, will be a treasure to the library of
any one who secures a copy. The " author's
edition " is limited to two hundred and fifty
numbered copies, which are issued in cloth
with uncut edges. A large part of the edi-
tion had been subscribed for before publi-
cation.

The Report of S. P. Langley, Secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution, for 1889,
states that the income of the Smithsonian
fund is becoming less and less adequate for
the work of the Institution with each year
of the country's growth. This fund is now
$703,000, of which only $1,500 have been
received in bequests since the original Smith-
son legacy. The secretary calls attention
to the Institution as a suitable trustee for
moneys intended for the advancement of
knowledge. Additional space is needed
for exhibition purposes for the National
Museum. The appropriation allowed for
making the foreign exchanges required
by Government does not cover what this
service costs the Institution, even though
free transportation is given by many steam-
ship companies. The library received 17,-
354 accessions in the course of the year, and
the collection is so large that much of it is
inaccessible from lack of room. The collec-
tion of living animals, which numbers over
three hundred, has outgrown its accommoda-
tions, and a scheme for creating a zoologi-
cal park on Rock Creek, in the District of
Columbia, is being agitated. The report in-
cludes statistics of publications of the Insti-

tution during the year, of accessions to the
museum and to the library, and of interna-
tional exchanges.

A great many facts which chemists con-
stantly need to refer to are put into handy
shape in the little pamphlet which Prof.
John H. Appleton has published now for
eight years, called the Laboratory Year-Book
(G. Roscoe and Co., Providence, 12 cents).
This publication contains a calendar, notes
on the chemical work done in the preceding
year, a list of new elements announced since
1877, a table based on the latest revision of
atomic and molecular weights, tables of
weights, measures, and thermometer scales
and equivalents, the C. G. S. system of units,
pronunciations of words used in chemistry,
logarithms, postal regulations, etc.

The Meteorological Observations made on
the Summit of Pike's Peak, January, 187 4^
to June, 1888, are published in the Annals
of Harvard College Observatory, Vol. XXII.
The observations were made and were pre-
pared for the press by the United States
Signal Service, and the expense of publica-
tion has been borne by the Boyden fund.
The observations occupy four hundred and
fifty-eight quarto pages, and are introduced
and supplemented by a few pages of text.

The Observations of the Neio England
Meteorological Society for 1888, published in
the Annals of the Harvard College Observa-
tory, contains tables in which the work of
the society for the year is summarized. In
a general account of the weather of the year
it is stated that nine months were colder
and three warmer than the average in New
England. The total precipitation exceeded
the usual annual fall by twenty-five per cent.

Among the papers that have appeared in
recent numbers of The Modern Science Es-
sayist (James H. West, Boston ; 10 cents a
number) is one on The Scope and Principles
of the Evolution Philosophy, by Lewis G.
Janes, the first lecture of the Brooklyn Ethi-
cal Association's second season. Dr. Janes
represents evolution as a universal method,
explaining the processes of all activity. He
states the agnostic position in regard to the
Unknowable Cause, and denies that the evo-
lutionist is a materialist. In his closing
paragraphs he points out the kind of aid
that evolutionary philosophy can give to the
solution of the problems of society. The

134

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Moral and Religious Aspects of Herbert
Spencer's Philosophy are presented in a
paper by Sylvan Drey, under three heads:
First, Spencer's theory of religion; second,
Spencer's theory of morality ; third, the re-
lation of religion to morality from the Spen-
cerian point of view. The object of the
essay is exposition and not defense, and the
author has the happy faculty of clear state-
ment, which such work requires. In a lect-
ure on Primitive Man, Z. Sidney Sampson
sketches the life-record of man as it is re-
vealed to us by the flint implements belong-
ing to the Pleistocene and possibly to earlier
geologic periods, by the articles found among
the piles in the Swiss lakes, etc. The lect-
ure is devoted mostly to the discoveries and
conclusions relating to the earlier Old and
New Stone Periods. C. Staniland Wake de-
scribes The Growth of the Marriage Rela-
tion, giving the attitude of primitive peoples
toward consanguineous marriage, some of
the varieties of polygyny and of polyandry
that have obtained in various countries, and
the chief features in the growth of monog-
amy.

Two successive volumes of the Questions
of the bay series are devoted to " the rail-
way problem." One of these, by Hon. W.
D. Dabney, is entitled The Public Regulation
of Railways (Putnams, $1.25). It deals
with the commercial relations of the rail-
ways to the public, and does not take up the
regulation of the roads with reference to
safety and convenience. The author dis-
cusses first the legal aspects of the ques-
tion and then its economic aspects. Un-
der the former head are considered the
sources of legislative power over railroads,
and the limitations of this power arising
from charter contracts, from the property
rights of the owners of railways, and from
the powers of Congress over interstate
commerce. On these subjects, the decisions
of the United States Supreme Court are
taken as authority almost exclusively. On
the economic side the discussion is based
principally upon material contained in the
reports and decisions of the Interstate Com-
merce Commission, and in the testimony and
arguments presented to that body in the re-
port made and testimony taken by the
"Cullom Committee" of the Senate, and
various other reports. The closing chapters

contain a brief analysis of the Interstate
Commerce Act, and a consideration of the
relations of the express companies to the
railways and to the people.

The phase of the subject dealt with by
Mr. John M. Bonham concerns Railway Se-
crecy and Trusts (Putnams, $1.25). The
secret discounts that railways make to cer-
tain monopolistic manufacturing corporations
the author regards as the most serious feat-
ure of the railway problem. In his discus-
sion of the subject he traces the growth of
abuses in railroad management, showing
that they owe their existence to the faulty
system under which railroad charters have
been granted. He states that the commis-
sions that have been appointed to regulate
great trusts and corporations fail to accom-
plish any reform because they have not the
power to get at the secret agreements of
these bodies, and he recommends a system
of inspection which will prevent the unjust
favoritism complained of.

The Report of the Commissioner of Edu-
cation for 1887-88 is about as late in ap-
pearing as that of the preceding year,
although it was completed three months
earlier. The efforts and appeals of Com-
missioner Dawson for prompt publication of
this document should meet with better suc-
cess. Among the topics that receive special
attention in the report are the condition and
needs of education among the thousand
Metlakahtla Indians, who have recently re-
moved from British Columbia to an island
near Sitka, also among the other inhabitants
of Alaska. Manual training, industrial in-
struction, and education at the South, are
also carefully reviewed.

A course of lectures on the Constitutional
History of the United States, as seen in the
Development of American Laiv (Putnams, $2),
delivered at the University of Michigan, has
been published in book form. The subjects
and lecturers are as follows : The Federal
Supreme Court : its Place in the American
Constitutional System, by Judge Thomas M.
Cooley; Constitutional Development in the
United States as influenced by Chief-Justice
Marshall, by Hon. Henry Hitchcock ; as influ-
enced by Chief -Justice Taney, by Hon. George
W. Biddle ; as influenced by the Decisions
of the Supreme Court since 1865, by Prof.
Charles A. Kent ; and The State Judiciary :

LITERARY NOTICES.

135

its Place in the American Constitutional
System, by Hon. Daniel H. Chamberlain.

The treatise on Money, by James Piatt
(Putnams, 75 cents), is historical, commer-
cial, and economic in scope. It gives a
sketch of the origin of money, after which
the question, What is money ? is discussed.
The author defines money as " a commodity,
of the same general nature as all other com-
modities." But he says that, although a
wealth in itself, its utility consists in its
ready convertibility. Paper is not money,
according to his view. Considerable space
is devoted to explanations and counsel about
banking. Exchange and interest receive
attention, and the author then proceeds to
discuss wealth and capital. Some consider-
ations on panics are given, with the aim of
preventing the tight grip on money that
always aggravates a panic. In the closing
sections, means of attaining individual suc-
cess and national prosperity are pointed out.

The History of Federal and State Aid to
Higher Education in the United States has
been prepared by Frank W, Blackmar, Ph.
D., at the request of the Bureau of Educa-
tion, as one of the series upon the history of
higher education in the United States, au-
thorized by the Secretary of the Interior.
It is intended to represent the progress of
the State idea in education from the founda-
tion of the colonies to the present time. It
discusses the rise of national education, with
its relation to local, and brings forward the
opinions of statesmen and scholars concern-
ing the duties and functions of government
in public education. A brief history is given
of the methods adopted by Congress to en-
courage and assist institutions of learning,
while the main body of the work is devoted
to the presentation in a condensed form of
the plans pursued by the Legislatures of
thirty-eight States in the treatment of higher
education. One of the strongest inferences
drawn by Commissioner Dawson from the
investigation is that in nearly every instance
the foremost desire of the people has been
for colleges and universities rather than for
schools of a lower grade, the opinion having
prevailed that primary and secondary schools
were dependent for their existence on higher
institutions.

The Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the
Massachusetts Agricultural College gives an

account of the work of the institution dur-
ing 1889, with the usual information about
course of study, professors, equipment, etc.
Appended to this report is a paper by Prof.
Paul Wagner, of Darmstadt, On the most
Profitable Use of Commercial Manures,
translated by Prof. Charles Wellington in
answer to the demand for information on the
subject.

In The Evolution of a Life (Holt Pub-
fishing Company, $2), Henry Truro Bray tells
the story of his early life, of his career as a
clergyman in the Methodist and then in the
Episcopal Church, and of Ms being forced to
leave the ministry on account of his growing
disbelief in the supernatural doctrines of re-
ligion and his increasing disgust with the
practices of church - members and men in
holy orders. The experiences and incidents
which are told in this volume under the veil
of fictitious names exhibit many of the per-
sons with whom Mr. Bray's labors brought
him in contact in no very enviable light.
The story, especially the part relating to the
author's married life, reveals the joys and
sorrows, hopes and fears, discouragements
and triumphs of an affectionate, sensitive,
and religious nature, which has been sadly
torn by contact with the world.

Bulletin No. 7 of the Iowa Agricultural
Experiment Station contains accounts of ex-
periments and observations on seven sub-
jects. The chief article is on varieties of
corn, and is illustrated with four plates. The
other topics treated are the millets, sugar
from sorghum, the codling moth, new Cyni-
pidce, the hog-louse, and varieties of grapes.

The Monthly Bulletin of the Iowa State
Board of Health (Des Moines, 25 cents a
year) is a decidedly practical and wide-awake
document. Each number is made up of
brief and timely articles on hygienic sub-
jects, replies to questions, reports of mortal-
ity, and of the appearance of contagious dis-
eases within the State, etc. A Signal Corps
meteorological report for each month is also
included.

A brief account of Massage and the Origi-
nal Swedish Movements has been prepared
for physicians and others interested by Kurre
W. Ostrom (Blakiston, 75 cents). It de-
scribes the operations of massage, with fig-
ures, and the various passive movements be-
longing to the Swedish system. Lists of

136

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

manipulations and movements suitable for a
large number of diseases are given. In these
applications Ling's and Mezger's systems
have generally been followed. Some consid-
erations in regard to the effects of exercise
are included in the volume, and a caution
against the untrained " rubbers " who form
a large part of those who claim to be mas-
seurs in America, or who use the name as a
cloak for vice.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED,

Alabama. Agricultural Experiment Station. Mi-
croscopical Study of* Certain Varieties of Corn. By
P. H. MelL Pp. 16, with Plate.

American Chemical Society, Journal, March, 1890.
Monthly. New York: John Polhemus. Pp. 24.
$5 a year.

Barkan, Louis, M. D. How to preserve Health.
New York : Exchange Printing Company. Pp. 344.

Bashkirtseff, Marie. The Journal of a Young
Artist. New York : Cassell Publishing Company.
Pp. 434. 50 cents.

Bean. Tarleton H. Description of a New Cottoid
Fish. Pp. 2.

Blackmar, Frank W. The History of Federal
and State Aid to Higher Education in the United
States. Washington: Government Priuting-Office.
Pp. 343.

Boole. Marv. Logic taught by Love. Boston :
Alfred Mudge & Son. Pp. 177.

Brinton, Daniel G. Essays of an Americanist.
Philadelphia : Porter & Coates. Pp. 489. $3.

Brinton, Daniel G., and Jastrow, Morris, Jr.
The Cradle of the Semites. Pp. 26.

Canfield, William B., M. D. Three Papers on
Pulmonary Phthisis and Pneumonia. Pp. 10. —
Some Complications of Chronic Endarteritis. Pp.
10. — The Early Detection of Pulmonary Consump-
tion. Pp. 11. Baltimore.

Church, M. B., Grand Rapids, Mich. Sanitary
Ceilings and Walls. Pp. 8.

Clark. Daniel, M. D. Faith- Cure. Toronto: D.
T. McAinsh. Pp. 11.

Coast and Geodetic Survey, United States.— Cul-
minations and Elongations of Azimuths. By Charles
A. 8chott. Pp. 5.— Verification of Weights and
Measures. By 0. n. Tittmann. Pp. 3.— Descrip-
tion of Two New Transit Instruments. By Edwin
Smith. Pp. 4.— Relation between the Metric Stand-
ards of Length. By C. A. Schott and O. H. Titt-
mann. Pp. 10.

Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion Bulletin. Sundry Investigations. Pp 82 —
Second Annual Report. Pp. 223. Ithaca, N. Y.

Coulter, Stanley. Histology of the Leaf of Taxo-
dium. Pp. 32, with Plate.

Crothers. T. D M M D. Sketch of the Late Dr.
Edward Turner the Founder cf Inebriate Asylums.
Hartford, Conn. : Case, Lockwood & Brainard Com-
pany. Pp. 25.

Dall, W. H. ReDort on Mollusca and Brachi-
opoda obtained by United States Fish Commission

p2nr er n£ lbatro ^ s - Wa sbington : Government
rnnting-Omce. Pp. 144.

«.„ w™J?' S" rles ;. A Naf urahst's Vovage round
the Word New edition. Illustrated. New York :
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 551. $5.

tion 06 ?' D 22 G " S '' SaD Francisco - Dental Educa-
Cha?t rUggi8t ' NationaL Pois <>°s and their Antidotes.
Pp^ 67 ' Wi,Ham L The Nature of Amalgams.

Earl, A. G. The Elements of Laboratory Work.
London and New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 179. $1.40.

Education Association, National. Proceedings
of the Department of Superintendence, March,
1S89. Washington : Government Printing-Office.
Pp. 800.

Etter, J. W.. D. D., Editor. Quarterly Review of
the United Brethren in Christ Vol. I, No. 1, Janu-
ary. 1890. Dayton, O. : W. J. Shuey. Pp.100. 50
cents. $1.50 a year.

Everts, Orpheus, M D, College Hill, Ohio. Treat-
ment of the Insane. Pp. 8.— Expert Testimonv and
Medical Experts. Pp. 8.

Fewkes, J. Walter. A Few Californian Medusae.
Pp. 12, with Plates.— On Excavations made in Rocks
by Sea-Urchins. Pp. 21.

Fisher, Sydney G., Philadelphia. The Cause of
Increase of Divorce. Pp. 20.

Forbes, S. A.. University of Illinois. History
and Status of Public-School Science Work in Illi-
nois. Pp. 15.

Friese, Philip C. Semitic Philosophy. Chicago :
S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 247.

Fyffe, C. A. History of Modern Europe. Vol.
III. New York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 572.
$2.50.

Gilbert, Charles H. Gillichthys Y-cauda at San
Diego, Cal. P. 1.

Green. H. L., Freethinkers' Magazine. Gior-
dano Bruno: his Life, Works, etc. Pp. 20.— Gior-
dano Bruno, Pamphlet No. 2. Pp. 20.— Roscoe
Conkling Memorial Oration. By Robert G. Inger-
boII. Pp. 8.— Robert G. Ingersoll's Centennial Ora-
tion of the Declaration of Independence. Pp. 22. —
The Myth of the Great Deluge. By James M. Mc-
Cann. Pp. 32.— What constitutes a Freethinker?
By H. L. Green. Pp. 8.— Church and State, etc. By
" Jefferson." Pp. 28.

Grote, A. Radcliffe. Revised Check List of the
North American Noctuidae. Part I. Bremen, Ger-
many. Pp. 52.

Heydenft- ldt. S., Jr. The Union of the Conscious
Forces. San FranciFco. Pp. 12.

Hubbard, T. S., & Co.. Fredonia. N. Y. Descrip-
tive Catalogue of Grape- Vines and Small Fruits.

Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. Sec-
ond Annual Report. Pp. 18 —The Biology of Ensi-
lage. Pp. 122.

Illinois State Board of Health. Tenth Annual
Report. Pp. 313.

Iowa State Board of Health. Monthly Bulletin,
February, 1890. Pp. 24.

James. Joseph F. The Effect of Rain on Earth-
worms. Pp. 3.

Knobloch, A. Sound-English. A Language for
the World. New York: Gustav E. Stechert.
Pp. 63.

Koebele, Albert. Natural Enemies of the Fluted
Scale. Washington : Government Printing-Office.
Pp. 32.

Lum, Dyer D. The Economics of Anarchy.
Chicago : George A. Schilling. Pp. 59.

McDonald, Marshall, Commissioner. Bulletin of
the United States Fish Commission for 1887. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Office. Pp. 475.

Mason. Otis T. The Archaeology of the Potomac
Tide-Water Region ; and Wilson, Thomas. The
Palaeolithic Period in the District of Columbia.
Washington : Government Printing-Office. Pp. 10.

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station.
Productiveness of Farm-lands. Pp. 16.

Mills, W. T. Tariff Legislation or Arbitration ?

Minnesota, Public Health in. February, 1890.
Pp. 8.

Niagara State Reservation. Sixth Annual Report
of the Commissioners. Albany : James B. Lvon.
Pp. 84.

Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. Eighth
Annual Report. Pp. 64.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

137

Riley, C. V., and Howard, L. O., Editors. Insect
Life. January and February, 1890. Pp. 64.

School Management, A Primer of. Syracuse,
N. Y. : C. "W. Bardeen. Pp. 44. 25 cents.

Sensenig, David M. Numbers TJniversahzed.
An Advanced Algebra. Part II. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. Pp.492. $1.26.

Shufeldt, R. W., M. D. Osteology of Arctic and
Sub-Arctic Water Birds. Pp. 13, with Plates.— On
the Position of Chamaea in the System. Boston :
Ginn & Co. Pp. 24.

Southwick Nurseries, Massachusetts. Gillett&
Hosford. Catalogue of Wild Flowers, Shrubs, Trees,
and Vines. Pp. 28.

Spencer, David E. Local Government in Wis-
consin. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University. Pp.
20. 25 cents.

Stejneger, Leonhard. Birds collected in Kauai,
Hawaiian Islands, by Valdemar Knudsen. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Office. Pp. 10.

Stone, W. E. Cane-Sugar in the Sweet Potato.
Pp.5.

Thorpe, T. E. A Dictionary of Applied Chem-
istry. London and New York: Longmans, Green
&Co. Vol I. Pp.715.

Tubs with Bottoms and Tubs without. (Anony-
mous.) Printed for the author at 20 Cooper Union,
New York. Pp.345. $1.

Walcott, Charles D. Inarticulate Brachiopod
from the Trenton Limestone. P. 1.

Ward, Lester F. The Geographical Distribution
of Fossil Plants. Washington : Government Print-
ing-Office. Pp. ISO, with Map.

Wendel, F. C. H. History of Egypt. New York :
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 158.

White, David. Cretaceous Plants from Martha's
Vineyard. Pp. 8, with Plate.

Whitlock, L. L. List of Scientific and Trade Pa-
pers. Boston. Pp. 80. 50 cents.

Willard, Frances E. Glimpses of Fifty Years.
The Autobiography of an American Woman. Chi-
cago: Woman's Temperance Publishing Association.
Pp.704.

Yeo, J. Burney, M. D. Food in Health and
Disease. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. Pp.
583.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Jacob EnniSt — This able but retiring man
was born in Essex County, N. J., in 1807. He
came of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock on his fa-
ther's side, and was of Dutch extraction (the
Doremuses) on his mother's side. After grad-
uating at Rutgers College, and when yet quite
a young man, he connected himself with the
Dutch Reformed Church, and was by that or-
ganization sent to the islands of Java and
Sumatra as a missionary, where he remained
four years. Here his powers of observation
and his love for the study of nature had an
early development. Returning to his native
country, he soon engaged in educational work,
and was elected Professor of Natural Sciences
in the National Military College of Bristol,
Pa. Afterward he became principal and pro-
prietor of the Scientific and Classical Insti-
tute of Philadelphia, where he spent the best

part of his life. He also occupied for some
years the chair of Physical Sciences in the
State Normal School at Shippenburg, Pa. In
his career as an educator, he from the start
laid great stress on the importance of the
study of nature, and was indeed a bold and
fearless innovator in this respect, anticipat-
ing by perhaps a quarter of a century the
recognition that scientific studies have sub-
sequently had in all the highest institutions
of learning. His life was quiet, simple, dig-
nified, but laborious. He was a member of
the chief scientific bodies both in this coun-
try and abroad, and his contributions in the
shape of addresses before learned societies,
pamphlets, and articles in scientific periodi-
cals were many and varied, always strikingly
original, often profound, and sometimes pro-
phetic. Among these contributions, chiefly
on astronomical problems, "was one entitled
The Two Great Works to be done on our Si-
dereal Systems. In this publication two ques-
tions are asked — First : Which way round
does the great ring of the milky way revolve ?
Second : In which direction must we look for
the center of our sidereal systems, and how
far is it distant? These two questions he
attempted to answer himself in an unpub-
lished work, upon which he expended all the
time and thought that he could command
during the latter days of his life. He con-
sidered this the most important and certain-
ly the most original and far-reaching of his
works on astronomy, and it will no doubt be
published in due time. In his book on The
Origin of the Stars, published over twenty
years ago, some of the most transcendental
problems of physical astronomy were at-
tacked and solved with a keen analysis, an
abundance of facts, and a wealth of illus-
tration worthy of a master of the science.
Prof. Ennis's intellectual scope and sympa-
thies were not narrow or one-sided ; he was
familiar with the entire range of English and
classical literature, and was an excellent lin-
guist. His literary style was simple, direct,
and lucid ; he had a great dislike for " big
words," and always succeeded in making his
ideas clear by the use of plain and untechnical
language even when handling the most ab-
struse problems. His habits and tastes were
simple, his wants few, his disposition kindly
and gentle, and the attitude of his mind was
distinctly reverent. He was so quiet, mod-

i 3 8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

est, and unobtrusive that but few suspected
the presence of a great thinker so near at
home, and fewer still knew him personally.
He died in Houston, Texas, January 12, 1890.

The Late Henry James Clark. — A biogra-
phy and bibliography of Henry James Clark
has been published by the Massachusetts
Agricultural College, in which he was the
first professor. He was born in 1826, be-
gan the study of botany under Asa Gray in
1850, and became a pupil and private assist-
ant of Agassiz, who spoke of him in 1857 as
"the most accurate observer in the coun-
try." He was in succession adjunct Pro-
fessor of Zoology in Harvard University;
Professor of Botany, Zoology, and Geology
in the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania ;
Professor of Natural History in the Univer-
sity of Kentucky; and Professor of Com-
parative Anatomy and Veterinary Science
in the Massachusetts Agricultural College;
and he was a member, fellow, or correspond-
ent of the principal American scientific so-
cieties, including the Academy of Sciences
when its membership was limited to fifty.
He assisted Agassiz in the preparation of
parts of the Contributions to the Natural
History of the United States ; delivered lect-
ures on histology and the Cambridge Muse-
um of Comparative Zoology ; and delivered
a course of lectures at the Lowell Institute
on Mind in Nature ; or the Origin of Life,
and the Mode of Development of Animals.
He died on the first day of July, 1873, in the
forty-eighth year of his age. The list of his
scientific writings comprises twenty -seven
titles, mos of which cover more than one
article.

Educational Valne of Manual Training.
— The committee report of the National
Council of Education on the Educational
Value of Manual Training admits the rea-
sonableness of substituting a system of man-
ual training in special schools, in so far as it
can be done, for the old system of appren-
ticeship, but insists that the training ought
not to be begun before the completion of
the pupil's twelfth year, nor before he has
had the statutory instruction prescribed by
the state in the intellectual branches of
school work. It admits that manual train-
ing is an educative influence, and that, in so

far as the schools teach the scientific prin-
ciples that underlie the practical points of
their work, they add intellectual education
to physical education. The study of general
scientific principles, according to Dr. William
T. Harris's interpretation of the views of the
report, would be educative in the first rank :
they explain all machines and all natural
phenomena in our present experience, and
will explain those that we meet in the fu-
ture. In the second rank are special appli-
cations of science in the form of theories
of special machines, as, for example, of the
steam-engine. These theories explain all
machines made in accordance with them ;
they are very general, but not so general as
the scientific theories of the forces involved.
They are accordingly less educative. A third
and least educative school exercise is the
construction of a particular machine, when
the theory is narrowed down to a special
example. The laborer meets many new
things in the work of constructing the ma-
chine, but unhappily they are not educative,
because they are contingent, and do not as-
sist in explaining or constructing the next
machine. Examined in these three grades
of educative value, the purely manual work
of the school belongs to the lowest grade,
and furnishes the obscurest knowledge of
principles covered up by a mass of non-es-
sential circumstances. The committee, how-
ever, lays stress on the importance of aes-
thetic culture through drawing. It is cult-
ure in taste that American workmen need,
and not culture in skill, for our laborers are
already ingenious and skillful and indus-
trious. Drawing is the best means of ac-
quiring familiarity with the conventional
forms of beauty in ornament — forms that
express the outlines of freedom and grace-
fulness, and charm all peoples, even those
who have not the skill to produce them;
and make markets for the articles that bear
them.

Causes of Insanity. — The latest report of
the British Commissioners of Lunacy gives
tables showing the causes of insanity as
verified by the medical officers of the institu-
tions, in the cases of 136,478 patients who
have been admitted into public and private
asylums since 1887. The causes are classi-
fied as " moral " and " physical." As might

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

»39

be expected, " intemperance in drink " heads
the list of single causes, with 18,290 cases.
Of "moral causes," "domestic trouble,"
" adverse circumstances," and " mental
anxiety and worry, and overwork," are col-
lectively held responsible for 25,897 cases.
Of other moral causes, "religious excite-
ment" is credited with 3,769 cases, "love
affairs " with 2,224, and " fright and nerv-
ous shock " with 1,953. Of physical causes,
"sexual diseases" are credited with 3,447
cases, " overexertion " with 761, " sun-
stroke " with 1,686, " accident or injury "
with 4,199, " diseases of women " with
11,315, "old age" with 5,773, "privation
and starvation " with 2,607, " fevers " with
880, "puberty" with 582, and "other bodi-
ly diseases or disorders " with 14,719.
Previous attacks had occurred in 22,703
cases. Hereditary influence was ascertained
in 28,063, and congenital defect in 5,881. As
between the sexes, 66,918 were of the male
and 69,560 of the female sex.

Rights on Other Men's Lands. — A paper
by Mr. Hyde Clarke, on "The Rights of
Property in Trees " on the land of another,
relates to a curious custom of primeval
times which still survives in some lands.
The author first met it as a land judge in
Asia Minor in 1862, when he was called
upon to grant compensation for olive-trees
belonging to one or more persons on the
lands of others, and for honey - trees or
hoards of wild honey in state or communal
forests. Papers read by the Rev. Dr. Cod-
ington gave information of the existence of
a like system in Melanesia. It likewise
prevails, according to Mr. Crocker, of the
British North Borneo Company, in Borneo,
in respect to the Icatapang, or honey-tree,
and also in the case of caves containing edi-
ble bird's-nests. Sir Spencer St. John also
observes that in Borneo the land nominally
belongs to the state or tribe, but the owner-
ship is not a private property in land in our
sense of the word. He had observed that
certain of the tapang, on which the bees
construct their nests, often belonged to
special families, and were not touched by
their neighbors. Sir Thomas Wade has
found a similar right in China, where, when
hill farms or gardens are leased, the tenant
will pay the proprietor a yearly rent. All

fir-trees or bamboos on the ground before it
is let belong to the proprietors, and the ten-
ant is "not free to appropriate them. If
there were no such trees on the ground when
it was let, and such trees were subsequently
planted by the tenant, they would be at his
disposal. Separate property in trees is also
traceable in India, particularly in Chota
Nagpore, where Mr. J. F. Hewitt has fre-
quently found that fruit trees growing on
land are owned by persons other than the
owners or cultivators of the soil. The
mhowa- trees, which are exceedingly valu-
able, are frequently divided among the in-
habitants of the villages near which they
grow. This individual property in trees is
not in Turkey confined to Asia Minor, but
prevails as a general law in the empire.
Miss Pauline Inby found it in Bosnia, and
bought an interest of the kind in a certain
estate. It seems also to have anciently
existed in the British Islands, and is recog-
nized in the Brehon records of Ireland. But
there, and in most European countries, the
vestiges of the separate rights have ceased
to exist.

Soaping Geysers. — It ha3 been often ob-
served that throwing soap into the geysers
of the Yellowstone Park will produce or
hasten an outburst. The phenomenon has
been investigated by Prof. Arnold Hague,
of the United States Geological Survey, who
finds that two conditions are essential to the
production of an eruption in this way : first,
the surface caldron or reservoir should hold
but a small amount of water, exposing only
a limited area to the atmosphere ; and, sec-
ond, that the water should stand at or above
the boiling-point of water for the altitude of
the geyser basin above sea-level. The latter
is the principal factor. Many of the geysers
and hot springs present the singular phe-
nomena of pools of water heated above the
theoretical boiling-point, and, unless dis-
turbed, frequently remain so for many days
without exhibiting any signs of ebullition.
Thermal waters in this condition may be made
to boil by other artificial means that will dis-
turb their equilibrium, as by casting sinter
into them, and, in one instance at least, by a
strong temporary gust of wind. If soap or
lye is thrown into most of the small pools, a
viscous fluid is formed ; and viscosity is, in

140

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the opinion of the author, the principal cause
in hastening geyser-action. It tends to cause
the steam to be retained within the basin,
and, when the temperature stands at or above
the boiling-point, explosive liberation must
follow. All alkaline solutions exhibit, by
reason of this viscosity, a tendency to bump
and boil irregularly. Viscosity in the hot
springs must also tend to the formation of
bubbles and foam when the steam rises to
the surface, and this in turn aids to bring
about the explosive action, followed by a
relief of pressure, and thus to hasten the
final and more powerful display. The prac-
tice of casting in soap is regarded as detri-
mental to the preservation of the geysers,
and as a proper object of restriction.

The Nature of Poisoned Arrows. — The

word poison, as applied to the poisoned arrows
used in the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, the
Banks Islands, and the New Hebrides, should
be understood, according to the Rev. Dr. R. H.
Codington, in a peculiar sense. The practice
of administering poison in food was com-
mon among the natives, but it was doubtful
whether what was used had much power of
doing harm. The deadly effect was expected
to follow from the incantations with which
the poison was prepared. In the same way
the deadly quality of the poisoned arrows
was never thought by the natives to be due
to poison in our sense of the word, though
what was used might be, and was meant to
be, injurious and active in inflaming the
wound. It was the supernatural power that
belonged to the human bone of which the
arrow-head was made on which they chiefly
relied, and with that the magical power of
the incantations with which it was fastened
to the shaft. The bone of any dead man
will give efficacy in the native belief to the
arrow, because any ghost may have power
to work on the wounded man ; but the bone
of one who was powerful when alive is more
valued. In Lepers' Island, a young man,
out of affection for his dead brother, took
up his bones and made them into arrows.
He carried these about him, and did not
speak of himself as " I," but as " we two " —
his brother and himself — and he was much
feared; all the supernatural power of the
dead brother was with the living. Although
it is the human bone that gives the deadly

quality to the arrow, the bone must be pre-
pared with certain incantations which add
supernatural power. The poison is an addi-
tion to the power of the bone. The native
did not much consider, if at all, the natural
power to hurt, of either bone or poison. A
dead man's bone made the wound, the power
of the ghost was brought by incantation to the
arrow, and therefore the wounded man would
die. Euphorbia-juice is hot and inflaming;
it is smeared on the bone with an incanta-
tion which calls in the power of a dead
man's ghost ; when the wound is given, the
ghost will make it inflame. The cure of the
wounded man is conducted on the same prin-
ciple. If the arrow-head, or a part of it,
can be recovered, it is kept in a damp place
or on cool leaves ; the inflammation of the
wound is little, or subsides. Shells are kept
rattling over the house where the man lives,
to keep off the hostile ghost. In the same
way the enemy who has inflicted the wound,
and his friends, will drink hot and burning
juices, and chew irritating leaves ; pungent
and bitter herbs will be burned to make an
irritating smoke, and will be tied upon the
bow that sent the arrow ; the arrow-head, if
recovered, will be put into the fire. The
bow will be kept near the fire, and its string
kept taut and occasionally pulled, to bring
on tension of the nerves and the spasms of
tetanus. Prof. Victor Horsley has suggested
that the value of the human bone tipping the
arrow was first made evident by the employ-
ment of a bone from a corpse recently dead,
in the decomposing tissues of which the
septicsemic virus would consequently be flour-
ishing.

The Mesozoie Atlantic Coast Region. — In

his address before the Geological Section of
the American Association, Prof. Charles E.
"White, defining the Mesozoie formations of
North America, said that the rocks of the
Triassic age are found from Prince Edward
Island to the Carolinas. They rest on for-
mations, from the Archaean to the Carbon-
iferous, inclusive. Verv few invertebrate
fossils have been found in the Trias of the
Atlantic coast region, and these are of little
value for indicating the age of the strata
that contained them. Intermediate between
the Triassic beds and the undisputed Creta-
ceous deposits of this region is a series of

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

141

strata of littoral and estuary origin, to which
the name Potomac formation has been ap-
plied. These deposits are only a few hun-
dred feet thick, and, though frequently cov-
ered from sight, seem to be continuous from
New Jersey to Mississippi. Invertebrate fos-
sils are rare, but large collections of fos-
sil plants have been found in the Potomac
region. The best authorities recognize sev-
eral of these fossils as Jurassic. Briefly,
then, the Mesozoic of the Atlantic coast
region consists of a probable representation
of the Upper Trias of Europe, a possible one
of the Upper Jura, a probable slight one of
the Middle Cretaceous, and a practically
certain representation of a large part of the
Upper Cretaceous, with a hiatus between the
latter and the Eocene. The speaker advo-
cated a system of classification more suited
to this country than the European one. The
time has come when North American geolo-
gists can and ought to hold a commanding
position in this matter.

Olives and their Oil. — The olive has
been cultivated in the regions of the Medi-
terranean coasts from time immemorial. Ol-
ive-oil there takes the place of butter. Spain
has about 3,000,000 acres in olives, Italy
2,250,000, and France about 330,000 acres.
Forty-five varieties of the fruit are described.
The tree occasionally grows to be sixty feet
high, and twelve feet in circumference of
trunk. The varieties differ in the nature of
the wood, the foliage, and the quality and
shape of the fruit. The fruit is mild, or
sharp, or bitter ; and the oils differ like-
wise ; so that a pure olive-oil may be unfit
for purposes of food, and only fit for greas-
ing machinery and making soap. The green,
unripe olives, having had the bitter taste
extracted with salt, are preserved in vinegar
with spices. The ripe olives are gathered in
the fall, when they are as large as common
plums. They are of dark-green color, and the
pit, now become a hard stone, contains a
savory kernel. The flesh is spongy, and its
little cells are filled with the mild oil, which
runs out at the least pressure. The finest
oil is the virgin oil which is made by col-
lecting the freshly gathered olives in little
heaps, and letting them press the oil out by
their own weight. It is clear, and has a deli-
cate, nutty taste, with little or no odor. When

the fruits cease to give the oil by them-
selves, they are pressed with small millstones,
yielding an oil which is also clear and has a
pleasant taste. The olives, still rich in oil,
are next put in sacks, boiling water is poured
over them, and they are pressed once more.
The oil gained by this process is yellowish-
green, and has a sharp taste and an unpleas-
ant smell. At Marseilles the olive-oils are
classed into manufacturing oils for burning,
greasing machinery, and soap-making; re-
fined oil ; oil from the pulp or husks, and
table or edible oil. The last is superfine,
fine, half fine, and ordinary. The table oil
is refined by allowing it to run through lay-
ers of thin sheets of wadding into tin perfo-
rated boxes. The wadding absorbs all the
thick particles, and leaves the oil clear and
tasteless. The olive crop is variable and un-
certain, and is seldom profitable more than
once in six or eight years.

Avogadro. — According to a sketch pub-
lished by Prof. Hugo Schiff, of Florence, in
the " Chemiker Zeitung," Amadeo Count
Avogadro, son of the magistrate Filippo
Vercellone, was born in Turin, August 9,
1776. He studied jurisprudence at the Tu-
rin University, became Doctor of Laws on
March 16, 1796, and then held a position
under the Government till 1S06, when he
began his scientific career. In physics he
was self-taught, and obtained a subordinate
position in the Collegio delle Provincie in
Turin, which was then and still is a richly
endowed department of the Turin Universi-
ty. On November 7, 1809, he became Pro-
fessor of Physics at the Gymnasium in Ver-
celli. In 1820 he was elected Professor of
Mathematical Physics at the Turin Univer-
sity. Later this chair of instruction was
abolished, and Avogadro resumed the prac-
tice of law. He was, however, reinstated in
his chair through the influence of Charles
Albert, and remained at the university till
1850, when he retired on account of old age
and ill health. He died at Turin, July 9,
1856, at the age of eighty years. Avogadro
was but little known in Italy and unknown
in foreign countries. He shared with Charles
Gerhard, who died in the same year, August
19, 1856, the same fate. It was only after
death that their great and important contri-
butions to science found recognition.

142

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Atmospheric Nitrogen as Food for
Plants. — The results of experiments at the
agricultural stations at Middletown and
Mansfield, Conn., are in favor of the value
of atmospheric nitrogen as a food for plants.
The conclusions are deduced from them by
Prof. Atwater that many, if not most, of
the leguminous plants are able to and do ac-
quire large quantities of nitrogen from the
air during their period of growth ; and that
there is some connection, not yet defined,
between root -tubercles and the acquisition
of this aliment. The cereals with which ex-
periments have been completed have not
manifested the same power, and they do not
have such tubercles as are formed on the
roots of the legumes. The addition of soil in-
fusions did not seem necessary for the pro-
duction of root-tubercles. The size and vigor
of the plants, and their gain of nitrogen from
the air, seemed to be proportional to the abun-
dance of root-tubercles in the experiment.
Losses of nitrogen sometimes occurred, but
always in cases where there were no root-tu-
bercles. The ability of legumes to gather
nitrogen from the air helps to explain the
usefulness of certain members of the family
as renovating crops, and enforces the im-
portance of using them to restore fertility to
exhausted soils. Conversely, the loss of ni-
trogen suffered by some other crops, such as
oats, suggests a possible reason why they
should appear to be " exhausting " crops.

Coffee in Brazil.— The cultivation of cof-
fee has been greatly extended in Brazil dur-
ing recent years, chiefly in the southern
provinces. The planting is done on freshly
cleared ground after a single crop of Indian
corn has been raised from it, either by sow-
ing the seed directly or often by transplant-
ing from slips grown in nursery rows. Dur-
ing the earlier years corn, beans, and occa-
sionally sugar-corn are grown between the
rows. The coffee-plant usually begins to
bear at the fourth year from the nursery, or
the fifth or sixth year from the seed. The
tree is supposed to reach its prime at ten
years old, becomes practically sterile at twen-
ty, and may by care be kept in bearing for
forty years. The extremes of the flowering
season are from August to January. The
berry begins to form in November, and to
ripen in April or May, when the harvesting

begins. This is done by hand, and gener-
ally very carelessly. The berries are washed,
dried, and put through various processes of
cleaning for the market ; what is called
" washed " coffee is put through a different
process, in which much of the treatment is
given under water.

Objeet-Stndies in Botany. — Prof. Bessey
some time ago urged teachers of botany to
give a more intelligent direction to the col-
lections which their pupils will make during
the season of study. The usual course is to
gather a surplus of the showy flowers which
are the most easily studied, and neglect the
others, of which less is known. The teacher
should take special pains to point out the
features of interest in the funguses, etc.,
which the student may bring in. Let him
direct attention to the pores, on the walls of
which the spores are developed — to the
closely interwoven threads of the body of
the fungus. When a spotted strawberry-
leaf is brought in, let him tell something,
if it be but little, about the cause of the
spots ; and let the pupil be taught to look for
similar spots on other plants, and to study
them. Do so with lichens, with pond-scums,
with green slimes, with mosses, with liver-
worts — in fact, with whatever is brought in
by the sharp-eyed young collector. " He
must be a poor teacher indeed who can not
suggest something to his pupil about a toad-
stool or a puff-ball. It is not necessary to
know the species or even the genus to which
a plant has been assigned in order to be able
to make valuable suggestions to one's pu-
pils."

Contributions to the Geology of Staten
Island. — Dr. N. L. Britton has reported to
the Natural Science Association of Staten
Island concerning observations that lead him
to consider that the serpentine and talcose
rocks forming the main ridge of the island
were derived from magnesian limestone and
hornblende or tremolite strata. The rocks
were doubtless originally deposited in a con-
formable sequence, but the serpentines were
left on top in the folding of the strata. The
hypothesis of a southwestward extension of
the crystalline rocks across New Jersey has
been confirmed in a well-boring at Perth Am-
bov. Considerable additions to the fossil

NOTES.

H3

flora have been obtained by Mr. Hallick from
the ferruginous sandstone on the shore at
Tottenville. The occurrence of copper, de-
rived from the decomposition of pyrites, in
the limonite ore beds at Todt Hill is men-
tioned. Several well-defined nearly driftless
areas north and west of the terminal mo-
raine illustrate an interesting feature of gla-
ciation.

NOTES.

Prof. D. S. Martin's Geological Map of
New York City and its Environs is the only
map giving in detail the geology of the en-
tire region (fifty-five by sixty-eight miles)
surrounding the metropolis ; it is compiled
with great care from separate sources, some
of which are not easily accessible, and some
are unpublished ; it exhibits the relations of
many geological systems and series east of
the Alleghanies ; and shows striking features
connected with the Glacial age, the terminal
moraine, and the ancient (now submerged)
channel of the Hudson River. A pamphlet
of explanations accompanies every copy. A
few copies of the second edition of the map
still reman for disposal at ten dollars each.
No more are likely to be published. Address
Prof. Martin, at Rutgers Female College, West
Fifty-fifth Street, New York.

Mr. C. R. Orcutt remarks, in the West
American Scientist, on the prominence of the
great variety in rock-lichens in producing a
pleasing effect in the scenery of Lower Cali-
fornia. Red, yellow, gray, and white are the
prevailing colors, and the whole side of a cliff
is often covered by lichens of the same tint.
Quartz, however, is not a favorite rock with
the lichens, and consequently is seldom con-
cealed. The lichens frequently imitate, in
coloring, the natural hue of the rocks on
which they are found.

A book by Mr. George F. Kunz, the dis-
tinguished mineralogical expert of the house
of Tiffany & Co., on the Gems and Precious
Stones of North America, is announced for
publication by the Scientific Publishing
Company, New York. It will be a popular
description of the occurrence, value, history,
and archaeology of precious stones in Amer-
ica, and of the collections in which they ex-
ist, with a chapter on pearls. The several
species and varieties are described system-
atically. The work will be sold at ten dol-
lars a copy.

Mr. John Griffttt, of Smyrna, has re-
ported favorably on the results of a sea-
son's experiments in rearing silk-worms on
mulberry-trees, under muslin screens, in the
open air, using the regenerated Bournabat
graine. They show that the regeneration was
thorough and complete, enabling the worms

to endure the low temperature of 45° F.,
with storm and wet for ten consecutive days.
The proportion of Ratine or satin-like cocoons
was extraordinary — fifty to two hundred and
ninety-four in all. A somewhat similar trial
made in India some years ago was success-
ful experimentally but not financially. In
this case the worms, under calico screens,
ate along the hedge at their will, new relays
taking the place of the old ones as the parts
of the hedge over which thev had eaten re-
covered their leaves.

River water was substituted for spring
water in one of the quarters of Paris sev-
eral times last summer. In every instance,
according to the " Semaine Medicale," an in-
crease of typhoid fever was observed. The
quantity of spring water brought to Paris
being insufficient for the demand, the Coun-
cil of Public Hygiene and Health has deter-
mined to expedite the labors for the new
supply from springs recently bought by the
city, and to insist that the use of the present
spring waters be limited to food purposes.

Henry Holt & Co. will publish soon, In-
troduction to Systematic Botany. By Charles
E. Bessey, professor in the University of
Nebraska, and author of Bessey's Botanies
in the American Science Series.

M. de Malarce recently informed the
French Academy of Sciences that the use of
the metric system had in 1887 become com-
pulsory in countries having an aggregate pop-
ulation of 302,000,000, being an increase of
53,000,000 persons obliged to use it in ten
years ; use was optional in countries having
nearly 97,000,000 inhabitants ; and was le-
gally admitted and partially applied in coun-
tries having an aggregate population of 395,-
000,000. The systems of Japan, China, and
Mexico are decimal but not metric. Hence
the metric system is legally recognized by
794,000,000 people and decimal systems by
about 474,000,000 others.

By the Hungarian trade law of 1884,
every commune in which there are fifty or
more apprentices must provide for their ed-
ucation, and afford special courses of in-
struction. The apprentice schools in Buda-
Pesth contain a preparatory class, provide a
course of three years, and are chiefly de-
signed to educate apprentices for the higher
trade schools. Each district of the town
must have at least one apprentice school.
No class is to have more than fifty or at
most sixty pupils. Deserving pupils are pro-
moted at the end of each year. In the oth-
er towns and counties of the kingdom there
are 229 apprentice schools, with 1,237 teach-
ers and 38,081 pupils.

The Swedish Oyster-culture Society is try-
ing to acclimatize American oysters from
Connecticut on the coast of the province of
Bahus. The young oysters seem to thrive
welL

H4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A scheme of the French Government to
encourage the intermarriage of life-convicts
in New Caledonia with life-convicts import-
ed from the prisons at home is pronounced
mischievous by the " Lancet." The purpose
is to build up family relations in the inter-
est of morality ; but British experience is to
the effect that such alliances lead to the
multiplication of criminals, and that the real
check to crime lies in breaking up and iso-
lating the criminal class. Testimony gleaned
by M. Louis Barron from the journals of
New Caledonia points in the same direction,
and forms an instructive commentary on the
law of heredity as deduced by Darwin.

The French fishermen are troubled by
the depredations of porpoises, for which they
have not succeeded in finding a remedy.
An attempt was made to catch them in seine
nets, but they jumped out of the snares.
They were scared away by guns and torpe-
does, but the fish were frightened and dis-
appeared with them. They are too numer-
ous to be shot one by one in an effective
manner. The only thing to be done seems
to be for the fishermen to unite and drive
them away in crowds ; but this will have to
be often repeated. Insurance and payment
of damages by the Government are the last
measures of relief suggested ; but they, too,
are expensive to somebody.

Vanilla is produced from a species of
orchid that attaches itself to walls, trees,
and other suitable objects. The plant has a
long, fleshy stem, and the leaves are alter-
nate, oval, and lanceolate. The flower is of
a greenish-white color, and forms axillary
spikes. The fruit is a pod, measuring when
full grown some ten or twelve inches in

length and about half an inch in diameter.
The quality of the pod can be determined by
the presence or non-presence of a crystalline
efflorescence called givre, and by its dark
chocolate-brown color. The fragrant givre is
vanillin, C 8 H 8 3 . The pods also contain va-
nillic acid, oily matter, soft resin, sugar, gum,
and oxalate of lime.

A striking example of degeneration in
growth is exhibited by the scale that attacks
greenhouse and other plants. According to
Mr. Bernard Thomas, in "Science Gossip,"
it is a degenerated female which lives upon
the sap of the plant, continuing to increase
in size and reproduce its young. These may
be found underneath it as minute red bod-
ies, just visible to the naked eye, and at this
time of their life comparatively active creat-
ures ; but they soon settle down and begin
to degenerate. Their eyes become indis-
tinct, and finally, with their antenna; and
legs, shrivel away, the body loses its thick-
ness, and they appear as if without life.

Totems are defined by Mr. J. G. Fraser
as " a class of material objects which a sav-
age regards with superstitious respect, be-

lieving that there exists between him and
every member of the class an intimate and
altogether special relation." They are tribal
emblems, family symbols, signals of nation-
ality, expressions of religion, bonds of un-
ion, and regulators of marriage-laws and of
the social institutions. The system of to-
tems exists among most primitive peoples,
and in similar forms with the North Ameri-
can Indians, Australians, South Africans,
Arabs, hill tribes of India, Polynesians, and
many other peoples. Among a tribe in Co-
lombia, where descent is in the female line,
it goes so far that if a man happens to cut
himself with his own knife, to fall off from
his own horse, or to hurt himself in any way,
his mother's clan demand blood-money from
him for injuring one of their totems.

OBITUARY NOTES.

Prof. Van Quenstedt, of Tubingen, one
of the most famous of German paleontolo-
gists, died December 21st, at an advanced
age. He was the author of a work on the
Jura, and of a Handbook of Petrefacten-
kunde, or the science of petrifactions. He
had an especially profound knowledge of the
Lias of Wiirtemberg and its fossils.

M. Ch. Fievez, assistant in the spectro-
scopic department of the Royal Observatory
of Brussels, died February 2d, aged forty-five
years. He studied first for the military pro-
fession, but was invited to the observatory
by M. Houzeau, and entered it after studying
under Janssen at Meudon. His most impor-
tant work was the construction of a chart of
the solar spectrum on a larger scale than
that of Angstrom. He made a detailed
study of the spectrum of carbon, and experi-
ments on the behavior of spectral lines un-
der the influence of magnetism and of
changes of temperature.

Dr. C. C. Parry, a distinguished Ameri-
can botanist, recently died at Davenport,
Iowa, aged sixty-seven years. He made val-
uable collections of plants, and was an au-
thority in the classification of the North
American flora. He was for several years a
botanist in the* Agricultural Department in
Washington. Mount Parry, near Denver,
was named after him.

Prof. Richard Owen, geologist, died from
accidental poisoning at his home in New Har-
mony, Ind., March 24th. He was a son of the
Scotch philanthropist, Robert Owen, and was
born in Scotland, January 6, 1810. Having
been schooled in Europe and come to the
United States, he studied civil engineering in
Kentucky, was a Professor of Geology there,
served in the United States Survey, was a
captain in the Mexican War, was State Ge-
ologist for Indiana, professor in Indiana
State University, and lieutenant-colonel and
colonel in Indiana volunteer regiments.

THEODORE SCHWANN.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1890.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.

VIII. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN AND EGYPTOLOGY.

By ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D., L.H.D.,

EX-PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

IN the great ranges of investigation which, bear most directly
upon the origin of man, there are two in which Science within
the last few years has gained final victories.

The significance of these in changing, and ultimately in re-
versing, one of the greatest currents of theological thought, can
hardly be overestimated ; not even the tide set in motion by
Cusa, Copernicus, and Galileo was so powerful to bring in a new
epoch of belief.

The first of these conquests relates to the antiquity of man on
the earth.

The fathers of the early Christian Church, receiving all parts
of our sacred books as equally inspired, laid little, if any, less
stress on the myths, legends, genealogies, and tribal, family, and
personal traditions contained in the Old Testament, than upon
the most lofty poems, the most instructive apologues, and the
most powerful utterances of prophets, psalmists, and apostles.
As to the life of man upon our planet, by bringing together indi-
cations of elapsing time in the various books of the Bible, early
Christian commentators arrived at conclusions varying some-
what, but in the main agreeing. Some, like Origen, Eusebius,
Lactantius, Clement of Alexandria, and the great fathers gener-
ally of the first three centuries, dwelling especially upon the Sep-
tuagint version of the Scriptures, thought that man's creation
took place about six thousand years before the Christian era.
Strong confirmation of this view was found in a simple piece of

VOL. XXXYII. — 11

i 4 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

purely theological reasoning : for, just as the seven candlesticks
of the Apocalypse were long held to prove the existence of seven
planets revolving about the earth, so it was felt that the six days
of creation prefigured six thousand years during which the earth
in its first form was to endure ; and that, as the first Adam came
on the sixth day, Christ, the second Adam, had come at the sixth
millennial period. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, in the second
century, clinched this argument with the text, " One day is with
the Lord as a thousand years"; hence the view of the early
Church, that the world was then in its last period, and that the
seventh day — the great millennium — would arrive about the year
1000 of our era. What striking consequences this belief finally
produced all scholars of mediaeval history know well.

On the other hand, Eusebius and St. Jerome, dwelling more
especially upon the Hebrew text, which we are brought up to re-
vere, thought that man's origin took place at a somewhat shorter
period before the Christian era ; and St. Jerome's overwhelming
authority made this the dominant view throughout western Eu-
rope during fifteen centuries.

The simplicity of these great fathers as regards chronology is
especially reflected from the tables of Eusebius. In these, Moses,
Joshua, and Bacchus — Deborah, Orpheus, and the Amazons —
Abimelech, the Sphinx, and CEdipus, appear together as person-
ages equally real, and their positions in chronology equally ascer-
tained.

At times great bitterness was aroused between those holding
the longer and the shorter chronology, but, after all, the difference
between them, as we now see, was trivial ; and it may be broadly
stated that in the early Church, " always, and everywhere, and by
all," it was held as certain, upon the absolute warrant of Script-
ure, that man was created from four to six thousand years before
the Christian era.

To doubt this, and even much less than this, was to risk dam-
nation. St. Augustine insisted that belief in the antipodes and in
the longer duration of the earth than six thousand years were
deadly heresies, equally hostile to Scripture. Philastrius, the
friend of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, whose fearful catalogue
of heresies served as a guide to intolerance throughout the
middle ages, condemned with the same holy horror those who
expressed doubt as to the orthodox number of years since the
beginning of the world, and those who doubted an earthquake to
be the literal voice of an angry God, or who questioned the plu-
rality of the heavens, or who gainsaid the statement that God
brings out the stars from His treasures and hangs them up in the
solid firmament above the earth every night.

About the beginning of the seventh century, Isidore of Seville,

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. i 47

the great theologian of his time, took up the subject. He accepted
the dominant view, not only of Hebrew but of all other chro-
nology, without anything like real criticism ; the childlike faith
and simplicity of his system may be* imagined from his summa-
ries which follow. He tells us :

" Joseph lived one hundred and five years. Greece began to
cultivate grain.

" The Jews were in slavery in Egypt one hundred and forty-
four years. Atlas discovered astrology.

"Joshua ruled for twenty-seven years. Ericthonius yoked
horses together.

" Othniel, forty years. Cadmus introduced letters into Greece.

" Deborah, forty years. Apollo discovered the art of medicine
and invented the cithara.

" Gideon, forty years. Mercury invented the lyre and gave it
to Orpheus."

Reasoning in this general way, Isidore kept well under the
longer date; and the great theological authority of southern
Europe having thus spoken, the question was virtually at rest
throughout Christendom for nearly a hundred years.

Early in the eighth century the Venerable Bede, the great
theological authority of the North, took up the problem. Dwell-
ing especially upon the received Hebrew text of the Old Testa-
ment, he soon entangled himself in very serious difficulties ; but,
in spite of the great fathers of the first three centuries, he reduced
the antiquity of man on the earth by nearly a thousand years, and,
in spite of mutterings against him as coming dangerously near a
limit which made the theological argument from six days to six
ages look doubtful, his authority had great weight, and did much
to fix western Europe in its allegiance to the general system laid
down by Eusebius and Jerome.

In the twelfth century this belief was re-enforced by a tide of
thought from a very different quarter. Rabbi Moses Maimonides
and other Jewish scholars, by careful study of the Hebrew text,
arrived at conclusions diminishing the antiquity of man still fur-
ther, and thus gave strength to the shorter chronology throughout
the middle ages : it was incorporated into the sacred science of
Christianity; and Vincent de Beauvais, in his great Speculum
Historiale, forming part of that still more enormous work which
sums up all the knowledge possessed by the ages of faith, placed
the creation of man at about four thousand years before our era.*

* For the date of man's creation as given by leading chronologists in various branches of
the Church, see L'Art de Verifier les Dates, Paris, 1819, vol. i, pp. 27 et seq. In this edition
there are sundry typographical errors ; compare with Wallace, True Age of the World,
London, 1844. As to preference for the longer computation by the fathers of the Church,
see Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii, p. 291. For the sacred significance of the six days of

i 4 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

At the Reformation this view was not disturbed. The same
manner of accepting the sacred text which led Luther, Melanch-
thon, and the great Protestant leaders generally, to oppose the
Copernican theory, fixed them firmly in this biblical chronology ;
the key-note was sounded for them by Luther when he said, " We
know, on the authority of Moses, that longer ago than six thousand
years the world did not exist." Melanchthon, more exact, fixed
the creation of man at 3963 b. c.

But the great Christian scholars continued the old endeavor to
make the time of man's origin more precise ; there seems to have
been a sort of fascination in the subject which developed a long
array of chronologists, all weighing the minutest indications in
our sacred books, until the Protestant divine, De Vignolles, who
had given forty years to the study of biblical chronology, de-
clared that he had gathered no less than two hundred computa-
tions based upon Scripture, and no two alike.

As to the Roman Church, about 1580 there was published, by
authority of Pope Gregory XIII, the Roman Martyrology, and
this, both as originally published and as revised in 1640 under
Pope Urban VIII, declared that the creation of man took place
5199 years before Christ.

But of all who gave themselves up to these chronological
studies, the man who exerted the most powerful influence upon
the dominant nations of Christendom was Archbishop Usher. In
1650 he published his Annals of the Ancient and New Testaments,
and it at once became the greatest authority for all English-speak-
ing peoples. Usher was a man of deep and wide theological
learning, powerful in controversy; and his careful conclusion,
after years of the most profound study of the Hebrew Scriptures,
was, that man was created 4004 years before the Christian era.
His verdict was widely received as final ; his dates were inserted
in the margins of the authorized version of the English Bible,
and were soon practically regarded as equally inspired with the
sacred text itself ; to question them seriously was to risk prefer-
ment in the Church and reputation in the world at large.

The same adhesion to the Hebrew Scriptures which had influ-
enced Usher, brought leading men of the older Church to the same
view ; men who would have burned each other at the stake for

creation in ascertaining the antiquity of man, see especially Eicken, Geschichte der
mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung ; also Wallace, True Age of the World, pp. 2,3. For
the views of St. Augustine, see Topinard, Anthropologic, citing the De Civ. Dei., lib. xvi,
c. viii, lib. xii, c. x. For the views of Philastrius, see the De Haeresibus, c. 102, 112, et
passim, in Migne. For Eusebius's simple credulity, see the tables in Palmer's Egyptian
Chronicles, vol. ii, pp. 828, 829. For Bede, see Usher's Chronologia Sacra, cited in Wallace,
True Age of the World, p. 35. For Isidore of Seville, see Isidore, Etymologia, lib. v, c. 39 ;
also lib. iii, 617.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 149

their differences on other points, agreed on this : Melanchthon and
Tostatus, Lightfoot and Jansen, Salmeron and Scaliger, Petavius
and Kepler, inquisitors and reformers,- Jesuits and Jansenists,
priests and rabbis, stood together in the belief that the creation
of man was proved by Scripture to have taken place between 3900
and 4004 years before Christ.

In spite of the severe pressure of this line of authorities, ex-
tending from St. Jerome and Eusebius to Usher and Petavius, all
in favor of this scriptural chronology, even devoted Christian
scholars, had sometimes felt obliged to revolt. The first great
source of difficulty was increased knowledge regarding the Egyp-
tian monuments. As far back as the last years of the sixteenth
century, Joseph Scaliger had done what he could to lay the
foundations of a more scientific treatment of chronology, insist-
ing especially that the historical indications in Persia, in Babylon,
and, above all, in Egypt, should be brought to bear on the ques-
tion. More than that, he had the boldness to urge that the
chronological indications of the Hebrew Scriptures should be
fully and critically discussed in the light of Egyptian and other
records, without any undue bias from theological considerations.
His idea may well be called inspired, yet it had little effect as re-
gards a true view of the antiquity of man, even upon himself, for
the theological bias prevailed above all his reasonings, even in
his own mind. Well does a brilliant modern writer declare that,
" among the multitude of strong men in modern times abdicating
their reason at the command of their prejudices, Joseph Scaliger
is perhaps the most striking example."

Early in the following century Sir Walter Raleigh, in his
History of the World (1603-1616), pointed out the danger of ad-
hering to the old system. He, too, foresaw one of the results of
modern investigation, stating it in these words, which have the
ring of prophetic inspiration : " For in Abraham's time all the
then known parts of the world were developed. . . . Egypt had
many magnificent cities, . . . and these not built with sticks, but
of hewn stone, . . . which magnificence needed a parent of more
antiquity than these other men have supposed." In view of these
considerations, Raleigh followed the chronology of the Septuagint
version, which enabled him to give to the human race a few more
years than were usually allowed.

About the middle of the seventeenth century Isaac Vossius,
one of the most eminent scholars of Christendom, attempted to
bring the prevailing belief into closer accordance with ascertained
facts, but save by a chosen few his efforts were rejected. In some
parts of Europe a man was by no means safe from bodily harm
in holding new views on chronology. As an example of the ex-
treme pressure exerted by the old theological system at times

i 5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon honest scholars, we may take the case of La Peyrere, who,
about the middle of the seventeenth century, put forth his book
on the Pre-Adamites — an attempt to reconcile sundry well-known
difficulties in Scripture by claiming that man existed on earth be-
fore the time of Adam. He was taken in hand at once; great
theologians rushed forward to attack him from all parts of
Europe ; within fifty years thirty-six different refutations of his
arguments had appeared ; the Parliament of Paris burned the
book, and the Grand Yicar of the archdiocese of Mechlin threw
him into prison and kept him there until he was forced, not only
to retract his statements, but to abjure his Protestantism.

But, in spite of warnings like this, we see the new idea crop-
ping out in various parts of Europe. In 1672 Sir John Marsham
published a work in which he showed himself bold and honest.
After describing the heathen sources of Oriental history, he turns
to the Christian writers, and, having used the history of Egypt to
show that the great Church authorities were not exact, he ends
one important argument with the following words : " Thus the
most interesting antiquities of Egypt have been involved in the
deepest obscurity by the very interpreters of her chronology, who
have jumbled everything up {qui omnia susque deque permiscue-
runt), so as to make them match with their own reckonings of
Hebrew chronology: truly a very bad example, and quite un-
worthy of religious writers."

This sturdy protest of Sir John against the dominant system
and against the " jumbling " by which Eusebius had endeavored
to cut down ancient chronology within safe and sound orthodox
limits, had little effect. Though eminent chronologists of the
eighteenth century, like Jackson, Hales, and Drummond, gave
forth multitudes of ponderous volumes pleading for a period
somewhat longer than that generally allowed, and insisting that
the received Hebrew text was grossly vitiated as regards chronol-
ogy, even this poor favor was refused them ; the great mass of
believers found it more comfortable to hold fast the faith com-
mitted to them by Usher, and it remained settled that man was
created about four thousand years before our era.

This tide of theological reasoning rolled on through the eight-
eenth century, swollen by the biblical researches of leading com-
mentators, Catholic and Protestant, until it came in great majesty
and force into our own nineteenth century ; and it was well re-
ceived. At the very beginning of our century it gained new
strength from various great men in the Church, among whom
may be especially named Dr. Adam Clarke, who declared that," to
preclude the possibility of a mistake, the unerring Spirit of God
directed Moses in the selection of his facts and the ascertaining
of his dates."

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 151

All opposition to the received view seemed broken down ; and
as late as 1835, indeed as late as 1850, came an announcement in
the work of one of the most eminent Egyptologists, Sir J. G.
Wilkinson, to the effect that he had modified the results he had
obtained from Egyptian monuments, in order that his chronology
might not interfere with the received date of the Deluge of Noah.*

But all investigators were not so docile as Wilkinson, and
there soon came a new train of scientific thought which rapidly
undermined all this theological chronology. Not to speak of
other noted men, we have early in the present century Young,
Champollion, and Rosellini, beginning a new epoch in the study
of the Egyptian monuments. Nothing could be more cautious
than their procedure, but the evidence was soon overwhelming in
favor of a vastly longer existence of man in the Nile Valley than
could be made to agree with even the longest duration then
allowed by theologians.

First of all, in spite of all the suppleness of men like Wilkin-
son, it became evident that, whatever system of scriptural chro-
nology was adopted, Egypt was the seat of a flourishing civiliza-
tion at a period before the "Flood of Noah," and that no such
flood had ever interrupted it. This was bad, but worse remained
behind : it was soon clear that the civilization of Egypt began
earlier than the time assigned for the creation of man, even ac-
cording to the most liberal of the sacred chronologists.

As time went on, this became more and more evident : the long
duration assigned to human civilization in the fragments of
Manetho, the Egyptian scribe at Thebes in the third century b. c,
was discovered to be more accordant with truth than the chronol-
ogies of the great theologians ; and, as the present century has
gone on, scientific results have been reached absolutely fatal to
the chronological view based by the universal Church upon Script-
ure for nearly two thousand years.

* For Lightfoot, see his Prolegomena relating to the age of the world at the birth of
Christ; see also in the edition of his works, London, 1822, vol. iv, pp. 64, 112. For
Scaliger, see the De Emendatione Temporum, 1583 ; also Mark Pattison, Essays, Oxford,
1889, vol. i, pp. 162 et seq. For Raleigh's misgivings, see his History of the World, Lon-
don, 1614, p. 227, Book II of Part I, section 7 of chapter i ; also Clinton's Fasti Hellenici,
ii, 293. For Usher, see his Annales Vet. et Nov. Test., London, 1650. For Marsham,
see his Canon Chronicus Aegyptiacus Ebraicus Graecus et Disquisitiones, London, 1672.
For La Peyrere, see especially Quatrefages, in Revue des Deux Mondes for 1861, as cited
in Topinard, Anthropologic, p. 52. For Jackson, Hales, and others, see Wallace's True
Age of the World. For Wilkinson, see various editions of his work on Egypt. For Vig-
nolles, see Leblois, vol. iii, p. 617. As to the declarations in favor of the recent origin of
man, sanctioned by Popes Gregory XIII and Urban VIII, see Strauchius, cited in Wallace,
p. 97. For the general agreement of church authorities, as stated, see L'Art de Verifier
les Dates, as above. As to difficulties of scriptural chronology, see Ewald, History of
Israel, English translation, London, 1883, pp. 204 et seq.

i 5 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

As is well known, the first of the Egyptian kings of whom
mention is made upon the monuments of the Nile Valley is Mena,
or Menes. Manetho had given a statement, according to which
Mena must have lived nearly six thousand years before the Chris-
tian era ; this was looked upon for a long time as utterly inad-
missible, since it was so clearly at variance with the chronology
of our own sacred books ; but, as time went on, large fragments
of the original work of Manetho were more carefully studied and
distinguished from corrupt transcriptions, the lists of kings at
Karnak, Sacquarak, and the two temples at Abydos were brought
to light, and the lists of court architects were discovered. Among
all these monuments the scholar who visits Egypt is most im-
pressed by the sculptured tablets giving the lists of kings. Each
shows the monarch of the period doing homage to the long line of
his ancestors. Each of these sculptured monarchs has near him a
tablet bearing his name. That great care was always taken to
keep these imposing records correct is certain ; the loyalty of sub-
jects, the devotion of priests, and the family pride of kings were
all combined in this, and how effective this care was is seen in
the fact that kings now known to be usurpers are carefully
omitted. The lists of court architects, extending over the pe-
riod from Seti to Darius, throw a flood of light over the other
records.

Comparing, then, all these sources, and applying an average
from the lengths of the long series of well-known reigns to the
reigns preceding, the most careful and cautious scholars have
satisfied themselves that the original fragments of Manetho rep-
resent the work of a man honest and well informed, and, after
making all allowances for discrepancies and the overlapping of
reigns, it has become clear that the period known as the reign of
Mena must be fixed at about five thousand years B. c. In this the
three great Egyptologists of our time concur ; Mariette, the emi-
nent French authority, puts the date at 5004 B. c, and with this
the foremost English authority, Sayce, agrees ; Brugsch, the lead-
ing German authority, puts it at about 4500 B. c. We have it, then,
as the result of a century of work by the most acute and trained
Egyptologists, and with the inscriptions upon the temples and
papyri before them, both of which are now read with as much
facility as many mediaeval manuscripts, that the reign of Mena
must be placed close upon seven thousand years ago.

But the significance of this conclusion can not be fully under-
stood until we bring into connection with it some other facts re-
vealed by the Egyptian monuments.

The first of these is that which struck Sir Walter Raleigh —
that, even in the time of the first dynasties in the Nile Valley, a
high civilization had already been developed. Take, first, man

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 153

himself : we find sculptured upou the early monuments types of
the various races — Egyptians, Israelites, negroes, and Libyans —
as clearly distinguishable in these paintings and sculptures of
from four to six thousand years ago as the same types are at the
■present day. No one can look at these sculptures upon the Egyp-
tian monuments, or even the f ac-similes of them, as given by Lep-
sius or Prisse d'Avennes, without being convinced that they
indicate, even at that remote period, a difference of races so great
that long previous ages must have been required to produce it.

Take, next, the social condition of Egypt revealed in these
early monuments of art : they force us to the same conclusion.
Those earliest monuments show that a very complex society had
even then been developed. We not only have a separation be-
tween the priestly and military orders, but agriculturists, manu-
facturers, and traders, with a whole series of subdivisions in
each of these classes. The early tombs show us sculptured and
painted representations of a daily life which even then had been
developed into a vast wealth and variety of grades, forms, and
usages.

Take, next, the political and military condition : one fact out of
many reveals a policy which must have been the result of long
experience. Just as now, at the end of the nineteenth century,
the British Government, having found that they can not rely
upon the native Egyptians for the protection of the country, are
drilling the negroes from the interior of Africa as soldiers, so the
celebrated inscription of Prince Una, as far back as the sixth
dynasty, speaks of the Maksi or negroes levied and drilled by
tens of thousands for the Egyptian army.

Take, next, engineering : here we find very early operations in
the way of canals, dikes, and great public edifices, so bold in con-
ception and thorough in execution as to fill our greatest engineers
of these days with astonishment. The quarrying, conveyance,
cutting, jointing, and polishing of the enormous blocks in the
interior of the Great Pyramid alone are the marvel of the fore-
most stone-workers of our century.

As regards architecture, we find not only the pyramids, which
date from the very earliest period of Egyptian history, and which
are to this hour the wonder of the world for size, for boldness, for
exactness, and for skillful contrivance, but also the temples with
long ranges of colossal columns wrought in polished granite, with
wonderful beauty of ornamentation, with architraves and roofs
vast in size and exquisite in adjustment, which by their propor-
tions tax the imagination, and lead the beholder to ask whether
all this can be real.

As to sculpture, we have not only the great Sphinx of Gizeh,
so wonderful by its boldness and plastic character, dating from

i 5 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the very first period of Egyptian history, but we have ranges of
sphinxes, heroic statues, and bas-reliefs, showing that even in the
early ages this branch of art had reached an amazing develop-
ment.

As regards the perfection of these, Lubke, the most eminent
German authority on plastic art, referring to the early works in
the tombs about Memphis, declares that, " as monuments of the
period of the fourth dynasty, they are an evidence of the high
perfection to which the sculpture of the Egyptians had attained."
Brugsch declares that " every artistic production of those early
days, whether picture, writing, or sculpture, bears the stamp of
the highest perfection in art." Maspero, the most eminent French
authority in this field, while expressing his belief that the Sphinx
was sculptured even before the time of Mena, declares that " the
art which conceived and carved this prodigious statue was a
finished art, an art which had attained self-mastery and was sure
of its effects " ; and Sir James Fergusson, the highest English au-
thority, declares, " We are startled to find Egyptian art nearly as
perfect in the oldest periods as in any of the later."

The evidence as to the high development of Egyptian sculpture
in the earlier dynasties becomes every day more overwhelming.
What exquisite genius the early Egyptian sculptors showed in
their lesser statues is known to those who have seen those most
precious specimens in the Boulak Museum at Cairo, which were
wrought before the conventional type was adopted in obedience
to religious considerations.

Take, next, decorative and especially ceramic art : as early as
the fourth and fifth dynasties we have vases, cups, and other ves-
sels showing exquisite beauty of outline and a general sense of
form equal to Etruscan and Grecian work of the best periods.

Take, next, astronomy : to say nothing of the other evidences of
a long development of thought in this field, we may go back to
the very earliest period of Egyptian civilization, and we find that
the four sides of the Great Pyramid are adjusted to the cardinal
points with the utmost precision. " The day of the equinox can be
taken by observing the sun set across the face of the pyramid,
and the neighboring Arabs adjust their astronomical dates by its
shadow."

The same view is confirmed by philologists. To use words of
Max Diincker : " The oldest monuments of Egypt, and they are the
oldest, monuments in the world, exhibit the Egyptian in possession
of the art of writing." It is found also by the inscriptions of the
early dynasties that the Egyptian language had even at. that early
time been developed in all essential particulars to the highest
point it ever attained. What long periods it must have required
for such a development every scholar in philology can imagine.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 155

As regards medical science, we have the Berlin papyrus, which,
although of a later period, refers with careful specification to a
medical literature of the first dynasty.

So, too, as regards archaeology : the earliest known inscrip-
tions point to still earlier events and buildings, indicating a long
sequence of previous events. *

And, finally, as to all that pertains to the history of civiliza-
tion, no man of fair and open mind can go into the museums of
Boulak or the Louvre or the British Museum and look at the
monuments of those earlier dynasties without seeing in them the
results of a development in art, science, laws, customs, and lan-
guage, which must have required a vast period before the time of
Mena for their development. And this conclusion is forced upon
us all the more invincibly when we consider the slow growth of
ideas in the earlier stages of civilization as compared with the
later — a slowness of growth which has kept the natives in many
parts of the world in that earliest civilization to this hour. To
this we must add the fact that Egyptian civilization was espe-
cially immobile; its development into castes is but one among
many evidences that it was the very opposite of a civilization
developed rapidly.

As to the length of the period before the time of Mena, there is,
of course, nothing exact. Manetho gives lists of great personages
before that first dynasty extending over twenty-four thousand
years. Bunsen, one of the most learned of Christian scholars, de-
clares that not less than ten thousand years were necessary for the
development of civilization up to the point where we find it in
Mena's time. No one can claim precision for either of these state-
ments, but they are valuable as showing the impression of vast
antiquity made upon the most competent judges by the careful
study of those remains. No unbiased judge can doubt that an
immensely long period of years must have been required for the
development of civilization up to the state in which we there
find it.

The investigations in the bed of the Nile confirm these views.
That some unwarranted conclusions have at times been an-
nounced is true ; but the fact remains that again and again rude
pottery and other evidences of early stages of civilization have
been found in borings at places so distant from each other, and at
depths so great, that for such a range of concurring facts, consid-
ered in connection with the rate of earthy deposit by the Nile,
there is no adequate explanation save the existence of man in that
valley thousands on thousands of years before the longest time
admitted by our sacred chronologists.

Nor have these investigations been of a careless character. Be-
tween the years 1851 and 1854, Mr. Horner, an extremely cautious

i 5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

English, geologist, sank ninety-six shafts in f our rows at intervals
of eight English miles, at right' angles to the Nile, in the neigh-
borhood of Memphis. From these pottery was brought up from
various depths, and beneath the statue of Rameses II at Mem-
phis at a depth of thirty-nine feet. At the rate of the Nile de-
posit a careful estimate has declared this to indicate a period of
over eleven thousand years. As eminent a German authority in
geography as Peschel characterizes objections to such deductions
as groundless. However this may be, the general results of these
investigations, taken in connection with the other results of re-
search, are most convincing.

And, finally, as if to make assurance doubly sure, a series of
archaeologists of the highest standing, French, German, English,
and American, have within the past twenty years discovered relics
of a savage period, of vastly earlier date than the time of Mena,
prevailing throughout Egypt. These relics have been discovered
in various parts of the country, from Cairo to Luxor, in great
numbers. They are the same sort of prehistoric implements
which prove to us the early existence of man in so many other
parts of the world at a geological period so remote that the figures
given by our sacred chronologists are but trivial. The last and
most convincing of these discoveries, that of flint implements in
the drift, far down below the tombs of early kings at Thebes, will
be referred to later. What such discoveries prove, we shall con-
sider in the next chapter.*

* As to Manetho, see for a very full account of his relations to other chronologists,
Palmer, " Egyptian Chronicles," vol. i, chap. ii. For a more recent and readable account,
see Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, English edition, London, 1879, chap. iv. For
lists of kings at Abydos and elsewhere, also the lists of architects, see Brugsch, Pahner»
Mariette, and others ; also illustrations in Lepsius. For the various race types given
on early monuments, see the colored engravings in Lepsius, Denkmaler ; also Prisse
d'Avennes, and the frontispiece in the English edition of Brugsch ; see also statement re-
garding the same subject in Tylor, Anthropology, chap. i. For the fullness of development
in Egyptian civilization in the earliest dynasties, see Rawlinson's Egypt, London, 1881,
chap, xiii ; also Brugsch and other works cited. For the perfection of Egyptian engineer-
ing, I rely not merely upon my own observation, but on what is far more important, the tes-
timony of my friend the Hon. J. G. Batterson, probably the largest and most experienced
worker in granite in the United States, who acknowledges, from personal observation, that
the early Egyptian work is, in boldness and perfection, far beyond anything known since,
and a source of perpetual wonder to him. As to the perfection of Egyptian architecture,
see very striking statements in Fergusson, History of Architecture, Book I, chap. i. As
to the pyramids, showing a very high grade of culture already reached under the earliest
dynasties, see Liibke, " Ges. der Arch.," Book I. As to sculpture, see for representations
photographs published by the Boulak Museum, and such works as the Description de
l'Egypte, Lepsius's Denkmaler, and Prisse d'Avennes ; see also as a most valuable small
work, easy of access, Maspero, Archaeology, translated by Miss A. B. Edwards, New York
and London, 1887, chaps, i and ii. See especially in Prisse, vol. ii, the statue of Chafre
the Scribe, and the group of u Tea " and his wife. As to the artistic value of the Sphinx,
see Maspero, as above, pp. 202, 203. See also similar ideas in Liibke's History of Sculpt-

GLASS-MAKING. 1 5 7

GLASS-MAKING.

By C. HANFORD HENDERSON,

PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY IN THE PHILADELPHIA MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL.

IV. — IN THE ATELIER OF A GLASS-WORKER.

THERE are few objects of manufacture which better than
glass illustrate the immense preponderance in value of hu-
man labor over crude material. It is a substance which might
serve economists as a parallel to their favorite illustration of the
comparative values of a steel watch-spring and the bit of iron-
bearing earth from which it is wrought.

In the case of glass, the crude materials are so plentifully dis-
tributed in nature as to be almost valueless. The basis of the
compound, sand, is so very abundant that it has furnished the
symbol, in more than one parable, for quantity without limit.
Like the unnumbered sands of the sea was a vast promise to
the children of men. Somewhat less abundant than the sand are
the other chemicals which it is necessary to mix with it in order
to produce that double silicate which goes under the general name
of glass. They are, however, far from being either scarce or ex-
pensive. The alkaline ingredient, the carbonate of soda, is made
from common salt, a mineral whose wide distribution in nature is
at once apparent when one recalls the fact that the sea, thirty or
forty times in bulk the total elevated mass of the earth, is one-
vast storehouse of the substance ; that salt springs or brines
abound at our very doors — in New York State, in Michigan, and
in Virginia ; and that vast deposits of the solid rock-salt are to be
found in Louisiana and Prussia. The third ingredient, the lime,
is simply calcined limestone, a rock which forms whole ranges of
hills, and is found in every corner of the globe. For the produc-
tion of the fine flint glass, or crystal, which forms the special sub-
ject of the glass- worker's skill, it is also necessary to add a fourth
ingredient, red lead or minium. As this is the oxide of an easily

ure, vol. i, p. 24. As to astronomical knowledge evidenced by the Great Pyramid, see
Tylor, as above, p. 21. For delineations of vases, etc., showing Grecian proportion and
beauty of form under the fourth and fifth dynasties, see Prisse, vol. ii, Art Industriel.
As to the philological question, and the development of language in Egypt, with the hiero-
glyphic system of writing, see Rawlinson's Egypt, London, 1881, chap, xiii; also Le Nor-
mant; also Max Diincker, Geschichte des Alterthums, Abbot's translation, 1877. As to
the medical papyrus of Berlin, see Brugsch, vol. i, p. 58, but especially the Papyrus Ebers.
As to the corruption of later copies of Manetho and fidelity of originals as attested by the
monuments, see Brugsch, chap. iv. As to the accuracy of the present Egyptian chronology
as regards long periods, see ibid., vol. i, chap, xxxii. As to the pottery found deep in the
Nile and the value of Horner's discovery, see Peschel, Races of Man, New York, 1876, pp.
42-44. For succinct statement, see also Laing, Problems of the Future, p. 94.
vol. XXXVII. — 12

i 5 8

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

reducible and useful metal, it is naturally considerably more ex-
pensive than the earthy ingredients, but its cost is still far within
the limits of moderation. The Rocky Mountains and the Missis-
sippi Valley furnish lead ores in such abundance that the com-
pounds of the metal may fairly be classed among cheap products.
The total cost of the "batch" can not be more than a few cents
a pound. Compare this with the value of the finished products.
The finer cut glass will sell for perhaps as many dollars a pound,
while the finest cameo glass may bring almost as many hundred,
It must not be supposed, however, that the difference, or even the

Fig. 1.— The Glass-Cctter at his Wheel.

greater part of it, goes into the pocket of the manufacturer. A
fair proportion reaches that destination, but by far the larger
share goes for meat and bread and coal, houses and cloth, to sus-
tain the life of the army of men, women, and children by whose
labor these dull earths and oxides are transformed into the brill-
iant carafes and bowls which adorn our dinner-table-.

Much the greater part of this increased value is conferred upon
the glass by the dexterous hand-work expended in the atelier,
rather than by the coarser operations which attend the furnace
proee— This, however, is the basis of all that follows, and the
beginnings of the finest cut-glass bowl or cameo vase are to be
sought in the mixing-room, where the crude materials are put
together. In different establishments the proportions vary, as
in the manufacture of all other forms of glass products, and
even in the same establishment uniformity is far from absolute.

GLASS-MAKING. 159

Although, glass is supposed to be a fairly definite chemical com-
pound, each manufacturer has his own notions on the subject,
and occasionally he changes his mind, or perhaps his supplies
come from a different locality. The result, in either case, would
be a slight change in the composition of the batch. A typical
mixture would be for every hundred parts of fine white sand
about forty parts of alkali (carbonate of soda), ten parts of burned
lime, and forty parts of red lead.

It will be noticed that the batch is essentially different from
that used in the manufacture of window and Of bottle glass. It
differs both in the character and the quality of the materials em-
ployed. The ingredients common to the several mixtures must
be much purer for use in the production of table and household
glassware of the finer grades. Care is taken that the sand shall
contain no iron ; and, in order to free it from any admixture of
loam or other disadvantageous earthy materials, it is subjected to
a washing process before it is brought to the mixing-room. By
this treatment the more finely divided matter, such as clay and
the like, is carried off with the water, while the coarser sand settles
to the bottom of the washing-troughs. Further, in the selection
of the alkali, the cheaper sulphate of soda is never substituted for
the carbonate, as is frequently done in the manufacture of bottles.

In the processes of the atelier the competition is a question of
quality rather than of quantity. The element of human labor is
so large that it would not be economical to expend it upon an in-
ferior grade of glass. The workers, or rather the men who direct
them, go on the principle of those wise domestic economists who
reflect that the cost of labor in making up clothing is approxi-
mately constant, and who therefore do not feel that they can
afford to buy shoddy.

The earthy materials — sand, alkali, and lime — give substance
and transparency. Fused together, they form ordinary glass.
The additional ingredient, the red lead, has a special function to
perform It has for its immediate object an increase in the weight
of the glass ; and since in general an increase in weight means
an increase in refracting power, its ultimate object is an additional
brilliancy in the product. Every one has noticed the heaviness
of cut glass ; or, if he has not, and enters a shop to buy a piece of
it, the shop-keeper is very apt to call his attention to the fact —
particularly if the price be correspondingly heavy — assuming that
weight is an undeniable guarantee of quality and brilliancy. If
you object to the price, he puts the piece into your hands and
says confidingly, " Just feel the weight of it ! * The argument is
a pertinent one, but not altogether conclusive, for there are many
other elements besides weight upon which the merit of the prod-
uct depends. It is quite possible to have the glass too heavy for

i6o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

beauty, since the dense lead compounds have a tendency to sepa-
rate from the lighter silicates, and, consequently, if present in too
large amounts, they make the glass streaky and mottled. In gen-
eral, lead glass for domestic uses has a specific gravity of from
three to four — that is, it is from three to four times as heavy as
an equal bulk of water. The brilliancy given to the glass by its
increased density has attached the name crystal to this particular
product.

It is essential that the several ingredients should be thoroughly
mixed, and to this end the operation is carried out mechanically.

The materials are fed
into the upper end
of a slowly revolving
hopper, whose axis is
slightly inclined to
the horizontal, and
are thoroughly mixed
by the time they reach
the discharging end.
A dainty pink pow-
der falls into the re-
ceiving bins. Its sub-
sequent baptism by
fire transforms the
opaque into the trans-
parent. The furnaces
employed for this
purpose are of the
type common to other
glass-melting process-
es — simply a circular
and intensely heated
chamber, surmounted
by a stack, and pro-
vided with radial openings to permit the blowers to dip their blow-
pipes into the molten contents of the fire-clay crucible-pots.

The scene around this industrial caldron is quite as busy as
that which has its center in the bottle furnace, and is even more
varied. The workers are fashioning objects of the most diverse
shape and for the most unlike purposes. Some are blowing lamp-
chimneys, others gaslight globes, or decanters or dishes. In the
center of the apartment a large press, with engraved steel dies, is
squeezing the plastic " metal " — for so the glass-blower designates
his still fluid glass — into decorative panels for car-windows and
transoms. As one passes from one end of the large room to the
other, he will see almost every conceivable shape in glass, suited

Fig. 2.— The Process of Engraving on Glass.

GLASS-MAKING.

161

for table or other domestic usage, taking form in the hands of the
adroit workers. It is the scene of an intense and a highly ingen-
ious activity. The bottles and dishes and globes intended for sub-
sequent treatment in the atelier are all blown, the manipulations
being varied in accordance with the special form it is desired to
produce. As a rule, it may be said that it is cheaper to produce
the pressed glass than the blown, since less time is required in
fashioning the articles;
but for the finer work
the blown is always
preferred, as glass
worked exclusively in
the air has a much
more brilliant surface
than that which has
been formed in con-
tact with the faces of
the iron mold. The
plain articles thus
shaped are known in
the trade as " blanks."
The largest manufact-
urers of cut and en-
graved glass also make
their own blanks, but
there are a number of
establishments which
confine themselves ex-
clusively to the proc-
esses of ornamentation.
The articles intended
for such decoration go
from the blower to the
annealing leer, where they are permitted to pass through a cham-
ber of brick- work some sixty to eighty feet long, subjected to a
gradually decreasing temperature for a period of twenty-four
hours or less, according to the circumstances of the work. The
articles to be annealed are placed in wrought-iron cars, and are
slowly moved through the leer, coming out perfectly cold.

It is in this way that the blanks are prepared for the atelier
proper. Here one finds a number of very interesting operations
going on side by side. The untechnical visitor will perhaps be
most attracted by the cutting process, since the results are so
brilliant, and the articles possess so staple a value. He will get a
good insight into the general principles by following the process
of cutting a carafe.

Fig. 3.— The Operation of making Ground Glass Globes.

i6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The blank itself is perfectly plain — a simple, heavy bottle with
smooth surface. Its proportions are good. The decoration is to
consist of a twenty-fonr-pointed star on the bottom, a series of
more or less complicated diagonal cuttings on the bulging sides,
and six or eight broad facets around the neck. To these may be
added a number of features of less prominence, such as a series of
oval facets around the base of the carafe, and some smaller cut-
tings at the top. It is the glass-worker's custom to begin with the
star on the bottom. This is cut entirely by the eye, no design
being traced on the glass. The first process is known technically
as " roughing " it, and consists in cutting the design in the glass
with coarse tools, which leave rough facets, but remove most of
the glass to be cut away. The roughing- wheel is made of iron,
and is about two feet in diameter. It is mounted on a horizonal
axis. The face of the wheel is about seven eighths of an inch
broad, and is kept supplied with a mixture of coarse sand and
water allowed to constantly drip upon it from a hopper above.
The wheel makes about a thousand revolutions a minute, the
speed varying with the character of the work to be done. It is
slower for the deeper cuttings. The workman seizes the carafe
with both hands, and presses the bottom firmly against the edge'
of the rotating wheel, making a cut across the center, and as far
each way as it is desired to have the star extend. Then he turns
the carafe around one sixth of a revolution, and makes a similar
cut through the center, judging of the distance entirely by his
eye. A second turn of one sixth of a revolution, and a third
cut along a diameter is made. This gives a six-pointed star.
The intervening spaces are then divided by similar cuts, and
the spaces thus formed again divided, giving a twenty -four-
pointed star.

A tyro in the art would make a very poor figure of it, but the
regular cutters become exceedingly expert, and are able to make
comparatively perfect designs in this seemingly off-hand fashion.
A trained eye will, of course, have no difficulty in detecting inac-
curacies, but the designs are symmetrical enough for all purposes
of decoration,

The cutting does not yet possess much beauty, for its faces are
as rough as ground glass. Already, however, it begins to show
the promise of what it is to be. In treating the bulging sides of
the carafe, greater difficulties present themselves in disposing the
pattern symmetrically. It is, therefore, the custom to paint a
number of guiding lines on the surface of the glass. A few cir-
cular lines surrounding the carafe, and a few up-and-down lines
afford a series of intersections which are sufficient to enable the
cutter to develop a uniform pattern. In the same way the facets
surrounding the neck are determined by a couple of limiting cir-

GLASS-MAKING.

163

cles, and similarly with the secondary part of the decoration.
This completes the rough work.

The second process is that of " smoothing/' and is carried out by
means of wheels made of a natural stone found in Scotland, known
as the Craig Leigh stone. A large part of modern Edinburgh is
built out of this material. It is a compact silicious stone, wearing
very uniformly, and almost free from that tendency to crumble
which characterizes the majority of our native sandstones. The
stone wheels are about the same size as the iron wheels used in the
roughing process ; but their cutting edges, instead of being smooth,
are beveled, thus giving a sharp edge in the center of the face.
This is occasionally
sharpened by regrind-
ing, or by holding
pieces of flint against
the beveled faces of
the revolving wheel.
A tiny stream of wa-
ter falls constantly
against the face of the
stone. Each cut made
on the iron wheel is
gone over on the stone,
and, by the finer fric-
tion, the surface of the
facets becomes smooth
and transparent. The
carafe is slowly be-
coming an object of
beauty.

Next in the order
of the processes comes
the polishing, which
is effected by wooden
wheels mounted as be-
fore and supplied with
pumice or rotten-stone.
Red willow is considered the best material for the polishing-wheel,
though poplar is also frequently used. The hard woods are found
to be less suitable for the purpose. The wooding — for so this third
process is called in the atelier — gives a fine finish to the smoothed
facets and adds greatly to their brilliancy. It is a process, how-
ever, which is only practicable in cases where the cutting is rather
deep. "Where it amounts to little more than a tracing, the wooden
wheel would be of slight use.

Still a fourth process is required before the carafe is ready to

Fig. 4. — The Sand-Blast in Operation.

164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be washed and placed on sale. It is that of brushing. The brush
is made of spun glass, and is applied in the form of a wheel as a
burnisher. Those who have seen gilt used in china-painting will
recall the pencils of spun glass with which the gilding is bur-
nished after being fired. The rapidly revolving brush of glass
cleans out the cuttings more perfectly than could be done in any
other way, and adds the final luster to the facets. The carafe is
now completed. Other articles are cut in much the same way,
slight modifications being made to suit different shapes and pat-
terns.

At the present time very good copies of cut-glass articles are
made in pressed goods, and at about one twentieth of the cost ;
but the difference between the two products can readily be de-
tected. Not only are the pressed goods less brilliant, but the
edges of their facets are visibly rounded from the fusion, and fail
to give the sharp, clear faces of the genuine cut glass. One can
tell the fine article at once by simply rubbing his finger over the
cutting. The sharp edges of the genuine article are unmistaka-
ble. Another attempt to combine beauty and economy is made
by cutting some prominent feature of a pressed-glass article, and
letting the brilliancy thus obtained make amends for the duller
facets of the less exposed portions. In this way pressed-glass de-
canters are made quite presentable by being supplied with well-
cut stoppers, and covered dishes pass muster through the merit of
their brilliant knobs. Still another device is that of grinding off
the faces of pressed-glass goods, and thus securing, as the result of
a much cheaper process, the sharp edges and well -polished faces of
the real cut glass. The process, however, is not a very successful
one. It sounds better than it works out in practice. Wares
treated in this way have the serious defect of lacking brill-
iancy when compared to the air-blown glass and entire cutting.
They are now made in but small quantity, for they can not com-
pete in public estimation with the ordinary pressed goods, since
they cost about five times as much, and are far from being five
times as effective.

In the most artistic circles there is at present a slight reaction
against cut glass in favor of the light and graceful articles made
in blown glass. But meanwhile the sale of cut glass grows larger
each year, for the improvements in the method of production
bring it within reach of an increasingly wide circle of buyers.
It promises to remain a standard article of manufacture, for its
brilliancy will always attract admirers, and any disappearance
will be but temporary. The old-fashioned chandeliers and cande-
labra, made with pendants of cut glass, are pushed out of the
market by newer metallic goods, only to periodically reappear
from their obscurity.

GLASS-MAKING.

165

Alongside of the cutter's wheel one sees a corner of the atelier
devoted to a species of cutting in miniature, which goes under
the name of engraving. The cutting instrument is a small cop-
per disk, sometimes as tiny as a dentist's tool, and sometimes sev-
eral inches in diameter. It is mounted with its axis horizontal,
and is made to rotate very rapidly. The cutting is lone under-

pin. 5.— The Printed Designs, ready for Transference to the Glass, in the Etching

Process.

hand, instead of overhand, as in the former operation, which
means, in the language of the outside world, that the article to he
engraved is brought into contact with the rotating disk from be-
neath, instead of being pressed against its upper surface. The
disk is supplied with a mixture of emery and oil. This is the real
cutting agent ; the disk simply applies it. In almost all cases the
work is done solely by the eye, without any guiding lines what-

166 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ever. Frequently the engraver originates his pattern as he goes
along — a species of improvising which is quite full of interest to
an on-looker. In time the men become very skillful in this sort
of work, and are quite ready in thinking out new designs. It is
entirely a matter of experience, the work depending largely on a
nice sense of touch, since the glass is for the most part obscured
by the spattered emery and oil. In this way geometric designs
of considerable complication, wreaths and flowers, birds, fishes,
and dragons, are traced on goblets and other table-ware, as well
as on globes and similar articles. It is also the process by which
initials and monograms are cut on glass, and its frequent appli-
cation for this purpose is familiar to every one who is not near-
sighted.

The tracery is accomplished sooner than one would fancy. As
a rule, it is used in connection with some other form of ornamen-
tation. Frequently in the case of globes there is a light tracery
around the central portion, and plain bands at the top and bot-
tom. These are put on very expeditiously, and, consequently, at
little cost. The process is known technically as " obscuring."
The globes are mounted on a lathe over a sand-box, being fastened
between plates of cork in order that they shall not be fractured
by the jar. The workman presses a bundle of soft, annealed
iron wire against the surface of the quickly rotating globe, and,
almost in less time than it takes one to tell about it, the band is
completed. The band at the other end of the globe is put on in
the same way. If two parallel bands are to be put on near to-
gether, the bundle of wire is in two parts, and both bands are
made at the same time. The wires simply determine where the
obscuring shall be. The real grinding is done by the sand and
water with which the surface of the globe is kept constantly sup-
plied. By using a larger bundle of wire, and passing it over the
entire surface of the globe, the obscuring is made complete, and
we have the so-called ground-glass globe.

The obscuring process is used in connection with both cutting
and engraving, a design frequently being brought out much more
beautifully by reason of the obscured or translucent background.
In this case, however, the cut pattern must not be subjected to
the final brushing process, for the glass brush would smooth the
obscured surface and give it the almost transparent character
displayed by ground glass when moistened with oil or water.
The effect would be to make the portion of the glass around the
cutting look constantly wet — an undesirable form of decoration.
Some of the most pleasing designs are thus produced by a com-
bination of two or more processes. However fully and artistically
a plain glass globe may be decorated, there is apt to be an un-
pleasant effect of thinness of design from the unrestricted pas-

GLASS-MAKING.

167

sage of the light through the transparent portions. But by ob-
scuring the entire surface of * the globe, and then cutting even a
very modest design upon the background so prepared, the result
is much more effective. The transmitted light, from its subdued
character, is also more agreeable. The cutting is done in the so-
called " mud-box " — a designation which has arisen from the fact
that the spent sand or mud from the cutting of heavier articles is
here utilized.

. Fig. 6.— Printing the Designs and Wrapping the Globes, prior to the Etching.

These processes are all purely mechanical. They depend upon
the direct friction between the glass and the abrading powder, or
between the glass and the cutting stone, as in the case of the
smoothing process. It is possible, however, to bring about this
grinding action by less direct pressure. One of these indirect
methods — the sand-blast — deserves particular mention, both be-
cause of its commercial importance and because of its ingenuity.
Some years ago there was published a book which pointed out,
with more or less cunning, a prototype in nature for nearly all
our mechanical devices. The author did not, I believe, mention
the sand-blast, but he might well have done so, for it is a direct
imitation, though perhaps an unconscious one, of a process which
Nature has been using very effectively ever since the first blast
of wind carried the earliest sand-grains against the Eozoic rocks.
This natural sand-blast has done not a little in altering the ap-
pearance of the face of the earth. In the Rocky Mountains there
are many curiously sculptured rocks in the comparatively rain-
less districts, which owe their carving almost entirely to this

1 68

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

-■ -

~~

agency. Still more striking, perhaps, has been the effect of blow-
ing sand upon the monuments of antiquity. Those who have seen
the Obelisk, in Central Park, New York, or have read descriptions
of it, will probably recall the fact that on those sides which were
originally exposed to the desert wind the hieroglyphics have
been entirely worn off by the grinding action of centuries of blow-
ing sand. The action is precisely the same in the atelier, except
as to the matter of time. A strong blast of air, charged with par-
ticles of sharp, clean sand, will obscure a plain glass surface in
the course of a few seconds. It is applied very ingeniously. The
design to be traced on the glass is cut out of soft rubber, and the
stencil thus formed is held firmly against the surface. The blast
of sand-carrying air is secured by means of an exhaust, and is so

arranged that it may
be made to enter a
sheet-iron box placed
so that its upper sur-
face shall be at about
the level of an ordi-
nary table. There is
a round opening in
the top of the box,
somewhat larger
than the pattern to
be ground, but not
so large as the sheet
of rubber in which it
is cut. Glass and rub-
ber are then pressed
against the opening,
and, by means of a
pedal, the blast is
turned on. In a very
¥§j short time, scarcely
more than five or ten
seconds, the blast is
turned off, and the
stenciled pattern is
found ground on the
glass. So quickly
does the blast do its work that the capacity of the machine may
be said to be limited only by the speed with which the operator
can adjust things.

The action of the blast is rather interesting. The soft-rubber
stencils will endure many exposures, while the hard flint glass is
perceptibly worn away in a few seconds. The reason of this is

Fig. 7.— The Process of Etching.

GLASS-MAKING. 169

that the little particle of moving sand can not be brought to rest
immediately. However quickly its flight is arrested, there is an
appreciable interval of time during which its motion must be
parted with. Striking against the soft and flexible rubber, the
sand is brought to rest gradually, for the rubber is sufficiently de-
pressed by the Lilliputian blow to dispose of the motion stored up
in the particle. When, however, the sand strikes against the
hard and rigid glass, there is no giving way possible. The grains
must either stop instantly or else they must penetrate between
the molecules of the glass. In the latter case they would natu-
rally detach little fragments in sufficient number to roughen the
surface of the glass and make ■ it translucent. Experience shows
that this is precisely what happens. If the naked hand be held
over the blast, a pricking sensation is felt, but the skin is not
broken ; it is too pliable. Thin sheet-iron stencils are sometimes
substituted for those of rubber ; their elasticity makes them fairly
durable.

The sand-blast was invented by an American, but, as the origi-
nal patent has expired, any one is at liberty to use the machine.
The inventor has since made a number of modifications and im-
provements, which are protected by subsequent patents. The
newer form is used, I believe, more in England than in this coun-
try — not so much from a failure on our part to appreciate its
merits, as from a dislike of the peculiar royalty arrangements.
The machines are sold, and a certain royalty charged each week,
whether the works are running or not. As such an arrangement
makes the expense a constant quantity, while the income is a
variable, it is not acceptable to the majority of American glass-
workers.

Other agents besides mechanical find employment in the atelier.
One of the properties of glass which makes it most highly es-
teemed, in both the household and the laboratory, is its almost
total indifference at ordinary temperatures to acids and other cor-
rosive chemicals. It is slightly acted upon by the strongest sul-
phuric acid and by steam under great pressure, but only after the
lapse of considerable time. There are few substances, however,
which are not, Achilles-like, vulnerable in some one particular. In
the case of glass, the effective solvent is the comparatively rare
compound, hydrofluoric acid. It is not strange, therefore, that in
the numerous manipulations to which glass is subjected this fact
should be utilized. It forms the basis of the one chemical process
of the atelier, that of etching. It is a process readily and cheaply
carried out, and from its effectiveness it is one of increasing im-
portance. The piece of glassware to be treated is protected, in
those parts which it is desired shall not be acted upon by the acid,
by some substance indifferent to it, such as wax, paraffin, or a

170

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

specially prepared ink. The parts not coated are thus the only
ones exposed when the piece is phinged into the bath of hydro-
fluoric acid. They are soon bitten by the acid, and in this way the
design is traced upon the glass. As globes for lamps and gas are
the subjects most frequently chosen for this treatment, the process
can, perhaps, best be understood by following such an article
through the several stages of its decorative development. The
designs are adapted from a variety of sources. The draughtsman
is supplied with drawing-books containing examples of conven-
tionalized flowers. From this unit he works out a design of
proper size and shape — that is, something which when wrapped
around the globe shall cover just one half of it, and so, by repeti-
tion, the whole. He traces his designs on a panel of heavy plate

Pig. 8. — Four Stages : To the right, the plain ground globe ; then the globe wrapped in printed
paper; next, the printed globe, with the paper removed; and finally, to the left, the finished
product.

glass. The surface is coated with a special ink made of lamp-
black, rosin, and wax, and the design then picked out by means of
a sharp tool. The plate, thus prepared, is subjected to the action
of a strongly acid bath of hydrofluoric acid for a period of from
fifteen to twenty minutes. The uncovered parts of the plate are
deeply eaten away. The ink is then washed off, and the plate is
ready to print from. Frequently designs are etched on both sides
of the panel, both for economy of material and of storage.

The printing is done on a simple engraver's press, the im-
pressions being taken upon smooth, white paper, somewhat heavier
than tissue. As the ink used for the purpose has a decided tend-

GLASS-MAKING. 1 7 1

ency to become stiff and unmanageable in the cold, a gas-flame is
kept constantly burning under the engraving plate. The sheets
of paper as they come from the press are covered with a thick
layer of ink in those portions which correspond to the parts of the
globe not to be etched. While still fresh, the printed sheets are
passed to a girl sitting at a neighboring table. She cuts off the
superfluous paper surrounding the design, and wraps the print
around the globe to be treated. A second print serves to cover the
globe completely. The paper is pressed tightly against the glass,
and the wrapped-up globe then warmed over a gas-stove for a few
moments. The paper is left on for a day or so, and when it is
finally removed the design is found transferred to the glass. It
will be seen that the process is not unlike that by which in former
years decalcomania were attached to china and marble, to their
supposed ornamentation.

The globe is now a study in black and white, and is ready for
the etching proper.

The acid-room — for such is the name applied to the apartment
where the etching process is carried out — is a truly villainous place.
The atmosphere is so charged with hydrofluoric acid that* it has a
sharp smell and a most irritating effect upon the bodily economy
generally. The instantaneous photograph of the bath had to be
taken with more than customary expedition, lest the ninety-dollar
lens in use should be fouled by the fumes. The man in charge of
the process wears rubber gloves, and has his face partially pro-
tected from the fumes by a thick, bluish- white ointment. His ap-
pearance, in consequence, is far from prepossessing. The protec-
tion, however, is of a very superficial character. It leaves the
eyes and the breathing apparatus entirely exposed. The operators
soon show the ravages of the unwholesome atmosphere. Poor,
pale ghosts of men, with red and blinking eyes, one wonders that,
in a world so full of wholesome activities, they should be willing
to sacrifice the best part of themselves in such an unnecessary
cause. It is one of the saddest features of modern industrial life
that things become so vastly more important than men, that both
employers and employed — the responsibility is a joint one — come
to look upon the ledger account as the first consideration and man-
hood the second. Dainty as are the products of this industrial-
ism, I find myself taking less pleasure in them as I go more among
the workers, and see what a price of dull routine and unwhole-
some labor is paid for the wares. If beautiful things are neces-
sarily the product of unbeautiful lives, I am quite willing to forego
the things. Under the present industrial regime, one feels almost
an accessory to the degradation of human life if he purchase arti-
cles made on a large scale under the factory system. Morally,
there is complicity, however unwilling we may be to admit it. It

172

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is a question worth considering whether political freedom and
industrial slavery represent an ideal with which any people may
worthily remain content. An industrialism is conceivable, with
hours so reasonable and conditions so wholesome that the lives
of the workers shall be as beautiful as the wares they produce.
Whether this will result from the present competitive system car-
ried to its extreme, or from a substituted co-operative system, re-
mains to be seen. In the atelier, the main process in operation is
the transformation of moving, human energy into the stored-up

Fig. 9.— The Portland Vase.

energy represented by a highly wrought product. One may be
pardoned, then, if his thought turns occasionally upon the source
of the energy, the man. It is not an agreeable reflection to pre-
sent to the reader that the majority of our brothers in large cities
are living bitter, hateful lives, but I believe that it is a true one.
It is perhaps well to entertain the thought for a moment, since
our people, presumably sympathetic and compassionate, not only

GLASS-MAKING.

173

do not deplore this sacrifice of the best elements in human life,
but on the contrary hold up as an ideal for whose protection and
extension the national policy should chiefly exert itself, that very
industrialism under which this sacrifice takes place. Food, cloth-
ing, shelter, and the household goods and gods have value only
as they minister to human life. But, by a curious inversion, these
things are now held to be of greater importance than the life
which they were originally intended to conserve. The savagery
of modern times wears a different garb from that of the past, but
it is none the less of the essence.

But to return to the acid- worker, for his besmeared face and
irritated eyes are still before us. The three windows of the little
room in which he works are kept open winter and summer, in the
hope of diluting the poisonous fumes — a clumsy arrangement at
the best. It would be quite possible to have the atmosphere, if
not entirely wholesome, at least comparatively so, by placing the
acid bath directly under a good flue or exhaust, so that the escap-
ing fumes should be drawn off artificially. Every chemist's labo-
ratory contains such an evaporating closet.

The hydrofluoric acid employed for etching is a chemical un-
familiar to the majority of people. Its corrosive character, and
the fact that it has few common uses, preclude such an acquaint-
ance. The source of the acid, however, the mineral fluor-spar, is
quite abundant in nature. It is so beautiful a mineral, occurring
in nearly all the colors of the rainbow and in well-defined cubes
and octahedra, that it is given a prominent place in all mineral-
ogical cabinets. It is, therefore, probably better known than the
acid derived from it. The mineral itself is a fluoride of lime, and,
when treated with oil of vitriol, gives off fumes of hydrofluoric
acid. These are exceedingly soluble in water, forming the ordi-
nary hydrofluoric acid of commerce. The bath used in etching
the globes contains in addition a certain amount of oil of vitriol.
Glass plunged into such a bath will have its surface eaten away,
but will remain transparent. The wooden trough containing the
bath is from three to four feet long, and less than a square foot in
cross-section. Half a dozen globes are treated at a time. They
are mounted on a steel axle, separated from each other by washers
cut out of thick rubber. These serve the double purpose of pro-
tecting the glass from injury and of keeping the liquid out of the
interior. When the axle is put in place in the trough, the globes
are about half submerged in the bath. The axle is given a slow
rotary motion, and, at the end of about fifteen minutes, the etch-
ing is completed. The globes are removed from the bath, and an-
other axle carrying six fresh globes put in its place. The chemi-
cal action consists in the formation of gaseous fluoride of silicon,
the bath affording the fluorine and the glass the silicon. It is

VOL. XXXVII. — 13

i 7 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

rendered more complete and more uniform by the rotary move-
ment of the axle. The globes have now only to be washed, and
nothing further remains but to sell them. The etching process is
completed.

The solution of hydrofluoric acid leaves the etched portions of
the glass transparent ; but if some alkaline salt, such as ammonium
or potassium sulphate, be present in the bath, the etched portions
are rendered opaque. This reaction is utilized to obscure globes,
in place of the grinding process already described. The globes
have only to be dipped into such a bath for a moment or so, to be
thoroughly obscured. As both sides of the glass are acted upon,
the process of chemical obscuring is only used where the globe is
not to be further decorated. In this same department the opera-
tion of "bisquing" is being carried on. If opalescent glass or
colored translucent glass be dipped into such an alkaline bath for
a brief, time, it will take the dull finish characteristic of bisque.
Thousands of the so-called fairy lamps, in red and pink and blue
opalescent glass, are treated in this manner. Glass surfaces
which are subsequently to be painted on are also bisqued in order
to facilitate the process. A very brief immersion makes the sur-
face sufficiently rough to write on with an ordinary lead-pencil
without the least difficulty. The large white plaques exposed for
sale in the art-stores are prepared in this manner. The bath is
contained in large wooden tanks, and the articles are simply
dipped in by hand.

The products of all these processes — of cutting, engraving,
grinding, and etching — are all more or less beautiful. The highest
excellence is attained, however, when the several processes are
combined in the production of the once greatly admired cameo
glass. The best of this is now manufactured in England, but it
has also been made, though with less success, in America.

The prototype of this variety of glass is the celebrated Port-
land vase, with whose history and mishaps most people are famil-
iar. It was found about the sixteenth century in a sarcophagus
in the neighborhood of Rome, and for more than two centuries
adorned the salon of the Barberini family. When their collection
was sold, the vase was purchased by the Duchess of Portland, for
eighteen hundred and seventy-two pounds, and was loaned to the
British Museum. Even in such safe keeping it came very near
complete destruction at the hands of a madman named Lloyd,
who gave it a heavy blow with a stick. It has since been repaired
with such ingenuity that one can scarcely distinguish the numer-
ous fractures. The vase is supposed to date from the time of the
Antonines, and is one of the finest examples of ancient glass-mak-
ing extant. The body is of a deep-blue color and the raised
figures are of opaque white. For many years archaeologists be-

GLASS-MAKING, i 75

lieved that the vase was made of onyx, and described it as a most
interesting cameo. It is now known to be made of glass composed
of two layers.

The Portland vase was a hint to the glass-makers, and one
that they made good use of. In the most elaborate examples of
the modern product three colors are employed, and the effect, if
the material has been judiciously managed, is exceedingly beau-
tiful.

A vase is the best type of the cameo glass, since the function
of the ware is almost wholly decorative. From beginning to end
the process is one of great ingenuity. The basis of the vase is
commonly of opalescent glass — that is, glass made opaque by the
presence of some finely ground but insoluble oxide, or some such
mineral as cryolite or fluor-spar. A lump of this glass is gathered
on the end of the blowpipe and formed into a symmetrical shape
by rolling on the marvering-table. It is then dipped at short in-
tervals into two baths of molten glass of the colors desired. The
composite lump is fashioned into shape by means of those various
manipulations which the glass-blowers perform so adroitly. This
gives a vase made up of three distinct layers of different colors.
Its subsequent treatment is both chemical and mechanical. The
design is painted on the glass by hand, or else transferred with
special care from freshly printed paper, as in the case of the
etched globes. The vase is then dipped into the bath of hydro-
fluoric acid and allowed to remain until both of the outer colors
on the exposed portions are eaten off. It is now taken out, the
ink washed off, and its subsequent treatment intrusted to the en-
graver. At this stage of the process only two out of the three
colors are plainly visible, the intermediate one being seen simply
as a colored line between the other two surfaces. By means of
the engraving-wheel the outline of the design is made more clear
cut, and enough of the outer layer removed to show the interme-
diate color as a delicate shading. An immense amount of work
can thus be put upon a comparatively small article, and the cost
meanwhile grows in proportion. Single pieces have been manu-
factured in England valued as high as two thousand dollars.

In spite of its great beauty and ingenuity, however, it is an
undeniable fact that the cameo glass is losing rather than gain-
ing in favor with the buying public. Some of the establishments
which formerly produced it have ceased to do so. Several causes
have been assigned for this lessened appreciation. Manufactur-
ers say that the cost has been so far reduced that the rich will
not buy it, and, in consequence, the middle classes no longer care
for it. But such is not the general course of events in industrial
matters, and the statement is to be taken with a grain of salt.
The probable trouble is, that some of the cameo-ware has been

i 7 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

produced in distressing colors and in unfortunate combinations.
Injudiciously managed, it is easily possible to produce meager
and inartistic effects. The average buyer has, therefore, been dis-
posed to reckon with himself that, dollar for dollar, he could get
more beauty elsewhere, and has accordingly gone there. The
intrinsic merit of the ware is such, however, that an early revival
of interest in it may be expected.

The processes of the atelier are much more varied than those
described. These special ones have been selected as being among
the most characteristic, particularly of American establishments.
Moreover, they are types, and have an independent interest as
ingenious adaptations of means to ends.

Before closing the door upon the atelier, the factor of its per-
sonnel deserves a moment's attention. I refer now to the work-
ers — not in their social or human capacity, but merely as mer-
chandise-producers. Their labor is expended almost exclusively
in the creation of supposed beauty. It is true that the work is
lavished for the most part upon objects of utility ; but still it
would all fall under the head of ornamentation, since the utili-
tarian quality in the products has been conferred elsewhere than
in the atelier. It is curious, then, in view of this end, to find the
workers of the most inartistic cult. In other departments of
glass-making, and notably in the production of picture-windows,
the possibilities of the material have attracted artists of the high-
est rank, and the results have been quite worthy of their effort.
No such artistic invasion has taken place in this department.
Considering the lives and training of the workers, the surprise is
that they have realized as much beauty as they have. There is
nothing in the atmosphere they breathe to cultivate such a senti-
ment. It is related of a celebrated Japanese cloissonne-msiker
that, having acquired a considerable sum of money from the sale
of some of his choice wares at one of the Paris expositions, he
expended the entire amount in the creation of a beautiful garden
around his work-rooms, believing that such an environment
would inspire his people to produce even more beautiful wares.
I presume that a spirit such as this is possible only where one
works for excellence rather than for money.

Accoeding to Dr. S. T. Hickson, a naturalist-traveler, the people of the island
of Sangir, near Celebes, suppose that, when a man is sick, his proper soul is driven
out of him and replaced by a saMt, or soul of sickness ; and they employ, to
eject the evil spirit, a means of mild persuasion. God-cages or god-canoes, made
of wood and ornamented with twigs and leaves, are hung up in the patient's dwell-
ing, in which the sakit, if pleased with the substance and design of the structure,
will take up its abode ; after which, it is supposed, the sick man will imme-
diately recover.

ATMOSPHERIC DUST. 177

ATMOSPHERIC DUST.*

By Db. WILLIAM MARCET, F. R. S.

THE infinitely small particles of matter we call dust, though
possessed of a form and structure which escape the naked
eye, play important parts in the phenomena of nature. A certain
kind of dust has the power of decomposing organic bodies and
bringing about in them definite changes known as putrefaction,
while other kinds exert a baneful influence on health, and act as
a source of infectious diseases. Again, from its lightness and
extreme mobility, dust is a means of scattering solid matter
over the earth. It may float in the atmosphere as mud does in
water, and, blown by the wind, will perhaps travel thousands of
miles before again alighting on the earth. Thus Ehrenberg, in
1828, detected in the air of Berlin the presence of organisms be-
longing to African regions ; and he found in the air of Portugal
fragments of infusoria from the prairies of America. The smoke
of the burning of Chicago was, according to Mr. Clarence King,
seen on the Pacific coast.

Dust is concerned in many interesting meteorological phenom-
ena, such as fogs, as it is generally admitted that fogs are due to
the deposit of moisture on atmospheric motes. Again, the scat-
tering of light depends on the presence of dust, as is shown in one
of Tyndall's interesting experiments. There is no atmosphere
without dust, although it varies much in quantity, from the
summit of the highest mountain, where the least is found, to the
low plains, at the sea-side level, where it occurs most abun-
dantly.

The origin of dust may be looked upon, without exaggeration,
as universal. Trees shed their bark and leaves, which are pow-
dered in dry weather and carried about by ever-varying currents
of air ; plants dry up and crumble into dust ; the skin of man and
animal is constantly shedding a fine material of a scaly form.
The ground in dry weather, high roads under a midsummer's
sun, emit clouds of dust consisting of very fine particles of earth.
The fine river and desert sand, a species of dust, is silica ground
down into a fine powder under the action of water. If the vege-
table and mineral world crumbles into dust, on the other hand
it is highly probable that dust was the original state of matter
before the earth and heavenly bodies were formed ; and here we
enter the region of theory and probabilities. While it is best to
avoid as much as possible stepping out of the track of known

* Abstract of an address delivered before the Royal Meteorological Society, January
15, 1890.

VOL. XXXVII. — 14

i 7 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

facts, there is a limit to physical observation, and in some cases
we can do no more than glance into the possible or probable
source of natural phenomena.

This has been done, as to the origin of the universe, by Prof.
Norman Lockyer, in his article on the History of a Star. The
author proposes there to clear in our imagination a limited part
of space, and then set possible causes to work : that dark void
will sooner or later be filled with some form of matter so fine that
it is impossible to give it a chemical name ; but the matter will
eventually condense into a kind of dust mixed with hydrogen gas,
and constitute what are called nebulae. These nebulae are found
by spectrum analysis to be made up of known substances, which
are magnesium, carbon, oxygen, iron, silicon, and sulphur. This
dust comes down to us in a tangible form — dust shed from the
sky on the earth, and large masses, magnificent specimens of
meteorites, which have fallen from the heavens at different times,
some of them weighing tons. There are swarms of dust traveling
through space, and their motion may be gigantic. From photo-
graphs taken of the stars and nebulae, we are entitled to conclude
that the swarms of dust meet and interlace each other, becoming
raised by friction and collision to a very high temperature, and
giving rise to what looks like a star. The light would last so long
as the swarms collide, but would go out should the collision fail ;
or, again, such a source of supply of heat may be withdrawn by
the complete passage of one stream of dust-swarms through an-
other. We shall, therefore, have various bodies in the heavens,
suddenly or gradually increasing or decreasing in brightness,
quite irregularly, unlike those other bodies where we get a pe-
riodical variation in consequence of the revolution of one of them
round the other. Hence, as Mr. Lockyer expresses it, " it can not
be too strongly insisted upon that the chief among the new ideas
introduced by the recent work is that a great many stars are not
stars like the sun, but simply collections of meteorites, the par-
ticles of which may be probably thirty, forty, or fifty miles apart."
These swarms of dust undergo condensation by attraction or gravi-
tation ; they will become hotter and brighter as their volume de-
creases, and we shall pass from the nebulae to what we call true
stars. Mr. Lockyer imagines such condensed masses of meteoric
dust being pelted or bombarded by meteoric material, producing
heat and light, the effect continuing as long as the pelting is kept
up. To this circumstance is due the formation of stars like suns.
Our earth originally belonged to that class of heavenly bodies,
but from a subsequent process of cooling assumed its present
character.

The dust scattered everywhere in the atmosphere, which is
lighted up in a sunbeam or a ray from the electric lamp, is of

ATMOSPHERIC DUST. 179

an organic nature. It is seen to consist of countless motes, rising,
falling, or gyrating, although it is impossible to follow any of
them with the eye for longer than a fraction of a second. We
conclude that their weight exceeds but very slightly that of the
air ; and, moreover, that the atmosphere is the seat of multitudes
of minute currents, assuming all kinds of directions. One day
last June, from the top of Eiffel's Tower in Paris, I amused my-
self by throwing an unfolded newspaper over the railing round
the summit of the tower. At first it fell slowly, carried away by
a light breeze ; but presently it rose, and, describing a curve, began
again to fall. As it was vanishing from sight, the paper seemed
to me as if arrested now and then in its descent, perhaps under-
going again a slight upheaval. Here was, indeed, a gigantic mote
floating in the atmosphere, and subject to the same physical laws,
though on a larger scale, as those delicate filaments of dust we see
dancing merrily in a sunbeam.

It is difficult to say how much of the dust present in the air
may become a source of disease, and how much is innocuous.
Many of the motes belong to the class of micro-organisms ; and
experiments show how easily these micro-organisms or sources of
infectious diseases can reach the lungs, and do mischief if they
should find a condition of the body on which they are able to
thrive and be reproduced. Atmospheric motes, although it has
been shown that they are really deposited in the respiratory
organs, do not accumulate in the lungs and air-passages, but un-
dergo decomposition and disappear in the circulation. Smoke,
which is finely divided coal-dust, is clearly subjected to such a
destructive process ; otherwise the smoky atmosphere of many of
our towns would soon prove fatal, and tobacco-smoke would leave
a deposit interfering seriously after a very short time with the
process of respiration. Dust, however in its physical aspect
is very far from being always innocuous, and many trades are
liable to suffer from it. The cutting of chaff, for horses' food, is
one of the most pernicious occupations, as it generates clouds of
dust of an essentially penetrating character. Persons engaged in
needle manufacturing and steel - grinders suffer much from the
dust of metallic particles. Stone-cutters, and workmen in plaster
of Paris, coal-heavers, men engaged in the manufacture of cigars
and rope, those employed in flour-mills and hat and carpet mak-
ing, are liable to suffer from dust. A number of methods have
been adopted, more or less successfully, to rid these trades of the
danger due to this source. I observed many years ago that char-
coal has the power of retaining dust in a remarkable degree, and
having had respirators made of it, found them very effective in
preventing dust reaching the lungs.

Micro-organisms — dust-like particles capable of cultivation or

180 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reproduction in certain media and at certain temperatures — are
scattered everywhere in the atmosphere. Interesting inquiries
into their distribution in air and water have been made by Dr.
Miquel at the Montsouris Observatory, Paris, and by Dr. Percy
Frankland in England. Dr. Frankland has found that the num-
ber present is much reduced in winter. Experiments made in in-
closed places, where there is little or no aerial motion, show the
number of suspended organisms to be very moderate ; but as soon
as any disturbance in the air occurs, from draughts or people
moving about, the number rapidly increases and may become
very great. Being slightly heavier than air, they have an invari-
able tendency to fall, and on that account collect on the surface
of water. Hence rivers, lakes, and ponds are constantly being
thus contaminated.

Important points connected with dust of organic origin are its
inflammability and its liability to explode when mixed with air.
The property of explosiveness was forcibly illustrated in the de-
struction of six flour-mills by this cause in Minneapolis, Minn., in
May, 1878. Coal-dust in coal-mines is a cause of accident from
explosions which has been closely investigated in England, Ger-
many, and other mining countries. The subject was thoroughly
treated by Sir Frederick Abeel, in a paper on Accidents in Mines,
read before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1888.

Extremely fine particles of mineral dust may exist in the at-
mosphere, and do exist there more frequently than is generally
thought, while they escape detection by our senses. The author,
while making experiments on the Peak of Teneriffe, in 1878, found
the knife-edges of his balance so clogged with this invisible dust
that the balance refused to act. When wiped off, the dust col-
lected again in a few minutes, and it was only by continually
wiping it away that he was able to go on with his investiga-
tion. Prof. Piazzi Smyth, while on the Peak of Teneriffe, wit-
nessed strata of dust rising to a height of nearly a mile, reaching
out to the horizon in every direction, and so dense as to hide fre-
quently the neighboring hills. Prof. S. P. Langley, looking down
from the height of fifteen thousand feet on Mount Whitney, Cali-
fornia, into a region that had appeared clear from the valley below,
saw " a kind of level dust ocean, invisible from below, but whose
depth was six or seven thousand feet, as the upper portion only of
the opposite mountain-range rose clearly out of it."

Dust storms are classified by Dr. Henry Cook, according to
their intensity, as atmospheric dust, dust columns, and dust storms.
Dr. Cook has observed in India that there are some days on which,
however hard and violently the wind may blow, no dust accom-
panies it, while on others every little puff of air or current of
wind forms or carries with it clouds of dust. If the wind which

ATMOSPHERIC BUST. 181

raises the dust is strong, nothing will be visible at the distance of
a few yards, and the snn will be obscured. The dnst penetrates
everywhere, and can not be excluded from honses, boxes, and even
watches, however carefully guarded. The individual particles of
sand appear to be in such an electrical condition that they are
ever ready to repel each other, and are consequently disturbed
and carried up into the air. Dust columns are regarded by Dr.
Cook as due to electrical causes. On calm, quiet days, when
hardly a breath of air is stirring, and the sun pours down its
heated rays with full force, little eddies arise in the atmosphere
near the surface of the ground. These increase in force and diam-
eter, catching up and whirling round bits of sticks, grass, dust,
and lastly sand, until a column is formed of great height and con-
siderable diameter, which usually, after remaining stationary for
some time, sweeps away across country at great speed. Ultimately
it loses gradually the velocity of its circular movement and dis-
appears. In the valley of Mingochar, which is only a few miles
in width, and surrounded by high hills, Dr. Cook, on a day when
not a breath of air was stirring, counted upward of twenty of
these columns. They seldom changed their places, and, when they
did so, moved but slowly across the level tract. They never inter-
fered with one another, and appeared to have independent exist-
ences. Mr. P. L. H. Baddeley, in his book on Whirlwinds and
Dust Storms of India, tells of a gentleman at Lahore who fixed an
electrometer apparatus, so adjusted as to report atmospheric elec-
trical movements, and observed that it was strongly affected dur-
ing dust storms.

Volcanic dust consists mainly of powdered vitrified substances
reduced by the action of intense heat. It is interesting in many
respects. The ashes or scoria shot out in volcanic eruptions are
mostly pounded pumice, but they also originate from stones and
fragments which are pulverized by striking against each other.
Volcanic dust has a whitish-gray color, and is sometimes nearly
white. Thus it is that, in summer, the terminal cone of the Peak
of Teneriff e appears from a distance as if covered with snow ; but
there is no snow on the mountain at that season of the year, and
the white cap of the peak is due to pumice ejected centuries ago.

The friction caused by volcanic stones and rocks as they are
crushed in their collision develops a mass of electricity which
shows itself in brilliant displays of branch lightning darting from
the edges of the dense ascending column. During the great erup-
tion of Vesuvius in 1822 they were constantly visible, and added
much to the grandeur of the spectacle. It not unfrequently hap-
pens that the dust emitted from Vesuvius falls into the streets of
Naples ; but this is nothing in comparison with the mass of finely
powdered material which covered and buried the towns of Pompeii,

i8z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Herculaneum, and Stabise, in the year 79. The eruption of Kra-
katoa, in 1883, exceeded, in all probability, in its deadly effects,
and as a wonderful phenomenon of nature, the outburst of Vesu-
vius in the year 79. It is shown, in the report of the Krakatoa
Committee of the Royal Society, that the detonations caused by
the explosive action were heard a hundred and fifty miles away.
Captain Thompson, of the ship Medea, sailing at a point seventy-
six miles northeast of Krakatoa, saw a black mass like smoke
rising into the clouds to an altitude which was estimated as not
less than seventeen miles. All the eye-witnesses agree as to the
splendor of the electrical phenomena. The old crater of Krakatoa
was eviscerated, and a cavity was formed more than a thousand
feet deep. On the morning of the 27th of August three vessels at
the eastern entrance of the Strait of Sunda encountered the fall
of mingled dust and water, which soon darkened the air, and cov-
ered their decks and sails with a thick coating of mud. Some of
the pieces of pumice falling on the Sir R. Sale were said to have
been of the size of a pumpkin. All that day the three vessels were
beating about in darkness, pumice-dust falling upon them in such
quantities as to employ the crews for hours in shoveling it from
the decks and in beating it from the sails and rigging. The speed
and distance attained by the pumice ejected from the volcano may
be conceived from the fact stated in Mr. Douglas Archibald's con-
tribution to the report, that dust fell on September 8th more than
thirty-seven hundred English miles from the seat of the eruption.
The great mass of the pumice was of a dirty, grayish-white tint,
and was very irregular in size.

The dust ejected from Krakatoa did not all fall back at the
same time upon the sea and the earth. The lightest portion formed
into a haze, which was as a rule propagated westward. Most ob-
servers agree in regarding this haze as the proximate cause of the
twilight glows, colored suns, and large corona which were seen for
a long time (more than two years) after the eruption. The haze
was densest in the Indian Ocean and along the equatorial belt,
and was often thick enough to hide the sun when within a few
degrees of the horizon.

I hope I have succeeded in showing that infinitely small ob-
jects, no larger than particles of dust, act important parts in the
physical phenomena of nature.

Mr. H. "W. Seton-Karr tells, in one of his books of travels, of his ascent of
one of the spurs of Mount St. Elias, following the track of a brown bear with
always an uneasy expectation of meeting the animal itself, to the height of seven
thousand two hundred feet. Here the wonderful spectacle was presented of no
less than seventeen thousand square miles of glaciers stretching over the face of
the country. Excepting Greenland, according to this traveler, these glaciers are
the most extensive in the world outside of the arctic and antarctic regions.

ON JUSTICE. 183

ON JUSTICE.

By HERBERT SPENCER.
[Conclu de d. ]

IV. The Sentiment of Justice. — Acceptance of the doctrine of
organic evolution determines certain ethical conceptions. The
doctrine implies that the numerous organs in each of the innu-
merable species of animals, have been either directly or indirectly
molded into fitness for the requirements of life by constant con-
verse with those requirements. Simultaneously, through nervous
modifications, there have been developments of the sensations,
instincts, emotions, and intellectual aptitudes, needed for the ap-
propriate uses of these organs ; as we see in caged rodents that
exercise their incisors by purposeless gnawing, in gregarious creat-
ures which are miserable if they can not join their fellows, in
beavers which, kept in confinement, show their passion for dam-
building by heaping up whatever sticks and stones they can find.

Has this process of mental adaptation ended with primitive
man ? Are human beings incapable of having their feelings and
ideas progressively adjusted to the modes of life imposed on them
by the social state into which they have grown ? Shall we sup-
pose that the nature which fitted them to the exigencies of sav-
age life has remained unchanged, and will remain unchanged, by
the exigencies of civilized life ? Or shall we suppose that this
aboriginal nature, by repression of some traits and fostering of
others, is made to approach more and more to a nature which
finds developed society its appropriate environment, and the
required activities its normal ones ? There are many believers in
the doctrine of evolution who seem to have no faith in the con-
tinued adaptability of mankind. While glancing but carelessly
at the evidence furnished by comparisons of different human races
with one another, and of the same races in different ages, they
ignore entirely the induction from the phenomena of life at large.
But if there is an abuse of the deductive method of reasoning
there is also an abuse of the inductive method. One who refused
to believe that a new moon would in a fortnight become full, and,
disregarding observations accumulated throughout the past, in-
sisted on watching the successive phases for three weeks before he
was convinced, would be considered inductive in an irrational
degree. But there might not unfairly be classed with him those
who. slighting the inductive proof of unlimited adjustability, bod-
ily and mental, which the animal kingdom at large presents, will
not admit the adjustability of human nature to social life until
the adjustment has taken place : nay, even ignore the evidence
that it is taking place.

i8 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Here we shall assume it to be an inevitable inference from the
doctrine of organic evolution, that the highest type of living
being, no less than all lower types, must go on molding itself to
those requirements which circumstances impose. And we shall,
by implication, assume that moral changes are among the changes
thus wrought out.

The fact that when surfeit of a favorite food has caused sick-
ness, there is apt to follow an aversion to that food, shows how,
in the region of the sensations, experiences establish associations
which influence conduct. And the fact that the house in which a
wife or child died, or in which a long illness was suffered, be-
comes so associated with painful states of mind as to be shunned,
sufficiently illustrates, in the emotional region, the mode in which
actions may be determined by mental connections formed in the
course of life. When the circumstances of a species make certain
relations between conduct and consequence habitual, the appro-
priately-linked feelings may come to characterize the species.
Either inheritances of modifications produced by habit, or more
numerous survivals of individuals having nervous structures
which have varied in fit ways, gradually form guiding tenden-
cies, prompting appropriate behavior and deterring from inap-
propriate. The contrast between fearless birds found on islands
never before visited by man, and the birds around us, which show
fear of man immediately they are out of the nest, exemplifies
such adaptations.

By virtue of this process there have been produced to some ex-
tent among lower creatures, and there are being further produced
in man, the sentiments appropriate to social life. Aggressive ac-
tions, while they are habitually injurious to the group in which
they occur, are not unfrequently injurious to the individuals
committing them ; since, though certain pleasures may be gained
by them, they often entail pains greater than the pleasures. Con-
versely, conduct restrained within the required limits, calling out
no antagonistic passions, favors harmonious co-operation, profits
the group, and, by implication, profits the average of its indi-
viduals. Consequently, there results, other things equal, a tend-
ency for groups formed of members having this adaptation of
nature, to survive and spread.

Among the social sentiments thus evolved, one of chief impor-
tance is the sentiment of justice. Let us now consider more
closely its nature.

Stop an animal's nostrils, and it makes frantic efforts to free
its head. Tie its limbs together, and its struggles to get them at
liberty are violent. Chain it by the neck or leg, and it is some
time before it ceases its attempts to escape. Put it in a cage, and

ON JUSTICE. 185

it long continues restless. Generalizing these instances we see
that in proportion as the restraints on actions by which life is
maintained are extreme, the resistances to them are great. Con-
versely, the eagerness with which a bird seizes the opportunity
for taking flight, and the joy of a dog when liberated, show how
strong is the love of unfettered movement.

Displaying like feelings in like ways, man displays them in
other and wider ways. He is irritated by invisible restraints as
well as by visible ones ; and as his evolution becomes higher, he
is affected by circumstances and actions which in more remote
ways aid or hinder the pursuit of ends. A parallel will elucidate
this truth. Primitively the sentiment of property is gratified
only by possession of food and shelter, and, presently, of cloth-
ing ; but afterward it is gratified by possession of the weapons
and tools which aid in obtaining these, then by possession of the
raw materials serving for making weapons and tools and for
other purposes, then by possession of the coin which purchases
them as well as things at large, then by possession of promises
to pay exchangeable for the coin, then by a lien on a banker, regis-
tered in a pass-book. That is, there comes to be pleasure in an
ownership more and more abstract and remote from material sat-
isfactions. Similarly with the sentiment of justice. Beginning
with the joy felt in ability to use the bodily powers and gain the
resulting benefits, accompanied by irritation at direct interfer-
ences, this gradually responds to wider relations: being excited
now by the incidents of personal bondage, now by those of politi-
cal bondage, now by those of class privilege, and now by small
political changes. Eventually, this sentiment, sometimes so little
developed in the negro that he jeers at a liberated companion
because he has no master to take care of him, becomes so much
developed in the Englishman that the slightest infraction of some
mode of formal procedure at a public meeting or in Parliament
which can not intrinsically concern him, is vehemently opposed
because in some distant and indirect way it may help to give
possible powers to unnamed authorities who may perhaps impose
unforeseen burdens or restrictions.

Clearly, then, the egoistic sentiment of justice is a subjective
attribute which answers to that objective requirement consti-
tuting justice — the requirement that each adult shall receive the
good and evil effects of his own nature. For unless the faculties
of all kinds have free play, these results can not be gained or suf-
fered, and unless there exists a sentiment which prompts mainte-
nance of the sphere for this free play, it will be trenched upon
and the free play impeded.

While we may thus understand how the egoistic sentiment of
justice is developed, it is much less easy to understand how there

186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is developed the altruistic sentiment of justice. On the one hand,
the implication is that the altruistic sentiment of justice can come
into existence only in the course of adaptation to social life. On
the other hand the implication is that social life is made possible
only by maintenance of those equitable relations which imply the
altruistic sentiment of justice. How can these reciprocal require-
ments be fulfilled ?

The answer is that the altruistic sentiment of justice can come
into existence only by the aid of a sentiment which temporarily
supplies its place and restrains the actions prompted by pure ego-
ism — a pro-altruistic sentiment of justice as we may call it. This
has several components which we must successively glance at.

The first deterrent from aggression is one which we see among
animals at large — the fear of retaliation. Among creatures of the
same species the food obtained by one or place of vantage taken
possession of by it, is in some measure insured to it by the dread
which most others feel of the vengeance which may follow any
attempt to take it away ; and among men, especially during primi-
tive stages of social life, it is chiefly such dread which secures for
each man free scope for his activities, and exclusive use of what-
ever they bring him.

A further restraint is the fear of reprobation shown by uncon-
cerned members of the group. Though in the expulsion of a
" rogue " elephant from the herd, or the slaying of a sinning mem-
ber of the flock by rooks or storks, we see that even among ani-
mals individuals suffer from an adverse public opinion ; yet it
is scarcely probable that among animals expectation of general
dislike prevents encroachment. But among mankind, " looking
before and after " to a greater extent, the thought of social dis-
grace is usually an additional check on ill-behavior of man to
man.

To these feelings, which come into play before there is any
social organization, have to be added those which arise after
political authority establishes itself. When a successful leader in
war acquires permanent headship, and comes to have at heart the
maintenance of his power, there arises in him a desire to prevent
the trespasses of his people one against another ; since the result-
ing dissensions weaken his tribe. The rights of personal venge-
ance and, as in feudal times, of private war, are restricted ;
and, simultaneously, there grow up interdicts on the acts which
cause them. Dread of the penalties which follow breaches of
these, is an added restraint.

Ancestor-worship in general, developing as the society devel-
ops into special propitiation of the dead chiefs ghost, and pres-
ently the dead king's ghost, gives to the injunctions he uttered
during life increased sanctity ; and when, with establishment of

ON JUSTICE. 187

the cult, he becomes a god, his injunctions become divine com-
mands with dreaded punishments for breaches of them.

These four kinds of fear co-operate. The dread of retaliation,
the dread of social dislike, the dread of legal punishment, and the
dread of divine vengeance, united in various proportions, form a
body of feeling which checks the primitive tendency to pursue
the objects of desire without regard to the interests of fellow-men.
Containing none of the altruistic sentiment of justice, properly so
called, this pro-altruistic sentiment of justice serves temporarily
to cause respect for one another's claims, and so to make social
co-operation possible.

Creatures which become gregarious tend to become sympa-
thetic in degrees proportionate to their intelligences. Not, in-
deed, that the resulting sympathetic tendency is exclusively, or
even mainly, of that kind which the words ordinarily imply ; for
in some there is little beyond sympathy in fear, and in others
little beyond sympathy in ferocity. All that is meant is that in
gregarious creatures a feeling displayed by one is apt to arouse
kindred feelings in others, and is apt to do this in proportion as
others are intelligent enough to appreciate the signs of the feel-
ing. In two chapters of the Principles of Psychology — Sociality
and Sympathy and Altruistic Sentiments — I have endeavored to
show how sympathy in general arises, and how there is eventually
produced altruistic sympathy.

The implication is, then, that the associated state having been
maintained among men by the aid of the pro-altruistic sentiment
of justice, there have been maintained the conditions under which
the altruistic sentiment of justice itself can develop. In a per-
manent group there occur, generation after generation, incidents
simultaneously drawing from its members manifestations of like
emotions — rejoicings over victories and escapes, over prey jointly
captured, over supplies of wild food discovered ; as well as la-
ments over defeats, scarcities, inclemencies, etc. And to these
greater pleasures and pains felt in common by all, and so express-
ing themselves that each sees in others the signs of feelings like
those which he has and is displaying, must be added the smaller
pleasures and pains daily resulting from meals taken together,
amusements, games, and from the not infrequent adverse occur-
rences which affect several persons at once. Thus there is fos-
tered that sympathy which makes the altruistic sentiment of
justice possible.

But the altruistic sentiment of justice is slow in assuming a
high form, partly because its primary component does not become
highly developed until a late phase of progress, partly because it
is relatively complex, and partly because it implies a stretch of

188 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

imagination not possible for low intelligences. Let us glance at
each of these reasons.

Every altruistic feeling presupposes experience of the cor-
responding egoistic feeling. As, until pain has been felt there
can not be sympathy with pain, and as one who has no ear for
music can not enter into the pleasure which music gives to oth-
ers ; so, the altruistic sentiment of justice can arise only after the
egoistic sentiment of justice has arisen. Hence where this has
not been developed in any considerable degree, or has been re-
pressed by a social life of an adverse kind, the altruistic senti-
ment of justice remains rudimentary.

The complexity of the sentiment becomes manifest on observ-
ing that it is not concerned only with concrete pleasures and pains,
but is concerned mainly with certain of the circumstances under
which these are obtainable or preventable. As the egoistic senti-
ment of justice is gratified by maintenance of those conditions
which render achievement of satisfactions unimpeded, and irri-
tated by the breaking of those conditions, it results that the altru-
istic sentiment of justice requires for its excitement not only the
ideas of such satisfactions, but also the ideas of those condi-
tions which are in the one case maintained and in the other case
broken.

Evidently, therefore, to be capable of this sentiment in a devel-
oped form, the faculty of mental representation must be relatively
great. Where the feelings with which there is to be sympathy
are simple pleasures and pains, the higher gregarious animals
occasionally display it : pity and generosity are from time to time
felt by them as well as by human beings. But to conceive simul-
taneously not only the feelings produced in another, but the plexus
of acts and relations involved in the production of such feelings,
presupposes the putting together in thought of more elements
than an inferior creature can grasp at the same time. And when
we come to those most abstract forms of the sentiment of justice
which are concerned with public arrangements, we see that only
the higher varieties of men are capable of so conceiving the ways
in which good or bad institutions and laws will eventually affect
their spheres of action, as to be prompted to support or oppose
them ; and that only among these, therefore, is there excited un-
der such conditions that sympathetic sentiment of justice which
makes them defend the political interests of fellow-citizens.

There is, of course, a close connection between the sentiment
of justice and the social type. Predominant militancy, by the
coercive form of organization it implies, alike in the fighting
body and in the society which supports it, affords no scope for
the egoistic sentiment of justice ; but, contrariwise, perpetually
tramples on it, and at the same time the sympathies which origi-

ON JUSTICE. 189

nate the altruistic sentiment, of justice are perpetually seared by-
militant activities. Contrariwise, in proportion as the regime of
status is replaced by the regime of contract, or, in other words, as
fast as voluntary co-operation, which characterizes the industrial
type of society, becomes more general than involuntary co-opera-
tion, which characterizes the militant type of society, individual
activities become less restrained, and the sentiment which rejoices
in the scope for them is encouraged ; while, simultaneously, the
occasions for repressing the sympathies become less frequent.
Hence during warlike phases of social life the sentiment of jus-
tice retrogrades, while it advances during peaceful phases, and can
reach its full development only in a permanently peaceful state.*

V. The Idea of Justice. — While describing the sentiment
of justice, the way has been prepared for describing the idea of
justice. Though the two are intimately connected they may be
clearly distinguished.

One who had dropped his pocket-book, and, turning round,
finds that another who has picked it up will not surrender it, is
indignant. If the goods sent home by a shopkeeper are not those
he purchased, he protests against the fraud. Should his seat at a
theatre be usurped during a momentary absence he feels himself
ill-used. Morning noises from a neighbor's poultry he complains
of as grievances. And meanwhile he sympathizes with the anger
of a friend who has been led by false statements to join a disas-
trous enterprise, or whose action at law has been rendered futile
by a flaw in the procedure. But though in these cases his sense
of justice is offended, he may fail to distinguish the essential trait
which in each case causes the offense. He may have the senti-
ment of justice in full measure while his idea of justice remains
vague.

This relation between sentiment and idea is a matter of course.
The ways in which men trespass on one another become more nu-
merous in their kinds, and more involved, as society grows more
complex ; and they must be experienced in their many forms, gen-
eration after generation, before analysis can make clear the essen-
tial distinction between legitimate acts and illegitimate acts.

A special reason for this should be recognized. Ideas as well
as sentiments must on the average be adjusted to the social state.
Hence, as war has been frequent or habitual in nearly all societies,
such ideas of justice as have existed have been perpetually con-

* Permanent peace does in a few places exist, and where it exists the sentiment of jus-
tice is exceptionally strong and sensitive. I am glad to have again the occasion for point-
ing out that among tribes called uncivilized, there are some, distinguished by the entire
absence of warlike activities, who in their characters put to shame the peoples called
civilized. In Political Institutions, §§ 437 and 574, I have given eight examples of this
connection of facts taken from races of different types.

i 9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fused by the conflicting requirements of internal amity and exter-
nal enmity.

Already it has been made clear that the idea of justice, or at
least the idea of human justice, contains two elements. On the
one hand there is that positive element implied by recognition of
each man's claims to unimpeded activities and the benefits they
bring. On the other hand there is that negative element implied
by the consciousness of limits which the presence of other men
having like claims necessitates. Two opposite traits in these two
components especially arrest the attention.

Inequality is the primordial idea suggested. For if the prin-
ciple is that each shall receive the benefits and evils due to his
own nature and consequent conduct, then since men differ in their
powers there must be differences in the results of their actions.
Unequal amounts of benefit are implied.

Mutual limitations to men's actions suggest a contrary idea.
When it is seen that if each pursues his ends regardless of his
neighbor's claims, quarrels must be caused and social co-opera-
tion hindered, there arises the consciousness that bounds must be
set to the doings of each ; and the thought of spheres of action
bounded by one another, involves the conception of equality.

Unbalanced appreciations of these two factors in human justice
lead to divergent moral and social theories, which we must now
glance at.

In some of the rudest groups of men the appreciations are no
higher than those which we see among inferior gregarious ani-
mals. Here the stronger takes what he pleases from the weaker
without exciting general reprobation ; while, elsewhere, there is
practiced and tacitly approved something like communism. But
where habitual war has developed political organization, the idea
of inequality becomes predominant. If not among the conquered,
who are made slaves, yet among the conquerors, who naturally
think of that which conduces to their interest as that which
ought to be, there is fostered this element in the conception of
justice which asserts that superiority shall have the benefits of
superiority.

Though the Platonic dialogues may not be taken as measures

of Greek belief, yet we may reasonably assume that the things

they take for granted were currently accepted. Socrates inquires

— " Do you admit that it is just for subjects to obey their rulers ? "

' I do," replies Thrasymachus.* Though otherwise in antagonism,

* The Republic, Book I, translated by Jowett, p. 159 (edit, of 1871). Instead of " Do
you admit," the rendering given by Messrs. Llewelyn Davies and Yaughan is " You doubt-

less also maintain."

ON JUSTICE. 191

the two agree in this conception of what is just. At a later
stage of the inquiry, Glaucon, describing a current opinion,
says :

" This, as they affirm, is the origin and nature of justice: — there is a mean or
compromise between the best of all, which is to do and not to suffer injustice,
and the worst of all,, which is to suffer without the power of retaliation ; and
justice being the mean between the two, is tolerated not as good, but as the
lesser evil." And immediately afterward it is said that men " are only diverted
into the path of justice by the force of law." *

In this significant passage several things are to be noted.
There is first a recognition of the fact, above indicated, that at an
early stage the practice of justice is initiated by the dread of
retaliation, and the conviction, suggested by experience, that it is
on the whole the best to avoid aggression and to respect the limit
which compromise implies ; there is no recognition of intrinsic
flagitiousness in aggression, but only of its impolicy. Further,
the limit to each man's actions, described as " a mean of compro-
mise," and respect for which is called " the path of justice," is
said to be established only " by the force of law." Law is not
considered as an expression of justice otherwise cognizable, but
as itself the source of justice ; and hence results the meaning
of the preceding proposition, that it is just to obey the law.
Thirdly, there is an implication that were it not for retaliation
and legal penalties, the stronger might with propriety take ad-
vantage of the weaker. There is a half -expressed belief that su-
periority ought to have the advantages of superiority ; inequality
occupies a prominent place, while equality makes no definite
appearance.

The conception here indicated that justice consists in legality,
is, toward the close of Book IV, developed into the conception
that justice consists " in each of the three classes doing the work
of its own class " : carpenter, shoemaker, or what not, " doing
each his own business, and not another's " ; and all obeying the
class whose business it is to rule.f Thus the idea of justice is made
to include the idea of inequality. Though there is some recog-

* Book II, p. 229.

f On another page there is furnished a typical example of Socratic reasoning. It is
held to be a just " principle that individuals are neither to take what is another's, nor to
be deprived of what is their own." From this it is inferred that justice consists in " hav-
ing and doing what is a man's own " ; and then comes the further inference that it is
unjust for one man to assume another's occupation, and " force his way " out of one class
into another. Here, then, because a man's own property and his own occupation are both
called his own, the same conclusion is drawn concerning both. Two fallacies are in-
volved — the one that a man can " own " a trade in the same way that he owns a coat, and
the other that because he may not be deprived of the coat he must be restricted to the
trade. The Platonic dialogues are everywhere vitiated by fallacies of this kind, caused by
confounding words with things — unity of name with unity of nature.

i 9 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nition of equality of positions and claims among members of the
same class, yet the regulations respecting community of wives,
etc., in the guardian-class, have for their avowed purpose to
establish, even within that class, unequal privileges for the benefit
of the superior.

But now observe that while in the Greek conception of justice
there predominates the idea of inequality, while the idea of equal-
ity is inconspicous, the inequality refers, not to the natural
achievement of greater rewards by greater merits, but to the
artificial apportionment of greater rewards to greater merits. It
is an inequality mainly established by authority. The gradations
in the civil organization are of the same nature as those in the
military organization. Regimentation pervades both, and the
idea of justice is everywhere conformed to the traits of the social
structure.

And this is the idea of justice proper to the militant type at
large, as we are again shown throughout Europe in subsequent
ages. It will suffice to point out that along with the different
law-established positions and privileges of different ranks, there
went gradations in the amounts paid in composition for crimes
according to the rank of the injured. And how completely the
idea of justice was determined by the idea of rightly-existing in-
equality, is shown by the condemnation of serfs who escaped into
the towns and were said to have " unjustly " withdrawn them-
selves from the control of their lords.

Thus, as might be expected, we find that while the struggle
for existence between societies is going on actively, recognition of
the primary factor in justice which is common to life at large,
human and sub-human, is very imperfectly qualified by recogni-
tion of the secondary factor. That which we may distinguish as
the brute element in the conception is but little mitigated by the
human element.

All movements are rhythmical, and among others social move-
ments, with their accompanying doctrines. After that concep-
tion of justice in which the idea of inequality unduly predomi-
nates, comes a conception in which the idea of equality unduly
predominates.

A recent example of such reactions is furnished by the ethical
theory of Bentham. As is shown by the following extract from
Mr. Mill's Utilitarianism (p. 91), the idea of inequality here en-
tirely disappears :

The Greatest-Happiness Principle is a mere form of words without rational
signification, UDless one person's happiness, supposed equal in degree (with the
proper allowance made for kind), is counted for exactly as much as another's.
Those conditions being supplied, Bentham's dictum, " everybody to count for one,

ON JUSTICE. 193

nobody for more than one, 11 might be written under the principle of utility as an
explanatory commentary.

Now though Bentham ridicules the taking of justice as our
guide, saying that while happiness is an end intelligible to all,
justice is a relatively unintelligible end, yet he tacitly asserts that
his principle — " everybody to count for one, nobody for more than
one/' is just ; since, otherwise, he would be obliged to admit that
it is unjust, and we may not suppose he would do so. Hence the
implication of his doctrine is that justice means an equal appor-
tionment of the benefits, material and immaterial, which men's
activities bring. There is no recognition of inequalities in men's
shares of happiness, consequent on inequalities of their faculties
or characters.

This is the theory which Communism would reduce to prac-
tice. From one who knows him, I learn that Prince Krapotkin
blames the English socialists because they do -not propose to act
out the rule popularly worded as " share and share alike." In a
recent periodical, M. de Laveleye summed up the communistic
principle as being " that the individual works for the profit of the
State, to which he hands over the produce of his labor for equal
division among all." In the communistic Utopia described in Mr.
Bellamy's Looking Backward, it is held that each " shall make
the same effort," and that if by the same efforts, bodily or mental,
one produces twice as much as another, he is not to be advantaged
by the difference. At the same time the intellectually or physic-
ally feeble are to be quite as well off as others : the assertion
being that the existing regime is one of " robbing the incapable
class of their plain right in leaving them unprovided for."

The principle of inequality is thus denied absolutely. It is
assumed to be unjust that superiority of nature shall bring supe-
riority of results, or, at any rate, superiority of material results ;
and as no distinction appears to be made in respect either of phys-
ical qualities or intellectual qualities or moral qualities, the im-
plication is not only that strong and weak shall fare alike, but that
foolish and wise, worthy and unworthy, mean and noble, shall do
the same. For if, according to this conception of justice, defects of
nature, physical or intellectual, ought not to count, neither ought
moral defects, since they are one and all primarily inherited.

And here, too, we have a deliberate abolition of that cardinal
distinction between the ethics of the family and the ethics of the
State emphasized at the outset : an abolition which must eventu-
ate in decay and disappearance of the species or variety in which
it takes place.

After contemplation of these divergent conceptions of justice,
in which the ideas of inequality and equality almost or quite ex-

VOL. XXXVII. — 15

i 9 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

elude one another, we are prepared for framing a true conception
of justice.

In other fields of thought it has fallen to niy lot to show that
the right view is obtained by co-ordinating the antagonist wrong
views. Thus, the association-theory of intellect is harmonized
with the transcendental theory on perceiving that when, to the
effects of individual experiences are added the inherited effects of
experiences received by all ancestors, the two views become one.
So, too, when the molding of feelings into harmony with require-
ments, generation after generation, is recognized as causing an
adapted moral nature, there results a reconciliation of the ex-
pediency-theory of morals with the intuitional theory. And here
we see that the like occurs with this more special component of
ethics now before us.

For if each of these opposite conceptions of justice is accepted
as true in part, and then supplemented by the other, there results
that conception of justice which arises on contemplating the laws
of life as carried on in the social state. The equality concerns the
mutually-limited spheres of action which must be maintained if
associated men are to co-operate harmoniously. The inequality
concerns the results which each may achieve by carrying on his
actions within the implied limits. No incongruity exists when
the ideas of equality and inequality are applied the one to the
bounds and the other to the benefits. Contrariwise, the two may
be, and must be, simultaneously asserted.

Other injunctions which ethics has to utter do not here concern
us. There are the self-imposed requirements and limitations of
private conduct, forming that large division of ethics treated of
in Part III ; and there are the demands and restraints included
under Negative and Positive Beneficence, to be hereafter treated
of, which are at once self-imposed and in a measure imposed by
public opinion. But here we have to do only with those claims
and those limits which have to be maintained as conditions to
harmonious co-operation, and which alone are to be enforced by
the society in its corporate capacity.

Any considerable acceptance of so definite an idea of justice is
not to be expected. It is an idea appropriate to an ultimate state,
and can be but partially recognized during transitional states ; for
the prevailing ideas must, on the average, be congruous with ex-
isting institutions and activities.

The two essentially-different types of social organization, mili-
tant and industrial, based respectively on status and on contract,
have, as we have above seen, feelings and beliefs severally ad-
justed to them ; and the mixed feelings and beliefs appropriate to
intermediate types, have continually to change according to the

• ON JUSTICE. i 95

ratio between the one and the other. As I have elsewhere shown,*
during the thirty — or rather forty — years' peace, and consequent
weakening of the militant organization, the idea of justice became
clearer : coercive regulations were relaxed and each man left more
free to make the best of himself. But, since then, the redevelop-
ment of militancy has caused reversal of these changes ; and,
along with nominal increases of freedom, actual diminutions of
freedom have resulted from multiplied regulations and exactions.
The spirit of regimentation proper to the militant type has been
spreading throughout the administration of civil life. An army
of workers with appointed tasks and apportioned • shares of prod-
ucts, which socialism, knowingly or unknowingly, aims at, shows
in civil life the same characters as an army of soldiers with pre-
scribed duties and fixed rations shows in military life ; and every
further act of Parliament which takes from the individual money
for public purposes and gives him public benefits, tends more and
more to assimilate the two. Germany best shows this kinship.
There, where militancy is most pronounced, and where the regu-
lation of citizens is most elaborate, socialism is most highly devel-
oped ; and from the head of the German military system has now
come the proposal of regimental regulations for the working
classes throughout Europe*.

Sympathy which, a generation ago, was taking the shape of
justice, is relapsing into the shape of generosity ; and the gener-
osity is exercised by inflicting injustice. Daily legislation betrays
little anxiety that each shall have that which belongs to him, but
great anxiety that he shall have that which belongs to somebody
else For Wliile no energy is expended in so reforming our judi-
cial administration that every one may obtain and enjoy all he has
earned, great energy is shown in providing for him and others
benefits which they have not earned. Along with that miserable
laissez-faire which calmly looks on while men ruin themselves
in trying to enforce by law their equitable claims, there goes
activity in supplying them, at other men's cost, with gratis novel-
reading !

Evidently, then, amid this chaos of opinions the true idea of
justice can be but very partially recognized. The workman who,
in pursuance of it, insists on his right of making his own contract
with an employer, will continue to be called " a black-leg " ; and
the writer who opposes the practice of forcibly taking A's prop-
erty for B's benefit will be classed as an "a priori bigot/' — Nine-
teenth Century.

* Principles of Sociology, §§ 266, 26V ; Political Institutions, §§ 573, 574 and 559.

196

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL ACTION IN SOUTH-
EASTERN CONNECTICUT.

By Hon. DAVID A. WELLS.

EEMARKABLE evidences of glacial action in southeastern
Connecticut seem thus far to have almost entirely escaped
the attention of geologists. In fact, the most superficial survey
of the section of country bordering on Long Island and Fisher's
Island Sounds, and extending from Connecticut River on the
west to Watch Hill, and perhaps to a point farther east, in Rhode
Island, can hardly fail to produce a conviction that it was in
this region that one, at least, of the great New England glaciers
debouched into the waters of the Atlantic ; unloading or drop-

FlG. 1.

ping, as its progress was arrested by the ocean, or as it subse-
quently gradually wasted and receded by change of climate, a
vast multitude of bowlders, of which a very large proportion are
of uncommon magnitude. There would also seem some reasons
for believing that the central or medium line of this glacier is
now indicated by the course of the so-called Thames River —
which is more properly an arm of the sea rather than a river —

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL ACTION IN CONNECTICUT. 197

and represents a deep but comparatively narrow cut in the under-
lying hard granitic rocks ; and which, certainly near its mouth,
to a depth of fifty feet or more beneath. the present river-bottom,
as was shown by the recent borings in connection with the con-
struction of the Shore Line Railroad Bridge at New London, is
now filled up with mud or coarser detritus. East of the mouth
of the Thames River the shores of the mainland, and the surface
of the numerous little adjoining islands, are strewed with bowl-
ders — many of large size, and often resting on a highly smoothed
basis of bed-rock without the intervention of any surface soil
whatever; as is illustrated by Fig. 1, which represents (from a
photograph) a bowlder (and the changes in the way of destruc-
tion which such masses of rock are undergoing), between Groton
and Noank, on the line of the New London and Providence Rail-
road, and which is a very conspicuous object as seen from the
cars, on the left hand side of the track going east.*

The number and size of the bowlders that are strewed over the
bottom of Fisher's Island Sound are also a matter of interest and

Vza. 2.

wonderment to even those least acquainted with the subject, who
sail over and fish in its shallow waters ; while Fisher's Island
itself is little other than a mass of bowlders covered in great
part by sand, and probably marks the terminal line where a
heavy ocean surf arrested the further progress of the glacier by

* All the illustrations accompanying this paper are reproduced from photographic
pictures.

198

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

breaking in upon its structure, floating off its ice-fragments in
the form of bergs or floes, and, by releasing at the same time
its heavier rock and gravel . constituents, built up a breakwater
which, as an island, now forms what is known as " Fisher's Island
Sound." Fig. 2 represents a not unfrequent example of the char-

acter of the materials which enter into the construction of this
natural breakwater, as seen from the western side of this island.

But it is in the region to the east and west of the line of the
Thames River, and which it has been suggested may have been
the axis of the ancient glacier, and not very far removed from
this line, that bowlders of extraordinary size occur most numer-
ously ; and among them is a rock which until very recently has
been regarded as one of the largest, if not the very largest, bowl-
der that has thus far been recognized in this or any other coun-
try. This rock — of coarse crystalline granite — is situated in the
town of Montville, New London County, about six miles south of
Norwich, and about a mile west of the Montville Station on
the New London and Northern Railroad ; and, under the Indian
name of ' Sheegan," has almost from the first settlement of the
country been recognized as a great natural curiosity. Its posi-
tion is on the edge of a gentle mound or knoll, on the northeast
slope of a little valley ; and its dimensions, according to recent

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL ACTION IN CONNECTICUT. 199

measurements by Prof. Crosby, of the Boston Society of Natural
History, are as follows : northwest side, forty-six feet ; northeast,
fifty-eight ; southeast, forty-five ; southwest, seventy. Maximum
height, reckoning from the lower or down-hill side, to the highest
point on the upper side, approximately, sixty feet ; approximate
cubic contents, seventy thousand cubic feet ; approximate weight,
about six thousand tons. Other and former reported measure-
ments of this rock indicate much larger dimensions than those
reported by Prof. Crosby ; and, although the determinations of
an expert observer like the latter are entitled to the greatest
confidence, it is nevertheless true that the form of the rock is so
irregular as to render an exact estimate of its size, cubical con-
tents, and weight a matter of no little difficulty. Figs. 3 and 4
give an idea of the position, size, and appearance of the " Sheegan "
Eock, as seen from the valley beneath it, looking west. The intro-
duction into the picture of the horse and wagon beneath the rock
affords in some degree a standard for estimating its height. The
cavity or recess beneath the rock, which is said to have been
occupied, at the time of the first settlement of the country, by a

Fig. 4.

Mohegan Indian (from whom the rock undoubtedly derived its
name) as a dwelling-place, is sufficiently capacious to admit of
being used as a place of shelter for the sleds and other farm
implements of the farmer proprietor. A rude ladder on the
southern side of the rock affords facilities for reaching its top
and obtaining a somewhat extensive view of the surrounding
country.

It will probably have been noticed in the above description

200

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that the expression, " has been regarded " as a bowlder, has been
employed. The reason of this is, that a recent examination of this
rock (in March, 1890) has led Prof. Crosby to the somewhat start-
ling conclusion that it is not a bowlder, but " simply an angular
and prominent remnant of a large granite vein, still undisturbed
in its original position upon beds of gneiss ; and that its chief
geological interest is found in the fact that, notwithstanding its

Fig. 5.

exposed position, it has survived the disintegrating influence of
the elements and successfully resisted the pressure of the great
ice-sheet." Prof. Crosby also states that, " through the undercut-
ting action of the frost, forming quite an extensive rock-shelter "
(i. e., the cavity or recess on the lower or valley side), " is afforded
an opportunity to observe the actual contact of the massive gran-
ite and the finely laminated micaceous gneiss " upon which the
granite rests.

For one of very limited experience to dispute the conclusions
of such a trained observer as Prof. Crosby would be presumpt-
uous ; and yet it would not seem unreasonable to ask that they
should not be considered as entirely determinative without a
further careful examination of the problem on the part of ex-
perts. The question as to whether the contact of the granite of
the assumed bowlder and the underlying gneiss is one of situ-
ation or of composition is not an easy one for decision, without a
very clear opportunity for examination. The fact that such a

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL ACTION IN CONNECTICUT. 201

huge mass of granite should have resisted the pressure of a great
ice-sheet, and remained so prominently in place as part of a vein,
when such pressure and an accompanying movement and grind-
ing were sufficient to not only round off and obliterate everything
like angularity from the granite surface, but also remove or re-
duce down to a much lower level and over a large proximate area
the whole vast mass of rock on which the granite protuberance,
if it be a portion of a vein, must have been as it were originally
imbedded, is, as Prof. Crosby admits, a result not a little singular.
There is certainly nothing analogous to such a phenomenon in
the vicinity, and it may well be questioned whether there is any-
thing similar anywhere.

Furthermore, as throwing some light on this subject, there are,
as before stated, in comparative proximity to the " Sheegan "
Rock, a large number of undoubted bowlders of .the same granite,
which, though not comparable as regards size, may yet be regarded
as extraordinary, and as clearly involving the exercise of an enor-
mous disrupting and transporting power within a rather limited
area. One of these bowlders in the same township of Montville,
which is also an object of public curiosity, and known as the
" Goal " Rock, is, according to measurements made for the writer,
twenty-one feet high, twenty-five long, and twenty-five thick.
Another, in the vicinity of Gardner's Lake, from which nearly
one fourth of the original mass has been detached in fragments,
is reported as eighteen feet six inches high, thirty-five feet long,
and twenty feet thick. A third, on the east side of the Thames
River, in the town of Preston, is fourteen feet high, twenty feet
long, and seventeen feet thick ; and at least three or four others
in the same region, of similar dimensions, might be enumerated.
Above a mile east of " Allen's Point," and on one of the highest
of the elevations bordering the river, an area of several acres is
so covered with huge bowlders that in places it is difficult to find
a path through them ; while the -southern slope of the same ele-
vation, not far removed, is so strewed with such a multitude of
rounded, small bowlders that they have the appearance of having
been planted artificially.

Fig. 5 represents an extremely picturesque though not a very
large bowlder, on the road between Norwich and Taftville, on the
lands of the Ponemah Manufacturing Company, and almost in the
center of the village that has within a comparatively few years
grown up about it ; and which, most fortunately, has thus far been
carefully protected by the company against the Vandalic spirit
which is so often prompted to mutilate or destroy everything in
the nature of a public curiosity.

VOL. XXXVII. — 16

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

UTILITY IN ARCHITECTURE.

By BARK FEEEEE.

IT is a significant commentary on the actual state of our culture
that architecture, the most ancient and grandest of the arts,
is to-day the least understood, the least satisfactory, the least
appreciated of all the achievements of our civilization. This is
the more remarkable because there are few periods so prolific of
building as our own. There have been times when great and
splendid works have been raised by some ambitious ruler who
has produced monuments quite unlike anything that is under-
taken at the present ; but, while we erect no costly palaces or mag-
nificent temples, we build thousands of smaller structures whose
combined cost in any one year or term of years greatly exceeds
the sums expended on the most elaborate edifices of antiquity
in the same time. This is especially the case in our own country,
where there is a constant and active demand for buildings of all
kinds, for the most expensive as well as the cheapest, for state use
and for the individual citizen. And yet, in spite of this undi-
minished call, which in any department of trade or of manufact-
ures would at once produce the very best results and the most
satisfactory methods, the architecture of our time is so thoroughly
bad, so wanting in the first principles of common sense, so de-
based, that this noblest of all the arts is scarcely included in the
term, and our critics speak patronizingly of it as just being
" gradually recognized " as such.

Architecture has an historical chronology of at least four thou-
sand years during which we can trace its growth, and in which it
expressed in a very thorough manner the conditions under which it
was developed. It has been reserved for the superior knowledge
of modern times to cast it aside as one of the peculiar products of
a less intelligent age, as something to admire for its past monu-
ments, but as being quite out of our modern ideas of progress.
Because in the last few years a partial revival has taken place ;
because it has been discovered that it offers a convenient and
expensive way of impressing the beholder with the importance of
the builder ; because our rich men and large corporations want to
give some visual evidence of their resources — it has been taken
up as something that may be approved of as a means of testifying
to the wealth of our cities and adding to their general good looks.
The very art element of architecture has been the cause of its
degradation. From the most useful of arts, it has become mostly
ornamental. From meaning and expressing the utility of an edi-
fice, it has come to refer to its appearance only. People have for-

UTILITY IN ARCHITECTURE. 203

gotten that it arose from the necessity of man for shelter, and
view it as a product of the study or of "the studio in which beauty
and sesthetic effects are the only ends sought, while utility, con-
venience, expression of intention, have all become secondary con-
siderations. Nothing could "be more erroneous, nothing more
fatal to the production of sound architecture.

Architecture is not the product of the imagination, but the
result of experience and foresight. The painter in his studio, or
the sculptor in his, has nothing to dictate to his thoughts or
force them into certain channels. His fancy is free, and he allows
it to carry him where it will. The architect, on the other hand,
is limited by innumerable requirements and difficulties, all of
which are real and physical, and all of which must be overcome
before his work can be a success. His creations are not intended
for the decoration of a gallery or to be preserved under glass,
but they must stand the test of time and of climate, must bear a
relation to the manners and customs of the day. He must exer-
cise care and discrimination in the selection of his materials.
He must count their cost and be fully acquainted with their phys-
ical properties. There is, in fact, no end to the details he must
consider, in all of which there is no place or opportunity for the
exercise of the imagination. His art is the product of natural
conditions, and may be not inappropriately compared to a plant
which, through the action of certain external elements or forces,
finally assumes a character that can be directly traced to the en-
vironment, and which is, in fact, directly dependent on it.

These views are not those popularly held on the subject, but
it is impossible to make an intelligent study of the history of
the art without reaching them, if, indeed, they had not been
already indicated by common sense. Of all the arts, architecture
calls, for the greatest exercise of thought ; yet, strangely enough,
this is the very element that is most wanting in it at the present
day. All successful buildings must express an idea ; they must
mean something. The architecture of previous times rests on
this basis, and those structures which give the most evidence
of the fact are the most successful. Even in the distorted view
of our day those buildings which depart from this position are
the most condemned. Yet the very people who censure such
lack of judgment by their ancestors do not hesitate to follow
in their footsteps and produce architectural monstrosities that
should never have been conceived in an intelligent age. The
very rudest of African savages is fully aware of this important
fact, and keeps it well in mind in building such structures
as the simple needs of his life and his primitive ideas require.
Thus, for example, he will build a very different edifice for a
granary than he will to live in. It has been reserved for the

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nineteenth, century, with its great wealth, its boundless resources,
and its extensive and diversified knowledge, to cast this cardinal
principle to one side. Savages may, indeed, be foolish enough, to
build houses which, exactly express the life of their builders and
answer every requirement of their primitive form of existence,
but we of this time are above such, petty expedients, and can well
afford to conform our lives to our architecture. We do not need
to make our architecture conform to ourselves.

Judging from the monuments of our time, the view that archi-
tecture is not ornamentation but construction, not for beauty but
for utility, not for an elaborate exterior but for a well-devised in-
terior, not for something pleasing to look at, but for something to
live in or to be put to a certain well-defined purpose, is not one that
has any considerable support. A glance at a few of the chief
points of architectural history will show how true this is, and to
what an extent it underlies all that is good in the building art.
It is characteristic of the earliest stages of society, those in which
architecture had its birth, that nothing is built without a reason.
Then people had too few ideas, were provided with too limited
means, to be able, on the one hand, to think of unnecessary erec-
tions, or, on the other, to do more than was called for by abso-
lute necessity. Architecture was barren of ornament, and had a
crudeness that is almost repulsive to modern eyes ; but, never-
theless, primitive buildings answered their purpose, as a rule,
much more satisfactorily than many later ones.

Illustrations of structures in which use, not beauty, is the cen-
tral idea, are to be found among the masters of art in antiquity.
The Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, all followed this
leading idea. There are, indeed, instances where the folly of a
wealthy tyrant has produced an overloading of ornament, an un-
necessary multiplication of details, and a striving after effect has
led to the employment of bad methods ; but these exceptions do
not disprove the rule. On the contrary, these very structures are
censured for their violation of this fundamental principle, and
it is those in which it is adhered to most closely that excite our
admiration and esteem.

Utility, then, being the first element of successful architecture,
it follows that the structure of buildings varies according to the
use to which they are to be put. This proposition is self-evident,
and expresses only ordinary common sense. It would scarcely
call for demonstration, were it not for the fact that many modern
buildings are constructed on the basis that, if they look well,
whether the outward form is suitable or not for the purpose for
which they are intended, or whether the exterior expresses the
interior in any way, all has been done that is required. A very
different state of affairs existed in the past. The ancient Egyp-

UTILITY IN ARCHITECTURE. 205

tians, for example, adopted a totally different style of architect-
ure for their temples or palaces than they did for their dwellings.
The former were of stone, and of a massive method of building
that was intended to withstand the wear and tear of ages ; the
latter were of wood or brick, constructed in a light manner, and
without much concern as to their durability. The Romans sup-
ply another illustration of the same fact. These people were un-
questionably the greatest builders the world has seen, and the
methods they employed can properly serve as a guide for later
usage. Much of their architecture, judged by the pure standard
of the Greek, on which it largely rested, is bad from an aesthetic
point of view, and not a little of their construction was devised
on methods that can not always be approved of ; but, apart from
this, the buildings of the Romans offer many interesting exam-
ples of the application of idea to structure, and- the importance of
utility over mere questions of art.

It has been remarked that in ancient Rome no one ever had
a doubt as to the use to which any building was put or what it
was ; and, in truth, great as was the variety of Roman buildings,
their forms were so many, their plans so varied and so well ex-
pressed in the structure, that there never could have been room for
the smallest doubt on the subject. The temple" differed from the
basilica, the basilica from the amphitheatre, the amphitheatre
from the palace, the palace from the baths. In a word, each class
of buildings had its own form, its own plan, which was based, not
on some fancy of the architect, not on some individual caprice,
not on some mistaken idea of the beautiful, but on the single
thought that if the building answered its purpose it was satisfac-
tory and accomplished all that was to be expected of it. In the
golden age of the Roman Empire enormous sums of money were
spent in adorning the capital and chief cities with public works —
buildings not only for the emperor himself but for public and
state use as well. The display of wealth and luxury was lavish
in the extreme ; ornament and decoration were to be seen in every
available place in the greatest profusion ; yet in the midst of all
this gorgeousness the Roman architect never forgot the destina-
tion of the building. If a complicated structure, like a bath, was
needed, there was no limit to the extent to which the plan was
elaborated ; if a simple edifice was required, such as a basilica,
there was no multiplication of parts for external effect, but simply
the large hall and the necessary rooms. The ornament was fre-
quently profuse and much overdone, but the architecture proper,
the structure itself, the plan, the essential part, was never any-
thing else than what it was intended to be.

There is nothing astonishing in this method, which is only the
application of common sense to art and the subordination of orna-

2 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment to the requirements of the time. It would not call for com-
ment were it not that modern builders so persistently refuse to
recognize it as a fundamental principle in building. Nowadays,
when an architect designs a building, he is satisfied he has done
all he is required to do if it looks well. If the builder of a house
wants a stairway or a window in a particular place because he
thinks it will be more convenient, and thereby interferes with the
symmetry of the drawing that is submitted for his inspection, he
is argued out of it because, forsooth, it will destroy this carefully
prepared symmetry or spoil some technical gimcrack that the
architect regards as his chief device ; and if by chance the owner
carries the day, the architect retires in chagrin, and despairs of
his art ever making good progress.

No greater harm is done to the true advancement of architect-
ure than this insistence that exterior effect is the sole end to be de-
sired. More than any other cause it has operated to depress the art,
and helped to make people question the utility of intrusting their
interests to the architects. It has spread abroad the impression
that these gentlemen, who might be very useful, are unnecessary
luxuries, and that a much more comfortable dwelling can be built
by indicating one's own desires and following one's own sugges-
tions and views as to convenience, than by paying large sums for
"pretty" facades that very likely conceal more discomfort and
dissatisfaction than the most vivid imagination can conceive of in
a twelvemonth. As a natural result there is a popular skepticism
as to the value of professional services that not only hinders the
development of a modern architecture, but does serious injury to
the profession as well. Yet architects have only themselves to
thank for this condition of things, and they can never hope to win
the confidence of the public until they have laid aside their so-
called art, and begun to design structures with the sole end of
making them answer the requirements for which they are in-
tended.

The most remarkable movement in modern architecture has
been the Gothic revival, in the midst of which we are living. It
has resulted in the wholesale approval of all that is mediaeval, and
all that bears the impress of Gothic art. It is important, not only
as showing an interest in the really good work of previous times,
but as indicating an appreciation for an art that is based on com-
mon sense and the adaptation of ends to means. Gothic architect-
ure is nothing if not sensible. It originated in a time in the
world's history when building was at its lowest ebb. The found-
ers of Gothic art were possessed of limited means ; they were
without wealth, and their general knowledge was of the scantiest.
The magnificent structures to which the Romans had been accus-
tomed were impossible to them. Every stone counted, every item

UTILITY IN ARCHITECTURE. 207

of expenditure was rigorously scrutinized and, if not essential,
cast to one side as a luxury that was unnecessary and could not
be afforded. It followed, therefore, that a Gothic building had
no superfluous parts, no erections intended solely for effect, noth-
ing that was not absolutely essential. There was no unnecessary
multiplication of detail ; there was no attempt at a refined balance
of parts or at symmetry.

Symmetrical building is the greatest bugbear that besets the
modern architect, and has done more to throw him into disrepute
than any other invention of the craft. The making of two parts
of a building the same, whether their use was identical or not, is
a very recent invention, and, though practiced by the Romans to
a limited extent, was almost unknown prior to the fourteenth
century. Every style has permitted more or less irregularity,
according as the plan required it, and it was not. until the Renais-
sance — a movement that is responsible for more architectural sins
than is generally supposed — that the astonishing idea was pre-
sented to the world that all the corresponding parts of a building
must be alike. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, and
the architects of mediaeval Europe, were all equally free and un-
symmetrical in their designs and their methods. Even the Greeks,
who produced more symmetrical buildings than any other people
of antiquity, varied their designs to suit circumstances. It is
needless to multiply examples, and it is sufficient to point out
that this freedom from restraint, this ability to vary the design,
is one of the chief glories of Gothic architecture, and helps make
it applicable to the varied requirements of modern life.

Yet this very freedom militates against the use of Gothic, and
is one of the reasons why it is not as satisfactory for modern re-
quirements as it ought to be. The capability for constant varia-
tion permits the architect to compose designs of not a little beauty
and almost infinite variety, which so fascinate him that in his
search for a pleasing facade he forgets that the external ap-
pearance of his building may not conform to the best plan or the
greatest convenience. The new Law Courts in London furnish a
remarkable illustration of this. These buildings were designed
by one of the leaders of the Gothic movement — Sir George Gilbert
Scott — a man who was thoroughly imbued with the Gothic spirit,
and who devoted his life to the propagation of Gothic forms. Yet
he so far overlooked the prime element of Gothic architecture —
utility — that the completed structures have been found totally un-
suited for the purposes for which they were intended. It can not
be wondered at that, when those to whom we look for guidance
fail, there should be so many smaller failures by those not so well
equipped, and who can not, therefore, be expected to have the same
knowledge. There can be no surprise that there has been a revul-

208 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sion against Gothic art, which, bids fair to reach such proportions
as to once more drive it out of- use.

There is nothing more misunderstood at the present day than
Gothic architecture. It is popularly supposed that if a building
has a sloping roof, and is plentifully adorned with buttresses, pin-
nacles, towers, arches, balconies, dormers, and similar things, it is
in the correct form of that order. Gothic architecture is, indeed,
characterized by all these objects in one shape or another ; but
the mere placing of them in juxtaposition no more produces it
than does the placing alongside of each other water, flour, and
yeast make bread. It is the proper and due combination of these
constituents that produces the desired result in each case. Gothic
buildings have sloping roofs, because the style originated in a
part of the world where the rainfall was abundant, and some de-
vice was needed to throw off the water. They have arched open-
ings, because practical experiments in building have demon-
strated that they are the most economic and safe form to use.
They have buttresses and pinnacles, because they were necessary
to resist the thrust of a vaulted roof. In the best Gothic not one
of these forms was used unless it was an essential part of the con-
struction. The moment one is applied to a building for orna-
mental purposes, or for any object other than as a necessity to its
statical condition, the structure ceases to be Gothic and becomes
a hybrid without a name.

Gothic architecture never employed a form that was not neces-
sary. In this respect it offers a striking contrast to what is now
called modern Gothic, which consists in applying ornament to sur-
faces and giving them forms which have no real meaning of their
own, and are nothing more than ornamentation. A building does
not become Gothic simply because it has a gable or a carved door-
frame ; the principle, the cause which made them Gothic in the
old form, is wanting, because from parts of the structure they
have become mere pieces of decoration. Gothic architecture is
expressed by many forms ; but its true character lies not in them,
but in the application of sound constructive methods to the sci-
ence of building. It is this principle that gives it a glory of its
own, and it is the violation of this fundamental element which
renders the Gothic architecture of the present day so unsatis-
factory and so un-Gothic in spirit.

But there is another element of Gothic architecture that calls
for consideration, and that is, that notwithstanding it could be
varied and each part made to be exactly what it was intended to
be without regard to the total effect, the results are perfectly satis-
factory from an aBsthetic standpoint. It shows, in a conclusive
manner, that a building can be erected with the sole aim of being
useful and answering exactly the requirements for which it is

UTILITY IN ARCHITECTURE. 209

designed, and at the same time be of sufficient beauty to call forth,
the commendation of future ages. In other words, utility in
architecture is not synonymous with ugliness, nor does it follow
that, because a structure is essentially useful, it is any the less
beautiful. This fact is of great importance, because many modern
builders have the singular idea that beauty of form and utility
of structure are mutually antagonistic. The Gothic builders,
for instance, employed the grandest forms and the most ambi-
tious designs for their cathedrals; but, when they set about
building a dwelling or a warehouse, kept their designs well within
the limits for which they were intended. They used the same
shapes, the same details, the same ideas, it is true ; but the applica-
tion of them is different in a dwelling from that in a church.
Modern architects, on the contrary, do not hesitate to apply forms
and methods that are peculiarly ecclesiastical, and which have no
significance in any other connection, to domestic work ; and it is
no unusual thing to-day to see a castle turret decorating the cor-
ner of a thoroughfare, or a church doorway leading into a financial
institution. A confusion naturally ensues as to the use of the
structure, and the average spectator is frequently at a loss to
know for what purpose a particular building is intended. In
mediaeval times such a condition would have been impossible,
because then the idea that intention was the chief thing to be ex-
pressed in a structure was so firmly imbedded that any other
process would never have been thought of.

It goes without saying that, if an adherence to this principle
produced satisfactory results in past times, the same methods
would bring about equally good ones at the present day. And
yet the thought is so far forgotten as to be seldom practiced. Not
all the architecture of the present time is bad, but so much of it
is, that no opportunity should be neglected of hastening a reform.
Our political thought is directed toward reform ; we have ballot
reform, civil-service reform, tariff reform, and very shortly the
art world must have architectural reform, or it will be impossible
to live in our houses. In place of use, we are given ornament ; in
place of intention, we have design. On every side buildings are
criticised for their appearance, and are generally found unsatisfac-
tory — a state of affairs that can be directly traced to their lack of
ideas. Music is flat and insipid just so far as ideas are absent
from it, and the same may be said of architecture. There are un-
rivaled opportunities for good work and plenty of it in this coun-
try, and yet there is a constant cry of dissatisfaction with the
products of our architectural labor. Government architecture is
as bad as that produced under private auspices. In ancient Rome
it was the government's work that was the best done and has
survived the longest. In the nineteenth century it is the private

210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

work that reaches a respectable age, while that done by the gov-
ernment undergoes a rapid decay. The difference between the
ancient and the modern method is enormous, and it needs no
guide to tell which is the better. In our time, in our country at
least, government architecture is considered of more importance
for its effect on the " boys " than for any direct relation to the
progress of art. There is no limit to the expenditures that are
made on our large public buildings, but they are no sooner com-
pleted than extensive repairs are necessary that not infrequently
amount to as much as the original cost.

Nothing could be worse than this, yet it is happening every
day. Our streets are lined with hideous structures and comfort-
less dwellings. Lighting and ventilation, plumbing and heating,
and all the requirements of our daily life, are sunk into subordi-
nate positions beside the questions of external effect and the sup-
port of a large number of political hangers-on whose interest in
architecture terminates with the job. It is evident that this can
not be continued indefinitely. Sooner or later there will come a
revulsion in public feeling, and an insistence that our architecture
shall express our civilization in its fullest development, regardless
of designs or exteriors. The direction in which we are working
is essentially bad ; and it is manifest that, if they did things bet-
ter in past time, when utility was the prime consideration, the
sooner we return to primitive methods the better it will be. It is
a lasting disgrace to our culture that the Bushman and the Hot-
tentot, the Indian and the Patagonian have ideas in architecture
that put our own attempts to the blush and will render us a laugh-
ing stock to posterity. The instincts of animals, even, teach them
ways and means of construction that are far in advance of the
methods of the men of the nineteenth century. Did not the
wise man say go to the ant and consider her way and be wise ?

The architecture of the past teaches us many facts of interest
and value, but none more important than this, that a building
must express an idea. It must not seem to be what it is, but be it,
without any uncertainty or doubt. In the structures now going
up around us, in this land as well as in other lands, this essen-
tial element is apt to be found wanting. There are too many
buildings that need repairs and alterations before they can be
occupied. There are too many structures erected for external
effect, without due regard to the planning and the use to which
they are to be put. There is too much drawing of pretty plans
and elevations on paper, without proper attention to structural re-
quirements. There is too much haste, too much careless manage-
ment, too much poor construction, too much attention to detail,
too much bad taste. As a result, our buildings are bad in concep-
tion and execrable in execution. "We must not condemn a build-

EDUCATION AND CRIME. 211

ing f or some unpleasant detail, some crude idea. Nothing could
be less proper ; no building, no matter what its form, should be
condemned until we know its purpose, and whether it fills it or
not. The very fact that it is necessary to speak of " knowing the
purpose " of a building shows how thoroughly the art has degen-
erated.

■♦•»

EDUCATION AND CRIME.

By Rev. A. W. GOULD.

IN the January number of The Popular Science Monthly there
was an article by Benjamin Reece on Public Schools as affect-
ing Crime and Vice. In that article Mr. Reece mentions the fact
that " in the decade ending with 1880, population having increased
thirty per cent and illiteracy only ten per cent, the number of
criminals present the alarming increase of eighty-two per cent."
And he asks : " Can it be possible that with greater educational fa-
cilities there is to be increased crime ? Perish the thought ! Yet
if the instruction of our common schools subdues the tendency to
crime,' why is it that the ratio of prisoners, being one in every
3,442 in 1850, rose to one in every 1,647 in 1860, one in 1,021 in 1870,
and one in 837 in 1880 ? " He tells us further that " the illiterates
of the United States comprise seventeen per cent of the total pop-
ulation. . . . The general average of illiteracy is exceeded by ev-
ery one of the original slave States with the exception of Missouri,
but the average ratio of the mentally and morally unsound is
only reached in the State of Maryland. South Carolina, which
shows the highest percentage of illiterates, presents the lowest
average of any State in the Union as regards insanity and crime " ;
and his conclusion is that " our condition of decreasing illiteracy
and increasing crime" means that "in the adjustment of our
schools we have gone too far in our aim for material advance-
ment and development of wealth, and that we are correspond-
ingly losing in the direction of moral growth and culture."

In other words, he thinks that the United States census proves
that the increase of prisoners in our prisons is the result of the
increase of pupils in our schools. And as I find that these " novel
and threatening facts" have aroused some apprehension among
those interested in our public-school system, it seems to me desira-
ble that some one should point out the figures in our census which
seriously modify, if not wholly destroy, Mr. Reece's alarming in-
ference that our public schools are nurseries of crime.

Figures, like Bible-texts, may not lie, but they can be made to
prove almost anything ; and it would not be difficult to establish,
by our census figures, the exact opposite of Mr. Reece's conclu-

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sion, if we may be allowed to use the same reasoning that he does.
For his statistics only show that crime and edncation are both
increasing. But that does not prove that the increase in educa-
tion is the cause of the increase in crime. Diseases have increased
during the past half-century, and so has medical skill ; but that
does not prove that the one increase was caused by the other.
Perhaps the increase of diseases would have been far greater had
it not been for the increase in the power to cope with them. So
education may, for aught Mr. Reece's statistics prove, be the only
thing that prevents a still more rapid growth in crime.

The statistics of our last report show that the most enormous
strides in developing a criminal class have been taken in those
States where ignorance, and not education, most aboimds. If we
take the ten States that have the largest number of citizens un-
able to write, we shall find that from 1850 to 1880 the ratio of their
prisoners has increased over fivefold, from one in 5,400 to one in
970 ; from 1860 to 1880 it has grown threefold, or from one in 3,600
to one in 970 ; while the ten States that have the fewest citizens
unable to write have swelled the proportion of their criminals
only threefold for the longer period and only fifty per cent for the
shorter — the figures being, for 1850 one in 3,100, for 1860 one in
1,500, and for 1880 one in 1,050. So that in the States of greatest
illiteracy the relative increase of criminals during the last twenty
years has been six times as rapid as in the States of least illiteracy.
And if we ask in what classes the most ignorance is to be found,
our census tells us that the foreign-born are fifty per cent more
illiterate than the natives, and the blacks seven times as illiterate
as the whites ; and our census tells us. further that the foreign-
born furnish one hundred per cent more than their share of crimi-
nals, and the blacks one hundred and fifty per cent more than
their share.

Do not these facts prove that the advance in crime is the result
not of education but of the absence of education ? We might
think so, if figures had not that reprehensible habit of being all
things to all men. Therefore, we may find, upon a more careful
examination, that there is some other cause than ignorance for
this rapid growth of our prison population in certain parts of our
country. If I am not mistaken, there are several such causes, some
of them entirely independent of the change in the illiteracy of the
nation. One of them lies in the transition from an unsettled con-
dition to a settled condition on our constantly advancing frontier :
another is in the change from slavery in the South ; and, a third is
in the gradual elevation of the standard of human conduct, mak-
ing crimes of actions that had been only lawful escapades in ear-
lier times.

The first cause comes out clearly if we compare the ten States

EDUCATION AND CRIME. 213

that were on the frontier in 1850 with ten older States— the New
England and Middle States, for instance. In the former the ratio
of criminals has been multiplied four or five times during the
past thirty years, while in the latter it has only doubled, rising
from 244 to 1,148 prisoners in a million inhabitants on the frontier,
and from 450 to 1,074 on the seaboard. Of course, it is obvious
that in a new country there will be a certain amount of lawless
conduct unpunished at first, before sheriffs, courts, and jails are
in running order. But the rapid increase in the proportion of
criminals, as the State grows older, does not mean more crime ;
it often means less. The evil-doers are arrested and sentenced,
and so get into our prisons and our census ; and then we are told
that crime is increasing. Kansas had only 289 prisoners to each
million of inhabitants in the decade before the rebellion, while it
had 1,300 to the same number in the last report ; yet every one
knows that this State was a far more dangerous place at the ear-
lier time than now. Colorado had only 477 offenders per mill-
ion at its first census, in 1870, but in 1880 it reported 1,950, a gain
of nearly fivefold in a single decade ; while on the other hand
the older States, like New Hampshire and Connecticut, showed an
actual decrease in percentage during these periods.

But the transition from slavery to freedom was a far more
efficient cause in swelling the ratio of this class. If we compare
ten of the original slave States with our ten New England and
Middle States, we shall find that the increase in crime in the slave
States has been three or four times as great as in the free States.
The former had, for each million of population, only 161 criminals
in 1850, and 240 the next decade. But in 1870 they had 829, and
in 1880 1,166. This was an increase of sevenfold, while the free
States only a little more than doubled their criminal element.

That this was the result of the emancipation is seen in many
ways. The sudden leap shows it between the decade before and
after the war, or between 1860 and 1880, if 1870 be thought too
near the contest to be a fair test. Those twenty years gave a
gain of fivefold in the proportion of prisoners of the Southern
States, while the Northern States showed a gain of less than
forty per cent. Single instances reveal it still more clearly. Mis-
sissippi sprang from 67 to 1,158 criminals in a million inhabitants,
and other States of the South show nearly as great a gain ; while
New York and Massachusetts actually declined in their criminal
percentage during that time, as did some other Northern States.

The explanation is obvious. Before the war the negroes were
slaves, and nearly all their offenses were punished by their mas-
ters, so that the State had no occasion to imprison them. But now,
from five to ten times as many blacks as whites, in proportion to
their numbers, are found in the jails or chain-gangs of the South.

214 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

And when we remember that the greatest illiteracy is to be found
in the former slave States, we- see that the increase of the criminal
ratio in the South may not be due wholly to ignorance, in spite of
census figures. The ignorance and the crime were both there be-
fore the criminals were locked up and counted in the census.

One might, indeed, claim that the lessened ignorance had much
to do with revealing this criminal element and imprisoning it. And
this brings us to our third cause of the increased ratio of crime.
The gradual elevation in the standard of life, and the intervention
of the courts in cases which were formerly decided by the bullet
or the knife, occasions a rapid increase in the official number of
criminals.

Drunkenness, I suppose, was not a crime anywhere in our land
half a century ago. Now drunkenness and disorderly conduct
form one tenth of all the crime of the country. And naturally
the restraint of these offenders will be most complete in the most
orderly and educated parts of our land. Accordingly, we find that
the ten educated States show a proportion of imprisonments for
these offenses tenfold greater than the uneducated States do. The
one has 2,865 and the other only 198 in a population three fourths
as large. And the educated States record three times as many pris-
oners as the uneducated States for assault and battery and simple
assault. If any one wishes to prove from the census that educa-
tion is a failure, he could find no stronger facts than these — a ten-
fold larger share of drunkenness and a threefold larger share of
violence in the States where men can read and write than in the
States where they can not.

But, of course, no one thinks that the South is more quiet, or-
derly, and innocent than the North. No one believes that there was
not a single case of drunkenness or disorder in all Alabama and Ar-
kansas in 1880, and only a score of cases of assault, while Massachu-
setts, with a less population, had 597 cases of drunkenness and dis-
order and 337 cases of assault ; yet this is what the census tells us.
The natural interpretation must be, that drunkenness and violence
are not punished by imprisonment in certain States, while they are
in others, and the States that punish least are most illiterate. This
interpretation is amply confirmed by the census itself. Though
education shows three times the violence that ignorance does, yet
ignorance perpetrates three times as many murders as education,
and that, too, while two or three of the educated States imprison
the murderer for life, and so swell the number, and while the illit-
erate States do not even think of arresting some murderers, and
often acquit others who are most notoriously guilty. It was only
last year that all the land heard that a certain Dr. McDow, a mar-
ried man of Charleston, S. C, murdered a Captain Dawson, simply
because he saved a girl whom the doctor was trying to ruin. No

EDUCATION AND CRIME. 215

one denied the murder, yet the papers tell us that the doctor
was triumphantly acquitted and honored by the society of the
city as a hero, instead of being counted by the census as a
criminal.

And it is only in a high state of society that offenses against
virtue cease to be either overlooked or avenged by violence. In
this very State of South Carolina there are only four such offend-
ers reported in prison, while Michigan has forty and Massachusetts
over two hundred. The latter State, indeed, has more than all the
illiterate States together. Yet, are we to think that Michigan is
ten times as sinful as South Carolina, or that Massachusetts has
more vice than all the ignorant States combined ? McDow's case
shows that such vice exists, and how it is regarded. A clergyman
of the South recently asserted in the Nation — and he has not been
contradicted — that only a small minority of the colored women
were chaste ; yet the census makes them far more virtuous than
their white sisters of the North. We do, indeed, hear quite fre-
quently of negroes being lynched for such offenses, but they obvi-
ously do not count in the census.

Therefore, though education may swell the list of criminals,
there are reasons for thinking that more education and not less is
what certain parts of our country need. They need more prison-
ers. If more men were punished for drunkenness and violence,
there would be less murder. If more murderers were executed
instead of being lynched or lionized, there would be less violence.
It is by checking the lesser offenses that the greater offenses are
avoided, though the prisons are filled thereby. And as civiliza-
tion improves in the South, no doubt the proportion of men in
prison will increase, at least for the present ; and the whole
country can not rise in its standard of moral conduct without
increasing the law-breakers, especially while we have to assimi-
late each year such a large and often lawless element from other
lands.

One of the results of raising the mass to a higher moral level
is, that individuals here and there drop out ; and the higher we
are raised the more will drop, and this will continue till those in-
capable of self-control have disappeared. It is only among sav-
ages — where there is no chance to drop, because all are on the
ground — that we find no criminals or paupers. And Mr. Reece
actually sighs for the " perfect order " found associated with the
" densest ignorance " among the cave-dwelling Veddahs and other
tribes. Possibly we might attain this " perfect order " if we would
imitate the savages in leading a savage life. But that would be a
pretty dear price to pay for such order as savages secure.

Most of us prefer civilization with all its drawbacks. We pre-
fer to see our country settled, though we know that jails will be

216 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

built and occupied. The very convenience of city life is paid for
by added crime. The disorder that might be allowed in a wilder-
ness among savages can not be tolerated in a crowded metropolis
among civilized people. The ten States that have the largest
cities punish fifty per cent more violence and sixty per cent more
drunkenness than their share, though they have twenty per cent
less than their proportion of murders. Petty crimes come from
civilization, great crimes from barbarism. But among barbarians
great crimes are called virtues, and petty crimes are unknown or
unnoted.

I think, then, we need not fear that universal education is to
bring us universal crime. We want more and better education.
Of course, it is not the mere ability to read and write that is to
save a man from prison. He must learn self-control and acquire
a loftier standard of life. Mr. Reece dwells much upon the fact
that a large percentage of our criminals can read and write. But
that does not prove that their education made them criminals. I
dare say a still larger percentage of them can see, yet it was not
their ability to see that made them criminals. The densest igno-
rance may, like total blindness, keep men from crime ; but we do
not propose to put out our eyes of either mind or body. We will
have men learn to see better, morally and physically. It is im-
perfect education that has brought men to prison, as we see from
the constant relation of our criminal class to our illiterate classes.
They may, indeed, have some sort of an education, but the vast
majority of them are ignorant themselves, and have ignorant
kindred and associates ; and to be ignorant amid the civilization
of to-day is to be jealous and bitter and rebellious.

The very fact that Mr. Reece cites to prove his thesis, that igno-
rance is innocence and knowledge crime, disproves it most com-
pletely. South Carolina, he says, has the highest percentage of
illiteracy and the lowest of crime ; but, if he had taken one glance
below the surface, he would have seen a fact far more " novel and
threatening " than any he discovered. Out of the 626 criminals
of South Carolina, 570 are black and only 56 are white. Why
are there ten times as many blacks as whites in jail, when they
constitute only three fifths of the population ? The only answer
the census gives is in the fact that they are three times as illiter-
ate as the whites. So that the very State summoned to prove that
ignorance is exemption from crime, has ten elevenths of its crimi-
nals from the most ignorant class in the country. But perhaps
Mr. Reece thinks that their ignorance is not quite dense enough, as
one in four can still write. They certainly have not yet reached
the point where ignorance is bliss.

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 217
THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM.

By JAMES A. SKTLTOK

WITH LETTERS FROM HERBERT SPENCER, PROF. HUXLEY, AND

DR. LYMAN ABBOTT.

IN the sacred literature of the Christian Church a word appears
that to its founder and to his immediate followers evidently
had a deep significance, the nature of which was at least partially
concealed from his later followers, and is still concealed from
those of the present day, through admitted mistranslation.

Standing on Mars' Hill and speaking to the men of Athens,
Paul affirmed that in all things they were " too Godi-f earing." *
Whereupon he proceeded to declare and make known unto them
the God whom they worshiped as the Unknown or Agnostic God.
In so doing he spoke of a God, the Lord of heaven and earth, who
made the world and all things therein ; who dwelt not in temples
made with hands ; who needed nothing, seeing he was the giver
of life, breath, and all things ; who had made of one blood all
nations of men; and who had determined the times before ap-
pointed and the bounds of their habitation. He declared that
they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and
find him, though he was constantly at hand, and the one in whom
they lived and moved and had their being. He closed with a
strongly put antithesis in which, without declaring divine con-
demnation of their agnosticism, which he said God " winked at,"
and they might therefore tolerate, he urged them to obey the com-
mand of God — "metanoein" — to practice metanosticism. This
word has been translated to mean " repent." It is hardly suffi-
cient to say that that translation is etymologically inadequate;
the history of the Christian Church also, for eighteen centu-
ries, proves it to be practically so. Paul evidently found in the
word " metanoein " the open door of a temple in which a God-
fearing worship might be exchanged for a God-loving worship.
The history of his own life shows that his personal conversion
was a metanostic process through which a defective external sight
was exchanged for a clear insight, revealed to him as with a
lightning-flash at midnight, wherein he instantly saw " the world
and all things therein " in an entirely new aspect.

The question, then, indirectly presented for the consideration of
the entire Christian Church, in the following correspondence, is,
Whether it should adopt the word actually used by Paul, with its
large meaning, either alone, as a step forward, and to restore to
the sacred record and to the working power of the Church the

* The word he uses is " deisidaimonesterous," and includes the idea of devil-fearing.

TOL. XXXVII. — 17

2 i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

true meaning of the word used by Paul, but first used by the one
whom he preached and followed, as the central and supreme word
in his system of salvation for the world and for mankind ; or, co-
operatively with science and philosophy, for the purpose of secur-
ing their powerful aid for its work in the world ?

CORRESPONDENCE.

New York, November 20, 1889.

Herbert Spencer, Esq.

Dear Sir : I beg the privilege of presenting hereby, for your
consideration and determination, a question of seemingly uni-
versal importance, that has arisen in the course of our work in
the Brooklyn Ethical Association.

As far as possible I have sought to so present it as to limit
your labors therein to yea, yea, or nay, nay.

The question relates to the selection and adoption of words for
general use in the new philosophy, and as substitutes for the
words agnostic and agnosticism, to express the affirmative side of
the agnostic conception.

As a result of our experience of nearly two years in attempt-
ing to popularize evolution views, we find that just there our
greatest obstacle is to be found, and our time and labor are most
occupied and consumed, and increasingly so as we approach the
popular mass.

The object of this communication is to propose as such affirma-
tive substitutes the words metagnosticism and metagnostic, or
metanosticism and metanostic, and to ask therefor your own ap-
proval and also that of Prof. Huxley — in concert, if possible.

My own view is that the new or substitute words involve no
surrender or concession, but, on the contrary, if adopted would
mark an advance in the nomenclature of the agnostic phi-
losophy.

The accompanying statement was made by me as part of the
discussion following the reading of the essay of Dr. Lewis G.
Janes, on The Scope and Principles of the Evolution Philosophy,
the first of the current series of the Brooklyn Ethical Associa-
tion, on the evening of October 13, 1889, and it will explain itself.

I also hand you herewith a list of words and their definitions,
derived or derivable from the Greek verbs gignoslcein and noein,
in composition with the preposition meta, the imperative form of
which was used, according to the Greek Testament, by John the
Baptist and Jesus Christ, in that passage in which they are made
in the Douay Bible to say, "Do penance, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand," following the Latin Yulgate ; and in King
James's and later English versions, " Eepent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand."

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 219

These definitions of these words were prepared more than a
year ago, at the special written request of Rev. Lyman Abbott,
D. D., the pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn ; and the list is a
copy of the first rough draft or study made in compliance with
that request, but, for reasons unnecessary to explain here, has not
yet been presented to him. For what use these definitions were
intended by him I am neither authorized nor prepared to posi-
tively state. Dr. Abbott is in special charge of theology, liturgies,
and ecclesiastical history, as editorial contributor, under the chief
editorship of Prof. William D. Whitney, in the preparation of
The Century Dictionary, which is an encyclopedic dictionary of
the English language, now in course of publication by the Cent-
ury Company, the first volume of which now lies before me. . . .
In Volume I the words agnostic and agnosticism are defined at
length, with references to Huxley, Romanes, and Cobbe, and to
the source of the suggestion of the same by Prof. Huxley in the
mention by St. Paul of the altar he had seen erected by the Athe-
nians to the Unknown God.*

As I have previously informed you, early in his pastorship of
Plymouth Church, Dr. Abbott declared his belief in the evolution
philosophy, and his high sense of the value of its co-operation in
the religious work of the future. He is also the editor of The
Christian Union, the leading liberal religious newspaper in Amer-
ica. His position as such may be stated to be evangelical-liberal,
or conservative-progressive, with the promise of moving faster
and further, as soon as circumstances permit. Practically, things
are in a ferment in all religious denominations in America at this
time ; or, to speak more accurately, we seem to be entering a new
constructive period, and one which furnishes agnosticism and
evolution their great religious opportunity.

In the statement referred to I have used the words meta-
gnostic and metagnosticism to preserve or make parallelism in
form with the words agnostic and agnosticism, to which the
public eye and ear have now become accustomed, and to the bet-
ter present the expressive antithesis involved therein. I am,
however, fully aware that a word-form and meaning directly de-
rived from the word metanoeite (metanoeo), which is the actual
word placed in the mouth of Christ by and through the Greek
original, would have certain great advantages. Prominent among
them would be the ever-present evidence it would furnish that in
the gospel, as actually preached by Christ and his immediate con-
temporaries and handed down to us, so far as we know it, the
human mind was to occupy the leading place, to be elevated, and

* The authority of the Century Dictionary for this erroneous explanation of Prof. Hux-
ley's derivation of the word " agnostic " (see letter from Prof. Huxley) was the New Eng-
lish Dictionary.

220

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not degraded and disfranchised, as it lias been by bis alleged fol-
lowers for ages past. Not only in this respect, as it seems to me,
would the adoption of such a word bring science and philosophy
into harmony with the true religion of Christ and nature, but it
would also compel the beginning of a change in organized Chris-
tianity that would eventually bring it into complete harmony
with them.

Whether the best word is metagnostic, metanostic, meta-
gnosticism, or metanosticism, or some other form derivable di-
rectly or more remotely from the root nous, mind, is to me a ques-
tion of minor importance. I would select that which, on the
whole, is the truest and best, for the purpose of bringing about
the desired reconciliation of religious with other forms of truth,
even if it were necessary to manufacture the form for the occa-
sion; and this, it seems to me, we are at liberty to do, since,
strange as it may seem, while we have in our language and in
frequent use all the other words derived from the kindred Greek
words, the most important words of all, and the supreme words
of the religion of the English race (metanoeite and metanoia),
have never, apparently, up to this time, been transferred to or
adopted into the English language.

The suggestion is based upon the proposition that the words
to be adopted do and shall express, cover, or include the affirma-
tive side of the terms agnostic and agnosticism. The selection of
the proper forms I leave entirely to you, in co-operation with
Prof. Huxley, if you approve the suggestion and think the mat-
ter worthy your and his attention.

Certainly it must, it seems to me, be considered a desirable
thing to find words of affirmative import to designate the affirma-
tive meaning hidden under the terms in present use, since it must
seemingly tend to foreclose further argument and confusion on
that branch of the subject.

I inclose copies of these papers to be addressed and forwarded
to Prof. Huxley, if that course meets your approval.

My own plan would be, on receipt of the approval of yourself
and Prof. Huxley, to bring the matter before the public, through
our Association, at one of the meetings of the series now well com-
menced for the season, through The Popular Science Monthly,
and by other means within my present reach. I am confident
that recognition in the Century Dictionary would follow, and
that a great impulse would be given to the new philosophy, to
what would practically be a new or reformed Christian religion,
m harmony with human intelligence and progress, with the ex-
press word and thought of the founder of Christianity, and cal-
culated to combine them in the interests of the world and the race.
Very respectfully yours, James A. Skilton.

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 221

a

The "list" referred to included the words meta(g)nostic, nouns
and adjective, meta(g)nosticism, meta(g)noiology, and meta(g)no-
sis. The definitions given were made approximately parallel
with the definitions of the words diagnostic, prognostic, diagno-
sis, prognosis, etc., as found in Webster, and need not he here
presented.

Monday, November 25th.

P. S. — The foregoing letter was complete on Saturday last. On
Sunday, the 24th inst., by a coincidence that seems to me not to
be a mere coincidence, Dr. Abbott, without any knowledge of this
correspondence or my intentions, took for his subject the sermon
of Paul on Mars' Hill, for the purpose of dealing with the " new
doctrine " and " new thing " involved in the " new theology " now
agitating the American churches. He referred to your position
and that of Prof. Huxley, quoted from your writings, and prac-
tically placed himself not only in line with agnosticism as ex-
plained by you, but so near to the position I have given him in
these pages that the next step must have brought out the new
word. His expressed thought implied it, and I had prepared
myself to hear it, when he suddenly brought his sermon to a close.
I feel myself, therefore, once more justified in my statements, and
am all the more anxious to use, or rather to have you use, the
present opportunity. I will ask him to print the sermon, that I
may send it to you in confirmation.* J. A. S.

STATEMENT.

Dr. Janes having unexpectedly and without suggestion of
mine used my name in connection with the term "metagnos-
ticism," I feel compelled to make my use of it as clear as possible
at once, without waiting another occasion.

The doctor chooses his words with exceeding skill and care.
He says that he will endeavor, in defining philosophical agnos-
ticism, to show that " in every department of scientific, historical,
and true philosophic investigation, indeed, it is consistent and
coincident with the meta-gnosticism of his friend Mr. Skilton." \

As so limited — to the definition of philosophical agnosticism
— the statement and the subsequent showing are both entirely
satisfactory. But the limitation is not so.

As adopted and used by me, the term meta-gnosticism has a
much larger meaning, and has an important bearing not only
upon science, history, and philosophy, but also upon and in re-

* The substance of the sermon is embodied in an article in the Forum for April,
1890.

f For a discussion of meta(g)nosticism in relation to the evolution of society, see Evo-
lution — Popular Lectures and Discussions, before the Brooklyn Ethical Association, pp.
216-227.

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ligion, meaning the religion of our civilization, as well as the
religion of evolution and the future.

The evidence is abundant that even in the domains of science
and philosophy the word agnosticism does not and can not express
in full the idea or system for which it stands representative. Mr.
Huxley, the inventor of it, is, as we all know, in a state of con-
stant warfare over it ; and as to Mr. Spencer, it is sufficient to
refer to his controversy with Frederic Harrison and his " x u " as
the appropriate symbol " for the religion of the Infinite Unknow-
able."

With both of these men — the acknowledged leaders among
agnostics — and with all their followers, the trouble is that at
present they are compelled to seek to accomplish the practically
impossible by attempting to read a positive and affirmative mean-
ing into a word that is and can be only indefinite and negative.
And the words meta-gnosticism and meta-gnostic are proposed
for the purpose of meeting precisely that difficulty, and for the
reason that they are positive and affirmative.

Mr. Huxley really found the word agnostic, or its root, already
in use in the Greek language, and borrowed and used it for the
want of a better one, little thinking, doubtless, how important it
would become. It is believed that the time has now arrived for
importing another word, cognate in origin and affirmative in
meaning, into our language, if it be found by competent authority
to meet the requirements of the case.

In his essay entitled Retrogressive Religion, in reply to Harri-
son, Spencer says (p. 68, Appletons' edition) :

" I might enlarge on the fact that, though the name Agnos-
ticism fitly expresses the confessed inability to know or conceive
the nature of the Power manifested through phenomena, it fails
to indicate the confessed ability to recognize the existence of that
Power as of all things the most certain. I might make clear
the contrast between that Comtean Agnosticism which says that
( theology and ontology alike end in the Everlasting Wo with
which Science confronts all their assertions/ and the Agnosticism
set forth in First Principles, which, along with its denials, em-
phatically utters an Everlasting Yes. And I might show in
detail that Mr. Harrison is wrong in implying that Agnosticism,
as I hold it, is anything more than silent with respect to the
question of personality ; since, though the attributes of person-
ality, as we know it, can not be conceived by us as attributes of
the Unknown Cause of things, yet ' duty requires us neither to
affirm nor deny personality/ but 'to submit ourselves with all
humility to the established limits of our intelligence ' in the con-
viction that the choice is not 'between personality and some-
thing lower than personality/ but e between personality and some-

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 223

thing higher/ and that ' the Ultimate Power is no more repre-
sentable in terms of human consciousness than human conscious-
ness is representable in terms of a plant's functions/ " And again
(p. 6Q, id.) : "Whereas, in common with his teacher Sir William
Hamilton, Dean Mansel alleged that our consciousness of the Ab-
solute is merely ' a negation of conceivability ' ; I have, over a
space of ten pages, contended that our consciousness of the Abso-
lute is not negative but positive, and is the one indestructible ele-
ment of consciousness ' which persists at all times, under all cir-
cumstances, and can not cease until consciousness ceases ' — have
argued that while the Power which transcends phenomena can not
be brought within the forms of our finite thought, yet that, as be-
ing a necessary datum of every thought, belief in its existence
has, among our beliefs, the highest validity of any : is not, as Sir
W. Hamilton alleges, a belief with which we are supernaturally
' inspired/ but is a normal deliverance of consciousness."

These quotations are sufficient to show that, as he holds it,
there is a positive and affirmative side to the doctrine of the
Unknowable, or to agnosticism, as taught by Mr. Spencer ; and
also that there is occasion for a word or words to express it.

In his article Agnosticism, published in The Popular Science
Monthly for April, 1889, Prof. Huxley says :

" Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence
of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle.
That principle is of great antiquity ; it is as old as Socrates ; as
old as the writer who said, 'Try all things, hold fast by that
which is good ' ; it is the foundation of the Reformation, which
simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to
give a reason for the faith that is in him ; it is the great principle
of Descartes ; it is the fundamental axiom of modern science.
Positively, the principle may be expressed : In matters of the in-
tellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without
regard to any other consideration. And negatively : In matters
of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which
are not demonstrated or demonstrable. That I take to be the
agnostic faith, which, if a man keep whole and undefiled, he shall
not be ashamed to look the universe in the face, whatever the
future may have in store for him.

" The results of the working out of the agnostic principle will
vary according to individual knowledge and capacity, and accord-
ing to the general condition of science. That which is unproved
to-day may be proved, by the help of new discoveries, to-morrow.
The only negative fixed points will be those negations which flow
from the demonstrable limitation of our faculties. And the only
obligation accepted is to have the mind always open to con-
viction."

224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In view of such utterances — and of many similar ones in other
writings of both Spencer and Huxley — it seems that a positive
and affirmative word, or set of words, capable of expressing the
agnostic idea, if to be found or framed, would not only be appli-
cable, but would be acceptable to them and fit for the system of
thought with which the essay of the evening is concerned.

The words proposed come from the same root as the words
gnostic, agnostic, prognostic, and diagnostic.

The root is verbal and affirmative. It means to know ; and
with the prefix meta, means to know beyond. The noun means
beyond-knowledge. Beyond-knowledge may be knowledge "be-
yond the sphere of sense," and correspond to Spencer's definition
of religion, or, as you will, it may refer to all knowledge beyond
mere sense-perception, and so include all human knowledge that
exceeds that of the brute animal and is derived from or limited
by the senses. As for myself, I prefer the total meaning : for
then, as the civil engineer uses his base-line and two known angles
to measure distances and relations of things beyond the river
where he can not go with his tape-line, and the astronomer the
distances, actual and relative, of the heavenly bodies, so we may
use our actual hither-knowledge for the purpose of dealing with
the field of beyond-knowledge — or of the Unknowable — where the
senses can give us no direct aid.

As to the appropriateness of the adoption of the proposed words
into the English nomenclature of religion, the evidence at hand is
still more authoritative and conclusive than in the case of science
and philosophy.

In his preceding essay — Religion : A Retrospect and a Prospect
— Mr. Spencer begins with these words :

"Unlike the ordinary consciousness, the religious conscious-
ness is concerned with that which lies beyond the sphere of sense. *
A brute thinks only of things which can be touched, seen, heard,
tasted, etc. ; and the like is true of the untaught child, the deaf-
mute, and the lowest savage. But the developing man has thoughts
about existences which he regards as usually intangible, inaudible,
invisible ; and yet which he regards as operative upon him."

If you ask the source from which the proposed words are de-
rived, the reply is that, as to the second form, it is found in the
New Testament, and is the supreme word in the messages of John
the Baptist, of St. Paul, of Jesus Christ, and of the gospel gener-
ally, wherein it is believed truly to have the precise meaning — as
shown by the context — of the proposed English word or words
under discussion ; and that, as to the first form, it is constructed
by throwing out the prefix — a — from the word agnosticism, and
substituting the prefix — meta.

Prof. Huxley, the inventor of the word agnostic, is said to

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 225

have derived it from St. Paul's mention of the Unknown or Ag-
nostic God. The word now suggested is derived from the substi-
tute proposed by St. Paul at the same time. While St. Paul did
not advise the Athenians to erect an altar to the metanostic God
in place of the altar they had erected to the Agnostic God, he
used the word metanoein, and he thereby clearly advocated the
practice of what we may properly call metanosticism as the alter-
native and substitute for agnosticism, in connection with religion
and its observances. This he did after expressly declaring the
absence of any divine condemnation of their agnosticism, which
God is said to have " winked at " or overlooked. The strong and
suggestive antithesis made use of by St. Paul has been lost in the
translations of the language employed by him on that occasion ;
but there is no time to enlarge, here and now, upon the fraudu-
lent travesty practiced upon mankind for ages by the Church in
translating the original word so used to mean " do penance " and
" repent."

I content myself with asking, What would be the consequences
of the candid, common, and proper acceptance and use, through-
out the civilized world, of such a word to express the central
thought of the science, the philosophy, and the religion of our
age and of the ages to come, sanctioned by the high priests of
each of these departments of thought ?

I have only a word to add : Without committing this Associa-
tion, as its corresponding secretary, or otherwise, or any other
person but myself, to the proposition, it is my purpose to submit
the question of the adoption of the words meta-gnostic and meta-
gnosticism, or metanostic and metanosticism, as affirmative sub-
stitutes for the words agnostic or agnosticism, to Mr. Spencer
and Mr. Huxley, in the hope that, as leaders in modern agnostic
thought, they will see their way clear to their adoption, and
thereby supply a link to unite science, philosophy, and a true
Christian religion in behalf of humanity and future ages.

And when their replies are received — if so be — they will be
communicated to this Association for its further consideration,
and possibly for its co-operative action.

LETTER OF HERBERT SPENCER.
64 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London, N. W., December 22, 1889.

My Dear Sir : I have to thank you for the volume of Evolu-
tion lectures, which I received recently. I presumed that they
would eventually be bound together, and that you would kindly
send me a copy. This, of course, I shall like to keep.

Will you excuse me if I do not go into the matters raised by
your late letters ? I have been made so ill by over-excitement
that until Wednesday last I had not been out for more than a

226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

month, and, though I am now better, I must avoid every mental
tax, however small.

I did not receive the journal which you named in your last,
containing some matter respecting Dr. Abbott's address (I think
it was). Very truly yours,

Herbert Spencer.

J. A. Skilton, Esq.

LETTER OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY.

Eastbourne, England, December 10, 1889.

Dear Sir : I have read the papers which accompanied your
letter of the 25th of November with much attention ; but, I regret
to say, with the result that I can discover no good ground for the
change of nomenclature which you propose. Permit me to trouble
you with my reasons for that conclusion :

The term " Agnostic " was not suggested by the passage in the
" Acts of the Apostles " in which Paul speaks of an inscription to
the " Unknown God" (dyvwo-ro) 0e<p). It is obvious that the author
of that inscription was a theist — I may say an anxious theist —
who desired not to offend any God, not known to him, by ignor-
ing the existence of such a deity. The person who erected the
altar was, therefore, in the same position as those philosophers
who, in modern times, have brought about the apotheosis of igno-
rance under the name of the " Absolute " or its equivalents.

" Agnostic " came into my mind as a fit antithesis to " Gnos-
tic " — the " Gnostics " being those ancient heretics who professed
to know most about those very things of which I am quite sure I
know nothing.

" Agnostic," therefore, as the name of a philosophical system
is senseless ; its import lies in being a confession of ignorance — a
warning set up against philosophical and theological phantoms —
which was never more needed than at the present time, when the
ghost of the " Absolute " slain by my masters Hume and Kant
and Hamilton is making its appearance in broad daylight.

Your definition of " metagnosticism " says that it " relates to
beyond-knowledge." That is exactly what all the "absolute"
philosophers profess the u Absolute " does ; and it is precisely that
profession which I consider to be futile and mischievous. To my
mind science is exact and organized knowledge — neither more nor
less. And the knowledge which goes "beyond knowledge" is
something which my cognitive faculties do not enable me to ap-
prehend.

The term " Evolution Philosophy " which you employ seems
to have different meanings for different people.

For me, evolution is a name for a certain process, the occur-
rence of which in various groups of things is as nearly demon-
strated as any historical event can be. And this, I think, consti-

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM, 227

tutes a fair ground for the expectation that the whole cosmic pro-
cess will turn out to be one of evolution. The business of philos-
ophy, as I understand it, is, among other things, to arrive at a
scientific theory of evolution ; but these other things are quite as
important as evolution. Philosophy, in fact, should embrace the
whole of which the theory of evolution is a part.

Three or four generations of patient workers, cautiously feel-
ing their way by the well-known methods of true science, may
bring our posterity within sight of such a philosophy. For the
present, while welcoming all attempts to foreshadow it, with due
gratitude to their authors, and holding fast by that which is good
in them, it is very necessary that we should not confound such
scaffoldings with the edifice, the foundations of which are not yet
complete. I am, dear sir, yours very faithfully,

T. H. Huxley.

James A. Skilton, Esq.

Prof. Huxley asks that the foregoing letter be made public, on
the ground that " there seems to be a good deal of misconception
as to the position which now (as always) (he) I hold(s) in respect
of current philosophical speculations."

LETTER OF REV. LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D.

Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, April 22, 1890.

My dear Mr. Skilton : There are two distinct questions
raised in this correspondence, one an etymological, the other a
philosophical one: the first relates to the use of language, the
second to the limits of knowledge ; the first is as to the meaning
of a word, the second as to the powers of the mind.

I. Metanoeo is composed of two Greek words, noeo, to think,
and meta. Now meta, in composition, appears to imply one of
three things: either (1) fellowship, as in meta-didomi, to give
to or share ivith another ; or (2) exchange, as in metallasso, to
change with another, to exchange ; or (3) sequence, as in meta-
melomai, to care afterward, to regret. I can not find that meta
ever signifies beyond. The preposition used for this purpose is
huper. Thus we have hnperekperissou, exceeding abundantly,
literally beyond measure. It would seem, therefore, according
to the analogy of language, if the New Testament writers had
wished to coin a word to express the idea of knowledge beyond
knowledge, the word would have been not meta-noia, but huper-
noia.

It is, however, very clear that the word repent does not cor-
rectly represent the meaning of the Greek word meta-noeo, if
we have regard to the etymologies of the two words. Repent is
strictly to repunish, and this is the idea which the Latin mis-

228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

translation has carried into the New Testament teaching. We
have, as a consequence, the popular idea, that the first step in a
religious life is self-inflicted punishment for past sin; an idea
which gave rise in the middle ages to the elaborate system of vol-
untary penances, fasting, flagellations, etc., and, more spiritually
interpreted, to the still common idea that no man can "begin a
Christian life without first undergoing what is called a " con-
viction of sin" — that is, a sense of shame and sorrow more or less
poignant because of sin. This misconception — for I am sure that
it is a misconception — leads modern revivalists to endeavor, by
various rhetorical and dramatic devices, to create such a feel-
ing of sorrow ; and would-be converts to endeavor, co-operating
with them, to beget in themselves such an experience. And con-
version is thought to be, or at least to be attested by, a sudden
emotional change from such an experience of regret and remorse
to one of peace and joy. This endeavor is scarcely more consist-
ent with the true teaching of the New Testament than the grosser
and more material endeavor to inflict self -punishment for sin by
penance. The flagellation of the soul is not more scriptural than
the flagellation of the body. What the Bible calls on men to do
is not to repent — that is, to punish themselves — but to " change
their minds," that is, to change their aims and purposes and hab-
its of thought and inward life. We have no English equivalent,
so far as I know, for the Greek words meta-noeo and meta-noia;
the phrase " change of mind " expresses an idea quite too super-
ficial. A change of the whole attitude of the soul toward life is
indicated. This may, and I think does, involve looking beyond
the sphere of sense ; it involves a perception of something that is
beyond knowledge ; but this is rather psychologically involved in
the mental condition than etymologically involved in the Greek
word meta-noeo.

II. In respect to the psychological question, it is hardly neces-
sary for me to do more than say that I am in entire agreement
with you, and with what seems to me to be clearly involved if
not explicitly stated in what you have quoted from Herbert Spen-
cer. Scientific knowledge — truth that is scientifically demonstra-
ble — is derived by logical processes from observed phenomena.
This scientific process makes it reasonable to believe as a proba-
ble hypothesis that there is a psychic life which the decay of the
physical organization does not destroy ; but what is the nature of
that life, and whether it preserves its individuality, or is absorbed
into the general psychic force of the universe to reappear in new
forms, are questions on which the scientific process throws little
or no light. So the scientific process makes it as absolutely cer-
tain as anything can be that " we are ever in the presence of an
Infinite and Eternal Energy from which all things proceed." But

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 229

it is far from making certain what is the natnre of this Energy,
which is scientifically as unknowable as the inherent natnre of
matter or of force. But there is a knowledge beyond knowledge ;
that is, a knowledge of truths which are not ascertained by logi-
cal processes from observed phenomena, and are not, therefore,
demonstrable by logical processes from observed phenomena. We
know all aesthetic, all ethical, all spiritual truths by other means
than scientific processes. Into these truths we come by looking be-
yond the sphere of sense ; by looking beyond the larger domain of
logical deduction ; by aesthetic, moral, spiritual perception. We
know that God is, because we commune with him as a personal
friend and he is " nearer than breathing, closer than hands and
feet " ; we know that we are immortal — not shall be — because we
have in ourselves a consciousness of life which physical pain and
decay can not injure or impair. Thus our faith may be truth-
fully described as a knowledge beyond knowledge ; but it is not
any less certain and trustworthy because it transcends scientific
tests and demonstrations.

I hope I have given a definite and tolerably clear answer to
what seem to me to be the two questions implied in your cor-
respondence. There is a knowledge beyond knowledge. The
error of agnosticism is not in its denials ; it is in its psychology ; it
is in the fact that it ignores a part and that the larger and more
important part of man's mentality — his power to perceive directly
and immediately a world not cognizable, directly or indirectly, by
the senses ; that power which alone makes him a being of taste, of
affections, of moral or spiritual capacity. The answer to agnosti-
cism is not in maintaining that by the scientific process we can
arrive at certainty concerning truths which are not scientific ; it is
by a recognition of what you have called rneta-nosticism, the pow-
er of grasping knowledge beyond knowledge ; though the word
meta-nosticism, at least in so far as Scripture use is relied on
for its meaning, hardly conveys, it appears to me, though it
does imply, the idea which you purpose it shall convey in the
future. Yours sincerely,

Lyman Abbott.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

Dealing with the uncorrected mistranslations of the New Ver-
sion, Rev. Treadwell Walden says : *

It may now be imagined with what interest and expectation we looked for-
ward to the New Version, realizing full well the difficulty of reproducing the
original in this place and elsewhere more faithfully, and of making a change so

* An Undeveloped Chapter in the Life of Christ. The Great Meaning of the Word
Metanoia, lost in the Old Version, unreeovered in the New, pp. 14, IV, 18, 38, 39.

2 3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

startling, but hoping that, at the least, a marginal rendering would indicate the
literal alternative, or a glossarial note define the Greek expression in a way that
would go far to correct the English one. But the revision flows on, making a
ripple of change in almost every verse, yet with not a sign of perturbation over
this sunken rock. Neither a light-ship nor a buoy warns of a spot where there
has been shipwreck before now.

"We understand, however, that it was the subject of discussion among the re-
visers, and that the matter was finally passed by, not because the present rendering
was satisfactory, but because no one equivalent English word could be found
comprehensive enough for the purpose. What, then, has been so long lost in the
Old Version, remains unrecovered in the New, because of a reluctance to employ
a paraphrase! The poverty of our language, in this respect, is to keep us poor.
Or, it may be, something else was at the bottom of it, symptoms of which are
apparent in other instances. It may have been the reluctance of that kind of
conservatism which prefers not to disturb traditional notions or long-established
formularies. We comfort ourselves, however, with the thought that the New
Version is not a finality, but only tentative to that which shall yet meet the brave
demand of the nineteenth century. What we have is a bold and noble move, but
the whole of English Christendom are in council over it now, and suggestions and.
criticisms will flow in for some years to come; changes of view will also take
place, making the way clearer and easier to a more fearless and absolute transfer
of the original into our native tongue.

It were a bold word from any but a Divine mouth — we should say — and yet
the human tongue has been uttering it, virtually, all along in another sphere.
What has been the proclamation of science in its own material world, but " Meta-
noeite? Change your mind from the near testimony of Sense to the distant wit-
ness of Discovery "? Sense says : The sun rises in the east and revolves about the
earth ; the earth is the center of the celestial sphere. But Science — knowledge —
proclaims a contradiction, and, with it, a revolution. It is the earth that goes
round the sun, the sun is but one of that starry host, the blue firmament melts
into illimitable space ; it is an illuminated universe which lies out there, in which
this apparently ponderous globe floats like an atom in a sunbeam. So Science, an
echo of the divine voice, has enlarged, reversed the whole consciousness of man.
Her metanoia has been proclaimed, not only here, but everywhere in her mate-
rial field. Whithersoever she has gone, Nature has inverted its apparent order,
its phenomena have widened out into once occult principles, and the first human
impression of them has had to be revoked.

We can now imagine how, under such a conception, the pulpit would awake
to the grandeur of its work, how the Church would awake to the grandeur of her
cause. The themes of the one, the methods of the other, would move with
splendor and with power to one definite and mighty end — the summoning of
mankind to the metanoia, this new mind, and the announcement of everything
on the divme side of life, which would inspire and create it. For we are just on
the verge of a great epoch. All this intellectual activity in the material world
is surely working toward a moment of reaction when the same intensity of move-
ment will turn the other way, and the universal demand will be for a knowledge
of the spiritual. The voice of Science, crying in its wilderness, will be found to
have been preparing the way to this. It will turn out to be the " expectation "
of this age. Out of its dust and ashes shall mount again the cry : " Metanoeite !
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! n Let us see to it that neither the Bible,
the Church, nor the pulpit, gives then an uncertain sound.

THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 231

Mr. Walden also quotes De Quincey as saying :

In my opinion the Greek, word metanoia concealed a most profound meaning —
a meaning of prodigious compass — which tore no allusion to any ideas whatever
of repentance. The meta carried with it an emphatic expression of its original
idea — the idea of transfer, of translation — or, if we prefer a Grecian to a Roman
appareling, the idea of a metamorphosis. And this idea, to what is it applied ?
Upon what object is the idea of spiritual transfiguration made to "bear? Simply
upon the noetic or intellectual faculty — the faculty of shaping and conceiving
things under their true relations. The holy herald of Christ, and Christ himself,
the finisher of prophecy, made proclamation alike of the same mysterious sum-
mons, as a baptism or rite of initiation, namely, Meravoelre — henceforth transfig-
ure your theory of moral truth ; the old theory is laid aside as infinitely insuffi-
cient; a new and spiritual revelation is established. Metanoeite! Contemplate
moral truth as radiating from a new center ; apprehend it under transfigured rela-
tions.

No exhibition of blank power — not the arresting of the earth's motion — not
the calling back of the dead to life, can approach in grandeur to this miracle
which we daily behold — namely, the inconceivable mystery of having written and
sculptured upon the tablets of man's heart a new code of moral distinctions, all
modifying — many reversing — the old ones. "What would have been thought of
any prophet, if he should have promised to transfigure the celestial mechanics; if
he had said : I will create a new pole-star, a new zodiac, and new laws of gravi-
tation; briefly, I will make a new earth and new heavens? And yet a thousand
times more awful it was to undertake the writing of new laws upon the spiritual
conscience of man. Metanoeite ! (was the cry from the wilderness). "Wheel into
a new center your moral system — geocentric has that system been up to this hour
— that is, having earth and the earthly for its starting-point ; henceforth make it
heliocentric (that is, with the sun, or the heavenly, for the principle of motion).

In an appendix Mr. Walden also prints an extract from a let-
ter of Rev. Philip Schaff, D. D., in which the latter expresses
" cordial approval " of the " able, excellent, and truthful article
on the meaning of metanoia" and states that " conservatism pre-
vented a change, and the difficulty of substituting a precise equiva-
lent word," doubtless referring to the proper substitute in the
new version for the word " repentance."

Attention may here be called to the fact that Hamilton says,
" I would employ the word noetic to express all those cognitions
which originate in the mind itself." Why not rather employ the
words metanoetic or metagnostic for that purpose ? It is to be
remembered also that Lewes, in the Foundations of a Creed, says
that he found it necessary to invent the new word metempirical,
to " clearly designate " the " province where sense has no footing,
where experiment can exercise no control, and where calculation
ends in impossible quantities," the region of the " supersensible " ;
and to distinguish it from the province of the empirical, the region
of the sensible and the extrasensible. But that word does not
seem to have been generally accepted, and is not adequate for our
purpose.

2 3 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It appears, then, from an examination of the accompanying
correspondence and quotations, that in two of the most important
provinces of human thought, religion and philosophy, there is no
proper and accepted English word to designate the supreme prin-
ciple and element of the systems ; that the universally accepted
word to designate the same in one of them is, and for many years
has been, known to be utterly insufficient if not false, by many
among the leaders, and that in the other province such a word is
much to be desired.

It is no part of our purpose to discuss the appalling disclosure
of an only plan of salvation offered to the world, and yet con-
cealed from it for ages of agony through want of a word by which
to make it known; nor to discuss the effects of that disclosure
upon the a common people " when it shall be finally made clear to
them. After the publication of this article it can no longer be
said that no attempt has been made to supply the missing word,
and it will be for those whose function it is to decide such matters
either to slowly adopt it, to supply a better, or to allow us to
drift without it. But at this moment the word here proposed as
adequate, and advocated as especially fit in view of its tendency
to unite and harmonize both domains of human thought, interest,
and activity concerned, has not been accepted by the leading au-
thorities of either religion or philosophy, so far as it has been
submitted to them.

However, Dr. Abbott seems to admit that, etymologically,
philosophically, and scripturally, the proposed word implies, if
it does not convey, the desired meaning.

As to the suggested word Jiupemoia, the fact that the prepo-
sition huper was not used in the New Testament becomes a strik-
ing negative argument in favor of our word. Moreover, huper
evidently relates to quantity or proportion, and means excess,
while meta relates to space or position, and means universally —
according to Webster — in composition, beyond, over, after, etc.

Much remains to be said, but enough has already been said
to open the discussion of the subject, and to put the responsibili-
ties of the situation upon the leaders of religious and philosophic
thought, to whom they properly belong.

The objects of anthropometry, according to Mr. Francis Galton, are to define
the individual or the race, and to show in what way and to what extent he or it
differs from the others. By taking measurements the individual is taught to know
his own relative powers at any given time, and we are helped to watch over the
development during the period of growth, and to give it direction if it does not
proceed normally. Measurements of the head are designed to show how much
and up to what age the brain continues to grow, and to aid in comparing the edu-
cated with the uneducated classes.

TIN AND ITS NATIVE LAND. 233

TIN AND ITS NATIVE LAND.

By M. BRAU DE SAINT POL LIAS.

TIN, which, every one knows, but which few, except men of
science and metallurgists, are acquainted with, is one of the
most precious and most interesting metals. After gold and silver,
it is intrinsically the most precious of those in use. It is nearly
of the same color and almost as bright as silver, but has less
resistance and is less valuable. When warmed by friction, it has
a pronounced odor and taste. When it is bent, the derangement
of the crystals of which its mass is formed causes it, without any
fracture taking place, to emit a peculiar sound which metallur-
gists call its cry, and by means of which an expert can nearly de-
termine its degree of purity. The places where tin is produced
are few, scattered sparsely over the surface 'of the globe ; and it
disguises itself under the form of a blackish mineral which, to
the profane eye, gives no sign of the treasure that is within it.

.One of the richest as well as most ancient tin mining dis-
tricts is in the Malay Peninsula, the Golden Chersonesus of the
ancients. The name of the province, Perak, signifies silver ; but
it is peculiarly the province of tin. A few years ago we visited
the mines there, ascending the Larrout River in a Chinese junk to
Telok-Kartang, where a warm reception awaited us from the Eng-
lish colonial authorities. Thence we went, in a country wagon,
and afoot after it had broken down, through a country where
tigers are not rare, to Thaiping, the principal toAvn in the district.
We found lodging in the house of the assistant resident on the top
of the Boukit Bandera, which appeared to our eyes at the moment
a veritable castle of the fairy tales. Opening the window in the
morning, we could look from our elevated position upon the coun-
try of tin, which lay in nearly its full extent before us. Large
mounds of white earth and water-holes of strange form, breaking
up the surface at different points around the ham pang, marked
where mines had been worked or were still in working. Chinese
coolies were climbing up and down the notched tree-trunks which
served as ladders to the open pits, bearing on their shoulders bam-
boos, at each end of which hung the baskets in which the mineral
was carried. Hydraulic wheels, which were nothing but primi-
tive wooden Archimedes' screws, or norias with inclined buckets,
were turning with harsh creakings, lifting the water out of the
bottom of the excavations. Animation prevailed over the whole
plain, in which were to be seen by turns arid spots of mineral
refuse, or exuberant tropical vegetation. Farther on the country
grew hilly, and the view was at last shut off by a semicircle of
high mountains, in which are found the true mines, in quartz

TOL. XXXVII. 18

234

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

veins charged with tin, intersecting the granitic masses. The
washings of these veins, mingled with alluvial sands, have been
carried down by the rivers and spread by them through the floods
of the ages over the bottom-lands of the country. Taking advan-
tage of this work of Nature, man, instead of quarrying in the
mountain for the vein and having to blast the incasing rock, has
only to look in the flats for the mineral.

The mines were worked by the Chinese, no European operator
having been as yet established in the country. It did not take
long to witness the extremely simple process by which the ore is

Fig. 1— Sungei Lembing Tin-Mining District, Peninsula or Malacca.*

extracted. After clearing off the ground, the surface and subsoil
are removed for one, two, or three metres, till the mineral, tin-
bearing bed is exposed ; this is sometimes several metres thick.
The mineral is carried in baskets, as we have seen, up the cocoa-
trunk ladders, to a wooden flume which is washed by a current of
water. As the mine grows deeper this labor, with the rudiment-
ary means at the disposition of the Chinese, is made extremely
difficult by the inflow of water. The washing of the tin-bearing
earth is done by coolies, who witli a rake remove the stones and

* The illustrations in this article are views in the lands of the British "Pahang Cor-
poration," which has been formed to work the mines in Pahang, eastern Malacca.

TIN AND ITS NATIVE LAND.

2 35

work up the material in such a way as to eliminate the light
sands that are mixed with oxide of tin, till only twenty-five or
thirty-five per cent of foreign matter is left. The mineral thus en-
riched is melted in little brick furnaces, with the aid of a bellows
of bamboo, which is worked by a coolie as if it were a syringe.
The white metal as it runs out is cast into the well-known cubic
ingots with one side flaring over the edges, so as to give them a
pair of ears by which they can be more easily handled. A great
deal of metal is certainly wasted in this process ; and a second
washing of the refuse would probably be very remunerative. The
Chinese and Malays call this lost metal young, tin, which is re-
turned to the earth to ripen, because it is not yet old enough to
stay in their primitive machines. It is only now, after no one
can tell how many centuries since tin has been known and worked
in the peninsula, that a rational system of operating the mines is
about to be adopted.

The use of tin dates from extreme antiquity. Homer mentions
it as kassiteros, in the descriptions of the arms of his heroes. He-
rodotus speaks of the British Islands as the kassitericles. The
Phoenicians obtained the tin which they furnished to the ancient
world chiefly from those islands, but partly also from Gaul and
the Iberian Peninsula. Before the Phoenicians and the Greeks,
however, the Chaldeans
knew this metal under
the name of kastira. The
most ancient document
in which a mention of it
has been found is prob-
ably a hymn to the fire,
which M. Oppert has
translated from the Ac-
cadian language, a tongue
the knowledge of which
has been recently revived
from cuneiform docu-
ments. Tin was desig-
nated in them, five thou-
sand years ago, as anahu.
The biblical text in the
Book of Numbers, in
which Moses names tin

in the enumeration of the metals, is therefore comparatively mod-
ern, for it is of fifteen hundred years later date than the hymn to
the fire. Even more definite than these texts is an Egyptian
statuette in bronze (an alloy of tin) of the age of the pyramids, or
3600 years B. c.

Fig. 2.— Native Chinese Tin-stamping Mill on the
Kuantan, Malacca.

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Let us return to our own age, and see what is the present
annual production of tin. In a recent book on the Industries of
the Netherlands, M. de Ramaix gives as the production of the
Dutch East Indies, ten thousand tons ; of Cornwall, eight thou-
sand tons ; and of Australia, seven thousand tons ; in all, twenty-
five thousand tons. These figures show that the English mines
have fallen off since the days of the Phoenicians, when Cornwall
was the principal center of production. They have been left be-
hind by the Dutch East Indies, and will soon be overtaken by
Australia, if the number, seven thousand tons, given as the pres-
ent production of its mines, is not exaggerated. Saxony and Bo-
hemia, which still figure in the cyclopaedias as sources of tin, are
not mentioned in M. de Ramaix's estimate. A graver omission is
that of the Malaccan mines, which I have mentioned as the most
ancient, and also perhaps the most productive. According to
Mr. Patrick Doyle's Tin-Mining in Larut (London, 1879) the Ma-
lay states of the Malaccan Peninsula exported to Penang in 1877,
in round numbers, 2,500 tons of tin, and the Siamese states of the
same country, 7,000 tons, making 9,500 tons in all. From per-
sonal information, I estimate the exportation from the single Ma-
lay state of Perak, in 1881, at 6,139 tons. The production of the
peninsula having grown steadily since 1876, I believe I can as-
sert that it now takes the lead among tin-producing countries,
and that the world's total present annual production of this metal
is not less than 45,000 tons.*

Yet this production is hardly sufficient to supply the needs of
existing industry, for the price of tin before the crash in copper,
by which it was also affected, had reached the high figure of $800
a ton. This is because, while the applications of the metal have
varied much at different periods, it has always been applied to
numerous uses. There is hardly a house so humble that has not
its utensils of tin- ware. Wherever woman has advanced beyond
the crystal of the fountains, of which Seneca boasts, we are sure
to find, if not a looking-glass, a mirror ; and there is hardly a
country so savage that European glasses silvered with the amal-
gam of tin have not reached it. It is used in all the applications
of soldering, in tin - foil for wrapping preserved foods, and in
printing-types. Some of the uses which our forefathers made of
it are matters of much interest.

In the middle ages tin passed from the Gauls to the Merovin-
gian Franks ; and, according to Gregory of Tours, basilicas were
roofed and tombs were covered with it. It was extensively used

* I believe that these figures understate the facts. In a book on the Political Geogra-
phy and Economical Situation of the Malay Peninsula, in 1888, published by the French
Minister of Public Instruction, M. de La Croix gives the production of the peninsula, from
official documents, as over 24,000 tons, or more than half that of the entire globe.

TIN AND ITS NATIVE LAND. 237

in convents and churches, where devotional objects of every kind
were made out of it — crosses, chandeliers, holy-water bowls, other
vessels, organ-pipes, and pilgrim-standards. It was allowed, with
gold and silver, to enter into* the composition of the sacred ves-
sels, when wood, lead, copper, and bronze were prohibited as base
or insalubrious, and glass on account of its fragility.

Bishops and priests were buried with their symbols, crosses,
and chalices represented in tin. This metal served well in place
of silver in the illumination of ancient manuscripts, as it now
takes the place of gold in the lacquers of China and Tonquin, in
which the metallic luster of tin-foil has given the transparent
varnish the yellow shine of gold. Some objects found in the
Italian tombs have an interesting resemblance to those of Ton-
quin and China. Curiously, the custom of the Chinese and Ana-
mites, of burning papers to their ancestors bearing the figures
of objects which they use while living, finds its equivalent among
the peoples of Europe, who placed in the tombs of their dead tin
images of similar objects, such as forks, knives, tongs, tripods,
and candlesticks.

Tin was likewise employed for numerous purposes, often ex-
alted ones, in the life of the middle ages. The ceremonial cups in
which the wine was formally offered to a sovereign or to a lord
making a solemn entry into a city, and the goblets given as prizes to
the most adroit bowmen, were usually made of it. So were cups and
measures for wine and oil, porringers, and dishes of all sizes. Plates
came later. This piece, which it seems to us so natural to set on
the table in front of each guest, is not of older use than the twelfth
century. Even at that time every plate served in common for
two or three persons. Before that, our ancestors ate, as I have
done myself, among the rajahs of Oceania, each one taking the
morsels with his hand from the common dish.

Grand commemorative medals, seals affixed to documents, ink-
stands, and tokens were struck in tin. The use of this metal was
still more general in Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth cent-
uries. The tin eating-dish came into general use, even among
peasants and workingmen, and was provided for animals. Queen
Isabella's cats and the Emperor Frederick's hunting-birds had
them ; and tin drinking-dishes were made for the royal birds and
for song-birds of every kind. Barbers' emblems, to the seven-
teenth century, representing a bearded figure, were of tin, to dis-
tinguish them from surgeons' signs, which were of yellow metal
or brass.

Relegated till then to the kitchen or the offices of the large con-
vents or the houses of the great lords, save in perilous times when
it was brought out to take the place of silver plate on the mas-
ters" tables, tin passed, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, into

238

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

-Campbell's Tin Lode (Pahang Corporation),
showing Ancient Workings.

the hands of real artists.
It then furnished the ma-
terial for those wonderful
pieces of goldsmith's work
that were saved by the low
price of the metal from the
melting-pot which works
of gold and silver conld
not escape, and which have
come down to ns as pre-
cious specimens of middle-
age art. The pewterers of
England, Flanders, and
Spain, particularly of Bar-
celona, then produced
works of real taste. The
most remarkable art -
works which remain to us
from that epoch were pro-
duced in France and Ger-
many, especially in Nu-
remberg, whose pots and
plates of tin were as fa-
mous as its dolls. Tin thus
had then all the honors
of the precious metals. It
still shares with the pre-
cious metals the advan-
tage of cleanliness, which
is set forth by many au-
thors, who recommend it
for the preservation of
medicines that would be
changed by contact with
any other metal.

The importance of the
question of the source
whence tin was derived at
such a remote age was in-
dicated by M. Daubrey,
when he said, in the French
Academy of Sciences, that
this metal presented a
double interest : " On one
side, its use in the form
of bronze characterized a

TIN AND ITS NATIVE LAND. 239

grand epoch in human history ; and, on the other side, the ap-
pearance of the mineral, not resembling any metallic substance,
and the rarity of its deposits, supposed knowledge among the
first miners of which we have hardly any other evidences.
What country, then, in which tin is produced, was sufficiently
civilized more than fifty centuries ago for its people to have
knowledge enough of mineralogy to recognize the metal in the
dark mineral that contains its oxide ; and which had such a
social organization as to make practicable the different operations
and enterprises on which its extraction depends ? * M. Germain
Bapst expressed the opinion, three years before our first visit to
Perak, in one of the most remarkable and interesting works that
have been published on the subject, that this country was the pen-
insula of Malacca.

A curious relation has been traced between the names which
the Malays of the peninsula give to tin and' lead — tima poute
(white), tin, and tima itam (black), lead — and the names given
by Pliny — plumbum candidum (white lead, or tin), and plumbum
nigrum (black lead, or lead) ; and also between the Malay tima
and the English, Dutch, and Danish tin, the German zinn, and
the Swedish tenn. Etymologists ask if this Malayan application
of tin at a time when the kassterides islands, as yet without a
name, were lying in the solitude of their dense forests, and the
primitive populations of Switzerland, who also used tin for the
ornamentation of their earthen vessels, had not yet built their
lake villages, did not start from Malacca, and, carried by slow
migrations, but directly, and over the heads of the Assyrians
and Greeks, reach the extremity of Europe at a much later
period.

Thus, this peninsula of Malacca, which is now covered by
virgin forests inhabited by wild orang-sakeys, dotted with
swamps that have to be crossed on elephants' backs, peopled by
rhinoceroses and tigers, may at that time have been at the head
of the world's civilization, and had its railroads, telegraphs, tele-
phones, temples and theatres, artists and journalists, deputies and
bankers, speculators and pickpockets — everything, in fact, that
appertains to the last expression of progress, but under very
different forms — perhaps even its Eiffel Tower in bamboo — while
Europe was still in the period of its orang-sakeys. Such is the
way of the world. Why should not every country have its turn ?
— Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Sci-
entifique.

A satisfactory report has been made of the results of the first year's working
of the new educational programme of the Central Provinces of India, in which
special provision is made for technical education.

2 4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE.

By Mrs. FANNY D. BERGEN.
III.

A FEW of the many groundless beliefs concerning both the
useful and the injurious powers of certain reptiles and
batrachians have been already enumerated, but such fictions are
by no means confined to these uncanny -looking tribes of animals.
Indeed, it would seem as if such a knowledge of the real nature
of the commonest animals and plants as might readily be acquired
by even untrained observers had been altogether supplanted by
chimerical delusions which are incredibly hard to eradicate, for,
as Dasent remarks, " popular tradition is tough."

Among the ancient Egyptians, cats were highly revered, sacri-
fices even being offered them and temples built for them, and
after death many were preserved as mummies. Travelers state
that the modern Persians, too, greatly esteem the domestic cat.
But from very early times, in most countries where the cat has
been kept as a domestic animal, she seems to have been an object
of suspicion. Cats have been the reputed familiars of witches ;
have at other times been supposed to incarnate witches, or even
the father of witches, the devil himself. It is, .then, natural
enough that cats should figure rather prominently in the list of
animals credited with exceptional powers for good and evil.
Remnants of many ancient beliefs concerning such powers are
still found — some among us, and more, it may be, in older coun-
tries. A trustworthy old woman whose early life was spent near
Cork, Ireland, tells me that it is well known that in old times cats
could sometimes speak, and that she herself remembers one in-
stance in her girlhood of a cat speaking with a human voice. " It
was on an oiland aff the coast of Oireland," said she, in her queer
mixture of the brogue and Yankee dialect, " a bit o' land all sur-
rounded with water. There was a woman was cardin' wool, and
after she carded it she put it into her sieve,* and then her cat
came along and pulled it about, and she quished him away, and
whin she did that he said, ' Ye'd better lave this oiland, or ye'll be
sorry.' And nixt day there came up a very high tide, and swipt
away ivery livin' thing on the oiland. I suppose the cat just
wanted an excuse for spakin' whin he tangled up the woman's
wool. Ah, cats are very knowin' ! and there's great virtue in a
cat's blood, 'specially that of a black cat, or its skin, aither." Al-

* A kind of wicb hoop, with the bottom covered with tanned sheepskin, and used to hold
the carded wool.

ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 241

most every one is familiar with the time-honored belief that a cat
must not be left alone in the room with a little child for fear that
" the cat will suck the baby's breath." So general is the belief in
this breath-sucking power of the cat that I have taken pains to
consult several distinguished physicians in New England as to its
probability, and have received from each a most unequivocal
statement of disbelief in any such phenomenon. One eminent
Boston physician suggests that the notion may be based on the
fact that a cat likes warmth, and naturally might lie up close to
the warm breath of a sleeping child. Any injury which the latter
might receive would therefore come from breathing an impure
air, charged with carbonic-acid gas, and if the cat were diseased —
for instance, had consumption — there would be the possibility of
inhaling the bacilli or germs of tuberculosis. But is it not more
than possible that the popular apprehension is descended from
the old-country dread of the animal's connection with witchcraft ?
De Gubernatis cites the fact that, in Monferrato, black cats, being
thought to be witches, are carefully kept away from the cradles
of children ; and the same precaution is taken, for the same rea-
son, in Germany. In the latter country, black cats are in general
thought to be ill-omened creatures, and, if one is found on a sick-
bed, it foretells death ; or if on a grave, it signifies that the soul of
the departed is in the possession of the evil one. In earlier times,
I conclude that black cats were usually considered to be especially
evil-boding ; but this notion has apparently undergone a change,
so that now the white or light-colored cat is often reckoned the
forerunner of evil, while the black one is the harbinger of good.
There is a popular saying in various parts of New England that
it betokens good luck to be followed by a black cat. A black or
gray cat or kitten coming to a house will bring good luck, but a
white one is a sign of calamity. " If you drive away a black cat
that comes to you, you drive away your luck." The possession of
a black-nosed, " smutty-nosed," cat brings wealth, while in Maine
it is said the ownership of a white cat entails poverty. In Canada
and parts of Michigan I find the notion is that lucky cats are those
of three colors, and therefore the owner of one of the not uncom-
mon variety, mottled with black, white, and orange, should keep
her as a mascot, or luck-bringer. Among the negroes of Alabama
it is believed that after death the spirits of old maids take posses-
sion of black cats. There is a popular belief in parts of Pennsyl-
vania that, if by accident cats' hair be swallowed, it will turn into
worms. In central Maine one may find a more generalized form
of this superstition. The belief there is that, if any kind of a hair
be allowed to enter the human stomach, it will gradually change
into a snake — the species of the latter undefined. A native of
Cumberland, England, has told me that there it is a common say-

VOL. XXXTII. 19

242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing that one must not swallow a hair of a cat, since if swallowed
it will develop into a kitten within its hapless host.

From southern Illinois comes the notion that a felon may be
cured by simply putting on, dry, three hairs from the tip of a
black cat's tail. It would be so very easy a matter to test the effi-
cacy of this remedy that it is almost incredible that experiment
has not before now dissipated such an absurd belief even from
the most credulous mind. Possibly there is some relation be-
tween this prescription and a saying found in central Maine that
in the tip of every cat's tail are three hairs of the devil. All are
aware of the ease with which in cold, dry weather, the fur of a
cat is electrified by friction ; but who would imagine that any
connection could be conjectured between this phenomenon and
lightning ? There is, however, a New England superstition, of
greater or less extent, that it is very unsafe to tolerate the pres-
ence of a cat during a thunder-storm. I know of one lady in Sa-
lem, Mass., who never allows her cat to remain in the living-
rooms of the house when a thunder-storm is threatened. No
sooner do dark clouds begin to gather than Tabby is relegated to
the cellar for fear " she may draw the lightning." The reasonable-
ness of this precaution is quite worthy of the superstition which
occasions it. The grease tried out by roasting a perfectly black
cat is recommended in northern Ohio as a curative ointment in
any disease of the skin. From central Maine came the preposter-
ous notion that consumption may be cured by cooking a black
dog (one without a white hair) and eating the fat on bread. In
the same region a much-prized unguent for pimples, roughened
skin, or any other cutaneous disturbance, is the grease of a
weasel. It would certainly seem that but a trifling quantity of
fat could be obtained from one of these slender creatures. Pliny
states that the gall of one kind of weasel (probably the ferret) is
a most efficacious remedy for the sting of an asp ; also that the
flesh of another species, preserved in salt, is a cure for the bites of
serpents. The dried flesh of the weasel was often kept by the an-
cient Romans to be given in small quantities as an antidote for
any narcotic poison. Indeed, great remedial powers were, accord-
ing to Pliny, attributed by his contemporaries to these animals,
their ashes being often kept to form an important ingredient in
some of the grewsome compounds that figured so largely in
Roman therapeutics. Most Aryan mythologies abound in tales of
the supernatural wisdom and cunning of the weasel. Phaedrus
and iEsop both introduced it into their fables; and Aristotle, in
his History of Animals, among other attributes ascribes to it
enough reasoning foresight to eat the herb rue before attacking
serpents. The Greeks supposed .the odor of this plant to be ob-
noxious to these reptiles, and credited their wily adversary with a

ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 243

knowledge of the fact. Wherever found, the weasel has, and I
suppose deservedly, a general reputation for great cunning and
alertness. But of all the various beliefs in its fabulous powers
and attributes so prevalent among earlier civilizations, few, so far
as I have been able to ascertain, seem to have descended to our
own time and country, though a good many still hold their
ground in various parts of the British Isles. In the north of Eng-
land it is popularly thought to be very unsafe to molest a weasel
or to kill or injure its young, lest the artful animal spit on the
offender and paralyze him, or else secretly spit into his food and
so poison him. A young emigrant from county Sligo, Ireland,
has told me that the peasants there have undoubting faith in this
capacity of the weasel to avenge itself by the voluntary ejection
of saliva that is poisonous to man. I wish I might reproduce the
rich brogue and open-eyed credulity with which this Irish boy
related several stories illustrative both of the revengeful disposi-
tion and of the reasoning ability of the weasel. But I can only
give, in an approximation to his language, two instances which
he assured me had come under his own observation. "A mon
in our part o' the country wonst fought wi' a weasel. She was
vurry mad un' she fought 'urn a long time, un' at las' she spet on
'uz shins. The mon was af eard then un' let her alone, un' I me-
self saah wheriver the weasel 'd spet on 'urn, uz shins turned
black in spots." " There was a lot o' min a-wurrkin' in a field,
un' wan uv 'm tuk some little young weasels out av their nist in
a wall that was theer. Thin whin th' ould weasel saah what was
done wi' 'urn, she just wint to the can o' milk that they had for
their dinner, and spet in th' can un' wint aff ; un' thin the mon
wint back wi' the little weasels afther he'd watched th' ould one
a bit, un' he lift thim in the nist. Un' thin th' ould weasel wint
as quick as iver she cud to the can o' milk un' spilt it so the min
cudn't dhrink any uv it. She wudn't be afther hurtin' 'urn whin
they'd taken the little wans back." The country people in county
Sligo believe that these agile carnivores are so very cunning that
they know all that men say about them, and so it is felt to be
unsafe even to speak ill of the little thieves. It is also there
thought to be very lucky to carry a purse made of a weasel's skin.
There is an old custom among the Irishwomen in county Kerry
to go out with bread or other food in their hands, to meet hunters
coming home with their ferrets, and after feeding the latter, to
keep " for luck " whatever crumbs are left over.

An old-time remedy for the disease commonly known as " the
shingles " (herpes zoster) still survives in the United States, rang-
ing from Maine through Massachusetts and New York to Ohio,
and perhaps even more widely. The treatment consists in the ap-
plication of the skin of a freshly killed cat to the diseased surface

244 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the body. In Massachusetts it is believed that to be efficacious
the skin must be that of a black cat. In one country town in
eastern Massachusetts the same remedy is recommended for hives.
A reputed cure for asthma, still extant in Boston, is to wear a
muskrat-skin, the hair to come next the chest of the patient. A
correspondent from central New York knoivs of inflammation of
the bowels having been cured by applying the flesh side of the
pelt of a freshly killed lamb. In parts of Ohio it is thought that
chilblains may be quickly relieved by wrapping the feet in a
" warm, bloody rabbit-skin" (hare-skin). The last-named remedy
calls to mind the method of curing ruddiness of the face by anoint-
ing it overnight with hare's blood, cited in that incomparable med-
ley of wisdom and folly, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. The
nausea attendant on the painful disease called milk-sickness,
which is so dreaded in many of the newly settled parts of the
Western States, may, it is said, be allayed by drinking hot water
into which has been dropped a little freshly drawn blood of a
chicken. Canadian lumbermen, when fortunate enough to shoot
a deer, often wrap themselves at night in its skin in order to keep
off witches.

Pliny, in his Natural History, states that the bite of a serpent
may be cured by immediately applying to the wound a living
mouse, split asunder, or the warm flesh stripped from the bones
of a cock. We find a possible survival of these ancient Roman
remedies in the application of the freshly cut surface of a stunned
domestic fowl to a snake-bite. The poison is supposed to be ab-
sorbed by the quickly circulating blood of the chicken and finally
to kill it. If it die before most of the poison is thought to have
been absorbed, another is at once to be applied. This mode of
treatment is reported from Michigan, but I have reason to believe
that in a more or less modified form it prevails rather generally
where poisonous snakes are found. In northern Ohio they say
that a living fowl cut open and applied while bleeding constitutes
another cure for " shingles." In the town of Woburn, Mass., it is
not snake-poisoning or shingles, but scarlet fever and diphtheria,
that may be cured by applying to the chest the palpitating body
of a hen that has been stunned and immediately cut open. This
last remedy recalls the account of the last illness of Philip of Bur-
gundy (Philip the Good), in Charles Reade's admirable mosaic of
mediaeval life, The Cloister and the Hearth. You remember that
in the latter part of the fifteenth century the duke lay sick at
Bruges with the disease now known as diphtheria. " Ho ! this is
grave. Flay me an ape incontinent and clap him to the duke's
breast," says the doctor. But no ape was to be had. " Then Doc-
tor Remedy grew impatient and bade flay a dog. l A dog is next
best to an ape, only it must be a dog all of one color.' So they

ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 245

flayed a liver-colored dog and clapped it yet palpitating to their
sovereign's breast ; and lie died."

There is a popular supposition of wide range, based upon I
know not what, that it is very healthful for children to play with
dogs. A weak child, it is thought, may gain strength by being
with a dog, or, if diseased, the child may be cured by having the
animal " take the disease " — for example, inflamed eyes or any
disorder of the skin. Within a year a college graduate told me,
in perfect good faith, of acquaintances, a Boston doctor and his
wife, whose little girl had been greatly afflicted with some form
of eczema which they all hoped would disappear, as the parents
had purchased a fine dog to play with the child.

When a dog is teething, the upper incisors, according to a
New England superstition, must be removed as soon as they be-
come loose, or he may " swallow them and have fits/' Perhaps
even more generally received is the fancied danger of allowing a
child's milk-tooth after extraction to fall into the possession of a
dog or cat, lest the animal swallow it, and the child have a dog's
or cat's tooth grow in place of the lost one. The Mexicans and
Indians in Texas say that every animal has brains enough to tan
its own skin ; and so the latter, in the case of the wolf, panther,
wild cat, and some other animals, is mainly prepared by rubbing
into the flesh side of it the brains of its former wearer. A some-
what common fancy among children, perhaps too among adults
as well, is that " every part strengthens a part " — that is, that the
liver, heart, brains, and so on of animals, when eaten, go directly
toward nourishing the corresponding organs in the eater. A
similar doctrine was worked out in great detail by the American
Indians, and is, I believe, held by many other savage tribes. It
seems altogether probable that such beliefs, wherever found
among civilized people, old or young, are survivals from remote
antiquity, and that they are closely akin in their nature and
origin to the well-known doctrine of signatures which has played
so great a part in the systems of medicine of primitive peoples.

Mr. Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, Iowa, relates the fol-
lowing curious superstition : " A neighbor residing on a small
farm near me has, on several occasions, spoken of his experience
with ' hog mice.' He came to this country many years ago from
Northamptonshire, England, where he had often seen these
strange animals. They are also occasionally seen by him here
in Iowa. This mythical rodent is about the size of a barn
mouse, but its striking peculiarity as to its outward appearance
is, that it has a head and face fashioned exactly like that of
a hog. It is a very ' uncanny ' little beast. If it merely runs
across the body of a sleeping person, or of a domestic animal,
such unfortunate person or animal will be grievously afflicted.

246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with lameness or soreness wherever the monse sets down one of
its little feet. Serious disability often comes from the touch of
the \ 'og mouse/ In some extreme cases the affliction is well-nigh
incurable, and may last a lifetime. My old friend said that it
was no hearsay matter with him. He had ' seen 'og mice both in
Northamptonshire and 'ere in Hamerica.' One of his colts l was
disabled by a 'og mouse running hover it, and was a long, long time
getting well.' A striking peculiarity of the hog-faced mouse, ac-
cording to my old friend, is, that it is never seen at rest, but always
' on a dead run,' as if fleeing from pursuit."

It seems to me almost certain that this redoubtable f 'og mouse '
is merely a shrew, whose long and pointed snout might suggest
the visage of a hog. In Great Britain the most maleficent pow-
ers are commonly attributed to shrews, and an interesting passage
concerning the matter in White's Natural History and Antiqui-
ties of Selborne deserves to be quoted verbatim : " At the south
corner of the plestor, or area, near the church, there stood, about
twenty years ago, a very old, grotesque, hollow pollard ash, which
for ages had been looked on with no small veneration as a shrew
ash whose twigs or branches, when gently applied to the limbs of
cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers
from the running of a shrew mouse over the part affected ; for it
is supposed that a shrew mouse is of so baleful and deleterious a
nature that, wherever it creej)s over a beast, be it horse, cow, or
sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and
threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this acci-
dent, to which they were continually liable, our provident fore-
fathers always kept a shrew ash at hand, which, when once medi-
cated, would maintain its virtue forever. A shrew ash was made
thus : into the body of the tree a deep hole was bored with an
auger, and a poor devoted shrew mouse was thrust in alive, and
plugged in, no doubt with several quaint incantations long since
forgotten. As the ceremonies necessary for such a consecration
are no longer understood, all succession is at an end, and no such
tree is known to subsist in the manor or hundred."

It appears that similar powers for evil have also been attrib-
uted, in parts at least of Great Britain, to field mice, which by
creeping over the backs of sheep were thought to produce paraly-
sis. The remedy for such an injury was to inclose the mouse in
a tree, and stroke the afflicted animal with its branches as above
described. How far, if at all, these old-country superstitions
have become naturalized among us I do not know.

The belief that the American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatus)
can at will " shoot " its quills is one of wide acceptance among
unscientific people. I remember the woodcut in my first spelling-
book, labeled porcupine, and how, in reply to my questions in

ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 247

regard, to the nature of the bristly-looking little fellow, I was
told of his protective power of discharging a volley of quills at
either a hunter or any four-footed enemy. This interesting fable
about our own unaggressive rodent is doubtless an application of
a similar exaggeration of earlier origin concerning the African
porcupine. No doubt the story arose at the outset from the
extreme readiness with which the quills are detached from the
skin of their owner, contrasting remarkably as it does with the
savage hold which their minute barbs take of the flesh of the in-
cautious meddler in whom they lodge.

A cure for a felon, recommended in central Maine, is to wrap
the offending finger in the thin membrane which lines an egg-
shell. More interesting than this is the south of Ireland conceit
that sucking the first egg laid by a black hen will clear the voice
and render it musical,

One of the most unique of veterinary remedies is the following
sent me from Bradford, Mass. : " If a cow lose her cud, put a
live frog down her throat and it will bring back the cud."

In Alabama and Texas a hymenopterous insect, of the family
Mutillidce,, which bears a superficial resemblance to a red ant, is
locally known by the entirely undeserved name of cow-killer, from
the supposed destructive effect of its sting upon cattle.

The dragon-fly is greatly feared by little folks in Maine, as
they believe that it often sews together the lips of children, and if
the mouth be left open to prevent the sewing of the lips the warn-
ing cry, is " Look out, he'll sew up your swallow ! " A very cau-
tious little girl, therefore, was accustomed on sight of ene of these
insects to open wide her mouth, keep her lips far apart, and then
cram her fist into her mouth to keep the enemy out of her throat.
In parts of Massachusetts the story goes that it is only children
who tell lies who are in danger of having their mouths sewed up
by the " devil's darning needle," while in New Hampshire and
parts of Pennsylvania, the children think that their ears, eye-
lids, nostrils, and lips must be guarded, or they may be sewed up
by the dreaded darning-needle. This graceful and beautifully col-
ored insect has various names besides the well-known one just men-
tioned. In New Jersey it is often called " spindle " ; in the neigh-
borhood of New Orleans, " mosquito-hawk," and very likely this
may be a most rational appellation; but it goes without saying that
that of " snake-doctor," common in many of the Southern States,
is entirely senseless. The negroes and ignorant whites, however,
really believe that ailing snakes are attended by these flying "doc-
tors." In Tennessee and Illinois either " snake-doctor " or " snake-
feeder " is the popular name, and the latter is the one in general
use both among children and adults in Ohio, Indiana, and some
other States of the Mississippi basin. When a child in northern

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

central Ohio, I remember that neither my playmates nor myself
doubted, when we saw dragon-flies darting to and fro or hover-
ing over ponds or swamp-lands, that they were carrying food to
their friends the snakes ; and the sight of a snake-feeder always
put those who feared snakes on their guard.

Some years ago a friend of mine was spending the night in
Boston. Her hostess advised her, upon retiring, to be sure and
keep the bedclothes well over her feet during the night, as the
house was infested with cockroaches, and it was said that the in-
sects would gnaw one's toe-nails if opportunity offered. This sug-
gests a rather popular New England superstition that if you kill
a cricket the rest of the tribe will come unawares and bite holes
in your clothes. We find the same superstition in Ireland. The
Irish in general say that it is very lucky to have crickets come to
take up their abode in your premises, only you must be very care-
ful not to injure one. A young Irishman once told me that if by
chance boiling water were spilled upon one, as might easily hap-
pen among the peasants who cook by an open fire, about the
hearth of which the crickets like to live, the unlucky person who
had done the injury would be sure to find that the crickets had
gnawed holes in his socks and other garments during his sleep ;
at the same time and in the same room the clothes of other per-
sons who had not harmed the crickets would be unmolested. A
Maine saying is that, if one of the sprightly elves become impris-
oned in some crevice, ill-fortune will surely attend any bystander
who does not release him. In some places with us the cricket is
said to be propitious, but there is a Maine belief that its chirping
foretells sorrow. This is a probable outgrowth of the saddening
effect of long-continued listening to the little reveler's music, so
mingled in its cheer and pathos. We may pretty certainly con-
clude that our whimsies about the cricket have in the main been
directly transplanted from the British Isles, while those of the
latter region are, in turn, modified versions of ancient ancestral
beliefs common to many branches of the Aryan race. In White's
Selborne the author says, in speaking of crickets : " They are the
housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain ; and are
prognostic sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck, of the death
of a near relation, or of the approach of an absent lover." Among
various prognostications of death recounted in the poet Gray's
Pastoral Dirge we find —

" And shrilling crickets in the chimney cried."

The Spectator says that the voice of the cricket has inspired more
terror than the roaring of a lion. According to Pliny, the cricket
was an insect greatly esteemed by ancient magicians.

It is often said that the house-fly is indigestible by the human

ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 249

stomach. If one is so unfortunate as to swallow a fly, the com-
forting remark very apt to be offered among country people
is : " Well, it'll come up ; a fly won't stay on the stomach, you
know."

In central Illinois pills made by rolling up spider-webs into
small balls are recommended to be taken for ague. In connection
with this remedy it may be interesting to .notice that Burton, in
his Anatomy of Melancholy, tells how his mother, who was much
given to doctoring the poor of her parish, had great confidence in
the efficacy, in ague cases, of a spider inclosed in a nutshell
wrapped in silk, to be worn as an amulet by the patient. Burton
himself was at first incredulous, but after some observation he
came to believe that the amulet was beneficial. His own conclusion
was greatly strengthened upon his finding authority for this use of
the spider in the writings of Dioscorides, the famous botanist, who
lived in the early part of the Christian era,' and whose Materia
Medica, written in Greek, was for fifteen hundred years the high-
est medical authority. Carrying spiders upon the person as an
ague-cure must once have been somewhat popular in England.
Brand quotes from the diary of Elias Ashmole, April 11, 1681, the
following : " I took early in the morning a good dose of elixir and
hung three spiders about my neck, and they drove the ague away.
Deo gratias ! " Indeed, a vastly greater antiquity may be assigned
to this absurd practice, for the use of a spider's web or the creat-
ure itself as a specific for ague can at least be traced back to the
first century of our era ; for Pliny, in prescribing for this disease,
says : " It may be worth while to make trial whether the web of
the spider called i lycos' is of any use applied with the insect
itself to the temples and forehead in a compress covered with
resin and wax ; or the insect itself, attached to the body in a reed —
a form in which it is said to be highly beneficial for other fevers."
In the medical chapters of his Natural History Pliny again and
again speaks of the remedial virtues of spiders and their webs,
and, among multifarious prescriptions of this kind, advises the
application of a spider for three days as a cure for a boil, care
being taken not to mention the animal's name before applying it ;
also of cobwebs wet with oil and vinegar for fracture of the skull,
or of the web of a white spider for chapped lips. I have chanced
upon several other spider-web remedies in our own country be-
sides the ague-cure above mentioned. A Deerfield (Mass.) mode
of treatment for felons is merely to wind the finger about with
cobwebs. In northern New York cobwebs wet in hot water and
applied externally are recommended for the relief of pain in dis-
eases of the kidneys and bladder. The same application is used
in parts of Vermont for acute inflammation of the breast.

A quaint custom is widely prevalent among country boys and

2)0

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

girls of asking a" daddy-long-legs » to point out the direction m
which pasturing cattle maybe found. When I was a little girl
in northern ( >hio, many a time, before starting to drive home the
cows from a woods-pasture— in which they might easily have
wandered out of sight— have I looked about in the angle of a
gate-post, or under the cap of a board fence, in whose shady cor-
ners the daddy-long-legs often lurk, and, having found one of the
torpid beings, seized him by one leg and held him as I repeated
our prescribed incantation:

" Gran'-daddy, gran'-daddy-long-legs,
Tell me where my cows are, or I'll kill you ! "

Naturally, the spider, discomfited by his bondage, would lift
one of his legs, and the cows, it was said, would be found in the
direction indicated by this uplifted leg. I don't think that we
children really believed that this indication would always hold
good, or that we even paid very much attention to the path so
designated; but, as I remember it, we felt it to be the proper thing
to do to consult our oracle, and I doubt not the ceremony sent us
off on our evening quest with better courage. The same custom
is reported from different parts of New York State, Indiana, Illi-
nois, and Tennessee. The incantation varies somewhat with the
locality. In Tennessee it is simply —

"Daddy-long-legs, which way are my cows? "

An old physician writes me that " in western New York, sixty

years ago, the verses ran —

' Grandfather gray-beard,

Tell me where my cows are, or I'll kill yon ! '

After this had been repeated several times in a drawling mono-
tone, lengthening out the syllables e gray ' and ' kill/ if the captive
lifted a leg and held it suspended for a moment, he was faithfully
released; otherwise, he was ruthlessly killed." Certainly there
must be some occult connection between these malodorous arach-
nids and the cows, for in Tennessee the farmer-boys tell you that
killing a grand-daddy-long-legs will make the cows go dry.

In the pine woodlands of southern Louisiana, so a New Or-
leans lady writes, there are found little mounds of mud, with
quite a large opening in the center of each — probably crayfish-
holes. Negro nurses caution the children under their charge
never to touch these tiny mounds, believing that they are snake-
holes, and that any meddling will lead the snake which lives there
to leave his burrow at night and come and bite the offender.

In western New York, forty or fifty years ago, the panacea for
dirt or other foreign substances in the eye was what the children
called " crabs' eye-stones," the two calcareous, lenticular concre-
tions found between the stomach-walls of the crayfish. In these

ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 251

gastroliths is stored away for the molting season a reservoir of
material to form a new shell. The children, having no knowledge
of the real use of the gastroliths, believe them to be a providen-
tial arrangement for the relief of pain in man, and for genera-
tions this belief has been entertained by adults, for the gastroliths
are really the commercial eye-stones that were once widely used to
remove any irritating particle from the eye ; but the practice is
now condemned by physicians. It is scarcely possible that there
is any power sui generis in these neat little bodies which an arti-
ficial f ac-simile would not possess. Very likely this widely credited
virtue of the eye-stones is a result of the varied use in medicine
of the European crayfish in past ages. Powdered gastroliths were
formerly used in Europe as an antacid, while Pliny cites a score
of prescriptions in which the crushed animal, the bruised flesh,
the juice expressed from it, macerations in various liquids, or the
incinerated and pulverized shell were recommended for all sorts
of purposes from antidoting poisons to allaying fevers.

Some time ago I heard a very notable New England house-
keeper ask a young girl, who was assisting her by preparing a lob-
ster for the tea-table, if she had been careful to remove the "lady."
In answer to my inquiry as to what was meant by this, I was told
that there is a part known as the " lady" — a small, greenish object
inside the lobster, which is a perfect image of a tiny woman seated
in a chair — and that this part of the animal is deadly poison, and
should therefore always be carefully removed in preparing the
flesh for the table. I find that, in general throughout Massachu-
setts, this name of " lady " is given to the stomach, which may be
imagined to bear a remote resemblance to a miniature woman.
Since the lobster is a notorious sea-scavenger, the contents of the
stomach would probably be very undesirable for food, though why
this stigma of being poisonous should need to be attached to the
hard, calcareous-toothed, inedible stomach-walls it would not be
easy to tell. In central New Hampshire the name " lady " is some-
times applied to the intestine — the dark tube running lengthwise
of the lobster's body — and this is considered poisonous. In Cam-
bridge, Mass., an intelligent fish-dealer, on being questioned as to
the nature and position of the " lady " in the lobster, designated by
that name the edible ovary popularly called the " coral." An in-
genious theory has been propounded to me to explain the cause of
the so-called " lady " being dangerously poisonous. The reasoning
was about as follows: "You know that lobsters must be alive
when they are dropped into hot water to be cooked. If you should
let them die before they are cooked, they would be poison and not
fit to eat, and I suppose that the poison, which before they are
cooked is scattered everywhere through its whole body, all goes
into the " lady " while the lobster is being boiled."

252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In Louisville, Ky., the children are afraid to kill the common
sow-bug (Oniscus), which they call " mad dog," believing that the
disagreeable-looking little crustacean can give one the hydropho-
bia. In my own mind there is a faint recollection of having
heard that a poultice made from these creatures possessed great
remedial powers of some kind. The genuineness of my half-ob-
literated reminiscence of the therapeutical value of the sow-bug
lately received an unexpected confirmation from the pages of a
copy of The Complete English Dispensatory, by John Quincy,
printed not far from the middle of the eighteenth century. This
rare old book, which had long lain among the unconsidered rub-
bish in the garret of an old-fashioned New Hampshire farm-house,
contains a vast amount of curious medical lore. Not a few of the
remedies which it describes are so alchemistically compounded as
to seem to have come straight down from the later adepts in that
pseudo-science. Other preparations, again, are unpleasant enough
in their composition to satisfy an ancient Roman or a modern
Chinese practitioner, as witness the following (by no means one
of the most objectionable) :

" Expressio Millipedum Simplex (A Simple Expression of
Millipedes). — Take live millipedes and white sugar ana § iij, beat
them well together in a marble mortar, and pour upon them lb. j
of white wine, which strain out again by hard squeezing."

This formula is quoted by Quincy from Dr. Fuller's Pharma-
copoeia Extemporanea as a diuretic. Among other synonyms for
" millipedes " as here used, Quincy gives " sows " and " onisci." I
find that Pliny recommends " millipedes " (which the editor of the
translation of the Natural History in Bohn's series identifies with
onisci) for pains in the ear. Holland is quoted in a foot-note in
the above-mentioned translation, as sanctioning the use of wood-
lice (sow-bugs) for pains in the ears ; and the editor also states
that English school-boys swallow them alive, and that old women
advise their use in consumptive cases.

Perhaps every one has noticed the club-shaped, whitish mass
at the proximal end of a freshly pulled human hair. This root of
the hair, together with the attached connective tissue and adipose
material, is often absent, from the fact that the hair frequently
breaks off near the opening of the follicle, instead of coming out
entire from the interior of the latter. So it has come about that
the root of the hair is in different localities mistaken for an ani-
mal parasite, called a hair-eater. In many places in Maine and
Massachusetts, if these bulbs are noticed among combings, people
will say that the scalp is infested with hair-eaters, and that the
latter must be killed, or they will certainly ruin the hair.

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CEMENTS. 253

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CEMENTS.

By Prof. LA ROY F. GRIFFIN.

THE cements now in the market are of two kinds: natural,
made directly from stone ; and artificial, commonly called
Portland cement. The manufacture of the former consists simply
in burning and grinding the cement stone, a magnesian limestone
containing about fifteen per cent of silica and a little silicate of
alumina. The burning drives off the small amount of combined
water and all the carbon dioxide from the stone, leaving the lime
and magnesia as oxides, while the grinding to a powder puts it
into the best possible condition for mixing with sand and gravel,
and moistening to form a mortar. Artificial cement consists of
about sixty-two per cent of lime mixed with silica and silicate of
alumina in nearly the same proportions as' those found in the
cement stone, and it is free from magnesia. This seems to be the
whole difference in its constitution. In use, the artificial cement
sets rapidly and attains maximum hardness in a comparatively
short time ; the natural cement hardens rather slowly and reaches
its maximum hardness only after a long period of exposure to
the air.

The increasing use of cement in modern construction, either
alone or more commonly as mixed with sand and gravel, demands
that the qualities of the different kinds, and the means of testing,
both roughly and accurately, should be generally understood.
The foundations of all important structures, in situations where
they can not rest directly upon solid rock, owe their strength to
cement. They are usually made of concrete, cement mixed with
sand or gravel, and they are often strengthened by iron beams so
as to bind the whole into one continuous mass. Tunnels under
rivers, sewers, cable trenches, and all the numerous subways of
our large cities, are either concrete or masonry laid in cement
mortar. Their strength, again, is the strength of the cement used.
And even the piers of most of the large bridges are now made in
part or wholly of concrete. Oftentimes, even the walls of stone
and brick buildings are rendered more secure by being laid up
with mortar of which cement forms a large ingredient. Used for
so many purposes, the necessity of uniform quality, and proper
knowledge of the quality of the cement used, become plain.

Before examining the methods of testing now employed and
comparing the results, the process of hardening needs to be com-
prehended. Some things are not yet quite clear in it, but it is
certainly in the main a chemical process. Mixed with water, the
lime and magnesia of the cement unite to form a hydrate, and it

254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is probable that the silicates also recombine with some of the
water. This is the first step, and produces the so-called setting.
It is best passed through while the cement is exposed to the air,
and is the reason why cement mixtures must be used as soon as
moistened. But, this now complete, a more complex process is set
up. The moistened cement brought in contact with the air, or
exposed to water, at once begins to absorb carbon dioxide, for all
ordinary air contains the gas, and most water holds it in solution.
The gas unites with the lime to form a carbonate again, and this
goes on until the whole of the lime is turned back to limestone.
The same change occurs in the magnesia, but in this the action
proceeds more slowly. With a pure lime cement this action is
probably nearly complete at the end of a few months ; but, with a
cement containing magnesia, it will continue for many years.
The strength of the cement increases so long as the change con-
tinues. So a Portland cement will develop its full strength in a
few months, while our natural cements will not for years, and,
so long as it continues, the structure improves.

Rough testing of cement, so as to enable a workman to get a
crude and imperfect idea of its value, is easy. Enough of the
pure cement should be taken to make a ball an inch in diameter
and mixed with just sufficient water to make it mold readily and
be rolled into a ball. Then it should be exposed to the air and
left for two hours. At the end of that time it should be set ; then
it should be put into water and left. It should grow gradually
harder, and should show no signs of cracking or crumbling,
even when left for ten days. Any cement that does not endure
this test is not of sufficiently good quality to make satisfactory
structures ; any cement that stands this properly will be gener-
ally satisfactory if properly used.

In determining how to construct a building, a series of tests is
often required that shall show tensile, breaking, twisting, and
crushing strength, and also adhesion of the materials used for
mortar. No one of these can be dispensed with, since material
that will endure one satisfactorily will often fail utterly in an-
other, and hence prove worthless for the use desired ; but for gen-
eral purposes the test of cement which is the most valuable is
that which determines its tensile strength. Comparative tests of
this show the value of cements from different sources better than
any other one test.

To make an accurate test of any lot of cement, great care is
necessary in selecting and manipulating the samples. The test
sample ought not to be taken from a single package, but from
several in equal quantities and thoroughly mixed. The sample
must also be carefully protected from air and moisture until the
test is made. When used, it must be molded with just the right

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CEMENTS.

255

Fig. 1

amount of water to render it plastic. Too small an amount will
leave some particles dry; too large an amount will gather in
masses, will evaporate, leaving pores, and will give too small
results. The test is now commonly made by molding a bri-
quette of a form approved by engineers, as shown
in Fig. 1, which is drawn of one third actual size.
The mold is a clamp of metal exactly one inch in
thickness and exactly one inch across at R. This
makes the area of the smallest place exactly an
inch. The moistened cement is carefully placed in
the mold with a spatula and pressed enough to ren-
der the whole mass homogeneous. It is left in the
mold until it can be removed by opening the mold,
and then it is exposed to the air for exactly twenty-
four hours, after which it is put into water and
allowed to rest there until the test is made. ■ The
length of time depends upon the purpose of the
test. In order to make certain that all the cement
produced is of a uniform quality, seven days is suf-
ficient. Such a test is made of every lot shipped
by the Milwaukee Cement Company, and probably by all other
reliable manufacturers. If the test is to determine the ultimate
strength developed or to compare cements from different sources,

then a series of tests should be made by break-
ing " briquettes " made at the same time but left
in water for different periods. The reason is,
that a quick-setting cement 'will develop its full
strength in a short time, and if the test is made
at the end of that time it might show a greater
tensile strength than another one slow in setting,
even when the latter would ultimately have sev-
eral times its strength.

The test can be made in any form of testing
machine, though one in which the test is applied
by uniformly increasing the strain, as by running
shot into a bucket upon the end of a lever, gives
the most accurate results ; but the briquette
should be held in a clutch that presses accu-
rately upon the sides, as shown in Fig. 2. This
applies the tension equally, and gives a very ac-
curate test. A long series of these were made
by Mr. D. J. Whettemore, C. E., at Milwaukee in
1874, in which seventeen native cements showed
an average tensile strength at the end of seven
days of 80 &• pounds. The lowest of these broke at 38 pounds,
while the highest sustained 139f pounds. Later tests made in

Fig. 2.

z 5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the same way have shown that these were unreliable as final
tests of strength, because the briquettes had not hardened suffi-
ciently, and the table would place inferior cements above those
of much greater strength because the inferior develops its ulti-
mate strength much sooner. But a comparative test of the same
cements when mixed with sand in equal parts was also made,
and is of very great value and probably perfectly reliable, for
the tests were then made at the end of ninety days, so giving the
slow-setting cements time to develop their strength.

Thus the one which in the test applied to clear cement broke
at 38 pounds now sustained 152i pounds, an increase of four hun-
dred per cent ; while the one that was the strongest at the end of
seven days now broke at 204|- pounds, an increase of only fifty-four
per cent. The one that showed the greatest tensile strength of all,
at the end of ninety days, the Milwaukee cement, 290 pounds, broke
at only 96 at the end of seven days. An experiment made with a
briquette taken at random, that had been made six months and
exposed to the air at least half that time, strikingly showed the
same fact, for it broke only under a strain of 636 pounds. This
test was made simply to show the writer the method of using the
testing machine.

The United States Government had a series of tests made a
few years ago, using the cements commonly sold in the West, and
giving in each case the mean result of seventy -five tests. The
table is so interesting that we give it entire.

Tensile Strength of Pur.e Cements, each Test given "being the Mean Result from
Seventy-five Specimens, Thirty and Sixty Days.

Thirty days.

Sixty days.

A Cement

Pounds.
320
288
303
220
202
382

Pounds.
345

B Cement

310

C Cement

330

E Cement

280

F Cement

282

D (Milwaukee)

350

Cement is far more often called upon to resist a crushing than
a tensile strain. A large number of tests has been made to de-
termine the weight required to crush a cube one inch in each
dimension. When mixed with sand in equal proportions, the best
cements will sustain a crushing weight of upward of a ton, the
specimen having been allowed to harden for ninety days, while the
poorest do not sustain quite half a ton, and even when mixed with
three parts sand to one of the cement, the Milwaukee, which tests
have shown the best, sustains over eleven hundred pounds. These
tests show conclusively that structures well built of mixed cement

SKETCH OF THE ODOR SCHWANN. 257

and sand or coarse gravel will sustain any reasonable weight
without danger of yielding.

Little needs to be added upon adhesion. Many attempts have
been made to determine the adhesive strength of various cements,
usually without success — not because they do not hold properly,
but because they hold until the brick or stone to which they have
been applied is ruptured before the cement is separated from its
surface. This shows that the adhesion is always sufficient for all
uses, and this seems to be true of all our native cements. Their
use, therefore, mixed with mortar adds greatly to the strength of
the structure.

All these qualities of cement warrant its continual and in-
creased use, particularly of all the better grades. Probably the
English Portland is the best of all, but its cost is so much be-
yond that of our native cements as to warrant using them in
its place in somewhat larger proportion in all places where
time can be allowed for the hardening.

» »

SKETCH OF THEODOR SCHWANN.

By M. LEON FREDERICQ.

ON the 23d of January, 1878, was celebrated at the University
of Lie'ge, by the scientific men of Belgium and others rep-
resenting neighboring European states and more distant coun-
tries, the fortieth anniversary of the professorship of Theodor
Schwann. Men of all nations joined, by their presence or by
letter, in honoring the man who, as the founder of the cell theory,
had showed that all the varied and complex manifestations of
Nature are one in kind, and had given a new direction to physio-
logical research.

The object of this demonstration, Theodor Schwann, was
born on the 7th of December, 1810, at Neuss, near Dusseldorff, in
Rhenish Prussia, and died in Lie'ge, in January, 1882. His father
and grandfather were goldsmiths ; but the father, after Theodor
was born, established a printing-office — himself, with the aid of
an artisan, constructing the first press — which has become one of
the most prosperous concerns of the kind in the Rhenish country.
From it was issued the memorial volume published in 1879 in
honor of Theodor Schwann.

The youth inherited from his father a decided taste for manual
occupations, which afterward proved of great assistance to him
in his laboratory work. While still a child he used to spend his
play-hours in making miniature instruments of physics with the
most primitive materials. From the primary school he went into

VOL. XXXVII. — 20

25 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the humanitarian courses in the pro-gymnasium of his native
village, and thence, for the completion of his studies, to the
Jesuit College at Cologne. His lively intelligence and assiduity
attracted the attention of all his teachers. He exhibited a
marked predilection for mathematical and scientific studies, es-
pecially in physics.

He was still undecided as to the career he should choose, when
he enrolled himself, in October, 1829, in the class in philosophy
at Bonn. His family were deeply religious, and would have been
glad to see him become a clergyman like his elder brother Peter,
who died in 1881, Professor of Theology and honorary canon at
Frauenburg. Therefore he began with a mixed course, including
metaphysical and logical studies, along with those in mathematics
and science. The latter branches in the end absorbed all his at-
tention, and he decided to study medicine.

He became the pupil of the anatomist and physiologist Jo-
hann Muller, and that fixed his destiny. Muller, with a full
appreciation of Schwann's abilities, made him an associate in his
labors, and they experimented together on the motor and sensitive
roots of the spinal nerves, and on the coagulation of the blood.
Having passed the philosophical and scientific examinations at
Bonn, Schwann went to Wurzburg, where he passed three semes-
ters, and then removed to Berlin to complete his studies and go
through his final examinations. He found Muller here again, as
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, and under his direction
performed the investigation on the necessity of oxygen to the
development of the embryo in the hen's egg, on which was based
his inaugural dissertation on receiving the degree of doctor of
medicine.

Muller, insisting upon Schwann's following a scientific career,
had him appointed in 1834 aid at the Anatomical Museum, of
which he was director. The position was an extremely modest
one, and not at all pleasant. The late Director of the Berlin Mu-
seum, Peters, speaks of having seen Schwann at work for whole
days scraping the fins of a giant ray while preparing its skeleton ;
and many of the specimens in the zoological collections bear wit-
ness to the conscientious care with which he performed this mo-
notonous work. The five years which Schwann spent here with
Muller were a period of intense application, marked by a succes-
sion of discoveries. All the great works which illustrate his name
date from this epoch.

A characteristic portrait of Schwann as he appeared at this
time has been drawn by Henle, who passed several years under
the same roof with him. He says : " He was a man of stature
below the medium, with a beardless face, an almost infantine and
always smiling expression, smooth, dark-brown hair, wearing a

SKETCH OF THE OD OR SCHWANN. 259

fur-trimmed dressing-gown, living in a poorly lighted room on
the second floor of a restaurant which was not even of the second
class. He would pass whole days there without going out, with a
few rare books around him and numerous glass vessels, retorts,
vials, and tubes, simple apparatus which he made himself. Or I go
in thought to the dark and fusty halls of the Anatomical Insti-
tute, where we used to work till nightfall by the side of our excel-
lent chief, Johann Muller. We took our dinner in the evening,
after the English fashion, so that we might enjoy more of the ad-
vantage of daylight. Our porter's wife furnished the meat, we the
wine and wit. Those were happy days which the present genera-
tion might envy us ; happy days when the first good microscopes
had been sent out from the shops of Plossi at Vienna, or of Pis-
tor and Schick at Berlin, which we paid for by exercising a stu-
dent's economies ; happy days, when it was still possible to make
a first-class discovery by scraping an animal' membrane with the
nail or cutting it with the scalpel." Muller had at that time be-
gun the publication of his great treatise on physiology, a work of
scientific criticism into which he admitted nothing as true that
had not been verified by himself or by his assistants under his
eyes. Schwann, at his instigation, undertook a number of physi-
ological and microscopical researches for this work. He exam-
ined the texture of the voluntary muscles ; pointed out a method
of isolating the primary fibers, and demonstrated the origin of
the transverse striae of their primitive bundles. He sought for
the terminations of the nerves in the muscles, without being able
to discover them. He did not accept the ansated termination,
which was generally believed in then, but has now been dis-
proved. He first determined the existence of the proper walls of
the capillary vessels, and came very near discovering their endo-
thelium. He demonstrated, by physiological experiments with
cold water, the muscular contractibility of the arteries. He dis-
covered in the mesentery of the frog and the tail of the tadpole
the division of the primitive fiber of the nerves, an observation
then without precedent. He first proved, by microscopical ex-
amination and by the re-establishment of the function, the res-
torableness of cut nerves ; and he first made use of that faculty in
approaching the question of learning whether the sensitive or
motor fibers, when stimulated in their middle parts, propagate
the irritation toward both the center and periphery at once, or
only in one direction. He invented the muscular balance, for
measuring the force of the muscle in different states of contrac-
tion. He demonstrated that muscular contractility follows the
same law as the elasticity of a body which, having the same
length as the muscle at its maximum contraction, is stretched out
to the length of the muscle at rest. This work on muscular force

2 6o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was the beginning of the series of researches by the aid of which
Du Bois-Reymond, Helmholtz, and others have built up the
general physiology of the nerves and muscles. It was the first
instance, says Du Bois-Reymond, of the examination of an emi-
nently vital force as if it were a physical one, and of the mathe-
matical expression in figures of the laws of its action.

Schwann assisted, with the professors at Berlin, in the prepa-
ration of the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Medical Sciences, to
which he contributed the articles on vessels, hematose, urinary
secretion, and cutaneous secretion. At this period, also, he began
the experiments which led up to the discovery of the digestive
ferment, pepsin; and the principles which he set forth on the
subject are essentially the same as are still taught, the elucidation
of a few details being all that has been added.

In one of the theses attached to his inaugural dissertation,
Schwann had opposed the theory of spontaneous generation,
which had begun to prevail again, after a general abandonment of
Spa'ilanzani's germ theory. The absence of microbes from prepa-
rations which had been hermetically sealed was attributed to the
deprivation of oxygen. Schwann and Franz Schulze labored
independently to disprove this view. Schulze showed that vege-
table and animal infusions could be preserved for months in the
presence of air and after renewing supplies of air, if the air was
first passed over sulphuric acid to kill the germs in it. Schwann
communicated to the Society of German Naturalists and Physi-
cians the results of similar experiments, and of others in which
he destroyed the germs by calcination. He explained putrefac-
tion as a work of decomposition by the germs developing them-
selves at the expense of the organic substance, in proof of which
he showed that arsenic and corrosive sublimate, which were poi-
sonous to infusoria, were also the best preservatives against putre-
faction. It remained to be shown that the calcination of the air
did not deprive it of its essential properties of sustaining respira-
tion and promoting alcoholic fermentation — for the advocates of
spontaneous generation might say that the development of life
was prevented by asphyxiation. Schwann's view was sustained
when he found that frogs suffered no inconvenience in calcined
air ; but, when it came to apply the test to the fermentation of
alcohol, no fermentation took place. Schwann was not discour-
aged by this, but proclaiming a new discovery, that yeast was an
organic growth, and working out experiments to prove it, con-
verted the apparently hostile result into an additional support to
his theory. These ideas did not receive at once the support they
deserved. They had a formidable adversary in Liebig, who set
forth another theory of fermentation, and ridiculed them with a
parody. Schwann, averse to controversy, made no answer to

SKETCH OF THE ODOR SCHWANN. 261

Liebig's contradictions or to his joke. He bided bis time. It
came in a quarter of a century, when Schwann saw his theory-
extended to cover a great variety of chemical and pathological
actions, and almost universally accepted ; and received in 1878,
from Pasteur, who had carried it to its highest triumph, a letter
recognizing him as the one who had opened the road by follow-
ing which his own wonderful discoveries were made.

These researches might of themselves have sufficed to make
the name of Schwann illustrious. But they are relatively but
little known because their fame has been dimmed in the face of
the incomparable luster of his great discovery of the cell theory.
The publication of the book in which the basis of this theory was
laid down opened a new era in biological study. We might search
in vain, says Simon, in his History of the Natural Sciences, for an
example of a more radical revolution in the direction and character
of scientific labors than that which was effected in 1838 and 1839
by the publication of Schwann's histogenetic theory. The revolu-
tion was sudden, and triumphed, we might say, without resistance.
As Henle has remarked, the scientific soil in which this theory
took root and grew had been prepared from two different points
of view : one, philosophical or ideal ; the other, positive or histo-
logical. The philosophical preparation dated from the beginning
of the study of Nature, and was illustrated in the propensity of
the human mind to look for some simple cause for the diversity of
phenomena. To this we owe the monads of Epicurus and Leib-
nitz, Oken's philosophy of Nature, and many other efforts ancient
and modern. On the other side, certain histological researches,
often very modest, but coming close to the facts, had prepared a
way for the cell theory. Robert Brown had discovered the cellu-
lar nucleus in 1831 ; Mirbel, Von Mohl, and Unger had demon-
strated that the organs and tissues of plants were at bottom
aggregations of cells in different degrees of transformation.
Schleiden had been studying the important part played by the
nucleus in the formation of vegetable cells, and had given it the
name of cytoblast ; and other authors had found in animals or-
gans formed of cells. But these were as yet only isolated facts.

Schwann has himself told the story of the way the idea of his
discovery first occurred to him. " One day," he says, " when I
was dining with M. Schleiden, that illustrious botanist spoke of
the important part which the nucleus plays in the development
of plant-cells. I at once recollected that I had seen a similar
organ in the cells of the dorsal cord, and instantly appreciated
the extreme importance the discovery would have if I could show
that it plays the same part there as the nucleus of plants in the
development of vegetable cells. It must follow, in fact, in conse-
quence of the identity of so characteristic phenomena, that the

2 6 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cause which produces the cells of the dorsal cord could not be
different from the one that gives origin to the vegetable cells."
The two men went together to the amphitheatre of anatomy to
examine the nucleuses in question, and Schleiden recognized a
complete resemblance between them and the nucleuses of the
cells of plants. " From that time," Schwann continues, " all my
efforts were directed to finding proof of the pre-existence of the
nucleus in the cell." And he goes on to tell how his views were
confirmed as his researches advanced. At the time Schwann thus
undertook to show that all the organs are of cellular origin, the
structure of most of them was very imperfectly known. The
application of the microscope to researches in animal histol-
ogy was of recent introduction, and everything was to create.
Schwann did not shrink from the tremendous task which opened
up before him ; and what he had done first for the cartilages and
the dorsal cord, he tried in succession for all the other bodily tis-
sues ; and in all he had the joy of seeing his idea confirmed.

Schwann came upon many new discoveries in the course of
these investigations. He first compared the egg to a cell, and rec-
ognized cells in the globules of the blastoderm; described the
stellar pigmentary cells, the layers of the nail, the development of
feathers, the nucleuses of the prisms of the enamel, those of the
smooth and striated muscles, the fibers of the dental pulp, the
cells destined to be transformed into fibers of the crystalline, etc.
He called attention to the envelope of the nervous fibers which
bears his name as the sheath of Schwann — all of which discover-
ies have been confirmed by modern research armed with its more
perfect technic and superior instruments. The theory of the cell
as the primordial element of all the tissues was hereafter to serve
as the Ariadne's thread to the numerous investigators who devoted
themselves to the study of morphology, ' and was to help them
explain the infinite variety of organic forms. It gave a definite
purpose to the application of the microscope to investigations in
anatomy and physiology. It was the foundation of modern physi-
ology? and all the morphological progress accomplished during
nearly the past half-century has grown out from it. Except for
its having familiarized the conception of the constitutional unity
of living matter, and having declared the principle that every
cell is the product of another cell, the doctrine of selection and
descent could not, in the opinion of Edward Van Beneden, have
gained ground. Its salutary influence in pathological anatomy
and the advance of physiology was immediate and great. Acting
in another direction, it put an end to the theory of a special vital
force, which was in full sway when it was first promulgated, and
raised up that of physico-chemical action, which has taken its
place. How was it possible to reconcile the notion of cellular

SKETCH OF THE ODOR SCHWANN, 263

individuality with the existence of a single vital force, presiding
over the working of all the functions ? It would be necessary to
reject such a hypothesis and seek the reason of vital phenomena
in the properties of molecules and atoms, or else to assign a
vital force in miniature to each cell. Schwann insisted that the
hypothesis was both superfluous and insufficient. He could not
conceive its existence unless it possessed the attributes of intelli-
gent beings ; and preferred to seek the cause of the final purpose
in nature in the Creator rather than in the creature.

Schwann was just putting in press the book containing his
microscopical researches and his later results, when he was in-
vited, in his twenty-ninth year, to take the place of Windischman
as Professor of Anatomy at Louvain. His position at Berlin was
pleasant, but overmodest, and offered no near prospects for pro-
motion. So he accepted the proffer, and prepared at the end of
1838 to remove. He had to meet a considerable difficulty, in the
beginning of his career at Louvain, from the necessity of speak-
ing in French ; but his lectures were successful, and still form
the basis of instruction in microscopic anatomy at the university.
During his term here he published a memoir on the uses of the
bile, the results of which, while it gave a new operation in physio-
logical technics, have not been fully confirmed ; applied Quetelet's
method of statistics to physiological phenomena; and attempted
the artificial production of organic elements.

In 1848, Spring, of the University of Lie'ge, finding the com-
bined labors of the chairs of Physiology, General Anatomy, and
Comparative Anatomy too much for a single professor to perform,
asked to be relieved of a part of his burden. Schwann was
selected to fill the place, and was installed in November of the
same year Professor of Anatomy, Spring reserving to himself
the branches of osteology and myology till 1853, when the
whole course came under Schwann's charge. Some opposition
was expressed at first to the coming of a stranger to the univer-
sity ; but this soon passed away, for the brilliant reputation of
the new professor, the excellence of his teaching, and the loyalty
and amenity of his disposition silenced hostile comment, and won
hearts to him. In later years he refused several offers of brilliant
scientific positions in Germany — from Breslau in 1852, Wtirzburg
and Munich in 1854, and Giessen in 1855. In 1858 he exchanged
the chair of Descriptive Anatomy for that of Human Physiology,
and in 1870 became an emeritus professor.

Clearness, order, and method are described by those who at-
tended his lectures as the characteristic qualities of Schwann's
teaching. His courses in physiology were eminently demonstra-
tive and experimental. Laboratory work always presented a
great attraction to him. He was interested in the development of

2 6 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

scientific technics, and regularly made himself acquainted with
new instruments and methods. He had qualities of heart corre-
sponding with the superiority of his mind. His pupils recollect
the quiet good-will and fatherly kindness which he showed toward
them, and returned them with grateful demonstrations.

Although he was actively engaged in scientific pursuits during
the whole of his long career, he never mingled in the discussions
of the learned world after he went to Belgium. During the five
years of his residence in Berlin, his discoveries followed upon one
another like the explosions of a piece of fire-works ; and all the
great discoveries that made his name illustrious and opened new
horizons to scientific thought date from that time. After remov-
ing to Belgium, he published only one work, his researches on the
uses of the bile. He became almost forgotten outside of Belgium,
and many, not hearing his name mentioned any more, thought he
was dead. This may be charged to his aversion to personal con-
troversy. While the cell theory, as a whole, was established, some
of the details gave rise to disputes in which he did not care to en-
gage. Believing that he had reached an ultimate principle which
time would only establish more strongly, he was willing to let
details take care of themselves. But he never lost his interest in
the scientific movement ; and, at the time of his death, he was
engaged in studying the influence of electrical discharges on the
development of the lower beings in organic infusions.

In Schwann's theory all the phenomena of life were explained
by the properties of atoms. The cell was an aggregation of atoms
obeying the laws of nature as if it were a crystal. Plants and
animals were aggregations of cells, likewise machines destitute of
spontaneity. But man differed from animals by possessing an
immaterial element that lifted him above them and gave him
freedom. It was in this way that he escaped materialism, and
kept himself in line with the Church, to which he submitted his
studies, having even sought and obtained ecclesiastical approval
for the cell theory before he would publish it. For many years
he was collecting materials for a great philosophical work in
which the cell theory should take the proportions of a general
theory of organisms. Beginning with the definition of the atom,
his Theoria, as he called it, was to include all the manifestations
of life. Psychological phenomena and the dogmas of the Catho-
lic religion were to have definite places in it. Death prevented
his beginning the final preparation of it ; and his heirs could only
find in his desk a manuscript of seventy-two sheets entitled Man
considered from the Physiological Point of View, as he is, and as
he is to he.— Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from
the Revue Scientifique.

CORRESP ONDENCE.

265

CORRESPONDENCE.

PRESIDENT HILL'S DEFENSE.
Editor Popular Science Monthly :

DEAR, SIR : In the April number of
your magazine you say that a sen-
tence quoted from me by Bishop Vincent
in The Chautauquan " is absolutely without
foundation." The objectionable sentence is,
" Some counselors, like Herbert Spencer, ad-
vise us to follow our own self-interest, with-
out concern for others, with the assurance
that all will thus be happier, because more
independent." The quotation is made from
my volume of lectures on The Social Influ-
ence of Christianity. It is I rather than
Bishop Vincent who should " either justify
the above statement in regard to Mr. Spen-
cer or withdraw it." My respect for Mr.
Spencer's ability as a thinker and his sin-
cerity as a man is so great that I should
certainly withdraw a statement that I felt
misrepresented him to those who may not
share my high opinion of him. In seeking
to render justice to Mr. Spencer, I trust you
will not apply the lex talionis to those who
may seem to you to do him wrong.

The sentence which you condemn as " ab-
solutely without foundation " occurs after a
criticism of " undiscriminating charity" in
the distribution of wealth, and the citation
of a case where the literal interpretation of
Christ's words, " Give to him that asketh
thee," led to the demoralization of a parish.
In antithesis to this extreme I name Mr.
Spencer as a representative of what I con-
sider the opposite extreme — the emphasis of
egoism. Of course, I do not mean that Mr.
Spencer advocates an absolute and unquali-
fied selfishness, taking no account of the
rights of others. His teaching is, that there
is a u permanent supremacy of egoism over
altruism " ; that " each creature shall take
the benefits and the evils of his own nature,
be they derived from ancestry or those due
to self - produced modifications," and that
" egoistic claims must take precedence of
altruistic claims" (Data of Ethics, pp. 186,
187, 189). He advances two suppositions :
(1) "that each citizen pursues his own hap-
piness independently, not to the detriment
of others, but without active concern for
others " ; and (2) " that each, instead of
making his own happiness the object of
pursuit, makes the happiness of others the
object of pursuit"; and argues that the
amount of happiness would not be greater
in the second case (Data of Ethics, p. 227).
He sees " inconsistency " in the doctrine ex-
pressed in the Christian maxim — " Love
your neighbor as yourself " (Data of Ethics,
p. 233). His conclusion is that "general
happiness is to be achieved mainly through
the adequate pursuit of their own happiness-

es by individuals ; while, reciprocally, the
happinesses of individuals are to be achieved
in part by their pursuit of the general hap-
piness " (Data of Ethics, p. 238). Is not the
center of concern here for each one his own
happiness, with only so much regard for the
happiness of others as is likely to reflect hap-
piness upon himself ?

Mr. Spencer also says : " The poverty of
the incapable, the distresses that come upon
the imprudent, the starvation of the idle, and
those shoulderings aside of the weak by the
strong, which leave so many ' in shallows
and in miseries,' are the decrees of a large,
far-seeing benevolence. It seems hard that
an unskillfulness which with all his efforts
he can not overcome should entail hunger
upon the artisan. It seems hard that a la-
borer incapacitated by sickness from com-
peting with his stronger fellows should have
to bear the resulting privation. It seems
hard that widows and orphans should be
left to struETEcle for life or death. Neverthe-
less, when regarded not separately, but in
connection with the interests of universal
humanity, these har^h features are seen to
be full of the highest beneficence — the same
beneficence which brings to early graves the
children of diseased parents, and singles out
the low-spirited, the intemperate, and the
debilitated as the victims of an epidemic "
(Social Statics, p. 354). In the foregoing
paragraph Mr. Spencer has included types
of all the objects of human charity. He
himself says (p. 356) : "At first sight these
considerations seem conclusive against all
relief to the poor — voluntary as well as com-
pulsory; and it is no doubt true that they
imply a condemnation of whatever private
charity enables the recipients to elude the
necessities of our social existence." He
" makes no objection " to " helping men to
help themselves," " countenances it rather,"
but he shows no concern for those who need
our charity because they can not help them-
selves.

In another book he says, " It may be
doubted whether the maudlin philanthropy
which, looking only at direct mitigations,
persistently ignores indirect mischiefs, does
not inflict a greater total of misery than the
extremest selfishness inflicts " (The Study of
Sociology, p. 345). But all charity inspired
by personal sympathy looks mainlv to "di-
rect mitigations," and overlooks those " indi-
rect mischiefs " which the aid of the inferior
is likely to produce. The " extremest self-
ishness " would seem from this presentation
to be better than interference with that
" large, far-seeing benevolence " which Mr.
Spencer sees in the operation of the law of
consequences.

2 66

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I am not alone in my view of Mr. Spen-
cer'a teaching upon this point. In his criti-
cism of The Kan versus the State, in The
Popular Science Monthly, vol. xxvii, p. 170,
Trof. ile Lareleye says, "The law that Mr.
Herbert Spencer desires to adopt is simply
Darwin's law — the survival of the fittest."
< >n page 1 T'J, after citing a passage explaining
the manner in which natural selection among
animals is accomplished, M. de Laveleye
adds, " This is the ideal order of things
which, we are told, ought to prevail in hu-
man societies." In his Rejoinder Mr. Spen-
cer evades this by saying that his Social
Statics was written in 1851, while Darwin's
Origin of Species was written in 1859. This
le - itisfactory so far as the expression " sur-
vival of the fittest" is especially "Darwin's
law," but the principle is involved in the
operation of the u large, far-seeing benevo-
lence" which kills off the weak and helpless,
by whatever name it is designated. Mr.
Spencer docs not seem to complain of M. de
Laveleye's imputation, if the latter means
"the survival of the industrially superior,
and those who are fittest for the require-
ments of social life." I understand Mr.
Spencer to oppose carrying the struggles of
the "tooth and claw" period into our indus-
trial era, but that he is willing to permit the
operation of the principle of natural selection
with more civilized weapons.

In his Rejoinder to M. de Laveleye, Mr.
Spencer, after speaking of the distribution
of aid by the Government, says, " If others,
in their private capacities, are prompted by
affection to pity or to mitigate the evil re-
sults, by all means let them do so " ; but
this assumes the tone of mere sufferance
when he immediately adds : " No power can
equitably prevent them from making efforts,
or giving money, to diminish the sufferings
of the unfortunate and the inferior ; at the
same time that no power can equitably co-
erce them into doing so." I understand this
to mean that there is no right in the state to
interfere with private charity, if any one is
moved to it. In another place Mr/Spencer
says (p. 189), "Without wishing to restrain
philanthropic action, but quite contrariwise,
I have in various places argued that philan-
thropy will better achieve its ends by non-
governmental means than by governmental
means." I understand by this that Mr.
Spencer has no wish to " restrain " philan-
thropy, and he believes the voluntary form
better than the compulsory ; but he does not
claim any wish to promote charity, and the
kind of "philanthropy" he has in mind
seems to be only such as is consistent with
his other doctrines. As he views it, true
philanthropy is best expressed by non-inter-
ference. The greatest happiness is worked
out by the law of consequences, which in
reality is a " large, far-seeing benevolence."
'Inevitably, then, this law in conformity
with which each member of a species takes
the consequences of its own nature ; and In

virtue of which the progeny of each mem-
ber, participating in its nature, also takes
such consequences : is one that tends ever to
raise the aggregate happiness of the species by
furthering the multiplication of the happier
and hindering that of the less happy. All
this is true of human beings as of other
beings" (Data of Ethics, p. 190).

I have tried to present the grounds on
which my statement regarding Mr. Spencer
rests. I think he means to encourage self-
reliance as the primary virtue of humanity,
and that he seriously believes that what is
known in the world as " charity " weakens
it. The question is not now whether he is
right or wrong, but whether or not this is
his teaching. I am aware that my words
can be so interpreted as to represent Mr.
Spencer as indifferent to human beings other
than himself, but that is not my meaning.
He distinguishes between acting " to t/ie
detriment of others " and acting " without
active concern for others' 1 '' (Data of Ethics, p.
227), and I use the words " without concern
for others " in his own sense. If you think
the word " active " modifies the meaning in
any important way, I am willing to introduce
it in my sentence, if I can be assured that
"concern," which is but passive and not
active, has any meaning. Otherwise the ex-
pression " active concern " is a pleonasm.

Mr. Spencer's doctrine is, as I interpret
it, that, if each looks out well for himself,
then all will be happy, at least as soon as
" adaptation " has been realized ; and until it
has, no amount of solicitude for others or
sacrifice in their behalf can possibly realize
their happiness.

Very respectfully yours,

David J. Hill.
University of Rochester,

Rochester, N. Y., April 12, 1890.

THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.
Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Sir : In reply to the letter of Mr. Gustav
Lindenthal (vol. xxxvi, page 844), criticising
my remarks as to the lack of stability of sus-
pension bridges (page 478), I would like to
make the following statement :

I do not consider it at all necessary that
my remarks upon any of the different types
of bridges should be followed by the words
"as usually built," as, from thetitle of the
article, The Evolution of the Modern Rail-
way Bridge, I could not possibly refer to any
mode of construction other than that in gen-
eral use or some antiquated method.

I did refer to the suspension bridge as
"usually built," and as such it is very defi-
cient in rigidity, and in practice it has been
found almost impossible to so brace it later-
ally and vertically as to render it in any way
a desirable bridge for the passage of our
modern heavy trains at a high rate of speed.

I refer simply to the suspension bridge
up to its present point of evolution, both as

EDITOR'S TABLE.

267

to length of span and method of construc-
tion, and not to the possible suspension
bridge of the future.

In regard to the remainder of Mr. Lin-
denthal's letter : A bridge to be stable and
rigid, in the engineering meaning of the
words, must be so designed that under any
probable form of loading no change of form
can take place, either in the bridge as a whole
or any of its parts, other than that due to the
elasticity of the material used.

The suspension bridge, as we know it,
consists of a flexible chain or cable from
which the roadway is hung: given a suffi-
ciently heavy moving load relative to the
dead weight of the bridge, and the form of
the curve assumed by this chain or cable
will change with each change in the position
of the load, and the bridge can not be called
stable.

The mere fact that the inverted arch is
in stable equilibrium while the upright arch
is not, has absolutely no bearing upon this
question, when we consider the form of the
materials that are used in each case. I ad-
mit that, if the steel arches of the St. Louis
Bridge were inverted and braced and coun-
terbraced in a manner similar to that made
use of at present, the bridge would be as
stable, etc., as the present bridge ; but cer-
tainly not- if the vertical and lateral brac-
ing were dispensed with, and simply a chain
substituted for the present compression arch.
It is, however, impossible to state the
relative merits of different bridge desi<nis
without taking into account the length of
span ; and to a great extent the question is
decided by the relation that exists between
the 'dead load, consisting of weight of the
bridge, and the live load, consisting of the

passing train, etc. The following may be
taken as the maximum economic lengths for
railway bridges of iron or steel :

Plate girders 50 feet.

Eiveted lattice 350 "

Pin -connected with parallel chords or

arched top chord 550 "

Cantilever 1,750 "

Suspension, over 1,750 "

When the suspension bridge reaches such
a size that the weight of any probable load
that may come upon it is nothing as com-
pared to its own weight — as would be the
case in the proposed suspension bridge ex-
tending from New York to Jersey City, de-
signed by Mr. Lindenthal, with a central
span of 2,850 feet— then much that has been
said here in regard to the instability of sus-
pension bridges will not apply, owing to the
fact that under no circumstances would it be
possible to so load a bridge of such dimen-
sions that the load would bear even an ap-
preciable value to its own weight.

One word more in regard to " the popu-
lar and fashionable misconception as to the
merits of the cantilever bridge." Its greater
deflection is due simply to the fact that it is
in the form of a girder fastened at one end
and strained over a pier, and does not
amount to a demerit in the principle.

If I understand Mr. Lindenthal's use of
the expression "all other things being equal,"
etc., correctly to mean vertical and lateral
bracing, etc., practically everything never
could be equal ; and the cantilever bridge,
within the limits of span given, is in every
way superior to the suspension bridge as a
modern railway bridge. Respectfully,

Charles Davis Jameson.
Iowa City, April 3, 1S90.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

DOES MR. SPENCER INCULCATE SELF-
ISHNESS?

VE print in our present number a
letter from President David J.
Hill, of the Baptist University of Roch-
ester, in which an attempt is made to
justify the statement contained in his
book on the Social Influence of Chris-
tianity, and reproduced, with the sanc-
tion of Bishop Vincent, in The Chautau-
quan, that Mr. Spencer " advises us to
follow our own self-interest, without
concern for others, with the assurance
that all will thus be happier, because
more independent." If such a statement
could be justified, President Hill would
doubtless be highly qualified to perform

the task. He has a high respect, he
tells us, for Mr. Spencer's " ability as a
thinker and sincerity as a man " ; and we
may presume that this high opinion has
not been formed without adequate study
of Mr. Spencer's works — such a study
as would give ample command of illus-
trative passages in such a discussion as
the present. The question now is: Has
President Hill proved his case? Has he
justified the damaging remark made by
him in regard to Mr. Spencer's ethical
system? We venture to say that he
has not done so, but, on the contrary,
has signally failed in his attempt. The
reason is, that the facts are against him.
Whether he is fully aware how much

2 68

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the facts are against him is a question
we do not undertake to decide ; but it

us to us hardly probable that he
would even try to maintain his present
position if thoroughly informed on the
point at issue.

Dr. Hill tells us that, in the lecture
in which the passage challenged by us
occurred, he was drawing attention to
the two hurtful extremes of undiscrimi-
nating charity and complete egoism, as
represented by Herbert Spencer; and
that it was thus that he came to say
that "some counselors, like Herbert
Spencer, advise us to follow our own
self-interest without concern for others,
with the assurance that all will be thus
happier because more independent."
The intention to make Mr. Spencer the
representative of a more or less repul-
sive moral doctrine is thus avowed.
What, then, is the proof that Mr. Spen-
cer advocates any such doctrine? Dr.
Hill points us to a passage in which Mr.
Spencer uses some of the words em-
ployed to summarize his teaching. But,
in the passage in question (Data of
Ethics, page 227), Mr. Spencer is not
giving any counsel ; he is simply mak-
ing two suppositions and drawing a
conclusion from each. These are his
words : " Suppose that each citizen pur-
sues his own happiness independently,
not to the detriment of others, but with-
out active concern for others ; then their
united happiness constitutes a certain
sum — a certain general happiness. Now
suppose that each, instead of making his
own happiness the object of pursuit,
makes the happiness of others the object
of pursuit ; then again there results a cer-
tain sum of happiness." He goes on to
show that it is impossible any general
gain could result from the neglect of
one's own happiness in the pursuit of
that of others. What proof is there
here that he would not wish us to in-
terest ourselves in the welfare of our
neighbors? The whole drift of the
chapter (entitled Trial and Compro-
mise) in which the above passage is

found is to show that absolute egoism
and absolute altruism alike defeat the
ends in view : the absolutely egoistic
man fails to make himself happy, and
the absolutely altruistic man fails to
make others happy ; therefore, some
compromise between the two principles
is necessary. Not to go any further
than this we find Mr. Spencer's position
sufficiently defined. He does not stand,
as Dr. Hill would have his readers be-
lieve, for " the emphasis of egoism " :
what he emphasizes, and that over and
over again, is the necessity for a due
blending of egoism and altruism.

But Dr. Hill has other proofs. He
quotes Mr. Spencer as saying that there
is "a permanent supremacy of egoism
over altruism." True ; and how does
Mr. Spencer explain the words ? Let us
quote : " The acts by which each main-
tains his own life must, speaking gener-
ally, precede in imperativeness all other
acts of which he is capable. . . . The
acts required for continued self-preserva-
tion, including the enjoyment of benefits
achieved by such acts, are the first requi-
sites to universal welfare. Unless each
duly cares for himself, his care for all
others is ended by death ; and if each
thus dies, there remain no others to be
cared for." Then follow the words
which Dr. Hill relies on to help his
case: " Thjs permanent supremacy of
egoism over altruism is further made
manifest," etc. Now, here we have it
fully explained that by " supremacy " is
meant priority in time and precedence
in biological importance. How is this
to be twisted into an exhortation "to
follow our own self-interest, without
concern for others " ?

Dr. Hill further asserts Mr. Spencer's
teaching to be that " each creature shall
take the benefits and evils of its own
nature, be they those derived from an-
cestry or those due to self-produced
modifications." This is not quite cor-
rectly put, though the error is probably
not intentional on Dr. Hill's part. Mr.
Spencer does not say that " each creat-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

269

ure shall," etc., but that there is a law in
nature, which, however it maybe quali-
fied, can not be essentially changed, that
" each creature shall,' 1 '' etc. The distinc-
tion is not without importance; as
quoted by Dr. Hill, Mr. Spencer seems
to be laying down a law in the spirit of
a legislator, whereas he is only announc-
ing a law in the tone of a discoverer.
Now, if Dr. Hill does not believe there is
any such law as Mr. Spencer announces
and formulates, let him say so ; the con-
troversy will then turn on the interpre-
tation to be given to the history of man-
kind. But, again, let Mr. Spencer ex-
plain himself: "Any arrangements
which in a considerable degree prevent
superiority from profiting by the re-
wards of superiority, or shield inferi-
ority from the evils it entails — any ar-
rangements which tend to make it as
well to be inferior as to be superior — are
arrangements diametrically opposed to
the progress of organization and the
reaching of a higher life." Is this true
or not ? Again, is it true, or not true,
that " general happiness is to be achieved
mainly through the adequate pursuit
of their own happiness by individuals ;
while, reciprocally, the happinesses of
individuals are to be achieved in part by
their pursuit of the general happiness"?
"We say it is true ; but we do not agree
with Dr. Hill, who says that " the center
of concern for each one is here his own
happiness, with only so much regard for
the happiness of others as is likely to
reflect happiness. 1 ' Mr. Spencer is not
discussing "the center of concern," but
the best conditions for the production of
general happiness ; and his position can
only be traversed by showing that the
conditions he asserts to be the best are
not the best. Unless this can be done,
what is the use of talking about " the
center of concern " ? It will be observed
by the careful reader that what Mr.
Spencer postulates in the first half of
the above sentence is adequate pursuit
of one's own happiness. The word is
well and happily chosen, and gives the

key, we may say, to the whole thought
of the writer on the point involved.
The adequate pursuit of one's own hap-
piness is one thing; the inordinate or
selfish pursuit of it is quite another.

Dr. Hill quotes a passage from So-
cial Statics, and draws from it the con-
clusion that Mr. Spencer " shows no con-
cern for those who need our charity
because they can not help themselves."
The conclusion is not justified, in our
opinion, by the text. On the contrary,
the whole passage is expressive of sym-
pathy with suffering, and there is noth-
ing in Mr. Spencer's system to check the
relief of suffering except where to do so
would be to entail greater subsequent
suffering. Quoting from Mr. Spencer a
passage in which he says, ""Without
wishing to restrain philanthropic action,
but quite contrariwise," etc., Dr. Hill
comments on it as follows: "I under-
stand by this that Mr. Spencer has no
wish to restrain philanthropy; but he
does not claim any wish to promote
charity." "We certainly do not so under-
stand the words " quite contrariwise " ;
we think they do imply a desire on Mr.
Spencer's part to promote any charity
that will be truly philanthropic and not
hurtful in its effects. " As he views it,"
says Dr. Hill, " true philanthropy is best
expressed by non-interference." Mr.
Spencer has never said anything to jus-
tify this remark; but he has said that
non-interference is better than a good
deal of the interference that calls itself
charitable. Dr. Hill tells us in conclusion
that he is aware that his words — those
referred to by us last month — " can be
so interpreted as to represent Mr. Spen-
cer as indifferent to human beings other
than himself; but that," he adds, " is not
my meaning." If Dr. Hill was aware,
when he penned the words in question,
that they could be so interpreted, he
should in common fairness have guarded
against such a misapprehension. If, on
the other hand, he has only now become
aware that they are open to a wrong in-
terpretation, he should hasten to say

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that he should not have used such
wor<K

Up to this point we have been examr
inim: what Dr. Hill offers as his proofs
that Herbert Spencer advises us " to fol-
low our own interest without concern
for others " ; it remains now to glance
at a few of the numerous passages which
show in the most positive and conclu-
sive manner that Herbert Spencer holds
no such principle as that imputed to
him, but, on the contrary, earnestly de-
sires that we should concern ourselves
for one another, and that sympathy
should govern in all human relations.
It is very singular indeed that these pas-
sages should have missed, if they did
miss, Dr. Hill's scrutiny; and more sin-
gular still, if he was cognizant of them,
that he should not have considered that
any of them had a bearing on the ques-
tion at issue. We must devote the re-
mainder of our space mainly to quota-
tions. To show what he understands
by moral motives, Mr. Spencer says
(Data of Ethics, page 121) : " The man
who is moved by a moral feeling to help
another in difficulty, does not picture to
himself any reward here or hereafter,
but pictures only the better condition he
is trying to bring about. One who is
morally prompted to fight against a so-
cial evil has neither material benefit nor
popular applause before his mind; but
only the mischiefs he seeks to remove,
and the increased well-being which will
follow their removal." Then take the
following as indicating his ideal of social
life: "A society is conceivable formed
of men living perfectly inoffensive lives,
scrupulously fulfilling their contracts,
and efficiently rearing their offspring,
who yet, yielding to one another no ad-
vantages beyond those agreed upon, fall
short of that highest degree of life which
the gratuitous rendering of services
makes possible. . . . The limit of evo-
lution of conduct is consequently not
reached until, beyond avoidance of di-
rect and indirect injuries to others, there
are spontaneous efforts to further the

welfare of others " (Data of Ethics, page
147). " Sympathy is the root of both jus-
tice and benevolence " (do., page 148).

Any one wishing to know what scope
Mr. Spencer allowed to the altruistic
principle would naturally turn to the
chapter in his Data of Ethics entitled
Altruism versus Egoism. Dr. Hill did
net find it in the interest of his argu-
ment to make any quotations from that
chapter ; we must, therefore, be allowed
to produce a few : " That any one should
have formulated his experience by say-
ing that the conditions to success are a
hard heart and a good digestion is mar-
velous, considering the many proofs that
success, even of a material kind, greatly
depending as it does on the good offices
of others, is furthered by whatever cre-
ates good-will in others. The contrast
between the prosperity of those who to
but moderate abilities join natures which
beget friendships by their kindliness, and
the adversity of those who, though pos-
sessed of superior faculties and greater
acquirements, arouse dislike by their
hardness or indifference, should force
upon all the truth that egoistic enjoy-
ments are aided by altruistic actions.
This increase of personal benefit achieved
by benefiting others is but partly achieved
where a selfish motive prompts the seem-
ingly unselfish act ; it is fully achieved
only when- the act is really unselfish.
. . . Those (services) which bring more
than equivalents are those not prompted
by any thoughts of equivalents. For
obviously it is the spontaneous outflow
of good nature, not in the larger acts of
life only, but in all its details, w r hich
generates in those around the attach-
ments prompting unstinted benevo-
lence" (page 211). Not bad for a man
who is credited in an article written by
a college president, and selected by a
bishop for the reading of young people
whose opinions are in course of forma-
tion, with advising us "to follow our
own interest without concern for oth-
ers " ! Not so bad this either : " If we
contrast early poetry, occupied mainly

LITERARY NOTICES.

271

with war and gratifying the savage in-
stincts by descriptions of bloody victo-
ries with the poetry of modern times,
in which the sanguinary forms but a
small part, while a large part, dealing
with the gentler affections, enlists the
feelings of readers on behalf of the
weak, we are shown that, with the de-
velopment of a more altruistic nature,
there has been opened a sphere of en-
joyment inaccessible to the callous ego-
ism of barbarous times" (page 215).
We have marked many other passages
for quotation, not in the Data of Ethics
alone, but in other works of Mr. Spen-
cer's as well, but our limits forbid the
use of them. Enough has been pro-
duced, however, to prove to any un-
prejudiced reader that the accusation
brought against Mr. Spencer of counsel-
ing selfishness is, as we said before,
"absolutely without foundation," and
does signal injustice to a man the whole
of whose philosophy is so strongly in-
spired by a social motive. In the matter
of moral science many people are to-
day in the position in which men in gen-
eral were some generations ago in rela-
tion to physical science. Just as the
alchemists of a former time were bent
on achieving the transmutation of met-
als, and the astrologists on reading in
the stars the destinies of individuals
and of states ; and just as these precur-
sors of the scientific workers of our time
would have been greatly discouraged
and would perhaps have abandoned their
labors if persuaded that their methods
were vain and their hopes visionary and
unrealizable ; so, if we may be allowed
to say so, the pre-scientific or anti-scien-
tific moralists of our own time are dis-
posed to spurn any ethical system that
is not transcendental in its character
and does not nourish boundless hopes.
Truth, however, is making its way in
the world ; and gradually all intelligent
men will be led to see that better, wider,
and more permanent results can be
achieved by working on the moral lines
laid down by science, than by striving,

with the older philosophies and theol-
ogies, to scale the heaven of an un-
attainable virtue. Let us hope that the
present discussion may have a little in-
fluence in this direction.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Journal of Researches into the Natural
History and Geology of the Countries
visited during the voyage round the
World of II. M. S. Beagle, under the
Command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N.
By Charles Darwin. A new edition,
with Illustrations. New York : D. Ap-
pleton & Co. Pp. 551, with Maps.
Price, $5.

There are only a few books that have
the qualities of an originality and freshness
that never wear out. Darwin's Naturalist's
Yoyage must be conceded a prominent place
in the list. It has been a little more than
fifty years since it was first published. That
is a very long time in the life of a book of
science and even of a book of travels. Ei-
ther is likely to become antiquated and ob-
solete in that period. The book of science
comes to be read largely as a curiosity, and
to derive its chief interest as being a land-
mark from which the advance accomplished
may be measured. The book of travels be-
comes a kind of history, and is valued for
the illustrations it furnishes of the scenes
and conditions that once prevailed. Mr.
Darwin's Journal, in whichever aspect we
regard it, seems as life-like, real, and saga-
cious as if it were the fresh record of the
latest observer. The prediction made by
the Quarterly Review on its first appearance,
that " it must always occupy a distinguished
place in the history of scientific investigation,"
is more than fulfilled. The work accom-
plished by Darwin on this voyage has been
gone over, in its various parts, many times,
with all the advantages of increased knowl-
edge and approved appliances and methods
of investigation ; and it is surprising how
little of it has to be rewritten. So far from
any of its science seeming obsolete, we find
all through the narrative observations which
are in effect unconscious predictions, the
product of the author's peculiar way of look-
ing at things, of what has since been de-
termined; and we are also constantly re-
minded that the later determinations are to

272

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the largest extent the outcome of Mr. Dar-
win's own subsequent work. The track of
the voyage and its principal features are
well known to all persons who are conver-
sant with the scientific literature of the last
half-century, for hardly any book has been
more frequently referred to in that litera-
ture. The places visited were not as famil-
iar then as they have since been made, and
of the natural life of many of them hardly
anything was known. So Mr. Darwin en-
joyed the advantage of being one of the
first visitors and often the first scientific
observer. Much of the book is, there-
fore, the original record by a discoverer
of his discovery. Of the manner in which
that record has been composed, we need
say no more than quote Mr. John Mur-
ray's remark in the Prefatory Notice to
the present edition, that " the extraordinary
minuteness and accuracy of Mr. Darwin's
observations, combined with the charm and
simplicity of his descriptions, have insured
the popularity of this book with all classes
of readers, and that popularity has even in-
creased in recent years." Not only are Mr.
Darwin's observations as a rule accurate and
anticipatory of much that has since been es-
tablished ; they also comprehend nearly every-
thing that should fall under the ken of a thor-
ough-going investigator. Seeing all that the
experienced traveler sees and a great deal
more than most of this class think of looking
for, he portrays the scenery with a few well-de-
fined traces ; studies the geology ; looks after
the animal and vegetable life, with an eye that
discerns as much in a few hours of sojourn
at a place as duller observers might hardly
discover after months of study ; peers with
equal keenness into the habits and most
trifling actions of the animate world ; takes
note of the human life, of society, of man-
ners and customs, the conditions of civiliza-
tion, and of the prospects for the future of
the countries he visits ; and interweaves the
whole with pertinent yet undogmatic specula-
tions as to the meaning of the various feat-
ures that came under his eye such as mark
all the man's work— most of which have
been verified, or are in course of verification
by investigations to which he gave the start
and on lines of research which he himself
marked out. Perhaps the point to which
the present interest is attached is embodied

in his observations on coral reefs, which
have come under discussion again in con-
sequence of the new results obtained by the
Challenger Expedition. Some of his ob-
servations — in cases where the aspect is
affected by the progress of human settle-
ment — are in more or less striking contrast
with what is to be seen now. One of the
strongest contrasts, perhaps, is offered in
the picture of New Zealand, where the na-
tives at the time of his visit lacked the
charming simplicity of the Tahitians, and
the greater part of the English were "the
very refuse of society." But in the more
detailed fillings of even this picture we find
foreshadowings of the higher civilization
that has overtaken the Maoris, and the pros-
perity that has attended the English colony.
The present edition of Mr. Darwin's narra-
tive is illustrated by views not in the pre-
vious editions, most of which were made on
the spot by Mr. R. T. Pritchett with the book
by his side, and others are taken from en-
gravings which Mr. Darwin himself had se-
lected for their interest as illustrating his
voyage.

North American Geology and Paleontol-
ogy. For the Use of Amateurs, Students,
and Scientists. By S. A. Miller. Cin-
cinnati. Pp. 664.

This work includes a summary of the
general principles of geology, with defini-
tions of the principal formations represented
in North America, and a manual of Paheo-
zoic paleontology. The first chapter, on
the "Definitions and Laws of Geology,"
concisely presents the principles of geologi-
cal theory, including the agencies by which
the structure and appearance of the super-
ficial crust of the earth are affected ; expla-
nations of the more general terms used in
geology, and remarks on the principles of
nomenclature. For the systems, the gener-
ally accepted names are used. In choosing
between the methods that have been fol-
lowed in naming the groups, a preference is
expressed for calling each group after the
place in which the strata were first studied
and described, because a name thus formed
is sufficiently technical ; it can not be used for
any other purpose ; and it indicates the typi-
cal locality of the exposure. On the other
hand, names founded on the mineralogical

LITERARY NOTICES.

273

or other special character of the exposure
may prove inapplicable to the representative
of the same group in some other situation.
The systems, as they are known in North
America, are then described in their order,
beginning with the Laurentian, in the first
ninety pages ; and the typical localities and
general extent of each are noticed. The
rest of the volume is occupied with the
paleontological manual ; and this is intro-
duced with an ample exposition of the rules
of nomenclature. The list is classified, be-
ginning with the plants, and passing through
the animal orders to the batrachians, each
sub-kingdom and class being introduced by a
text describing its characteristics and its or-
ders. The names of all the species, arranged
in alphabetical order, are given under the
genera to which they belong, with the au-
thors of them, the dates of publication, and,
frequently, references to two places of pub-
lication. The cases are marked when ge-
neric and specific names are not known to
occur in the Palaeozoic rocks of North Amer-
ica ; of synonyms, names not described as
required by the rules of nomenclature, pre-
occupied names, and names condemned for
any other reason ; and erroneous references
of species to genera are pointed out and cor-
rected. A large proportion of the genera
are illustrated by engravings of typical
species.

Fort Ancient. The Great Prehistoric
Earthwork of Warren County, Ohio.
Compiled from a Careful Survey, etc., by
Warren K. Moorehead. Cincinnati :
Robert Clarke & Co. Pp. 129, with
Plates and Map.

Fort Ancient is a very extensive and im-
portant " mound-builders' " earthwork, over-
looking the Little Miami River and its fail-
road, a few miles above Cincinnati. It is
described by the author as " the greatest of
all prehistoric earthworks in the Mississippi
basin." Mr. Moorehead conceived that a
full account of so remarkable a structure was
desirable, and prepared himself conscien-
tiously to furnish it. The first step was to
make a survey, and for this, with a corps of
competent workers, he went over the entire
structure many times, and carried on a work
which, he trusts, will need no additional re-
searches to complete. In this he was as-
sisted by Mr. Gerard Fowke and Mr. Clinton

vol. xxxvn. — 21

Cowen. The main purposes of the writer
have been to set before the public, in as
brief and exact a manner as possible, the
prominent features and wonders of the
monument, and to insist upon its purchase
and preservation by some historical or scien-
tific association. The fort is situated upon
a plateau standing close to the river-bank,
at a height of 269 feet above low water,
and about 900 feet above the level of the
sea. The irregular contour of the work is
18,712 feet in length, but a diameter drawn
from north to south is only 4,993 feet long.
The structure consists of two large incis-
ures, called the old and new forts, connected
by a narrower passage-way which the author
calls the isthmus. At the southern end of
the isthmus, where it is narrowest, is the
" great gateway," guarded by a mound on
either side. Opposite it, at about one third
of the length of the isthmus, is the " Cres-
cent Gateway." The space between these
gateways is called the " Middle Fort," and
appears to have been the strongest part of
the work. Numerous graves, skeletons, and
remains of human work were found in and
around the fortifications, and evidences of an
ancient village site in the valley. The whole
proves to the mind of the author that Fort
Ancient was built for defense ; that it was a
rallying-point for a large population inhabit-
ing a district of considerable extent, and was
often the scene or the witness of fierce battles.
It may have been used as a fortified village
site, with people living within its walls all
the time — not enough to command the in-
closure, but enough to keep it in good repair.
A high opinion is expressed of the ability of
the constructors. They showed extraordi-
nary patience, and "have left evidence of
the possession of qualities seldom found
among savages. They engineered the posi-
tion of the walls with reference to the most
secure places with admirable skill." With '
no tools, such as we use, and wicker baskets
and skins as the only means of conveyance,
by mere strength of hand and back, they
accomplished a work before which we, even
with our modern implements, would hesitate.
The selection of the site, " the best for the
purpose which the valley of the Ohio offers " ;
the skill with which the walls were carried
around the entire inclosure ; the care with
which weak and exposed points have been

274

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

strengthened; the lookout mounds; their
skull*, etc., indicate for them a higher place
in the scale of being than the majority of
the tribes and remnants of tribes whom the
white settlers of western Ohio found there.
Mr. Muorehead believes they were Mandans.

Firm Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, lS83-'84. By J. W. Pow-
ell, Director. Washington. Pp. liii +
564.

This handsome volume gives ample evi-
dence as to the active prosecution of the
work of the Bureau of Ethnology during the
year that it covers. The director reports
that the field-work of 1883-'84 embraced
explorations of mounds in several States
east of the Rocky Mountains ; explorations
of ruins in Arizona and New Mexico ; fur-
ther researches among the Zuiii, by Mr.
Cushing; and studies of signs, languages,
and myths in various localities. At the same
time office-work in preparing for publication
materials already gathered was being vigor-
ously carried on. The first of the papers
accompanying the director's report is on
Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of
the United States, by Prof. Cyrus Thomas,
and was noticed in this magazine in March of
last year. There is a paper by Mr. Charles
C. Royce, on the Cherokee Nation of Indians,
being a narrative of their official relations
with the colonial and Federal governments.
This record gives attention in orderly se-
quence to the historical traditions of the
Cherokees, to their early contacts with ex-
plorers and colonists, to successive treaties
and cessions of territory, with the events
leading thereto, and the ensuing results.
Through the paper appear biographical no-
tices, accounts of the trials and struggles
due to deportation and conflict, and many
interesting facts showing the persistent ad-
vance of this intelligent people in civiliza-
tion, numbers, and prosperity. The paper
is accompanied by two large folded maps
showing the former and present boundaries
of the territory occupied by the Cherokees,
also by a map of the year 1597, being the
earliest which shows their location. The
Mountain Chant, a Navajo ceremony, is de-
scribed by Dr. Washington Matthews. The
essay is divided into a translation of the
myth on which the ceremony is based, an

account of the nine days' exercises, and the
originals and translations of the songs and
prayers used in the course of the ceremo-
nial. Four colored plates representing pict-
ures made on the ground with colored pow-
ders, and many cuts showing implements
and actions employed during the course of
the rites, illustrate the paper. An account
of the arts and customs of the Seminole In-
dians of Florida, with illustrations, is con-
tributed to the volume by the Rev. Clay
MacCauley. Mrs. Tilly E. Stevenson de-
scribes The Religious Life of the Zuni Child,
which includes a ceremony, performed before
the child is four years old, by which he is sup-
posed to receive the sacred breath of super-
natural beings. The colored masks worn by
the boys, and the colored figures made on
the ground in this ceremony, are represented
on lithographic plates.

History of Egypt. By F. C. H. Wendel.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. (History
Primers.) Pp. 159. Price, 45 cents.

The author's purpose in preparing this
little book has been to give a brief account
of Egyptian history which would be as reli-
able as the present state of Egyptological
science presents, and to create a deeper in-
terest in the study of ancient Egypt. He
rightly believes that this study is of the
greatest value, and of an importance that
is growing more manifest every day to the
student of almost every branch ; for in it
probably lie, at least in a large part, the
foundations of our science and art. The
story is told in a careful, scholarly manner ;
bears the marks of a thorough study and
preparation ; and is brought up as nearly to
the latest discovery as is practicable in a book
which requires time to pass through the
press. For sources of information the Egyp-
tian monuments are almost wholly relied upon
— thus securing the correctness that is de-
rived from contemporary records. The vexed
question of chronology is ingeniously solved,
or rather cut, by adopting Eduard Meyer's
plan of "approximate dates," or of giving
the latest date that can be assigned to the
era, and leaving it understood that it is im-
possible to determine how much earlier the
event may have taken place. This date, for
the accession of Menes, is about 3200 b. c.
The book supplies a real want of a compact,

LITERARY NOTICES.

275

popular history of this most ancient of na-
tions, in the light of the latest researches.
While we accept as valid the author's rea-
son for not including the science, art, and
literature, as well as the dynastic history —
that the space contemplated by the plan did
not admit of it — we hope that some one
will do as good work for those features, and
the popular life, too, of Egypt, as is done in
this work for its politics and foreign rela-
tions. The material for illustrating them is
abundant, and is lively, characteristic, hu-
man, and vastly fuller of interest than the
long list of unpronounceable names of un-
known kings, with their ascriptions of divine
qualities to themselves, of which a chronicle
of events must largely consist.

History and Pathology of Vaccination.
By Edgar M. Crookshank, M. B. Phila-
delphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 2 vols.

The story of the introduction of inocula-
tion for the small-pox into England, and of
its replacement by vaccination through the la-
bors of Jenner, is fully told in these two fine
volumes. It is a record which is extremely
interesting and instructive to the lay reader,
besides being historically valuable to the phy-
sician. The practitioner in England, where
the work originated, will also find many of
its facts and figures available for a practi-
cal purpose for which there is slight occa-
sion in the United States, namely, for com-
bating prejudice against vaccination. The
first volume opens with a history of small-
pox inoculation in various European and
Asiatic countries and in England. Then
follow the traditions, current among the dai-
ry-maids in the last century, that persons
who had taken the cow-pox from the ani-
mals were proof against the small-pox ; and
evidence is given to show that Benjamin
Jesty, a farmer, purposely transferred the
disease from a cow to his wife and his two
children in 1774, thus anticipating Dr. Jen-
ner in vaccination by over twenty years. A
portrait of Jesty forms the frontispiece of
the volume, and a small portrait of his wife
is also given. An account of Jenner's life
and his work in this field forms a large part
of the volume, and contains extracts from
many of his letters and essays on the sub-
ject. Successive chapters deal with various
sources of vaccine lymph — namely, human

small-pox, cattle - plague, sheep small-pox,
goat-pox, cow-pox, and " grease " in horses.
A brief account of the progress of vaccina-
tion jn England after the death of Jenner is
also given. The volume is illustrated with
many full-page colored plates. The second
volume consists of reprints of selected es-
says, beginning with the first edition of Jen-
ner's Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of
the Varioke Vaccina, published in 1798. It
contains also essays by Pearson, Woodville,
Loy, Bousquet, Ceely, and other physicians
prominent in the early history of vaccina-
tion, and several others by Jenner. The
author contributes to this volume a paper
describing an Outbreak of Cow-pox near Crick-
lade (Wiltshire) in 1887.

The Psychology of Attention. By Th.
Ribot. Authorized Translation. Chi-
cago : The Open Court Publishing Com-
pany. Pp. 121. Price, 75 cents.

This treatise is a clear and interesting
study of the mechanism of the mental atti-
tude that is necessary to any advance in skill
or knowledge. It is founded upon the ex-
periments and investigations of recent years,
which have examined and defined the bodily
manifestations accompanying the intellectual
state. Heretofore many psychologists have
been content to view attention from the sub-
jective side only, and consequently have not
given any comprehensible account of its gen-
esis. M. Ribot uses the reverse method. He
finds that there are two forms of attention :
the primitive or natural, which he names
spontaneous, exhibited by animals with only
a few developed senses, and by man until
training or force steps in ; second, the arti-
ficial or voluntary, a cultivated product
whose effects psychologists have dissected.
Both forms are dependent upon emotional
states, and the mechanism of each is motory,
mainly in the form of inhibition or "arrest-
ed motion." The physical manifestations,
the vaso-motor phenomena, the respiratory
changes, the bodily expressions, and the
cerebral effects, are the wheel-work of atten-
tion ; and the patient investigation of these
by Darwin, Riccardi, Galton, Maudsley, Prey-
er, and Fer6, has made an explanation of its
mechanism possible.

In considering the cerebral phenomena
the old problem is encountered — whether

276

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mind act3 first upon body, or body upon
mind. This M. Kibot declines to discuss.
Voluntary attention originated after the ear-
liest period of savagery, when man realized
the alternative of perishing or going to work.
It differs from the spontaneous form in that
the motive or influence producing the emo-
tional state is supplied from without. Edu-
cators make use of fear, sympathy, and cu-
riosity, to cultivate attention in the child;
as it advances in growth, duty, emulation,
and ambition are introduced; and, finally,
voluntary attention is maintained by habit
and organization A study of the internal
mechanism shows that attention is accom-
plished by inhibition. In the normal state
of consciousness, sensations, images, ideas
come and go. Attention arrests this process
and inhibits all but the chosen series. Ener-
gy is used to perpetuate this condition, and
from this expenditure results the feeling of
effort. The morbid cases of attention are
treated under the heads Hypertrophy of
Attention, Atrophy of Attention, and Con-
genital Infirmity. They prove that atten-
tion depends upon emotional excitation. In-
cidentally, M. Ribot gives some suggestive
examples of what may depend upon full
recognition of the physical nature of at-
tention.

The Extermination of the American Bison.
By William T. Hornaday. Washington :
Government Printing-Office (Smithsonian
Institution). Pp. 548, with Plates and
Maps.

Mr. noRNADAY is a naturalist and taxi-
dermist by profession, and is superintendent
of the Xational Zoological Park, thus com-
bining qualifications which well fit him for
making a book of this kind. He is, further-
more, a writer who knows how to interest
the reader, and has composed an attractive
as well as an instructive book. His purpose
is to help the public fully to realize the folly
of allowing all our most valuable and inter-
esting American mammals to be wantonly
destroyed, as the buffalo has been. The
wild buffalo is practically gone forever; and
it is doubtful whether the institution of pre-
serves and the formation of herds, however
intelligently they may be executed, will avail
to save the species permanently, even in a
captive state. In the first part of his work
the author considers " the life-history of the

bison," under the headings of Discovery
of the Species, Geographical Distribution,
Abundance, Character, Habits, Food, Men-
tal Capacity and Disposition, Yalue to Man-
kind, and Economic Value to Western Cat-
tle-Growers. The story of extermination is
related in the second part. One of the most
important chapters in the first part is that
in which the value of the bison is estimated
under domestication, in hybrids, and as a
beast of burden. At present (May 1, 1889),
"although the existence of a few widely
scattered individuals enables us to say that
the bison is not yet absolutely extinct in a
wild state, there is no reason to hope that a
single wild and unprotected individual will
remain alive ten years hence. The nearer
the species approaches to complete extermi-
nation, the more eagerly are the wretched
fugitives pursued to the death wherever
found." While the herds, which once ranged
over nearly the whole of our country, for-
merly numbered hundreds of thousands of
individuals, the few groups that are left
count only dozens. An estimate made on
the 1st of January, 1889, gave the whole
number running wild — in all North America
— as 635 ; and including those in captivity
and those under Government protection in
Yellowstone Park, the whole number of in-
dividuals of the species as 1,091 ; and these
few are still hunted, and shot when found.

Handbook of Practical Botany. By E.
Strasburger. Edited from the German
by W. Hillhouse. Second edition, revised
and enlarged. New York: Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 425. Price, $2.50.

This volume embodies a course of labora-
tory work laid out by a botanist whom the
English editor calls "one of the greatest
living masters of microscopical observation."
The introduction tells how to use the micro-
scope, and describes the instruments of dif-
ferent makers. The first subject for study
is the structure of starch of different kinds.
A list of the material wanted is given at the
head of the chapter ; the appearance which
each kind of starch should present under the
microscope is described, its behavior under
various reagents is noted, and directions for
drawing the grains are given. The following
lessons are similar in character. Among the
subjects for investigation are movements
of protoplasm, epidermis and stomata, the

LITERARY NOTICES.

277

structure of different kinds of stem, of cork,
of the growing tip of stem and of root, the
vegetative structure and the modes of repro-
duction of cryptogamous plants, and the
structure of various seeds and fruits. The
text is illustrated with 149 cuts. An appen-
dix contains lists of plants and of reagents
used in study, etc.

Handbook of Commercial Geography. By
George G. Chisholm, Fellow of the Royal
Geographical and Statistical Societies.
London and New York : Longmans,
Green & Co. Pp. 515. Price, $5.

Commerce has undergone a change cf
character in recent times the nature of which
i3 indicated by the disappearance of the
word " venture " from the commercial vocab-
ulary. Cargoes of good3 are not now shipped
to distant ports in blind ignorance of whether
or not a sufficient demand exists at their
destination for the commodities sent. The
legend of the rash Yankee, who apparently
tempted the financial fates by sending a lot
of warming-pans to the West Indies, would
be impossible at this day. Commerce has
settled down to a more even course, it is
carried on by more exact methods, and is
directed more by knowledge and less by
chance than at earlier times. But there re-
mains much room for improvement in the
knowledge which importers and exporters
possess of the products and the needs of
foreign countries. To supply information
of this sort, and in such a form that it may
have " intellectual interest," is the aim of
the present volume. " In writing the work,"
says the author, " I have had three classes
chiefly in view : first, teachers who may wish
to impart additional zest to their lessons in
geography from the point of view of com-
merce ; secondly, pupils in the higher schools
and colleges that are now devoting increased
attention to commercial education ; and,
thirdly, those entering on commercial life,
who take a sufficiently intelligent interest in
their business to make their private studies
bear on their daily pursuits." An intro-
ductory chapter embodies certain general
facts relating to the production, distribution,
and exchange of commodities, such as differ-
ences in soil and climate, in the price and effi-
ciency of labor, in facilities for transportation
and communication, in import and export
regulations, in language and money. The

world's articles of commerce are then taken
up, under a number of classes, and the source
of supply of each, and, in case of the more
important commodities, other details, such as
mode of production, history of the industry,
uses of the article, quality of the product from
different places, and statistics of production.
Then the countries of the world are taken
up in succession, the location and geographi-
cal character of each is stated, its general
commercial advantages and disadvantages are
pointed out, after which the important prod-
ucts of the several sections and towns of
the country are named, statistics being given
in numerous instances. About thirty maps
are interspersed through this part of the
volume, showing the products, density of
population, railways, etc., of different coun-
tries. An appendix of fifty pages gives
tables of statistics in regard to the imports
and exports of the chief countries of the
world, and related information. The volume
has a full index, which is far from a matter
of course in English treatises.

The Bermuda Islands. By Angelo Heilprin.
Philadelphia: The Author, Academy of
Natural Sciences. Pp. 231. Price, $3.50.

The material of this volume embraces
geological, zoological, and botanical observa-
tions, and includes a few glimpses from the
traveler's point of view. " My main object
in visiting the islands," says the author,
"was to satisfy my mind on certain points
connected with the structure and physi-
ognomy of coral reefs, to the study of which
the Bermudas offer special advantages. I
contemplated but little work in zoology, and
that which was accomplished may be con-
sidered supplemental to the plan of work
originally laid out." The first chapter, and
to some extent the second, consist of " gen-
eral impressions" of the islands and sur-
rounding waters, and the inhabitants of both.
The view herein given is less roseate but
probably nearer correct than the descriptions
of writers more dominated by poetic enthu-
siasm than by scientific accuracy. Prof.
Heilprin next sketches the physical history
and geology of the Bermuda Islands, and
then takes up the coral-reef problem. He
discusses the chief contributions that have
been made to our knowledge of coral reefs,
his own convictions being in favor of Dar-

278

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

win's

subsidence theory. The following
chapters deal with the zoology of the islands,
consisting mainly of descriptions of the
species collected. Prof. Heilprin states that
" the Bernmdian fauna is essentially a wind-
drift and current-drift fauna, whose elements
have been received in principal part from
the United States and the West Indies,"
while certain mollusca and Crustacea are of
a distinctively Pacific type. An appendix,
consisting of notes on the recent literature
of coral reefs, is added. The volume is
illustrated with seventeen full-page photo-
engravings and lithographic plates.

Lectures on Russian Literature. By Ivan
Panin. New York and London : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 220. Price, $1.50.

The curious confession made in this vol-
ume that there is no originality in Russian
literature, but that it acts as " a sieve for
Western thought," or as "a wall against
Asiatic barbarism," would seem to condemn
it to the obscurity from which it has so late-
ly emerged. The author believes, however,
that the three virtues — intensity, moderation,
and sincerity — which pre-eminently distin-
guish Russian poets and novelists, will not
only rescue them from oblivion, but oblige
Western writers finally to seek in them mod-
els of expression. He finds four phases of
evolution in literature: First, the youthful
period of joyous song ; second, rebellion and
lament ; third, aggression and warfare ;
fourth, belief and inspiration. These are
exemplified in Russia by Pushkin, the bard ;
Gogol, the protester ; Turgenef, the warrior ;
and Tolstoi, the preacher. The Lectures are
entertaining, and give the reader an insight
into four typical Russian authors.

Lessons in the Structure, Life, and Growth
of Plants. By Alphonso Wood. Re-
vised and edited by Oliver R. Willis.
New York : A. S. Barnes & Co. Pp. 220.
Price, $1.

This text-book was written more than
twenty years ago, and is now recast and re-
vised to adapt it to new means and methods
of study, and to the advanced state of the
science. In its new form it is offered as a
suitable introduction and companion to any
of the manuals of the flora of North America.
Part I is devoted to structural, Part II to
physiological, and Part III to systematic

botany, but it is not prescribed that the
subjects shall be taken up in this order.
The volume is clearly printed and copiously
illustrated, and is provided with a combined
index and glossary.

A paper of nearly three hundred quarto
pages on The Geographical Distribution of
Fossil Plants has been prepared by Lester F.
Ward, to form a part of the report of the
United States Geological Survey for 1886-'8Y.
It is a continuation of the Sketch of Paleo-
botany which appeared in the Fifth Annual
Report, and will be followed by a paper on
Problems of Paleobotany, in which the au-
thor will discuss many subjects in this field
that he has not yet treated. The present
paper takes the form of a narrative of the
publication of discoveries of plant fossils.
The division of the earth first taken up is
Europe, and here the great number of small
beds that have been discovered and of mono-
graphs that have been written about them
precludes much more than a mention of each
one. The flora of the arctic regions has
been so magnificently treated by Prof. Os-
wald Heer that Mr. Ward has deemed it su-
perfluous to pick up what little collateral
matter has been brought out by other au-
thors. Nearly the same statement applies
to India, on account of Feistmantel's labors ;
and to Canada, where Dawson has done thor-
ough work. But, in treating the United
States, Mr. Ward has felt in duty bound to
make the geographical review as complete
as the data in his possession would permit.
Here more analysis of the separate finds is
made than in the case of the European
countries. This section is accompanied by
a map of the United States, on which the
chief localities in which fossil plants of va-
rious geological ages have been found are
indicated by different colored circles. Nu-
merous foot-notes on every page give exact
bibliographical information concerning the
works referred to in the text. The paper
has a full index.

The second number of the Bulletin from
the Laboratories of Natural History of the
State University of Iowa contains papers on
the Anatomy of the Gorgonidae, by C. C.
Nutting — well illustrated ; and on the Na-
tive Fishes of Iowa, by Seth E. Meek.

The Report of the Council of the Cana-

LITERARY NOTICES,

279

dian Institute depicts a year of progress dur-
ing 1888-89, and, according to the testi-
mony of competent witnesses, shows that a
wonderful amount of work was accomplished
in proportion to the small sum of money
which the society was able to command.
Twenty-four ordinary meetings and thirty-
six meetings of sections were held, at which
seventy papers in all were read. The archaeo-
logical report, by Mr. David Boyle, gives no-
tices of several features of research and of
the examination of a number of sites, and is
accompanied by a paper on French relics
from village sites of the Hurons, by Mr.
A. F. Hunter, and a Bibliography of the Art
and Archaeology of the Dominion of Canada
and Newfoundland, by Mr. A. F. Chamberlan.

The work of the Geological and Nat-
ural History Survey of Minnesota in 1888
was prosecuted by two parties, one of which,
under Mr. Uly S. Grant, was occupied dur-
ing a part of the season in making collec-
tions of rock samples in certain typical crys-
talline formations in typical localities, and
afterward in the iron-ore beds ; and the
other, under Mr. Horace V. Winchell, spent
the whole season on the iron-ore beds. The
work added materially to the exact knowl-
edge of the geology of the northeastern part
of the State, and particularly to that of the
nature and relations of the iron-ores. A
general presentation of this knowledge, in a
somewhat systematic manner, has been at-
tempted in the report. The superintendent
of the survey, Prof. N. H. Winchell, is about
to enter on the preparation of a final report
covering the northern part of the State.

Observations on Sexual Selection in Spi-
ders of the Family Altidm is a paper pub-
lished in the " Occasional " Volume of the
Natural History Society of Wisconsin, by
George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham. The
investigation which it records is directed to
the origin — in spiders — of color, and its re-
lation to sexuality, concerning which two
general theories are offered by Mr. Wallace :
first, that natural selection modifies color in
the female for purposes of protection ; and,
second, that color may be produced or in-
tensified when there is a surplus of vital
energy, as in male animals generally, and
sometimes in the females, and more espe-
cially at the breeding season. Unusual fa-
cilities are offered for testing these theories

by the Araneides on account of the great
numbers of their species and the wide dif-
ferences between the several groups in hab-
its • and in amount of ornamentation. The
study of several genera shows that, in the
sedentary groups of spiders, while many of
the species are plainly colored, there are
nearly as many that present the most beau-
tiful tints ; and some of the wandering and
very active groups are, for the most part,
clothed in somber hues. Again, no relation
is shown between the color development of
the females and their nesting habits. The
former observation is contradictory to the
supposition of a causal relation between vi-
tal activity and color development ; the latter
to that of the need of a protective coloring,
while nesting, by the female. A further ex-
planation of the sexual coloring is then
sought, with the conclusion that some groups
of spiders have reached a condition of close
harmony with their environment ; this har-
mony being brought about through the same
modifications of color, form, and habit as
are seen among insects, to the attainment
of the common ends of capture of prey and
protection from enemies.

In Remarks upon Extinct Mammals of the
United States, Dr. R. W. Shufeldt publishes
studies illustrated, of Tinoceros ingens ; The
Ancestry of the Horse ; Ancient Whales and
Coryphodons ; Half- Apes and Lemurs ; the
Saber-Toothed Tigers, and Hairy Mammoths
and Sea-Cows.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Allen, Harrison, M. D. A Clinical Study of the
Skull. Washington : Smithsonian Institution. Pp.
77.

Almulac & Co., New York. The Rational Pro-
duction and Treatment of Milk. Pp. 20.

American Naturalist, Philadelphia. Criticisms
of United. States Geological Survey, Paleontological
Department. Pp. 36.

Ashmead, William H. New Ichneumonidae in
United States National Museum. Washington: Gov-
ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 64.

Blackman. Frank W. Spanish Colonization in the
Southwest. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University.
Pp. 79. 50 cents.

Bloxam, Charles Loudon. Chemistry, Inorganic
and Organic, with Experiments. Philadelphia : P.
Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 799.

Bodine, J. M., M. D., University of Louisville
Medical Department. The Four Commencements.
Pp. 19.

Central Park Menagerie, New York. Report for
1889. Pp. 42.

Chamherlin, T. C, Madison, Wis. The Coming
of Age of State Universities. Pp. 12.

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.
Bulletin No. 102. Fungicides. By Roland Thaxter.
Pp. 7.— Annual Report for 1889. Pp. 280.

280

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Crooker, J. EL, Madison, Wis. The Public
School and the Catholics. Pp. 16.

Cox. Charles F. Protoplasm and the Cell Doc-
trine. Now York Microscopical Society. Pp. 24.

Daniels. William W., St. Louis, Mo. Daniels's
Short Haul. Pp. 82. 25 cents.

Davis, Eben II. The Fourth Reading Book.

Philadelphia : J. B. Lippinoott Company. Pp. 448.

:it>.

•les, Robert G., M. D. Evolution of Medical

oe. Boston : James H. West. Pp. 16. 10

c<.nt>.

Elmer, Dr. G. H. Theodor; J. T. Cunningham,
translator. Organic Evolution as a Kesult of the
Inheritance of Acquired Characters. London and
New York : Macmfllan & Co. Pp. 4-35. $3.25.

Ferre, Barr, New York. Primitive Architect-
ure. Pp. 20.

Fitch, J. G. American Training Schools and
Colleges. London and New York : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 133. 60 cents.

Foster, William E. References to the Constitu-
tion of the United States. New York : Society for
Political Education. Pp. 50. 25 cents.

Gilbert, G. K. History of the Niagara Eiver.
Albany : James B. Lvon. Pp. 24. — The Strength
of the Earth's Crust. Pp.5.

Gould, George M., M. D. A New Medical Dic-
tionary. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co.
Pp. 579. $3.25.

Hale. Horatio. The Oregon Trade Language, or
'•Chinook Jargon." Loudon: Whittaker & Co.
Pp.63.

Harland, Marion, Editor. The Home-Maker.
Monthly. Yol. IV, No. 1. New York : Home-
Maker Company. Pp. 88. 20 cents ; $2 a year.

Iowa Academy of Sciences. Proceedings for
1887, 1888, 1889. E. E. Call, Secretary, Des
Moines. Pp. 101.

Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames.
Bulletin No. S, with Annual Report. Pp. 48.

Irelan, William, Jr. Ninth Annual Report of
the State Mineralogist of California. Pp. 352.

Jordan. David Starr. Report on Fishes in Vir-
ginia. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Indiana,
Washington : Government Printing-Office. Pp. 173.

Jordan. David Starr, and Evermann, B. W.
Yellow-finned Trout of Twin Lakes, Colorado.
Pp.2.

Kimbnll, Arthur L. Physical Properties of
Gases. Boston and Ne-^ York : Houghton, Mif-
flin & Co. Pp.233. $1.25.

Kunz, George F. Gems and Precious Stones of
America. Illustrated. New York : Scientific Pub-
lishing Company. Pp. 836. $10.

Lee, Arthur Bolles. The Microtomist's Vade
Mecum. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son, & Co.
Pp. 413.

Lewis. T. H.. St Paul. Minn. Mounds of the
Mississippi Basin. Pp. 6.— Sculptured Rock at
Trempealeau, Wis. Pp. 3, with Plate.

Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. Sec-
ond Annual Report, 1889. Annapolis. Pp. 163.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.
Annual Catalogue, 18S9-1S90. Pp. 207.

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station,
Amherst. Seventh Annual Report. Pp. 333.

Mearns, Edgar A., United States Army. New
Mammals of Arizona. Pp. 32.— Rirdsof Fort Kla-
math, Oregon. Pp. 12.— Avifauna of Portions of
Arizona. Pp. 12.— A Rare Squirrel, new in Arizona.
Pp. It'.— Birds of the Hudson Highlands. Addendum
to List. P. 1.— Reviews of Dr. Mearns's Collections
by N. L. Britton and H. H. Rusby. Pp. 20

Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.
Vegetables. By L. R. Taft. Pp. 43.- Insecticides.
By A. J. Cooke. Pp. 13.

Minnesota, Public Health in. March, 1890.
Pp 8.

Montgomery, D. H. Heroic Ballads. Boston :
Ginn & Co. Pp. 319. 50 cents.

Mooney, James, Washington. Cherokee Theory
and Practice of Medicine. Pp. 60.— Cherokee Bail
Play. Pp. 28, with Plate.

Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station. Bul-
letin No. 13. The Sugar-Beet. By H. H. Nichol-
son and Rachel Lloyd. Pp. 81, with Map.

Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Colum-
bus. Bulletins on Potatoes and Commercial Ferti-
lizers. Pp. 15 and 73.

Pennsylvania, University of. The Study of
Politics and Business. Pp. 11.

Poteat, W. L., Wake Forest College, N. C. A
Tube-Building Spider. Pp. 17.

Sheldon, Eufus. The Evolution of Law. Bos-
ton : J. H. West. Pp. 20. 10 cents.

Smith, John B. Noctuidse of Temperate North
America. Washington: Government Printing-Of-
fice. Pp. 42.

Sterrett. J. MacBride, D D. Studies in Hegel's
Philosophy of Religion. New York : D. Appleton
&Co. Pp. 34S. $2.

Swedenborg, Emanuel. The Divine Love and
Wisdom. New York : American Swedenborg
Printing and Publishing Society. Pp. 375.

Taylor. John A. The Evolution of the State.
Boston : James H. West. Pp. 20. 10 ceuts.

Townsend. Smith, M. D. Report of the Health
Officer of the District of Columbia. Washington:
Government Printing-Office. Pp. 190, with Charts.

Truth -Seeker Company, New York. Free-
Thought. Pp. 82. 25 cents.

Virginia. University of. Publications of the Lean-
der McCormick Observatory. Vol. L, Part 1. Dou-
ble Stars, 1885-1836. Pp. 52.

Van Scheffen, J. V. Ekkehard : A Tale of the
Tenth Century. New York : W. S. Gottsberger &
Co. 2 vols. Pp. 305 and 333.

Ward, R. Halsted. Plant Organization. Pp. 31,
with Blanks. S5 cents.

Washburn College Laboratory of Natural His-
tory, Bulletin. Pp. 12.

Whiting, Harold. Experiments in Physical
Measurement. Cambridge, Mass. : John Wilson &
Son. Pp. 278.

Wiley, John, & Sons. Scientific and Industrial
Catalogues 7 and 8. Mathematics, Astronomy, etc.
Pp. 60. — Assaying, Metallurgy, etc. Pp. 65.

Willard, Francis E. Glimpses of Fifty Years.
Chicago : H. J. Smith & Co. Pp. 700.

Wolff, Alfred R., C. E., New York. The Ven-
tilation of Buildings. Pp. 32. 25 cents.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

EYOlution of the Fish-Hook. — "The

Evolution of the Fishing-Hook" has been
made the subject of a study by Mr. Edward
Lovett, who discerns the first implement of
the kind in the flint " gorges," and some of
the flints, which are called " knives," of the
paleolithic "finds." They were fastened,
perhaps, to a line of twisted vegetable fiber,
or to a thong of one of the whip-like marine
algae, by being suspended around the middle.
When baited, the " hook " would stand up
and down. Swallowed by the fish and jerked
up, it would be brought at right angles to
the line and stand across the throat of the

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

281

fish, so as to bring it along. Another form
was a bow, sharpened at both ends and tied
around the middle ; or a disk of haliotis-
shell, which is still used, in connection with
a hook, as a trolling bait for jack or pike.
Some very early hooks appear to have been
provided with some kind of a barb. Of the
bone hooks of the Eskimos, one is mentioned
that was carved to resemble a fish ; another
had an iron nail for a point ; and another
example had the shaft of bone, the point of
iron, and a polished stone sinker, showing a
combination of the Stone, Bone, and Iron
ages in one specimen. The Fijians use a
barbless hook of mother-of-pearl for trail-
ing over the stern of a canoe, the glitter of
which attracts the fish. Some hooks from
the Ellis Islands are made of the iron wire
in which European packing-cases are bound,
which is bent into a curve, the end sharp-
ened to a point, and turned inward and
downward, and is lashed in such a way that
the strain on the hook has a tendency to
keep the curve in proper adjustment. One
hook is made of a forked limb. In Europe,
not many hooks are found anterior to the
Iron age. Among the bronze hooks from
the lake-dwellings of Switzerland is one very
closely resembling the hooks of our own time.
An extraordinary specimen is formed of the
upper mandible of an eagle, notched down
to the base. Hooks in the British Islands
have undergone but little change, except in
finish and quality, since the dawn of the
Iron period. Looking upon the subject as a
whole, we find a gradual development from
the rudest form of stone, through shell,
wood, bone, copper, and iron, down to the
beautifully tempered fine steel salmon-hook
of the present day ; and we also have exam-
ples in which these stages of progression
overlap one another, as shown by hooks of
compound manufacture, like those of shell
and bone, wood and bone, bone and iron,
and even stone, bone, and iron together.

Cloud-bursts. — Many recent disastrous
floods have owed their severity to a sudden
down-pour of water occurring when the
streams of the surrounding country were
already filled by rain which had fallen pre-
viously. Such a down-pour is called a cloud-
burst. As explained by Prof. Ferrel, in his
book on The Winds, great quantities of rain

and hail sometimes collect at a considerable
height in the vortex of a tornado, being
held up by the strong upward current of
air.* When the weight of the accumulated
mass has become great enough to over-
come the force of the ascending current, the
rain or hail pours down at one or more
points. The whole system may also be-
come weak and break up from some other
cause, when the same result follows. Thus,
if a tornado heavily charged with rain, in
moving over the country, strikes a mountain-
side, its whirling motion is checked and the
upward current weakened, when a cloud-
burst results. This is why cloud-bursts oc-
cur oftenest on mountain-sides. It is not to
be supposed that the accumulation of water
would be evenly distributed over all parts of
the ascending current, but it would collect
at several points ; hence, when it becomes
able to force its way down, it descends not
in drops, but in streams which often make
great holes in the ground. On a steep
mountain-side, if the stream continues for a
short time only, it may give rise to a land-
slide, or may wash out a great ravine, through
which the water rushes down to the valley
below, carrying rocks and trees along with it.

Treatment of Lightning-Shock. — A re-
port of a curious case of lightning-shock,
with recovery, has been published by Dr. J.
B. Paige, of Montreal, with remarks by Drs.
Frank Buller and T. Wesley Mills. The sub-
ject, a young married woman, was struck by
a flash, the intensity of which was shown by
its effects on metallic objects to be very
great. It passed from a bird-cage, hanging
near her, to her head above the left eye,
thence along the ear to the central line of
the thorax, along the stocking suspender to
the top of the stocking, leaving marks on
both legs. Thence no trace of the current
was detected till the foot was reached, whence
it passed, leaving large rents in the stocking
and slipper, but no marks on the skin. The
force of the shock was enough to throw the
woman from the chair on which she was sit-
ting, upon and across another some two or
three feet distant. She was found complete-
ly unconscious, motionless, with muscles re-
laxed, left eye closed, right one open, face
purple, pulse imperceptible, and neither
heart-sounds nor respiratory murmur audi-

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ble. Her clothes were loosened and artificial
respiration was begun, and the first sign of
life appeared about three minutes afterward.
Breathing was greatly impeded, when respira-
tion was first resumed, by accumulations of
saliva, whieh were removed. Consciousness
began to return and the muscles of the arm
to regain strength in between half and three
quarters of an hour. Sight was restored to
the right eye, but it could not be moved.
Though the subject could not speak, the pa-
ralysis passed away slowly, so that in about
two weeks solid food could be swallowed.
Twelve or fourteen hours after the accident,
intense pain set in about the head, neck,
arms, and chest, which did not pass away
from the head for seven days, and occurred
occasionally after that. At the end of four
weeks the patient was able to return to her
home. In six months complete recovery had
taken place, except in the left eye. To the
question whether the patient could have re-
covered without the assistance rendered just
after the accident, Prof. Mills replies that
" considering that respiration was suspended,
that the circulation, even with artificial res-
piration, was so feeble that the temperature
fell, that consciousness did not return for so
long, it does not seem reasonable to believe
in the possibility of spontaneous recovery.
But the case does seem to teach, in the
clearest way, the importance of using such
means as those employed in this instance
promptly and perseveringly."

Natural Guides to Land Values.— The

chief of the Agricultural College at Down-
ton, England, has given in a recently pub-
lished article some of the indications by
which the fertility of soils may be judged.
The following colors indicate barrenness in
soils: 1. Black, as being in most cases
caused by an excess of vegetable matter or
peat. 2. White, as indicating a thin, chalky
soil, or the presence of white sand close to
the surface. 3. Yellow, whether dark or
light. 4. Light gray. 5. Blue. 6. A pie-
bald or variegated color. A good soil
ought to be from twelve to eighteen inches
deep. Alluvial soils owe their fertility in a
great measure to their depth. Tenacity
docs much to determine the productive
power of soil. Tenacity is seen in the
clearly cut furrow, and the impression left

by the foot when the soil is moist. In
tenacious soil the footprint is clear and
sharp at the edges, and every nail-mark
shows ; whereas, in loamy soil the tread is
indistinct and the edges of the footprint
crumble away. In dry weather, a cracked
surface and hard yellow clods are the marks
of a stiff soil. The skillful judge of land will
not rely too much upon the physical charac-
ter of the soil alone. Land always covers
itself with herbage of some sort, from the
quality and quantity of which the best pos-
sible indication of the soil's yielding power
may be obtained. Plenty of timber is a
favorable augury. "Who can not recall some
beautiful valley where the well-grown trees
seem almost to meet their branches over
green meadows and patches of grain and
other crops ? On the other hand, inclement
and thin soils carry a stunted and forlorn
timbering. Turning to the sort of tree, we
may mention large, spreading oaks as signs
of good land. The elm is found to perfec-
tion on village greens and near to home-
steads where the ground has become, or
always was, rich, and in other favored situ-
ations. The mulberry and the walnut, the
apple and the quince, are never found vig-
orous on other than good land ; and the ash,
the sycamore, and the chestnut are also in-
dications of fertility. Certain other trees
indicate the reverse. We see plantations of
larch on barren uplands and soils difficult to
put to other uses. Scotch fir, spruce, yew,
and other cone-bearing trees are often found
on poor land. Beeches thrive on the thin-
nest of limestone, and the birch will grow
in the most unpromising places. Coming
down to the plants, none is a more unfailing
guide to fertility than chick weed. Nettles
never grow on bad land, and dandelions and
buttercups are not seen on poor pastures.
Thistles also show a good soil. The state
of growing crops and the appearance of
stubbles should also be noted, although such
indications may show rather the character of
the farming. Certain wild grasses show
barrenness, while grass-land which seems
covered with dead, unkempt stuff, like badly
made hay, is always barren.

Gardening Classes of the Missouri Bo-
tanical Garden.— The Trustees of the Mis-
souri Botanical Garden, carrying on the in-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

283

tentions of Mr. Shaw, its founder, have
prepared a plan of garden scholarships,
providing for the instruction of a limited
number of pupils in practical horticulture.
The classes are intended to consist of six
pupils, who will be taught for not more
than six years each. They will be regarded
as apprentices in the Botanical Garden, and
required to work in it under the direction
of the head gardener, performing the duties
of garden hands, and being advanced gradu-
ally from simpler to more responsible tasks.
After the first year their working hours will
be reduced to five a day, that they may de-
vote the rest of the time to study, in which
they will enjoy free the privileges of the
tuition of the School of Botany at Washing-
ton University. For their services in the
garden they will be paid from two hundred
to three hundred dollars a year, with con-
veniently situated lodgings. Applicants for
scholarships will be examined in the upper
grammar-school branches ; and, in case of
an excess of them, will be subjected to com-
petitive examination, in which other branches
will be brought in. The studies will be, for the
first year, in practical duties ; for the second
year, vegetable and flower gardening, small-
fruit culture, and orchard culture; for the
third year, readings in forestry, elementary
botany, landscape gardening, and the rudi-
ments of surveying and draining; for the
fourth year, botany of weeds, garden vege-
tables, and fruits ; for the fifth year, vege-
table physiology, economic entomology, and
fungi ; for the sixth year, botany of garden
and greenhouse plants, ferns, and trees in
their winter condition, with the theoretical
part of some branch of special gardening.
Pupils will also be trained in legal forms
and in keeping accounts. Two of the six
scholarships are at the disposal of local hor-
ticultural societies, provided their candidates
pass the examinations.

Museum of the University of Pennsyl-
vania. — The Archaeological Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, begun in Decem-
ber, 1889, by the purchase of a small collec-
tion of stone implements, has grown in the
few months since, till it includes ten thousand
objects from all the United States, Mexico,
Central America, and parts of South America.
It is intended to make it representative of

the early civilization of the Americas, and
to exhibit as far as possible the implements
used by the Indians, in their warfare, agri-
culture, and domestic life, before the advent
of Columbus. It is intended hereafter to
build up the collection mainly by explora-
tions, and to this end all parts of the coun-
try will be thoroughly searched. In addi-
tion to the American specimens, the museum
contains a fine collection of flints, bronze
implements, and pottery from Europe, and
objects from Asia, Africa, and the South
Sea islands. Preparations are making by
Prof. Rothrock for the establishment in the
university of a Museum of Economic Bot-
any, to consist of all kinds of woods, vege-
table fibers, grains, and drugs, arranged so
as to illustrate the processes of manufacture
from the raw product, and the various uses
to which each material may be put. It is
expected to make this department of practi-
cal use to manufacturers and wood-workers,
who may be guided by its aid to the selec-
tion of suitable material, and learn where it
can be got.

Coffin-IVails. — Baring-Gould has contrib-
uted to The Gentleman's Magazine an arti-
cle full of curious lore on this sepulchral
subject. He says that the studding of a cof-
fin with nails — which has evidently not ceased
to be common in England — is a curious sur-
vival. The nails are no longer of any use,
for the lid is fastened down with screws, but
even when stone coffins were used — sar-
cophagi — the nails were not omitted. Iron
was from the first regarded with supersti-
tious reverence. In Egypt iron was the
symbol of victory over death — of the power
of resurrection given to man. The Romans
also had a reverence for iron, and attributed
to it mysterious powers. By drawing a cir-
cle on the ground or in the air, with an iron
point, thrice round a person, they believed
all noxious influences were banished. An iron
spike applied lightly to a wounded part would
relieve its pain. Rust for curative and pro-
tective purposes might be had from old
nails, from which it must be removed with
moistened iron. The nail was specially used
because it was a symbol of fate. On the
Ides of September every year the highest in
authority in Rome drove a nail into the wall
of the Temple of Jupiter. That day was the

284

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

beginning of the Roman year, and the driv-
ing of the nail was thought to bring with it
prosperity fur the new year. Livy tells us
i , it when the gods seemed hostile and un-
moved by the distresses of the nation, the dic-
tator broke the spell of evil by driving in a
nail. Once a nail driven in had banished a
plague ; then a nail had healed discord,
riiny says that, if a nail be driven into the
pillow on which a man suffering from epilep-
sy has laid his head, it will heal him. In all
these notices we see iron used as destroying
the power of evil, breaking the force of dis-
aster, banishing disease, expelling death.
Consequently, nails were put in urns or fu-
nereal cists to keep away from them every
evil power, demons, witches, and as a pledge
of final restoration. The iron horseshoe
nailed to a door owes its power to break the
force of witchcraft not only to its being a
symbol of Odin's horse, but also to the met-
al of which it is composed. Shears were fre-
quently buried with bodies down till late in
the middle aires. It is said that even within

O

the memory of man they have been buried
in coffins with corpses in Swabia. Some-
times as many as five were laid in the coffin
with one corpse. The idea was the same as
with nails — the metal was the important mat-
ter, rather than the form it took. The steel
or iron was a preservative to the corpse, a
protection and an assurance of resurrection.
For the same reason that nails and shears
were buried with the dead, swords were laid
with them, and not necessarily because they
would need them in the next world. Even
Charlemagne was buried with his sword. The
Icelandic sagas are full of stories of cairns
broken into by heroes to rob the dead of
their swords. Already in historic times the
significance of the sword buried with the
dead was lost ; and in the Saga of Olaf the
Saint a ghost actually invites a Norseman to
break into his tomb and relieve him of his
sword and other valuables.

Habits of the Manatee. — The London
Zoological Society has acquired a living spe-
cimen of the manatee, one of the only two
kinds of " herbivorous cetaceans " now ex-
isting. Concerning the habits of these ani-
mals, Miss Agnes Crane has written, from
observations of a pair several years ago in
the Brighton Aquarium, that lettuce and

endives, of which they could eat thirty
pounds a day, formed their favorite food.
The male would devour at a pinch leaves of
the cabbage, turnip, and carrot. Both rel-
ished those of the dandelion and sow-thistle.
Sometimes the animals would swim about
and pursue the leaves floating on the water ;
at other times the plants were seized in their
mouths, drawn down, and eaten under the
water, while the hand-like fore-fins were em-
ployed in separating the leaves. The food
was invariably swallowed below the surface.
They are not at all at ease when out of the
water, but seem oppressed by their bulk.
The male was observed to make a few at-
tempts at terrestrial progress by turning
himself round and moving a few inches when
the tank was empty. With jaws and tail-
fin pressed closely to the ground, the body
of the animal became arched, and was moved
by a violent lateral effort, aided and slightly
supported by the fore paddles, which were
stretched out in a line with the mouth.
But the effect of these very labored efforts
was not commensurate with their violence ;
and their relation to active locomotion might
be compared to the state of a man lying
prone, with fettered feet and elbows tied to
his side.

Odd Dishes of the Olden Time. — The

cook-books of a hundred or more years ago
afford reading well adapted to excite curi-
osity of appetite, if we may speak in that
way. Their lists of pickles and flavors em-
braced a great many articles that we do not
think now of using in that way. Jams
were made of vegetables ; parsnips, raspber-
ries, etc., were made into cakes ; and beets,
potatoes, and oranges into biscuits. For
making violet cakes the directions were to
" take the finest violets you can get, pick off
the leaves, beat the violets fine in a mortar
with the juice of a lemon, beat and sift
twice their weight of double-refined sugar,
put your sugar and violets into a silver
saucepan or tankard, set it over a slow fire,
keep stirring it gently until all your sugar is
dissolved ; if you let it boil it will discolor
your violets ; drop them in china plates ;
when you take them off put them in a box,
with paper between every layer." Wines
were made of every fruit ; of such flowers
and vegetables as cowslips and parsnips ;

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

285

from flowers and berries of elder ; from syc-
amore, walnut, blackberry, and balm. To
make shrub, to one gallon of milk flavored
with lemons and Seville oranges were added
two quarts of red wine, two gallons of rum,
and one gallon of brandy. The books give
directions how to spin gold and silver webs
for dessert, to spin birds' nests, to make a
Chinese temple or obelisk, a fish-pond with
silver and gold fishes, a hen's nest with
strips of lemon for straw, and eggs filled
with flummery, and a hen and chickens in
jelly. To make a "desert island," "take a
lump of paste and form it into a rock three
inches broad at the top, set in the middle of
a deep china dish, and set a cast figure on
it with a crown on its head and a knot of
sugar-candy at its feet, etc. ... If this dish
is for a wedding supper, put two figures in-
stead of one." There are also recipes for
a " rocky island," a " floating island," with
sheep and swans, " or you may put in snakes
or any wild animals of the same sort," " Sol-
omon's temple in flummery," " moonshine,"
and " moon and stars in jelly " — a half-moon
with seven stars shining out of flummery
colored with cochineal and chocolate to imi-
tate the color of the sky. Among solid
dishes the books tell how to make porcupine
of a breast of veal, to surprise a shoulder of
mutton or any other joint, to dress a joint to
look like a hen and chickens, to bombard
veal, to transmogrify pigeons, to Florent'ne
a hare, make a Solomon Gundy, make an
artificial turtle, and barbecue a pig.

Trees and Malaria. — According to Prof.
Corrado Tommassi Crudelli, some of the
prevalent notions respecting relations of for-
ests and malaria are mistaken ones. The
relations are not direct. Forests do not
contribute to the propagation of malaria un-
less they are growing upon a malarious soil ;
and they can not make a soil malarious
which would not be malarious without them.
But they favor the development of malaria,
when it is already there, by intercepting the
solar rays, and thus checking evaporation
and retaining moisture in summer. When
the obstacle to the direct action of the solar
rays is removed from infected land, the sum-
mer drying lessens the malarious generation,
and in some favorable circumstances may
even arrest it. The idea prevails in Rome

that forests act as a screen to prevent mala-
ria from crossing them by causing it to be
filtered out in their foliage, and the estab-
lishment of forests at certain places is ad-
vised for that purpose. But it has been
proved that the destruction of woods and
forests in such situations has not led to an
increase of malaria, but frequently to its
mitigation by promoting better drainage and
improved cultivation. The production of fe-
vers in the Agro Romano and in Rome is
the result of a complexity of meteorological
and physiological conditions. An abundant
development of malaria is verified only when
the malarious soil is damp and warm. The
malarious charge of the atmosphere may
vary greatly according to the different pro-
portion of the two indispensable factors of
malaria — heat and moisture. If both are at
their maximum, so is the malaria, especially
when the sky is clear. When the malarious
charge of the atmosphere has been great for
many days in succession, and the bodies of
the inhabitants have become more or less
impregnated with the malarious germs, a
fall of temperature may be very injurious,
by causing an arrest of the germs within
the organism and preventing their rapid
elimination by the secretions. Hence it is
that northern winds exercise an unfavorable
influence during the fever seasons.

Soda Salts in Arizona. — The deposits of
sulphate of soda of the valley of the Verde
River, Arizona, have long been known and
extensively quarried by the rancheros of the
region to obtain a substitute for salt for cat-
tle and horses. They have recently been
visited by William P. Blake, who found the
deposits of thenardite and allied minerals
associated with it to cover several acres in
extent, and reach a thickness of fifty or sixty
feet or more. They appear as a series of
rounded hills, with sides covered with a
snow-white efflorescence and a greenish-col-
ored and yellow clay at the bottom and top,
partially covering the saline beds. The bulk
of the deposits consists of thenardite, in a
coarsely crystalline mass, so compact and
firm that it has to be got out by drilling and
blasting. The white efflorescence on the
hills is composed of the hydrous sulphate of
soda {mirabilite), which occurs in close as-
sociation with the thenardite. Other asso-

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ciatdl minerals are rock-salt in beautifully
transparent masses, sparingly disseminated ;
the anhydrous sulphate of lime and soda
(glauh, rib | ; and " pseudomorphs," in which-
the glauberite having disappeared, its place
is supplied by amorphous carbonate of lime
exactly filling the matrices of its crystals.

Iloly Things and Toys from Torres
Strait. — Prof. A. C. Haddon has fitted up
in the British Museum a collection of objects
from Torres Strait, which illustrates the
customs and superstitions of the people of
that still savage quarter. Among the ob-
jects are some forty native skulls, some of
which had been strung in bunches as trophy
decorations of the hut of a warrior, while
others had been used for ceremonies and
divination. The great eccentric masks em-
ployed in semi-religious and secular dances
are represented by specimens which the col-
lector believes to be the last of their kind.
One of them, a crocodile mask, had such
striking powers that the native from whom
it was obtained refused to put it on for fear
that death would be the consequence, be-
cause it was not the season of the year when
it might be legitimately worn. Of the
charms, those in stone and wood shaped like
dugongs are very interesting. There are
charms to protect against poisoning, love-
charms, rain-making charms, charms to make
the tobacco-plant grow ; female figures, some
in coral to keep the fire in when the house-
wife is absent ; and taboo figures and signs
of various kinds. The musical instruments
include some ingenious drums, "bull-roar-
ers," and a new kind of simple construction.
Of toys there are tops of considerable weight,
of which the Papuan spins several on his
toes at the same time, and arrangements of
string used as a sort of cat's cradle. The
implements and articles of clothing and those
for personal adornment are varied. An or-
nament worn by a betrothed girl appears
to be derived from two fish-hooks placed
back to back. Several specimens grimly
illustrate the old savage customs. A hard-
wood weapon is marked with eleven notches,
to indicate as many heads which the owner
has cut off. A double cassowary head-dress
that belonged to a late king of the island
Tud was handed over by his son to Prof.
Haddon, together with the boar-tusks which

he wore in his mouth on war expeditions, on
the understanding that they were to go to
the British Museum, where "plenty men"
wanted to see them. When drawings or
photographs of some of the natives were be-
ing taken they would ask, " Queen Victoria,
he see picture along we fellow ? " — that is,
Will Queen Victoria see our picture ? — to
which the professor replied in the same
strain, " S'pose he want> he see ; I no savee.
Plenty men along England want to savee
about you fellow." Some of these photo-
graphs may now be seen in this collection,
recording features and decorations which,
in a few years, will have died out.

NOTES.

Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia,
recently received from a woman-patient the
singular present of a cord of white-oak wood,
chopped down and sawed up by her own
hands. He had recommended to her an act-
ive, outdoor life in the woods for nervous
invalidism. She had followed his directions,
with results of which the cord of sawed
wood was one of the evidences.

Dr. E. N. Sneath, lecturer on the His-
tory of Philosophy at Yale, has been inspir-
ing the preparation of a series of small vol-
umes of selections from the leading philoso-
phers from Descartes down, so arranged as
to present an outline of their systems. Each
volume will contain a biographical sketch of
the author, a statement of the historical po-
sition of the system, and a bibliography.
Those so far arranged for are Descartes, by
Prof. Ladd, of Yale ; Spinoza, by Prof. Fuller-
ton, of the University of Pennsylvania ;
Locke, by Prof. Russell, of Williams ; Berke-
ley, by ex-President Porter, of Yale ; Hume,
by Dr. Sneath, of Yale ; and Hegel, by Prof.
Royce, of Harvard. Kant, Comte, and Spen-
cer will certainly be added to the series, and
others if encouragement is received. The
publishers will be Henry Holt & Co.

The American Academy of Political and
Social Science, of which Prof. Edmund J.
James is president, was founded in December,
1 889, for promoting the study of the polit-
ical and social sciences, particularly of those
which are omitted from the programmes
of other societies, or which do not at present
receive the attention they deserve. Among
them are sociology, comparative constitu-
tional and administrative law, philosophy of
the state, and portions of the field of politics.
It will attend to the publication of material
that will be of use to students which does
not now reach the public in any systematic
way. The plan of the academy includes
meetings for the presentation of papers and

NOTES.

287

communications, the establishment of a li-
brary, and the dissemination of knowledge
through publications and by other means.

The Messrs. Merriam, publishers of Web-
ster's Dictionary, issue a circular calling at-
tention to the misleading way in which a
cheap reprint of an old edition of Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary is being advertised.
It is the edition of 1847, the copyright of
which has expired by the lapse of forty-two
Tears. It lacks all the words that have been
added to the language since 184*7, and these,
especially in the department of science, have
been many ; it contains numerous etymolo-
gies that have been proved erroneous by the
results of later research ; it lacks the tables
of biographical, geographical, and other in-
formation, which are appended to recent edi-
tions of Webster, and it has no illustrations
in the body of the volume. The reprint is
produced by some method of photogravure,
giving blurred letters, very trying to the eyes,
and the paper and binding are so flimsy that
the book must fall to pieces with very little
use. It is not the current edition of Web-
ster's Unabridged Dictionary, as its publish-
ers wish the public to believe — it is not even
the "original" edition, as it explicitly claims
to be, for that was published in 1828.

The most interesting feature of Dr. R-
W. Shufeldt's report to the American Or-
nithologists' Union on Progress in Avian
Anatomy for the Years 1888-1889, is the
announcement that a Handbook to the
Muscles of Birds has been prepared by the
author, and is in the press of Macmillan & Co.
It is based on studies of the raven. Several
monographs, mostly technical, by Dr. Shu-
feldt and other authors, American and for-
eign, are mentioned in the report. Among
them is one by Mr. F. A. Lucas, on the Skele-
ton of the Extinct Great Auk.

A clear and forcible article on The Sup-
pression of Consumption, by G. W. Hamble-
ton, is published in Science for April 25th.
Dr. Hambleton deems the most important
step in suppressing this disease to be to re-
duce its production. The means which he
recommends for this end are almost entirely
hygienic, and are based on the theory that
consumption is produced by conditions that
impede the respiratory functions. The chief
of these are compression of the chest, and
the presence of dust in the air inhaled. His
statements are well fortified by cases which
he has treated successfully, including his
own.

The first fossil found in the " Cheyenne
sandstone " of Kansas — which is considered
referable to the Trinity division of Arkansas
and Texas — is described by Mr. F. W. Cragin
as a part of a cycad, similar to those from
the Purbeck Dirt-beds of England, but dif-
fering from them in form and in the size of
the petioles. A leaf of Platanus, found in a

stratum of very fine, soft chalk of supposed
Niobrara Cretaceous age, is described by the
same author as of interest, both on account
of its preservation in a kind of rock in which
land vegetation is rare, and because it con-
tributes evidence that chalk is sometimes
formed very near land, and if so, then pre-
sumably in water of but moderate depth.

The increase of leprosy in British Guiana
is attracting attention. It was introduced
by negroes from Africa, and added to by
immigrants from India in 1842 and 1858,
and from China in 1861 and 1862. One
Indian tribe was infected with it fifty years
ago from the negro colony, but no other
tribe has had it. Mr. J. D. Hilles, of Deme-
rara, who has investigated the subject, is
convinced that the disease is communicable
by marriage or cohabitation, and by inocula-
tion or contact. He has seen cases that un-
doubtedly arose by contagion.

The investigations of Dr. Th. Kocher, of
Berne, on goitre, while they do not clear up
the question of the origin of the disease,
cast a dim light upon it. Comparing the
water of the parts of his canton in which
goitre is common with those parts that are free
from it, the author found considerable quan-
tities of organic or organized material in it.
In certain goitrous parts, particular families
having access to special water-supplies free,
or relatively so, from this organic material
are free from goitre, although breathing the
same air, living on the same soil, engaging
in the same occupations, and eating the same
food with their goitrous neighbors. Hence,
he concludes, the organic factor is the one
that determines the prevalence of goitre.

Mr. Joseph Thomson commends the semi-
civilized region forming the central area of
the Niger basin as one of the most promis-
ing fields for commerce in all tropical Africa.
It is densely populated, and is divided into
powerful and, for Africa, well-governed em-
pires, in which life and property are fairly
secure. The people have made some ad-
vance in civilization, and are famed for the
excellence of their manufactures. Inland
trade is organized, an efficient transport
service exists, labor is abundant, the Niger
presents an uninterrupted water-way to the
very heart of the region, and the country is
healthy, for Africa.

A large stump of Syringodendron alter-
nans, discovered some time ago standing in
the coal mines of St. Etienne, France, is
about ten feet high, three feet in diameter
at the starting-point of the roots, and twenty
inches in diameter at the top. The roots re-
semble the fossil Siigmaria. The trunk has
the cicatrices and flutings of the Sigillaria,
and the leaves seem to have been linear. In
a prostrate tree (upper part) of the same
species a few feet from this one, the leaf-
scars were more clearly marked, but smaller.

288

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Dr. E. Pagf.t Thurston believes that
while it is theoretically right to omit farina-
ceous food in feeding infants that have to be
brought up by hand, a little is needed when
cow's milk is used, to retard curdling. These'
solids, as well as the preparations of barley,
Isinglass, and linseed, act mechanically by
adding something to thicken the milk, and
entangle the curds as they are formed. In
the shape of bread-crust, Brighton biscuit, or
other " infant's foods," they may be added in
very small quantities, so that the milk can
still be sucked through the tube of a feed-
ing-bottle.

Cases of lead-poisoning among the Jac-
quard weavers in a Swiss factory were traced
by F. Schiiler to the dust from leaden weights
which are used by the weavers to carry the
thread of their warp. After the varnish has
been rubbed off from the weights, the lead
begins to wear away, and falls in fine parti-
cles among the dust on the floor. In some,
cases this dust is as much as 56*86 per cent
lead, and even when the utmost care was
taken, nine or ten per cent of lead was
found in it.

According to Mr. Ilansen-Blansted, the
beech is overcoming all other trees in the
struggle for existence in the Danish forests.
It is driving out the birch, except in marshy
places ; it is taking the place of the firs ; and
there are signs that it is gradually gaining
the advantage over the oaks.

OBITUARY NOTES.

Sir Robert Kane, a distinguished Irish
chemist and author, died in Dublin, Febru-
ary 16th. He was born in Dublin in Sep-
tember, 1810. His father was the proprietor
of sulphuric-acid and alkali works near the
city, and he developed a taste for chemical
knowledge very early in life, publishing his
first paper— On the' Existence of Chlorine
in the Native Peroxide of Manganese— in
1828. This was followed by other contribu-
tions. He was appointed Professor of Nat-
ural Philosophy to the Dublin Society in
1834, and devoted himself to original re-
search in chemistry. He was afterward
head of the Museum of Irish Industry, and
first President of Queen's College, Cork. He
was author of a large and important work
on the Industrial Resources of Ireland. He
received many honors, in reco£mition of his
scientific labors, from the Government and
from learned societies.

M. Edmond Hebert, an eminent French
geologist, died April 4th, in the seventy-
eighth year of his age. He was made Pro-
fessor of Geology at the Sorbonne in 1857,
and in the same year was chosen to succeed
Charles Sainte-Claire Deville in the Section
of Mineralogy in the Academy of Sciences.
He was author of many important geological

memoirs. His principal works were on the
Oscillations of the Crust of the Earth, and
the Ancient Seas and their Shores in the
Paris Basin. He was an exponent of the
doctrine of the adequacy of existing causes
to explain geological phenomena.

Prof, von Quenstedt, of Tubingen, one
of the most famous of German paleontolo-
gists, and a mineralogist, too, died December
21st. He was author of works on the Jura,
and one on petrifactions or fossils. He
was distinguished for his profound knowl-
edge of the Lias of Wiirtemberg and its
fossils.

Dr. Paul Niemeyer, Sanitarv Counselor,
and author of works relating to hygiene,
died in Berlin, on the 25th of February, in
the fifty-sixth year of his age. Several of
his books, including his Doctrine of Health,
Advice to Mothers, and Sunday Rest, had
wide circulation, and were translated into
other languages. He assisted Miss Nightin-
gale in the revision of her Notes on Nursing.

M. Charles M. V. Montigny, a Belgian
astronomer and meteorologist, died near
Brussels, March 16th, aged about seventy
years. He was honorary professor in the
Royal Athenaeum of Brussels, and a member
of the Belgian Academy of Science ; and
had been connected with the observatory as
a correspondent since 1879. His most im-
portant researches were on the scintillation
of the stars, for which he invented an instru-
ment called the scintillometer, which he ob-
served industriously for several years, and
which led him to new views concerning re-
fraction ; the relation of the height of the
barometrical column and the pressure of the
wind ; the velocity of the wind, and its in-
clination. In the last research he is believed
to have been the first who occupied himself
with the subject.

Dr. George Thurber, an eminent bota-
nist and writer on horticultural subjects,
died in Passaic, N. J., April 2d, in the sev-
entieth year of his age. He was born in
Providence, R. I., in 1821. Studying phar-
macy, he became interested in botany. In
1850, in connection with the United States
and Mexico Boundary Survey, he explored
the botany of the country between the Gulf
of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. The re-
sults of this, study were published by Asa
Gray in Plantae Novas Thurberianae. He was
from 1859 to 1863 Professor of Botany and
Horticulture in the Agricultural College of
Michigan. As editor of the American Agri-
culturist, from 1863 till 1885, he made it the
ablest and most influential journal of its
class. He published, in 1859, American
Weeds and Useful Plants — an enlargement
of Darlington's Agricultural Botany; con-
tributed on botanical subjects to Appletons'
Cyclopaedia ; and made a thorough, systematic
study of grasses.

MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JULY, 1890.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.

IX. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN AND PEEHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY.

By ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D., L. H. D.,

EX-PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

WHILE the view of chronology based npon the literal accept-
ance of Scripture texts was thus shaken by researches in
Egypt, another line of observation and thought was slowly devel-
oped, even more fatal to the theological view.

From a very early period there had been dug from the earth,
in various parts of the world, strangely shaped masses of stone,
some rudely chipped, some polished ; in ancient times these were
generally considered as thunderbolts, and known as " thunder-
stones." This idea was carried into the middle ages, and we find
in the eleventh century an emperor of the East sending to the
Emperor Henry IV, of Germany, a " heaven axe " ; and, in the
twelfth century, a Bishop of Rennes asserting the value of thun-
der-stones as a divinely appointed means of securing success in
battle, safety on the sea, security against thunder, and immunity
from unpleasant dreams : even as late as the seventeenth century
a French ambassador brought a stone hatchet, which still exists in
the museum at Nancy, as a present to the Prince-Bishop of Ver-
dun, and claimed for it health-giving virtues.

Yet, as early as the latter part of the sixteenth century, Michael
Mercati tried to prove that the " thunder-stones " were weapons or
implements of early races of men, though from some cause his
book was not published until the following century, when other
thinking men had begun to take up the same idea.

But early in the eighteenth century a fact of great importance
was quietly established : in the year 1715 a large pointed weapon
of black flint was found in contact with the bones of an elephant,

vol. xxxvii. — 22

zgo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in a gravel-bed near Gray's Inn Lane, in London. The world in
general paid no heed to this ; if the attention of theologians was
called to it, they dismissed it summarily with a reference to the
Deluge of Noah ; but the specimen was labeled, the circumstances
regarding it were recorded, and both specimen and record care-
fully preserved.

In 1723 Jussieu addressed the French Academy on The Origin
and Uses of Thunder-stones. He showed that recent travelers
from various parts of the world had brought a nunibei* of weapons
and other implements of stone to France, and that they were es-
sentially similar to what in Europe had been known as " thunder-
stones " : a year later this fact was clinched into the scientific
mind of France by the Jesuit Lafitau, who published a work
showing the similarity between the customs of aborigines then
existing in other lands and those of the early inhabitants of
Europe. So began, in these works of Jussieu and Lafitau, the
science of comparative ethnography.

In 1730 Mahudel presented a paper to the French Academy of
Inscriptions on the so-called " thunder-stones," and also presented
a series of plates which showed that these were stone implements,
which must have been used at an early period in human history.

In 1778 Buffon, in his Epoques de la Nature, intimated his
belief that " thunder- stones" were made by early races of men;
but he did not press this view, and the reason for his reserve was
obvious enough : he had already one quarrel with the theologians
on his hands, which had cost him dear — public retraction and
humiliation ; his declaration, therefore, attracted little notice.

In the year 1800 another fact came into the minds of thinking
men in England. In that year John Frere presented to the Lon-
don Society of Antiquaries sundry flint implements found in the
clay-beds near Hoxne ; that they were of human make was certain,
and, in view of the undisturbed depths in which they were found,
the theory was suggested that the men who made them must have
lived at a very ancient geological epoch ; yet even this discovery
and theory passed like a troublesome dream, and soon seemed to
be forgotten.

About twenty years later Dr. Buckland published a discussion
of the subject, in the light of various discoveries in the drift and
in caves. It received wide attention, but theology was hushed to
silence by his soothing concession that these striking relics of
human handiwork, associated with the remains of various extinct
animals, were proofs of the Deluge of Noah.

In 1823 Boue*, of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, showed to
Cuvier sundry human bones found deep in the alluvial deposits
of the upper Rhine, and suggested that they were of an early geo-
logical period; this Cuvier virtually, if not explicitly, denied:

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 291

great as he was in his own field, he was not a great geologist ; he,
in fact, led geology astray for many years. Moreover, he lived in
a time of reaction ; it was the period of the restored Bonrbons — of
the Yoltairean King Lonis XVIII, governing to please orthodoxy.
Bond's discovery was, therefore, at first opposed, then enveloped
in studied silence.

Cnvier evidently thought, as Voltaire had felt under similar
circumstances, that " among wolves one must howl a little " ; and
his leading disciple, Elie de Beaumont, who succeeded him in the
sway over geological science in France, was even more opposed to
the new view than his great master had been. Bou^s discoveries
were, accordingly, apparently laid to rest forever.*

In 1825 Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, was explored by the
Rev. Mr. McEnery, a Roman Catholic clergyman, who seems to
have been completely overawed by orthodox opinion in England
and elsewhere; for, though he found human bones and imple-
ments mingled with remains of extinct animals, he kept his notes
in manuscript, and they were only brought to light more than
thirty years later by Mr. Vivian.

The coming of Charles X, the last of the French Bourbons, to
the throne, made the orthodox pressure even greater. It was the
culmination of the reactionary period — the time in France when
a clerical committee, sitting at the Tuileries, took such measures
as were necessary to hold in check all science that was not per-
fectly " safe " ; the time in Austria when Kaiser Franz made his
famous declaration to sundry professors, that what he wanted of
them was simply to train obedient subjects, and that those who
did not make this their purpose would be dismissed ; the time in
Germany when Nicholas of Russia and the princelings and min-
isters under his control, from the King of Prussia downward, put
forth all their might in behalf of " scriptural science " ; the time
in Italy when a scientific investigator, arriving at any conclusion
distrusted by the Church, was sure of losing his place and in dan-
ger of losing his liberty ; the time in England when what little
science was taught was held in due submission to Archdeacon
Paley's doctrines and the Thirty-nine Articles ; the time in the
United States when the first thing essential in science was, that it
be adjusted to the ideas of revival preachers.

Yet men devoted to scientific truth labored on ; and in 1828

* For the general history of early views regarding stone implements, see the first chap-
ters in Cartailhac, La France Prehistorique ; also Joly, L'Homme avant les Metaux ; also
Lyell, Lubbock, and Evans. For lightning-stones in China, see citation from a Chinese
encyclopaedia of 1662, in Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 209. On the universality of
this belief on the surviving use of stone implements even into civilized times, and on their
manufacture to-day, see ibid., chapter viii. For the treatment of Boue's discovery, see
especially Mortillet, Le Prehistorique, Paris, 1885, p. 11.

292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tournal, of Narbonne, discovered in the cavern of Bize specimens
of human industry, with a fragment of a human skeleton, among
bones of extinct animals. In the following year Christol pub-
lished accounts of his excavations in the caverns of Gard ; he had
found in position, and under conditions which forbade the idea of
after-disturbance, human remains mixed with bones of the extinct
hyena of the early Quaternary period. Little general notice was
taken of this, for the reactionary orthodox atmosphere involved
such discoveries in darkness.

But in the French Revolution of 1830 the old politico-theologi-
cal system collapsed : Charles X and his advisers fled for their
lives ; the other continental monarchs got glimpses of new light ;
the priesthood in charge of education were put on their good be-
havior for a time, and a better era began.

Under the constitutional monarchy of the house of Orleans in
France and Belgium less attention was therefore paid by Govern-
ment to the saving of souls ; and we have in rapid succession new
discoveries of remains of human industry, and even of human
skeletons so mingled with bones of extinct animals as to give ad-
ditional proofs that the origin of man was at a period vastly ear-
lier than any which theologians had dreamed of.

A few years later the reactionary clerical influence against
science in this field rallied again. Schmerling in 1833 explored a
multitude of caverns in Belgium, especially at Engis and Engi-
houl, and found human skulls and bones closely associated with
bones of extinct animals, such as the cave bear, hyena, elephant,
and rhinoceros, while mingled with these were evidences of hu-
man workmanship in the shape of chipped flint implements ; dis-
coveries of a similar sort were made by De Serres in France and
Lund in Brazil ; but, at least as far as continental Europe was
concerned, these discoveries were received with much coolness,
both by Catholic leaders of opinion in France and Belgium, and
by Protestant leaders in England and Holland. Schmerling him-
self appears to have been overawed, and gave forth a sort of apol-
ogetic theory, half scientific, half theologic, vainly hoping to sat-
isfy the clerical side.

Nor was it much better in England. Sir Charles Lyell, so
devoted a servant of prehistoric research thirty years later, was
still holding out against it on the scientific side ; and, as to the
theological side, it was the period when that great churchman,
Dean Cockburn, was insulting geologists from the pulpit of York
Minster, and the Rev. Mellor Brown denouncing geology as " a
black art," " a forbidden province " ; and when in America Prof.
Moses Stuart and others like him were belittling the work of
Benjamin Silliman and Edward Hitchcock.

In 1840 Godwin Austin presented to the Royal Geological So-

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 293

ciety an account of his discoveries in Kent's Cavern near Torquay,
and especially of human bones and implements mingled with,
bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, cave bear, hyena, and other
extinct animals ; yet this memoir, like that of McEnery fifteen
years before, found an atmosphere so unfavorable that it was not
published.

But just at the middle of the nineteenth century came the be-
ginning of a new epoch in science — an epoch when all these earlier
discoveries were to be interpreted by means of investigations in
a different field : for, in 1847, a man previously unknown to the
world at large, Boucher de Perthes, published at Paris the first
volume of his work on Celtic and Antediluvian Antiquities, and
in this he showed engravings of typical flint implements and weap-
ons, of which he had discovered thousands upon thousands in the
high drift beds near Abbeville in northern France.

The significance of this discovery was great indeed — far greater
than Boucher himself at first supposed. The very title of his
book showed that he at first regarded these implements and weap-
ons as having belonged to men overwhelmed at the Deluge of
Noah ; but it was soon seen that they were something very differ-
ent from proofs of the literal exactness of Genesis : for they were
found in terraces at great heights above the river Somme, and,
under any possible theory having regard to the truth, must have
been deposited there at a time when the river system of northern
France was vastly different from anything known in the historic
period. The whole discovery indicated a series of great geologi-
cal changes since the time when these implements were made, re-
quiring cycles of time compared to which the space allowed by
the orthodox chronologists were as nothing.

His work was the result of over ten years of research and
thought. Year after year a force of men under his direction had
dug into these high-terraced gravel deposits of the river Somme,
and in his book he now gave, in the first full form, the results of
his labor. So far as France was concerned, he was met at first by
what he calls " a conspiracy of silence," and by a contemptuous
opposition among orthodox scientists, at the head of whom stood
Elie de Beaumont.

This heavy, sluggish opposition seemed immovable : nothing
that Boucher could do or say appeared to lighten the pressure of
the orthodox theological opinion behind it — not even his belief
that these fossils were remains of men drowned at the Deluge of
Noah, and that they were proofs of the literal exactness of Gene-
sis seemed to help the matter. His opponents felt instinctively
that such discoveries boded danger to the accepted view, and they
were right : Boucher himself soon saw the folly of trying to account
for them by the orthodox theory which he had adopted at first.

294

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

And it must be confessed that not a little force was added to
the opposition by certain characteristics of Boucher de Perthes
himself ; gifted, f oresighted, and vigorous as he was, he was his
own worst enemy ; carried away by his own discoveries, he jumped
to the most astounding conclusions : the engravings in the later
volume of his great work, showing what he thought to be human

i hires and inscriptions upon some of the flint implements, are
worthy of a comic almanac ; and at the great National Museum
of Archseology at St. Germain, beneath the shelves bearing the
remains which he discovered, which mark the triumph of a great
new movement in human science, are drawers containing speci-
mens hardly worthy of a penny museum, from which he drew the
most unwarranted inferences as to the language, religion, and
usages of prehistoric man.

But Boucher triumphed none the less. Among his bitter oppo-
nents at first was Dr. Rigollot, who in 1855, searching earnestly for
materials to refute the innovator, dug into the deposits of St. Acheul
— and was converted : for he found implements similar to those
of Abbeville, making still more certain the existence of man dur-
ing the Drift period. So, too, Gaudry a year later made similar
discoveries.

But most important was the evidence of the truth which now
came from other parts of France and from many other countries.
The French leaders in geological science had been held back, not
only by awe of Cuvier, but by recollections of Scheuchzer. Ridi-
cule has always been a serious weapon in France, and the ridicule
which finally overtook the adherents of the attempt of Scheuchzer,
Mazurier, and others, to square geology with Genesis, was still re-
membered. From the great body of French scientists, therefore,
Boucher secured at first no aid. His support came from the other
side of the Channel. The most eminent English geologists, such as
Falconer, Prestwich, and Lyell, visited the beds at Abbeville and
St. Acheul, convinced themselves that the discoveries of Boucher,
Rigollot, and their colleagues were real, and then quietly but firmly
told England the truth.

And now there appeared a most effective ally in France. The
arguments used against Boucher de Perthes and some of the other
early investigators of bone caves had been that the implements
found might have been washed about and turned over by great
floods, and therefore that they might be of a recent period ; but
in 1861 Edward Lartet published an account of his own excava-
tions at the Grotto of Aurignac, and the proof that man had ex-
isted in the time of the Quaternary animals was complete. This
grotto had been carefully sealed in prehistoric times by a stone at
its entrance ; no interference from disturbing currents of water
had been possible ; and Lartet found, in place, bones of eight out

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 295

of nine of the main species of animals which, characterize the
Quaternary period in Europe ; upon them were marks of cutting
implements, and in the midst of them coals and ashes.

Close upon these came the excavations at Eyzies by Lartet and
his English colleague, Christy. In both these men there was a
sobriety and a carefulness in making researches and in stating
results which converted many of those who had been repelled by
the enthusiasm of Boucher de Perthes. The two colleagues found
buried together, in the stony deposits made by the water dropping
from the roof of the cave at Eyzies, the bones of numerous ani-
mals extinct or departed to arctic regions, one of. these a vertebra
of a reindeer with a flint lance-head still fast in it, and with these
were found evidences of fire.

Discoveries like these were thoroughly convincing. But there
still remained here and there a few gainsayers in the supposed in-
terest of Scripture, and these, in spite of the convincing array of
facts, insisted that in some way, by some combination of circum-
stances, these bones of extinct animals of vastly remote periods
might have been brought into connection with all- these human
bones and implements of human make in all these different places,
without supposing that these ancient relics of men and animals
were of the same period. But a new class of discoveries came to
silence this contention. At La Madeleine in France, and at vari-
ous other places, were found rude but striking carvings and en-
gravings on bone and stone representing sundry specimens of
those long-vanished species. These specimens, or casts of them,
can now be seen in all the principal museums. They show the
hairy mammoth, the cave bear, and various other animals of the
Quaternary period, carved rudely but vigorously by contemporary
men ; and, to complete the significance of these discoveries, travel-
ers returning from the icy regions of North America have brought
similar carvings of animals now existing in those regions, made
by the Eskimos during their long arctic winters to-day.*

* For the explorations in Belgium, see Dupont, Le Temps Prehistorique en Belgique.
For the discoveries by McEnery and Godwin Austin, see Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, Lon-
don, 1869, chap, x; also Cartailhac, Joly, and others above cited. For Boucher de Perthes,
see his Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes, Paris, lS47-'64, vol. iii, pp. 526 et seq. For
sundry extravagances of Boucher de Perthes, see Reinach, Description Raisonnee du Musee
de St. Germain en Laye, Paris, 1889, vol. i, pp. 16 et seq. For the mixture of sound and
absurd results in Boucher's work, see Cartailhac as above, p. 19. Boucher had published
in 1838 a work entitled De la Creation, but it seems to have dropped dead from the press.
For the attempts of Scheuchzer to reconcile geology and Genesis by means of the Homo
diluvii testis, and similar " diluvian fossils," see the chapter on Geology in this series. The
original specimens of those prehistoric engravings upon bone and stone may be best seen
at the Archaeological Museum of St. Germain and the British Museum. For engravings of
some of the most recent, see especially Dawkins's Early Man in Britain, chap, vii, and the
Catalogue du Musee du St. Germain. For comparison of this prehistoric work with that

29 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

As a result of these discoveries and others like them, showing
that man was not only a contemporary with long-extinct animals
of past geological epochs, but that he had already developed into
a stage of culture above pure savagery, the tide of thought began
to turn. Especially was this seen in 1863, when Lyell published
the first edition of his Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of
Man; and the fact that he had so long opposed the new ideas

re 'force to the clear and conclusive argument which led him to
renounce his early scientific beliefs.

Research among the evidences of man's existence in the early
Quaternary, and possibly in the Tertiary period, was now pressed
forward along the whole line. In 1864 Gabriel Mortillet founded
his review devoted to this subject; and in I860 the first of a series
of scientific congresses devoted to such researches was held in
Italy. These investigations went on vigorously in all parts of
France and spread rapidly to other countries. The explorations
which Dupont began in 1861, in the caves of Belgium, gave to the
museum at Brussels eighty thousand flint implements, forty
thousand bones of animals of the Quaternary period, with a num-
ber of human skulls and bones found mingled with these remains.
From Germany, Italy, Spain, America, India, and Egypt similar
results were reported.

Especially noteworthy were the further explorations of the
caves and drift throughout the British Islands. The discovery
by Colonel Wood in 1861, of flint tools in the same strata with
bones of the earlier forms of the rhinoceros, was but typical of
many. A thorough examination of the caverns of Brixham and
Torquay, by Pengelly and others, made it still more evident that
man had existed in the early Quaternary period : the existence of
a period before the Glacial epoch or between different glacial
epochs in England, when the Englishman was a savage, using
rude stone tools, was then fully ascertained, and, what was more
significant, there were clearly shown a gradation and evolution
even in the history of that period. It was found that this ancient
Stone epoch showed progress and development : in the upper lay-
ers of the caves, with remains of the reindeer, who, although he
has migrated from these regions, still exists in more northern cli-
mates, were found stone implements revealing some little advance
in civilization ; next below these, sealed up in the stalagmite,
came, as a rule, another layer, in which the remains of reindeer
were rare and those of the mammoth more frequent, the im-
plements found in this stratum being less skillfully made than

produced to-day by the Eskimos and others, see Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, chapters
x and xiv. For very striking exhibitions of this same artistic gift in a higher field to-day
by descendants of the barbarian tribes of northern America, see the very remarkable
illustrations in Rink, Danish Greenland, London, 1877, especially those in chap. xiv.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 297

those in the upper and more recent layers ; and, finally, in the
lowest levels, near the floors of these ancient caverns, with re-
mains of the cave bear and others of the most ancient extinct ani-
mals, were fonnd stone implements evidently of a yet ruder and
earlier stage of human progress. No fairly unprejudiced man
can visit the cave and museum at Torquay without being con-
vinced that there were a gradation and evolution in these begin-
nings of human civilization. The evidence is complete ; the
masses of breccia taken from the cave, with the various soils, im-
plements, and bones carefully kept in place, put this progress
beyond a doubt.

All this indicated a great antiquity for the human race ;
but in it lay the germs of still another great truth, even more
important and more serious in its consequences to the older
theologic view, and this will be discussed in the following
chapter.

But new evidences came in, showing a yet greater antiquity of
man. Remains of animals were found in connection with human
remains, which showed not only that man was living in times
more remote than the earlier of the new investigators had dared
dream, but that some of these early periods of his existence must
have been of immense length, embracing climatic changes be-
tokening different geological periods: for with remains of fire
and human implements and human bones were found not only
bones of the hairy mammoth and cave bear, woolly rhinoceros and
reindeer, which could only have been deposited there in a time of
arctic cold, but bones of the hyena, hippopotamus, saber-toothed
tiger, and the like, which could only have been deposited when
there was in these regions a torrid climate. The conjunction of
these remains clearly showed that man had lived in England
early enough and long enough to pass through times when there
was arctic cold and times when there was torrid heat ; times when
great glaciers stretched far down into England and indeed into
the continent, and times when England had a land connection
with the European continent, and the European continent with
Africa, allowing tropical animals to migrate freely from Africa
to the middle regions of England.

The question of the origin of man at a period vastly earlier
than the sacred chronologists permitted was thus absolutely
settled ; but among the questions regarding the existence of man
at a period yet more remote, the Drift period, there was one
which for a time seemed to give the champions of science some
difficulty. The orthodox leaders in the time of Boucher de
Perthes, and for a considerable time afterward, had a weapon of
which they made good use ; the statement that no human bones
had yet been discovered in the drift. The supporters of science

29 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

naturally answered that few if any other bones as small as those
of man had been found, and that this fact was an additional
proof of the great length of the period since man had lived with
the extinct animals; for, since specimens of human workman-
ship proved man's existence as fully as remains of his bones
could do, the absence or even rarity of human and other small
bones simply indicated the long periods of time required for
dissolving them away.

Yet Boucher, inspired by the genius he had already shown,
and filled with the spirit of prophecy, declared that human bones
would yet be found in the midst of the flint implements, and in
18G3 he claimed that this prophecy had been fulfilled by the dis-
covery at Moulin Quignon of a portion of a human jaw deep in
the early Quaternary deposits. But his triumph was short-lived ;
the opposition ridiculed his discovery ; they showed that he had
offered a premium to his workmen for the discovery of human
remains, and they naturally drew the inference that some tricky
laborer had deceived him. The result of this was, that the men
of science felt obliged to acknowledge that the Moulin Quignon
discovery was not proved.

But ere long human bones were found in the deposits of the
early Quaternary period, or indeed of an earlier period, in various
other parts of the world, and the question regarding the Moulin
Quignon relic was of little importance.

We have seen that researches regarding the existence of pre-
historic man in England and on the Continent were at first
mainly made in the caverns ; but the existence of man in the ear-
liest Quaternary period was confirmed on both sides the English
Channel, in a way even more striking, by the close examination
of the drift and early gravel deposits. The results arrived at by
Boucher de Perthes were amply confirmed in England. Rude
stone implements were found in terraces a hundred feet and
more above the levels at which various rivers of Great Britain
now flow, and under circumstances which show that, at the time
when they were deposited, the rivers of Great Britain in many
cases were entirely different from those of the present period, and
formed parts of the river system of the European continent. Re-
searches in the high terraces above the Thames, the Ouse, as well
as at other points in Great Britain, placed beyond a doubt the fact
that man existed on the British Islands at a time when they were
connected by solid land with the Continent, and made it clear
that, within the period of the existence of man in northern Eu-
rope, a large portion of the British Islands had been sunk to
depths between fifteen hundred and twenty-five hundred feet
beneath the Northern Ocean — had risen again from the water —
had formed part of the continent of Europe, and had been in

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 299

unbroken connection with Africa, so that elephants, bears, tigers,
lions, the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, of species now mainly
extinct, had left their bones in the same deposits with human
implements as far north as Yorkshire. Moreover, connected with
this fact came in the new conviction, forced upon geologists by
the more careful examination of the earth and its changes, that
such elevations and depressions of Great Britain and other parts
of the world were not the results of sudden cataclysms, but of
slow processes extending through vast cycles of years — processes
such as are now known to be going on in various parts of the
world. Thus it was that the six or seven thousand years allowed
by even the most liberal theologians of former times were seen
more and more clearly to be but as a mere nothing in the long
succession of ages since the appearance of man.

Confirmation of these results came from various other parts
of the world, especially from the drift deposits both on the east-
ern and western coasts of America. The discoveries at Trenton,
New Jersey, and at various places in Delaware, Ohio, Minnesota,
and elsewhere, along the southern edge of the drift of the glacial
epochs, clinched the new scientific truth yet more firmly ; and the
statement made by an eminent American authority is, that " man
was on this continent when the climate and ice of Greenland
extended to the mouth of New York Harbor." The discoveries of
prehistoric remains on the Pacific coast, and especially in British
Columbia, finished completely the last chance at a reasonable
contention by the adherents of the older view. As to these inves-
tigations on the Pacific slope of the United States, the discoveries
of Whitney and others in California had been so made and an-
nounced that the judgment of scientific men regarding them was
suspended until the visit of perhaps the greatest living authority
in his department, Alfred Russel Wallace, in 1887. He confirmed
the view of Prof. Whitney and others with the statement that
" both the actual remains and works of man found deep under
the lava-fiows of Pliocene age show that he existed in the New
World at least as early as in the Old." To this may be added the
discoveries in British Columbia, which prove that, since man ex-
isted in these regions, * valleys have been filled up by drift from
the waste of mountains to a depth in some cases of fifteen hun-
dred feet ; this covered by a succession of tuffs, ashes, and lava-
streams from volcanoes long since extinct, and finally cut down
by the present rivers through beds of solid basalt, and through
this accumulation of lavas and gravels." The immense antiquity
of the human remains in the gravels of the Pacific coast is
summed up by a most eminent English authority and declared to
be proved, "first, by the present river systems being of subse-
quent date, sometimes cutting through them and their superin-

3 oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cumbent lava-cap to a depth, of two thousand feet ; secondly, by
the great denudation that lias taken place since they were depos-
ited, for they sometimes lie on the summits of mountains six
thousand feet high ; thirdly, by the fact that the Sierra Nevada
has been partly elevated since their formation." *

As an important supplement to these discoveries of ancient
implements came sundry comparisons made by eminent physiolo-

* For the general subject of investigations in British prehistoric remains, see especially
Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain and his Place in the Tertiary Period, London, 1880.
For Boucher de Perthes's account of his discovery of the human jaw at Moulin Quignon, see
his Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes, vol. iii, pp. 542 et seq., Appendix. For an ex-
cellent account of special investigations in the high terraces above the Thames, see J.
Allen Brown, F. G. S., Palaeolithic Man in Northwest Middlesex, London, 1887. For dis-
coveries in America, and the citation regarding them, see Wright, The Ice Age in North
America, New York, 1S89, chap. xxi. Very remarkable examples of these specimens from
the drift at Trenton may be seen in Prof. Abbott's collections at the University of Penn-
sylvania. For an admirable statement, see Prof. Henry W. Haynes, in Wright, as above.
For proofs of the vast antiquity of man upon the Pacific coast, cited in the text, see
Skertchley, F. G. S., in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for 1887, p. 336; see
also Wallace, Darwinism, London, 1890, chap, xv; and for a summary, as cited, Laing,
Problems of the Future, London, 1889. For a striking summary of the evidence that
man lived before the last submergence of Britain, see Brown,, Palaeolithic Man in North-
west Middlesex, as above cited. For proofs that man existed in a period when the streams
were flowing hundreds of feet above their present level, see ibid., p. 33. As to the evi-
dence of the action of the sea and of glacial action in the Welsh bone caves after the
remains of extinct animals and weapons of human workmanship had been deposited, see
ibid., p. 198. For a good statement of the slowness of the submergence and emergence of
Great Britain, with an illustration from the rising of the shore of Finland, see ibid., pp. 47
48. As to the flint implements of Palaeolithic man in the high-terraced gravels throughout
the Thames Valley, associated with bones of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, etc., see
Brown, p. 31. For still more conclusive proofs that man inhabited North Wales before the
last submergence of the greater part of the British Islands to a depth of twelve hundred
to fourteen hundred feet, see ibid., pp. 199, 200. For maps showing the connection of the
British river system with that of the Continent, see Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain,
London, 1880, pp. 18, 41, 73 ; also, Lyell, Antiquity of Man, chap. xiv. As to the long
continuance of the early Stone period, see James Geikie, The Great Ice Age, New York,
18S8, p. 402. As to the impossibility of the animals of arctic and torrid regions living
together or visiting the same place at different times in the same year, see Geikie, as
above, pp. 421 et scq. ; and for a conclusive argument that the animals of the period
assigned lived in England, not since, but before, the Glacial period, or in the intcrglacial
period, see ibid., p. 459. For a very candid statement by perhaps the foremost leader of
the theological rear-guard, admitting the insuperable difficulties presented by the Old Testa-
ment chronology as regards the creation and the deluge, see the Duke of Argyll's Primeval
Man, pp. 90-100, and especially pp. 93, 124. For a succinct statement on the general sub-
ject, see Laing, Problems of the Future, London, 1889, chapters v and vi. For discoveries
of prehistoric implements in India, see notes by Bruce Foote, F. G. S., in the British Jour-
nal of the Anthropological Institute for 1886 and 1887. For similar discoveries in South
Africa, see Gooch, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland,
vol. xi, pp. 124 et seq. For proofs of the existence of Palaeolithic man in Egypt, see Mook,
Haynes, Pitt-Rivers, and others, cited at length in the next chapter. For the corroborative
and concurrent testimony of ethnology, philology, and history to the vast antiquity of man,
see Tylor, Anthropology, chap. i.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 301

gists between human skulls and bones found in different places
and under circumstances showing vast antiquity.

Human bones had been found under these circumstances as
early as 1835 at Canstadt near Stuttgart, and in 1856 in the Nean-
derthal near Dusseldorf ; but in more recent searches they have
been discovered in a multitude of places, especially in Germany,
France, Belgium, England, the Caucasus, Africa, and North and
South America. But comparison of these bones showed that even
in that remote Quaternary period there were great differences of
race, and here again came in an argument for the yet earlier ex-
istence of man on the earth ; for long previous periods must have
been required to develop such racial differences. Considerations
of this kind have given a new impulse to the belief that man's ex-
istence dates back at least into the Tertiary period. The evidence
for this earlier origin of man has been ably summed up not only
by its brilliant advocate, Mortillet, but by a former opponent, one
of the most conservative of modern anthropologists, Quatref ages ;
and the conclusion arrived at by both is, that man did really ex-
ist in the Tertiary period. The acceptance of this conclusion is
also seen in the recent work of that most able investigator, Alfred
Russel Wallace, who, cautious and conservative as he is, places
the origin of man not only in the Tertiary period, but in an
earlier stage of it than most have dared assign; even in the
Miocene.

The first thing raising a strong presumption, if not giving
proof, that man existed in the Tertiary, was the fact that from all
explored parts of the world came in more and more evidence that
in the earlier Quaternary man existed in different, strongly
marked races and in great numbers. From all regions which
geologists had explored, even from those the most distant and dif-
ferent from each other, came this same evidence — from northern
Europe to southern Africa ; from France to China ; from New
Jersey to British Columbia ; from British Columbia to Peru. The
development of man in such numbers and in so many different
regions, with such differences of race and at so early a period,
must have required a long previous time.

This argument seemed to be strengthened by discoveries of
bones bearing marks apparently made by cutting instruments,
in the Tertiary formations of France and Italy, and by the dis-
coveries of what were claimed to be flint implements by the Abbe'
Bourgeois in France, and of implements and human bones by
Prof. Capellini in Italy.

On the other hand, some of the more cautious men of science
are content to say that the existence of man in the Tertiary period
is not yet settled. As to his existence throughout the Quaternary
epoch no new proofs are needed. Even so determined a supporter

02

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the theological side as the Duke of Argyll has been forced to
yield to the evidence.

Of attempts to make an exact chronological statement throw-
in «• light on the length of the various prehistoric periods, the
most notable have been those by M. Morlot, on the accumulated
strata of the Lake of Geneva ; by Gillieron, on the silt of Lake
Neuf chatel ; by Horner, in the delta deposits of Egypt ; and by
Riddle, in the delta of the Mississippi. But while these have
failed to give anything like an exact result, all these investiga-
tions together point to the one great truth so amply established,
of the vast antiquity of man, and the utter inadequacy of the
orthodox chronology based by theologians upon our sacred books.
The period of man's past life upon our planet, which has been
fixed by the universal Church, " always, everywhere, and by all,"
is thus perfectly proved to be merely trivial compared with those
vast geological epochs during which man is now known to have
existed.*

-♦♦♦-

GREENLAND AND THE GREENL ANDERS. \

By ELISEE EECLUS.

TILL recently Hooker, Payer, and others supposed that the
interior of Greenland presented vast spaces free of ice, grassy
valleys where herds of reindeer grazed, and popular legends were
appealed to in support of this view. Nordenskjold also sug-
gested that the phenomenon might be explained by the action of
the winds, which after crossing the inland ranges descended in
warm currents like the fohn of Switzerland, and thus melted the
snows of the valleys. But the systematic researches made in re-
cent years have failed to discover any of these inland oases. The
whole land appears, on the contrary, to be covered with a continu-
ous ice-cap fringed by glaciers which move down the outer valleys
to the neighborhood of the sea, or to the fiords of the periphery.
The valleys themselves have disappeared, and, despite local irregu-

* As to the evidence of man in the Tertiary period, see works already cited, especially
Quatrefages, Cartailhac, and Mortillet. For a summary, see Laing, as above, pp. 103-105.
See also, for a summing up of the evidence in favor of man in the Tertiary period, Quatre-
fages, Ilistoire General des Races humaines, in the Bibliotheque Etymologique, Paris, 1887,
chap. iv. As to the earlier view, see Vogt, Lectures on Man, London, 1864, lecture xi.
For a thorough and convincing refutation of Sir J. W. Dawson's attempt to make the
old and new Stone periods coincide, see H. W. Haynes, in chap, vi of the History of
America, edited by Justin Winsor. For development of various important points in the
relation of anthropology to the human occupancy of our planet, see Topinard, Anthropol-
ogy, London, 1890, chap. ix.

f From advance sheets of North America, by Elisee Reclus, soon to be published by
D. Appleton k Co., being the fifteenth volume of The Earth and its Inhabitants.

GREENLAND AND THE GREENLANDERS. 303

larities, the ice-cap slopes like a shield uniformly toward the inte-
rior. Thus, in certain places the explorer should expect to meet
elevations of seven thousand or eight thousand feet ; but, owing
to an optical illusion, he scarcely knows whether he is climbing or
descending. The horizon seems to rise on all sides, says Nordensk-
jold, " as if he were at the bottom of a basin."

The aspect of these boundless wastes rolling away in scarcely
perceptible undulations, and in the distance mingling the gray of
their snows with the gray of the skies, at first gave the impression
that Greenland was a uniform plateau, a sort of horizontal table.
The belief now prevails that the rocky surface of the land is, on
the contrary, carved into mountains and hills, valleys and gorges,
but that the plastic snows and ice have gradually filled up all the
cavities, which now show only in slight sinuosities on the surface.
Allowing to the whole mass of the ice-cap an average thickness
of five hundred feet, it would represent a total volume of about
one hundred and fifty thousand cubic miles. This sermer sudk,
or " great ice " of the Greenlanders, flows like asphalt or tar with
extreme slowness seaward, while the surface is gradually leveled
by the snow falling during the course of ages and distributed by
the winds. In the interior of the country the surface of the ice
and snow is as smooth as if it were polished, looking like " the
undisturbed surface of a frozen ocean, the long but not high bil-
lows of which rolling from east to west are not easily distinguish-
able to the eye." * Nevertheless, the exterior form of the ice-cap
has been greatly diversified, at least on its outer edge, where in
many places it is difficult to cross, or even quite impassable. The
action of lateral pressure, of heat produced by the tremendous
friction, of evaporation and filtration, has often broken the surface
into innumerable cones a few yards high, in form and color resem-
bling the tents of an encampment. The depressions of the snowy
plateau are filled with meres, lagoons, and lakes ; streams and riv-
ulets excavate winding gorges with crystal walls in the snow and
ice. Cascades, frozen at night, plunge during the day into pro-
found crevasses ; during the expedition of 1870 Nordenskjold saw
intermittent jets of water rising to a great height, which he was
unable to study, but which he supposes must be geysers.

Most of the glaciers reaching the coast round the Greenland
seaboard present a somewhat regular frontal line, from which
blocks of varying size break off with every wave and drift away
with the current. But the frozen streams which yield those huge
masses large enough to be called icebergs, that is, " mountains of
ice," are relatively few in number, their production requiring a
combination of favorable circumstances, such as the thickness of

* Nansen, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, August, 1889.

304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the parent glacier, the form of its bed, and the depth of the water
at its mouth. The larger fragments originate for the most part
along that remarkable break which is presented in the normal for-
mation of the coast-line between Egedesminde and the Svartenhuk
Peninsula. Rink enumerates not more than thirty Greenland gla-
ciers which discharge really large icebergs, and of this number
only six or eight yield blocks of the first magnitude.

The average velocity of the congealed masses is about fifty
feet in the twenty-four hours, but in some places a much greater
speed has been recorded, though still varying considerably with
the seasons. A branch of the Augpadlartok glacier, north of
Upernavik, moves at the rate of one hundred feet a day, the high-
est yet measured. But how enormous must be the pressure of the
inland ice-fields to discharge into the sea the vast quantities of ice-
bergs which are yearly sent adrift along the Greenland seaboard !
Estimated in a single block the annual discharge from each of the
five best-known glaciers would represent a mass of about seven-
teen billion cubic feet in capacity, and fifty-six hundred feet in
height, depth, and thickness. Reduced to a liquid state this mass
would be equivalent to a stream discharging seaward five hun-
dred cubic feet per second, or 15,500,000 a year.

The formation of this drift ice, or floating icebergs, is one of
those phenomena which were discussed long before the seaboard
had been studied, or before the breaking away of the frozen masses
had actually been witnessed. "Wherever the glaciers discharge
through a broad valley preserving a uniform width and depth for
a considerable space, and advancing seaward through a fiord of
like dimensions, and with gently sloping bed, the ice may pro-
gress without any of those accidents caused by the inequalities of
more rugged channels. Under such conditions the compact mass
glides smoothly forward over its rocky bed without developing
any rents or fissures. But as it moves down like a ship on its
keel, it tends to rise, being at least one twentieth lighter than the
displaced water. It is also left without support by the sudden
fall of its bed beyond the normal coast-line. Nevertheless, it still
continues its onward movement through the waters to a point
where its weight prevails over its force of cohesion with the frozen
stream thrusting it forward. At this point it snaps off suddenly
with a tremendous crash, and the iceberg, enveloped in»a thousand
fragments projected into space, plunges into the abyss and whirls
round and round to find its center of gravity amid the troubled
waters. On recovering from the bewilderment caused by all
this tumult and chaos, the spectator finds that the glacier has
apparently receded a long way toward the head of the bay, in the
middle of which a crystal peak is seen slowly drifting away with
the current. . In this he recognizes the huge fragment detached

GREENLAND AND THE GREENLANDERS. 305

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

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GREENLAND AND THE GREENLANDERS.

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from the glacier, though seldom able to detect its primitive form,
the greater part, say at least six sevenths of its volume, sinking
below the surface.

If Greenland, like other regions, passed through a glacial
epoch, the fossil remains preserved in its sedimentary rocks show
that it had also its hot and temperate periods. The old formations

Scale 1 : 300,000-

6 Miles.

The scale of heights is 50 times greater than that of lengths.
Fig. 3.— Movement of the Kanderdlttg-Suak Glacier, Umanak District.

which have yielded Carboniferous, Triassic, and Jurassic fossils,
present types of organisms comparable to those at present found
in the torrid zone. The upper chalk beds, abounding in vegetable
forms, analogous to those of the subtropical and temperate zones,
had already been examined by Giesecke at the beginning of this
century. They supplied to Nordenskjold a very remarkable flora,
especially rich in dicotyledonous plants represented by numerous
families of Cycadea, a tree-fern, and even a bread-fruit tree. At
that time the mean temperature must have been as high as 68°
Fahr.

The Miocene flora, whose general physiognomy corresponds to
a more temperate climate, averaging about 53° or 54° Fahr., is il-
lustrated by splendid specimens discovered chiefly in Disco Island

3 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and the surrounding peninsulas. Quite a fossil forest is buried
under the ferruginous mass of Mount Atanekerdluk, a peak which
rises to a height of over a thousand feet over against Disco, and
which is now surrounded by glaciers on all sides. From these de-
posits Whymper, Nordenskjold, and others have extracted one hun-
dred and sixty-nine species of plants, of which about three fourths
were shrubs and trees, some with stems as thick as a man's body.
Altogether there have been discovered in the Greenland strata as
many as six hundred and thirteen species of fossil plants. The
most prevalent tree is a Sequoia, closely resembling the Oregon
and Calif ornian giants of the present epoch. Associated with this
conifer were beeches, oaks, evergreen oaks, elms, hazel-nuts, wal-
nuts, magnolias, and laurels ; and these forest trees were festooned
with the vine, ivy, and other creepers. A leaf of a Cycadea found
among these fossil remains is the largest ever seen ; and a true
palm, the Flabellaria, has been discovered among the remains of
these old arctic forests.

To develop such a flora the climate of north Greenland must
at that time have been analogous to that at present enjoyed on the
shores of Lake Geneva, twenty-four degrees nearer to the equator.
According to the same gradation of temperature, the dry lands
about the north pole itself must at the same epoch have had their
forests of aspens and conifers. According to Oswald Heer, the
change that has taken place in the climate since then represents a
fall of 30° or 40° Fahr. for north Greenland. The interval between
these two ages was marked by the Glacial period, whose traces are
visible on the west coast.

Although incomparably poorer than that of Miocene times, the
present flora of Greenland is sufficient to clothe extensive tracts
with a mantle of mosses, grasses, and brushwood. Wherever the
snows melt under the influence of the sun or of the warm east
winds, herbaceous and other lowly plants spring up even on the
exposed nunatdkher, and to a height of five thousand feet.
Owing to the uniform intensity of the solar heat, the summer flora
is almost identical on the low-lying coast-lands and highest mount-
ain-tops. True trees occur in the southern districts, where Egede
was said to have measured some nearly twenty feet high. But
the largest met by Rink during all his long rambles was a white
birch fourteen feet high growing amid the rocks near a Norse
ruin. Few trees, in fact, exceed five or six feet, while most of the
shrubs become trailing plants. Such are the service and alder,
which on the coast reach 65° north latitude ; the juniper, which ad-
vances to 67° ; and the dwarf birch, which ranges beyond 72°.

In its general features the Greenland flora, comprising about
four hundred flowering plants and several hundred species of
lichens, greatly resembles that of Scandinavia. Hooker and Dr.

GREENLAND AND THE GREENLANDERS. 309

Robert Brown regard it as essentially the same as that of the
north European highlands and lacustrine regions. Even on the
west coast, facing America, this- European physiognomy is said to
prevail, although to a less degree than on the opposite side, which
appears to be much poorer in vegetable forms. But, though lim-
ited, the American element is important, supplying to the natives
numerous edible berries, alga?, and fuci, which have saved whole
tribes from starvation during periods of scarcity. The Europeans
have also their little garden-plots, where they grow lettuce, cab-
bage, turnips, and occasionally potatoes about the size of school-
boys' marbles.

The great bulk of the present population consists of Danes,
Danish half-breeds, and the Eskimo proper, more or less modified
by crossings with the early Norse settlers. Nearly all the inhabit-
ants, already Christianized and civilized by the missionaries, are
grouped in parishes, whose organization differs from correspond-
ing European communities only in those conditions that are im-
posed by the climate and the struggle for existence. There still
survive, however, a few tribes of pure Eskimo stock, such as those
recently discovered by European explorers beyond the Danish ter-
ritory north of Melville Bay and on the east coast. Others also may
perhaps exist along the shores of unvisited or inaccessible fiords.
But the most northern camping-ground hitherto discovered is
that of Ita (Etah), situated in Port Foulke on Smith Sound, in 78°
18' north latitude. In 1875 and again in 1881 it was found aban-
doned ; but it is known to have been previously inhabited, and the
natives had returned to the place in 1882 and 1883.* When vis-
ited by Hall and his party, this little group of twenty persons, who
had never seen any other human beings, fancied that the strangers
were ghosts, the souls of their forefathers descending from the
moon or rising from the depths of the abyss. In their eyes the
ships of John Ross were great birds, with huge, flapping wings.

Among the Greenland Eskimo are most frequently found men of
average and even high stature, especially on the east coast. Most
of those on the west side are short, but thick-set and robust, with
short legs, small hands, and a yellowish- white complexion. The
face is broad and flat, the nose very small, the eyes brown and
slightly oblique like the Chinese ; the hair black, lank, and falling
over the forehead ; the expression mild, suggesting that of the seal,
the animal which is ever in their thoughts, and whose death is their
life. They have also the seal's gait and carriage, as well as a
rounded figure well lined with fat to protect it from the cold.
What essentially distinguishes the Eskimo from the Mongolian,
with whom he was till recently affiliated, is the extremely " doli-

* Greely, Three Years of Arctic Service.

3io

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

chocephalous " form of his head, the skull, with its vertical sides
and sharp crest, often affecting a " scaphocephalous " or boat-like
shape. According to Dall, the cranial capacity is higher than that
of the red-skins.

Both sexes are dressed very much alike. European fashions,
however, have already penetrated among the Greenlanders, and
in many districts men are now met wearing the garb of European
laborers, while the women deck themselves with cotton stuffs and
many-colored ribbons. But in winter no costume could advan-
tageously replace their capacious boots, sealskin pantaloons, close-
fitting jacket, and the amaut, or hood which "keeps baby warm/'
In Danish Greenland the women no longer tattoo their chin, cheeks,
hands, or feet, nor do they now insert variegated threads under the
skin, the missionaries having interdicted these " pagan " practices.

Singing, dancing,
the relation of the
old legends, even
athletic games
among the young
people, were also
formerly sternly
repressed. Indul-
gence in strong
drinks is allowed
only once a year,
on the anniversa-
ry of the King of
Denmark, and the
royal monopoly of
the trade with
Greenland is justi-
fied on the ground
that in this way
the importation
of spirits is pre-
vented.

Posses sing-
great natural in-
telligence com-
bined with love
of instruction, the Greenlanders may justly claim to be civilized.
The great majority read and write their mother - tongue, and
sing European melodies, while several speak English or Danish.
Nearly all the families have their little library, and read their
Eskimo newspaper, as well as the collections of national legends,
illustrated with engravings by native artists. Greenland even

Fig. 4.— Greenland Eskimo.

GREENLAND AND THE GREENLANDERS. 311

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3 i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

possesses at least one original work, the account of the voyages
of Hans Hendrik, companion of Kane, Hall, Hayes, and Nares.

Formerly, the right of property was restricted to objects of
personal use, such as clothes and weapons ; the hunting-grounds
belonged to the whole community, and the produce of the chase
or fisheries was equally distributed among all. The rights of
communal property were also regulated and safeguarded by gen-
eral assemblies followed by public banquets. But the Europeans
have changed all that by introducing the principle of sale and
purchase, by enlarging to their own profit the rights of personal
ownership, and proclaiming the new gospel of "every man for
himself." The result is a general impoverishment and moral
degradation of the people. They are no longer like the Eskimo
visited by Graah on the east coast — " the gentlest, the most upright
and virtuous of men." Nevertheless, the language possesses not
a single abusive term, and it is impossible to swear in Eskimo.

The part of Greenland where Eric the Red built his strong-
hold, and where the banished Norsemen flocked around him, is
still one of the least deserted regions, as it also is the most fertile
and temperate. Julianahaab, capital of this district, contains one
fourth of the entire population of the country grouped on the
banks of a small stream in a grassy valley near a deep fiord,
which is unfortunately not easily accessible to shipping.

Upernivik (Upernavik) and Tasiusak, lying still farther north
in 73° 24' north latitude, are the last European settlements in
Greenland, gloomy abodes lost amid the snows at the foot of yel-
lowish or brick-red rocks. In winter the sun sets for eighty days,
yet by a sort of mockery this glacial district bears an Eskimo
name meaning " spring." The horrors of war were extended to
this extremity of the habitable world at the beginning of the
present century, when Upernavik was burned by the English
whalers, and all communication between Greenland and Den-
mark interrupted for the seven years from 1807 to 1814.

The Siamese Government is taking great pains to encourage the speedy develop-
ment of the enormous potential resources of the country, and has sagaciously done
much in that direction. Telegraphs have been established ; schools, hospitals, and
other public buildings have been erected, and are increasing every day. A tramway
company, supported mainly by Siamese capital, is running street cars in the me-
tropolis. A river flotilla company, wholly Siamese, carries the passenger traffic of
the stream on which Bangkok is built ; important gold-mining operations have
been begun by a company, in which a majority of the subscribers are Siamese ;
and a trunk line of railway is under contract. A large and lucrative export
trade in cattle has sprung up ; and mills, docks, and fleets of German and Eng-
lish ships, all doing a flourishing business, attest the prevalence of a spirit of
enterprise.

EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 313

EVOLUTION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS.*

By DAVID STARR. JORDAN,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA.

I.

""VTO one with good eyes and brains behind them has ever
-i-N looked forth on the varied life of the world — on forest or
field or brook or sea — without at least once asking himself this
question : " What is the cause of nature's endless variety ? " We
see many kinds of beasts and birds and trees and flowers and in-
sects and blades of grass, yet when we look closely we find not
one grass-blade in the meadow quite like another blade. Not
one worm is like its fellow-worm, and not one organism in
body or soul is the measure of its neighbor.' You may search
all day to match one clover-leaf, and, should you succeed, even
then you have failed ; for, if the two leaves agree in all physical
respects, they may still be unlike in that which we can not see,
their ancestries, their potentialities. Again, with each change of
conditions, of temperature, of moisture, of space, of time, with
each shifting of environment, the ranga in variety increases.
" Dauer in Wechsel " (persistence in change) ; " this phrase of
Goethe," says Amiel, "is a summing up of nature." And the
naturalist will tell you that the real variety is far greater than
that which appears. He will tell you that, where commonness
seems to prevail, it is the cover of variety. The green cloak
which covers the brown earth is the shelter under which millions
of organisms, brown or green, carry on their life-work.

Each recognizable kind of animal or plant is known in biology
as a species. The number of forms now considered as distinct
species is far beyond the usual conception of those who have not
made a special study of such matters. I have an old book in my
library, the tenth edition of the Systema Naturse, published by
Linngeus in 1758. This book treats of all the species of animals
known a little more than a century ago. In its eight hundred
and twenty-three pages some four thousand different kinds of
animals are named and briefly described. But for every one of
these enumerated by Linnaeus, more than one hundred kinds are
known to the modern naturalist, and the number of species still
unknown doubtless exceeds the number of those already recorded.
Every year for the last quarter of a century there has been pub-
lished in London a plump octavo volume known as the Zoological
Record. Each of these volumes, larger than the whole Systema

* An address delivered before the Chicago Institute, in a course on the Testimony of
Science in regard to Evolution.
vol. xxxvii. — 24-

3 i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Naturae, contains the names of the species new to science added
to our lists during the year of which it treats ; and in the record
of each year we find the names of two or three times as many as
are mentioned in the whole Systema Naturae. Yet the field shows
no signs of exhaustion. As these volumes stand on the shelf
together, it is easy to see that the later volumes are the thickest,
and that the record for the present year is the largest of all. The
additional species named and described in 1889 are more than ten
thousand. Moreover, what is true of the increase of knowledge
in systematic zoology, is even more marked in the case of botany.
Such, then, is the variety of life on the globe — a variety of which
Linnaeus and his successors had never dared to dream.

And yet, great as this variety is, there are, after all, only a few
types of structure among all animals and plants — some three or
four or eight or ten general modes of development — all the rest
being minor variations from these few types.

It is even true that all life is but a series of modifications of a
single plan ; for all organisms are composed of cells, the essential
element of which is always a single substance — protoplasm. All
are governed by the same laws of development, reproduction, and
susceptibility to outside influences. Unity in life is therefore not
less a fact than is life's great diversity. In whatever way we
account for the diversity, the essential unity must not be forgot-
ten. The bonds of unity among organisms constitute what the
naturalist calls homology.

That these resemblances have some deep significance, no
thoughtful student of nature has ever doubted. What this sig-
nificance may be is the underlying question in that branch of
philosophy which has come to be known as evolution.

In the present discussion I shall take for- granted that answer
to these questions which is associated with the name of Darwin ;
and, as a student of the relations and distribution of animals, I
firmly believe that no answer to these questions fundamentally
different from his will ever be possible.

The essence of the Darwinian theory is this, that the various
species of the present day are all derived from pre-existing forms,
more or less unlike them ; that this derivation takes place through
the operation of natural laws — the law of heredity, the law of
response to external stimulus or environment, and the law less
clearly understood by which variations from ancestral types are
constantly produced; the "divine initiative" in the individual
which struggles against sameness and monotony. The constant
tendency of organisms to multiplication by geometric progression
in a world of limited extent, already apparently full, brings about
a constant struggle for existence among these organisms, and by
this struggle, we have the progressive adjustment of individuals

-EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 315

to tlieir environment — an adjustment which is made more and
more complete by the ceaseless destruction of the unadjusted.
According to this theory, the * same causes which have produced
difference of species in the past must be still at work, and must
continue to produce similar differences in the future. To the
theory of derivation is opposed the old idea of " special creation."
But this theory of special creation has never had in science other
than a provisional existence. It was a mere name for a process
not understood. If each of the millions of species of animals and
plants living and extinct came about by a " special creation," then
special creation can not be an operation outside the limits of law.
It is simply the name given in ignorance to the law by which
species are produced. What has been done so many times must
be done in some uniform way. What this way is, the theory of
evolution professes in some degree to define.

The fact is, the theory of development gives the only clew by
which the naturalist can be guided in his work. If the mutual
affinities of species do not depend on the law of heredity, they are
unintelligible. They are impossible. If the variation of species
is really immutability in disguise, we can not trust our senses.
We are left to choose between some form of the development
theory and a hopeless unscientific agnosticism, content with the
surface facts, and ignorant of the laws of which these facts are
the expression.

I do not wish to-night to discuss either the general question of
evolution nor that special theory of the method of evolution
which is associated with the name of the master of modern zool-
ogy. I shall take evolution and Darwinism for granted, and con-
fine myself to a statement of certain facts and principles in the
science of zoogeography and to their bearing on the question of
the origin of species. There are many difficulties in bringing the
facts of this science down to the needs of concrete illustration.
A science so broad as to include all human history at once with
the history of every group of animated organisms can not well be
compressed into a discussion of a single hour. And with this I
may recall the additional difficulty, present in all discussions of
the subject of evolution, of distinguishing single illustrations
from arguments. Isolated cases of geographical variations in
species would not have great value as arguments for the develop-
ment theory were the cases really isolated. The force lies in this
fact, that these cases are typical ; that what may be said of one is
true of a thousand.

In like manner the full force of the laws of homology and he-
redity can only be felt when their effect is cumulative, as in the
mind of the anatomist who has followed each organ through its
protean disguises in a wide range of forms.

316 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Still, again, the force of the argument drawn from embryology
does not come from a knowledge of the changes in a single egg.
All these studies need the second premise, obtained by years of
comparison in different fields of investigation, that no case is iso-
lated. Without this premise, the argument would be incomplete.
The few cases of development or change which can be brought to
popular notice are simply illustrations and not proofs.

As Prof. Bergen has well said, "it is important that we
should understand that none of the kinds of evidence in favor of
evolution loses so much by being represented only by scattered
instances as the argument from distribution." And, conversely,
no argument is so strong when all the known facts are brought
into consideration together. The universal fact of the mutability
of species can be really understood or appreciated only by him by
whose eyes multitudes of species have been seen to change. To
the ordinary observer the species seems constant, just as the face
of a cliff seems constant. To the student of nature mutability is
everywhere. Just as the wind and rain and frost quietly but
surely change the face of a cliff, so do other forces of nature as
quietly but as surely change the face of a species.

And now we may notice that it was precisely this phase of the
subject, the relation of species to geography, which first attracted
the attention of both Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace.

Both these observers noticed that island life is neither strictly
like nor unlike the life of the nearest land, and that the degree of
difference varies with the degree of isolation. Both were led
from this fact to the theory of derivation, and to lay the greatest
stress on the progressive modification resulting from the struggle
for existence.

In the voyage of the Beagle, you remember, Mr. Darwin was
brought in contact with the singular fauna of the Galapagos Isl-
ands, that cluster of volcanic rocks which lies in the open sea
some six hundred miles west of the coast of Equador and Peru.
The sea birds of these islands are essentially the same as those of
the coast of Peru. So with most of the fishes. We can see how
this might well be, for both sea birds and fishes can readily pass
from the one region to the other. But the land birds, as well as
the reptiles, insects, and plants, are mostly peculiar to the islands.
The same species are found nowhere else. But other species very
much like them in all respects are found, and these all live along
the coast of Peru. In the Galapagos Islands, according to Dar-
win's notes, " there are twenty-six land birds ; of these, twenty-one
or perhaps twenty-three are ranked as distinct species, and would
commonly be assumed to have been here created ; yet the close
affinity of most of these birds to American species is manifest in
every character, in their habits, gestures, and tones of voice. So

EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 317

it is with, the other animals and with a large proportion of the
plants. . . . The naturalist, looking at the inhabitants of these
volcanic islands in the Pacific, feels that he is standing on Ameri-
can land."

The question, then, is this : If these species have been created
as we find them on the Galapagos, why is it that they should all
be very similar in type to other animals, living under wholly dif-
ferent conditions, but on a coast not so very far away ? And
again, why are the animals and plants of another cluster of vol-
canic islands — the Cape "Verde Islands — similarly related to those
of the neighboring coast of Africa, and wholly unlike those of the
Galapagos ? If the animals were created to match their condi-
tions of life, then those of the Galapagos should be like those of
Cape Verde, the two archipelagoes being extremely alike in re-
spect to soil, climate, and physical surroundings. If the species
on the islands are products of separate acts . of creation, what is
there in the nearness of the coasts of Africa or Peru to influence
the act of creation so as to cause the island species to be, as it
were, echoes of those on shore ?

If, on the other hand, we should adopt the obvious suggestion
that both these clusters of islands have been colonized by immi-
grants from the mainland, the fact of uniformity of type is ac-
counted for, but what of the difference of species ? If the change
of conditions from continent to island may on the island cause
such great and permanent changes as to form new species from
the old, why may not like changes take place on the mainlands
as well as on the islands ? And if possible on the mainland of
South America, what evidence have we that species are perma-
nent anywhere ? May they not be constantly changing ? May
not what we now consider as distinct species be only the present
phase in the changing history of the series of forms which consti-
tutes the species ?

The study of these and many similar facts can lead to but one
conclusion :

These volcanic islands rose from the sea destitute of land life.
They were settled by the waifs of wind and of storm, birds and
insects blown from the shore by trade winds, lizards carried on
drift-logs and floating vegetation. Of these waifs few came per-
haps in any one year, and few perhaps of those who came made
the islands a home ; yet, as the centuries passed on, suitable inhab-
itants were found. That this is not fancy we know, for we have
the knowledge of many similar transfers. Every one who has
approached our eastern shores by sea in the face of a storm will
realize this. Hosts of land birds — sparrows, warblers, chickadees,
and even woodpeckers — are carried out by the wind, a few fall-
ing exhausted on the decks of ships, a few others falling on

3 i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

off-shore islands, like the Bermudas, the remainder drowned in

the sea.

Of the immigrants to the Galapagos the majority doubtless

die and leave no sign. A few will remain, multiply, and take pos-
session, and their descendants are thus native to the islands. But,
isolated from the great mass of their species and bred under new
surroundings, these island birds come to differ from their parents
and still more from the great mass of the land species of which
their ancestors were members. Separated from these, their indi-
viduality would assert itself. They would assume with new envi-
ronment new friends, new foes, new conditions. They would de-
velop qualities peculiar to themselves— qualities intensified by
isolation. " Migration/' says Dr. Coues, " holds species true ;
localization lets them slip/' This would be more exactly the
truth should we say that localization holds peculiarities true;
migration lets them slip. Local peculiarities disappear by wide
association and are intensified when individuals of similar
peculiarities are kept together. Should later migrations of the
original land species come to the islands, the individuals surviv-
ing would in time form distinct species, or more likely, mixing
with the mass of those already arrived, their special characters
would be lost in those of the majority.

The Galapagos, first studied by Mr. Darwin, serve to us only
as an illustration. The same problems come up in one guise or
another in all questions of geographical distribution, whether of
continent or island.

The relations of the fauna of different regions are intimate in
direct relation to the ease by which barriers may be crossed. Dis-
tinctness is in direct proportion to isolation. What is true in this
regard of the fauna of any region as a whole is likewise true of
any of its individual species. The degree of resemblance among
individuals is in direct proportion to the freedom of their move-
ment, and variation within what we call specific limits is again
proportionate to the barriers which prevent equal and perfect dif-
fusion.

The various divisions or realms into which the surface of the
earth may be divided on the basis of the differences in animal life
each has its boundary in the obstacles offered to the spread of the
average animal. Each species broadens its range as far as it can.
It struggles knowingly or not to overcome the barriers of ocean
or river, of mountain or plain, of woodland or desert, of moist-
ure or drought, of cold or heat, of lack of food or abundance of
enemies, whatever these barriers may be. Were it not for these
barriers, every species would become what only man now is, prac-
tically cosmopolitan. Man is pre-eminently the barrier-crossing
animal. The degree of hindrance offered by any barrier to the

EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 319

extension of species is only relative. That which constitutes an
impassable barrier to some gronps is a high-road to others. The
river which opposes the passage of the monkey or the cat would be
the king's highway to the frog or the turtle. The waterfall which
checks the ascent of the fish would be the chosen home of the
ouzel.

In spite of the great variety among the barriers existing on the
earth, we may divide the globe roughly into five realms or areas
of distribution, having their boundaries in the sea or in differences
of climate. One or two of these realms are sharply defined ; the
others are surrounded by a broad fringe of debatable ground,
which forms a region of transition to some other zone.

The largest of these realms is the holarctic realm, which com-
prises nearly all of Asia, Europe, and North America, the arctic
and north temperate zones. The north temperate zone has prac-
tically a continuous climate, the chief variations being in eleva-
tion and rainfall. The close union of Alaska to Siberia forms an
almost unbroken land area from the eastern coast of America
around to western Europe. To the south the species increase in
number and variety ; the arctic regions are remarkable for what
they lack, yet the general character of the life is almost unbroken
over this vast district. Alfred Kussel Wallace refers to this unity
of northern life in these words :

" When an Englishman travels by the nearest sea route from
Great Britain to northern Japan, he passes by countries very
unlike his own both in aspect and in natural productions. The
sunny isles of the Mediterranean, the sands and date-palms of
Egypt, the arid rocks of Aden, the cocoa-groves of Ceylon, the
tiger-haunted jungles of Malacca and Singapore, the fertile plains
and volcanic peaks of Luzon, the forest-clad mountains of For-
mosa, and the bare hills of China pass successively in review, until
after a circuitous journey of thirteen thousand miles he finds him-
self at Hakodadi in Japan. He is now separated from his start-
ing-point by an almost endless succession of plains and mountains,
arid deserts or icy plateaus ; yet, when he visits the interior of
the country, he sees so many familiar natural objects that he can
hardly help fancying he is close to his home. He finds the woods
and fields tenante'd by tits, hedge-sparrows, wrens, wagtails, larks,
redbreasts, thrushes, buntings, and house-sparrows, some abso-
lutely identical with our own feathered friends, others so closely
resembling them that it requires a practiced ornithologist to tell
the difference. . . . There are also, of course, many birds and in-
sects which are quite new and peculiar, but these are by no means
so numerous or conspicuous as to remove the general impression
of a wonderful resemblance between the productions of such
remote islands as Britain and Yesso " (Island Life).

3 2o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A journey to the southward from Britain or Japan or Illinois,
or any point within the holarctic realm, would show the success-
ive changes in the character of .life, though gradual, to be more
rapid. The barrier of frost which keeps the fauna of the tropics
from encroaching on the northern regions once crossed, we come
on the multitude of animals whose life depends on sunshine, the
characteristic forms of the neotropical realm.

The neotropical realm includes South America, the West In-
dies, and the hot coast-lands of Mexico and Central America. To
the northward, this realm overlaps the holarctic in the transition
regions of Sonora, Arizona, Texas, and Florida ; but to the south-
ward the barrier of the broad ocean keeps it practically distinct
from all others. The richness of this fauna in forms and species
makes the great forests of the Amazon the dream of the natural-
ist. Joaquin Miller gives a vivid picture of the life of tropical

America :

Birds hung and swung, green-robed and red,

Or drooped in curved lines dreamily,

Rainbows reversed from tree to tree,

Or sang — low hanging overhead,

Sang soft as if they sang and slept,

Sang low like some far waterfall,

And took no note of us at all.

Corresponding to the neotropical realm in position, but with a
less rich and varied fauna, is the Ethiopian realm. This includes
the greater part of Africa, merging gradually on the north into
the holarctic realm, through the transition regions of Barbary,
Italy, and Spain. In monkeys, herbivorous mammals, and reptiles,
this region is wonderfully rich. In variety of birds and fishes the
neotropical region far surpasses it.

The Indian realm comprises southern Asia and the neighbor-
ing islands. Its rich fauna has much in common with that of
Africa, and it is, moreover, surrounded by transition districts
which lead on the north to the holarctic, and on the west to the
Ethiopian. On the east the Indian realm is lost in the islands of
Polynesia, which represent each one its own degree of transition
and isolation.

The Australian realm of Australia and its islands is more iso-
lated than any of the others. It shows a singular development of
low types of life, as though in the progress of evolution this con-
tinent had been left a whole geological age behind the others. It
is certain that, could the closely competing fauna of the holarctic
or Indian realms have been able to invade Australia, the dominant
mammals and birds of that region would not have been marsu-
pials and parrots. In the words of Prof. Bergen, "the antiquated
forms of life are found in abundance only in regions where they

EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 321

have been long shut off from communication with the great land
masses." The rapid multiplication which certain holarctic ani-
mals and plants have shown when transported to the Australian
realm, demonstrates what might have taken place if impassable
barriers had not previously shut them out.

Each of these great realms may be indefinitely subdivided into
provinces and sections, for there is no end to the possibility of
analysis. No township or school district has exactly the same
animals or plants as any other ; and, finally, in ultimate analysis
no two animals or plants are alike. Modification comes with the
growth of each new individual, and steadily increases with the
individual's separation in time or space from the parent stock.
Moreover, we observe apparent anomalies of distribution in every
realm : here appears an animal, there a plant, which seems to have
a character or a place which it ought not to hold. To the result
of unexpected or chance crossing of barriers these apparent anom-
alies in geographical distribution are due. Anomalies in distri-
bution, like anomalies in evolution, would cease to be such if we
knew all the facts and circumstances of their previous history.
The present range of the tapir in Farther India and in the north-
ern part of South America, two widely separated regions, is at
first sight an anomaly of distribution. This anomaly disappears
when we know that formerly the tapir ranged over the holarctic
realm and became gradually extinct with the changing climate.
The bones of a tapir, much like one of the South American species,
are found in recent clays in Indiana (Ellettsville), and similar re-
mains exist in France, in China, and in Burmah. The isolated,
unexterminated colonies are now left at the extremes of the ani-
mal's former range, and these colonies at present constitute what
we call distinct species.

The more extended are our studies the fewer are the anomalies
which arrest our attention, and the fewer are the distinctive or
characteristic forms. There is little foundation for the current
belief that each species of animal has originated in the area it
now occupies, for in many cases our knowledge of paleontology
shows the reverse of this to be true. Even more incorrect is the
belief that each species occupies the district or the surroundings
best fitted for its habitation. This is manifest in the fact of
the extraordinary fertility and persistence shown by many kinds
of animals and plants in taking possession of new lands, which
have become, through the voluntary or involuntary interference
of man, open to their invasion. Facts of this sort are the " enor-
mous increase of rabbits and pigs in Australia and New Zealand,
of horses and cattle in South America, and of the sparrow in
North America, though in none of these cases are the animals
natives of the countries in which they thrive so well " ("Wallace).

322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The persistent spreading of European weeds to the exclusion of
our native plants is a fact too well known to every farmer in
America, The constant movement westward of the white- weed
and the Canada thistle marks the steady deterioration of our
grass -fields. Especially noteworthy has been this change in
Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand the weeds of
Europe, toughened by centuries of struggle, have won an easy
victory over the native plants. Edward Wakefield, in his history
of New Zealand, says that " many animals and birds acquire
peculiarities in the new country which would indeed astonish
those accustomed to them in the old. They usually run to a
much larger size and breed oftener. They also take to strange
kinds of food. Birds deemed granivorous at home become in-
sectivorous here, and vice versa. Some learn the habits of the
native species. Skylarks imitate the native wagtail, and may
often be seen perching on fences and telegraph wires. They
sing in the night-time, too, a thing unheard of in the old country,
and doubtless acquired from the nocturnal habits of New Zealand
birds."

The European house-fly in New Zealand has completely extir-
pated the large blue-bottle fly which was formerly a source of
great annoyance to the settlers. An account is given of a farmer
who filled a bottle with house-flies and carried them eighty miles
into the country, liberating them one by one, in the vicinity of his
sheep-folds, in order to let them take the place of the native flies.

It is said that red clover would not grow in New Zealand un-
til bumble-bees were introduced to fertilize its flowers. "Wake-
field estimates that the introduction of these large wild bees has
been worth five million dollars to the farmers in New Zealand.

Dr. Hooker states that, in New Zealand, " the cow-grass has
taken possession of the road-sides ; dock- and water-cress choke
the rivers, the sow-thistle is spread all over the country, growing
luxuriantly up to six thousand feet ; white clover in the mount-
ain districts displaces the native grasses," and the native (Maori)
saying is, ' ' As the white man's rat has driven away the native
rat, as the European fly drives away our own, and the clover
kills our fern, so will the Maoris disappear before the white man
himself" (E. L. Youmans).

As among some characteristic survivals of the Celts in Hampshire, England,
Mr. T. W. Shore mentions the round huts of the charcoal-burners, resembling
those which were common in the Celtic period; the art cf osier-working or
basket-making ; the mounds on which many ancient churches are built, which
were probably sacred sites of those people ; and the peculiar orientation of many
churches twenty degrees north of east, which is supposed to have been derived
from the pagan Celtic reverence for the May-day sunrise.

CONCERNING CORPORATION LAW. 323

CONCERNING CORPORATION LAW.

By AMOS G. WARNER,

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA..

IF ten Americans desire to engage in ten distinct business enter-
prises, it is conceivable that they will incorporate ten joint-
stock companies, and each, belong to all of them. While other
countries have granted the privilege of existence to private cor-
porations with extreme caution, if not reluctance, the many Legis-
latures of the United States have vied with one another in making
it easy for them to be born. To adapt words heretofore applied
to another matter : " The whole system of the free incorporation
of private companies in the United States, with all its excellences
and all its defects, is thoroughly characteristic of the American
people. It grew up untrammeled by any theory as to how it ought
to grow, and developed with mushroom rapidity."

We have no " system " of corporation law in this country ; we
have, instead, a tangled mass of statutes, which is yet further
amended and ensnarled at the recurring sessions of our various
Legislatures. We have a still larger mass of judicial decisions,
which all the ingenuity and industry of the many writers on the
subject can never quite systematize and reduce to order. Even
when this feat may be approximately accomplished for a moment,
the growth of judge-made law is so rapid that any treatise is
speedily out of date. A redeeming feature of the situation is that
the mimetic tendencies of our States lead the new ones to follow
the examples set by the older, and thus a certain degree of uni-
formity is introduced into the different codes of law. The many
sources of legislation also make it possible that a large amount
of experimenting may be done without danger to the country
as a whole. The immediate and disastrous consequences of the
Granger railroad laws were thus limited to a few States in the
Northwest, while their more general influence, as examples of
what can but should not be done, has been of use to the whole
country. One railroad president has gone so far as to say that in
their results these laws have made a solution of the railroad prob-
lem possible.

The diversity of regulation has two effects — one commend-
able, the other not. The first is that when companies do busi-
ness in all or many of the States at once, and in any line, like
that of insurance, where ascertained corporate soundness is the
best advertisement, a good code of laws in any one State makes
the fact that a company does business there a helpful recom-
mendation. The Massachusetts law regulating insurance is an

3 24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

example of this. Its stringent requirements do not hamper the
companies of that State, but are, on the other hand, an introduc-
tion and a guarantee that distinctly aid the Massachusetts com-
panies when they carry their operations into other common-
wealths. The same influence is apparently at work in the case of
mortgage investment companies ; a few of the "best established
among them priding themselves on complete and ostentatious
compliance with the rigid but wise laws regarding publicity of
accounts.

The second effect of the diverse rules regarding corporations
in the different States operates in an exactly opposite direction.
Since it is quite well established that a corporation may incor-
porate in one State and do all its business in another or others,
there is a tendency for dishonest companies to take out charters
in that State which bothers them with the fewest restrictions. A
charter granted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania incorporating
a company to do business in any State except Pennsylvania was
held to be void; the Kansas court holding that no interstate
comity permitted one commonwealth "to spawn corporations"
upon other States which it would not allow to operate within its
own borders. But the same thing is accomplished if a State, by
a general act, permits companies to organize without specifying
the place of business. Under some laws one corporation is not
allowed to hold the stock of another ; but, on the other hand, there
are States that will willingly incorporate a company for the ex-
press purpose of holding the stocks of other companies. This is
a very convenient fact when a " trust " is to be formed. A State
noted for the laxity of its laws in this regard can serve as the
birthplace of any number of companies. At present, according
to Mr. W. W. Cook, " the snug harbor of roaming and piratical
corporations is the little State of West Virginia. Under its laws
a corporation may be created for any purpose for which a part-
nership may be formed, except speculation in land ; the capital
stock may be five millions of dollars or less ; there is no tax ex-
cept fifty dollars annually ; residents or non-residents, aliens or
citizens, may be directors; the principal place of business and
directors' or stockholders' meetings may be in or out of the State ;
there is no liability of directors or stockholders except on unpaid
subscriptions, and no public reports are required. . . . The incor-
poration of companies for the purpose of enabling them to do all
their business in other States seems to be one of the chief indus-
tries of West Virginia." States can only guard themselves against
the invasion of hordes of these irresponsible artificial persons by
strict statutory regulation of " foreign corporations," but for the
most part they have not taken any general precautions of this
character.

CONCERNING CORPORATION LAW. 325

Besides the defects in the corporation law of the United States
which originate in its formless heterogeneity, there are other spe-
cific evils quite generally present, which it seems not impossible
to lessen. It is the purpose of this rJaper to present suggestions,
drawn from the experience of this and other countries, regarding
four points that seem to be of strategic importance in the reform
of corporation law :

1. The prevention of "frauds in founding" (Grundungs-
schwindeln). It is a suggestive fact that we have in English no
recognized equivalent of the German word here parenthetically
introduced. Neither is the English term " promoters " commonly
used by American writers. Our examination of the problems of
corporate management has been so superficial that we must make
or borrow a nomenclature when we wish to discuss the evils con-
nected immediately with the creation of companies. Yet a large
portion of the evils connected with the existence of corporations
originate at just this point. Men organize companies, at times,
for the sole purpose of unloading upon them an unprofitable busi-
ness. Let the experience of Eastern capitalists with Western
mining stocks be put in evidence, and no one will question this
statement. Mining companies with a nominal capital of fifty
million dollars that have never declared a dividend are not un-
common ; and very frequently the stock of mammoth companies
sells at one cent on the dollar for some time before it becomes
worthless. But the experience in mining is only an extreme case
of what takes place in many departments of industry.

In England, turning thither solely because the facts have
there been made accessible and have not in this country, it is
found that certain men make a business of acting as " promoters."
They are skilled in the writing of prospectuses of companies, and
know all the arts by which stock can be sold. They devote their
energies especially to small companies and small investors. For
a time their activity was turned largely to organizing " single-
ship companies," the shares of which could be placed among
country parsons, serving- women, and other classes of small in-
vestors likely to know very little about commerce, and therefore
likely to believe anything a well-printed " prospectus " might tell
them. Many of these small companies never went so far as to
build even a single ship, but enough ships were built by them to
materially increase the number of " ocean tramps," and to call for
much adverse criticism from the committee appointed "to in-
vestigate the loss of life at sea." The " commission appointed to
inquire into the depression of trade " also had much to say of the
influence of the creation of such great numbers of limited liability
companies, of the direct loss to investors, and of the general de-
moralization of trade resulting from it. In fact, many English

326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

investigators have laid great emphasis on the idea that over-
speculation is due largely to the formation of joint-stock com-
panies that have no real excuse for existence except the further-
ance of the personal aims of the " promoters." It is a little curi-
ous that, among the three hundred real or alleged causes of " hard
times/' brought to the attention of our National Bureau of Labor,
the reckless creation of limited liability concerns was not men-
tioned. In 1886 a writer estimated that there were afloat in the
English stock market fully two billion pounds of speculative
securities, of which at least a fourth were mere gambling count-
ers. It is to such a state of things that a recent law review at-
tributes the fact that real investors now shun the stock exchange,
and speculative operators are compelled to live on the plan of
" dog eat dog."

The stock exchanges of this country have had a somewhat
similar experience, and the self-limiting nature of the speculation
fever is indicated by the fall in value of a place in the Chicago
Stock Exchange of three thousand dollars within a few years.
As yet few steps have been taken to restrain the incorporation of
absurd or fraudulent companies. Wasteful and semi-piratical
paralleling of railroad lines is encouraged ; incipient railroads
are preyed upon by construction companies ; companies of all
sorts are bound hand and foot by the contracts entered into by
an initial board of directors, and are brought into existence that
they may be so bound.

None of the leading commercial countries seem to be quite
satisfied with the attempts they have made to remedy such evils
as these. Germany allows definite payment from the corporation
funds for the trouble and expense properly incurred by the men
who organize a joint-stock company, but guards very carefully
against the illicit gains too often made by "promoters." The pro-
visions for registering new companies are especially stringent in
all cases where a private business or factory is to be sold to a cor-
poration organized to buy and manage it. The fullest possible
publicity is sought regarding all the initial acts of a new com-
pany, and some matters where the first decision must be final are
reserved for a second meeting of the stockholders. Shares may
run either to " bearer " or to a particular name. The latter can
not be issued for a less amount than fifty thaler per share and the
former for less than one hundred thaler per share. By forbidding
the issue of shares of less amount; it is hoped to make investors
consider more carefully the subject of investing, and to prevent
the floating of small shares in worthless companies among the
class of very small investors, who are most likely to be swindled.
Some companies designed to engage in what are considered espe-
cially hazardous enterprises are forbidden to issue shares of less

CONCERNING CORPORATION LAW. 327

than one thousand marks each. The opinion of the United
States consul-general at Frankfort-on-the-Main is that all these
restrictions have not availed to prevent a regular "incorpora-
tion fever," from which he expects 'very disastrous results ere

long.

In France there has been some agitation in favor of returning
to the old system in operation till' 1863 of " special concessions r
by which the right to organize a joint-stock company was a favor
granted by the Government, and not a right conferred by general
statute. The weight of authority and influence is, however,
against this retrograde movement. Leroy-Beaulieu, in consid-
ering it, recalls the fact that the prefect of police of Louis Phi-
lippe refused Leclaire permission to organize the great profit-
sharing company which was afterward established with signal
success and which still bears his name. Leroy-Beaulieu adds,
" We can bear the guardianship of law, but not of government."
Certainly there should be no wish in this country to go back to
the old system of special legislative charter, under which men
made a business of lobbying for charters which were afterward
sold to the highest bidder. One of the things upon which we
can especially congratulate ourselves is of having got rid of this
old source of legislative corruption, which gave us our wild-cat
banks, and numberless other reasons for dreading it.

Our own experience may help us in dealing with frauds in
founding if we will stop to consider the difference between the
old State banks and our present national banks. The greater
security of the latter comes largely from detailed legislation
which prescribes the conditions under which artificial persons,
designed for the transaction of a given business, will be permitted
to be born. What we need at present as regards miscellaneous
corporations is fuller knowledge of all the facts connected with
their history, and especially of their genesis. Massachusetts is
the only State that has collected statistics of private corporations
at all comparable with those of the English register of joint-stock
companies. Most of the States provide that all new corporations
shall register with more or less fullness ; but this is either a mere
formality negligently performed, or else its sole object is to bring
the corporation within reach of the tax-gatherer. The record is
usually not published, or in some cases, as in Ohio, there is no way
to trace in the published returns the outcome of the enterprises
whose beginning is chronicled. In fact, our greatest need in pre-
venting frauds in founding, as in preventing most other evils con-
nected with corporate management, is completer publicity, and, as
one result of this, fuller statistical data.

2. The proper regulation of the borrowing power. It has
been stated on good authority, but is not true, that the evils of

328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

corporate management of property began when it was found that
corporations could borrow. Abuse of the borrowing power is cer-
tainly a very common sin among artificial persons, and especially
among American railways. When the holders of a small amount
of stock, only partially paid in, build a road with borrowed money,
the limitation of their liability shields them from personal loss ;
while their power of voting themselves salaries, and of concluding
profitable contracts either with themselves or friends, gives them
great opportunities for personal profit irrespective of the success
of the road. The last report of the statistician of the Interstate
Commerce Commission shows that many of the minor and branch
lines of the country have been built wholly with borrowed money
—that is, they are bonded to their full cost value. Many of the
longer and independent roads are bonded at half to three fourths
of their entire capitalization. The total bonded debt of the rail-
roads of the United States is actually greater than the total of
their share capital ; and this, although the amount of water in the
stocks is much larger than in the bonds. As the possession of the
majority of the stock gives control over all the capital invested
in the roads, it follows, from the figures given in the statistician's
report, that the ownership of 81,932,234,128, or 2377 per cent of the
total railway capital, insures complete direction over $8,129,787,731
of railway capital, or 136,883*53 miles of line. Massachusetts law
forbids the bonding of a road to an amount exceeding the total of
paid-up share capital, and this regulation is being introduced by
other States. To forbid the issue of bonds that must be sold below
par has been found to limit unsatisfactorily legitimate enterprises,
but the effect of such a regulation is thought to be good if applied
with care to specific classes of corporations. As to what is best
in this matter, as in those that have gone before, we need more
definite information.

3. How to secure a more representative and more responsible
directorate. In regard to the election of directors it may be said
that one device to prevent the tyranny of a majority of the stock-
holders has been frequently tried, and another frequently recom-
mended. The former plan is to limit the number of votes which
any one person may cast. In Massachusetts no person except a
municipal corporation can vote over one tenth of the capital stock
of a railroad corporation. The trouble with this plan, and the
variations of it that have been tried, is that evasion is too easy.
Dummy stockholders are very easy to manufacture, and it is diffi-
cult to unmask them. The much-recommended device for accom-
plishing a similar purpose is that of cumulative voting. By this
device a shareholder is allowed to cast as many votes for any one
director as the number of his shares, multiplied by the number of
directors to be elected at the given time. Nebraska has a provision

CONCERNING CORPORATION LAW. 329

of this sort in her Constitution, but the domestic corporations in
the State have not had a sufficient development to thoroughly test
its influence. It will probably do but little good to secure minori-
ty representation on the board of directors, unless the laws are so
drawn as to limit the tyranny of a majority of the directors. The
State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore have derived but
scant benefit from their privilege of appointing a minority of the
directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. But if minority
representation be backed by the proper legislation governing the
actions of the directors, there is no doubt that it is an efficient
way of checking the misdeeds of stock majorities. .

In Germany there is a second body chosen, under special rules,
by the stockholders, known as the board of supervisors (Auf-
sichtsrath). This board has the fullest possible power of inves-
tigation and report, but very little power of any other kind.
Its usefulness must obviously depend on the rules governing
its selection, since, if so chosen as to have interests wholly in
common with the directors, it would be of no use as a check
upon them.

Turning to the question of responsibility, we find that in this
country the principle of limited liability is almost invariably the
same for the director as for an ordinary stockholder, though the
director is personally liable for all illegal or unauthorized acts.
There has been a great deal of agitation of late for the introduc-
tion of the French plan of protecting ordinary stockholders by
the grant of limited liability, but leaving the directors liable for
the corporate debts to the full amount of their respective fortunes.
The experience of France with these societes en commandite has
proved that responsible men can be found to manage any legiti-
mate enterprise under this plan. A recent English act permits
the formation of such companies in England, but the companies
decline to adopt this principle under mere permissive legislation.
To make this form of organization mandatory upon certain select-
ed classes of our corporations is an experiment that ought to be
tried, and is much better than going back to the old plan of un-
limited liability for stockholders, as California has done.

Under the head of the responsibility of the directors must also
be treated the question of the relation of the corporation to its
employe's. Albert Fink one day called together the presidents of
certain roads he was trying to organize for their mutual good,
and told the gentlemen who responded to his call that he wanted
them all to resign. He further explained that this was advisable
in order that their general freight agents might thereafter be
nominally, as then actually, in charge of the several properties.
The Interstate Commerce Association went down very largely be-
cause the " gentlemen " who were partners to the agreement could

vol. xxxvii. — 25

33 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not or would not control their subordinates. Part of this alleged
powerlessness is no doubt assumed that the head may escape re-
sponsibility for the action of the members, but part of it is quite
certainly genuine. The development in bulk of the ponderous
artificial beings has exceeded the development of their nervous sys-
tems, and the monsters can only sprawl and plunge instead of go-
ing forward to a definite end. This condition, however, is progress-
ively cured by automatic processes. We have as yet no economic
treatise on corporation by-laws in general, but well-recognized
rules are developing for the organization of specific classes of cor-
porations.

In the narrower view the relation of the corporation to its em-
ploye's is merely a question of wages, of strikes, and lock-outs, and
of relative losses from these disturbances to employers and em-
ployed. The statistics of strikes and lock-outs collected by our
National Bureau of Labor show that almost the only industry in
which the losses inflicted by strikes are heavier on the employers
than on the men is that of transportation. The undetermined
losses inflicted upon the general public by this class of strikes
must be also especially large. Two ways of dealing with these
evils have been tried in Europe, either of which seems to be a par-
tial remedy, but neither of which seems likely to commend itself
to Americans. The first is to impose a heavy per diem fine or
even forfeiture of charter upon any corporation that fails to per-
form its public functions. This forces the company to make terms
of some kind with the strikers. When strikers in this country
have tried to secure the forfeiture of charters through the courts,
on the ground that the companies did not discharge their public
functions, they have met with little success, though in some cases
a street-car company has thought it necessary to insist on running
a single car each day in order to secure its charter against at-
tack on this ground. The second European method of guarding
the public against the loss of strikes is to make it a misdemeanor
for any employe* to quit work without giving (say) five days' no-
tice. The trial of this method has been advocated in this country,
but it may be doubted if our system of police could be relied on
to enforce such a law, or if, at the critical time, public opinion
would indorse it. That the great corporations see the necessity
of acting in the matter, so as to avert the danger that continually
hangs over them and the public, is seen in the rapid development
of relief associations and other devices for making the position
of the employe* more stable than it has ever yet been in this coun-
try. The President of the Union Pacific Road has advocated the
withholding from subordinate officials of the arbitrary power of
dismissing the men, the object being to make the men an integral
part of the corporation, and to give them security in their posi-

CONCERNING CORPORATION LAW. 331

tions during good conduct, and a prospect of promotion if espe-
cially efficient. The problems that our Government must con-
front in the matter of civil-service reform are also to be dealt with
by our corporations, and the conditions are enough alike so that
the experience of each may serve for the guidance of both.

4. Adequate publicity of corporate transactions. The need of
thorough publicity of corporation accounts has been already
dwelt on at some length. Nearly all the abuses to which corpo-
rate management of property is liable originate and wax mighty
only when concealed. On the other hand, secrecy, even when it
does not cloak abuses, is commonly suspected of doing so. Most
of the unreasoning and unreasonable attacks on corporations have
been made when those in charge of the corporations insisted on
the privilege of keeping their affairs entirely to themselves. The
advantages of business secrecy to the individual business man
who practices it are abundantly manifest, but its advantages to
the public at large, while also manifest, are countervailed by very
serious disadvantages. Experience seems to have demonstrated
quite conclusively that a being at once so vulnerable and so pow-
erful as a corporation can not afford to keep its affairs entirely to
itself, and if it could afford to do so the public can not afford to
let it. There is said to be a strong tendency toward " socialism "
in this wresting of business secrets from the great managers of
the world's industries, and bringing the most private of business
transactions to the bar of public opinion. Many will no doubt
answer that " the charge is true, and we glory in its truth." Many
more will be inclined to say, with the present writer, that, while
this objection should be given its due force, it has not nearly
force enough to overrule the strong necessities of the case. The
chief danger that legitimate enterprises have to fear from com-
plete publicity is that of overtaxation. The wealth of the cor-
porations lying fully exposed to public view, it is so easy for the
politician to fill the public coffers from that source that we
already find certain classes of corporations driven out of certain
States by excessive taxation. But it may be doubted whether tax-
ation is as likely to be excessive when the state of a company's ac-
counts is definitely known, as when the politician and his constitu-
ents are free to draw upon their imaginations for the amount of
wealth in the corporate coffers. In other words, it seems probable
that in this country, as yet, we have less to fear from willful injus-
tice than from mutual misunderstandings begotten of secrecy on
the one hand, and suspicion on the other. European countries are
distinctly ahead of us in this matter. They have by no means
solved all the problems connected with the corporate manage-
ment of property, but they have at least collected more of the
data that will make a solution possible.

33 2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When, in 1873, Adolph Wagner read before the German Verein
fiir Socialpolitik an elaborate paper on joint-stock companies, he
made many suggestions as to the reform of corporation law. But
he concluded by defending the thesis that, while the reform of
corporation law was indispensable, this alone, however perfectly
accomplished, could not suffice to eliminate the evils of corporate
management of property ; he contended that corporations must
continue to be mischievous until they are restricted to a narrower
field of activity than that now occupied by them ; that the state,
in its various branches, must assume control of those enterprises
that are of necessity monopolies.

To the interminable discussion recalled by the name of Wag-
ner and the mention of his thesis it is here desired to contribute
but a single suggestion. Spencer and others dwell always upon
the distinction between " compulsory co-operation " through the
state, which is said to be characteristic of a " militant regime"
and " voluntary co-operation " through private associations, which
is said to be the proper thing under an " industrial regime." ISTow,
is it not true that the distinction between these two kinds of " co-
operation " is fading out ? Co-operation can be wholly " volun-
tary " only when isolation is a possible alternative. Is not indus-
trial isolation becoming almost as impossible as political isola-
tion ? Co-operation through the state is becoming less and less
" compulsory " in the old significance of the term, because it is
becoming more and more possible to choose what government we
will live under. This comes from increased facilities, both physi-
cal and legal, for moving from one state to another. Formerly,
a man must obey the state under which he was born ; his " co-
operation " with it was, indeed, compulsory. Now, expatriation
is a comparatively simple and pleasant alternative to obedience.
States and nations are coming to compete with each other for
desirable citizens, as producers of services or commodities for-
merly competed with each other for purchasers. There can be
no doubt that Bismarck's hand was less heavy upon Germany
because so many of her citizens emigrated, and so many more
of them might have emigrated to this or other countries. Within
the States and cities of our own republic we see our Legislatures
and town councils continually coerced by considerations of at-
tracting or retaining desirable classes of citizens. It is easier to
escape from the power of the Legislature of Pennsylvania than
from the influence of the Pennsylvania Railroad ; it is easier to
get beyond the reach of the tax-gatherers of all our States than
to cease to pay tribute to the Standard Oil Company or to the
anthracite coal pool. The point may be restated thus: The
^coming servitude" to which we are advancing through the
increasing dominance of the state will be modified by the power

INSECT PESTS OF THE HOUSE. 333

of the individual to choose what state he will serve. On the
other hand, industrial co-operation, in its broadest sense, is be-
coming more and more compulsory ; the distinction, therefore,
between "voluntary" and "involuntary" "co-operation" is of
ever-lessening importance.

-+++-

INSECT PESTS OF THE HOUSE.

By Miss MAEGAEETTE W. BEOOKS.

THE various insects which infest the dwelling have been from
time immemorial a trial to careful housekeepers. Just as out
of doors the gardener is constantly employed in protecting plants
of all kinds from the ravages of insects, so in the house there is a
perpetual warfare carried on against these indoor pests. Some eat
holes in our clothes, others destroy carpets and hangings, while
still others are attracted by the food in our pantries and store-
rooms.

Unless one has watched the habits of insects and studied their
development, it is hard to realize that in their mode of growth they
differ from the other animals with which we are familiar. By
some it is supposed that an insect grows as a bird or a cat grows
— that is, by imperceptible increase in size, with no marked change
in form. With this idea it is not strange that a tiny fly should be
thought a young fly that will gradually grow bigger, or that a
large fly should be supposed to have lived some time to have at-
tained such size. It is a fact fairly well understood that moths
and butterflies pass through several changes between the egg and
the perfect insect, and that the caterpillar, or worm, as it is more
often called, seen feeding in our gardens, or crawling over side-
walks or fences in search of a convenient spot in which to under-
go its transformations, will before long assume a totally differ-
ent appearance ; it is not so generally known, however, that in
the larger number of insects the change is nearly if not quite as
great.

Among the insects which infest our houses we find representa-
tives of most of the various orders of insects, and a study of these
forms alone would prove of interest and value. Their habits are
well known to the housekeeper, and so in many cases is their ap-
pearance in one or more stages ; but a history of their life from the
egg to the perfect insect is still a mystery to many people, and it
is to these that the following pages may be of interest. In this
article attention is called only to the more common insect pests of
the house.

Clothes-Moth (Tinea pellionella). — One of the commonest of

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

household pests is this little moth. Most housekeepers are famil-
iar with the different stages of its growth, and all are aware
of the fact that it is not the little delicate silvery moth that does
the damage, except indirectly by laying its eggs in our woolen
garments.

The moth, measuring less than half an inch across its spread
wings, easily makes its way through the smallest crevices, and
unless care is taken in the spring and summer we may find gar-
ments that have been
carefully laid away in
boxes and drawers, as
well as clothes hanging
in closets, are infested
by this creature. As a
general rule, the worm
deb a seems to prefer partial-

Fig. 1.— Clothes-Moth, a, the moth (natural size) ; b, larva ; ly worn and Soiled gar-
c, case ; d, pupa (b, c, and d are enlarged).* n , n

ments to new cloth.

Early in the spring garments should be well beaten and
brushed to dislodge the moths or any eggs that may have been
deposited in the folds of the cloth, and then hung in the air and
sun for a while.

When possible, garments should be folded in paper, leaving no
chance for the moth to enter ; large paper bags being convenient
for this purpose. Camphor-wood or red-cedar chests are valuable
in protecting articles which can not easily be wrapped in paper, as
the odor of these woods is disagreeable to the moth ; and when
these are not to be had, oil of cedar poured on paper, which is then
rolled up so that the oil shall not grease the garments, will make
an ordinary box moth-proof. These rolls of paper should be scat-
tered through the box and should be renewed two or three times
during the spring and summer. It is said that black pepper or
whole cloves sprinkled among woolen clothes will prevent the
moth from depositing its eggs, as will also pieces of tallow
wrapped in paper, and the odor of carbolic acid, turpentine, or
benzine is very offensive to the moth. Camphor, as is well
known, is beneficial in keeping away moths, but should never be
placed near seal-skin, as it causes this fur to change color, show-
ing streaks of gray or yellow. The great secret in taking care of
furs is said to be frequent and thorough beating, the furs being
kept in close closets lined with tar-paper.

It has been said that the odor of tobacco is disagreeable, but in
the experience of some it has seemed rather to attract than to re-

* Figs. 1, 5, and 6 are from Our Common Insects, by Prof. A. S. Packard, and we are
indebted to the kindness of the author for permission to use them.

INSECT PESTS OF THE HOUSE. 335

pel the moths. In more than one case it was found that clothes
belonging to men using no tobacco were free from the attacks of
moths, while in the pockets of -those who smoked constantly were
found both eggs and larvae mixed with bits of tobacco, the gar-
ments having been eaten in various places. Of course, this is not
an absolute proof of the inefficacy of tobacco, as there may have
been other causes of attraction, and fresh, clean tobacco may, after
all, be found effectual.

The larvae or the eggs can be killed by putting the article in
which they are found in a tightly closed vessel, and plunging it
for a short time into boiling water, or it can be placed in an oven
heated to a temperature of 150° Fahr.

It is hardly necessary to describe the moth, which, although
so small, is easily recognized as an enemy by most housewives,
though in many cases little moths of various species attracted to
our rooms by the lamp-light in the evening are often mistaken
for the clothes-moth and destroyed. It may be well to state that
the clothes-moth rarely flits about the light.

Soon after the moth issues from the cocoon the female finds its
way to the substance suitable for food for its young, and upon this
material it lays fifty or more eggs. In about a week the egg is
hatched, and almost immediately the worm begins to eat, and not
only uses for food the fibers of the article upon which the egg was
laid, but also makes of the material a covering for itself — a little
tube in which it lives, spinning for a lining the softest silk, which
it emits from glands in the head. From time to time, as the little
worm grows, it enlarges its case, either by adding to the ends or
by cutting with its sharp jaws little slits in the sides of the case,
filling in the space between the edges with the substance nearest
at hand, forming a neat patch. Not content with eating and
making a shelter for itself of the cloth upon which it lives, the
little worm cuts through the cloth as it makes its way in various
directions, dragging its case after it. If the case is torn from it,
or in any way injured, it soon makes a new one or patches the old.
After a while, at the approach of warm weather, the little worm
closes the ends of its case and changes to a pupa or chrysalis,
and in two or three weeks the moth appears.

Buffalo-Bug (Anthrenus scrophularice). — Within fifteen or
twenty years there has appeared a new addition to the already
long list of injurious insects introduced into this country from
Europe. Although called a bug, which is the name commonly
applied to all insects having inconspicuous wings, it is in reality
a beetle, and why the name buffalo is applied is not known for a
certainty ; some say it was first noticed in this country in the city
of Buffalo, New York, while one writer says it was named from
its fancied resemblance to a buffalo. Whatever may be the

33 6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

reason for this name, and however inapt it may be, it is known
more commonly by it than by its more proper name of " carpet-
beetle."

The larva which does the damage measures when full grown
about three sixteenths of an inch in length. It is covered with
hairs, the longest ones being on the last segment of the body,
forming a sort of tail. It makes no cocoon, but when full grown
remains quiet for a short time, then the skin splits along the back

Fig. 2.— Cabpet-Beetle. a, larva, upper side; 6, larva, under side; c, pupa; d, perfect insect
(after Riley). The straight lines at the sides show the actual length of each form.

and the pupa is seen. It continues in this state for a few weeks,
when the skin of the pupa bursts and the perfect insect is dis-
closed — a beautiful little beetle, less than an eighth of an inch in
length, marked with red, black, and white. From October until
spring the beetles may be found in all stages of growth — that is to
say, in the larval, pupal, and perfect states.

It is found that few of the usual preventives are of any use
against the attacks of this beetle, and for this reason it is a diffi-
cult pest to eradicate. In some places it has proved so destructive
that carpets have to be dispensed with, and in their place rugs are
used, as being more conveniently examined.

Tallow or tallowed paper placed around the edges of the car-
pet, which are often the parts first attacked, is said to be effectual.
In many cases the carpets are cut, as if with scissors, following
the line of the seams in the floor, and as a remedy for this it has
been recommended that the seams be filled during the winter with
cotton saturated with benzine. Kerosene, naphtha, or gasoline are
offensive to the beetle as well as benzine, but benzine is perhaps
the simplest and safest preventive to use. It can be poured from
a tin can having a very small spout, it being necessary to use but
little.

Before tacking down a carpet it should be thoroughly ex-
amined, and if possible steamed. If in spite of precautions a car-

INSECT PESTS OF THE HOUSE.

337

pet is found infested, a wet cloth, can be spread down along the
edges, and a hot iron passed over it, the steam thus generated
not only killing the beetles and larva?, but destroying any eggs
that may have been laid. Clothing is sometimes attacked as
well as objects of natural history — such as stuffed birds and
mammals.

It was believed that the beetle must feed on some plant, for in
a number of cases it was captured out of doors, and it was finally
discovered feeding on the pollen of the flowers of spiraeas, the
beetle living on the plant for a while and then returning to the
house to lay its eggs. When this was proved, it was suggested
that spiraeas should be planted around houses infested by the
beetle ; by doing this the plants could be often examined and the
beetles destroyed.

Cockroaches (Blattidce). — Among the Orthoptera, to which
order this family belongs, we find a different mode of transforma-
tion. Were it not for its small size and the absence of wings, the
young would closely resem-
ble the parent, and, after
molting or changing its
skin several times, it reach-
es maturity without having
passed through a stage in
which it keeps perfectly
quiet, as in the case of the
moth and beetle.

The eggs of the cockroach
are carried about in a lit-
tle case by the female, and
when these eggs are ready
to hatch, this case is dropped ; and it is said by some writers that
the little ones are helped out by the mother. Just after the young
come from the egg, and after each molt, they are white, but the
usual color is brown or black. They molt five or six times before
reaching maturity.

Cockroaches are very troublesome, eating anything that comes
in their way ; are unpleasant to look upon, and are specially dis-
gusting to us on account of their disagreeable odor.

The large cockroach (Periplaneta orienialis), or "black beetle,"
as it is sometimes called, might in some cases be not unwelcome,
as it acts as a scavenger, keeping the corners of the rooms it fre-
quents clean, and furthermore it feeds on that most disgusting of
pests, the bed-bug. Though this is said in its favor, we think
there is no doubt that the remedy might be thought as bad as the
disease, and it would be considered more agreeable to find some
other way of exterminating the bed-bug ; and most people would

25*

Fig. 3. — Cockroach, a, male ; b, female.

338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

prefer having their corners cleaned in the ordinary way, with
soap and water ; nevertheless, it is sometimes of service in this
way. This cockroach is of a dark-brown color, about an inch in
length ; the male having short wings, while the female has only
rudimentary wings. It is very troublesome in kitchens, coming
out at night when the lights are out.

A somewhat larger insect is the American cockroach (Peripla-
neta americana), which is a lighter brown color, both the male
and female having well-developed wings. This species is not so
often found in houses, but frequents water-pipes and sewers and
the cargoes of vessels.

The smallest cockroach which is a pest in our houses is the
"water-bug" (Ectdbia lapponica). It is also known as the " Cro-
ton-bug." This insect is very common in houses in New Eng-
land, and, though eating any kind of food, is especially fond of
bread. It frequents bakeries, where it proves a great annoyance,
sometimes being baked in the bread in spite of care. It also eats
the covers of books bound in cloth, but will not touch those bound
in leather.

It has been said that sailors have been greatly troubled by
cockroaches eating the nails of their fingers and toes, and the
hard parts of their feet and hands, but this has been questioned.
However, a writer in Nature affirms that while in Australia he
was awakened one night by cockroaches nibbling his feet, which
were badly blistered, and in the morning he found the skin had been
eaten from a large blister, causing a painful sore, and that the
hard skin of the heel had also been eaten. Another writer in the
same journal says that this habit of cockroaches is well known to
all West Indians.

Borax is very disagreeable to cockroaches and will drive them
away, and it is said to kill them if mixed with white sugar and
sprinkled around the corners frequented by them. The following
receipt for a preparation to exterminate cockroaches is given in
a late number of Science : thirty-seven parts of borax, nine parts
of starch, and four parts of cocoa. This preparation should be
sprinkled around their haunts.

Insect-powder does not kill them but renders them stupid, and
while in this condition they can easily be swept up and destroyed.
In England cockroaches are sometimes caught with stale beer,
which is placed in a deep dish, bits of wood being so arranged
that the cockroaches can climb into the liquid. The following
preparations are mentioned in Harris's Insects Injurious to Vege-
tation, but, as they are poisonous, they should be used with the
greatest care. The first is a tablespoonful of red lead and Indian
meal, mixed with enough molasses to make a thick batter ; the
other is a teaspoonful of powdered arsenic mixed with a table-

INSECT PESTS OF THE HOUSE. 339

spoonful of mashed potatoes. These preparations should be used
for several nights in succession.

Bristle-Tail or Silver-Fish (Lepisma). — Often when look-
ing into a box or drawer which has remained in a damp place
for some time, or on opening an old book, we see a curious little
silvery creature running swiftly out of sight. It is so unlike the
insects which we usually find in our houses that one hardly knows
what to call it. It is nevertheless an insect, though belonging to
a low order. Its long, slender body is covered with delicate iri-
descent scales, from which is derived its name "silver-fish"; it
has no wings and passes through no metamorphoses. It feeds
on silken clothing, tapestry, and the like, but is more destructive
to books, eating the paste of the binding and even the leaves,
though loose papers are more often attacked. A few years ago
one species was found doing a great deal of damage in museums
by eating the labels. The labels which were, rendered illegible
by the attacks of this insect were made of heavily sized paper, in
most cases common unglazed paper remaining untouched by them ;
and it was also found that only clothing finished with starch or
sizing was subject to their attacks. Prof. Hagen, writing on this
pest, recommends that insect-powder, which easily kills them,
should be sprinkled about silk dresses or any articles liable to be'
injured by them. Where papers are pressed close together the
Lepisma can do no damage ; but in cases where pressure might
injure the papers or pictures they might be inclosed in boxes,
taking care that the covers fit so closely that no space is left for
the insect to enter, or the boxes might be sealed up by pasting
strips of paper around the covers, a paste with which insect-pow-
der has been mixed being used for this purpose ; valuable framed
engravings might be covered on the backs with common paper,
the same kind of paste being used. There is no doubt that labels
washed in an alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate would be
rendered proof againstr the attacks of this insect.

Death- Watch (Anobium). — Books are also eaten by the larva
and the mature insect of several species of beetles belonging to the
genus Anobium. These beetles produce the ticking sound some-
times heard in the wood-work of houses, specially noticeable at
night, when everything is quiet. This sound is probably a sexual
call, and is made by the beetle rapping the wood with its head.
Injury is also done by them to furniture and food, and they some-
times prove a great annoyance. Their depredations may be pre-
vented by washing articles liable to be attacked in a solution of
corrosive sublimate in alcohol, or objects such as books may be
exposed to the odor of carbolic acid or benzine, or they may be
fumigated with burning sulphur.

There are still other insects which do more or less damage in

34 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

libraries * by eating the books, but those already mentioned are
the principal ones.

Ants (Formic idee). — Of the large black or brownish ants that
trouble us in store-rooms but little can be said, as, so far as I have
examined the authorities within my reach, I have found but little
mention of them. Judging by my own experience, they are very
difficult pests to expel from the house. Cayenne pepper is said
to be disagreeable to them, and arsenic mixed with any kind of
attractive food will kill them. Oil of peppermint is found very
effectual in driving them away, but everything in its vicinity is
so permeated with the odor that its use can not be recommended.
It is often said that borax will drive them away, but this has been
tried without success ; however, according to a writer in the
Popular Science News, the borax should first be heated, to deprive
it of its water of crystallization. Hot alum- water is very offensive
to most of the insect pests of the house, and should be applied
with a brush when nearly boiling hot.

Ants are extremely fond of sugar, and anything containing it
will attract them. A glass of jelly left uncovered within their
reach will be found tunneled in every direction, and, by pouring
boiling water upon it, the ants within may be killed.

An excellent and simple trap for them is a sponge wet with
some sweet sirup. When the interstices of the sponge are filled
with the ants, it can be carefully taken up and plunged into boil-
ing water, and again set for them after saturating the sponge with
the sirup.

Another trap which is still more simple is a plate covered with
a thin layer of lard, which should be placed in the closet frequent-
ed by them. This would probably prove more effectual in catch-
ing the little yellow ant (Myrmica molesta), which is sometimes
very troublesome in the house.

Mention should be made of the white ants, which, although
resembling the true ants in appearance, really belong to the order
of Neuroptera. The only species found in the United States does
great damage by eating the interior of the wood-work of build-
ings. These ants enter the timbers of the foundation from below,
and extend their galleries to the top, leaving the outside untouched,
so that their presence is unsuspected until the supports suddenly
give way.

Several years ago the " dungeon/' as it is called in the State-
House in Boston, was found to be undermined by them, and Dr.
Hagen apprehended considerable trouble if their depredations

1 Prof. Yerrill found in the library of Yale College a caterpillar belonging to the genua
Angioma eating the leather bindings of old books. When ready to transform, this larva
spins a silken cocoon, and after a short time there issues from it a little moth measuring
half an inch across its spread wings.

INSECT PESTS OF THE HOUSE, 341

were not immediately checked. In addition to the danger of the
supports giving way, there was reason for alarm in the fact that
they also destroy books and paper ; but in this case, fortunately,
the papers stored in the part of the ' State-Honse in which they
appeared were of little value. Measures were taken at the time
to prevent their devastating work, and it is hoped that they have
been exterminated ; but Dr. Hagen, in an article on the subject a
few years later, thought it not improbable that they had spread
farther, as nothing was done to prevent their entering other parts
of the building.

These ants feed on rotten wood, living in old stumps of trees,
and sometimes in old fences, and Dr. Hagen suggested the remov-
ing of every old stump around buildings and in the vicinity of
cities, thus diminishing the number by depriving them of their
necessary food. Places kept moist by hot steam are particularly
favorable for the work of these little creatures ; and more or less
trouble was occasioned in Cambridgeport, at the telescope works
of Alvan Clark and Son, where a timber constantly moist from the
steam was honey-combed by them ; and some years ago a bridge
near Porter's Station in Cambridge was destroyed, probably from
the same cause. As many trains stopped under this bridge, it was
constantly moist from the steam of the locomotives.

So far the insects mentioned are those that do direct injury
to our clothes, carpets,* food, books, etc., but there are still
others which frequent our houses and prove very annoying in
various ways ; and besides these there are numerous insects which
cause much trouble in collections of natural history, and in mu-
seums the utmost care must be exercised to prevent their attacks.
It is not often that these museum pests prove of much annoyance
in the house. I have found the larva of a beetle (Attagenus pellio)
in the sawdust of a doll's arm ; and the larva of another species
(Attagenus megatama) is sometimes found to have eaten the
feathers in pillows, and the short particles of the feathers become
so firmly fastened in the ticking by the repeated shakings of the
pillow that a fine, soft felting is made, resembling the fur of a
mole.

Bed-Bug (Cimex lectularius) . — The eggs of the bed-bug are
white in color and oval in shape. The young differ but slightly
from the parent. The full-grown bug is wingless or possesses
rudimentary wings, is less than a quarter of an inch in length
and of a brown color. It is about eleven weeks in attaining its

* A brief mention may be made of a fly {Sccnopinus pallipcs) whose habits are but little
known. The larva is a long, white worm living under carpets, upon which it is supposed to
feed, and it is also found in rotten wood, but as yet it has not appeared in numbers suffi-
ciently large to prove an annoyance in the house. The fuil-grown fly measures about a
quarter of an inch in length.

34 2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

growth. Dr. Packard, in his Guide to the Study of Insects, says
that bed-bugs may be destroyed by " a preparation consisting of
thirty parts of unpurified, cheap petroleum, mixed with a thousand
parts of water" ; and in the Popular Science News was published

the following formula for
a bed-bug poison : Into one
half pint of alcohol put one
ounce of camphor, with
one ounce of pulverized sal
ammoniac and one ounce
of corrosive sublimate ; to
this add one half pint of
spirits of turpentine and
shake well before using.
These solutions may be ap-
plied around the cracks

Fig. 4.-Bed-Bug. a, young; 5, adult (after Kiley), both an( J crev iceS of a bedstead;

C'liltir^cd.

benzine, too, may be used
with good effect, and boiling water will destroy them, but the best
preventive is perfect cleanliness. Curiously enough, they live
parasitic upon domestic birds.

Flea (Pulex cams). — The fleas, although having no wings, have
until lately been classed with the flies (Diptera), but are now
placed by many writers in an order by themselves, the Aphanip-
tera. During the past
summer and fall there
has been considerable
annoyance caused in
and around Boston by
this troublesome in-
sect, and owing to its
habit of attacking
man it was supposed
to be the true human
flea, but a letter of in-
quiry on the subject,
addressed to an emi-
nent entomologist brought the following reply : " So far as I
know, we do not have the human flea in North America, and
ours is Pulex canis, the dog and cat flea. It seems to breed in
sandy cellars and such places at certain seasons."

The eggs of this flea are laid on the dog or cat, and, being
sticky, adhere to the hair until almost ready fo hatch, when they
fall to the ground. These eggs are very small, white, and oblong,
and but eight or ten are laid by one female.

The young larvse are hatched in about a week, and their growth

Fig. 5.— Flea, (much enlarged).

INSECT PESTS OF THE HOUSE. 343

is usually attained in less than two weeks ; they then pass two
more weeks in the pupal stage, when the perfect insect appears.
When dogs are badly infested by them, the use of common olive-
oil is recommended. This should be well rubbed into the hair
and over the skin, being allowed to remain for half an hour,
when it should be washed out with the best yellow soap and
lukewarm water. Dalmatian insect-powder has also been found
efficacious. This powder can be rubbed into the hair, and it can
be sprinkled around their kennels. It is not, however, best to use
it on cats, but possibly it might do no harm
to sprinkle it around their sleeping-places. A
better plan is to have the cat's bed made of
shavings or some such material that can often
be replaced, the old bedding being carefully
taken up and burned.

Some years ago there were on exhibition a
number of so-called educated fleas, and it is
thought by some people that the intelligence
of fleas must be very great if they can be
trained in this way ; but an article by Mr. W. FlG . 6.-larva op Flea.
H. Dall, in the American Naturalist, a few
years ago, showed that in every