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THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

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

VOL. XXIX.

MAY TO OCTOBER, 1886.

NEW YORK :
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, aot 5 BOND STREET.
1886.

Copyright, 1SS6,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

I c V t) C

FRANCIS GALTOR

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

MAY, 1886.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF EAILEOAD REGULATION.

By AETI1UR T. HADLEY.

ANY practical scheme of railroad control is likely to be based upon
a compromise. The different interests involved are so conflict-
ing that it will not do to attempt a solution from any one standpoint
exclusively. The direction which legislation is to take can not be de-
cided by a mere consideration of complaints against the existing sys-
tem, whether well-grounded or otherwise. We must also consider
what other systems have been tried, and what evils they have involved ;
what lines of treatment have been undertaken, and how far it has been
found possible to carry them out. It is not a question what we would
like to do, so much as what we actually can do.

The community requires four things of its railroad system :

1. That it shall afford sufficient facilities to meet the wants of busi-
ness. In other words, there must be enterprise in building new lines,
and in keeping the old ones up to a high standard of efficiency.

2. That the charges, as a whole, shall be as reasonable as possible.
If they are higher than those of other countries, or higher than is
necessary for the support of the railroads, the business development
of the community will be retarded.

3. That there shall not be arbitrary differences in charge which
force business into unnatural and wasteful channels, or cripple one
man for the enrichment of another.

4. That there shall be as little waste of capital as possible, either
by corruption, extravagance, or want of business skill. This is not
quite so vital a matter as the other three, but it is one which we can
not afford to leave out of account.

No system of regulation is ever likely to be devised which shall
secure all these results. Free competition, as we have tried it in

VOL. XXIX. l

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

America, produces rapid construction and low rates, but fosters dis-
crimination and extravagance ; thus securing the first and second
requirements, at the sacrifice of the third and fourth. The French
system of regulated monopoly has just the opposite effect ; it pre-
vents waste and discrimination, but development is slow and rates are
high. The third and fourth requirements are secured at the expense
of the first and second. England enjoys the first and fourth advan-
tages, at the sacrifice of the second and third ; Italy has secured the
second and third, but failed of the first and fourth. The Granger sys-
tem of regulation sacrificed the first in the effort to secure the second.
Partial state ownership, as we shall see, secures nothing at all ; exclu-
sive state ownership secures the third, at great risk of sacrificing all
the others.

The different requirements are to a certain extent in conflict with
one another. This conflict can only be understood by studying the
history of railroads, and the principles which underlie railroad business
management. These are quite imperfectly known at present. There
is probably no subject of equal importance on which public enlighten-
ment is so much needed. The capital invested in the railroads of our
country is eight times that of its banking institutions ; the tonnage
carried by rail is four times that carried by water ; the abuses in inter-
nal commerce come home to most of us far more directly than those in
foreign commerce. Yet, for every man who has studied the political
economy of railroads, there are a dozen who have studied that of ship-
ping and foreign trade, and a hundred who have studied that of bank-
ing. The complications of the subject are hardly recognized. Railroad
reformers are far too ready to blindly pursue one specific object or com-
bat one specific abuse, regardless what other objects may be sacrificed,
or what other abuses fostered by their policy.

From 1830 to 1873 the main object of nearly every community was
to secure rapid development of railroad facilities the first of the four
requirements we have named. The railroad proved so much superior
to other modes of transportation, that the country which had railroads
prospered ; that which had not railroads fell behind. Legislation was
everywhere devised to favor this end. Where capital was ready to
invest, every encouragement was offered it. If the removal of obsta-
cles was not enough, a subsidy was generally to be had for the asking.
If the community could not afford to pay a subsidy outright, it guar-
anteed a certain income to the road. If all these inducements were
insufficient, the state stepped in and built the road itself. In England,
where there was plenty of capital seeking investment, railroads were
chartered literally by hundreds. In America they were not only ex-
empted from the necessity of securing special charters, but received
municipal aid, as well as grants of public land on a scale which was
often outrageous. In France the state paid half the cost of building
the road, and offered the companies monopoly privileges as an induce-

THE DIFFICULTIES OF RAILROAD REGULATION. 3

ment for supplying the other half. Belgium built the main lines of
road at state expense for state management ; but at the same time
the building of private lines was also encouraged in every possible
way. It was not until too late that men saw what chaaces for waste
and corruption were involved in this indiscriminate encouragement of
railroad construction. England learned the lesson in 1847 ; Conti-
nental Europe in 1873. In spite of the severe experiences of 1857,
1873, and 1884, it is by no means certain that America has learned it
even yet.

For a long time the only fear was that railroad charges would
be too high ; and this fear was happily disappointed. The maximum
rates which were fixed in the earliest charters were useless, simply be-
cause the railroads generally adopted a lower scale of their own accord.
It was found that the profits depended quite as much upon the volume
of business as upon the absolute rates charged, and that it was often
better to do a large business at low rates than a smaller business at
higher rates. This is of course true to some extent in every depart-
ment of industry, but there are reasons which make it apply specially
to railroads. About half* the expenses of a railroad are to a consider-
able extent independent of the amount of work done. Thus an increase
in the volume of traffic does not produce a corresponding increase
in cost.

Railroad expenses may be roughly divided into two classes, accord-
ing as they do or do not vary with the amount of business done.
Those which do not vary rapidly are called fixed charges. This in-
cludes interest on cost of construction, the general expenses of the
organization as a whole, and a considerable part of the expense of
maintenance, which is due to weather rather than to wear. Those
expenses which vary nearly in proportion to the amount of business
done are called operating expenses. Under this head are included the
different items of train and station service, with some others. The
fixed charges of the railroads of the United States average somewhat
over $2,500 per mile annually ; the operating expenses average from
forty to sixty cents per train-mile.

In order that a railroad as a whole may be profitable, it is neces-
sary that it should earn money enough to pay fixed charges as well as
operating expenses. But, in order to secure any individual piece of
business, it can afford to make rates which shall little more than cover
operating expenses, provided such business can be had on no other
terms. To secure traffic which it could not otherwise have, a railroad
can afford to make rates which would bankrupt it if applied to its whole
business.

* In Mr. Lansing's valuable article on this subject (" Popular Science Monthly," Feb-
ruary, 1886), the proportion is estimated considerably higher. Any argument on the rea-
sons for the difference would be of too technical a character to come within the scope of
this discussion.

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Such was the origin of discriminations. Sure of a certain amount of
traffic at high rates, which would contribute its full share to the pay-
ment of fixed charges, each railroad strove to secure additional traffic
at lower rates which would little more than pay operating expenses.
This reduction was first made in favor of articles of low value, like
coal, stone, or lumber, which could not be moved at all at high rates,
but which could furnish a large business at low rates. Here it was an
unmixed benefit to the public. The reduction was next applied in
favor of long-distance traffic ; and here also it was a good thing in
principle, though sometimes overdone in practice. Under the old sys-
tem of equal mileage rates, where the charge was made proportional
to the distance, it would have cost something like a dollar a bushel to
get wheat from the Mississippi Valley to the seaboard ; a price which
would have been simply prohibitory to the growth of the Western
States.

There were special circumstances which led the railroads to give
the long-distance traffic more than its due share of favor. A great
deal of this traffic had the benefit of competition, either between sev-
eral lines of railroad, or between rail and water routes. The reduc-
tions in rates were made most rapidly where such competition was
most active that is, at the laro^e cities. The result was a svstem
which favored cities at the expense of the country by no means a
good thing. But this was not the worst. In any period of active rail-
road competition large shippers were almost always given lower rates
than small shippers. Amid the constant variation of rates, unscrupu-
lous men gained advantages at the expense of more honorable men.
Secret favors were generally given to those who least needed or least
deserved them. The railroad agents forgot their obligations to the
public as common carriers. Too often they were ready to sacrifice
even the permanent interests of the stockholders themselves in the
lawless struggle for competitive business.

It must not be forgotten that railroad competition did some things
for the country which nothing else could possibly have done. It
taught our railroad men to handle a large business cheaply. It taught
them to make money at rates which would have seemed suicidal to the
easy-going managers who were not uoder any such stimulus. The
rapid reductions of charge, in other countries as well as America, have
been made in the stress of railroad wars. But, while railroad compe-
tition has been in some respects a beneficent force, it can not be trusted
to act unchecked. To the business community regularity and pub-
licity of rates are more important than mere average cheapness. Busi-
ness can adjust itself to high rates easier than to fluctuating ones.
And railroad competition of necessity makes rates fluctuate. It tends
to bring them down to the level of operating expenses, regardless of
fixed charges. If it acts everywhere, as in the case of the New York
Central and West Shore, it leaves little or nothing to pay fixed charges,

THE DIFFICULTIES OF RAILROAD REGULATION. 5

and means ruin to the investor, followed by consolidation. If it acts
at some points and not at others, those points which have the benefit
of competition have rates based on operating expenses, while the less
fortunate points pay the fixed charges. Then we have discrimination
in a dangerous form.

As long as competition exists, there is no escape from this alterna-
tive. If it exists at all points, it means ruin ; if it exists at some
points, it means discrimination. The efforts to prevent these results
by law while retaining the principle of competition, only show how
powerless we really are in this matter. Let us look at them in order.

The first legislators tried to treat the railroad as a public highway,
over which any man should be at liberty to run cars, as he can run
boats over a canal or wagons over a turnpike. This idea was incor-
porated in the railroad charters of England and Prussia. It has never
been quite abandoned by theorists ; but practically it has proved a
failure wherever tried. Physically it is impossible, on account of the
danger of collision ; industrially it is impossible, on account of the
added expense. Nobody would build a railroad on such terms unless
the mere tolls for the use of the track were to be made higher than
the whole transportation charge now is.

A second plan for making competition a public benefit has been
that of state ownership of part of the competing lines. It has been
tried on a large scale in Belgium and Prussia, and on a smaller scale in
most other countries, the United States not excepted. It was thought
by the advocates of the system that the government would thus obtain
a controlling influence over the railroads with which it came in contact,
and be able to regulate their policy by its example. These hopes have
been disappointed. The private railroads under such circumstances
regulate those of the government far more than the government regu-
lates the private railroads. There is no chance to carry out any schemes
of far-sighted policy. If the private roads are run to make money, the
government roads must be managed with the same end in view. The
tax-payers will not let the government lines show a deficit while com-
peting private lines pay dividends. No administration would dare to
allow such a thing, however important the end to be attained. As a
matter of fact the government roads of Belgium and Germany were
as ready to give rebates as the private lines with which they came
into competition. In Belgium they went so far as to grant special
rates to those persons who would agree not to ship by canal under any
circumstances. The same thing has been done in New York State ;
but in Belgium the peculiar thing was that the canals and railroads
both belonged to the government, and yet were fighting one another
in this way. The system of partial state ownership was hardly distin-
guishable in its effects from simple private ownership. This fact has
been clearly recognized within the last twelve years. Within this
period, Belgium, Prussia, and Italy have abandoned the "mixed sys-

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tern." Belgium and Prussia have made state management all but uni-
versal ; Italy has practically given it up.

Of much more importance in the United States has been the effort
to regulate charges by legislation, without touching the question of
ownership. There was no lack of authority for so doing. Common
carriers had been made the subject of special regulation from time
immemorial, and it was a well-accepted principle that their charges
must be reasonable.

But what constitutes a reasonable charge ? On what basis are we
to compute it ?

It is by no means a sufficient answer to say that rates should be
based upon cost of service. What items of cost shall we include ?
Shall we count the fixed charges, or simply consider operating ex-
penses? In the earliest legislation the former course was adopted.
The English tolls and maxima were calculated upon this basis. But
they were soon found to be so high as to be almost inoperative. At
any rate, they did not prevent discrimination. They allowed the rail-
road to earn its fixed charges where it chose, and to lower rates else-
where. A prescribed rate of this kind is too high to be of any use.

On the other hand, to prescribe a rate which does not provide for
fixed charges is even worse. This was tried in the Mississippi Valley
in the Granger movement. It was argued by the farmers that, if
the railroads could afford to carry their competitive traffic at very low
rates, they could afford to do the same for the local traffic. All rates
were therefore reduced by law to the basis of the competitive ones.
What was the result ? In Wisconsin, where the system was carried
out most completely, a law of this kind was in operation for two years.
At the end of that time, not a single railroad was paying dividends ;
only four were paying interest on their bonds. Railroad construction
was at a stand-still. The existing roads could not afford to extend
their facilities for traffic. The development of the State was checked
checked so abruptly that the very men who were most clamorous
for the railroad law in 1874 were most clamorous for its repeal in 1876.
In their anxiety to secure low rates, they had overlooked the necessity
for railroad development. This oversight reacted forcibly against
them ; and the same reaction is likely to be felt wherever reckless rail-
road legislation is attempted. Our railroad profits are not so high as
is often supposed. They are less than four per cent on the nominal
capital ; and, making all due allowance for water, probably less than
six per cent on the actual investment. Admit, if you please, that the
corruption of inside rings absorbs an additional amount which ought
to go to the investor ; this does not affect the fact that, if your legis-
lation prevents the investor from receiving his dividends, he will not
invest his capital in your State. It is not now a question of ethics
as to what you or he ought to do ; it is a matter of fact, proved by
actual experience as to what he will do.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF RAILROAD REGULATION. 7

Fortunately, no other State had quite so severe an experience as
Wisconsin. There were somewhat similar laws in other States, for
instance, in Illinois ; but the enforcement of the Illinois law was in-
trusted to a commission. The commissioners were not men of expe-
rience in these matters, but they had the sense to see that the attempt
to reduce rates too sharply would defeat the purposes in view. They
therefore used their powers with some discretion ; not attempting to re-
duce rates everywhere at once, but simply to correct the worst abuses.
They were not altogether successful, but they made no such disastrous
failure as occurred in Wisconsin.

There is an undeniable advantage in entrusting the execution of
such a law to the somewhat discretionary power of a commission. A
court is not well qualified to enforce a hard and fast law concerning
railroad rates. The courts are compelled to rely somewhat blindly
upon precedent ; while railroad management is so new a thing that
the precedents derived from other lines of business are often mislead-
ing. The best proof of the usefulness of railroad commissions is the
extent to which they have prevailed. Nearly two thirds of our States
have them ; there is scarcely a serious attempt at railroad regulation
in the United States except through some such agency.

But, even in the best hands, the power to fix rates is of somewhat
doubtful utility. More effective statutes have been aimed at discrimi-
nation itself not to fix the rate, but to limit the chance for arbitrary
differences. In one sense it ought hardly to need a statute to do this.
Secret rebates and personal discriminations are so clearly against the
spirit of the law of common carriers, that to call public attention au-
thoritatively to these things is to condemn them. The work of the
Hepburn Committee in New York, in 1879, had a value of this kind,
quite apart from any positive legislation which it secured. The value
of similar work done by certain railroad commissions can hardly be
overestimated.

The worst abuses may be thus checked ; but, as long as competition
is at all active, there will be a good deal of local discrimination in favor
of competitive points, which the common law is powerless to prevent.
Against this system the so-called " short-haul " laws have been aimed.
Probably no other point with regard to railroad regulation has been
made the subject of so much discussion.

The short-haul principle provides that a railroad shall not charge
a larger gross sum for a part of any route than it does for the whole
not more, for instance, from Chicago to Springfield, Massachusetts,
than from Chicago to Boston. It is thus intended to prevent the
more outrageous forms of local discrimination. There can be no doubt
that as a general principle it is correct. But it is not one which it is
always possible to enforce by law. If the law can reach all the rival
routes, and can be enforced against all of them, it does much good and
little or no harm. But, if it reaches one route and not another, it sim-

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ply makes the other route a present of the through traffic. What, for
instance, would be the effect of a national short-haul law on the move-
ment of wheat from Chicago to the seaboard ? At present, it is a traf-
fic which the railroads can afford to make special efforts to secure, and
they bring the rates down nearly to the level of operating expenses.
If they reduced local rates to this basis, they would have nothing left
to pay fixed charges. The only way by which they could comply with
the law would be by raising through rates. This would simply have
the effect of sending the wheat to Europe via Montreal instead of via
American ports. The Grand Trunk Railroad, which would be outside
of our control, would have the chance to make low through rates, and
get the heavy through traffic. The English stockholders of the Grand
Trunk would be the persons most benefited by such a law.

It is only a few years since the Prussian Government got into
trouble in exactly this way. It was thought by the authorities that
the low through rates favored the foreigners at the expense of the
Germans ; and an attempt was made to carry out the short-haul prin-
ciple rigidly. The result simply was that the foreigners sent their
goods by other routes which Bismarck was unable to control, and that
the Prussian railroads lost a part of their traffic, which, low as were
the rates charged upon it, was yet a matter of importance to their
business prosperity.

Similar instances could be cited from almost any other country.
Whenever we find a competitor which our law can not reach be it
water-route, foreign railroad, or domestic railroad which violates the
law in an underhand fashion the short-haul principle simply cripples
the roads which obey it, without producing any corresponding good
effect.

Experience has shown pretty clearly that local discrimination can
be avoided only by bringing competition under control. The States
where legal regulation of this matter has been most successful have
been those like Georgia and Iowa, where the pooling system has been
strongest and most stable, or those like Massachusetts, where competi-
tion has become, in local business, largely a thing of the past. Every-
where, in America and in Europe, periods of active competition have
been periods of active discrimination. To check the second you must
control the first. And the only practicable way of doing this, short
of actual consolidation, is by a system of pooling. The mere agree-
ment to maintain rates is not enough,; it is too easily violated by se-
cret rebates. An agreement to divide the traffic or the earnings, as
long as it holds at all, is much harder to violate secretly. This is what
constitutes a "pool."

We are thus reduced to the simple alternative, pooling or discrimi-
nation. Each effort to prohibit both at the same time only makes the
necessity more clear. The governments of Continental Europe have
ceased to struggle against it. Rightly judging that discrimination is

THE DIFFICULTIES OF RAILROAD REGULATION. 9

the main evil, they recognize pools as the most effective method of
combating it. State roads enter into pooling contracts with private
roads, railroads divide traffic with competing water-routes. The law,
recognizing such contracts, is able to regulate them, and to deal with
organizations of railroads better than it could deal with railroads indi-

vidually.

In this respect they have the advantage over us in America. In
our vain effort to prohibit pools altogether, we have simply intensified
their worst features. By refusing to recognize them at all, we have
rejected the chance to regulate them. We have done worse than this.
By taking all permanent guarantees away from them, we have forced
them to pursue a short-sighted policy. The prejudice against pools, as
we have often seen them, is not an unreasonable one ; but the fault is
in the law quite as much as in the system. Admit, if you please
(though it is by no means clear), that the disastrous multiplication of
roads in 1882 was mainly due to the short-sighted manipulation of
rates under the pooling systems : what then ? Such short-sighted
policy was an almost necessary result of a legal theory which refused
to enforce pooling contracts, and made their continuance depend upon
the voluntary adhesion of all parties. The pool was compelled to
adopt a policy which should keep every one in good-humor for the day.
The moment the directors of a single road were dissatisfied with pres-
ent results, they could break the system down, regardless either of the
rights of others or of their own permanent welfare.

No policy can be more suicidal than this. The temporary inter-
ests of the railroads often diverge widely from those of the commu-
nity which they serve. Their permanent interests are almost identical.
The sound and strong roads, with a permanent character to sustain,
are much more likely to be managed in the public interest than roads
on the verge of bankruptcy, whose only thought is for the present.
Yet all our legislation is directed against roads of the former class.
We place them at the mercy of reckless competition in the matter of
rates. We allow the building of insolvent competitors by construc-
tion companies whose operations are no better than blackmail. We
strive to limit their dividends, when the only practical results of such
a measure will be diminution of enterprise and increase of extrava-
gance. In our fear that the influence of railroad managers may be-
come too great, we have devised laws which seriously interfere with
their power for good, and leave their power for evil almost unchecked.

To this sweeping statement one important exception must be made.
More by accident than by design, the railroad commissioners in a num-
ber of our States have become the representatives of the permanent
interests of the railroads and community alike, against the short-sight-
ed policy of extremists on either side. The history of the Massachu-
setts Commission has presented the most marked instance of what can
be done in this way, by a body of men having no power except the

io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

power to secure publicity ; it is perhaps the most encouraging exam-
ple in recent history of the power of government by public opinion.

Whether a national commission could work successfully in this
way is very doubtful. The public opinion of the nation as a whole
is not so easily brought to bear in any one direction as is that of a
single State. The national railroad system is too vast, the interests of
different sections too conflicting. It is desirable that a national com-
mission should be charged with the enforcement of certain specific
provisions against discrimination. It would be a herculean task ; but
it is one which needs to be done, and one which we may feel reason-
ably sure that the courts could not even attempt to do.

On the other hand, it is desirable that the commission should not be
a mere prosecuting body, but should depend for its force upon the in-
fluence of public opinion behind it. In this respect, the bill now be-
fore the United States Senate is a good one. It avoids alike the error
of those who would give the commission no definite authority, and
those who would charge it with doing what is actually impossible.
The bill, as reported, rigidly prohibits personal discrimination, and
generally prohibits local discrimination ; but under this latter head it
empowers the commission to make exceptions. It says nothing about
pools ; and, if this discreet silence is maintained, such a commission
might readily use pools as a means of protecting the shipper against
discrimination, instead of allowing them to be used solely for the pur-
poses of the railroad investors and managers.

The great danger is, that the bill is too moderate to pass. In spite
of all that has been said and written on railroad questions, the great
majority of men are extremists on this subject. Some want an abso-
lute let-alone policy ; some want an energetic attempt at control
which would really defeat its own ends. Both of these classes are op-
posed to a bill of this kind. The advocates of the let-alone policy are
afraid that it would be enforced. The advocates of vigorous control
are afraid that it would stand in the way of more decisive action.
They feel and not altogether without reason that the prolonged ab-
sence of national control may ultimately bring the question of govern-
ment ownership in the foreground.

It must be remembered that a very considerable portion of the
community believes in government railroad ownership, at least as an
ideal. They perhaps exaggerate the evils of the present system, and
certainly have the most unreasonable expectations of the good to be
obtained from a change. It has been seriously argued with much
show of figures, in a reputable working-men's paper, that it is possible
to carry passengers from New York to San Francisco at a dollar apiece
and make money on it, and that everything above this represents sheer
extortion, which would be avoided by government ownership ! Now,
as long as these things are believed, their absurdity makes them none
the less dangerous. In forecasting the future, we must reckon with

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. n

the number of votes, and not simply with the value of the argument
by which those votes have been influenced. Each year's failure to
adopt any measure of national control probably increases the number
of votes which would be cast in favor of government ownership.

It can not be denied that government ownership furnishes the best
theoretical solution of the railroad problem, if we could only assume
that the Government were possessed of infinite wisdom and virtue.
But practically this condition is far from being realized in the United
States. The question is a practical rather than a theoretical one. In
countries like Germany, where the civil service represents the best ele-
ments of the nation, state railroads have been a success, simply because
of that fact. Whatever system will give you the best administrative
talent is likely to prove most successful. But it would be a bold
thing to say that the best administrative talent of the United States
found its way into the civil service, or was likely to do so for the
present.

A state railroad system may be relied upon to do one thing to
check local discrimination. But this is not due so much to any con-
siderations of public policy as to the complete monopoly which takes
away all inducements to discriminate. Where a state road comes into
conflict with private roads, it makes discriminations of the worst form.
Where it has a monopoly, there is danger that it will avoid them by
leveling up. The Italian investigating commission of 1878, after a
careful comparison of the actual experience of different countries,
came to the conclusion that state railroads did not, as a rule, do so
much for industry as private railroads ; that in general their rates
were higher, their facilities worse, their responsibility less ; that the
state railroad management was more apt to tax business than to foster
it ; while political considerations were brought into matters of rail-
road construction and management in a way which was disastrous
alike to railroads and to politics. It may be that these conclusions
were in some respects overdrawn ; but they are sufficient to show the
wide difference between the popular ideal of state railroad manage-
ment and the reality as seen in actual practice.

++*

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO.

By Hon. DAVID A. WELLS.

II.

THE Spanish rule over Mexico lasted for just three hundred years,
or from 1521 to 1821 ; and, during the whole of this long period,
the open and avowed policy of Spain was, to regard the country as an
instrumentality for the promotion of her own interests and aggrandize-
ment exclusively, and to utterly and contemptuously disregard the de-

iz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sires and interests of the Mexican people. The government or vice-
royalty established by Spain, in Mexico, for the practical application
of this policy, accordingly seems to have always regarded the attain-
ment of three things or results as the object for which it was mainly
constituted, and to have allowed nothing of sentiment or of humanita-
rian consideration to stand for one moment in the way of their rigorous
prosecution and realization. These were, first, to collect and pay into
the royal treasury the largest possible amount of annual revenue ; sec-
ond, to extend and magnify the authority and work of the established
Church ; third, to protect home (i. e., Spanish) industries.

Starting with the assumption that the country, with all its people and
resources, was the absolute property of the crown in virtue of conquest,
the accomplishment of t\iQ first result was sought through the practical
enslavement of the whole native population, and the appropriation of
the largest amount of all production that was compatible with the con-
tinued existence of productive industries. With the civil power at
the command of the Church, the attainment of the second result was
from the outset most successful ; for, with a profession of belief and
the acceptance of baptism, on the one hand, and the vigilance of the
Inquisition and a menace of the fires of the auto-da-fe on the other,
the number of those who wanted to exemplify in themselves the su-
premacy of conscience or the freedom of the will, was very soon reduced
to a minimum. And, finally, the correctness or expediency of the
principle of protection to home (Spanish) industry having been once
accepted, it was practically carried out, with such a logical exact-
ness and absence of all subterfuge, as to be worthy of admiration,
and without parallel in all economic history. For, in the first instance,
with a view of laying the axe directly at the root of the tree of com-
mercial freedom, all foreign trade or commercial intercourse with
any country other than Spain was prohibited under pain of death ;
and that ordinance is believed to have been kept in force until within
the present century. No schools or educational institutions save
those of an ecclesiastical nature were allowed, and in these instruc-
tion in almost every branch of useful learning was prohibited. Cer-
tain portions of Mexico were admirably adapted, as they yet are,
to the cultivation of the vine, the olive, the mulberry, and of fiber-
yielding plants, and also for the keeping and breeding of sheep ;
but, as a colonial supply of wine, oil, silk, hemp, and wool might
interfere with the interests of home producers, the production of any
or all of these articles was strictly prohibited ; neither was any manu-
facture whatever allowed which could by any possibility interfere
with any similar industry of Old Spain. When Hidalgo, a patriotic
Catholic priest, about the year 1810, with a desire to diversify the in-
dustries of his country and benefit his countrymen, introduced the
silk-worm and promoted the planting of vineyards, the authorities de-
stroyed the one and uprooted the other ; and through these acts first

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 13

instigated the rebellion that ultimately overthrew the government
and expelled the Spaniards from Mexico. All official posts in the coun-
try, furthermore, were filled by Spaniards, and the colonial offices
were regularly sold in Madrid to the highest bidder.

In the National Museum in the city of Mexico is a nearly or quite
complete collection of the portraits of the fifty-six Spanish viceroys
who successively governed the country. The series commences with
a portrait of Cortes, which is said to be an original ; and, according to
Mr. Prescott (who prefixed an engraved copy of it to the third volume
of his "Conquest of Mexico"), has been indorsed by one of the best
Spanish authorities, Don Antonio Uguina, as the " best portrait " of the
conqueror that was ever executed. It is an exceedingly striking face,
full of character, and more quiet, contemplative, and intellectual than
might have been expected from his stirring and eventful career ; and as
the picture is neglected and apparently in a state of decay, a copy of
it ought at once to be acquired by our national Government and placed
in the Capitol at Washington ; or, in neglect thereof, by some one of
our historical societies. For, whatever may be the opinion entertained
concerning the man and his acts, there can be no question that he was
one of the most conspicuous characters in American history, and has
left his mark indelibly upon what is now no small part of the terri-
tory of the United States. Of the long series of portraits of his suc-
cessors, as they hang upon the walls of the museum, the majority
depicted in gorgeous vice-regal robes, and with stars and orders of
nobility, there is this to be said that, with few exceptions, they rep-
resent the most mediocre, unintellectual, and uninteresting group of
faces that could well be imagined. They convey the idea that nearly
all of the originals were men past the prime of life, whose business
had been that of courtiers, and who had won their appointments either
by court favoritism or from the supposed possession of qualities which
would enable them to extort from the country and its people a larger
revenue for the Spanish treasury than their predecessors. Among the
few exceptions noted are the portraits of Don Juan de Acuiia (1722-
1734), the only Spanish viceroy born in America (Peru), and the
Count de Revilla-Gigedo (1789-;1794), both of whom were unques-
tionably rulers of great ability, and who might also well be repre-
sented in the national galleries of the United States ; and the por-
traits of occasional ecclesiastical viceroys bishops or archbishops
conspicuous among their neighbors by reason of their more somber
vestments. The faces of these latter are not devoid of intellectuality,
or indications of mental ability ; but they are one and all stern,
unimpassioned, and with an expression of grim malevolence and big-
otry, which as much as says, " Woe betide any heretic, or contemner
of Church supremacy, who dares to question my authority ! " To which
may be properly added that, during nearly all the long period of Span-
ish rule in Mexico, the Inquisition, or " Holy Office," wielded a power

i 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as baleful and as despotic as it ever did in Old Spain, and held its last
auto-da-fe and burned its last conspicuous victim General Jose Mo-
relos in the Plaza of the city of Mexico, as late as November, 1815 !

In 1810, Mexico, under the lead of Hidalgo whom the modern
Mexicans regard as a second Washington revolted against its Span-
ish rulers, and, after many and varying vicissitudes, finally attained its
complete independence, and proclaimed itself, in 1822, first an empire,
and two years later, or in 1824, a republic. From this time until the
defeat of Maximilian and his party in 1867, the history of Mexico
is little other than a chronicle of successive revolutions, internecine
strife, and foreign wars. In the National Palace, in the city of Mexico,
is a very long, narrow room, termed the " Hall of Embassadors," from
the circumstance that the President of the Republic here formally re-
ceives the representatives of foreign nationalities. Upon the walls of
this room, and constituting, apart from several elaborate glass chan-
deliers, almost its only decoration, is a series of fairly painted, full-
length portraits of individual Mexicans who, since the achievement
of independence of Spain, had been so conspicuously connected with
the state, or had rendered it such service, as to entitle them, in the
opinion of posterity, to commemoration in this sort of national " Val-
halla." To the visitor, entering upon an inspection of these interest-
ing pictures, the accompanying guide, politely desirous of imparting
all desirable information concerning them, talks somewhat after this
manner :

" This is a portrait of the Emperor Iturbide, commander-in-chief of
the army that defeated and expelled the last Spanish viceroy ; elected
emperor in 1822 ; resigned the crown in 1823 ; was proscribed, arrested,
and shot in 1824. The next is a portrait of one of the most distin-
guished of the soldiers of Mexico, General Mariano Arista" (the gen-
eral who commanded the Mexican troops at the battles of Palo Alto
and Resaca de la Palma), " elected President of the Republic in 1851,
was deposed and banished in 1853, and died in exile in 1855. His
remains were brought home at the public expense, and a special de-
cree commemorative of his services was declared by Congress. The
next is General So-and-so, who also, after rendering most distinguished
services, was shot" ; and so on, until it seems as if there was not one
of their conspicuous men whom the Mexicans of to-day unite in
honoring for his patriotism and good service, but who experienced
a full measure of the ingratitude of his country in the form of exile
or public execution. In the same gallery is also a good full-length
portrait of Washington, but, very appropriately, it is far removed
from all the other pictures, and occupies a place by itself at the ex-
treme end of the apartment.*

* Since the establishment of her independence in 1821, Mexico, down to the year 1884
a period of sixty-three years has had fifty-five presidents, two emperors, and one re-
gency, and, with some three or four exceptions, there was a violent change of the gov-

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 15

In 1846 came the American war and invasion, when the United
States, with " one fell swoop," as it were, took from Mexico consider-
ably more than one half of all its territory 923,835 square miles out
of a former total of 1,690,317. It is true that payment was tendered
and accepted for about one thirty-fourth part (the Gadsden purchase)
of what was taken, but appropriation and acceptance of payment were
alike compulsory. For this war the judgment of all impartial history
will undoubtedly be that there was no justification or good reason on
the part of the United States. It may be that what happened was an
inevitable outcome of the law of the survival of the fittest, as exempli-
fied among nations ; and that the contrasts as seen to-day between the
life, energy, and fierce development of much of that part of Old Mexi-
co that became American California, Texas, and Colorado and the
stagnant, poverty-stricken condition of the contiguous territory
Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila that remained Mexican, are a proof of
the truth of the proverb that " the tools rightfully belong to those
who can use them." But, nevertheless, when one stands beside the
monument erected at the foot of Chapultepec, to the memory of the
young cadets of the Mexican Military School mere boys who, in
opposing the assault of the American columns, were faithful unto death
to their flag and their country, and notes the sternly simple inscription,
" Who fell in the North American invasion " ; and when we also recall
the comparative advantages of the contending forces the Americans
audacious, inspirited with continuous successes, equipped with an
abundance of the most improved material of war, commanded by most
skilled officers, and backed with an overflowing treasury ; the Mexi-
cans poorly clothed, poorly fed, poorly armed, unpaid, and generally
led by uneducated and often incompetent commanders ; and remem-
ber the real valor with which, under such circumstances, the latter,
who had received so little from their country, resisted the invasion
and conquest of that country ; and that in no battles of modern times
have the losses been as great comparatively as were sustained by the
Mexican forces there is certainly not much of pleasure or satisfaction
that a sober-minded, justice-loving citizen of the United States can or
ought to find in this part of his country's history. And, if we are the
great, magnanimous, and Christian nation that we claim to be, no time
ought to be lost in proving to history and the world our right to the
claim, by providing, by act of Congress, that all those cannon which

eminent with every new administration. The year 1848 is noted in Mexican annals as
the first time when the presidency was transferred without violence and under the law
General Arista peaceably succeeding General Herrera. But Arista was deposed and ban-
ished in the next two years, and in the next three months there were four presidents of the
republic. Of the original and great leaders in the war of independence namely, Hi-
dalgo, Morelos, and Matamoros all were shot. The same fate befell both of the emper-
ors, and also two of the more noted presidents Guerrero and Miramon. Of the other
presidents, nearly all at one time or other were formally banished or compelled to flee
from the state in order to escape death or imprisonment.

16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

lie scattered over the plains at West Point, bearing the inscriptions
" Vera Cruz," " Contreras," " Chapultepec," " Molino del Rey," and
"City of Mexico," and some of which have older insignia, showing
that they were originally captured by Mexican patriots from Spain in
their struggles for liberty; together with every captured banner or other
trophy preserved in our national museums and collections, be gathered
up and respectfully returned to the Mexican people. For, to longer
retain them and pride ourselves on their possession, is as unworthy
and contemptible as it would be for a strong man to go into the
street and whip the first small but plucky and pugnacious boy he en-
counters, and then, hanging up the valued treasures he has deprived
him of in the hall of his residence, say complaisantly, as he views
them, "See what a great and valiant man I am, and how I desire
that my children should imitate my example ! " If it is peace and
amity and political influence, and extended trade and markets, and a
maintenance of the Monroe doctrine on the American Continent that
we are after, such an act would do more to win the hearts and dispel
the fears and suspicions of the people of Mexico, and of all the states
of Central and South America, than reams of diplomatic correspond-
ence, and endless traveling trade commissioners and formal interna-
tional resolutions. Society is said to be bound by laws that always
bring vengeance upon it for wrong-doing "the vengeance of the
gods, whose mills grind slow, but grind exceeding small." What
penalty is to be exacted of the great North American Republic for its
harsh treatment and spoliation of poor, down-trodden, ignorant, super-
stitious, debt-ridden Mexico, time alone can reveal. Perhaps, as this
great wrong was committed at the promptings or demand of the then
dominant slave-power, the penalty has been already exacted and in-
cluded in the general and bloody atonement which the country has
made on account of slavery. Perhaps, under the impelling force of
the so-called "manifest destiny," a. further penalty is to come, in the
form of an equal and integral incorporation of Mexico and her for-
eign people into the Federal Union. But, if this is to be so, the intel-
ligent and patriotic citizens of both countries may and should ear-
nestly pray that God, in his great mercy, may yet spare them.

In 1861, Louis Napoleon, taking advantage of the war of the re-
bellion in the United States, and regarding (in common with most of
the statesmen of Europe) the disruption of the Great Republic as pro-
spectively certain, made the suspension by Mexico of payment upon
all her public obligations, a great part of which were held in Europe,
a pretext for the formation of a tripartite alliance of France, England,
and Spain, for interfering in the government of the country ; and in
December, 1861, under the auspices of such alliance, an Anglo-French-
Spanish military force landed and took possession of Vera Cruz.
From this alliance the English and Spanish forces early withdrew ;
but the French remained, and soon made no secret of their intent

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. i 7

to conquer the country. The national forces, under the leadership of
undoubtedly the greatest and noblest character that Mexico has pro-
duced, Benito Juarez, reported to be of pure Indian parentage, offered
a not inglorious resistance ; and in at least one instance undoubtedly
inflicted a severe defeat upon the French army. But with the almost
universal defection of the clergy and the wealthier classes, and with
the country weakened by more than forty years of civil strife and an
impoverished exchequer, they were finally obliged to succumb ; and
after a period of military operations extending over about sixteen
months, or in June, 1863, the French entered the city of Mexico in
triumph and nominally took possession of the whole country. A
month later, a so-called " assemblage of notables," appointed by the
French general-in-chief, met at the capital, and with great unanimity
declared the will of the Mexican people to be the establishment of
an empire in the person of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, " or
such other prince as the Emperor Napoleon should designate " ; and
in pursuance of this act the crown was formally offered to Maximilian
at his palace in Austria in October, 1863, and definitely accepted by
him in April, 1864. Viewed in the light of subsequent events, the
point of greatest interest and importance in this scheme on the part of
Louis Napoleon for the conquest of Mexico and its conversion into a
French dependency, to the humiliation of whatever political organiza-
tions might be left after the war to represent the former Federal
Union, and to the utter discomfiture of the "Monroe doctrine" a
scheme which Napoleon designed should constitute the most brilliant
feature of his reign was the connection of the Church of Mexico and
its adherents with the movement. If not, indeed, as is often sus-
pected, the instigators of it in the first instance, they were undoubt-
edly in full sympathy with it from its inception and with good
reason. For as far back as 1857, Juarez, when a member of the Cabinet
of General Comonfort, had been instrumental in the adoption of a po-
litical Constitution which was based on the broadest republican prin-
ciples, and which provided for free schools, a free press, a complete
subjugation of the ecclesiastical to the civil authority, and universal
religious toleration a Constitution which, with some later amend-
ments, is still the organic law of Mexico. Such a reform could not,
and at the time did not, triumph over the privileged classes, the
Church, the aristocracy, and the military leaders, and, although em-
bodied in the form of law, remained in abeyance.

But the Church and the aristocracy at the same time did not fail
to recognize that, if Juarez and his party ever attained political
ascendency, their property and privileges would be alike imperiled.

The subversion of the so-called Republic of Mexico, with its un-
stable government and frequent revolutions, and its replacement with
an empire, backed by the then apparently invincible arms of France,
and with one of the Catholic princes of Europe on the throne, were,

VOL. XXIX. 2

18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

therefore, most acceptable to the Mexican Church and its adherents ;
and in Maximilian of Austria they thought they had found a man
after their own heart.

He was a man of elegant presence, winning manners, and of much
refinement and culture ; and these qualities, with undoubted personal
courage, contributed to give him a certain amount of personal popu-
larity and sympathy. But he was, nevertheless, in all matters of gov-
ernment, always a representative of the highest type of absolutism
or imperialism, and in devotion to the Catholic Church an extremist,
even almost to the point of fanaticism. The first of these assertions
finds illustration in his establishment of a court, with orders of nobil-
ity, decorations, and minute ceremonials ; the construction and use of
an absurd state carriage modeled after the style of Louis XIV
and still shown in the National Museum ; and worse, by the proclama-
tion and execution of an order (which subsequently cost Maximilian
his own life), that all republican officers taken prisoner in battle by
the imperialists should be summarily executed as bandits ; and, sec-
ond, by his walking barefoot, on a day of pilgrimage, all the way
over some two or three miles of dusty, disagreeable road, from the city
of Mexico to the shrine of the Virgin at Guadalupe.

When the attitude and demand of the United States, on the termi-
nation of the rebellion, induced the withdrawal of the French forces
from Mexico, Maximilian, at the suggestion of Louis Napoleon, pre-
pared to abdicate ; and, in October, 1866, even commenced his journey
to Vera Cruz, with the intent of embarking from the country. Unfor-
tunately for himself, however, he was persuaded by the Church party,
under assurances of their ability to support him, to return to the city
of Mexico and resume his government. But the attempt was hopeless,
and culminated some six months later in his capture and execution by
the republican forces, and with the downfall of the " Maximilian" or
the " imperial " government, Juarez became the undisputed, and also,
to all intents and purposes, the absolute, ruler of the country.

This portion of the more recent history of Mexico has been de-
tailed somewhat minutely, because the series of events embraced in
it led up to and culminated in an act of greater importance, than
anything which has happened in the country since the achievement
of its independence from Spanish domination. For no sooner had
Juarez obtained an indorsement of his authority as President, by a
general election, than he practically carried out with the co-operation
of Congress, and with an apparent spirit of vindictiveness (engen-
dered, it has been surmised, by the memory of the oppressions to
which his race had been subjected), the provisions of the Constitu-
tion which he had been instrumental in having adopted in 1857. The
entire property of the Mexican Church was at once "nationalized" (a
synonym for confiscation) for the use of the state. Every convent,
monastic institution, or religious house was closed up and devoted to

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 19

secular purposes ; and the members of every religious society, from the
Jesuits to the Sisters of Charity, who served in the hospitals or taught
in the schools, were banished and summarily sent out of the country.
And so vigorously and severely is the policy of subjugating the eccle-
siastical to the civil authority, which Juarez inaugurated in 1857, still
carried out, that no convent or monastery now openly exists in Mex-
ico ; and no priest or sister, or any ecclesiastic, can walk the streets
in any distinctive costume, or take part in any religious parade or pro-
cession ; and this in towns and cities where, twenty years ago or less,
the life of a foreigner or skeptic who did not promptly kneel in the
streets at the " procession of the host," was imperiled. Again, while
Catholic worship is still permitted in the cathedrals and in a sufficient
number of other churches, it is clearly understood that all of these
structures, and the land upon which they stand, are absolutely the
property of the Government, liable to be sold and converted to other
uses at any time, and that the officiating clergy are only " tenants at
will." Even the ringing of the church-bells is regulated by law.
All those rites, furthermore, which the Catholic Church has always
"classed as among her holy sacraments and exclusive privileges, and
the possession of which has constituted the chief source of her power
over society, are also now regulated by civil law. The civil author-
ity registers births, performs the marriage ceremony, and provides for
the burial of the dead ; and while the Church marriage ceremonies
are not prohibited to those who desire them, they are legally super-
fluous, and alone have no validity whatever." (See " Report on Church
and State in Mexico to the State Department," by Consul-General
Strother, December, 1883.)

Such an achievement as has been here briefly chronicled, was in
every respect analogous to, and was as momentous to Mexico as the
abolition of slavery was to the United States. Like slavery in the
latter country, the Catholic Church had become, as it were, incorpo-
rated into the fundamental institutions of Mexico since its first inva-
sion and conquest by the Spaniards. It had the sole management of
all the educational institutions and influences of the country ; it held,
in the opinion of a great majority of the people, the absolute control
of the keys of heaven and hell ; it had immense wealth, mainly in the
form of money ready to loan, buildings in the cities, and haciendas or
estates in the country, and all the influences which wealth brings.
And, even when Mexico achieved her independence, the influence of
the Church was so little impaired by the accompanying political and
social convulsions, that the national motto or inscription which the
new state placed upon its seal, its arms, and its banners, was " Re-
ligion, Union, and Liberty."

Except, therefore, for the occurrence of a great civil war, which
convulsed the whole nation ; and in which the Church, after favoring
a foreign invasion, and placing itself in opposition to all the patriotic,

20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

liberty-loving sentiment of the country, bad been signally beaten, its
overthrow, as was the case with slavery in the United States, would
not seem to have been possible. And even under the circumstances,
it ig not a little surprising and difficult of explanation, that a govern-
ment could have arisen in Mexico strong enough and bold enough to
at once radically overthrow and humiliate a great religious system,
which had become so powerful, and had so largely entered into the
hearts and become so much a part of the customs and life of its peo-
ple ; and that every subsequent national administration and party
has now for a period of nearly twenty years unflinchingly maintained
and executed this same policy.

Mr. David H. Strother (" Porte Crayon "), our late consul-general at
Mexico, who has studied the matter very carefully, suggests that an ex-
planation may be found in the character of the Indian races of Mexico,
who constitute the bulk of the population, and " whose native spirit of
independence predominates over all other sentiments." He also throws
out the opinion that "the aborigines of the country never were com-
pletely Christianized ; but, awed by force, or dazzled by showy ceremo-
nials, accepted the external forms of the new faith as a sort of compro-
mise with the conquerors." And he states that he has himself recently
attended " religious festivals where the Indians assisted, clothed and
armed as in the days of Montezuma, with a curious intermingling of
Christian and pagan emblems, and ceremonies closely resembling some
of the sacred dances of the North American tribes." It is also asserted
that, on the anniversaries of the ancient Aztec festivals, garlands are
hung upon the great stone idol that stands in the court-yard of the
National Museum, and that the natives of the mountain villages some-
times steal away on such days to the lonely forests or hidden caves, to
worship in secret the gods of their ancestors. But, be the explanation
what it may, it is greatly to the credit of Mexico, and one of the
brightest auguries for her future, that after years of war, and social
and political revolutions, in which the adherents both of liberty and
absolutism have seemed to vie with each other in outraging humanity,
the idea of a constitutional government, based on the broadest repub-
lican principles, has lived, and, to as large an extent as has perhaps
been possible under the circumstances, practically asserted itself in a
national administrative system.

When the traveler visits the cities of Mexico, and sees the num-
ber and extent of the convents, religious houses, and churches, which,
having been confiscated, are either in the process of decay or occu-
pied for secular purposes ; and, in the country, has pointed out to
him the estates which were formerly the property of the Church, he
gets some realization of the nature of the work which Juarez had the
ability and courage to accomplish. And when he further reflects on
the numbers of idle, shiftless, and certainly to some extent profligate
people, who tenanted or were supported by these great properties, and

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 21

who, producing nothing and consuming everything, virtually lived on
the superstitions and fears of their countrymen which they at the
same time did their best to create and perpetuate he no longer won-
ders that Mexico and her people are poor and degraded, but rather
that they are not poorer and more degraded than they are.

What amount of property was owned by the Mexican Church and
clergy previous to its secularization is not certainly known (at least by
the public). It is agreed that they at one time held the titles to all
the best property of the republic, both in city and country ; and there
is said to have been an admission by the clerical authorities to the
ownership of eight hundred and sixty-one estates in the country, val-
ued at $71,000,000 ; and of twenty-two thousand lots of city property,
valued at 8113,000,000 ; making a total of $184,000,000. Other esti-
mates, more general in their character, are to the effect that the former
aggregate wealth of the Mexican Church can not have been less than
$300,000,000 ; and, according to Mr. Strother, it is not improbable
that even this large estimate falls short of the truth ; " inasmuch as it
is admitted that the Mexican ecclesiastical body well understood the
value of money as an element of power, and, as bankers and money-
lenders for the nation, possessed vast assets which could not be pub-
licly known or estimated." Notwithstanding also the great losses
which the Church had undoubtedly experienced prior to the accession
of Juarez in 1857, and his control of the state, the annual revenue of
the Mexican clergy at that time, from tithes, gifts, charities, and pa-
rochial dues, is believed to have been not less than $22,000,000, or
more than the entire aggregate revenues of the state derived from
all its customs and internal taxes. Some of the property that thus
came into the possession of the Government was quickly sold by it,
and at very low prices ; and, very curiously, was bought, in some nota-
ble instances, by other religious (Protestant) denominations, which,
previous to 1857, had not been allowed to obtain even so much as tol-
erance or a foothold in the country. Thus, the former spacious head-
quarters of the order of the Franciscans, with one of the most elegant
and beautifully proportioned chapels in the world, within its walls, and
fronting in part on the Calle de San Francisco, the most fashionable street
in the city of Mexico, was sold to Bishop Riley and a well-known philan-
thropist of New York, acting for the American Episcopal missions,
at an understood price of thirty-five thousand dollars, and is now
valued at over two hundred thousand dollars. In like manner the
American Baptist missionaries have gained an ownership or control, in
the city of Puebla, of the old Palace of the Inquisition ; and in the
city of Mexico, the former enormous Palace of the Inquisition, is now
a medical college ; while the Plaza de San Domingo, which adjoins
and fronts the Church of San Domingo, and where the auto-da-fe was
once held, is now used as a market-place. A former magnificent old
convent, to some extent reconstructed and repaired, also affords quar-

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ters to the National Library, which in turn is largely made up of spoils
gathered from the libraries of the religious " orders " and houses. The
national Government, however, does not appear to have derived any
great fiscal advantage from the confiscation of the Church property,
or to have availed itself of the resources which thus came to it for
effecting any marked reduction of the national debt. Good Catholics
would not buy " God's property " and take titles from the state ; and
so large tracts of land, and blocks of city buildings, passed, at a very
low figure, into the possession of those who were indifferent to the
Church, and had command of ready money ; and in this way individ-
uals, rather than the state and the great body of the people, have been
benefited.

Having thus briefly glanced at the physical condition and political
and social experiences of Mexico, we are now prepared to discuss the
economic condition of the country, its prospect for industrial develop-
ment, and its possible commercial importance and future trade rela-
tions with the United States.

Population. The element of first importance, and therefore the
one entitled to first consideration in endeavoring to forecast the future
of Mexico, is undoubtedly its population; the object alike for improve-
ment, and the primary instrumentality by which any great improve-
ment in the condition of the country can be effected. Whatever may
be its aggregate ten or twelve millions it is generally agreed that
about one third of the whole number are pure Indians, the descend-
ants of the proprietors of the soil at the time of its conquest by the
Spaniards ; a people yet living in a great degree by themselves, though
freely mingling in the streets and public places with the other races,
and speaking, it is said, about one hundred and twenty different lan-
guages or dialects. Next, one half of the whole population are of
mixed blood the mestizos of whose origin nothing, in general, can
be positively affirmed, further than that their maternal ancestors were
Indian women, and their fathers descendants of the Caucasian stock.
They constitute the dominant race of the Mexico of to-day the ranche-
ros, farmers, muleteers, servants, and soldiers the only native founda-
tion on which it would seem that any improved structure of humanity
can be reared. Where the infusion of white blood has been large, the
mestizos are often represented by men of fine ability, who take natu-
rally to the profession of arms and the law, and distinguish themselves.
But, on the other hand, no small proportion of this race the so-called
"leperos" are acknowledged by the Mexicans themselves to be
among the lowest and vilest specimens of humanity in existence ; a
class exhibiting every vice, with hardly the possession of a single vir-
tue. The remaining sixth of the population of Mexico are Europeans
by birth or their immediate descendants, the Spanish element predomi-
nating. The national language also is Spanish a language not well

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 23

fitted for the uses and progress of a commercial nation ; and which
will inevitably constitute a very serious obstacle in the way of indoctri-
nating the Mexican people with the ideas and methods of overcoming
obstacles and doing things which characterize their great Anglo-Saxon
neighbors. It should also be borne in mind that a language is one of
the most difficult things to supplant in the life of a nation through a
foreign influence. The Norman conquest of England, although it
modified the Saxon language, could not substitute French ; neither
could the Moors make Arabic the language of Spain, although they
held possession of a great part of the country for a period of more
than seven centuries. It seems certain, therefore, that Spanish will
continue to be the dominant language of Mexico until the present
population is outnumbered by the Americans a result which may
occur before a very long time in the northern States of Mexico, where
the population at present is very thin, but which is certainly a very
far-off contingency in the case of Central Mexico.

Of the present population of Mexico, probably three quarters, and
possibly a larger proportion for in respect to this matter there is no
certain information can not read or write, possess little or no prop-
erty, and have no intelligent ideas about civil as contradistinguished
from military authority, of political liberty, or of constitutional gov-
ernment.

It is difficult, in fact, to express in words, to those who have not
had an opportunity of judging for themselves, the degraded condition
of the mass of the laboring classes of Mexico. The veil of the pictur-
esque, which often suffices to soften the hard lines of human existence,
can not here hide the ugliness and even hideousness of the picture
which humanity exhibits in its material coarseness and intellectual or
spiritual poverty. The late consul-general Strother, who, as a citizen of
one of our former slaveholding States, is well qualified to judge, ex-
presses the opinion, in a late official report (1885), that the scale of liv-
ing of the laboring classes of Mexico " is decidedly inferior in comfort
and neatness to that of the negroes of the Southern (United) States
when in a state of slavery. Their dwellings in the cities are generally
wanting in all the requirements of health and comfort mostly rooms on
the ground-floor, without proper light or ventilation ; often with but a
single opening (that for entrance), dirt floors, and no drainage. In the
suburbs and in the country, the dwellings in the cold regions are adobe;
and in the temperate or warm regions mere huts of cane, or of stakes
wattled with twigs, and roofed with corn-stalks, plantain-leaves, or
brush." In such houses of the common people there is rarely anything
answering to the civilized idea of a bed, the occupants sleeping on a mat,
skin, or blanket on the dirt floor. There are no chairs, tables, fireplace,
or chimney ; few or no changes of raiment ; no washing apparatus or
soap, and in fact no furniture whatever, except a flat stone with a stone
roller to grind their corn, and a variety of earthen vessels to hold their

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

food and drink, and for cooking (which last is generally performed over
a small fire, within a circle of stones outside, and in front, of the main
entrance to the dwelling). The principal food of all these people is In-
dian corn, in the form of the so-called tortilla, which is prepared by
placing a quantity of corn in a jar of hot water and lime (when it can be
got) to soak overnight ; the use of the lime being to soften the corn.
When it is desired to use it, the grain is taken out and ground by hand
on the stone and the roller before mentioned, into a kind of paste, and
then slightly dried or baked on an earthen tray or pan over a small
fire. Everybody in Mexico is said to eat tortillas, and their prepara-
tion, which is always assigned to the women, seems to employ their
whole time, " to the exclusion of any care of the dwelling, their chil-
dren, or themselves." Foreigners, especially Americans, find them
detestable. Another standard article of Mexican diet is boiled beans
(frijoles). Meat is rarely used by the laborers, but, when it is ob-
tainable, every part of the animal is eaten. Peppers, both green and
red, mixed with the corn-meal or beans, are regarded as almost indis-
pensable for every meal, and, when condensed by cooking, are de-
scribed by one, who obviously speaks from experience, as forming " a
red-hot mixture whose savage intensity is almost inconceivable to an
American. ... A child of six or seven years old will eat more of this
at a meal than most adult Americans could in a week eating it, too,
without meat or grease of any kind ; merely folding up the tortilla of
wheat or corn-meal, dipping up a spoonful of the terrible compound
with it, and hastily biting off the end, for fear some of the precious
stuff should escape. Should one be fortunate enough to have anything
else to eat, these tortillas serve as plates, after which service the plates
eaten."

With all this, the agricultural laborers of Mexico, both Indians
and mixed bloods, are almost universally spoken of as an industrious,
easily managed, and contented people. By reason of the general
mildness of the climate, the necessary requirements for living are
fewer than among people inhabiting the temperate and more north-
ern latitudes, and consequently poverty with them does not imply ex-
treme suffering from either cold or starvation. W r hen their simple
wants are satisfied, money with them has little value, and quickly finds
its way into the pockets of the almost omnipresent pulque or "lot-
tery-ticket " sellers, or the priest. " If they are too ready to take a
hand against the Government at the call of some discontented leader,
it is not because they are Indian or Mexican, but because they are poor
and ignorant."

One noticeable peculiarity of the Mexican laborer is the strength
of his local attachments, and it is in rare instances only that he volun-
tarily emigrates from the place of his nativity. This circumstance
found a curious illustration in the experience of the recent railroad
constructions in Mexico, where the builders found that they could rely

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 25

only upon the labor in the immediate neighborhood of their line of con-
struction ; and that, generally, neither money nor persuasion would
induce any great numbers of these people to follow their work any dis-
tance from their native fields and villages. In those instances where
temporary emigration was effected, the laborers insisted on carrying
their families with them. The Government also recognizes to a cer-
tain extent this peculiarity in their army movements ; and, whenever
a company or regiment moves, the number of women wives of the
soldiers accompanying seems almost absurdly numerous. They, how-
ever, represent, and to some extent supply, the place of the army
commissariat.

In short, what Mexico is to-day, socially and politically, is the nat-
ural and legitimate sequence, and exactly what might have been ex-
pected from the artificial conditions which for more than three cent-
uries have been forced upon her ; and history has never afforded such
a striking, instructive, and pitiful illustration of the effect upon a
country and a people, of long-continued absolutism and tyranny in re-
spect to both government and religion. It is true that Spain, if called
to plead at the bar of public opinion, might point to her own situation
and decadence as in the nature of judgment confessed and punishment
awarded. But what has the Church, in whose hands for so many years
was exclusively vested the matter of education, and which lacked noth-
ing in the way of power and opportunity, to say to the appalling depths
of ignorance in which she has left the Mexican people ; an ignorance
not confined to an almost entire lack of acquaintance with the simplest
elements of scholastic learning reading, writing, and the rules of
common arithmetic but even of the commonest tools and mechanical
appliances of production and civilization ? But, wherever may be the
responsibility for such a condition of things, the conclusion seems irre-
sistible that, against the moral inertia of such an appalling mass of
ignorance, the advancing waves of any higher civilization are likely
to dash for a long time without making any serious impression.

Educational Efforts and Awakening in Mexico. It is, how-
ever, gratifying to be able to state that at last the leading men of
Mexico have come to recognize the importance of popular education ;
and it is safe to say that more good, practical work has been done in
this direction within the last ten years than in all of the preceding three
hundred and fifty. At all of the important centers of population free
schools, under the auspices of the national Government, and free from
all Church supervision, are reported as established ; while the Catholic
Church itself, stimulated, as it were, by its misfortunes, and appar-
ently unwilling to longer rest under the imputation of having neg-
lected education, is also giving much attention to the subject ; and is
said to be acting upon the principle of immediately establishing two
schools wherever, in a given locality, the Government, or any of the
Protestant denominations, establish one. In several of the national

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

free schools visited by the writer, the scholars, mainly girls, appeared
bright and intelligent, the teachers (females) competent, and the text-
books modern. The language of instruction was, of course, Spanish,
but a greater desire than ever before to learn English is reported, and
it is now (contrary to former custom) generally taught in preference
to French. Industrial schools, to which boys are appointed from dif-
ferent sections of the country, analogous to the system of appointments
in the United States for West Point and Annapolis, have also been
established by the Government. One of the most interesting of these,
and for the promotion of which the Mexican Central Railroad corpora,
tion have co-operated, exists at Guadalupe, about five miles from the
city of Zacatecas. Here, in a large and well-preserved convent struct-
ure, confiscated by the Government and appropriated for school pur-
poses, some two or three hundred Mexican boys are gathered, and
practically taught the arts of spinning and weaving, printing, carpen-
tering, instrumental music, leather-work, and various other handi-
crafts ; while, in close contiguity, and in striking contrast with the
poverty of the surrounding country, the ecclesiastical authorities are
expending a large amount of money the proceeds of a legacy of a
rich Mexican mine-proprietor in reconstructing and decorating in a
most elaborate manner the church, which was formerly a part of the
convent, and which has been left in their possession.

The Federal Government also maintains national schools at the
capital, of agriculture, medicine, law, and engineering ; a Conservatory
of Music, an Academy of Fine Arts, a National Museum and a National
Library ; together with institutions for the blind, deaf and dumb, the
insane, for the reformation of young criminals, and such other system-
atic charities as are common in enlightened communities. Most of
these institutions are located in old and spacious ecclesiastical edifices
which have been " nationalized " ; and the means for their support
seem to be always provided, although the Mexican treasury is rarely
or never in a flourishing condition. At the same time it is almost cer-
tain that all these laudable efforts on the part of the Government to
promote education and culture have thus far worked down and affect-
ed to a very slight extent the great mass of the people. But it is, nev-
ertheless, a beginning.

After all, however, as the stability of any form of government and
the maintenance of domestic tranquillity with such a population as ex-
ists in Mexico, is obviously contingent on the maintenance of a strong,
well - organized, and disciplined army, the first care of the central
Government is naturally to promote military rather than secular edu-
cation ; and, accordingly, the National Military School, located at Cha-
pultepec, and modeled after the best military schools of Europe, is in
the highest state of efficiency. The system of instruction and the
text-books used are French ; and the personnel of the school, both
officers and cadets, will compare favorably with anything that can be

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 27

seen at West Point. The army maintained by Mexico is larger than
that of the United States, and the rank and file seem to be possessed
of all the physical qualities essential for the making of good soldiers.
But it is upon the patriotism and intelligence of the officers in com-
mand of the army that the immediate future and prosperity of Mexico
is dependent. The single fact, however, that the present Government
and the most intelligent and influential people of Mexico have recog-
nized the necessity of educating the masses of the people, and that
probably the best that can be done under existing circumstances is
being done, certainly constitutes the most hopeful and encouraging
augury for the future of the republic.

The Government and Social Forces of Mexico. As might be
expected from the existing conditions, the Government of Mexico
both Federal and State although nominally constitutional and demo-
cratic, is not, and from the very nature of things can not be, other than
personal, and is often in the highest degree arbitrary and despotic ;
in short, a military despotism under the form of a republic. For ex-
ample, under date of February 15, 1886, the telegraph reports that the
people of Coahuila are rejoicing over the fact that, after a term of a
year and a half of military rule, the civil authorities are to resume
control of the local government ; but to this is added the following
significant statement : " The policy of the civil government, however,
will probably be identical with that pursued by the military, as the
Governor-elect is a strong supporter of the Administration, and will
accede to all the demands of the Federal Government."

No such thing as a popular assemblage, to discuss public questions
of any kind, ever takes place in Mexico ; and when, in the fall of 1884,
a young member of the national Congress from Vera Cruz Diaz
Miron ventured to oppose a scandalous proposition of the then Presi-
dent, Gonzales, for the readjustment of the claims of the English hold-
ers of the national bonds, he felt it necessary to preface his speech on
the floor of the House of Representatives with words to the effect
that he fully recognized that, in opposing the Administration, he
probably forfeited all chance for future political preferment, even if
he did not at once endanger his personal freedom. And such, proba-
bly, would have been to him the result, had not the students of the
city of Mexico made the cause of Miron their own, and by organizing
and assuming the aggressive, forced the Government to abandon their
position.

Although there are plenty of newsjmpers in Mexico some sixteen
" dailies " in the city of Mexico alone they have, as might be ex-
pected, but comparatively few readers, and apparently exist for some
other purpose than that of reporting the " news." Only one journal
in the country " El Monitor Republicano " a daily published in the
city of Mexico, and representing the Liberal Opposition, claims a cir-
culation as great as thirty-five hundred ; and probably next to this in

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

circulation (twenty-five hundred reported) is the Church paper, " El
Tiempo," which is bitter alike against the Americans and all their im-
provements, not excepting even their railroads. Of all the other pa-
pers, it is doubtful whether their average circulation ever reaches as
large a figure as eight hundred.

The press of Mexico, furthermore, can hardly be said to be free ;
inasmuch as, when it says anything which the Government assumes to
be calculated to excite sedition, the authorities summarily arrest the
editor and send him to prison ; taking care, however, in all such pro-
ceedings, to scrupulously observe what has been enacted to be law.
Thus, during the past year (1885), the editor-in-chief of "El Monitor
Republicano " has served out a sentence of seven months in the com-
mon penitentiary, for his criticisms upon the Government.

Public opinion in Mexico means simply the opinions of the large
landed proprietors, the professions, the teachers, the students, and the
army officers ; comprising in all not more than from twenty-five to
thirty thousand of the whole population. And it is understood that
less than this number of votes were cast at the last presidential elec-
tion, although the Constitution of Mexico gives to every adult male
citizen of the republic the right to vote at elections and to hold office.
Popular election in Mexico is, therefore, little more than a farce ; and
the situation affords another striking illustration of a fact which is
recognized everywhere by the student of politics, that an uneducated
people will not avail themselves of the right to vote as a matter of
course, or recognize any sense of duty or responsibility as incumbent
upon them as citizens. Such a condition of affairs obviously constitutes
in itself a perpetual menace of domestic tranquillity : for, with no cen-
sus or registration of voters, no scrutiny of the ballot-box except by the
party in power ; no public meetings or public political discussions ; and
no circulation of newspapers among the masses, no peacefully organized
political opposition has a chance to exist. Such opposition as does
manifest itself is, therefore, personal and never a matter of principles.
The central Government for the time being nominates and counts in
what candidates it pleases ; and, if any one feels dissatisfied or op-
pressed, there is absolutely no redress to be obtained except through
rebellion. Such has been the political experience of the Republic of
Mexico heretofore ; and although the recent construction of railways,
by facilitating the transportation of troops, has strengthened the central
Government, there is no reason to suppose that what has happened in
the past will not continue to happen until the first essential of a free
government namely, free and intelligent suffrage on the part of the
masses is established in the country ; and the day for the consumma-
tion of such a result is very far distant.

The present President of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, is undoubtedly
one of the ablest men who has ever filled the office of its chief execu-
tive. He is believed to have the interest of his country supremely at

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORAL FACULTY. 29

heart ; is free from the suspicion that has attached, and probably with
justice, to so many of the Mexican Presidents, of using his power,
through contracts and expenditures, to enrich himself illegitimately ;
and has appreciated the necessity and favored all efforts for establish-
ing and extending popular education. It is not, furthermore, to be
denied that many of the men associated with the present or recent
administrations of Mexico are of very high character and fine abili-
ties ; the recent representative of Mexico in the United States, Senor
Zamacona, and the present minister, Senor Romero, for example,
being the peers of the representatives of any of the governments of
the Old World.

*

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOEAL FACULTY.*

Br JAMES SULLY, M. A. "

IT has been long disputed whether the moral faculty is innate and
instinctive, or whether it is the result of experience and education.
The probability is that it is partly the one and partly the other. The
child shows from an early period a disposition to submit to others' au-
thority, and this moral instinct may not improbably be the transmitted
result of the social experience and moral training of many generations
of ancestors. Yet, whatever the strength of the innate disposition, it
is indisputable that external influences and education have much to do
in determining the intensity and the special form of the moral senti-
ment. We have now to trace the successive phases of its development.

A consciousness of moral obligation arises in the first instance by
help of the common childish experience of living under parental au-
thority at the outset. The child's repugnance to doing what is wrong
is mainly the egoistic feeling of dislike to or fear of punishment. By
the effect of the principle of association or "transference," dislike to
the consequences of certain actions might lead on to a certain measure
of dislike to the actions themselves. And such an effort would greatly
strengthen the innate disposition to submit to authority.

When the forces of affection and sympathy come into play, this
crude germ of moral feeling would advance a stage. An affectionate
child, finding that disobedience and wrong-doing offend and distress
his mother or father, would shrink from these actions on this ground.
Not only so, the promptings of sympathy would lead the child to set
a value on what those whom he loves and esteems hold in reverence.
In this way love and reverence for the father lead on naturally to love
and reverence for the moral law which he represents, enforces, and in
a measure embodies.

Even now, however, the love of right has not become a feeling for

* From " Elements of Psychology, with Special Applications to the Art of Teaching."
In press of D. Appleton & Co.

3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the inherent quality of moral rightness ; it is still a blind respect for
what is enjoined by certain persons who are respected and beloved. In
order that the blind, sympathetic regard may pass into an intelligent
appreciation, another kind of experience is necessary.

Thrown with others from the first, a child soon finds that he is af-
fected in various ways by their actions. Thus another child takes a toy
from him or strikes him, and he suffers, and experiences a feeling of
anger, and an impulse to retaliate. Or, on the contrary, another child
is generous and shares his toys, etc., with him, and so his happiness is
augmented, and he is disposed to be grateful. In such ways the child
gradually gains experience of the effect of others' good and bad actions
on his own welfare. By so doing his apprehension of the meaning of
moral distinctions is rendered clearer. " Right " and " wrong " acquire
a certain significance in relation to his individual well-being. He is
now no longer merely in the position of an unintelligent subject to a
command ; he becomes to some extent an intelligent approver of that
command, helping to enforce it, by pronouncing the doer of the selfish
act " naughty," and of the kind action " good."

Further experience and reflection on this would teach the child the
reciprocity and interdependence of right conduct ; that the honesty,
fairness, and kindness of others toward himself are conditional on his
acting similarly toward them. In this way he would be led to attach
a new importance to his own performance of certain right actions. He
feels impelled to do what is right, e. g., speak the truth, not simply
because he wants to avoid his parents' condemnation, but because he
begins to recognize that network of reciprocal dependence which binds
each individual member of a community to his fellows.

Even now, however, our young moral learner has not attained to a
genuine and pure repugnance to wrong as such. In order that he may
feel this, the higher sympathetic feelings must be further developed.

To illustrate the influence of such a higher sympathy, let us sup-
pose that A suffers from B's angry outbursts or his greedy propensi-
ties. He finds that C and D also suffer in much the same way. If his
sympathetic impulses are sufficiently keen he will be able, by help of
his own similar sufferings, to put himself in the place of the injured
one, and to resent his injury just as though it were done to himself.
At the beginning he will feel only for those near him, and the objects
of special affection, as his mother or his sister. Hence the moral im-
portance of family relations and their warm personal affections, as serv-
ing first to develop habitual sympathy with others and consideration
for their interests and claims. As his sympathies expand, however,
this indignation against wrong-doing will take a wider sweep, and
embrace a larger and larger circle of his fellows. In this way he
comes to exercise a higher moral function as a disinterested spectator
of others' conduct, and an impartial representative and supporter of
the moral law.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORAL FACULTY. 31

The highest outcome of this habit of sympathetic indignation
against wrong is a disinterested repugnance to wrong when done by
the individual himself. A child injures another in some way, either
in momentary anger or through thoughtlessness. As soon as he is able
to reflect, his habit of sympathy asserts itself, and causes him to suffer
with the injured one. He puts himself at the point of view of the
child he has wronged, and from that point of view looks back on him-
self, the doer of the wrong, with a new feeling of self-condemnation.
On the other hand, when he fulfills his duty to another or renders him
a kindness, he gains a genuine satisfaction by imaginatively realizing
the feelings of the recipient of the service, and so looking back on his
action with complacency and approval.

When this stage of moral progress is reached, the child will iden-
tify himself with the moral law in a new and closer way. He will no
longer do right merely because an external authority commands, or
because he sees it to some extent to be his interest to do so. The de-
velopment of the unselfish feelings has now connected an internal pain,
the pang of self-condemnation, and of remorse, with the consciousness
of acting wrongly ; and this pain, being immediate and certain, acts
as a constant and never-failing sanction.

The higher developments of the moral sentiment involve not only
a deepening and quickening of the feelings, but a considerable enlight-
enment of the intelligence. In order to detect the subtler distinctions
between right and wrong, delicate intellectual processes have to be car-
ried out. Rapidity and certainty of moral insight are the late result
of wide experience, and a long and systematic exercise of the moral
faculty on its emotional and intellectual side alike.

Since the moral feeling stands in a peculiarly close relation to the
will, the practical problem of exercising and developing it is intimately
connected with the education of the will and the formation of the
moral character. This larger problem we have not yet reached, but
we may even at this stage inquire into the best means of developing
the moral sentiment regarded apart from its influence as a motive to
action, and merely as an emotional and intellectual product.

Inasmuch as the government of the parent and the teacher is the
external agency that first acts upon the germ of the moral sentiment,
it is evident that the work of training the moral feelings and judg-
ment forms a conspicuous feature in the plan of early education. The
nature of the home discipline more particularly is a prime factor in de-
termining the first movements of growth of the childish sense of duty.
In order that any system of discipline may have a beneficial moral in-
fluence and tend in the direction of moral growth, it must satisfy the
requirements of a good and efficient system. What these are is a point
which will be considered later on. Here it must suffice to say that
rules must be laid down absolutely, and enforced uniformly and con-
sistently, yet with a careful consideration of circumstances and indi-

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vidual differences. Only in this way will the child come to view the
commands and prohibitions of his parent or his teacher as representing
and expressing a permanent and unalterable moral law, which is per-
fectly impartial in its approvals and disapprovals.

The effect of any system of discipline in educating and strengthen-
ing the moral feelings and judgment will depend on the spirit and
temper in which it is enforced. On the one hand, a measure of calm
becomes the judicial function, and a parent or teacher carried away by
violent feeling is unfit for moral control. Hence everything like petty
personal feeling, as vindictiveness, triumph, and so forth, should be
rigorously excluded.

On the other hand, the moral educator must not, in administering
discipline, appear as a cold, impersonal abstraction. He must represent
the august and rigorously impartial moral law, but in representing it
he must prove himself a living personality capable of being deeply
pained at the sight of wrong-doing. By so doing he may foster the
love of right by enlisting on his side the child's warmer feelings of
love and respect for a concrete personality. The child should first be
led to feel how base it is to lie, and how cowardly to injure a weak
and helpless creature, by witnessing the distress it causes his beloved
parent or teacher. In like manner he should be led on to feel the no-
bility of generosity and self-sacrifice by witnessing the delight which
it brings his moral teacher.

It is hardly necessary to add, perhaps, that this infusion of morality
with a warm sympathetic reflection of the educator's feelings presup-
poses the action of that moral atmosphere which surrounds a good per-
sonality. The child only fully realizes the repugnance of a lie to his
parent or teacher when he comes to regard him as himself a perfect
embodiment of truth. The moral educator must appear as the con-
sistent respecter of the moral law in all his actions.

The training of the moral faculty in a self-reliant mode of feeling
and judging includes the habitual exercise of the sympathetic feelings,
together with the powers of judgment. And here much may be done
by the educator in directing the child's attention to the effects of his
conduct. The injurious consequences of wrong-doing and the benefi-
cent results of right-doing ought to be made clear to the child, and his
feelings enlisted against the one and on the side of the other. Not
only so, his mind should be exercised in comparing actions so as to dis-
cover the common grounds and principles of right and wrong, and also
in distinguishing between like actions under different circumstances, so
that he may become rational and discriminative in pronouncing moral
judgment.

What is called moral instruction should in the first stages of educa-
tion consist largely of presenting to the child's mind examples of duty
and virtue, with a view to call forth his moral feelings as well as to
exercise his moral judgment. His own little sphere of observation

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORAL FACULTY. 33

should be supplemented by the page of history and of fiction. In this
way a wider variety of moral action is exhibited, and the level of every-
day experience is transcended. Such a widening of the moral horizon
is necessary both for enlarging and refining the feeling of duty, and
for rendering the meaning of moral terms deeper and more exact. And
it stimulates the mind to frame an ideal conception of what is good and
praiseworthy.

The problem of determining the exact relation of intellectual to
moral culture is one which has perplexed men's minds from the days
of Socrates. On the one hand, as has been remarked, the enlighten-
ment of the intelligence is essential to the growth of a clear and finely
discriminative moral sense. On the other hand, it is possible to exer-
cise the intellect in dealing with the formal distinctions of morality
without calling the moral faculty into full vital activity.

This practical difficulty presses with peculiar force when we come
on to the later exercises of moral instruction. The full carrying out
of the process of informing the moral intelligence naturally conducts
to the more or less systematic exposition of the ideas and truths of
ethics. An enlightened conscience is one to which the deepest grounds
of duty have begun to disclose themselves, and which has approximated
to a complete and harmonious ideal of goodness by a systematic survey
and co- ordination of the several divisions of human duty and the cor-
responding directions of moral virtue and excellence. Something in
the shape of ethical exposition is thus called for when the child reaches
a certain point in moral progress. But the educator must be careful
to make this dogmatic instruction supplementary to, and not a substi-
tute for, the drawing forth of the whole moral faculty on its sensitive
and on its reflective side alike by the presentation of living concrete
illustrations of moral truth. Divorced from this, it can only degener-
ate into a dead formal exercise of the logical faculty and the memory.

The education of the moral sentiment is, as we have seen, carried
out in part by the influence of the child's companions. To surround
him with companions is not only necessary for his comfort, but is a
condition of developing and strengthening the moral feelings, as the
sentiment of justice, the feeling of honor, and so on. The larger com-
munity of the school has an important moral function in familiarizing
the child's mind with the idea that the moral law is not the imposition
of an individual will, but of the community. The standard of good
conduct set up and enforced by this community is all authoritative in
fixing the early directions of the moral judgment.

This being so, it is evident that the moral educator must take pains
to control and guide the public opinion of the school. And in connec-
tion with this he should seek to counteract the excessive influence of
numbers, and to stimulate the individual to independent moral re-
flection.

VOL. XXIX. 3

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

DE CANDOLLE ON THE PKODITCTION OF MEN OF

SCIENCE.

By W. H. LARKABEE.

THE first edition of Alphonse de Candolle's " History of the Sci-
ences and of Scientific Men during two Centuries," * which was
published in 1873, was speedily exhausted, and the book became, as the
author says, a rarity in the library catalogues. A search for it two
years ago revealed the fact that there was but one copy to be found in
the European markets, and that was held at three times the ordinary
price. Frequent references to the work as an authority, and many
inquiries for it, made a second edition necessary, and it has appeared,
with careful revisions and valuable additions, within the year. The
primary object of the work was to study the influence of heredity in
developing men of science ; but it was obvious from the outset that
this was only one of many factors that concurred in producing the
result, and by no means always a predominant one. Hence the task
became at once that of learning what influence was contributed by
birth, and what by exterior circumstances, such as education, examples,
institutions, etc. The mixture of the two categories is often inextrica-
ble, as Mr. Galton has remarked, but in many cases we may succeed in
determining which one of them is predominant.

M. de Candolle precedes his principal study with general discussions
of the subjects of heredity and selection, and of the operation of selec-
tion in the human species, to which he has added in the later edition of
his book an account of his processes and the results of his newer inves-
tigations on heredity. The latter were made upon thirty-one persons
belonging to sixteen different families in comfortable circumstances,
and bore reference to 1,032 distinct traits of character, for each of
which he also inquired into its presence or absence in either or both
parents. These traits were arranged in four categories : external, 287 ;
internal, 140 ; instinctive and sentimental, 410 ; and intellectual, 195.
The general result of the examination was to show in a striking man-
ner that heredity is the usual, general, and predominant law, in both
sexes and various degrees for all the categories of characteristics not
acquired. Other facts of more limited application were brought out.
Interruption of heredity during one or more generations, or atavism,
was rarely presented, and seemed to say, when it occurred, not that the
particular trait was wanting, but that it was feebly accentuated, in the
intermediate generations. The more prominent or influential the per-

* " Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis Deux Siecles." Preceded and followed
by other studies on scientific subjects, particularly on " Heredity and Selection." By Al-
phonse de Candolle. Second edition, with Additions. Geneva, Basle, and Lyon : H. Georg.
Pp. 594. 1-885.

DE CANDOLLE ON MEN OF SCIENCE. 35

sod, for good or bad, the more be appeared to exbibit pronounced and
numerous characteristics in the category of instinctive feelings and in-
telligence. Some of these feelings in such cases appeared in the family
for the first time. Women present fewer distinctive traits than men.
All the distinctive characteristics, regarded in groups, are more freely
transmitted by fathers than mothers. This is particularly the case
with traits of intelligence ; probably because the characteristics in
question are more strongly developed in the fathers. It is hard to
learn whether characteristics acquired by education, reading, and ex-
ample, and from social influences, such as patriotism, religious opinions,
the point of honor, devotion to a dynasty, etc., are transmitted. Prob-
ably they rest on w^eak but native and transmissible bases, such as
sociability for patriotism, timorousness and curiosity for religion, a
submissive spirit for loyalty, etc. The external influences of educa-
tion, example, and other factors, develop upon these bases sentiments
which become very strong, and are perhaps easily transmissible. The
characteristics most marked in an individual are ordinarily those which
he derives from both parents, and they exhibit special force if they are
derived from these and also from other ancestors. A curious element
of hereditary influence in developing men addicted to high mental ef-
fort may be found in considering the condition of the clergy of a coun-
try. It is not indifferent, M. de Candolle observes, " whether some cate-
gories of the instructed, intelligent, and respectable public, be restricted
to celibacy or not. Laying aside all dogmatism and views respecting
the discipline of the clergy, the result, relative to instruction, is not
the same for a country where there are, for example, forty or fifty
thousand celibate ecclesiastics, or the same number of clergymen-
fathers of families. Even if we reduce heredity in intellectual affairs
to a minimum, the mere existence, in Protestant countries, of married
pastors, assures the development, from year to year, of a certain num-
ber of educated persons who will exert a wholesome influence upon
society." Thus, Agassiz, Berzelius, Boerhaave, Robert Brown, Camper,
Clausius, Encke, Euler, Fabricius, Grew, Hansteen, Hartsoeker, Oswald
Heer, Jenner, Linnaeus, Mitscherlich, Olbers, Claus Rudbeck, W. P.
Schimper, Studer, Schweizer, Arthur Young, Wargentin, Wollaston,
and Wiirtz, among men of science ; a list that includes Hallam, Hobbes,
Puffendorf, and De Sismondi, among publicists and historians ; Addi-
son, Gessner, Ben Jonson, Lessing, Jean Paul Richter, Swift, Thomson,
Wieland, Young, and Emerson, among poets and men of letters ; and
Christopher Wren and David Wilkie, among artists, would not have
existed if their fathers, Protestant pastors, had been Roman Catholic
priests, or would not have been what they were had their education
been defective.

These are examples of an external influence, operating in a coun-
try at large, to modify heredity of intellectual tendencies, or to work
along with it. The special object of M. de Candolle's research is

36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to determine how far such external influences, peculiar to different
countries, have had effect, during the past two centuries, on the de-
velopment of the sciences by producing the men most eminent in
them.

M. de Candolle takes as the criterion, in the selection of men to be
subjects of his review, the judgment of the principal learned societies
of Europe as expressed toward scientific men severally not of their
own nations. He thus avoids possible errors of his own judgment,
and those which might originate in the prejudices of any other persons
by whose judgment he could be guided. The opinions expressed by
those societies in the manner indicated are impartial, if any opinions
can be. They may not be wholly just as to individuals, for not all the
most deserving have received the notice of foreign societies, but, as
averages, they are probably as fair as possible. The Royal Society of
London is accustomed to name fifty foreign members from among the
distinguished in all branches of science. The French Academy of
Sciences confers the title of Foreign Associate on eight scientific men
not of France, and has usually, also, on its general list of correspond-
ents from forty to seventy foreigners. The societies of Germany and
Italy likewise confer suffrages among those men whom they consider
to have done the most for science in other countries than their own.
Taking the lists of the foreign members of these societies as they stand
at stated periods from 1666, when Huygens was elected a foreign asso-
ciate of the French Academy of Sciences, down to the present, we
have a large catalogue of names which the scientific world has united,
as it were, to pronounce its greatest.

The first conclusion drawn from the analysis of the lists is that of
the greater importance that has been attained during the last hundred
years by the natural as distinguished from the mathematical and
physical sciences. Another fact to be learned from them is the grow-
ing tendency to devotion to special branches. The Greek philosophers
and those of the middle ages were interested in all branches. In the
days of Leibnitz and Newton, two or three designations were needed
to describe a philosopher's pursuits, as "astronomer and physicist,"
or "mathematician, astronomer, and physicist," and it might some-
times be necessary to add " linguist " or " poet." But science has now
become too large for this. Single branches must absorb the whole
attention of those who would be proficient in them. And the impossi-
bility of rising in science while following a lucrative profession or
pursuing a hobby is becoming daily more evident. In this may lie one
of the reasons why Roman Catholic ecclesiastics appear to have given
up scientific pursuits. The lists, till the end of the eighteenth century,
included many names of Jesuits, monks, and abbes. In the present cent-
ury we have only the Abbe Hatiy and Father Secchi. The difference
is also in part due to the changed condition of the clergy. The clerical
names on the lists of the last centuries were chiefly taken from the

DE CANDOLLE ON MEN OF SCIENCE. 37

sedentary clergy, whose ecclesiastical duties were light. The number
of clergy of this class has been greatly reduced since the French Revo-
lution ; and the bishops and parish priests of to-day have no time for
science. The increasing specialization of scientific work is also seen
in the separation, in natural history, between collectors and describers,
and between those who make applications of science and those who
work at original research ; and a separation is growing up between
teaching and purely scientific work. Dividing society into three
classes the aristocratic, the middle class, and the workers the for-
mer appears to be most fruitful in proportion to its numbers in the
development of scientific excellence ; but the list of Frenchmen in the
present century appears to show an inclination in favor of the middle
and working classes. By the force of circumstances a life of research
is one of abnegation, which can hardly be recommended to those who
have no worldly goods ; and the conferring of scholarships and fellow-
ships upon poor students can hardly change the conditions to any great
extent. It may result in making well-informed men and teachers, but
many other circumstances and influences than a university education
must concur to induce a young man to devote himself to investigation,
to the discovery of truths, and the publication of his results. These
come next under review.

The appearance on the Academy lists in several instances of the
names of father and son or of members of the same family, and in nu-
merous instances of persons whose fathers had made a good record in
professional or scholastic life, suggests heredity ; but it is not safe to
build too much on the suggestion at least not in its application to
the specific talent. There are other factors than heredity in the fam-
ily life of professional and scientific men to direct the attention of
the children toward kindred pursuits to those of the father. Heredity
has a considerable effect, but it consists chiefly in the transmission of
tastes and faculties that are useful in such pursuits, rather than of su-
perior aptitudes for particular branches. Further than this, it does not
operate directly, except perhaps in the case of the mathematical sci-
ences. The power of family influences under the direction of scholarly
fathers to cultivate such tastes in youth is shown in the large propor-
tion of the names of sons of Protestant pastors on the scientific rolls.
The occupations of physicians and pharmacists are more directly scien-
tific than that of the pastor, but the number of sons of members of
those professions on the lists is much inferior to that of sons of pastors.
The difference is ascribed to the more quiet and intimate life of the
pastoral home, and to the direct and constant supervision which is ex-
ercised by the pastor over the training of his sons. Switzerland fur-
nishes more instances than any other country of members of the same
family on the academical lists. This is because Swiss youth, particu-
larly the sons of pastors, pursue their studies at home, living in their
own families, while in France and Italy they are taken away from

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

home at the age of attending college. This was particularly true in
Switzerland in the last century and the first half of the present one,
especially at Geneva and Basle, the towns which have furnished the
largest proportion of savants connected by family ties.

Inquiring what personal traits contribute most to the making of a
scientific man, a comparison is made of the characteristics possessed
in common by four eminent men Darwin, Linnaeus, Cuvier, and the
author's father, Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle. They all had heads
larger than the ordinary size ; strong and persistent will ; curiosity for
the examination of accessible things and of truths ; great activity, exhib-
ited in the walking excursions of Linnaeus and De Candolle, the untir-
ing industry of Darwin, and the constant occupation of Cuvier with his
work, although he seemed to be phlegmatic ; order, shown in their
aptitude in classification ; observing faculties, in which none could be
superior to Darwin and Cuvier ; freedom from any taste for meta-
physics ; sound judgment ; excellent memory ; great power of atten-
tion, and remarkable faculty for generalization. As points of differ-
ence, Darwin, Cuvier, and De Candolle were distinguished by amplitude
of ideas, while Linnaeus was narrow ; Darwin and De Candolle were
independent in opinion, Linnaeus and Cuvier less so. None of the
four had a natural taste for languages, but De Candolle and Darwin
regretted that they knew so little of other languages than their own.
Looking for the origin of the qualities they had in common, we find
that Linnaeus was the son of a country pastor, and grandson, through
his mother, of another pastor. Cuvier, whose brother Frederic was
also a zoologist, but less celebrated than he, was the son of a military
officer, whose life does not throw any particular light on the origin of
his distinctive characteristics. The De Candolle family were distin-
guished by an independence of judgment that compelled them to
change the country of their residence, for opinion's sake, four times in
three hundred years. These four naturalists were singularly favored
by external circumstances. They were born in long-civilized coun-
tries ; they received a Protestant education which did not repress their
curiosity or the independence of their opinions ; they found, at home
and around them, good examples, counsels, and encouragement ; and
they studied in good schools.

Special or innate tastes are not as important as they appear to be,
unless they prove persistent. In that case they are cultivated in after-
life, and are remembered and spoken of. But those who have the
same tastes in infancy and fail to cultivate them, forget them and
never speak of them. Multitudes of children chase butterflies and
make collections of shells or insects without becoming naturalists, or
construct toy houses and machines without becoming architects or en-
gineers. Some scientific men have also been poetasters or amateur
dramatists in their youth. Other special tastes and antipathies have
some influence, but they result as often from the circumstances of

BE CANBOLLE ON MEN OF SCIENCE. 39

sights, conversations, examples, or other incidents occurring in youth,
as from descent.

In instruction much depends on exciting curiosity or keeping it
active. If, within the family or the school, we put questions to a
child, or place it in such conditions that it will ask questions, its curi-
osity is excited. If, on the other hand, we discourage and repress the
inquisitive disposition, the impulses of curiosity are arrested, and the
mind gradually bends toward indifference or timidity. "From the
primary school to the university, the teaching may favor, contradict,
or direct in one manner or another the inquisitive spirit of young people.
Appropriate questioning, the repulsion of frivolous or inappropriate
questions, approval of those which are serious, and the solution of
which is possible to the pupil, speaking about things which are not yet
discovered or comprehended, but the discovery of which by means of
research and reflection is hopeful, a rare use of the principle of author-
ity, which is opposed to scientific methods, are means which may be
indicated to teachers as adapted to direct the minds of their pupils
toward the higher region of the sciences. Those are not the most elo-
quent or the most lucid professors who excite inquisitive minds, but
those rather whose teachings leave doubts and suggest questions. If
they can tell the whole and still excite curiosity, it is well ; but to pro-
voke the efforts of the pupils by badly directed teaching is not as re-
grettable as it is thought to be. Especially in the mathematical sci-
ences, in which it is so important for the student to fix his attention, a
merely ordinary teacher often succeeds better than a very skillful one.*
The worst teacher, in the author's opinion, is the one who represents
science as finished. A point on which many of Mr. Galton's corre-
spondents, in the course of his inquiries respecting the education of
English scientific men have insisted, "is that of giving freedom and
leisure to pupils who show strong tastes in their studies. As they are
original, curious, and independent in disposition, they are not very fond
of having tasks imposed upon them. They are often poor scholars,
but they are scholars who have a future, and provision ought to be
made for giving them special treatment. Unfortunately, the system
of education in common is opposed to that ; and this is one of the rea-
sons why so many schools form mediocrities, without favoring indi-
viduals who are superior to the average."

In reading the biographies of the several foreign associates of the
French Academy, it is often a matter of surprise to observe how medi-
ocre were some of the instructors of illustrious men, and how many

* " They say," said the author to Regnault, professor in the Ecole polytechnique of
Paris, " that when you were young the school produced many more celebrated mathema-
ticians and physicists than it does now. Is it true ? " " Perhaps so," he answered.
" Why ? " " Because, you see, our principal professor of mathematics was so obscure,
that the pupils had to meet after each lesson to go over it again. For some time I had to
revise the exercise-books of my comrades. You can not imagine how it made me work."

4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

who were pupils of the most celebrated professors held a secondary-
rank in science ; and we have to admit that, while illustrious savants
may give good instruction, good teaching doe3 not make illustrious
savatits. A deplorable effect of instruction is to diminish originality,
without some proportion of which quality a scientific man can not rise
above the mean.

When we inquire what is the influence of religion upon the de-
velopment of scientific men, we find that the non-Christian countries
are completely foreign to the scientific movement. We have no right
to conclude from this that one has to be a Christian to be distinguished
in science, for there are many examples to contradict such an assertion.
We can only say that the Christian religion has been favorable to sci-
ence by its general influence upon civilization. We can at least affirm
that it has been, in the modern epoch, the only religion which has
coincided with a real scientific development. Between the divisions
of Christendom, the advantage is vastly in favor of Protestantism.
While the proportion of Protestant to Roman Catholic populations is
one to one and a half, Europe, outside of France, has furnished four
times as many Protestant as Roman Catholic foreign associates to
the French Academy of Sciences. France, where most of the Roman
Catholic scientific men reside, has furnished about an equal number of
Protestant and Roman Catholic foreign members of the Royal Society
of London. No English or Irish Roman Catholic name appears on the
list of the French Academy, although that Church includes a fifth of
the population of the United Kingdom. Austria is not represented
there, and Roman Catholic Germany makes but a poor showing by the
side of Protestant Germany. In Switzerland, where the Catholics are
to the Protestants as one to one and a half, not one of the foreign as-
sociates is a Roman Catholic. A similar difference appears to exist
as among Swiss, English, and Irish, of the two cults in the lists of the
London and Berlin societies. The difference is not attributable to any-
thing in the doctrines of the churches, but rather to the different atti-
tude direct or indirect of their clergy toward education, according
as it is their habit to prescribe by authority or to leave every one
free to form his own opinion. The more we proceed in an authori-
tative way, the more we repress curiosity, the mother of science, and
increase mental timidity. A population educated for many generations
under the principle of authority naturally becomes timid in intellectual
affairs. But a population habituated from infancy to scrutinize con-
cerns which it is told are of the greatest importance, like those of
religion, will not be afraid to examine purely scientific questions, and
will know better how to proceed to the solution of them. The fact,
already referred to, should not be forgotten, that a large number of
distinguished men of science have been the sons of Protestant pastors.
Remove from the list of savants of Protestant countries the names ap-
pertaining to this class, and we shall find the scientific standing of the

DE CANDOLLE ON MEN OF SCIENCE. 4 i

two cults as to the other names nearly equal. Thus, a rule of pure dis-
cipline, fopeign to the doctrines and which has not always existed in
the Church, has had bad consequences for science in Roman Catholic
countries.

Classes of ideas, feelings, sympathies, and antipathies may be trans-
mitted in families by imitation or tradition, and have great influence
on the course of their members. They often result from some great
event which has made a marked impression on the family ; and we may
have among the number traditions favorable to the pursuit of science.
Pointed examples are afforded of them in the history of some of the
Protestant families who were expelled from Roman Catholic countries
in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Among these
are the nine Bernouillis, who were famous in mathematics or physics.
Of the men of this class there have been eleven of the one hundred
and one foreign associates of the French Academy an enormous pro-
portion for a total population of less than a million souls. If the same
proportion had ruled among, say, the Germans at large, we should
have had three hundred and thirty German foreign associates instead
of twenty-three ; or in the United Kingdom, one hundred and thirty
British associates instead of twenty-seven ; and ten of these eleven
lived in Switzerland. We might increase this number if we could
trace all the cases of descent from refugee mothers. The English
Puritans, who emigrated to this country, had essentially the same
dispositions and character with the French Protestant refugees of the
sixteenth century. Their descendants, direct and indirect, in New
England have also shown favorable tendencies toward sciences of
every kind. They have given Franklin and Rumford to the Euro-
pean academies and have furnished other distinguished men of
science and historians and men of letters in the United States. The
current immigration to the United States, being composed chiefly of
working-men, does not bear the promise of exercising influence on the
progress of science. But if every emigrant-vessel carried only one
such man as Nuttall, Agassiz, Engelmann, Marcou, or Pourtales, we
might expect different results. These men and others like them are
already laying the foundations of good scientific traditions, and are
adding their influence to that of the Pilgrims of New England.

Public opinion is beneficial or not, according as it encourages or
gives the stamp of fashion to those tastes and aims which are con-
genial with scientific pursuits, or to the opposite ones. Form of gov-
ernment seems to exercise but little positive influence. Provided civ-
ilization is not destroyed by long seasons of revolutionary violence or
wars, there is no reason for supposing that scientific work will be
arrested in any country solely on account of its political regime. Cus-
toms are much more important, and also education and family tradi-
tions. The most favorable geographical situations are in the midst of
civilized nations, in the temperate zone. Science does not prosper in

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the equatorial and tropical regions, nor in the south of Europe as
much as in the north and center.

Nationality is not intrinsically a factor in science. Nevertheless,
some nations have in their geographical situation, their extent, lan-
guage, customs, or other incidental circumstances, features which are
more or less favorable to science than corresponding features in other
nations. The rank in representation in the academies has fluctuated
variously between England, France, and Germany during the two cent-
uries, while the smaller nations, like Holland, Switzerland, and the
Scandinavian states, have, in proportion to their population, more than
held their own in the competition with them. Switzerland seems to
hold an extraordinary and constant superiority. Some of the reasons
for this have been already explained. Another reason is to be found
in the fact, which is brought out in the investigation, that a small
country is on the whole more favorable to science than a large one.

If public institutions could really furnish incitements to scientific
researches and promote their success, large countries would have a
manifest advantage. In other words, there should regularly be more
illustrious savants to the million souls in a great nation than in a small
one. The facts as revealed by statistics are of contrary import, and
it is not impossible to divine why this is so. There are in a small coun-
try, so far as concerns science, two advantages which may afford am-
ple offsets to the lucrative places and honorary distinctions of large
countries. One of the advantages is the relatively smaller importance
of all public functions. In a small country, the careers of the army,
the magistracy, and the administration can offer only moderate tempta-
tions to youth who feel themselves capable. If they aspire to a Euro-
pean reputation, science is the best means within their reach by which
to obtain it. The public comprehends this, and, as it desires the value
of the country to be measured by some other standard than that of
the extent of its territory, it gives a moral support to men who seek to
distinguish themselves in affairs purely intellectual. And this support
of opinion, which is quite sensible in very small states, like Denmark
and the Swiss cantons, comprehends also the advantage that men of
merit prefer to remain in their country ; and they preserve there their
good influence and their wholesome traditions, instead of removing to
the capitals of great states.

Furthermore, small countries touch upon other states at all points,
or are, we might say, all frontiers. One can not live in one of them
without making frequent comparisons with the institutions, laws, and
usages of adjacent countries. This alone is a cause of intellectual ac-
tivity, and profits to the cultivation of science. The vicinity of nation-
al boundaries has also the excellent effect of rendering a complete
tyranny impossible. It is very easy for persecuted persons to escape
from a country of small extent and live at peace in an adjoining state.
This has often been seen in Switzerland, and was observed in Germany

DE CANDOLLE ON MEN OF SCIENCE. 43

and Italy, when they were divided up into many small states. Then,
when the fugitives have escaped into the other states, they can gener-
ally get along with the language and customs, which will not be far
removed from their own. But, in a very large country, not only is it
hard to escape, but if one expatriates himself he will be exposed to
the annoyance of finding himself among populations speaking a differ-
ent language, and having other habits than his own.

Of twenty conditions which M. de Candolle lays down as favorable
and the opposite of them as decidedly unfavorable to the progress of
science, Switzerland has all, and no unfavorable opposites ; Turkey all
the unfavorable ones, and no favorable ones ; the United States all but
four favorable, and the exceptions want of a wealthy class, want of a
leisurely class devoting themselves to scientific enjoyments, lack of mu-
seums, etc., and non-proximity of civilized countries are neither grave
nor characteristic, but only temporary.

Above all the conditions enumerated, and controlling them, is the
superior condition, primarily requisite, that every individual shall be
secured in the ability to do what he judges fit, provided he does no
harm to another. The idea is commonly expressed by the two terms,
security and liberty ; but, in fact, there can be no security without
liberty, nor liberty without security. The terms complement one
another. The favorable conditions appear as a whole to have accumu-
lated in their most obvious form in a triangular space comprehended
between Central Italy, Scotland, and Sweden, with a projection extend-
ing across the ocean to New England. This peculiar shaping is the
result of historical causes, the chief of which are the three decisive
movements for European civilization of the Renaissance, which origi-
nated in Tuscany ; the Reformation, which started in Germany ; and
political liberty, which has been laboriously and slowly developed in
England. Other very important factors or superior conditions are,
that the race shall be European, or of European origin ; that a long
selection shall have prepared a considerable number of families for in-
tellectual labors ; that the climate shall not be one of depressing heat,
and that the geographical situation shall not be too far removed from
centers of intellectual culture.

If we inquire what have been the most important scientific discov-
eries that is, those which have not been mere applications, but which
have opened new fields of research made during the last forty years,
we shall find among them those of spectral analysis, the transformation
of forces, the ancient extension of the glaciers, the antiquity of man
and prehistoric studies, evolution and natural selection, alternating
generations, and deep-sea explorations. These have all originated in
Scandinavia, Central Germany, Switzerland, Northern France, or Eng-
land, or in the countries which have been found to occupy the first
places in the academical lists. If we extend the inquiry to fifty or
sixtv years back, we shall find the case substantially the same. The

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

countries all lie within the region which has been marked as governed
by the most favorable conditions for science.

Very distinguished or illustrious men compose in a manner the
framework of our history ; but by their side we may see a considerable
number who have perhaps contributed quite as much, by their collect-
ive efforts, to the continuous progress of science. There may be found
in this category some very ingenious men, very industrious, and worthy
to figure in the first ranks, but whom a premature death has removed
from activity, who have been prevented from publishing, or who have
been obliged to give most of their time to work which made no show-
ing. The celebrities who shine in the full light are, in reality, the
manifestation of the existence of a public well informed and friendly
to research. Scientific work is, in fact, much more than it appears to
be, collective. This is one of the reasons why particular countries and
groups of population obtain a superiority over others, and keep it for
centuries. One or two celebrated men may disappear, without the choice
and progressive population of which they were the highest expression
being annulled. A group which has once produced such illustrations
of its vigor may at any time furnish others.

Under the present multiplication of scientific schools and societies,
laboratories, museums, and establishments in which science is applied,
thousands of persons are competing in scientific labors. The more
this array of workers grows, the more should it have within itself in-
ventive minds who will perfect processes and occasionally make dis-
coveries. The average class of scientific men is now of higher quality,
because it represents better teaching and more skill in practice ; but
there will always be above this medium rank better endowed and more
active sava?7ts, or those who are more masters of their time and their
persons. The popularization of science by means of books, periodi-
cals, lectures, and societies, and the interest taken by all intelligent
people in scientific matters, are of great advantage to the progress
of knowledge, fcr specialists make recruits and easily find assistance
in mediums thus disposed. The slow and costly movements of gov-
ernments are not equal in value to the zealous and disinterested impul-
sion of the public. M. de Candolle's opinions respecting the influence
of politics and government patronage on scientific pursuits are, in fact,
very decidedly expressed. After showing how religious preposses-
sions, which are usually more positive, more firmly held, and more ex-
clusive than any other kind of prejudices, may interfere with the free
exercise of scientific thought, he observes that the incompatibility of
political relations is still greater ; for politicians defend, not what they
believe to be true, but what appears practicable or possible to realize,
and are subservient to the authority of chiefs and majorities. Politics
agree well with the aims of those whose chief pursuit is that of mate-
rial gain, for such men frequently have to use the same methods as poli-
ticians to succeed ; but the person who is seeking for pure truth in his-

DE CANDOLLE ON MEN OF SCIENCE. 45

tory, in law, or in moral, natural, or other science, is out of his place in a
political assembly. He would hardly go there except from motives of
patriotism, or under a transitory, enthusiastic impulse, and would very
soon find out that he did not belong there. How could he lend him-
self to the manoeuvres of politicians ? How, for example, could he
trade off a principle against a railroad, a charitable foundation for an
election ? How could he consent to transactions between truth and
falsehood, to the barter of opinions which is the rule in political affairs ?
Men of science are sometimes found in considerable numbers in politi-
cal assemblies, but the others always do their best to make them ridicu-
lous, and kill them off by giving them bad names. "As a rule," M. de
Candolle adds, " governments too much confound teaching with progress
in science. Many of them believe they have done everything when
they have created schools and universities. They do not comprehend
that they often do more harm than good by restricting these institutions
in their methods, or in the choice of teachers. They do not know to
what degree science lives on liberty and on the individual work of
masters and pupils outside of the lessons. Sometimes they over-
charge the professors with courses, examinations, or administrative
details which deprive those who wish to work of the time to do so.*
They pay but little attention to the encouragement of original publica-
tions, the sale of which at the book-stores is far from being remunera-
tive, and even when they do anything in that way, it is awkwardly,
and to poor purpose.

" The idea of constructing expensive buildings for universities, lab-
oratories, etc., is now very much in vogue. Such munificence furthers
some works and gives means of obtaining greater precision in experi-
ments, but it discourages isolated investigators who have not the same
resources, while researches at home are usually the best thought out and
the most original." f

Absolute sovereigns have sometimes invited distinguished men to
their capitals and bestowed their favors upon them. But this, after
all, was only a way of changing the place of scientific culture, not of
creating it. Generally, emigrations of savants have been useful to

* " At the moment of writing this phrase, I have before me letters of French, German,
and Italian professors, lamenting that they can not work for science, because they are
charged with hundreds of examinations which could be attended to just as well by per-
sons whose time is less valuable."

f Haeckel has gone so far as to say that the scientific work of institutions and the
intrinsic value of their publications stand in an inverse ratio to the magnitude of the
buildings and the splendid appearance of their volumes. " I need only refer," he adds,
" to the small and miserable institutes and the meager resources with which Baer in
Konigsberg, Schleiden in Jena, Johannes Miiller in Berlin, Liebig in Giesscn, Yirchow in
Wiirzburg, Gcgenbaur in Jena, have not only each advanced their special science most
extensively, but have actually created new spheres for them. Compare with these the
colossal expenditures and the luxurious apparatus in the grand institutes of Cambridge,
Leipsic, and other so-called great universities what have they produced in proportion to
their means ? "

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

themselves, to science, and to the countries which have welcomed
them, in proportion as rulers have had the good sense to leave them
time to work.

Democracies encourage savants most by leaving them the widest
liberty of opinion. They have furthermore the advantage of causing
the separation from political life and public functions of those men
who have taste for research, cabinet-work, independence of thought,
and for the truth as set above popularity and material considerations,
or for precisely those things which most further the advance of science.
In general, whatever may be the form or the tendency of the govern-
ment, men who cultivate science for itself should rather consider them-
selves fortunate if they are out of favor with the administration.

-***-

THE PEOBLEM OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

By ALFEED EINHOEN, Ph.D., M. E.

CRYSTALS are symmetrical forms bounded by plane surfaces. A
surface is said to be plane or level when its nature is such as is
exemplified in a sheet of water extending over dimensions very small
when compared to the radius of the earth. Crystals occur abundantly ;
they are generally diminutive and frequently microscopic in size, and
therefore readily escape ordinary observation. Quite different in this
respect are many forms caused by the rougher forces active in Nature,
and analogous to crystals in the regularity of the shapes they assume.
They are not unfrequently noted for their unique and startling appear-
ance, as is instanced in the five-sided columns of basalt, known in
some volcanic regions, and distinguished for their weird forms and the
awe and superstition they give rise to among the inhabitants. Also
many erosion figures resulting from the disintegrating action of water
and air upon rocks. Many examples of this category may be seen in
the scenic displays of unexcelled grandeur afforded by our far West.
Not to these, but to a more commonplace phenomenon, I will now
direct the attention of the reader, inasmuch as it is, mechanically speak-
ing, related to and will serve to elucidate the subject under consid-
eration. I have reference to a heap of particles of more or less uniform
size, arranging themselves under the influence of the pull or gravity
of the earth, with the provision that their magnitude should be very
small relative to that of the whole heap. Thus, a grain or gravel heap
is an excellent example of the phenomenon I refer to, and it is a very
remarkable circumstance that different heaps have the same slope, pro-
vided the character of the material and the support upon which they
rest remain the same. The slope (the inclination of the sides of the
heap with the horizon) is dependent upon the magnitude and shape of
the particles, and also upon the nature of the support ; the whole sys-

THE PROBLEM OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

47

tern being subject to the gravity of the earth, they assume certain
definite relative positions which determine the magnitude of the slope.
In order to insure the same slope, the particles need not necessarily be
perfectly alike, but the average size and shape of a limited number of
them, chosen at random, should be uniform throughout. It is clear
that the nature of the support must influence the slope of the heap, for,
resting on a polished surface like a plate of glass, the slope is less than
when supported on a rough surface, as a wooden floor. Generally, in
a heap of gravel the slope is different from that of a heap of grain,
inasmuch as the dimensions and shape of the grain-particles differ ma-
terially from those of the gravel-particles. Bearing in mind that the
magnitude of each of the particles is very small, when compared with
that of the heap, and therefore their number very large, we have then
considered a state of aggregation of particles, assuming certain definite
outward forms, these being dependent upon known causes, which we
can readily modify at will, so as to produce forms with stated slopes.
Mechanically, this may be said to be entirely analogous to the problem
of crystallization. There also we have states of aggregation of parti-
cles occurring in definite regular shapes of infinite variety, depending
upon the nature of the substance and the nature of the force active
between the ultimate particles, and the problem of crystallization is
solved when the nature of the ultimate particles and of the force
which holds them in their relative positions in the crystal has become
known to us.

These are the actual questions under consideration, and before pro-
ceeding with their further discussion we cite some instances of crvstal-
lization of substances, rendered familiar to us, either through their
utility in the arts and industries, or the recognized value they have by
reason of their rarity and beauty. In Fig. 1 a crystal of diamond is

Fia. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

represented ; the beauty and value of this gem are greatly enhanced
by the cutting process ; the remarkable property of cleavage, which
all crystals possess to a greater or less extent, is well developed in the
diamond, and skillfully utilized in its cutting. The form shown in
the figure occurs at the Cape, and has a yellow tinge ; the bluish-white

4 8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Brazilian diamond is preferred. A crystal of hematite (iron-ore) is shown
in Fig. 2 ; it occurs in the Island of Elba, has an iron-black color and
metallic luster, while its powder is reddish-brown like ordinary iron-rust.
Fig. 3 is a crystal of calcite remarkable for its optical property of double
refraction and its ready cleavability in certain directions ; in substance
it is the same as ordinary marble ; in fact, the latter consists of micro-
scopic crystals of calcite. In Fig. 4 we have a crystal of garnet, not
unfrequently seen in the mica-slates of New York. A crystal of sul-
phur from Girgenti, Sicily, is shown in Fig. 5 ; that locality abounds
in fine transparent crystals of this substance. Fig. 6 represents a cube

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

of native silver as found in Konigsberg, Norway ; and, finally (Fig. 7),
a crystal of cassiterite (tin-ore) from Cornwall, in England, which has
also been discovered in this country in the Black Hills, Dakota Ter-
ritory. There are seven systems of crystallization, differing in the rela-
tive magnitudes and directions of certain lines of symmetry, termed
the axes of the crystal. In the first, second, and third systems, these
lines bear the same inclination to one another, but their magnitudes
are respectively equal in the first system (see Fig. 8) (here A A', BB',

C

A

Fig. 7.

C C,' are the three axes equal in magnitude and inclined at right angles
to one another), equal in two of them in the second or dimetric system
(Fig. 9) (here A A' equals BB', but CC is different from these), and
unequal in all three axes in the third or trimetric system (Fig. 10) (here
the axes A A', B B', and C C, are all of unequal magnitudes, but their
mutual inclinations in this as well as in the second system are equal).

THE PROBLEM OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

49

In the three oblique systems the axes are partly or altogether obliquely
inclined to one another, while their magnitudes are unequal. Fig. 11
is a crystal of the monoclinic system, and Fig. 12 of the triclinic sys-
tem. The names of the different oblique systems indicate the mutual

inclinations of the axes. Fig. 13
represents a crystal of the hexa-
gonal system, which is allied in
symmetry to the dimetric sys-
tem ; but there are four lines of
symmetry, of which the three
A A', B B', and C C, lying in the

Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

Fig. 12.

same horizon, are equal in their mutual inclination and magnitude,
while the fourth axis, D D', is at right angles to these but different in
magnitude.

The reader will now have formed a tolerably correct idea of a crys-
tal, and when it is borne in mind that crystallization is a widely dif-
fused and essential property of matter, and also that the solution of
this question has engaged some of the ablest minds of the century,
the high purpose and importance of this investigation will perhaps be-
come evident to him.

Now, the invariability of certain relations existing between the
axes and the planes bounding crystal forms are geometrically similar,
and are effects produced by causes similar to D

those which occasion the constancy of the slopes
in heaps of the same material. In the heap of
gravel considered above, the horizon was chosen
as the reference plane in the crystal the planes
containing the lines of symmetry are selected
as reference planes, whereby to gauge the in-c
clination of the bounding surfaces. From our
considerations of the heap of gravel, the reader
will perceive the intimate connection between
outward form and internal structure, and is in a
measure prepared to follow deductions made from
the one upon the other. Already in the remote in-
fancy of mineralogy assumptions as to the internal structure of crystals
were made to explain the axial relations alluded to. The assumption
that the internal structure of a crystal is similar to, and in a measure
identical with, the internal structure of a cannon-ball pile, is sufficient to
vol. xxix. 4

5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

explain the axial relations observed in the first, second, and third sys-
tems of crystallization. In the first system the ultimate particles of the
crystal are symbolized by the sphere, while in the second and third sys-
tems they are figures of oval form. The cannon-ball pile arrangement,
or, as it is termed, the tetrad configuration, is represented in Fig. 14
(perspective of vertical circles of contact of the spheres) ; it derives
this name from the fact that its type consists of four equal mutually
touching spheres (Fig. 15). If in such an arrangement of particles
sections are made in certain directions, we obtain the faces of the
several crystal forms. In this manner the octahedral face (Fig. 16),
the cubical face (Fig. 17), and the dodecahedral face (Fig. 18), have
been obtained. In an octahedron, or in a cube, or in a dodecahe-
dron, represented respectively in Figs. 8, 6, 4, and respectively com-
posed of layers as indicated in Figs. 16, 17, 18, the ultimate particles
have the same common arrangement, that is, the tetrad grouping.
These forms, as has been shown above, all occur in nature ; but as
yet the most powerful microscope has been unable to dissolve a crystal
face into its ultimate particles. Still, they are not insensibly small ;
their dimensions are shown to lie between certain limits, ascertained
by combined computation and observation, and it is highly satisfactory
that physicists have approximately obtained the same results in this
direction, although the methods chosen were different. And it is the
fact that we are dealing with invisibly small particles which renders
the problem under consideration one of peculiar difficulty and interest.
Instead of the tetrad configuration, there is a second grouping of par-
ticles, which would also serve to explain the observed axial relations
of crystals. It is deduced from Fig. 19, by placing the layer of spheres
marked a centrally over the layer marked b. But this grouping can
not exist permanently in Nature ; it is, as I have elsewhere shown, in a
mechanical state similar to that of an exceedingly thin coin placed on
its edge the slightest effort, tending to upset the coin, would do so
it is what is termed a position of unstable equilibrium, and therefore
can not exist permanently ; the tetrad configuration, on the contrary,
is in stable equilibrium.

AVe have thus already almost involuntarily introduced force as
a factor in our considerations, and the deductions already made from
outward form upon internal structure must necessarily also embrace
considerations of the forces that the ultimate particles are subject to ;
and again, in order to bring the subject within the natural sphere of
conception of the human mind, we will analyze the force transitions
and the force law in a cannon-ball pyramid, subject to the gravity of the
earth, preparatory to proceeding with the more remote and recondite
subject of crystallization. In Fig. 14 it is clear that the weight of the
top ball is distributed among the lower three, in the three direction-
lines joining the centers of the top and three lower balls respectively.
On examination of a pyramid composed of a larger number of balls,

THE PROBLEM OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

5i

we observe that every ball of the pyramid bears the weight only of
those balls that are arranged in three lines parallel to upper edges
of the pyramid respectively, and meeting in the center of the ball.
Thus, in Figs. 15 a and 15 6 are represented in plan the four layers
of a pyramid of twenty balls. The ball a, of the lowest layer, can
only receive the weights of the balls b t b 1 b x of the second layer, trans-
mitted in direction-lines parallel respectively to the three upper edges
of the pyramid (Fig. 14), namely, D A, D A , and D A,. The ball a
can not receive the weight of any other ball of
the pyramid ; it can not receive the weight of
the topmost ball, d, inasmuch as the weight of
this ball is transmitted only in the lines D A,
DA , and DA 3 , the three upper edges of the
pyramid ; nor can it receive the weight of the
ball C of the third layer, for that is only trans-
mitted in three lines, of which two, CA, and
CA 3 , can be seen in the figure. By a simple
application of the physical principle known as
the parallelogram of forces, we arrive at the
deduction that all balls equidistant from the
vertex of the pyramid are solicited by the same force ; or, in other
words, that every ball of the pyramid is repulsed from the vertex with
a force proportional to its distance from the vertex, as a direct con-
sequence of this stress distribution. At the vertex itself the repul-
sion is zero. The weight of the pyramid is uniformly distributed
over its base ; a result which can readily be verified by experiment,
and is also a verification of the stated force law. Now, an exactly
analogous action occurs among the invisibly small particles of a crystal.
In the pyramid of balls, it is the pull of the earth upon each ball
which is active ; in the crystal it is the mutual attraction of the parti-

Fig. 14.

Fig. 15.

cles. In the pyramid of balls, there are only three stress direction-
lines respectively parallel to the upper edges of the pyramid, inasmuch
as the pull of the earth acts only vertically downward, hence there
is no weight transmission in the three horizontal direction-lines paral-
lel to the basal edges respectively ; in the crystal, however, there are

5 2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 16.

six stress direction-lines, inasmuch as the mutual forces between the
ultimate particles of the crystal act in all the directions joining the
centers of the particles respectively. That the stress can only be
transmitted in six direction-lines is evident from the following consid-
eration : In a pyramid of four balls (Fig. 15 b) we have evidently the

six stress direction-lines
joining the centers of the
balls respectively. In
case of a larger number
of particles in contact, it
is clear that in an octa-
hedral face (Fig. 16) the
stress can only be trans-
mitted in three direction-
lines, A Aj , B B x , and
C C t , for there is no con-
tact between the parti-
cles which would allow
the stress to be transmit-
ted in any other direc-
tion ; in the cubical face
(Fig. 17) there are but
two stress direction-lines, D D, and E E t , and in the dodecahedral face
(Fig. 18) there is but one stress direction-line, F F 1 ; and generally on
any particle in the tetrad configuration the stress can only be trans-
mitted in six direction-lines, respectively parallel to the six edges of
the pyramid. All this applies not only to the first or monometric sys-
tem of crystallization, in which
the ultimate particles are sym-
bolized by the spherical form,
but also to the dimetric and tri-
metric systems in which the ulti-
mate particles are symbolized by
an oval form. But this analogy
between the pyramid of balls and
crystals holds not only for the
stress distribution, but extends
also to the law of the forces
active between the ultimate par-
ticles. In order to satisfy the
equilibrium condition, the physi-
cal doctrine demands a unique
law of force for a stated stress distribution, and elsewhere I have
shown this law to be Every particle is attracted to the center of
the crystal with a force proportional to its distance from the center ;
while the law for the ball pyramid is Every particle is repulsed from

Fig. 17.

THE PROBLEM OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

53

the vertex of the pyramid with a force proportional to its distance
from the vertex.

The proper mathematical interpretation of the stated force law in
crystals shows its perfect identity with the Newtonian law of gravita-
tion, according to which
every particle of the uni-
verse attracts every other
particle, with a force pro-
portional to the product of
the masses, and inversely
as the square of the dis-
tance. Thus, the symme-
try, beauty, and definite-
ness displayed in the in-
finite variety of crystal
forms have necessarily im-
pressed themselves upon
the observing mind, ever
since the remote period of
the dawn of the natural
sciences, as the silent car-
riers of a law of profound
influence upon the nature
of substances. That this
law, in obedience to which
the planets are swept
through space, should also regulate the position of the tiny crystal mole-
cule, is a striking instance of the truism, in accordance with which the
essences of things are not affected by their magnitude, and without
which the human mind could not conceive the interaction of the forces
of Nature.

The stated law also governs the interaction of electrical masses.
Now, the only reason why it applies to the ultimate particles of a crys-
tal is their tetrad arrangement. Hence
the tetrad grouping of the ultimate par-
ticles, and therefore crystallization, is
caused by an agent which acts like elec-
tricity. Very probably it is electricity
itself, as is evidenced by the electrical
properties of certain crystal forms, which
appear to establish an intimate causal
connection between the structure of

crystals and this agent. This is illustrated in many so-called hemi-
morphic forms : these are forms in which opposite ends of a crystal,
instead of being bounded by faces of the same form, are bounded
by faces belonging to different forms. This phenomenon occurs in

Fig. 18.

Fig. 19.

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

crystals of tourmaline, topaz, arid calamine. The ends which show
this peculiarity alternately exhibit positive and negative electricity
the one kind when the mineral is heating, and the other while it is
cooling. The experiments of Faraday and Tyndall also indicate this
causal connection. Thus the problem of crystallization may be said
to have arrived at the stage of a partial solution, and the" manner in
which the result has been obtained clearly shows why an agent like
electricity is the cause of crystallization ; it also shows a perfect defi-
nite relation existing between the intensity of this agent and the crys-
tal form. When it is considered that difference in crystal form is, as
a rule, associated with difference in chemical composition, it is easy to
conceive how profoundly important this relation is in the chemism of
substances. The intimate causal connection between electricity and
chemical affinity is well accepted.

The law of the periodicity of the elements, discovered by the Rus-
sian chemist, Mendeljief ; the investigations of Kekule on the aromatic
compounds, which throw a strong light upon their structure ; the law
of Dulong and Petit, as to the constancy of the relation between the
heat and atomic weight of the elements all these give just grounds
for the remark that, when brought into proper connection with the
stated law of crystallization, an epoch may result in our knowledge
of atoms.

THE FACTOES OF OEGANIC EVOLUTION.

By HEEBEET SPENCEK.
II.

THE growth of a thing is effected by the joint operation of certain
forces on certain materials ; and when it dwindles, there is either
a lack of some materials, or the forces co-operate in a way different
from that which produces growth. If a structure has varied, the im-
plication is that the processes w^hich built it up were made unlike the
parallel processes in other cases, by the greater or less amount of some
one or more of the matters or actions concerned. Where there is un-
usual fertility, the play of vital activities is thereby shown to have
deviated from the ordinary play of vital activities ; and conversely, if
there is infertility. If the germs, or ova, or seed, or offspring partially
developed, survive more or survive less, it is either because their molar
or molecular structures are unlike the average ones, or because they
are affected in unlike ways by surrounding agencies. When life is
prolonged, the fact implies that the combination of actions, visible and
invisible, constituting life, retains its equilibrium longer than usual in
presence of environing forces which tend to destroy its equilibrium.
That is to say, growth, variation, survival, death, if they are to be
reduced to the forms in which physical science can recognize them,

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 55

must be expressed as effects of agencies definitely conceived mechani-
cal forces, light, heat, chemical affinity, &c.

This general conclusion brings with it the thought that the phrases
employed in discussing organic evolution, though convenient and in-
deed needful, are liable to mislead us by veiling the actual agencies.
That which really goes on in every organism is the working together
of component parts in ways conducing to the continuance of their com-
bined actions, in presence of things and actions outside ; some of which
tend to subserve, and others to destroy, the combination. The matters
and forces in these two groups, are the sole causes properly so called.
The words "natural selection," do not express a cause in the physical
sense. They express a mode of co-operation among causes or rather,
to speak strictly, they express an effect of this mode of co-operation.
The idea they convey seems perfectly intelligible. Natural selection
having been compared with artificial selection, and the analogy pointed
out, there apparently remains no indefiniteness : the inconvenience
being, however, that the definiteness is of a wrong kind. The tacitly
implied Nature which selects, is not an embodied agency analogous
to the man who selects artificially ; and the selection is not the picking
out of an individual fixed on, but the continuance in an active state of
such individual when others have been overthrown. Mr. Darwin was
conscious of these misleading implications. In the introduction to his
Animals and Plants under Domestication (p. 7) he says :
" For brevity sake I sometimes speak of natural selection as an intelligent power ;
. . . I have, also, often personified the word Nature; for I have found it diffi-
cult to avoid this ambiguity ; but I mean by nature only the aggregate action
and product of many natural laws, and by laws only the ascertained sequence
of events."

But while he thus clearly saw, and distinctly asserted, that the factors
of organic evolution are the concrete actions, inner and outer, to which
every organism is subject, Mr. Darwin, by habitually using the con-
venient figure of speech, was, I think, prevented from recognizing so
fully as he would otherwise have done, certain fundamental conse-
quences of these actions.

Though it does not personalize the cause, and does not assimilate
its mode of working to a human mode of working, kindred objections
may be urged against the expression to which I was led when seeking
to present the phenomena in literal terms rather than metaphorical
terms the survival of the fittest * ; for in a vague way the first word,
and in a clear way the second word, calls up an anthropocentric idea.
The thought of survival inevitably suggests the human view of certain
sets of phenomena, rather than that character which they have simply
as groups of changes. If, asking what we really know of a plant, we ex-

* Though Mr. Darwin approved of this expression and occasionally employed it, he
did not adopt it for general use ; contending, very truly, that the expression Natural Se-
lection is in some cases more convenient. See Animals and Plants under Domestication
(first edition) Vol. I, p. 6 ; and Origin of Species (sixth edition) p. 49.

5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

elude all the ideas associated with the words life and death, we find that
the sole facts known to us are that there go on in the plant certain inter-
dependent processes, in presence of certain aiding and hindering influ-
ences outside of it ; and that in some cases a difference of structure or
a favourable set of circumstances, allows these inter-dependent pro-
cesses to go on for longer periods than in other cases. Again, in the
working together of those many actions, internal and external, which
determine the lives or deaths of organisms, we see nothing to which
the words fitness and unfitness are applicable in the physical sense. If
a key fits a lock, or a glove a hand, the relation of the things to one
another is presentable to the perceptions. No approach to fitness of
this kind is made by an organism which continues to live under certain
conditions. Neither the organic structures themselves, nor their indi-
vidual movements, nor those combined movements of certain among
them which constitute conduct, are related in any analogous way to
the things and actions in the environment. Evidently the word fittest,
as thus used, is a figure of speech ; suggesting the fact that amid sur-
rounding actions, an organism characterized by the word has either a
greater ability than others of its kind to maintain the equilibrium of
its vital activities, or else has so much greater a power of multiplica-
tion that though not longer lived than they, it continues to live in pos-
terity more persistently. And indeed, as we here see, the word fittest
has to cover cases in which there may be less ability than usual to sur-
vive individually, but in which the defect is more than made good by
higher degrees of fertility.

I have elaborated this criticism with the intention of emphasizing
the need for studying the changes which have gone on, and are ever
going on, in organic bodies, from an exclusively physical point of view.
On contemplating the facts from this point of view, we become aware
that, besides those special effects of the co-operating forces which
eventuate in the longer survival of one individual than of others, and
in the consequent increase through generations, of some trait which
furthered its survival ; many other effects are being wrought on each
and all of the individuals. Bodies of every class and quality, inorganic
as well as organic, are from instant to instant subject to the influences
in their environments ; are from instant to instant being changed by
these in ways that are mostly inconspicuous ; and are in course of time
changed by them in conspicuous ways. Living things in common with
dead things, are, I say, being thus perpetually acted upon and modi-
fied ; and the changes hence resulting, constitute an all-important part
of those undergone in the course of organic evolution. I do not mean
to imply that changes of this class pass entirely unrecognized ; for, as
we shall see, Mr. Darwin takes cognizance of certain secondary and
special ones. But the effects which are not taken into account, are
those primary and universal effects which give certain fundamental
characters, to all organisms. Contemplation of an analogy will best

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 57

prepare the way for appreciation of them, and of the relation they bear
to those which at present moDopolize attention.

An observant rambler along shores, will, here and there, note
places where the sea has deposited things more or less similar, and
separated them from dissimilar things will see shingle parted from
sand ; larger stones sorted from smaller stones ; and will occasionally
discover deposits of shells more or less worn by being rolled about.
Sometimes the pebbles or boulders composing the shingle at one end
of a bay, he will find much larger than those at the other : inter-
mediate sizes, having small average differences, occupying the space
between the extremes. An example occurs, if I remember rightly,
some mile or two to the west of Tenby ; but the most remarkable and
well-known example is that afforded by the Chesil bank. Here,
along a shore some sixteen miles long, there is a gradual increase in
the sizes of the stones ; which, being at one end but mere pebbles,
are at the other end great boulders. In this case, then, the break-
ers and the undertow have effected a selection have at each place
left behind those stones which were too large to be readily moved,
while taking away others small enough to be moved easily. But
now, if we contemplate exclusively this selective action of the sea,
we overlook certain important effects which the sea simultaneously
works. While the stones have been differently acted upon in so far
that some have been left here and some carried there ; they have
been similarly acted upon in two allied, but distinguishable, ways.
By perpetually rolling them about and knocking them one against
another, the waves have so broken off their most prominent parts as
to produce in all of them more or less rounded forms ; and then, fur-
ther, the mutual friction of the stones simultaneously caused, has
smoothed their surfaces. That is to say in general terms, the actions
of environing agencies, so far as they have operated indiscriminately,
have produced in the stones a certain unity of character ; at the same
time that they have, by their differential effects, separated them : the
larger ones having withstood certain violent actions which the smaller
ones could not withstand.

Similarly with other assemblages of objects which are alike in their
primary traits but unlike in their secondary traits. When simultane-
ously exposed to the same set of actions, some of these actions, rising
to a certain intensity, may be expected to work on particular members
of the assemblage changes which they cannot work in those which are
markedly unlike ; while others of the actions will work in all of them
similar changes, because of the uniform relations between these actions
and certain attributes common to all members of the assemblage.
Hence it is inferable that on living organisms, which form an assem-
blage of this kind, and are unceasingly exposed in common to the
agencies composing their inorganic environments, there must be
wrought two such sets of effects. There will result a universal likeness

5 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

among them consequent on the likeness of their respective relations to
the matters and forces around ; and there will result, in some cases,
the differences due to the differential effects of these matters and
forces, and in other cases, the changes which, being life-sustaining or
life-destroying, eventuate in certain natural selections.

I have, above, made a passing reference to the fact that Mr. Dar-
win did not fail to take account of some among these effects directly
produced on organisms by surrounding inorganic agencies. Here are
extracts from the sixth edition of the Origin of Species showing this.

" It is very difficult to decide how far changed conditions, such as of climate,
food, &c, have acted in a definite manner. There is reason to believe that in
the course of time the effects have heen greater than can he proved by clear
evidence. . . . Mr. Gould believes that birds of the same species are more
brightly coloured under a clear atmosphere, than when living near the coast or
on islands; and Wollaston is convinced that residence near the sea affects the
colours of insects. Moquin-Tandon gives a list of plants which, when growing
near the sea-shore, have their leaves in some degree fleshy, though not elsewhere
fleshy " (pp. 106-7). " Some observers are convinced that a damp climate af-
fects the growth of the hair, and that with the hair the horns are correlated "
(p. 159).

In his subsequent work, Animals and PIa?its under Domestication,
Mr. Darwin still more clearly recognizes these causes of change in or-
ganization. A chapter is devoted to the subject. After premising
that "the direct action of the conditions of life, whether leading to
definite or indefinite results, is a totally distinct consideration from the
effects of natural selection ; " he goes on to say that changed condi-
tions of life " have acted so definitely and powerfully on the organiza-
tion of our domesticated productions, that they have sufficed to form
new sub-varieties or races, without the aid of selection by man or of
natural selection." Of his examples here are two.

" I have given in detail in the ninth chapter the most remarkable case known to
me, namely, that in Germany several varieties of maize brought from the hotter
parts of America were transformed in the course of only two or three genera-
tions." (Vol. ii, p. 277.) [And in this ninth chapter concerning these and
other such instances he says " some of the foregoing differences would certainly
be considered of specific value with plants in a state of nature." (Vol. i, p.
321.)] "Mr. Meehan, in a remarkable paper, compares twenty-nine kinds of
American trees, belonging to various orders, with their nearest European allies,
all grown in close proximity in the same garden and under as nearly as possible
the same conditions." And then enumerating six traits in which the American
forms all of them differ in like ways from their allied European forms, Mr. Dar-
win thinks there is no choice but to conclude that these "have been definitely
caused by the long-continued action of the different elimate of the two conti-
nents on the trees." (Vol. ii, pp. 281-2.)

But the fact we have to note is that while Mr. Darwin thus took
account of special effects due to special amounts and combinations of
agencies in the environment, he did not take account of the far more
important effects due to the general and constant operation of these

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. S9

agencies.* If a difference between the quantities of a force which
acts on two organisms, otherwise alike and otherwise similarly condi-
tioned, produces some difference between them ; then, by implication,
this force produces in both of them effects which they show in common.
The inequality between two things cannot have a value unless the
things themselves have values. Similarly if, in two cases, some unlike-
ness of proportion among the surrounding inorganic agencies to which
two plants or two animals are exposed, is followed by some unlikeness
in the changes wrought on them ; then it follows that these several
agencies taken separately, work changes in both of them. Hence we
must infer that organisms have certain structural characters in com-
mon, which are consequent on the action of the medium in which they
exist : using the word medium in a comprehensive sense, as including
all physical forces falling upon them as well as matters bathing them.
And we may conclude that from the primary characters thus produced
there must result secondary characters.

Before going on to observe those general traits of organisms due
to the general action of the inorganic environment upon them, I feel
tempted to enlarge on the effects produced by each of the several mat-
ters and forces constituting the environment. I should like to do this
not only to give a clear preliminary conception of the ways in which
all organisms are affected by these universally-present agents, but also
to show that, in the first place, these agents modify inorganic bodies
as well as organic bodies, and that, in the second place, the organic
are far more modifiable by them than the inorganic. But to avoid undue
suspension of the argument, I content myself with saying that when
the respective effects of gravitation, heat, light, &c, are studied, as
well as the respective effects, physical and chemical, of the matters
forming the media, water and air, it will be found that while more or
less operative on all bodies, each modifies organic bodies to an extent im-
mensely greater than the extent to which it modifies inorganic bodies.

Here, not discriminating among the special effects which these vari-
ous forces and matters in the environment produce on both classes of
bodies, let us consider their combined effects, and ask What is the
most general trait of such effects ?

* It is true that while not deliberately admitted by Mr. Darwin, these effects are not
denied by him. In his Animals and Plants under Domestication (vol. ii, 281), he refers
to certain chapters in the Principles of Biology, in which I have discussed this general
inter-action of the medium and the organism, and ascribed certain most general traits to
it. But though, by his expressions, he implies a sympathetic attention to the argument,
he does not in such way adopt the conclusion as to assign to this factor any share in the
genesis of organic structures much less that large share which I believe it has had. I
did not myself at that time, nor indeed until quite recently, see how extensive and pro-
found have been the influences on organization which, as we shall presently see, are
traceable to the early results of this fundamental relation between organism and medium.
I may add that it is in an essay on " Transcendental Physiology," first published in 1857,
that the line of thought here followed out in it wider bearings, was first entered upon.

60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Obviously the most general trait is the greater amount of change
wrought on the outer surface than in the inner mass. In so far as the
matters of which the medium is composed come into play, the unavoid-
able implication is that they act more on the parts directly exposed to
them than on the parts sheltered from them. And in so far as the
forces pervading the medium come into play, it is manifest that, ex-
cluding gravity, which affects outer and inner parts indiscriminately,
the outer parts have to bear far larger shares of their actions. If it is
a question of heat, then the exterior must lose it or gain it faster than
the interior ; and in a medium which is now warmer and now colder,
the two must habitually differ in temperature to some extent at least
where the size is considerable. If it is a question of light, then in all
but absolutely transparent masses, the outer parts must undergo more
of any change producible by it than the inner parts supposing other
things equal ; by which I mean, supposing the case is not complicated
by any such convexities of the outer surface as produce internal con-
centrations of rays. Hence then, speaking generally, the necessity is
that the primary and almost universal effect of the converse between
the body and its medium, is to differentiate its outside from its inside.
I say almost universal, because where the body is both mechanically
and chemically stable, like, for instance, a quartz crystal, the medium
may fail to work either inner or outer change.

Of illustrations among inorganic bodies, a convenient one is sup-
plied by an old cannon-ball that has been long lying exposed. A coat-
ing of rust, formed of flakes within flakes, incloses it ; and this thick-
ens year by year, until, perhaps, it reaches a stage at which its exterior
loses as much by rain and wind as its interior gains by further oxida-
tion of the iron. Most mineral masses pebbles, boulders, rocks if
they show any effect of the environment at all, show it only by that
disintegration of surface which follows the freezing of absorbed water :
an effect which, though mechanical rather than chemical, equally illus-
trates the general truth. Occasionally a " rocking-stone " is thus pro-
duced. There are formed successive layers relatively friable in text-
ure, each of which, thickest at the most exposed parts, and being
presently lost by weathering, leaves the contained mass in a shape
more rounded than before ; until, resting on its convex under-surface,
it is easily moved. But of all instances perhaps the most remarkable
is one to be seen on the west bank of the Nile at Philae, where a ridge
of granite 100 feet high, has had its outer parts reduced in course
of time to a collection of boulder-shaped masses, varying from say a
yard in diameter to eight or ten feet, each one of which shows in
progress an exfoliation of successively-formed shells of decomposed
granite : most of the masses having portions of such shells partially
detached.

If, now, inorganic masses, relatively so stable in composition, thus
have their outer parts differentiated from their inner parts, what must

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC F VOLUTION. 61

we say of organic masses, characterized by such extreme chemical in-
stability ? instability so great that their essential material is named
protein, to indicate the readiness with which it passes from one isom-
eric form to another. Clearly the necessary inference is that this effect
of the medium must be wrought inevitably and promptly, wherever
the relation of outer and inner has become settled : a qualification for
which the need will be seen hereafter.

Beginning with the earliest and most minute kinds of living things,
we necessarily encounter difficulties in getting direct evidence ; since,
of the countless species now existing, all have been subject during
millions upon millions of years to the evolutionary process, and have
had their primary traits complicated and obscured by these endless
secondary traits which the natural selection of favourable variations
has produced. Among protophytes it needs but to think of the multi-
tudinous varieties of diatoms and desmids, with their elaborately-con-
structed coverings ; or of the definite methods of growth and multi-
plication among such simple Algce as the Conjugates y to see that most
of their distinctive characters are due to inherited constitutions, which
have been slowly moulded by survival of the fittest to this or that
mode of life. To disentangle such parts of their developmental
changes as are due to the action of the medium, is therefore hardly
possible. We can hope only to get a general conception of it by con-
templating the totality of the facts.

The first cardinal fact is that all protophytes are cellular all show
us this contrast between outside and inside. Supposing the multitudi-
nous specialities of the envelope in different orders and genera of
protophytes to be set against one another, and mutually cancelled,
there remains as a trait common to them an envelope unlike that
which it envelopes. The second cardinal fact is that this simple trait
is the earliest trait displayed in germs, or spores, or other parts from
which new individuals are to arise ; and that, consequently, this trait
must be regarded as having been primordial. For it is an established
truth of organic evolution that embryos show us, in general ways, the
forms of remote ancestors ; and that the first changes undergone, indi-
cate, more or less clearly, the first changes which took place in the
series of forms through which the existing form has been reached.
Describing, in successive groups of plants, the early transformations of
these primitive units, Sachs * says of the lowest Algae that " the con-
jugated protoplasmic body clothes itself with a cell- wall" (p. 10) ;
that in " the spores of Mosses and Vascular Cryptogams " and in " the
pollen of Phanerogams " . . . " the protoplasmic body of the mother-
cell breaks up into four lumps, which quickly round themselves off and
contract and become enveloped by a cell-membrane only after com-
plete separation" (p. 13) ; that in the Equisetacece "the young spores,

* Text-Book of Botany, dtc. by Julius Sachs. Translated by A. W. Bennett and "W. T.
T. Dyer.

62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

when first separated, are still naked, but they soon become surrounded
by a cell-membrane " (p. 14) ; and that in higher plants, as in the pol-
len of many Dicotyledons, " the contracting daughter-cells secrete cel-
lulose even duriug their separation " (p. 14). Here, then, in whatever
way we interpret it, the fact is that there quickly arises an outer layer
different from the contained matter. But the most significant evidence
is furnished by " the masses of protoplasm that escape into water from
the injured sacs of Vaucheria, which often instantly become rounded
into globular bodies," and of which the " hyaline protoplasm envelopes
the whole as a skin" (p. 41) which " is denser than the inner and more
watery substance " (p. 42). As in this case the protoplasm is but a
fragment, and as it is removed from the influence of the parent-cell,
this differentiating process can scarcely be regarded as anything more
than the effect of physico-chemical actions : a conclusion which is sup-
ported by the statement of Sachs that " not only every vacuole in a
solid protoplasmic body, but also every thread of protoplasm which
penetrates the sap-cavity, and finally the inner side of the protoplasm-
sac which encloses the sap-cavity, is also bounded by a skin " (p. 42).
If then " every portion of a protoplasmic body immediately surrounds
itself, when it becomes isolated, with such a skin," which is shown in
all cases to arise at the surface of contact with sap or water, this pri-
mary differentiation of outer from inner must be ascribed to the direct
action of the medium. Whether the coating thus initiated is secreted
by the protoplasm, or whether, as seems more likely, it results from
transformation of it, matters not to the argument. Either way the ac-
tion of the medium causes its formation ; and either way the many
varied and complex differentiations which developed cell- walls display,
must be considered as originating from those variations of this phys-
ically-generated covering which natural selection has taken advan-
tage of.

The contained protoplasm of a vegetal cell, which has some self-
mobility and when liberated sometimes performs amoeba-like motions
for a time, may be regarded as an imprisoned amoeba ; and when we
pass from it to a free amoeba, which is one of the simplest types of
first animals, or Protozoa, we naturally meet with kindred phenomena.
The general trait which here concerns us, is that while its plastic or
semi-fluid sarcode goes on protruding, in irregular ways, now this and
now that part of its periphery, and again withdrawing into its interior
first one and then another of these temporary processes, perhaps with
some small portion of food attached, there is but an indistinct differ-
entiation of outer from inner (a fact shown by the frequent coalescence
of pseuopodia in Rhizopods) ; but that when it eventually becomes
quiescent, the surface becomes differentiated from the contents : the
passing into an encysted state, doubtless in large measure due to in-
herited proclivity, being furthered, and having probably been once
initiated, by the action of the medium. The connexion between con-

FOOD ACCESSORIES AND DIGESTION. 63

stancy of relative position among the parts of the sarcode, and the rise
of a contrast between superficial and central parts, is perhaps best
shown in the minutest and simplest Infusoria, the Monadince. The
genus Monas is described by Kent as " plastic and unstable in form,
possessing no distinct cuticular investment ; . . . the food-substances
incepted at all parts of the periphery " * ; and the genus Scytomonas
he says " differs from Monas only in its persistent shape and accom-
panying greater rigidity of the peripheral or ectoplasmic layer." f De-
scribing generally such low and minute forms, some of which have
neither nucleus nor vacuole, he remarks that in types somewhat
higher "the outer or peripheral border of the protoplasmic mass,
while not assuming the character of a distinct cell-wall or so-called
cuticle, presents, as compared with the inner substance of that mass, a
slightly more solid type of composition." \ And it is added that these
forms having so slightly differentiated an exterior " while usually ex-
hibiting a more or less characteristic normal outline, can revert at will
to a pseud-amoeboid and repent state." # Here, then, we have several
indications of the truth that the permanent externality of a certain
part of the substance, is followed by transformation of it into a coat-
ing unlike the substance it contains. Indefinite and structureless in
the simplest of these forms, as instance again the Gregarina, || the
limiting membrane becomes, in higher Infusoria, definite and often
complex ; showing that the selection of favourable variations has had
largely to do with its formation. In such types as the Foraminifera,
which, almost structureless internally though they are, secrete calca-
reous shells, it is clear that the nature of this outer laver is determined
by inherited constitution. But recognition of this consists with the
belief that the action of the medium initiated the outer layer, special-
ized though it now is ; and that even still, contact with the medium
excites secretion of it.

FOOD ACCESSOEIES AND DIGESTION.

Br Dr. J. BUENEY YEO.

MAN, like any other animal, is so much the creature of his food
his physical perfection, his intellectual activity, and his moral
tone are so dependent on the food he receives and the uses he is able
to make of it in the processes of digestion and assimilation that any
accurate knowledge, founded on precise and reliable methods of inves-
tigation, of the influence on digestion and nutrition of dietetic habits
must of necessity be of the most general interest.

* A Manual of the Infusoria, by W. Saville Kent. Vol. i, p. 232.

\ lb. Vol. i, p. 241. " % K ent. Vol. i, p. 56. * lb., 1. c. Vol. i, p. 57.

fl The Elements of Comparative Anatomy, by T. H. Huxley, pp. 7-9.

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

To Professor Sir William Roberts, of Manchester, we were already
greatly indebted for a series of able and comprehensive researches on
the action of " digestive ferments " and the " preparation and use
of artificially digested food " ; * to those valuable researches Sir W.
Roberts has recently added others equally important, chiefly on the
subject of "food accessories" and their influence on the chemical acts
of digestion, f

The results of these experimental inquiries are, in some respects,
so novel and unexpected, and they contradict so many apparently un-
founded assumptions, that they can not be too soon or too widely
known.

Man, as Sir "W. Roberts begins by pointing out, is a very complex
feeder ; he has departed, in the course of his civilization, very widely
from the monotonous uniformity of diet observed in animals in the
wild state. Not only does he differ from other animals in cooking
his food, but he adds to his food a greater or less number of condi-
ments for the purpose of increasing its flavor and attractiveness ; but,
above and beyond this, the complexity of his food-habits is greatly
increased by the custom of partaking in considerable quantity of cer-
tain stimulants and restoratives, which have become essential to his
social comfort if not to his physical well-being.

The chief of these are tea, coffee, cocoa, and the various kinds of
alcoholic beverages.

It is to these "food accessories " and the elucidation of their influ-
ences on the processes of digestion that Sir TV. Roberts's recent ex-
periments and observations have been directed.

These " generalized food-customs of mankind," he remarks,

are not to be viewed as random practices adopted to please the palate or gratify
our idle or vicious appetite. These customs must be regarded as the outcome of
profound instincts, which correspond to important wants of the human econ-
omy. They are the fruit of colossal experience, accumulated by countless mill-
ions of men through successive generations. They have the same weight and
significance as other kindred facts of natural history, and are fitted to yield to
observation and study lessons of the highest scientific and practical value.

It is unnecessary to describe here Sir "W. Roberts's methods of
investigation ; they are fully set forth in the volume before us, and
they are alike admirable for the ingenuity of their conception and the
laborious accuracy of their prosecution.

His object was to ascertain the precise influence of these food ac-
cessories on the three chief parts of the digestive process : 1. Salivary
digestion, i. e., the action of the saliva as a digestive agent ; 2. Peptic
digestion, i. e., the action of the fluids secreted by the stomach as di-

* " On the Digestive Ferments and the Preparation and Use of Artificially Digested
Food." Lumleian Lectures, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1880 by
Sir William Roberts, M. D., F. R. S. London : Smith, Elder, & Co.

\ " Lectures on Dietetics and Dyspepsia." Smith, Elder, & Co.

FOOD ACCESSORIES AND DIGESTION. 65

gestive agents ; and, 3. Pancreatic digestion, i. e., the action of the
secretion of the pancreas as a digestive agent.

We shall deviate a little from Sir W. Roberts's methed of mar-
shaling his conclusions, and shall summarize his results as to the ac-
tion of the various food accessories on these three acts of digestion
continuouslv.

m

First, with respect to the action of ardent spirits on digestion. The
experiments were made with " proof -spirit " and with brandy, Scotch
whisky, and gin ; and the conclusion is that, so far as salivary diges-
tion is concerned, these spirits, when used in moderation and well di-
luted, as they usually are when employed dietetically, rather promote
than retard this part of the digestive process, and this they do by
causing an increased flow of saliva. "A teaspoonful of brandy or
whisky introduced into the mouth can be perceived at once to cause a
gush of saliva. The common practice of adding a tablespoonful of
brandy to a basin of arrowroot or sago gruel, therefore, promotes its
digestion."

The proportion must not, however, much exceed five per cent, and
gin seems to be a preferable addition to either brandy or whisky. It
was noticed in these experiments that brandy and Scotch whisky inter-
fered with the digestive process, " precipitated the starch more read-
ily," altogether out of proportion to the amount of alcohol they con-
tained, and brandy was worse than whisky ; and this circumstance
appears to be due to certain ethers and volatile oils in them ; and
brandy contains a trace of tannin, which has an intensely retarding
influence on salivary digestion.

With regard to " peptic " digestion the results are still more sur-
prising. It was found that with ten per cent and under of proof-
spirit there was no appreciable retardation, and only a slight retarda-
tion with twenty per cent ; but with large percentages it was very
different, and with fifty per cent the digestive ferment was almost
paralyzed.

In the proportions in which these spirits are usually employed
dietetically not only do they not appreciably retard digestion, but
these experiments show that they " act as pure stimulants to gastric
digestion, causing an increased flow of gastric juice and stimulating
the muscular contractions of the stomach, and so accelerating the
speed of the digestive process in the stomach." For obvious reasons
(stated in these lectures) alcoholic drinks as used dietetically can never
interfere with pancreatic digestion.

Passing from the consideration of the influence of these ardent
spirits on digestion to the more complex problem of the influence of
such alcoholic beverages as the various wines and malt liquors, Sir
W. Roberts arrives at the following conclusions :

Even very small quantities of the stronger and lighter wines
sherry, hock, claret, and port exercise a powerful retarding influence

VOL. XXIX. 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on salivary digestion. This is wholly due to the acid not the
alcohol they contain, and if this acid be neutralized, as it often
is in practice, by mixing with the wine some effervescent alkaline
water, this disturbing effect on salivary digestion is completely re-
moved.

The influence of acids in retarding or arresting salivary digestion
is further of importance in the dietetic use of pickles, vinegar, salads,
and acid fruits.

In the case of vinegar it was found that 1 part in 5,000 sensibly
retarded this process, a proportion of 1 in 1,000 rendered it very slow,
and 1 in 500 arrested it completely ; so that when acid salads are
taken together with bread the effect of the acid is to prevent any
salivary digestion of the bread, a matter of little moment to a person
with a vigorous digestion, but to a feeble dyspeptic one of some im-
portance.

There is a very wide-spread belief that drinking vinegar is an effi-
cacious means of avoiding getting fat, and this popular belief would
appear from these experimental observations to be well-founded. If
the vinegar be taken at the same time as farinaceous food, it will
greatly interfere with its digestion and assimilation.

As to malt liquors, provided they are sound and free from acidity,
they interfere but litttle with salivary digestion ; if they are acid, it
is otherwise.

Effervescent table-waters, if they consist simply of pure water
charged with carbonic acid, exercise a considerable retarding influence
on salivary digestion ; but if they also contain alkaline carbonates, as
most of the table-waters of commerce do, the presence of the alkali
quite removes this retarding effect.

" The use of these waters as an addition to wines is," Sir William
Roberts observes, " highly commendable," as they " greatly mitigate
or wholly obviate the retarding influence of these wines on the diges-
tion of starch."

It was also observed that these weaker forms of alcoholic drinks
(wines and beer) differed greatly in their influence on peptic digestion
to that of the distilled spirits. They retarded it altogether out of
proportion to the quantity of alcohol they contained. Port and
sherry exercised a great retarding effect. " Even in the proportion
of twenty per cent sherry trebled the time in which digestion was
completed." It should further be borne in mind that this wine also
greatly retards salivary digestion. Sherry, then, is not a suitable wine
for persons of feeble digestive powers.

With hock, claret, and champagne it was also ascertained that
their retarding effect on digestion was out of proportion to the alco-
hol contained in them ; but champagne was found to have " a markedly
less retarding effect than hock and claret " ; indeed, in the proportion
of ten per cent champagne had a distinct, though slight, accelerating

FOOD ACCESSORIES AND DIGESTION. 6 7

effect, and this superiority of champagne appears to be due to the
"mechanical effects of its effervescent qualities."

The quantity of claret and hock often consumed by many persons
at meals must exercise a considerable retarding effect on peptic diges-
tion ; but small quantities of these wines (and even of sherry) do not
produce any appreciable retarding effect, but act as pure stimulants.
These wines, then, may be taken with advantage, even by persons of
feeble digestion, in small quantities, but not in large.

With regard to malt liquors, it was observed, as with wines, that
they retarded peptic digestion in a degree altogether out of propor-
tion to the amount of alcohol contained in them, and when taken in
large quantities they must greatly retard the digestion, especially of
farinaceous food ; but a moderate quantity of light beer, when " well
up," is favorable to stomach digestion.

It was proved by these experiments that the sparkling wines
impede digestion less than the still ones, and when taken in moderate
quantity "act not only as stimulants to the secretion of gastric juice
and to the muscular activity of the viscus, but may, at the same time,
slightly accelerate the speed of the chemical process in the stomach."

Next as to the influence of tea, coffee, and cocoa on the digestive
processes :

Tea exerts a powerful retarding influence on salivary digestion,
coffee and cocoa a comparatively feeble one.

Sir W. Roberts estimates the medium strength of the tea usually
drunk at four to five per cent ; strong tea may contain as much as
seven per cent, weak tea as little as two per cent. Medium coffee
has a strength of about seven per cent, and strong coffee twelve to
fifteen per cent ; cocoa, on the other hand, is generally weaker, not
more than about two per cent, and this, he thinks, may be one reason
why it is more suitable to persons with feeble digestions than tea or
coffee.

Tea exercises a powerful inhibitory effect on salivary digestion,
and this appears to be entirely due to the large quantity of tannin it
contains.

It appears that tannin exists in two conditions in the tea-leaf. One, the
larger portion, is in the free state, and is easily extracted by hot water ; but
about one fourth is fixed and remains undissolved in the fully exhausted tea-
leaves. Some persons have supposed that by infusing tea for a very short time
only two or three minutes the passing of tannin into the infusion icould be
avoided. This is a delusion; you can no more have tea without tannin than
you can have wine without alcohol. Tannin, in the free state, is one of the
most soluble substances known. If you pour hot water on a little heap of tannin
it dissolves like so much pounded sugar. Tea infused for two minutes was not
found sensibly inferior in its retarding power on salivary digestion to tea infused
for thirty minutes.

One gentleman of my acquaintance (says Sir TV". Roberts) in his horror of
tannin was in the habit of preparing his tea by placing the dry leaves on a paper

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

filter and simply pouring on the boiling water. In this way he thought to evade
the presence of tannin in his tea. But if you try the experiment, and allow the
product, as it runs through the filter, to fall into a solution of perchloride of
iron, you will find that an intense inky-black coloration is produced, showing
that tannin has come through in abundance.

In order to diminish as far as possible the retarding influence of
tea on salivary digestion, it should be made weak and used sparingly,
and it should not be taken icith but after the meal.

There is another means, mentioned by Sir W. Roberts, of obviating
the retarding effect of tea on salivary digestion, and commended by
him to the dyspeptic : it is to add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to
the tea when it is being infused in the tea-pot. He found that ten
grains of soda added to an ounce of dry tea almost entirely removed
this retarding influence. The infusion thus made is darker than usual,
but the flavor is not sensibly altered, nor is the infusion rendered alka-
line, for tea infusion is naturally slightly acid, and the soda, in the
proportion mentioned, only just neutralizes this acidity.

Coffee, unless taken in very large quantity, has very little retarding
effect on salivary digestion ; this is explained by the fact that the
tannin of tea is replaced in coffee by a substance called caffeo-tannic
acid. Cocoa resembles coffee, and has little or no effect on salivary
digestion ; the use of coffee or cocoa is therefore preferable to that of
tea for persons of feeble digestion.

With respect to the influence of tea and coffee on stomach diges-
tion, it was found that they both exercised a remarkable retarding
effect. There was no appreciable difference in the two beverages if
they were of equal strength ; but, as coffee is usually made of greater
percentage strength than tea, its effect must ordinarily be greater.
Cocoa also had much the same effect if used of the same strength as
tea or coffee, but, when of the strength ordinarily employed, its effect
was inconsiderable. Strong coffee cafe noir had a very powerful
retarding effect, and persons of weak digestion should avoid the cus-
tomary cup of " black coffee " after dinner.

"I could not detect," says Sir W. Boberts, "any appreciable difference be-
tween the effect of tea infused for two or three minutes and tea infused for fif-
teen or thirty minutes. If you wish to minimize the retarding effects of tea in
persons of weak digestion, you should give instructions that the beverage be
made weak, or that it be used in sparing quantities." And he adds in a foot-
note : "A good deal has been said of the injurious effects on gastric digestion of
tannin contained in tea. I question whether the statements made with reference
to this matter are worthy of attention. It has been alleged that meat-fiber is
hardened by tea, and that the coats of the stomach are liable to be injured by
this beverage. These views are entirely theoretical" (p. 48).

Perhaps one of the most unexpected results of these experiments
of Sir W. Roberts was the discovery that beef-tea had a powerful
retarding effect on peptic digestion, as much so as that of a five per

FOOD ACCESSORIES AND DIGESTION. 69

cent infusion of tea. Further researches appeared to show that this
retarding effect of beef -tea was due to the salts of the organic acids
contained in it.

While on the subject of beef -tea, it will be novel and instructive
to many to hear that

there is a wide-spread misapprehension among the public in regard to the nutri-
tive value of beef-tea. The notion prevails that the nourishing qualities of the
meat pass into the decoction, and that the dry, hard remnant of meat-fiber which
remains undissolved is exhausted of its nutritive properties ; and this latter is
often thrown a way as useless. A deplorable amount of waste arises from the
prevalence of this erroneous notion. The proteid matter of meat is quite insolu-
ble in boiling water, or in water heated above 160 Fahr. The ingredients that
pass into solution are the sapid extractives and salines of the meat, and nothing
more except some trifling amount of gelatine. The meat remnant, on the other
hand, contains the real nutriment of the meat, and if this be beaten to a paste
with a spoon or pounded in a mortar and duly flavored with salt and other con-
diments, it constitutes not only a highly nourishing and agreeable but also an
exceedingly digestible form of food.*

Beef -tea must therefore be looked upon rather as a stimulant and
restorative than as a nutrient beverage, but it is nevertheless very valu-
able on account of those properties.

Sir W. Roberts puts forward an ingenious argument, which can not
be fully repeated here, in favor of the view that, in healthy and strong
persons, this retarding effect on digestion observed to be produced by
many of the most commonly consumed food accessories answers a dis-
tinctly useful end. They serve, he maintains, the purpose of whole-
somely slowing the otherwise too rapid digestion and absorption of
copious meals.

A too rapid digestion and absorption of food may be compared to feeding a
fire with straw instead of with slower-burning coal. In the former case it would
be necessary to feed often and often, and the process would be wasteful of the
fuel ; for the short-lived blaze would carry most of the heat up the chimney. To
burn fuel economically, and to utilize the heat to the utmost, the fire must be
damped down, so as to insure slow as well as complete combustion. So with
human digestion : our highly prepared and highly cooked food requires, in the
healthy and vigorous, that the digestive fires should be damped down, in order
to insure the economical use of food. . . . "We render food by preparation as
capable as possible of being completely exhausted of its nutrient properties; and,
on the other hand, to prevent this nutrient matter from being wastefully hurried
through the body, we make use of agents which abate the speed of digestion.

It must be borne in mind that these remarks apply only to those
who possess a healthy and active digestion. To the feeble and dys-
peptic any food accessory which adds to the labor and prolongs the
time of digestion must be prejudicial ; and it is a matter of com-

* " These remarks on beef -tea apply equally to Liebig's extract of meat, Brand's es-
sence of beef, and Valentine's me at- juice, all of which are devoid of albuminous constitu-
ents " ("British Medical Journal," August, 1885).

7 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mon experience that beverages which in quantity retard digestion
have to be avoided altogether by such persons or partaken of very
sparingly.

In the dietetic use of wines the writer of this article has constantly
had occasion to make the observation that those wines agree best and
are most useful which are absorbed and eliminated from the system
with the greatest rapidity, as tested by the increase of the renal secre-
tions, and he has been led to the practical conclusion that this is the
best criterion of the suitability of any particular wine to any particu-
lar constitution. If the effect of different wines on notoriously gouty
persons be carefully observed, it will be found that some can drink
champagne (in moderation, of course) with impunity, especially if a
small quantity of an effervescing alkaline water be added to it, while
claret will at once provoke some manifestations of gout ; others, who
are unable to drink champagne without provoking a gonty paroxysm,
will often be able to drink a mature, fine, soft claret even with advan-
tage ; others will support hock well, and a few can drink fine sherries
and ports in small quantities ; but in all it will be found that the test
of the suitability of the particular wine to the particular constitution
is its susceptibility to rapid elimination and vice versa.

It has occurred also to the writer to make many observations as
to the circumstances under which tea and coffee are found to agree or
disagree with different persons ; in the first place, as Sir W. Roberts
has pointed out, tea, if taken at the same time as farinaceous food, is
much more likely to retard its digestion and cause dyspepsia than if
taken a little time after eating ; and the custom adopted by many
persons at breakfast, for instance, of eating first and drinking their
tea or coffee afterward is a sensible one ; so also it is better to take
one's five-o'clock tea without the customary bread-and-butter or cake
than with it.

Indeed, while there is little that can be said against a cup of hot
tea as a stimulant and restorative, when taken about midway between
lunch and dinner, and without solid food, it may, on the other hand,
be a fruitful cause of dyspepsia when accompanied at that time with
solid food. It is also a curious fact that many persons with whom
tea, under ordinary circumstances, will agree exceedingly well, will
become the subjects of a tea dyspepsia if they drink this beverage at
a time when they may be suffering from mental worry or emotional
disturbance.

Moreover, it is a well-recognized fact that persons who are prone to
nervous excitement of the circulation and palpitations of the heart
have these symptoms greatly aggravated if they persist in the use of
tea or coffee as a beverage. The excessive consumption of tea among
the women of the poorer classes is the cause of much of the so-called
" heart-complaints " among them : the food of those poor women
consists largely of starchy substances (bread-and-butter chiefly), to-

PHOTOGRAPHING THE HEAVENS. 7 i

gether with tea, i. e., a food accessory which is one of the greatest of
all retarders of the digestion of starchy food.

The effect of coffee as a retarder of stomach digestion would prob-
ably be more felt than it is were it not so constantly the practice to
take it only in small quantity after a very large meal ; it is then
mixed with an immense bulk of food, and its relative percentage pro-
portion rendered insignificant ; and to the strong and vigorous the
slightly retarding effect on digestion it would then have may be, as
Sir W. Roberts suggests, not altogether a disadvantage ; but after a
spare meal and in persons of feeble digestive power the cup of black
coffee would probably exercise a retarding effect on digestion which
might prove harmful. It is also worthy of remark that in the great
coffee-drinking countries this beverage is made not nearly so strong as
with us. In this country good coffee always means strong, often very
strong coffee ; but on the Continent they possess the faculty of mak-
ing good coffee which is not necessarily very strong coffee, and which
is, therefore, as a beverage, less likely to do harm.

The general conclusion to be drawn from these highly interesting
and instructive researches is that most of the " food accessories " which
in the course of civilization man has added to his diet are, when taken
in moderation, beneficial to him, and conduce to his physical welfare
and material happiness ; but if taken in excess they may interfere to a
serious and harmful degree with the processes of digestion and assimi-
lation. It is also made clear that dietetic habits which may prove
agreeable and useful to those who enjoy vigorous health and a strong
digestion need to be greatly modified in the case of those who are
feeble and dyspeptic. Nineteenth Century.

PHOTOGRAPHING THE HEAVENS.

By Dr. HERMANN Y. KLEIN.

~TT"NDOUBTEDLY one of the greatest achievements of modern
vJ days is the introduction of the exceedingly sensitive dry-plate in
photography. By it one is enabled to picture the lightning's flash, the
trotting horse, the surging wave, and the foliage swayed by the breeze.
It is not to be foreseen what manifold applications this new method
will eventually find in the natural sciences. Here we will consider
only one of its numerous applications, namely, its use in photograph-
ing the starlit heavens.

Whoever has tried to form an idea of the number of stars, visible
to the naked eye on a clear winter's night, almost invariably overesti-
mates them. The layman declares he sees a hundred thousand, ay, a
million stars. Such estimates, however, far exceed the truth, and, if
anything is certain, it is the fact that the number of stars to be seen

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with the naked eye is very small. All stars discernible by the keenest of
human sight,* without the aid of a telescope, have long been noted down
on charts, and their position in the vaulted dome exactly determined.

Should one count up all the stars in those parts of the heavens that
become visible to us in the course of a year, even this sum would not
by far approach seven thousand. However, if one resorts
to a telescope, matters grow to be quite different ; more
and more stars then become visible, the number depend-
ing on the strength of the instrument in use. Fig. 1 rep-
resents a certain portion of the heavens as seen by the
fig. i. unaided eye. One discerns two brighter stars and several

smaller ones. Fig. 2 shows this same spot, but as seen through a pow-
erful telescope. This picture has not merely been drawn from fancy.
Each point, even the smallest, was, after close observation, entered
with the utmost care on a large chart, of which this illustration

Fig. 2.

is a copy, but reduced in size. And each single one of these
stars is a mighty body, in its sphere a shining sun, equaling ours
in grandeur and splendor. From the beginning, each of these suns
has traveled its prescribed round, and has filled its place in the vast
universe. Such charts of the stars are leaves from the great volume of

PHOTOGRAPHING THE HEAVENS. 73

the history of the universe, a work which astronomy teaches us to read.
On one of these pages, that has already been in part deciphered, is re-
corded the destiny of our planet.

It is, then, not surprising that astronomers seek to gain possession
of as many reliable copies of such leaves from this history as possible ;
in other words, seek to own as exact and extensive star-maps as will
include the very smallest luminous points in the heavens. What un-
told work the compiling of such charts entails may well be imagined ;
indeed, this is a task which is almost beyond human power. The chart
from which the above picture is a copy was compiled at the observa-
tory at Paris, and work at the same has already been continued for
many decades. For years past, the two brothers, Paul and Prosper
Henry, have been engaged in this exacting undertaking ; but, notwith-
standing the great experience which they in the course of time had
gathered, their task almost came to a sudden end in the year 1884.
At that time, while pursuing their observations, they came to that
region of the heavens traversed by the milky-way. As is well known,
the mild, lambent light of the milky- way is caused by a conglomera-
tion of countless millions of stars placed behind one another to endless
depths. To reproduce these millions of stars on charts proved to be
utterly impossible.

The two observers then summoned the art of photography, re-
cently so much improved, to their aid. Naturally they could not make
use of the ordinary apparatus of the photographer ; indeed, they
were obliged to build a special telescope for their purpose. By means
of clock-work, they succeeded in imparting to this a movement so
prescribed and so regulated that the stars, though continuing in their
unbroken course in the heavens, yet retain a stationary position with
reference to the photographic plate. After many painstaking experi-
ments, the enterprise was successful beyond expectation. Even the
faintest of stars were plainly discernible on the plate, and in this man-
ner more was accomplished in one hour than could be done by the old
method of inscribing each star in many months.

These results incited to further progress. A new and very large
telescope was constructed and directed toward the starry heavens. The
plate now showed stars of the fifteenth magnitude, i. e., those whose
light is so faint that only very few telescopes in all Europe can render
them perceptible. In order to obtain this result, the plate, notwith-
standing its extreme sensitiveness, had to be exposed to the light of
these stars for fully an hour. If one were to carefully examine such a
plate, or rather a cliche made therefrom, doubts might perhaps arise as
to whether some of the little points thereon might not have been occa-
sioned by particles accidentally present on the original plate. Such
doubts might well be entertained, but Messrs. Henry have succeeded
in meeting them in a most ingenious manner. After having exposed
the plate for an hour, they shifted its position a trace to the right, and

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

again exposed it for the same length of time. After this they lowered
the plate wirfa the telescope to the same extent as they had before
shifted its position, and then, for a third time, exposed for an hour. If,
after this, the original were to be examined with a microscope, it would
be seen that each little star is really composed of three points, which
form a small triangle. Thus any doubt is dispelled that might have
been entertained as to whether an accidental blur had been pictured.

The advantage in preparing representations of the heavens by
means of photography rests not only on the fact that by this means
charts of the stars can be obtained much more readily than was the
case when each star had to be separately noted, but the pictures thus
obtained also seem to be absolutely correct ; they contain no faulty
entries, no mistakes. Even the most attentive observer is liable to
error ; he may overlook one or more stars, he may make a wrong
entry, etc. All of these risks are not to be feared in employing a pho-
tographic plate ; it is like a retina that sees everything as it is ! This
advantage can not be sufficiently appreciated, for it enables us to leave
to coming generations an absolutely true and entirely correct picture
of the starry heavens of to-day. The director of the observatory at
Paris has for this reason suggested the obtaining of a complete pho-
tographic picture of the entire heavens by the systematic co-operation
of different observatories in the northern and southern hemispheres.
This is, indeed, a grand project ; and to see it realized would, at all
events, require a period of from eight to ten years but what exceed-
ingly important results would ensue from this !

With such charts from different times at his disposal, and equipped
with a microscope and a micrometric apparatus to carry out his meas-
urements, the investigator of the future will be enabled to make in his
study astronomical discoveries that have hitherto escaped direct obser-
vation by the telescopes of the observatory. In his study he will be
able to prove whether any, and, if so, which stars have changed their
position in the heavens, whether among the countless number of the
faintest little stars in the milky-way new ones have arisen, or old
ones disappeared in short, with the aid of such charts there opens
to the mind a vista of research and discovery that seems well-nigh
endless.

How much may be escaping astronomical science of to-day, simply
because the eye of mortal explorer chances not to alight on that very
point in the depths of the heavens where just then a most important
event is taking place !

In future this will be different. Photographed charts of the heav-
ens give an exact likeness of the appearance of the celestial dome at
the time of their taking, and these may be examined and studied at
any place and at any time, by day and by night. The most remote
planet that revolves around the sun, known of to-day, is Neptune ;
yet it seems most probable that beyond this, one or even more plan-

HOW ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS ARE MADE. 75

ets are existing. As, however, they move but very slowly, and at the
same time emit but little light, it has not yet been possible to dis-
cern them among the millions of little fixed stars. But, when once
the entire heaven s, even to the very smallest of visible stars, shall have
been photographed, and if this work be repeated after a period of
about ten years, the charts thus obtained will solve the problem as to
the most remote planets, and the latter must be found. Ay even
more. The photographic plate is superior to the observant eye, in
perceiving and reproducing the smallest stars, inasmuch as it shows
objects in those places in the heavens where, with the most powerful
telescopes, nothing more is to be seen.

In this connection the brothers Henry have recently made a most
singular discovery. On the 16th of November they directed their
large photographic telescope to that spot in the heavens where the star
Maja is in the Pleiades, and afterward found on their plate, besides
numerous stars, a spiral, nebulous spot, which, to a certain extent,
seemed to come from the star Maja. As, even with the greatest tele-
scopes of the observatory at Paris, no signs of such vapor could be
perceived in that particular part of the heavens, a new photograph
was taken on the 8th of December ; this also showed the vapor, and a
third picture, obtained the following day, once more bespoke its pres-
ence.

There can, then, be no doubt as to the existence of a spiral-like
nebulous spot in the vicinity of that star, but of which the eye, even
with the aid of a most powerful telescope, can perceive naught. What
wonderful prospects for the future here open to view ! A veritable
astronomy of the invisible begins. Celestial orbs, ever veiled from
our direct gaze, are rendered perceptible ay, trace their own picture.
Therein lies the highest triumph of the human mind, that it is able, in
the true sense of the word, to force Nature to reveal her secrets ; that
a ray of light, called into being in the most remote depths of space,
created at a time ere perhaps the foot of man had ever trodden the
earth, should to-day itself trace on a plate the outline and the form of
that orb from which it emanated myriads of years ago. Translated
for the Popular Science Monthly from Die Gartenlaube.

-->-

HOW ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS ARE MADE.

By JOSEPH DAWSON.

WHATEVER may be our individual views or prejudices in rela-
tion to the use and abuse of alcoholic liquors, the process of
their manufacture is a very interesting chemical operation. Proof-
spirit is defined by the United States internal revenue laws to be that
mixture of alcohol and water which contains one half of its volume of

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

absolute alcohol and 53*71 parts of. water. When the alcohol and
water are mixed together while combining contraction in volume
takes place to the extent of 3*71 parts, resulting in 100 parts of proof-
spirit. The law declares that the duties on all spirits shall be levied ac-
cording to their equivalent in proof -spirits. The hydrometers adopted
by the Government for the purpose of testing the degree of strength
are graded and marked (0) for water, (100) for proof-spirit, and
(200) for absolute alcohol, at a standard temperature of 60 Fahr.

Alcoholic liquors can be made from any substance that contains
saccharine matter already formed by Nature, or from any substance
that contains the constituent elements that can be converted by some
artificial process into the saccharine principle. In the United States
they are generally produced from corn, rye, wheat, barley, rice, mo-
lasses, apples, grapes, and peaches ; sometimes from potatoes and beets.
Vinous fermentation converts sugar, glucose, or saccharine matter into
alcohol and carbonic-acid gas ; the latter passing off into the atmos-
phere.

In order to bring about vinous or alcoholic fermentation five agents
are indispensable, viz., saccharine matter, water, heat, a ferment, and
atmospheric air. Sugar or saccharine matter in its various forms is
the only element from which alcohol can be produced ; the others are
mere auxiliaries to the decomposition.

By establishing the quantity in volumes of the elements of sugar
and alcohol, as indicated by the following tabulated statements, and
by comparing the constituent elements of the two articles, so dissimi-
lar in appearance, the fact of their slight difference would be incredible
were it not established by science :

COMPOSITION OF SUGAR IN VOLUMES.

Vapor of carbon . . 3

Hydrogen 3

Oxygen 1

COMPOSITION OF ALCOHOL IN VOLUMES.

Vapor of carbon 2

Hydrogen : 3

Oxygen

Gay-Lussac.

Take one volume of vapor of carbon and one of oxygen from sugar,
which is accomplished by vinous fermentation and distillation, and
you have alcohol.

In order to obtain the best results, the process of scalding the va-
rious kinds of grain used and making the yeast requires very skillful
management ; so much so that the largest distillers employ a profes-
sional and practical chemist to look after the scientific part of the busi-
ness. The quantity and power of the yeast, in proportion to the quan-
tity of saccharine matter in the mash, must be properly balanced, or in
one case the fermentation will be too rapid, developing excessive heat,
and consequently a loss of alcoholic vapor passing off with the car-
bonic-acid gas, also inducing acetic fermentation, which, under certain
conditions, is a destroyer of alcohol ; or, in the other case, if the yeast
is too weak, so that it will not convert all the saccharine matter into

HOW ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS ARE MADE. 77

alcohol, there will be a waste of material, and consequently a pecun-
iary loss to the manufacturer.

Can pure unadulterated alcoholic liquors be now obtained ? This
is a question frequently asked with a doubtful accent. I answer yes, as
pure as were ever made, which assertion I will substantiate by giving
a description of their manufacture. And as whisky is one of the
most common liquors, it may be taken as an example. Malt is an
almost indispensable article in connection with whisky-distilling, and
is usually made of rye or barley. The grain is soaked in water until
it begins to swell ; it is then placed in a pile on the malting-floor,
where it remains until heat is generated and saccharine fermentation
takes place, causing the grain to germinate or sprout, and developing
the saccharine matter and a peculiar ferment called diastase, which is
the main object in the process of malting. When the process of
germination has arrived at the point desired, the grain is spread over
the floor to dry, for the purpose of suspending further fermentation ;
when dry, the grain is very sweet and brittle, easily ground, and is
known to commerce as rye and barley malt.

The best distillers are very particular about the quality of grain
they use, buying only the best in market. The proportions of each
kind of grain used vary according to the particular brand of whisky
desired. The usual proportions of grain are, two thirds corn and one
third rye and malt. The corn is ground into a fine granulated meal,
the rye to a medium fineness, and the malt is coarsely ground. The
meal is all weighed, scalded, and mashed under the supervision of the
United States internal revenue storekeeper. The corn-meal, being
more difficult to scald than rye and malt, is first put into a mash-tub
containing a proper quantity of hot water, and while the mash is being
vigorously stirred with a revolving rake driven by steam or water-
power, the temperature is raised to about 170 Fahr. This operation
scalds the corn-meal and develops the starch ; after remaining at this
temperature for the proper length of time, cold water is added to re-
duce the temperature to about 150 Fahr., the rye and malt are then
added, and the whole mass is continually stirred until the scalding is
complete, and the starch is developed and converted into dextrine, and
then into saccharine matter by the potency of the diastase contained in
the malt. It is then cooled down as quickly as possible, in order to
avoid viscous fermentation, by the addition of cold water and ice, to
about 80 Fahr., and drawn off into a fermenting vat, and the yeast
which has been previously prepared is added.

The fermenting period varies from forty-eight to seventy-two
hours, according to the kind of yeast used. By testing the density
and temperature of the mash at the time of setting, and on the com-
pletion of fermentation, with the aid of a saccharometer and thermom-
eter, a close approximation can be obtained of the quantity of proof-
spirit contained in the beer by which name the mash is called after

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fermentation ; the greater the attenuation of the beer, as shown by
the saccharometer, the greater the quantity of spirit.

Fermentation being completed, where the ordinary copper stills
are used, the beer is run into one still and is boiled ; the alcohol in the
beer, being more volatile than water, rises, combined with more or less
water, and passes through a copper coil or worm submerged in a cis-
tern of water into which a continuous stream of cold water is running ;
at the top of this cistern is an overflow-pipe conveying the heated
water off as it rises. This operation condenses the vapor in the worm,
and the spirit flows out colorless ; as all spirits, whether made from
grain, fruit, or vegetables, flowing from the still-worm, have the ap-
pearance of water.

The product of this first distillation is called low-wine, from the
fact that it is not of sufficient strength and purity to put upon the
market. The boiling is continued until all the alcohol in the beer is
evaporated and condensed ; then the refuse is drawn off from the still
and fed to cattle and hogs. The low-wine is then run into still No. 2,
called the doubler, and boiled again. The product from the doubler
will be whisky varying from 100 to 150 in strength.

When the three-chambered wooden still or column is used, and
the beer is boiled by steam, spirits are produced of marketable strength
at each run of the still.

Under the internal revenue laws the distillers of grain and molasses
can have no access to the spirits during the process of their manufact-
ure, as the spirits are conveyed from the still in continuously closed
pipes to large cisterns in a room with only one entrance, upon which
is a Government lock, of the key of which the United States gauger is
the custodian, until the spirits have been drawn off into barrels, and
he has gauged the quantity and tested their degree of strength by the
aid of a hydrometer and thermometer, placed a warehouse stamp on
each package, and marked on each the capacity, quantity, and degree
of strength of the contents.

The gauger is, fortunately, not required to taste of the spirits to
test their quality, as quality is not taken into consideration in levying
the tax. After the gauger has completed his duties, the United States
storekeeper takes charge of the spirits and sees that all of the pack-
ages are safely deposited in the distillery bonded warehouse, where
they remain under a Government lock the key of which is in the
care of the storekeeper until the tax is paid.

The limit of time that spirits can remain in bond, by the present
revenue law, is three years. Congress was petitioned at the last two
sessions, by parties interested in distilling, for an extension of the
bonded period, but the petition was, I think, unwisely denied.

It would be a blessing to the whole country if Congress would pass
a law embodying the substance of the three following items : 1. Grant-
ing unlimited time for spirits to remain in bond, in order to give all

HOW ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS ARE MADE. 79

the time for improving the spirits desired before payment of the tax.
2. Prohibiting the withdrawal of alcoholic liquors from bond until
they have been in the warehouse at least twelve months ; for the rea-
son that new spirits, although they may be pure, are not fit for internal
use, and should not be placed upon the market for sale until their con-
stituent elements are thoroughly combined by age. 3. Prohibiting (if
it can be done constitutionally) the mixing or compounding different
kinds of alcoholic liquors, particularly those made from grain with
those made from fruit, or the adulteration of the same by the addition
of any deleterious or injurious substances. Heavy penalties to follow
every violation and conviction.

Various contrivances have been adopted, both in this and foreign
countries, for the purpose of producing a kind of artificial age, and
various compounds have been used to accomplish the desired result,
and to a certain extent have been successful in deceiving the novice or
uninitiated ; but, on the whole, you might as well try to put a mature
brain, developed in all its manly proportions, upon the shoulders of a
youth, as to try to make new spirits old, minus the element of time,
and the necessary accompanying environments.

A company in Boston, Massachusetts, claim to purchase the oldest
liquors they can find in distillery bonded warehouses (three years old),
and to purify and increase their mellowness by forcing warm air
through them, thereby oxidizing the fusel-oil (or heavier alcohols),
and expelling into the open air the light, poisonous ethers, leaving the
liquors free from the aldehydes which stupefy and destroy the brain-
tissues. The air is first passed through a chemical solution (Professor
Tyndall's well-known method), which deodorizes as well as destroys all
germs of animal or vegetable origin ; and after being thus treated,
analysis shows it to be pure atmospheric air, 79 parts nitrogen, and 21
parts oxygen. This purified air is then heated to a certain temper-
ature, and, with the aid of a pump, forced through pipes with almost
infinitesimal perforations, so as to bring the greatest amount of sur-
face of air in contact with the greatest amount of surface of liquor in
the shortest space of time, warming the liquors and producing a vio-
lent agitation, which process, undoubtedly, accelerates the union and
assimilation of the constituent elements, and, they also claim, elimi-
nates the poisonous gases. The liquors are then filtered by the best-
known methods to free them from any remaining debris.

But to return to the distillery : you will see that the processes
which the grain has gone through of mashing, fermenting, and the ex-
traction of the spirits from the beer by distillation, and the placing of
the completed product in the distillery bonded warehouse, are all done
under the supervision of a Government officer, and thus far the distiller
has had no opportunity, even if he had any desire, to adulterate the
liquor. Any distiller who wishes to establish a reputation for manu-
facturing a fine article, is as much interested in keeping his liquor

80 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pure as any person is who wishes to purchase and properly use a pure
article.

After the internal revenue tax has been paid, and the tax-paid
stamps properly placed upon the packages, the spirits are withdrawn
from bond ; each package having two stamps upon it a warehouse
and a tax-paid stamp and when put upon the market in this condition
they are known as two-stamp goods ; but the best distillers, instead of
selling their goods directly from the bonded warehouse if they have
not been filtered and refined during the process of their manufact-
ure transfer them to the rectifying-house for rectification ; the object
of which is to remove any pernicious substances or impurities, such as
the grosser properties of the essential oils, or fusel, and acetic acid,
and to improve the quality and flavor of the spirits. It is the essential
oils extracted from the various materials used that impart the peculiar
distinguishing characteristics to each kind of liquor. The alcoholic
property is virtually the same in all spirituous liquors.

The process of rectification is generally done by redistilling, and
filtering through alternate layers of woolen blankets, sand, and granu-
lated bone or maple charcoal other complicated mechanical arrange-
ments are sometimes used, called rectifiers, but they are not common
after which process, a little burned sugar is added to give them a kind
of straw-color, simply, I presume, to distinguish them from water, and
which gives the appearance of age without improving or injuring their
quality. After rectification, the spirits are gauged by the United States
gauger, and a rectifier's stamp is placed upon each package, and the
whisky is then ready for the market, pure and unadulterated, and,
known as one-stamp goods. Remember that I am now stating how
good whisky is made ; all whisky is not made with the same degree
of care. Some people are under the impression that if they buy two-
stamp goods they are certainly getting a pure article, but that is not
always the case, unless the whisky has been properly rectified during
the process of manufacture.

There is a vast difference between rectification proper and mixing
or compounding. Rectification, in its proper sense, is purifying and
refining. Compounding is diabolizing. Moral : Purchase from first
hands, if possible.

By this, I do not mean to insinuate that all dealers in liquor are
unscrupulous ; for, paradoxical as it may appear to some minds, there
are many very generous, noble-hearted, upright men engaged in the
liquor-traffic ; but the demand for cheap liquor is so great that some
men can not resist the temptation to mix or compound, in order to
supply this demand, and some of them feel that they are compelled to
do it against their will in order to hold their customers ; and this
practice will continue until the strong arm of a righteous law is placed
upon it a law that every honest distiller and liquor-dealer will cor-
dially approve.

HOW ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS ARE MADE. 81

Therefore, if you want a pure article, purchase from a distiller or
first-class, reliable dealer ; and, by the term first class, I do not mean
the man who has the largest and most attractive place of business,
and the most capital invested, but the man who is known for his in-
tegrity and truthfulness of character. Insist that the spirits must
be at least twelve months old, and also be willing to pay a fair price
for them. There is no more exception to the rule in the liquor
business than in any other, that, if you want something of value, you
muse expect to pay value for it.

At some distilleries, the spirits pass through a process of filtering
between the worm and cistern-room, which extracts the impure foreign
matter that is unavoidably forced up from the still with the vapor of
spirits. When this purifying process is skillfully and carefully done,
there is no absolute necessity for the further manipulation or rectifica-
tion of the spirits, and the only element then required to make the
spirits fit for medicinal purposes is time, and the longer the time the
better. If kept in wooden packages the spirits will improve and ac-
quire a slight color by age. Coloring-matter is not allowed by the
Government to be put in the spirits when this filtering process is done
at the distillery.

Alcoholic liquors should not be offered for sale until they have been
filtered or properly rectified, either during the process of manufact-
ure, or after they have been withdrawn from the distillery bonded
warehouse. The best distillers never let their goods go on the market
until they have themselves put the whisky through a process of recti-
fication, or refining ; and woe be to the man who dares to change its
character in the original package bearing their brand, if they find
sufficient evidence against him !

Rye-whisky is made from rye and malt, without corn, but experts
say that it requires much longer time to mature, and become ripe and
smooth, than does Bourbon whisky, which is made from corn, rye, and
malt. Gin is made from the same materials and in the same manner
as whisky, with one addition : juniper-berries are boiled in the last dis-
tillation, imparting their peculiar flavor.

There are two objections to straight (unmixed) American gin :
First, it is usually sold when new, because the dealer can buy it
cheaper and make a larger margin upon it than he can on the old arti-
cle. Second, straight American gin is not filtered and relieved of for-
eign and impure matters, but is sold with them in, obnoxious as they
are, depending upon the juniper flavor to conceal their presence.

Rum is made from molasses, diluted with water, and a ferment
added ; after fermentation it is distilled in the same manner as whis-
ky and gin.

Brandy is made from apples, grapes, peaches, and other fruits,
generally from the expressed juice, but occasionally from the pomace
or crushed fruit after fermentation. Fruits possess by nature an

TOL. XXIX. 6

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

azotized albuminous substance which produces spontaneous vinous fer-
mentation, so that artificial yeasts or ferments are unnecessary. About
fifty per cent more brandy can be made from ripe than from green
fruit, and late fruit will produce much more brandy than early fruit.
Brandy-distillers ought to devote more attention to filtration than they
are in the habit of doing ; it is a moral obligation which they owe
to society.

Some people are so credulous that they believe all imported liquors
are pure and perfectly straight. By paying a very high price, pure
imported liquors can be obtained, but the superiority of the best arti-
cle consists mainly in great age. Some imported liquors are mixed,
compounded, and artificially flavored before shipment to this country,
and are again mixed with so-called pure spirit after their arrival here.
Trois-six French spirit, when originally produced, was the pure spirit
of grape-wine ; now it is mainly manufactured from potatoes and the
cereals, and forms the basis of many of the liquors imported into this
country under the brand of French brandies and wines, and sold to a
credulous public as the product of the pure juice of the grape.

The duty on imported liquors is two dollars per proof-gallon, and
on imported wines fifty cents per wine-gallon, while the United States
internal revenue tax is only ninety cents per proof-gallon on domestic
spirits, and none on domestic wines. People can judge for themselves
whether the imported article is worth the difference in price.

Chemists, in their analysis of anhydrous, absolute, or pure alcohol
(200), do not exactly agree in their results. However, there is only a
slight variation from the following statement in the proportions of
the three constituent elements :

Carbon 52-32

Oxygen 34*38

Hydrogen 13-30

100-00

Alcohol showing the foregoing analysis acts as a caustic on the living
tissues of the body, and by injection into the veins it causes sudden
death by coagulating the blood. By introduction into the stomach it
generally causes death.

Commercial alcohol is principally made from Indian corn, and gen-
erally indicates twelve degrees less in strength, being 188, than the
preceding analysis. This commercial alcohol is reduced to any degree
desired by the addition of water, and known to the trade as French,
pure, cologne, or neutral spirits, while in fact it is nothing but dilute
alcohol.

This spirit forms the bulk of nearly all the low-priced alcoholic
liquors, whether called rum, gin, whisky, domestic or foreign brandies,
that are placed upon the market, and this neutral corn-spirit enters
largely into many of the better brands. Some wholesale liquor-deal-

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 83

ers and compounders state that liquors made from pure cologne or
neutral spirits are the purest liquors that can be found. That may be
true ; also, sulphuric acid and aqua-fortis may and presumably are
pure, but they are, nevertheless, dangerous and deadly poisons.

This neutral spirit has been robbed of all its native richness and
reduced to a skeleton of extreme poverty by eliminating its natural
oils and leaving it with a harsh, cutting, penetrating nature, and when
taken internally it produces the worst effects upon the tissues. The
natural oils in the materials from which alcoholic liquors are produced
are the oils that have the greatest natural affinity for that particular
kind of liquor, and if permitted to remain where they belong, when
taken into the stomach in a refined condition, properly combined and
assimilated, are bland and sedative in their effects, and any spirit that
has been deprived of them is not fit to enter the human stomach.

--

THE CAEE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS.

By PHILIP GILBEET HAMERTON.

AMONG the most curious apparent inconsistencies of human na-
ture is the possibly complete independence of the productive
and the conservative states of mind. It seems as if the talent for pro-
ducing things often led, of itself, to a carelessness about their preser-
vation, perhaps from a feeling that it is easy to replace what may
happen to be deteriorated. The most conspicuous instance of this
temper is that of Turner, among artists. He was the most productive
of painters and the most accumulative, liking to keep his own works
about him much more than painters generally do ; and yet at the same
time he does not appear to have given a thought to the preservation of
the works he so greatly valued. His pictures were carelessly kept in
a gallery that was never repaired ; his drawings were never arranged
till Mr. Ruskin arranged them six years after Turner's death, and it
cost Mr. Ruskin a whole autumn and winter (1857), with the help of
two assistants, working " every day, all day long, and often far into
the night," to convert the Turnerian mess of confusion into order.

Had it been confusion or disorder simply, the evil would have been
completely remediable by careful labor ; but unfortunately the same
carelessness that led to disorder involved carelessness about preserva-
tion. Many of the drawings were eaten away by damp and mildew,
"and falling into dust at the edges, in capes and bays of fragile de-
cay." Others were worm-eaten, some were mouse-eaten, "many torn
half-way through." Turner's way of keeping his drawings was to
roll them up in bundles and cram them into drawers. The rolled
bundles do not even appear to have been protected by paper closed at
the end against dust, and the squeezing seems to have flattened them ;

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for Mr. Ruskin tells us that " dust of thirty years' accumulation, black,
dense, and sooty, lay in the rents of the crushed and crumpled edges
of these flattened bundles." There were also numbers of pocket
sketching-books "dropping to pieces at the back, tearing laterally
whenever opened, and every drawing rubbing itself into the one oppo-
site."

What strikes us most in this disorder is not so much the deteriora-
tion of the sketches and drawings, which Turner possibly may not
have foreseen, as the intolerable inconvenience of a system that must
have made reference so difficult for the artist himself as to be always
tedious and often impossible. A collection of studies should always
be so arranged that any study whatever, even down to the most tri-
fling memorandum, may be found at a moment's notice. The care of
an artist's collection of studies is not, however, the subject of the
present paper, which is addressed rather to the lay possessors of works
of art than to professional artists.

Turner's way of keeping his drawings is a model of everything
that the collector ought to avoid. Nobody but an artist would think
of keeping drawings rolled up in bundles, for the simple reason that
you can never see a drawing properly unless it lies flat. Then we
learn that Turner exposed his collection to every one of the enemies
that a prudent keeper provides against. These enemies are damp,
dust, and vermin. In the case of water-color and oil pictures there
are two other foes, light and darkness, a water-color being liable to
fade in the light, and an oil-picture to turn yellow for the want of it.

Damp and mildew are often spoken of as two enemies, but in fact
they are only one, as mildew is a fungus or collection of fungi thriv-
ing only in damp situations.* Damp, as everybody knows, is retained
moisture, or, in other words, water diffused in minute particles that
are held by some other substance so as to be prevented from joining
each other and flowing away, while they do not get access to the air
so as to be carried off by evaporation. Some substances are extremely
favorable to the retention of damp, and it so happens that the mill-
board commonly employed by framers to put behind prints, and by
book-binders who make portfolios, is one of those substances which ab-
sorb and retain damp with particular facility. It is employed by cop-
per-plate printers to dry impressions, which are placed between sheets
of mill-board under pressure, the boards soon drinking up the water
contained in the wetted paper. The ingenuity of framers has led
them to select this (of all substances in the world) to put behind
engravings that are hung up on walls ; and, when the walls happen to
be damp, it follows as a matter of course that the engravings are
spoiled by mildew or rust-spot. If the reader has ever lived in a

* So far as I know. My experience of mildew has been chiefly with prints and the
sails of boats, which require almost as much care as prints, and in these cases mildew has
always required damp as a condition of its existence.

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 8 5

house that is even moderately damp, he can hardly have failed to no-
tice that the boards behind framed engravings swell and bulge out,
which is the result of an increase in the bulk and area of the boards
exactly proportionate to the quantity of water they have absorbed.
When there is a sufficient supply of water certain fungoid growths
will begin on the surface of the print under the glass, exactly like the
growth of plants from the damp earth in a garden or conservatory.
If there is iron in the paper here and there (which often happens),
there will be spots of oxide of iron, or what we call rust, to give a
pleasing variety of color, and if one of them happens to occur on a
face, it must of course add greatly to its charm. Wooden backings
are safer ; and I have seen a room where the engravings with mill-
board behind them were all more or less spoiled by damp, while a
large engraving with a thick wooden backing was entirely uninjured.
Nevertheless, I would rather not trust to deal boards, as it is well
known that deal is very absorbent of moisture. I remember having a
heavy block of deal dead-wood removed from the hull of a boat, and
when it was sawed through the water oozed freely out of every fiber.
Had it been submitted to a powerful pressure, such as that from a hy-
draulic press, there can be no doubt that it would have been like
squeezing a wetted sponge.

The necessity for careful precaution about the backing of framed
engravings is not simply due to the permeability of walls that let the
damp come through them ; it may be also due to mere condensation
on the inner surface of the wall even when it is well built and im-
permeable. This is best seen on a painted wall, as papers can absorb
a great deal of water without letting it be immediately visible. In a
very cold winter the external walls of a house become chilled through-
out their mass, and when they are painted on the inside a sudden rise
in temperature will produce visible condensation from the damp air,
because the wall has not yet had time to raise its own temperature to
that of the atmosphere. If there are engravings against the wall, they
will suffer as much as if the wall itself were damp throughout its sub-
stance ; for if the backings are absorbent they will drink in a quantity
of moisture from the streaming wall-surface, which they will after-
ward slowly give off to the engraving for the encouragement of fungi
and rust-spots. If oil-pictures are hung against a wall of this kind,
the canvas will absorb moisture (unless certain precautions are taken,
of which we may give an account presently), and then the increase in
its bulk and area will cause it to hang loosely on the stretching-
frames. The only way to combat condensation is by heating the air
sufficiently to warm the walls themselves, when, of course, it must
cease. Nature herself puts an end to it ultimately in the same way if
the mild weather continues, but more slowly, as it takes some time to
raise the temperature of a mass of stone by a gentle increase of heat.
A thin inner wall, or wainscot separated by a little space from the

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

outer wall, may prevent condensation, because the thin partition, hav-
ing little substance, rises easily in temperature. It would be quite
worth while, in a house where valuable works of art are hung, to have
thin inner walls with a circulation of warmed air between them and
the thick external wall of- the building. Tapestry is a very effective
remedy against visible condensation, as it absorbs a great quantity of
water, which it afterward gives off slowly into the atmosphere, and it
may prevent or greatly diminish real condensation by being more
easily warmed than a mass of stone can be.

The evil of injury from damp ought, however, to be combated as
much as possible in the framing of the pictures and prints themselves.
I will begin with prints because they are more common, so that the
preservation of them concerns a greater number of my readers. In
the first place, I would never trust to a backing of mill-board or paste-
board. A print may appear to be safe with such a backing for years,
and then there may be a damper winter than usual, or you may go
and live in a damper house, or you may be absent, and the house may
not be heated with sufficient regularity, with the result of unexpected
injury to your print. Why not make it safe from the beginning? It
is easy to do this, so that the print may be hung on a damp wall with-
out danger. Instead of mill-board put sheet-zinc for a backing. It
need not be thick, and you can always get a piece of sheet-zinc as big
as the largest print. By way of completing precautions I am careful
to expel any moisture there may be in the print itself by heating it
well over a spirit-lamp before inclosing it between the zinc and the
glass, and instead of ordinary paste for the slips of paper that join
the glass to the inside of the frame and the backing to the back of the
frame I employ a strong solution of gum-lac in spirits of wine, which
is impervious to moisture. The print is thus inclosed in a little space
that is not only water-tight, but even air-tight as well, so that damp
air can not get to it. I have tried the experiment of hanging prints
so framed against the dampest walls that I could find, and they have
passed more than one wet winter in perfect safety, while prints framed
in the usual manner, with mill-board backings, were soon spoiled by
mildew and rust-spots when hung upon the same walls. All that has
just been said about the protection of framed prints applies with still
greater force to water-color drawings, as a water-color is far more
delicate in its constitution than a print, and therefore much less easily
restored to its first appearance after it has been damaged by mildew.

Engravings can not be injured at all by light, the only effect of
which is to bleach slightly the paper on which they are printed, but it
appears to be quite an ascertained fact that water-color drawings fade
when they are painted in full colors, though water-color monochromes
in sepia, bistre, or Indian-ink may resist light almost indefinitely. If,
then, the object is to preserve water-colors for future generations, they
ought to be kept in cabinets ; but it is also intelligible that the owner

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 87

of a collection may reasonably sacrifice a few drawings in his lifetime
(and the sacrifice is only partial) to the satisfaction of seeing them more
frequently and of ornamenting his walls with them. An intermediate
plan with regard to water-color drawings is to have case-frames that
allow one drawing to be easily substituted for another when the
mounts are of the same size. The drawing is then exhibited for a
short time only, and the owner has the refreshment of change on the
walls of his room. The same plan may be followed with prints, simply
for the sake of change.

With regard to the keeping of drawings in portfolios, there are rea-
sons for believing that portfolios are not entirely safe. I have known
a case in which prints in portfolios suffered visibly from damp, when
every possible precaution seemed to have been taken for their pres-
ervation. The portfolios were kept in a closet six feet by eight, which
was selected because it had no outer wall, and, though there was not a
fireplace in the closet itself, the door of it opened on a room where a
fire was constantly kept. The closet was believed to be the driest
place in the house, and the house itself was not in a damp situation,
being exposed to all the winds that blow, and built upon rather elevated
ground. It happened, however, that the outer walls were built of a
porous kind of sandstone, which retained moisture in the winter, and
as the portfolios in which the prints were kept were made of mill-board,
also a retainer of moisture, the prints were really damp in spite of the
carefully chosen closet. They showed the signs of damp as much, al-
most, as if they had been hung upon a damp wall with a mill-board
backing to each frame. It is plain, then, that the portfolio does not
aiford absolute security, and, indeed, the mill-board of which portfolios
are commonly made is in itself an element of danger. Shallow tin
boxes, with removable lids made like those of pill-boxes, are much safer
than the common portfolio. I have alluded in another paper (on the
" Poor Collector) * to cabinets with shelves of thin wood separated
from each other by small intervals. Prints or water-color drawings
may be kept in such cabinets without other protection than a sheet of
paper as a protection against the small quantity of dust that finds its
way into the interior. The cabinets should be placed in rooms where
there are regular fires, and when the room is thoroughly warmed the
doors of the cabinets should be occasionally left open and their con-
tents exposed to the air. As to the wood of which they are to be
made, it should be one of the least absorbent woods.

Well- closed cabinets or tin boxes are the best protection against
dust. If portfolios are used, they ought always to have flaps, as with-
out them dust is sure to get in and spoil the edges and sometimes part
of the margins of the prints. The effect of dust in course of time is
to discolor paper permanently. Suppose you lay a sheet of paper on
another that is rather larger, so that the second shall not be entirely

* "Longman's Magazine," September, 1885.

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

covered by the first, and leave the two in a quiet place where dust will
settle upon them, the unprotected margin of the second sheet will in
course of time become discolored and show a contrast. Many draw-
ings are so delicate that the dust can not be cleared from them without
injuring the drawings themselves. Unfixed charcoals and pastels are
the most delicate drawings of all, and require the most perfect protec-
tion against dust. The tidy housekeeper who dusts the unfinished
charcoal on the easel is alluded to with horror in the little treatises on
that art as the most destructive of all its enemies. As the charcoal
itself is nothing but unfixed dust, it obeys the housekeeper's feather-
brush only .too readily, and disappears with the other dust that means
nothing and is valueless. The housekeeper in such cases seems strik-
ingly like the blind destructive forces of the natural world which
respect genius and its productions no more than the commonest matter ;
she is like the sea which drowns Shelley and rolls the fragment of a
Greek statue among its pebbles.

Protection against damp and dust may seem less necessary in the
case of oil-pictures, but here also it has its importance. Unquestion-
ably an oil-picture has a much stronger constitution than a water-color,
yet it is admitted that some colors used in oil-paintings are affected
unfavorably by moisture, and are insufficiently protected by pure oil.
De Mayerne affirms that indigo fades in oil without varnish, but is
durable under varnish, and the following quotation from Sir Charles
Eastlake's "Materials for a History of Oil-Painting" w T ill show the
peculiar kind of danger that may arise from damp :

" The effect of moisture on verdigris, even when the color is mixed
with oil, as noticed by Leonardo da Vinci, shows that such a vehicle,
unless it be half resinified, affords no durable protection to some colors
in humid climates ; and the efficacy of resinous solutions, as hydro-
fuges, is at once exemplified by the fact that they answer the end
which (unprepared) oil alone is insufficient to accomplish. Colors
which are easily affected by humidity require to be protected accord-
ing to the extent of the evil. Whatever precaution of this kind was
requisite in Italy was doubly needed in Flanders. The superficial
varnish which sufficed in the extreme case referred to by Leonardo
was incorporated with the color by the oil-painters of the North. So
in proportion as the Flemish painters adopted a thinner vehicle, the
protecting varnish w r as applied on colors which the Italians could safely
leave exposed, at all events till a general varnish was spread over the
work. It will be remembered that this last method was unnecessary
in the original Flemish process, according to which the colors, being
more or less mixed with varnish, and being painted at once, remained
glossy, and needed no additional defense."

It would not be safe, however, to conclude from this that a simple
coat of varnish is a perfect insurance against damp, for varnish itself
may be ultimately penetrated by damp, as Field showed in his chapter

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 89

on the " Fugacity of Colors." Here is Field's caution on the subject,
which deserves attention :

" Others, with some reason, have imagined that when pigments are
locked up in varnishes and oils they are safe from all possibility of
change ; and there would be much more truth in this position if we
had an impenetrable varnish and even then it would not hold with
respect to the action of light, however well it might exclude the in-
fluences of air and moisture ; but, in truth, varnishes and oils them-
selves yield to changes of temperature, to the action of a humid
atmosphere, and to other chemical influences : their protection of color
from change is, therefore, far from perfect."

The best way, then, to keep oil-pictures in a state of safety is not
to trust much to their power of resisting damp, but to treat them just
as if they were notoriously delicate things like water-color drawings,
although in reality we know that their constitution is more robust.
An oil-picture, it is well to remember, may be attacked by damp from
behind. If it is hung on a damp wall, the canvas will absorb damp
from the wall, like the mill-board behind a water-color, and this damp
will reach the colors through the priming. The proof that canvases
absorb damp is that they hang flaccid on their stretching-frames when
there is much moisture in the atmosphere. It is some protection to
have the back of the canvas protected by a coat of paint applied with
varnish, but a still better protection is to have two canvases on the
same stretching-frame, the one that bears the work of the painter and
another behind it with a coat of paint on both sides. The practice of
having two canvases on the same stretcher has been adopted by more
than one modern painter for various reasons. One reason is that an
accidental blow to the canvas from behind,* or an indentation from
some angular object, may produce a fracture of the paint in the pict-
ure a fracture not immediately visible, perhaps, but likely to show
itself later.

It is generally of no use to propose anything that has not been
already adopted to some extent in practice, but I may call attention
to a plan which is successfully adopted by house-painters to protect
wall-papers from damp. Their way (or one of their ways) is first to
apply tin-foil to the wall, making it adhere by means of a thick coat
of white-lead. This is found to be a good protection for the wall-
paper which is pasted on the tin-foil. It would probably, in the same
way, be an excellent protection for pictures if the double-canvas sys-
tem were adopted and the under canvas covered with tin-foil upon

* Canvases are exposed to injuries of this nature in exhibitions chiefly, from the
corners of other pictures that may be carelessly placed against them, before or after the
exhibition. In private houses this danger is scarcely to be dreaded, but it is well to
bear in mind that all people except painters believe that it does no harm to a canvas to
lean it against the corner of a chair, a table, a box, or anything that may present itself
conveniently.

9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

white-lead. It has been remarked that a certain kind of decorative
work used in the middle ages consisted of paint applied on tin-foil and
protected by glass. Here was a double protection against damp, the
glass before and the tin-foil behind, the glass answering to the varnish
on a picture, but with more complete efficacy.

Glass is now largely used in the National Gallery for the protection
of oil -pictures, but, unfortunately, the common objection that it does
not allow the spectator to see the picture easily is but too well founded.
What we really see is too often the reflection of a group of visitors to
the gallery, almost as in a looking-glass. This happens especially
when the picture is a dark one, and many of the finest old pictures are
dark. We are sometimes told that it is an affair of focusing the eye,
and that if we look as we ought to do at the picture itself, and not at
the reflections, we shall not see the reflections. What really happens
is this : If we look at the reflections of the visitors we see them won-
derfully well, down to the most minute inventions of the feminine cos-
tume, and if we look at the picture we see it in a confused way inter-
mingled with the reflections. This being so, it follows that private
owners are not much encouraged to put their pictures under glass. It-
may be objected that water-colors are habitually protected in this way,
and that no one complains. True, but in the first place, with regard
to water-colors we have no choice, as any fly could spoil an unprotected
water-color in a minute ; in the second place, a drawing in water-
color is usually of small dimensions, so that it is more easily seen ;
and, lastly, water-colors are generally paler than oil-pictures, so that
they do not make such perfect mirrors. A dark old oil-picture w T ith a
sheet of plate-glass before it is, in certain lights, almost as good a
mirror as if the glass were lined w r ith quicksilver. We can hardly,
then, include glass among the means to be recommended for protect-
ing oil-pictures from damp, and must trust rather to the dryness of the
atmosphere in which the pictures are kept ; and yet it is necessary to
avoid excessive heating, which in certain cases produces or favors
cracking and destroys by detaching paint from the priming of the
canvas.

Canvas may not seem a very durable material, and yet, on the
whole, it is preferable to wooden panels, for it may truly be said of
wood, as it was said of the arch in architecture, that it is never at rest.
It is always either swelling or contracting, and if a composite panel is
not quite scientifically constructed, it is sure to tear itself and show
fissures. Panels are therefore usually employed for small works only,
and for these copper would be better still, though it has been used
rarely. If a panel is well painted on the back, it will absorb damp
less readily, and this precaution is very easily taken.

The art of removing a painting from an old to a new canvas is now
so well understood that the operation, which many years ago seemed
formidable, is now performed every day without attracting attention.

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 91

In this way an old picture gets a new lease of life ; but the question
remains whether the new lease might not be made longer, and indeed
extended almost indefinitely, by impregnating the canvas with some-
thing that would increase its durability without weakening its sub-
stance. It is well known that the fiber of the threads in canvas is so
weakened by the application of oil-paint, or oil alone, that it after-
ward is easily torn, and it is weakened in the same way by some
other applications.

Oil-pictures unprotected by glass are always quietly accumulating
a coat of dust and dirt, which, in course of time, unless it is occasion-
ally removed, makes the hazardous process called "picture-cleaning"
present itself as an ineluctable necessity if the work be visible at all.
The two preservative cleanings are first simply dusting with a light
feather-brush and an occasional careful washing with a soft rag, some
warm water, and a little soap, but not a strong soap. I remember a
house where a new Scotch house-maid, who was alarmingly industrious,
was discovered one morning on the point of cleaning all the pictures
in a certain room with soft-soap and a scrubbing-brush. She was
about to apply the same treatment to the frames, on which there was
a good deal of burnished gilding, which would all have immediately
disappeared. As for the pictures themselves, if they were covered
with old well-hardened varnish, they might possibly have survived,
but unvarnished works would have been injured or destroyed. It is
impossible to foresee what schemes a zealous servant may not carry
into execution. Projecting ornaments on frames are always in danger
from servants' dusters. I once possessed a plaster statuette, which
was valuable because there were only three copies in existence, and
every successive house-maid broke its arm off with a blow from the
wooden stick which is inside a feather-brush. The arm was regularly
glued on again for the next house-maid. The feather-brush looks a
most innocent instrument, but the stick in it makes the house-maid
formidable.

I once knew an old gentleman who possessed a picture of great
value, the most important work of its master (one of the old masters)
in existence. This picture was the pride and pleasure of his old age,
and he could not help caressing it, as it were. From sheer love of it,
he could not be satisfied with looking at it, but must needs touch it
frequently also, and his way was to pass an oiled rag gently over its
surface. I believe the oil he used was olive-oil (he was a Frenchman,
and so there would always be olive-oil in the house for the salad), and as
olive-oil never dries, or at least is the worst drier known,* perhaps it
did not accumulate on the picture, but the dust must have stuck to it,
and made a fresh application necessary from time to time merely to

* Field says that olive-oil is reported to have been used for painting in Italy in place
of the desiccative oils, but he thinks it likely that it was only employed as a diluent. No
painter in our climate would think of using olive-oil in any way whatever.

92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

clean off the old one. Olive-oil does not dry properly, but it becomes
sticky after long exposure to the air, and nothing could be better cal-
culated to catch and retain dust. The wisdom of our ancestors made
them rejoice in coats of varnish applied thickly over dirty pictures, to
lock up the dirt between the paint and the varnish, and so preserve it for
the delight of posterity. Our ancestors liked dingy pictures, and the
dirtier they were the better they seem to have liked them. The Presi-
dent of the Irish Academy, in a witty speech that I regret not to have
kept, said that in Ireland at the present day the public taste required
that a picture should be very black, and that it should not cost more than
six pounds. Now, dirt is a great help to darkness of complexion, as
we all know by the faces of dirty boys in the streets, and, if darkness
were considered a merit in these boys, it would be a great mistake to
wash them.

The question of picture-cleaning is one of the most complicated
that can be. Suppose you leave a very dirty picture as it is, do you
see, can you possibly see, what the artist painted ? Assuredly not ;
and why should decent people tolerate dirty pictures when they will
not tolerate a dirty table-cloth ? The answer is that, if the picture
could be cleaned as safely as the table-cloth it would be done without
hesitation, but that cleaning may possibly remove light glazes and
scumblings along with the varnish, and that if these glazes, the finish-
ing work of the artist, are once removed, no human being on earth,
except the artist who painted the picture, can replace them. But, by
the time a picture urgently wants cleaning, the painter has generally
been for many years in his grave. Therefore, in having a picture
cleaned you are risking that which can not be replaced. All this has
been said before, but the arguments for and against picture-cleaning
have usually been presented in a controversial manner by strong parti-
sans of one side or the other, and, as I am not at all a partisan in the
matter, I may be able to state the case more fairly. The choice of
evils is this : To escape from the certain evil of leaving a picture con-
cealed by the dirt upon it, you expose it to the possible evil of remov-
ing the finishing glazes. Anybody who has painted a picture knows
what a disaster that is. The degree of the disaster varies with differ-
ent artists, according to the importance of the glazes in their system
of work. To remove the glazes, even partially, from a Titian is to
destroy the picture, because he glazed a great deal, and what we all
know as the rich Titian color required that method for its production ;
but, when a painter has used a more direct method, painting the in-
tended color at once, or nearly so, then the removal of a glaze does
not destroy the character of the picture, though it may diminish its
beauty and charm. To remove a glaze, in any case, is to put the pict-
ure back from a finished to an unfinished state ; this is exactly what
is done, and the degree of destruction is in inverse ratio to the degree
of advancement attained in that unfinished state. But, if the picture

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 93

is extremely dirty, then it is as if some other person had glazed unin-
telligently over the whole work, so that the original intentions of the
artist are as much falsified in one direction by dirt as they are in an-
other by taking the finish from his picture. The reasonable rule, then,
would appear to be to clean pictures that really need it, but to avoid
overcleaning with the most scrupulous care.

The removal of varnish is in some cases rendered absolutely neces-
sary by a foolish practice that was occasionally resorted to by our
fathers the practice of tinting the varnish itself to give what they
wrongly imagined to be tone. It was believed that anybody could
varnish a picture ; and, by one of those amazing delusions that tak,e
deep root in ignorant minds, it was thought that all the colors in a
picture could be improved simultaneously by spreading one and the
same transparent color over them.

The question whether it is right to paint upon pictures when re-
pairing them may be better understood by considering one or two par-
ticular cases. I remember a house where the children were so much
indulged that they were allowed to shoot with pop-guns and other
engines at the family portraits, and they did this with such energy as
actually to produce holes in the canvas one large hole, for example,
in the face of a lady who had been beautiful a hundred years ago.
Now, if that picture came to you by inheritance in that state, the ques-
tion about repainting would present itself to you in a practical form.
You would have to determine whether the face was to remain in its
damaged condition or to be repaired. To leave it damaged would be
to destroy the effect of the picture on everybody's mind, because
everybody would think of the hole, and how the accident happened,
instead of thinking about the beauty or history of the lady or the
merit of the painting. It seems, then, that it would be reasonable to
have the picture repaired, and yet it is indisputable that to do this
must be to introduce the work of another man. Everything, then, de-
pends on the skill of the restorer. In such a case as that the restorer
would begin by carefully laying together the jagged threads of the
canvas, so that none should project, and he would probably put a back-
ing to support them ; then he would cover them with white-lead up to
the level of the painted surface, and, when that was hard and dry, he
would carefully color the white patch so as to replace what had been
destroyed. Artists of considerable technical ability, but who have not
the knack of producing salable pictures, sometimes attain such skill
in the coloring of these patches that it becomes impossible to distin-
guish them after restoration, and the picture has all the appearance of
an uninjured work. I remember some portraits from an old French
chateau that were all dirt and holes ; in fact, to call them dirty rags
would scarcely have been an exaggeration, but the owner had a value
for them, and wisely placed them in the hands of a very experienced
painter. This artist knew a good cleaner, to whom he confided part of

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the work, and who began by cleaning the pictures carefully and put-
ting them all on new canvases.* In this state the new canvas showed
through all the holes like the skin of a pauper through his shirt, and
every one of these little islands of new canvas had to be colored up to
the tint of the surrounding paint, or rather to be colored like the paint
which had disappeared, the nature of it having to be guessed from
what remained round about it. When there is no detail, as often hap-
pens in draperies and backgrounds, this is not extremely difficult,
though it requires a well-trained eye to color ; but when detail has to
be invented exactly in the style of the picture, that is a different mat-
ter, which taxes the skill of the restorer to the utmost. However,
there can be no question that when a picture is so injured as to present
hiatuses, whether by holes in the canvas or by mere removal of the
paint, it is an absolute necessity to have them filled as well as we can.
Painting is not in the same position as literature in this respect. There
are numerous unfinished lines in the " iEneid," and after the death of
Virgil we are told that Augustus appointed a literary commission, em-
powered by him to remove those parts which were glaringly unfinished
and defective (as Virgil himself had died before his own intended re-
visal of the poem) ; but we are also told that Augustus strictly for-
bade the revisers to add anything whatever of their own. We all feel
that no hand but that of the author should add anything to a poem ;
we all prefer certain fragments of Coleridge and Shelley to any finish-
ing that would involve additions by a reviser. In a minor degree we
object to restoration in sculpture, though here we tolerate it to some
extent. When a nose is broken from a bust, it is generally restored,
and so is a finger on a hand ; but prudent conservators of museums do
not often attempt the restoration of an arm that has entirely disap-
peared. These distinctions, as well as our greater desire for the restora-
tion of paintings, are all perfectly logical. A hiatus does not make a
poem intolerable. The numerous small gaps in the " iEneid " have
but a very slight effect in diminishing the reader's satisfaction, the
reason being that they occur one at a time, and each little gap is for-
gotten in the interest of the next perfect opening of two pages ; but in
a picture all the gaps are seen at the same time, and distract our atten-
tion from the general beauty of the work. A Greek bust, however
lovely, is a torment to us without its nose, and though the restored
nose may not be so good as the lost original, it allows us to admire the
beauties of the brow and chin in peace. If we shrink from the restora-
tion of an arm, it is because we do not know enough about the arm
that has been lost to replace it satisfactorily, but the lost arm is not
spoiled ; it is simply absent, and though there are loss and mutilation,

* When this is done the old canvases are entirely destroyed by friction without injur-
ing the paint, which is then fixed on the new canvas. A painting is removed from a
wooden panel by first planing the wood till it is very thin, after which what remains of
the wood is destroyed entirely by the use of sand-paper and scrapers.

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 95

there is not a hiatus like an empty space which is inclosed within the
four sides of a picture. The only excej)tions to the necessity for res-
toration in damaged pictures are those cases in which a fragment of
ancient painting is preserved less as a work of art than as an object of
antiquarian interest. Then, of course, however mutilated, it must re-
main in its mutilated condition like all those things which are valuable
as materials for antiquarian studies.

Vermin have to be guarded against carefully in the preservation of
works of art. Drawings and engravings are generally protected either
by portfolios or by glass, which prevent the droppings of flies from
spotting them ; but I have seen prints spoiled in this way by being
carelessly left upon a table for a very short time, when the flies took
their opportunity and left their black dots. Their excrement is sol-
uble in water, and can be removed easily from any hard substance
while it is fresh, though it hardens and becomes less soluble after-
ward ; but on an engraving it is disastrous, as it sinks into the paper
like a stain. It therefore becomes a necessary precaution, especially
in summer, to cover a print that is left on a table, or, better still, never
to leave prints on tables at all.

The worms that bore into wood are dangerous only to pictures on
panels, and, as very few pictures are painted upon wood in these days,
this enemy is not so much to be feared. When he attacks an old panel
his holes may be stopped with a little marine glue, applied hot ; but it
is curious how often worms will attack a thin piece of wood without
penetrating to the other side. In two specimens before me, small
panels three eighths of an inch thick, and about four inches by five, I
find that in one case the worms have made twenty-two holes, not one
of which has got through to the other side : and in the other case there
are twenty-five holes, of which only seven have as yet penetrated.

The only way to keep prints and drawings from the attacks of rats
and mice is to have them always in closed cases if they are not framed,
and, if the cases are of wood, it is a good precaution to have them cov-
ered with thin sheet-iron behind and beneath, while the front panels
may be glazed. Tin boxes are a perfect protection against rodents,
and so, of course, is glass. Common portfolios are a poor protection,
as a rat willingly attacks them, and soon eats his way through to the
prints ; in fact, common portfolios are in all ways unsafe, being of use
only to keep order. The danger from rats and mice is always present,
for even in places where they are unknown they may at any time sud-
denly make their appearance. A rat may find his way into your best
protected room. I remember one summer's day in broad daylight,
too seeing a large rat quietly descending into my study by means of
a window-curtain, the window having been left open. He had walked
along a little stone ledge that the architect had carried round the house
as an ornament, which is a great convenience to rats. When a house
is perfectly quiet at night a rat will wander about in the coolest man-

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ner, and enter by any door that happens to be left ajar. In this way
a fine black rat once got into my study and remained there for several
days. I heard him distinctly behind certain heavy pieces of furniture,
but could not get at him. He did a great deal of damage, though
happily not to anything of much value, and he ended his career in a
trap. Had I been away from home, the devastation caused by that
one animal might have been serious. But his visit taught me a lesson,
as he especially attacked portfolios, while the shallow tin boxes on
shelves which I have adopted of late years entirely escaped his atten-
tions. It is astonishing by what a narrow orifice a mouse will find her
way into any place that she desires to visit. Drawers are sometimes
so constructed that, although they fit well in front (for the sake of
appearances), they are loose in the chest behind, and the consequence
is that, if a mouse can get into the chest anywhere, she has all the
drawers at her disposal. The first use she will make of any precious
papers will probably be to tear them into little pieces and establish a
comfortable nest in a corner.

In my article on " The Poor Collector" I touched briefly upon the
question of frames. We have already noticed the curious fact that
people who are strict about cleanliness in common household matters
will tolerate dirty pictures. Very dirty frames are also tolerated in
some public and private collections ; in fact, I have seen collections
where the notion that frames and pictures would be the better for be-
ing clean does not appear to have dawned upon the owner's mind.
Surely, however, it is with these things as with all other things, clean-
liness is pleasing in itself and an addition to the charm of beauty. One
likes to see a pretty child with a clean face and an unspotted frock,
though it might still be recognized as a pretty child if it lived in filth
and squalor. In the case of pictures and their belongings, dirt is es-
pecially incongruous, because there can not be any poverty to excuse
it. Pictures and their frames are superfluities in any case, and why
tolerate a dirty superfluity ? *

A word, in conclusion, may be said about the art of exhibiting
things to advantage in private rooms. It is astonishing how few peo-
ple understand the simple principle that some works of art may be
injurious to others when shown by the side of them. For example,
engravings are always killed by paintings, and the white margins of

* The one reason for dirty frames is the partial burnishing of the gilding. Oil-gild-
ing can not be burnished ; water-gilding, which takes burnish, can not be washed with
water, and nothing but water will clean a fly-spotted, dirty frame effectually. Conse-
quently a frame that has burnish upon it can only be dusted, and when it becomes really
dirty it must be sent to the gilder ; but, as regilding is expensive, it is postponed as long
as possible sometimes for a lifetime, and even for more than one generation. "With oil-
gilding only and one thin coat of varnish over the gilding (the varnish is nearly imper-
ceptible if properly applied), a frame may be washed from time to time. This has been
said already in the paper on " The Poor Collector," but is repeated here in a note for
readers who have not that paper to refer to.

THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 97

V

engravings diminish the luminous quality of paintings ; yet there are
people who hang paintings and engravings in the same room. Again,
there are others who would not do that, but who will hang paintings
together of which the style and sentiment are so absolutely incongruous
that they can not avoid conflict, and require entirely different moods
of mind for the right appreciation of them. Suppose you have a
gravely furnished room, a library, and one or two portraits in it of
thoughtful and serious men painted soberly and in quiet color, would
it not evidently be a great mistake to admit into that room any picture
whatever that should disturb the pensive tranquillity of the place ?
Fancy the effect if you admitted a gaudy modern portrait of an over-
dressed lady with a smirk upon her face as she sat happy in her glare
and flitter of millinery and trinkets ! There ought to be in every
room a certain prevailing note or mood of the human mind whatever
it may be, and everything should be kept subordinate to that one
dominant idea, with sufficient variety to avoid dullness, but without
transgression of the limits prescribed by the idea. In a word, let us
have ideal unity ; let us avoid the incongruous. A room may contain
different works of art, but, in a comprehensive sense, it is a work of
art in itself, and the first necessity for every work of art is unity. If
it is decided that the note of the room is to be cheerfulness, it is easy
to keep faithful to that. Light in itself is an element of cheerfulness,
so the wall-paper will be light. Water-colors are more cheerful than
oil-paintings, because water-color painting is apparently slighter and
more rapid ; it conveys better the idea of felicitous dexterity. "Water-
colors, too, may have margins, and the white of the margins gives much
light and gayety to a room. The frames must be gilded, because
nothing is so cheerful as gilding ; but they must not be heavy, because
massiveness is oppressive to the imagination. The pictures themselves
should be generally light, and the coloring as bright and gay as it can
be without crudity. In such a room we do not want melancholy land-
scapes or solemn-looking personages, but we want blue skies and sun-
shine, merrily rippling waters, human life in youth or healthy maturity,
happy in activity and love, not burdened with care and sorrow all in
that sweet dream-land of the poetic imagination

"Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine."

The opposite mood of thoughtful gravity is not by any means in-
ferior as a motive, and it is more in consonance with the habitual feel-
ings of mature age. The greatest of all artists have worked in the
serious sense, and our noblest pictures, like our sweetest songs, " are
those that tell of saddest thought," or, if not quite of the saddest, still
of that quietly grave, reflective thought which is " far from all resort
of mirth." Few paintings of the human face have such a permanent
hold upon the memory, or are so often looked at, or for so many min-
utes at once, as that picture by Francia in the Louvre which is simply
vol. xxix. 7

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

called the " Portrait of a Gentleman." Nobody knows anything what-
ever about the original, but the "gentleman" is so sad and thoughtful
that we dream with him, and see the world through his melancholy
eyes. In minor degrees many paintings have this kind of attraction ;
it is to be found in landscape as well as in portrait and history, and,
if a few thoughtful works are brought together in the same room,
without being neutralized by anything discordant in furniture and
decoration, their effect upon the mind may be both durable and pro-
found. Longmarts Magazine.

-<*>>-

THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE.

By M. A. HOVEL AC QUE.

EVEN if the study of words, as it is carried on by the method of
the natural sciences, did not furnish evidence that all language is
traceable back to primordial monosyllabic elements, observation of the
language-processes in children would lead to that conclusion. Gestures
and physiognomical motions preceded language proper, or articulate
language ; and on this point it is of interest to compare man with the
monkeys, which are able to express a considerable variety of feelings
by the play of the muscles of the forehead and the eyebrows, the lips,
nose, and jaws. If asked on what vocalization depends, we should
answer that it depends solely on a particular sensation being stronger
than others. With the infant, voice is provoked at first by some uneasi-
ness or suffering ; and it is not till a later period that it responds to a
feeling of comfort and satisfaction. But in either case the first emis-
sions have nothing intentional about them, and there is no link of
volition between the feeling and the vocal manifestation of it. The
time comes at last when the child, beginning to perceive what is going
on around him, remarks that they always come to his help when he
has committed the act of utterance ; and he has from that time learned
by experiment the use of his vocal power. He employs it at first in a
very general and vague way ; but, as he is taught by experience, he
learns to exercise it more precisely, more in accordance with his voli-
tion, and to adapt the vocal emission to the results he wishes to bring
about. He also perceives the greater facility of expression it gives
him, and so goes on developing his precious faculty as he continues to
exercise it. Tylor has clearly brought out the fact that savages have
in a high degree the power of expressing their ideas directly by emo-
tional tones. These tones, or interjections, are the first elements of
grammatical language. The same author has also remarked another
fact, that children not more than three or four years old, for example,
are wont to observe the play of features, attitude, and gestures of the

THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 99

person who is speaking to them, in order to get the exact sense of the
words which they hear.

We mention here, without dwelling upon it, that the faculty of
language stands in close relation with a certain one of the frontal con-
volutions of the brain, which the inferior monkeys do not possess and
which is found in a rudimentary state in the anthropoids, but the full
acquisition and most complete development of which have made man,
what he is, the master of articulate speech.

We thus perceive that the study of language belongs to the domain
of the natural sciences. The objections that have been made to this
view have little force with us. The first of them is that language is
not transmitted with the blood. This confounds the transmission of
the art of speech with that of the faculty of language. The faculty is
hereditarily transmitted ; it is intimately related to the cerebral devel-
opment, and goes down with the structure, nature^ and qualities of the
brain. As to the way in which the transmitted organ shall perform its
functions, the parents of the child are there to stimulate and direct it,
and to teach their offspring how to use the faculty it has inherited
from them. We must not confound the faculty with the use that may
be made of it. That use is an art, which the child acquires by tradi-
tion. But, we repeat, in the period of formation of a language, sono-
rous expression is only the more intense formulation of an emotion,
usually associated with mimicry, the general attitude and face-play,
a formulation which has the advantage of being more striking to
strangers. In any case, it originally required to be complemented by
gesture ; and peoples little advanced in civilization may still be cited,
among whom conversation is difficult in the dark, where mimicry can
not be brought in to aid it. Bon wick relates that the Tasmanians had
to recur to gestures and signs to establish the exact sense of their
words ; and Spix and Martins say the same of some of the savages of
South America, and Cranz of the Greenlanders. These observations
are far from being the only ones that have been made to the same
effect.

A sound reason for including the study of language among the
natural sciences lies in the fact that no man or group of men is com-
petent arbitrarily to change the structure of its language. Fashion
may sometimes admit particular words or banish others, but that has
nothing to do with the structure. The morphological evolution of
language defies all convention, all encroachment ; it goes on by virtue
of its own force, more or less slowly or speedily, but without the fancy
or the pleasure of men having any power to divert it from its course.
In short, we must avoid confounding changes in the vocabulary with
linguistic, or, as we might call them, morphological changes. Among
some Polynesian peoples, words are sometimes abolished ; they will
cease, for example, to employ in conversation the syllables that occur
in the name of a chief ; some people of the Bantu race will not pro-

ioo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nounce any syllable that is found in the name of a near male relative.
But these are special usages, temporary fashions, and have nothing
whatever to do with the structure of the language. Then, again, we
witness the creation of new words every day, but these words are
always formed according to analogies with already existing words.
They may be happy inventions or awkward attempts, but they are
never pure creations or wholly fanciful.

A second objection to the classification of linguistic among scien-
tific studies rests upon the fact that whole peoples, and even races, are
capable of abandoning their own language and adopting another. The
fact is undeniable ; but it is also undeniable that language is inde-
pendent of history ; and, to take one example among many, we have
seen Latin go on in its evolution in Gaul, Spain, and Roumania, after
having been adopted by the barbarians.

It is proper to say something here about so-called mixed languages,
which are, however, not at all hybrid in their structure, but have
simply admitted foreign words into their vocabularies. With all the
Persian and Arabic words it contains, the Turkish language is evi-
dently and only Altaic. The Araucanian language, although it has
received a host of Spanish words, is a purely American idiom. Eng-
lish is Germanic, although its vocabulary is loaded with words of
Latin origin. The French language was introduced into England by
the Norman conquest in the eleventh century. From the two lan-
guages which were then found in the presence of one another, the
Anglo-Saxon and the French, it has been usually said that a mixed
language was formed the English. This assertion is very inexact,
from the morphological point of view. French, after the conquest,
became the language of the court and of justice, while it entered into
the popular language, the Anglo-Saxon, only as to its vocabulary ; but
there it made a deep impression. Of 43,000 words in the English lan-
guage, as they occur in the dictionary, more than 29,000 are of Roman
origin, while only 13,000 or 14,000 are of Germanic origin, or Anglo-
Saxon ; yet the English language is wholly Germanic in its structure.
The remains of the declensions of nouns and of the conjugations of
verbs are Germanic, with no Latin about them. Another example of
the kind is found in the Basque language, three quarters of the vo-
cabulary of which is to-day Romanic ; yet the fact does not prevent
the language from having a peculiarly individual structure and form
wholly free from Romanic elements in its grammar.

In short, the processes of linguistic study which have nothing in
common with those of the study of philology demonstrate that the
linguist studies the anatomy of forms just as the botanist and zoolo-
gist do.

Another objection to the scientific view of linguistics is more
specious, but not more solid. It is that, since articulate language can
not be produced without vocal organs, it can not be regarded as an

THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. ioi

independent organism ; besides, the sounds or vocal emissions do not
become a language till they acquire significance by means of an opera-
tion that escapes us. It is easy to answer to this that, while language
is in relation with a mental operation, it nevertheless constitutes a fact
which is perceived by a sense the sense of hearing. Of course, it is
only in the abstract sense that we can regard language as an organ-
ism, but there is no doubt that in reality it behaves like an organism,
and that it is in a constant state of evolution. And it is to this con-
dition of evolution that I invite attention.

The phases of this evolution, as we understand it, are those of
formation, growth, maturity, and decay. The variation is continual.
Languages arise, are developed, pass on to decadence, and perish, like
other organized beings. That their historical development is modi-
fied in the course of ages, according to certain conditions, is incon-
testable ; but the observer of these modifications never sees in them
anything other than phenomena of natural evolution. The evident
proof of this fact is that the evolution is, as a whole, the same in lin-
guistic families essentially different from one another.

Abel Remusat has, in his "Recherches sur les langues tartares,"
indicated the general nature of the evolution of idioms : " In studying
them attentively," he says, "we are tempted to believe that they are
as constant in their march as the physical constitution that gives origin
to them. . . . Possibly there prevails in languages less of the arbitrary
than we have been accustomed to suppose ; and, if we bring to their
study the necessary care, we may be able to find in them signs as sure,
as pronounced, and as characteristic as 'those which we can deduce
from physiognomy, the color of the skin, or any other physical and
external peculiarity." This "necessary care" has been carried into
the study of languages, and we shall see to what conclusions it has
led us.

We are not acquainted with any language in its embryonic condi-
tion, if such a term is admissible. All of the languages submitted to
our direct observation, even those of the most primitive stage, have
passed the period of formation, which was prehistoric, and are now in
the historical period, and generally in their decay. But by methodi-
cally separating and comparing their formative elements we can put
ourselves, as it were, into the period of their formation.

The result of such comparative researches has confirmed the the-
ory proposed in 1818 by William Schlegel, that languages first passed
through a monosyllabic period ; that some of them rose to the stage
of development called the agglutinative ; and that a small number of
these last reach a later stage of flexion. The structure of the lan-
guages of the first class is simple, that of the second class is complex,
and that of the third class is still more complex.

In the first phase of language, the root and the word are one, and
each word-root or root-word is monosyllabic. The phrase is therefore

io2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a pure and simple succession of isolated roots. It is evident that the
first process of elocution was of this character. Expression was found
in uttering, one after another, monosyllables which were sometimes
undoubtedly onomatopoetic imitations of noises, sounds, and cries.

Existing monosyllabic languages have singularly improved upon
this primitive process, while they have still remained monosyllabic.
They have not created grammar, there being no structure in their
words, but they have created a syntax. This syntax consists in the
position in the phrase given to the different root-words. The place
which any monosyllable occupies in the phrase determines the mean-
ing of that monosyllable. The same process of syntactical arrange-
ment comes back into use in the existing analytical languages that are
most advanced in decadence. When, for example, we say in English,
" Peter likes John," we are obliged to put the word Peter at the be-
ginning of the phrase, and John at the end ; for both words have lost
every morphological distinction that could show which of them is the
subject and which the object. It is not so in the synthetical lan-
guages in which the subject and the object are distinguished by the
form of the word, and position in the phrase is of little importance.
Thus, to say in Latin that the Helvetians sent legates, we say indif-
ferently, Uelvetii legatos miserunt, or Legatos miserunt Helvetii ; the
form in which the two nouns are put defining their respective func-
tions.

In Chinese, the root which is to be the subject, or nominative in a
phrase, takes its place before the root that has the significance of a
verb. By thus assigning to the subject-word a fixed place in the
phrase, the want of the grammatical elements which in Greek and
Latin characterize the nominative case is obviated. In a monosyllabic
language, in short, there is no grammar ; there are no substantive
forms, no verbal forms, or declensions, or conjugations, or gender,
moods, or tenses, nothing but syntax, or "putting together.'* This,
moreover, is what we shall more easily grasp in studying the transi-
tion from monosyllablism to agglutination, or the passage from the
first to the second linguistic phase.

This transition or evolution takes place in a very simple way.
Some word-roots abdicate a part of their meaning and become simple
elements of relation, while others retain their full and independent
signification. In Chinese and in other existing monosyllabic lan-
guages, we find this division of words into "full" words (which we
may translate into English by a noun or a verb) and " vacant " words,
the primary sense of which has gradually become obscured, and which
have come to define more exactly or limit the broad sense of the " full"
words. It is an interesting fact that a similar process has been em-
ployed at a much later stage in languages which have reached a high
degree of development. Thus, in Latin, besides the word circus,
a circle, we find circum, around, a kind of vacant word, denoting

THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 103

only relation ; and examples of the kind might be multiplied in that
language. So in Chinese, a monosyllabic language, the word for
with, the sign of the instrumental case (" with the arm," " with a
stick") is simply the root which when a "full" word signifies to
make use of.

In the monosyllabic languages, the full words and the vacant words
follow one another without ever amalgamating ; that is, the roots are
always isolated from each other, and there is never a word of several
syllables. It is true that we can form something like compounds by
bringing two words together, but without uniting them. Thus, in
Chinese, the words fd, father, and mil, mother, brought together un-
der the form of fu-mii, signify parents ; and in the same way the words
for " far " and " near " are made to signify distance. But there is
nothing of derivation in this. Neither of the two words serves as an
element of relation to the other, but each keeps all of its personality.

A step further is taken at a certain moment of linguistic develop-
ment. The word indicating relation, the vacant word, is joined to
the full word, and a polysyllabic form arises. A new word is formed,
consisting of something else than a simple root, by the agglomeration
of different elements, and we are in a secondary or agglutinative stage.
We have no longer two full words juxtaposed to form a composite
word ; but an annexation to the principal word of a word playing the
part of a secondary derivative and defining the relations of the root to
which it is joined. When this derivative element is placed after the
radical form, it is called a suffix ; when it is placed at the beginning
of the word, it is a prefix. Sometimes it is intercalated in the body of
the word, and is then called an infix ; but that method of derivation
is rare.

It may be added that there are no limitations to derivation. The
derived word may be the beginning of a second compound, and this
of a third, and so on. Thus, in Magyar, the derivative zdrat means
he causes to shut, and zdrhat he can shut ; then, by a secondary
derivation, we form zdrathat, he can cause to shut. In like manner,
zdratgat, he causes to shut often, is a secondary, and zdratgathat,
he can cause to shut often, is a tertiary derivative. The languages of
the third period of evolution, Latin for example, present a consider-
able number of these secondary and tertiary derivatives. The Latin
word pater, father, is a primary derivative, of which the full or radical
element is pa and the limiting element is ter. JPaternits, whence our
paternal, is a secondary, and paternitas, corresponding with our pater-
nity, is a tertiary derivative. But our languages have not the extraor-
dinary facility in derivation possessed by some simply agglutinative
idioms. Thus, in the Turkish language, a single word may be made
to introduce an indefinite number of ideas : as, sevmek, to love ; s&v-
mhneh, not to love ; sevilmek, to be loved ; sevilmhnek, not to be
loved ; sevdirmUc, to make to love ; sevdirmemt7c, not to make to

io 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

love ; s&vinm&k, to love one's self ; and so on, in which the derivative
elements indicate, in the various forms, negation, causation, the reflex-
ive quality, and other ideas, which in our language have to be ex-
pressed by separate words.

The larger number of languages are in the secondary or agglutina-
tive stage. Among them are the negro, Malay, Polynesian, Dra-
vidian, Altaic, Basque, and American languages or families of lan-
guages. But community of structure is no sign of relationship ; it
only indicates that two or more languages are in the same stage of
evolution.

Some languages have made but little progress in agglutination,
while others have advanced a great way in it. Some of the Western
African negro languages still use, with agglutinative forms, processes
that appertain to the monosyllabic structure. These are not cases of
return to ancient forms, but are survivals of ancient forms in the
midst of more complex formations. Some idioms, also, perpetually
betray the evidences of the passage from monosyllablism to aggluti-
nation. Such languages have no literary value, and are not at all
prominent ; but they are like those obscure vegetable or animal spe-
cies which are frequently richer in facts for the botanist or zoologist
than other species that are usually esteemed much more useful or
beautiful.

It is not quite so easy to explain the phenomena of the evolution
from agglutination to flexion. The principle by which the evolution
takes place is that of a phonic modification of the root. In the Indo-
European languages, among which are included the Sanskrit, Persian,
Greek, Latin, etc., evolution took place, according to M. Victor Henry,
not only in this way, but by an agglutination of infixes also. But this
point is not yet cleared up.

If we consider the ancient languages of the Indo-European family
Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin we shall find that they are in different
degrees synthetic ; while, if we examine the characters of the modern
branches of the family, we shall discover that they are analytical. This
effect is the work of linguistic decadence, which has been less rapid
in the Slavic languages than in the Germanic, in the Germanic than
in the Romanic languages.

This decadence, which constitutes a new phase of evolution, is not
brought about by chance. Regarding it phonetically, we see in it the
results of the least effort. Diphthongs are condensed, as when in Latin
veicos and cleivos become vicus and dens. Assimilation takes place
among the consonants, as when noctem, night, becomes notte, or sep-
tem, seven, sette, or when the earlier s-sound is softened into a simple
aspirate. A considerable number of phonetic variations, which baffle
persons not familiar with linguistic studies, are justified by comparison
with other words.

Grammatical decadence also corresponds with a simplification. The

THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 105

ancient Indo-European language, of which the comparison of the San-
skrit, Greek, Latin, Slavic, and Germanic languages has enabled us to
restore the important forms, possessed a rich system of declensions.
Latin lost a part of its cases, and had of others only vestiges. Old
French went a step further, and only kept two cases, the subject and the
object cases ; and even this greatly simplified declension disappeared
in the fourteenth century, and the French language became wholly
analytical, yet not without preserving traces of the two cases of the
middle ages in the double forms of some of its words.

The simplification of declension appears in all modern languages.
In Persian there is, properly, no declension. The dative and accusa-
tive are expressed by adding prepositions to the noun, the genitive by
syntactical arrangement. Modern Greek has lost the forms of the
dual number and of the dative case. Among the Semitic languages,
current or spoken Arabic has dropped the terminations by which the
cases are distinguished in literary Arabic. In vulgar Arabic the cases
are distinguished by the position of the words or the use of preposi-
tions. The same analytical phenomena may be observed in the con-
jugations. In the original Indo-European system, the perfect was
formed by the reduplication of the root. Latin formed its perfects by
compositions of words in which the auxiliaries were partly disguised
as terminations, and in modern languages the analytical process has
been further carried out. The same process is going on in the future
tenses, which in English have reached the ultimate stage of it. Deca-
dence sometimes proceeds by the primary value of a form or a word
being forgotten. French affords some curious examples of this. Take
the words luette, uvula, and lierre, ivy, which are from the Latin uveta,
heeler a. In old French they were written uette, hierre. When the
article was prefixed they appeared as Vaette, Vhierre. Then the mean-
ing of the article was forgotten or misconceived, and it was written as
a part of the words. It then had to be supplied again, and so the
French say now la luette, la lierre. This deformation took place natu-
rally and without intention.

I come now to speak of the struggle for existence which is con-
stantly going on between languages geographically near to one an-
other and between different dialects of the same language. Unless
one of the idioms is specially favored in the struggle by political cir-
cumstances, it is evident that the one which is most advanced in evo-
lution will gain upon those which are less advanced : this fact can be
established by many examples. Thus, in the territory which is now
France, Latin, introduced into Gaul by a relatively small number of
persons, shortly surpassed the Celtic dialects. The French language is
wholly Latin, having retained from the Celtic only a few recollections
in its vocabulary ; but, when the Germans established themselves in a
large part of Gaul, instead of giving their language to the conquered
population, they abandoned it in the end and adopted the neo-Latin,

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which afterward became French ; and the French language is no more
Germanic than it is Celtic. Natural selection has caused the disap-
pearance of a considerable number of idioms. Languages which come
into conflict are like groups of animals that have to struggle with one
another for existence. They must gain upon their competitors, or re-
sign themselves to disappear before them. Just as, in the contest for
life and development, the best-armed races finally prevail over those
which are less favored, so languages which are best served by their
own aptitudes and by external circumstances prevail over those whose
evolutive force is less considerable, and over those which historical
conditions have less well prepared for the combat. In France, the
French, the ancient langue cVoil gradually supplanted the langue cVoc,
the Corsican, the Breton, the Flemish, and the Basque. In the British
Islands, English eclipsed the Celtic languages, Irish, Scotch, Manx, and
Gaelic, and will shortly have supplanted the Cornish. German has
overcome a number of Slavic idioms.

Another kind of selection is going on within the language itself
with reference to the use of particular forms and words. In reference
to this, the study of dialects is of great interest. Dialects should not
be regarded as degenerate conditions of literary languages. These
languages are simply fortunate dialects, whose rival dialects have been
less favored. We are constantly meeting in dialects forms and words
which their sister literary languages have not preserved ; and this fact
gives dialects an important place in the study of the natural history of
language.

The fact that some idioms have been lost has been disadvantageous
to linguistic studies because intermediate forms have thereby disap-
peared, the existence of which would have explained many living
forms. In this, again, we have presented in language something com-
parable to what has taken place among animals and plants. More-
over, a linguistic species, once extinct, can never be brought back to
life. It has been only a little while since the Tasmanians disappeared,
and their language with them. Those people who were the product
of a long ethnic evolution can never be brought back ; no more can a
language like theirs, which was also the product of a long develop-
ment, be revived. So in the world of animals and plants, the disap-
pearance of a species is always definitive ; to bring it back to a new
life would require the impossible return of the conditions of every
kind which had brought it up to the stage which it had reached at the
moment of its extinction.

I should be satisfied if I could believe that this review, perhaps too
rapid, has made evident the interesting fact of the life and evolution
of languages. To say life of language does not seem sufficient, for
that word only gives the idea of a simple state of activity. The word
evolution is more rigorously exact. We find ourselves, in fact, in the
presence of successive developments of an entirely natural order. The

SCIENCE OF FLAT-FISH, OR SOLES AND TURBOT. 107

organic perfectionment of the brain gives to the highest of the primates
the faculty of articulate speech ; that faculty, brought into play, gives
rise to an extremely rudimentary system of expression, the source of
which, as Lucretius has observed with much force and justice, lies in
an imperious need. This need is, in fact, the creator of words. Gradu-
ally the monosyllabic words become differentiated into principal words
and words of secondary signification. A new phase begins with the
closer association of words, and the different processes of derivation
develop themselves more and more. The third phase is characterized
at first by a remarkable synthetic process, which soon, however, under-
goes simplification, and yields under the influence of a more rapid
civilization to a more and more accentuated analytical precision. The
ultimate form has evidently not yet been reached by the English and
French languages ; but since language was born with man, and is his
single characteristic, though laboriously and slowly developed as all his
powers have expanded, it is destined to be transformed into more and
more perfect forms of expression as man himself continues to ascend
in the scale of superiority. Translated for the Popular Science
Monthly from the lievue Scientifique.

-++>-

THE SCIENCE OF FLAT-FISH, OE SOLES AND

TURBOT.

" /~\NCE upon a time," says that delicious creation of Lewis Car-
\J roll's, the Mock Turtle, " I was a real turtle ! " Once upon a
time, the modern sole might with greater truth plaintively observe, I
was a very respectable sort of a young codfish. In those happy days,
my head was not unsymmetrically twisted and distracted all on one
side ; my mouth did not open laterally instead of vertically ; my two
eyes were not incongruously congregated on the right half of my dis-
torted visage ; and my whole body w r as not arrayed, like a Portland
convict's, in a party-colored suit, dark -brown on the right and fleshy-
white on the left department of my unfortunate person. When I was
young and innocent, I looked externally very much like any other
swimming thing, except, to be sure, that I was perfectly transparent,
like a speck of jelly-fish. I had one eye on each side of my head ; my
face and mouth were a model of symmetry ; and I swam upright like
the rest of my kind, instead of all on one side after the bad habit of
my own immediate family. Such, in fact, is the true portrait of the
baby sole, for the first few days after it has been duly hatched out of
the eggs deposited on the shallow spawning-places by the mother-
fishes.

After some weeks, however, a change comes o'er the spirit of the
young flat-fish's dream of freedom. In his very early life he is a w r an-

108 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

derer and a vagabond on the face of the waters, leading what the sci-
entific men prettily describe as a pelagic existence, and much more
frequently met with in the open sea than among the shallows and
sand-banks which are to form the refuge of his maturer years. But
soon his Wanderjdhre are fairly over : the transparency of early youth
fades out with him exactly as it fades out in the human subject : he
begins to seek the recesses of the sea, settles down quietly in a com-
fortable hollow, and gives up his youthful Bohemian aspirations in
favor of safety and respectability on a sandy bottom. This, of course,
is all as it should be ; in thus sacrificing freedom to the necessities of
existence he only follows the universal rule of animated nature. But,
like all the rest of us when we settle down into our final groove, he
shortly begins to develop a tendency toward distinct one-sidedness.
Lying flat on the sand upon his left cheek and side, he quickly under-
goes a strange metamorphosis from the perfect and symmetrical to the
lopsided condition. His left eye, having now nothing in particular to
look at on the sands below, takes naturally to squinting as hard as it
can round the corner, to observe the world above it ; and so effectually
does it manage to squint that it at last pulls all the socket and sur-
rounding parts clean round the head to the right or upper surface. In
short, the young sole lies on his left side till that half of his face
(except the mouth) is compelled to twist itself round to the opposite
cheek, thus giving him through life the appearance constantly depre-
cated by nurses who meet all unilateral grimaces on the part of their
charges with the awful suggestion, " Suppose you were to be struck
so ! " The young sole is actually struck so, and remains in that dis-
tressing condition ever afterward.

This singular early history of the individual sole evidently recapit-
ulates for us in brief the evolutionary history of the entire group to
which he belongs. It is pretty clear (to believers, at least) that the
prime ancestor of all the flat-fish was a sort of cod, and that his de-
scendants only acquired their existing flatness by long persistence in
the pernicious habit of lying always entirely on one side. Why the
primeval flat-fish first took to this queer custom is equally easy to un-
derstand. Soles, turbots, plaice, brill, and other members of the flat-
fish family are all, as we well know, very excellent edible fishes. Their
edibility is as highly appreciated by the sharks and dog-fish as by the
enlightened public of a Christian land. Moreover, they are ill-provided
with any external protection, having neither fierce jaws, like the pike
and shark ; efficient weapons of attack, like the sword-fish and the elec-
tric eel ; or stout defensive armor, like the globe-fish, the file-fish, and
the bony pike, whose outer covering is as effectually repellent as that of
a tortoise, an armadillo, or a hedgehog. The connection between these
apparently dissimilar facts is by no means an artificial one. Fish
which possess one form of protection seldom require the additional
aid of another : for example, all the electric fish have scaleless bodies,

SCIENCE OF FLAT-FISH, OR SOLES AND TURBO T. 109

for the very simple reason that no unwary larger species is at all
likely to make an attempt to bite them across the middle ; if it did,
it would soon retire with a profound respect through all its future life
for the latent resources of electrical science. But the defenseless an-
cestor of the poor flat-fishes was quite devoid of any such offensive or
defensive armor, and, if he was to survive at all, he must look about
(metaphorically speaking) for some other means of sharing in the sur-
vival of the fittest. He found it in the now-ingrained habit of skulk-
ing unperceived on the sandy bottom. By that plan he escaped the
notice of his ever-present and watchful enemies. He followed (uncon-
sciously) the good advice of the Roman poet : bene latuit.

But, when the father of all soles (turbot, brill, and dabs included)
first took to the family trick of lying motionless on the sea-bottom,
two courses lay open before him. (That there were not three was proba-
bly due to the enforced absence of Mr. Gladstone.) He might either
have lain flat on his under-surface, like the rays and skates, in which
case he would, of course, have flattened out symmetrically sidewise,
with both his eyes in their normal position, or he might have lain on the
right or left side exclusively, in which case one side would soon prac-
tically come to be regarded as the top and the other side as the bot-
tom surface. For some now almost incomprehensible reason, the father
of all soles chose the latter and more apparently uncomfortable of
these two possible alternatives. Imagine yourself to lie (as a baby)
on your left cheek till your left eye gradually twists round to a new
position close beside its right neighbor, while your mouth still con-
tinues to open in the middle of your face as before, and you will have
some faint comparative picture of the personal evolution of an infant
sole. Only you must, of course, remember that this curious result of
hereditary squinting, transmitted in unbroken order through so many
generations, is greatly facilitated by the cartilaginous nature of the
skull in young flat-fish.

When once the young sole has taken permanently to lying on his
left side, he is no longer able to swim vertically ; he can only wriggle
along sidewise on the bottom, with a peculiarly slow, sinuous, and un-
dulating motion. In fact, it would be a positive disadvantage to him
to show himself in the upper waters, and for this very purpose Nature,
with her usual foresight, has deprived him altogether of a swim-blad-
der, by whose aid most other fishes constantly regulate their specific
gravity, so as to rise or sink at will in the surrounding medium. Some
people may indeed express surprise at learning that fish know anything
at all about specific gravity ; but as they probably manage the altera-
tion quite unconsciously, just as we ourselves move our limbs without
ever for a moment reflecting that we are pulling on the flexor or ex-
tensor muscles, this objection may fairly be left unanswered.

The way in which Nature has worked in depriving the sole of a
swim-bladder is no doubt the simple and popular one of natural selec-

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion ; in other words, she has managed it by the soles with swim-blad-
ders being always promptly devoured. Originally, we may well sup-
pose, the ancestral sole, before he began to be a sole at all (if I may
be permitted that frank Hibernicism), possessed this useful aerostatic
oreaii iust like all other kinds of fishes. But when once he took to
larking on the bottom and trying to pass himself off as merely a bit
of the surrounding sand-bank, the article in question would obviously
be disadvantageous to him under his altered circumstances. A bit of
the sand-bank which elevates itself vertically in the water on a couple
of side-fins is sure to attract the unfavorable attention of the neigh-
boring dog-fish, who love soles like human epicures. Accordingly,
every aspiring sole that ever sought to rise in the world with undue
levity was sure to be snapped up by a passing foe, who thus effectually
prevented it from passing on its own peculiar aspirations and swim-
bladder to future generations. On the other hand, the unaspiring
soles that hugged the bottom and were content to flounder along con-
tentedly sidewise, instead of assuming the perpendicular, for the sake
of appearances, at the peril of their lives, lived and flourished to a good
old age, and left many successive relays of spawn to continue their
kind in later ages. The swim-bladder would thus gradually atrophy
from disuse, just as always happens in the long run with practically
functionless and obsolete organs. The modern sole bears about per-
petually in his own person the mark of his unenergetic and sluggish
ancestry.

At the same time that the young sole, setting up in life on his own
account, begins to lie on his left side only, and acquires his adult ob-
liquity of vision, another singular and closely correlated change begins
to affect his personal appearance. He started in life, you will remem-
ber, as a transj^arent body ; and this transparency is commonly found
in a great many of the earliest and lowest vertebrate organisms. Pro-
fessor Ray Lankester, indeed, who is certainly far enough from being
a fanciful or imaginative person, has shown some grounds for believ-
ing that our earliest recognizable ancestor, the primitive vertebrate?
now best represented by that queer little mud-fish, the lancelet, as well
as by the too famous and much-abused ascidian larva, was himself
perfectly translucent. One result of this ancient transparency we still
carry about with us in our own organization. The eye of man and of
other higher animals, instead of being a modification of the skin (as is
the case with the organ of vision in invertebrates generally), consists
essentially of a sort of bag or projection from the brain, turned inside
out like the finger of a glove, and made by a very irregular arrange-
ment to reach at last the outside of the face. In the act of being
formed, the human eye in fact buds out from the body of the brain,
and gradually elongates itself upon a sort of stalk or handle, afterward
known as the optic nerve. Professor Lankester suggests, as a proba-
ble explanation of this quaint and apparently rather roundabout ar-

SCIENCE OF FLAT-FISH, OR SOLES AND TURBOT. in

rangement, that our primitive ancestor was as clear as glass, and had
his eye inside his brain, as is still the case with the ascidian larva. As
soon as his descendants began to grow opaque, the eye was forced to
push itself outward, so as to reach the surface of the body ; and thus
at last, we may imagine, it came to occupy its present prominent posi-
tion on the full front of all vertebrate animals.

To return to our sole, however, whom I have left too long waiting
in the sand to undergo his next transformation : as soon as he has
selected a side on which to lie, he begins to grow dark, and a pigment-
ary matter forms itself on the upper surface exposed to the light.
This is a very common effect of exposure, sufficiently familiar to ladies
and others, and therefore hardly calling for deliberate explanation.
But the particular form which the coloring takes in the true sole and
in various other kinds of flat-fish is very characteristic, and its origin
is one of the most interesting illustrations of, natural selection to be
found within the whole range of animated nature. In every case it
exactly resembles the coloration of the ground on which the particular
species habitually reposes. For example, the edible sole lies always
on sandy banks, and the spots upon its surface are so precisely similar
to the sand around it that in an aquarium, even when you actually
know from the label that there is a sole to be found in a particular
tank, you can hardly ever manage to spot him as long as he lies per-
fectly quiet on the uniform bottom. Turbot, on the other hand, which
prefers a more irregular pebbly bed, is darker brown in color, and has
the body covered on its upper side with little bony tubercles, which
closely simulate the uneven surface of the banks on which it basks.
The plaice, again, a lover of open, stony spots, where small shingle
of various sorts is collected together in variegated masses, has its top
side beautifully dappled with orange-red spots, which assimilate it in
hue to the party-colored ledges whereon it rests. In this last case the
brighter dabs of color undoubtedly represent the bits of carnelian and
other brilliant pebbles, whose tints of course are far more distinct
when seen in water by refracted light than when looked at dry in the
white and common daylight. "We all know how much prettier peb-
bles always seem when picked up wet on the sea-shore than under any
other circumstances.

Some few flat-fish even possess the chameleon power of altering
their color, in accordance with the nature of the bottom on which they
are lying. The change is managed by pressing outward or inward
certain layers of pigment-cells, whose combination produces the de-
sired hues.

The origin of this protective coloration must once more be set down
to that deus ex machind of modern biology, natural selection. In the
beginning, those flat-fish which happened to be more or less spotted
and speckled would be most likely to escape the notice of their ever-
watchful and rapacious foes ; while those which were uniformly

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

colored brown or gray, and still more those which were actually black
or light pink, would be at once spotted, snapped up, and devoured.
Hence in every generation the ever- surviving sole or turbot was the
one whose spots happened most closely to harmonize with the general
coloration of the surrounding bottom. As these survivors would alone
intermarry and bring up future families of like-minded habits, it would
naturally result that the coloration would become fixed and settled as
a hereditary type in each particular species. Meanwhile, the eyes of
the enemies of flat-fish, ever on the lookout for a nice juicy plaice or
flounder, would become educated by experience, and would grow
sharper and ever sharper in detecting the flimsy pretenses of insuffi-
ciently imitative or irregularly colored individuals. Natural selection
means in this case selection by the hungry jaws of starving dog-fish.
When once the intelligent dog-fish has learned to appreciate the fact
that all is not sand that looks sandy, you may be sure he exercises a
most vigilant superintendence over every bank he happens to come
upon. None but the most absolutely indistinguishable soles are at all
likely to escape his interested scrutiny.

The mere nature of the bottom upon which they lie has thus helped
to become a differentiating agency for the various species and varieties
of flat-fish. Soles, which easily enough avoid detection on the sandy
flats, would soon be spotted and exterminated among the pebbly ridges
beloved of plaice, or the shingly ledge especially affected by the
rough-knobbed turbot. Flounders, whose coloring exactly adapts
them to the soft ooze and shallow mud-banks at the mouths of rivers,
would prove quite out of place on the deep pools of the channel, cov-
ered with pale-yellow sand, where the pretty lemon sole is most at
home. In the case of the true sole, too, the long, graceful, sinuous
fringe of fins is so arranged that it can fit accurately to the surface on
which the fish is lying, and so add in a great measure to the appear-
ance of continuity with the neighboring sands. A sole, settling down
on a ribbed patch of sand, can thus accommodate its shape to the
underlying undulations, so that it is almost impossible to distinguish
its outline, even when you know exactly where to look for it. Soles
are very clever at choosing such deceptive hiding-places, and very
seldom openly expose themselves on a flat horizontal surface. More-
over, whenever they settle, they take care partially to bury themselves
in the sand, with a curious sidelong flapping motion, and so still more
effectually screen themselves from intending observers.

I may note in passing that such correspondence in color with the
general hue of the surrounding medium is especially common wherever
a single tone predominates largely in the wider aspect of nature.
Arctic animals, as everybody knows, are always white. Ptarmigan
and northern hares put on a snowy coat among the snows of winter.
The uncommercial stoat needlessly transforms himself on the approach
of cold weather into the expensive and much -persecuted ermine.

SCIENCE OF FLAT-FISH, OR SOLES AND TURBOT. 113

Imagine for a moment the chances of life possessed by a bright scarlet
animal among the snow-fields of Greenland, and one can see at once
the absolute necessity for this unvarying protective coloration. Even
a royal duke would scarcely venture to approve of flaring red uniforms
under such conditions. All the conspicuous creatures get immediately
weeded out by their carnivorous enemies, owing to their too great
obtrusiveness and loudness of dress ; while those alone survive which
exactly conform to the fashionable whiteness of external nature. So,
too, in the desert every bird, lizard, grasshopper, butterfly, and cricket
is uniformly dressed in light sand-color. The intrusive red or blue
butterfly from neighboring flowery fields gets promptly eaten up by
the local bird, whose plumage he can not distinguish from the sand
around it. The intrusive scarlet or green bird from neighboring
forests finds the bread taken out of his mouth by the too severe com-
petition of his desert brethren, who can steal upon the native grass-
hoppers unperceived, while he himself acts upon them like a red dan-
ger-signal, and is as sedulously avoided by the invisible insects as if
he meant intentionally to advertise in flaming posters his own hostile
and destructive purpose.

In short, sand-haunting creatures are and always must be neces-
sarily sand-colored.

A few tropical flat-fish, however, living as they do among the brill-
iant corals, pink sea-anemones, gorgeous holothurians, and banded
shells of the Southern seas, are beautifully and vividly spotted and
colored with the liveliest patterns. In this case the necessity for pro-
tection compels the fish to adopt the exactly opposite tactics. All
those young beginners which happen to show any tendency to plain
brown coloring are sure to be recognized as fish, and get promptly
eaten up among their bright surroundings ; only those which look
most like the neighboring inedible and stinging nondescripts stand
any chance of escaping with their precious lives. A Quaker garb
which would easily pass unobserved in the murky English Channel
would become at once conspicuous by contrast among the brilliant
organisms of Amboyna or Tahiti. This beautifully proves the rela-
tivity of all things, as philosophers put it. Ordinary people express
the same idea in simpler language by saying that circumstances alter
cases.

Most of our English flat-fish lie consistently on one side, and that
the left ; they keep their right eye always uppermost. But the tur-
bot and the brill reverse this arrangement, having the left side on top
and colored, while the right side is below and white. Two other fish,
known as the fluke and the megrim, but not received in polite society,
follow the example of their fashionable friends in this respect. But in
no case are these habits perfectly ingrained ; now and then one meets
with a left-sided sole or a right-sided turbot, which looks as though a
great deal were left to the mere taste and fancy of the individual flat-
vol. xxix. 8

n 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fish. Some have taken to lying most frequently on one side and some
on the other ; but it is interesting to note that when a normally right-
sided individual has happened to lie with his left side uppermost that
side becomes colored and distorted exactly the same as in his more cor-
rect brethren. This shows how purely acquired the whole habit must
be. It points back clearly to the days when flat-fish were still merely
a sort of cod, and suggests that their transformation into the un sym-
metrical condition is merely a matter of deliberate choice on their own
part. Indeed, there seems good reason to believe that many young
flat-fish never undergo this change at all, but swimming about freely
in the open sea assume that peculiarly elongated and strange form
known as the leptocephalic.

I don't mean to say that all leptocephali are originally the offspring
of flat-fishes, but some probably are ; and so a word or two about these
monstrous oceanic idiots and imbeciles may not be here out of place.

Lolling about lazily in the open ocean a number of small, long, rib-
bon-like fish are frequently found, quite transparent and glassy in ap-
pearance, with no head at all to speak of, but furnished with a pair of
big eyes close beside the tiny snout. They are languid, boneless, worm-
like creatures, very gelatinous in substance, and looking much like pel-
lucid eels without the skin on. For a long time these leptocephali (as
they are called) were supposed to be a peculiar class of fishes, but they
are now known to be young fry of various shore-haunting kinds, which
have drifted out into the open ocean, and had their development per-
manently arrested for want of the natural environment. They are in
fact fish idiots, and though they grow in size they never attain real
maturity. If, as some authorities believe, many of these queer idiotic
forms really represent stray flat-fish, then their symmetrical develop-
ment once more points back to the happy days when the ancestral sole
still swam upright, with one eye on each side of his head, instead of
being distorted into a sort of aggravated squinter.

Besides the " reversed " specimens of soles and turbots right-sided
when they ought to be left-sided, and vice versa occasional double or
ambidextrous individuals occur, in which the dark color is equally de-
veloped on both sides of the body. Whether these impartial flat-fish
are in the habit of turning over in their beds whether they represent
the uneasy sleepers of pleuronectid circles or otherwise I am not in a
position to state ; but probably they are produced under circumstances
where both sides have been frequently exposed to the action of light,
which seems to have a sort of photographic effect upon the pigments
of the fish's body. Everybody knows in fact that the upper side or
back of most ordinary fish, exposed as it is to the sunlight, is darker
than the lower side or belly ; and this natural result of the solar rays
has indirectly a protective effect, because when you look down into
the water from above it appears dark, whereas when you look up from
below the surface appears bright and shining ; so that a fish is less

SCIENCE OF FLAT-FISH, OR SOLES AND TITRBOT. 115

likely to be observed (and eaten) if his back is dark and his under-sur-
face white and silvery.

Albino soles are far rarer than doubles, and seldom occur except
in very young and foolish specimens. Naturally an albino forms an
exceptionally sure mark for his enemies to hawk at, and he is there-
fore usually devoured at an early stage of his unhappy existence, be-
fore he has time to develop properly into a good specimen. For the
same reason adult white rabbits are very rare in the wild state, because
they form such excellent targets for owls in their early infancy. Rab-
bits, when tamed, as we all know, tend to " sport " in color to a sur-
prising extent ; but this tendency is repressed in the wild condition
by the selective action of the common owl, which promptly picks off
every rabbit that does not harmonize well in the dusk of evening with
the bracken and furze among whose stalks it feeds.

All the flat-fish are carnivorous. They live chiefly off cockles and
other mollusks, off lugs, and lob-worms, or off small shrimp-like creat-
ures and other crustaceans. In summer-time soles resort to banks and
shallow spots near the mouths of rivers to deposit their spawn. They
are obliged to do this in shallow waters, because, like most other fish,
they are very unnatural mothers, and leave the sun to do the whole
work of hatching for them. To be sure, there are some few right-
minded fish which take a proper view of their parental responsibilities,
such as the pipe-fishes, which carry about their unhatched eggs in a
bag, sometimes borne by the affectionate mother, but oftener still by
the good father, a perfect model to his human confreres. Or again,
the familiar little stickleback, who builds a regular nest for the recep-
tion of the spawn, and positively sits upon it like a hen, at the same
time waving his fins vigorously backward and forward so as to keep
up a good supply of oxygen. But soles and most other fish consider
that their parental duties are quite at an end as soon as they have de-
posited their spawn in safety on a convenient sunny shallow.

This fact produces a sort of annual migration among the soles and
other flat-fish. In spring, when all nature is beginning to wake up
from its winter sleep, the soles seek the shoal water, which forms their
spawning-ground ; and, therefore, in April, May, June, and July, the
British sole is chiefly trolled for off the Dogger Bank and the other
great submerged flats of the North Sea. But when November comes
on again the soles once more retire for the season into winter quarters
in the deep water for the purpose of hibernating during the foodless
period. The North Sea soles (in whose habits and manners the Lon-
don public is most profoundly interested) generally resort for their
long snooze to a deep depression known as the Silver Pits, lying close
beside the Dogger Bank. These Silver Pits are so called because
when they were first discovered (about the year 1843) they formed a
sort of Big Bonanza for the lucky fishermen who originally resorted
to them. There the soles lay, huddled together for the sake of warmth,

n6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

like herrings in a barrel, thousands arid thousands of them, one on top
of the other, a solid mass of living and sleeping solehood, only waiting
for the adventurous fisherman to pull them up and take them to mar-
ket. Man, treacherous man, crept upon their peaceful slumber una-
wares, and proceeded, like Macbeth, to murder sleep wholesale in the
most unjustifiable and relentless manner. He dropped his lines into
the Silver Pits the water there is too deep for dredging and hauled
up the hapless drowsy creatures literally by the thousand till he had
half exhausted the accumulated progeny of ages. The Silver Pits are
still excellent winter fishing-grounds, but never again will they yield
such immense fortunes as they did at the moment of their first ex-
ploration.

In 1848, when the California gold-fever was at its very height,
some other lucky smack-owners hit upon a second deposit of solid
soles, lying in layers on a small tract of coarse bottom near Flambor-
ough Head, where they retired to hibernate, perhaps, in consequence
of the hard treatment they had received in the Silver Pits. This new
El Dorado of the fishing industry was appropriately nicknamed Cali-
fornia, because it proved for the time being a very mine of gold to its
fortunate discoverers. But, like the prototypal California on the Pa-
cific coast, its natural wealth was soon exhausted ; and, though it still
yields a fair proportion of fish, its golden days are now fairly over.

Driven from the banks and pits by their incessant enemy, the
trawler, the poor soles have now taken to depositing their spawn on
the rough, rocky ground where the fishermen dare not follow them for
fear of breaking their nets against the jagged ledges. These rocky
spots are known as sanctuaries, and if it were not for them it is highly
probable that sole au gratin would soon become an extinct animal on
our London dinner-tables. Even to the sanctuaries, however, they are
rudely followed, as Professor Huxley has shown, by their hereditary
fishy foes, who eat the spawn, and so deprive the world of myriads
upon myriads of unborn soles, consigned before their time to dull ob-
livion. Formerly, fishermen used to throw away these useless fish
when caught ; in future, they have strict orders from the inspectors
of fisheries to kill them all wherever found.

However, even the remnant left by all enemies put together is
quite sufficient to repeople the waters with a pleuronectid population
with extraordinary rapidity. The fecundity of fish is indeed some-
thing almost incredible. The eggs of soles are extremely small
not so big as a grain of mustard-seed and the roe of a one-pound
fish usually contains as many as one hundred and thirty-four thou-
sand of them. Turbot are even more surprisingly prolific : Frank
Buckland was acquainted with one whose roe weighed five pounds
nine ounces, and contained no less than fourteen million and odd
eggs. It is a sad reflection that not more than one of these, on an
average, ever lives to reach maturity. For if only two survived in

SKETCH OF FRANCIS GAL TON. n 7

each case the number of turbot in the sea next year would be double
what it is this ; the year after that there would be four times as
many ; the next year eight times again ; and so on in a regular arith-
metical progression. In a very few decades the whole sea would be-
come one living mass of solid turbot. As a matter of fact, since the
number of individuals in any given species remains on the average
exactly constant, we may lay it down as a general rule that only two
young usually survive to maturity out of all those born or laid by a
single pair of parents. All the rest are simply produced in order to
provide for the necessary loss in infant mortality. The turbot lays
fourteen million eggs, well knowing that thirteen million nine hun-
dred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine will be
eaten up in the state of spawn or devoured by enemies in helpless in-
fancy, or drifted out to sea and hopelessly lost, or otherwise somehow
unaccounted for. The fewer the casualties to which a race is exposed
the smaller the number of eggs or young which it needs to produce in
order to cover the necessary losses.

In fish generally it takes at least a hundred thousand eggs each
year to keep up the average of the species. In frogs and other am-
phibians, a few hundred are amply sufficient. Reptiles often lay only
a much smaller number. In birds, which hatch their own eggs and
feed their young, from ten to two eggs per annum are quite sufficient
to replenish the earth. Among mammals, three or four at a birth is
a rare number, and many of the larger sorts produce one calf or foal
at a time only. In the human race at large, a total of five or six
children for each married couple during a whole lifetime makes up
sufficiently for infant mortality and all other sources of loss, though
among utter savages a far higher rate is usually necessary. In Eng-
land, an average of four and a half children to each family suffices to
keep the population stationary ; above that number it begins to in-
crease, and has to find an outlet in emigration. If every family had
four children, and every child grew up to maturity and married, the
population would exactly double in every generation. Even making
allowances for necessary deaths and celibacy, however, I believe that
as sanitation improves and needless infant mortality is done away
with, the human race will finally come to a state of equilibrium with
an average of three children to each household. But this is getting
very far away indeed from the habits of flat-fishes. Cornhill Maga-
zine.

-+++-

SKETCH OF FRANCIS GALTOK

A SKETCH of Francis Galton may appear with manifest fitness
in the same number of the " Monthly " in which is published an
abstract review of M. de Candolle's researches into heredity and the
other conditions favorable to the production of men of science. Mr.

n8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Galton is also a painstaking and intelligent investigator of the opera-
tions of heredity ; he has made special studies of the family histories
of English men of science ; and presents in himself a bright example
of the hereditary transmission of intellectual gifts.

Francis Galton is a grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the famous
author of " ZoOnomia," and a cousin of the illustrious author of the
" Origin of Species." He is the third and youngest son of S. T. Galton,
of Duddeston, near Birmingham, and was born in 1822. He received
his preparatory education at King Edward's School near Birmingham ;
studied medicine at the Birmingham Hospital and King's College,
London ; and was graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1844.
He afterward made two journeys in Africa, the first of which, begun
in 1846, was in the northern part of the continent and on the White
Nile, through regions which were then rarely visited ; and the second
in the western regions of South Africa, on which he started from Wal-
fish Bay in 1850. Among the fruits of this journey was the book,
" Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa." He also re-
ceived, on account of it, the gold medal of the Royal Geographical
Society, of which he has since been an active member and efficient
officer. He published in 1855 a book on the "Art of Travel, or
Shifts and Contrivances in Wild Countries," which has gone through
numerous editions, and still holds its place in the markets. His
" Meteorographica," published in 1863, was the first attempt to repre-
sent in charts on a large scale the progress of the elements of the
weather. From his studies in connection with the preparation of this
work was developed the theory of anti-cylones, which was first pro-
pounded by him. A committee of the Board of Trade having been ap-
pointed, after the death of Admiral Fitzroy in 1865, to examine into the
past and future duties and administration of the Meteorological Office,
Mr. Galton was placed upon it at the instance of the Royal Society. He
is now a member of the Council, to whose hands the parliamentary
grant for the maintenance of the Meteorological Office is intrusted.

Mr. Galton is best known by his researches, which have been
many, varied, and valuable. His journeys, and the books which he
based upon them, stamp him a geographical explorer of no low or
mediocre rank. His work in the Meteorological Office has been suffi-
cient in itself to give him a high and extensive reputation. But all
that he has done in these two branches has been surpassed, and we
might say obscured, by his later researches in the laws of heredity and
the growth of genius, and in anthropological measurements. Apper-
taining to Mr. Galton's studies on heredity are his paper on Pangenesis,
read before the Royal Society in March, 1871, in which he drew, from
his experiments on the transfusion of blood in rabbits and their after-
breeding, conclusions adverse to Mr. Darwin's theory on that subject,
and which became the topic of a correspondence between Mr. Darwin,
himself, and Dr. Beale in the columns of " Nature " ; his researches into

SKETCH OF FRANCIS G ALT ON. u g

the laws of blood-relationship, communicated in a paper to the Royal
Society in June, 1872 ; and the inquiries which are represented in his
books on " Hereditary Genius, its Laws and Consequences " (1869) ;
"English Men of Science ; their Nature and Nurture" (1874) ; and
"Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development" (1883).

In the lecture on " Blood-Relationship " he sought to analyze and
describe the complicated relation that binds an individual, hereditarily,
to his parents and to his brothers, and therefore, by an extension of
similar links, to his more distant kinsfolk. By these means he hoped
to set forth the doctrines of heredity in a more orderly and explicit
manner than was otherwise practicable. " From the well-known cir-
cumstance," he said, " that an individual may transmit to his descend-
ants ancestral qualities which he does not himself possess, we are
assured that they could not have been altogether destroyed in him,
but must have maintained their existence in a latent form. Therefore
each individual may properly be conceived as consisting of two parts,
one of which is latent and only known to us by its effects on his pos-
terity, while the other is patent and constitutes the person manifest to
our senses. The adjacent, and, in a broad sense, separate lines of
growth in which the patent and latent elements are situated, diverge
from a common group and converge to a common contribution, be-
cause they were both evolved out of elements contained in a structure-
less ovum, and they jointly contribute the elements which form the
structureless ova of their offspring. . . . The observed facts of rever-
sion enable us to prove that the latent elements must be greatly more
varied than those that are personal or patent." An elaboration of this
view, and a more detailed examination of the phenomena caused the
author " to be impressed with the fallacy of reckoning inheritance in
the usual way, from parents to offspring, using those words in their
popular sense of visible personalities. The span of the true hereditary
link connects, not the parent with the offspring, but the primary ele-
ments of the two, such as they existed in the newly impregnated ova
whence they were respectively developed." In conclusion, he recorded
as one result of the investigation, a very clear showing that "large
variation in individuals from their parents is not incompatible with
the strict doctrine of heredity, but is a consequence of it wherever the
breed is impure. I am desirous of applying these considerations to
the intellectual and moral gifts of the human race, which is more
mongrelized than that of any other domesticated animal. It has been
thought by some that the fact of children showing marked individual
variation in ability from that of their parents is a proof that intellectual
and moral gifts are not strictly transmitted by inheritance. My argu-
ments lead to exactly the opposite result. I show that their great indi-
vidual variation is a necessity under present conditions, and I maintain
that results derived from large averages are all that can be required,
and all we could expect to obtain, to prove that intellectual and moral

120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gifts are as strictly matters of inheritance as any purely physical quali-

ties."

In 1874 Mr. Galton published his " English Men of Science ; their
Nature and Nurture." It was a summary of the results which he had
obtained from inquiries addressed to the most eminent scientific men
of England, respecting the hereditary and other circumstances which
mio-ht have been influential in directing them toward the careers in
which they shone, and promoting their success in them. His criterion,
in selecting men as typical for his purpose, was somewhat like that
which M. de Candolle adopted. He took persons who had been
elected to the Royal Society, and of them those who had been other-
wise distinguished by receiving medals, or by holding official positions
in scientific bodies or professorships in some important college or uni-
versity. One hundred and eighty men were questioned for facts con-
cerning their parentage and descent, the religious opinions, occupa-
tions, political party, health, stature, complexion, temperament, size of
head, and a great many other particular facts concerning their parents
and themselves ; regarding their brothers and sisters, and their salient
characteristics ; the numbers and principal achievements of more dis-
tant relatives, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, nephews and
nieces ; and the mode and duration of the education of the questioned
scientific man himself, with an analysis of the causes of success of
which he was conscious.

From the replies to these inquiries it appeared that the chief quali-
ties in the order of their prevalence among scientific men were, en-
ergy, both of body and mind ; good health ; great independence of
character ; tenacity of purpose ; practical business habits ; and strong
innate tastes for science generally, or for some branch of it.

The replies respecting the special experience in education of the
men addressed exhibited a striking unanimity, notwithstanding the
diversity of branches of science which they severally pursued. They
commonly expressed a hatred of grammar and the classics, and an
utter distaste for the old-fashioned system of education. " The fol-
lowing seems the programme they themselves would have most liked :
1. Mathematics, rigorously taught up to their capacity, and copiously
illustrated and applied, so as to throw as much interest into its pur-
suit as possible ; 2. Logic ; 3. Some branch of science (observation,
theory, and experiment), some boys taking one branch and some an-
other, to insure variety of interests under the same roof ; 4. Accurate
drawing of objects connected with that branch of science ; 5. Mechan-
ical handiwork. All these to be rigorously taught. The following
not to be taught rigorously : reading good books (not trashy ones)
in literature, history, and art ; a moderate knowledge of the more
useful languages, taught in the easiest way, probably by going abroad
in vacations. It is abundantly evident that the leading men of sci-
ence have not. been made by much or regular teaching. They craved

SKETCH OF FRANCIS GAL TON. 121

variety. Those who had it, praised it ; and those who had it not,
concurred in regretting it. There were none who had the old-fash-
ioned high-and-dry education who were satisfied with it. Those who
came from the greater schools usually did nothing there, and have
abused the system heartily."

In 1877, as Vice President of the Anthropological Department of
the British Association, Mr. Galton described a method of accurately
measuring mental processes, such as sensation, volition, the formation
of elementary judgments, and the estimation of numbers ; suggested
means, by the aid of photography, of studying the physiognomy of
the criminal and other special classes of men ; and discussed the sub-
ject of heredity in crime. In the address in which these thoughts were
conveyed he suggested that there were no worthier professors of the
branch of anthropology that relates to types, of character " than the
writers of the higher works of fiction, who are ever on the watch to
discriminate varieties of character, and who have the art of describing
them. It would, I think, be a valuable service to anthropology if
some person well versed in literature were to compile a volume of
extracts from novels and plays that should illustrate the prevalent
types of human character and temperament." Carrying out the ideas
of this address to a further extent, he discussed, in a paper read before
the Anthropological Institute in 1878, the system of taking composite
portraits, by combining the portraits of several individuals distin-
guished by possessing some common quality into a single portrait
which might be considered as typical of that quality personified. As
among the possible practical applications of this system, he suggested
that " it might be used to give typical pictures of different races of
men ; to construct a really good likeness of a living person by the
combination of several likenesses of the ordinary sort ; to produce,
from many independent portraits of an historical personage, the most
probable likeness of him ; and, lastly, an application of great interest
in inquiries into the hereditary transmission of features."

Among the later investigations of Mr. Galton is an interesting
one on " Visualized Numerals," regarding a faculty which very many
persons have been proved to possess, of forming, when any number is
mentioned or thought of, vivid conceptions of the figures constituting
the number as projected before them or standing plainly out in the air.

Since 1875 Mr. Galton has been engaged in active investigations,
with the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association, of the
heights, weights, etc., of human beings in the British Empire, and in
obtaining photographic representations of the typical races.

Mr. Galton was General Secretary of the British Association from
1863 to 1868 ; was President of its Geographical Section in 1862 and
1872, of the Anthropological Sub-section in 1877, and of the An-
thropological Section in 1885 ; and he has been Vice-President of the
Royal Geographical and Anthropological Societies, and a member of
the councils of many other bodies.

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

DOES THE FLYING-FISH FLY?
Messrs. Editors:

PROFESSOR MOBIUS says, in "The
Popular Science Monthly " for Decem-
ber, that " flying-fish are incapable of flying,
for the simple reason that the muscles of
their pectoral fins are not large enough to
bear the weight of their body aloft in the
air."

If they are incapable of flying, then they
do not fly ; so there's the end on't. But, if
they really do fly, they are capable of flying ;
and the argument is as good in this case as
in that. In both we must look to the facts.

Passing out of the harbor of San Pedro
one day, the steamer came into a schoo 1 of
fish. Being the first I had ever seen, I
watched thorn with great interest. Their
flight was often several hundred feet far-
ther than a strong man can throw a stone
describing a gentle curve at its highest part
only a few feet above the water. The ve-
locity was nearly uniform, gently accelerated
for a few seconds after leaving the water,
and correspondingly retarded before enter-
ing it again..

Now, every one of these facts is incon-
sistent with the single-impulse hypothesis.
It is simply impossible that a fish could ac-
quire under water, or just at leaving it, a
velocity that could carry it so far after pass-
ing into the air. The resistance of water
against a body moving rapidly is so great
that a bullet soon spends its force when
passing into it. To suppose that a fish
could strike the water with its fins with
such force as to carry it several hundred
feet in the air, is to suppose an unsup-
posable case ; and certainly to refute the
charge that " the muscles of their pectoral
fins are not large enough" for flight. A
stone thrown from the hand describes a
parabolic curve. The fish moves nearlv
horizontally. The initial impulse must be
immensely greater that could carry it, with-
out any apparent falling, several hundred
feet so great that no strength of muscle
could be equal to it. Again, the resistance
of the air can not be inconsiderable, and the
velocity of flight, if acquired from a single
impulse, should be retarded from the mo-
ment of leaving the water ; but, as before
stated, the contrary is true. It does not
always move in a straight line ; but this
could be true on either hypothesis, the fish
using the tail-fin as a rudder. The distance
of flight, the nearly horizonal line described,
and the nearly uniform velocity, would be
simply impossible on the single-impulse hy-

pothesis, but are entirely consistent with
the supposition that the fish actually flies.

The pectoral fins of the flying-fish are
very large, and shaped like the wings of a
bird. Their motion, while in the air, is that
of flying, not of mere fluttering.

Possibly the above facts may be of some
use in settling the reputation of the flying-
fish. Isaac Kinlet.
Los Angeles, California.

THE INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS.
Messrs. Editors :

Pcblic attention having been largely
drawn to Professor Huxley's article on " The
Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters
of Nature" (republished in "The Popular
Science Monthly " for February), I ask the
privilege of saying a few words, in reply to
that portion of his paper which particularly
interests believers in the Bible. No doubt
but he is right as to the order of life set forth
by Mr. Gladstone. I think, too, he is justi-
fied, at least to some extent, in his protest
against the readiness of " reconcilers " to
change their explanations, and to force new
meanings on the Hebrew to meet the exi-
gencies of science.

After his protest, Professor Huxley turns
from Mr. Gladstone to what he supposes to
be the story in Genesis. Of course, we
turn to our Bibles to see for ourselves. I
think every opponent of revelation will
agree that it is fair to try the story, not
by what others have said, but by its own
words. And I would propose as a suffi-
ciently severe working hypothesis the fol-
lowing rule of interpretation : TJie siory
means what it says, We shall not add to it
nor take from it, and its uords shall be taken
each in its ordinary sense as determined by
lexicon and grammar. As a corollary, I
add, the account is not responsible for what
its friends or foes have said it says unless
it be found there; and that omission is not
denial. Tins rule seems rigid enough to re-
move the reproach of Professor Huxley in his
New York lecture " One can but admire
the flexibility of the Hebrew language."
The third proposition of Professor Huxley's
paper, "the central idea of this story, the
maintenance of which is vital, and its refu-
tation fatal," that on w hich they the
theologians " are surely prepared to make
a last stand," is this : " The animal species
which compose the water-population, the
air -population, and the land -population,
originated during three distinct and succes-

CORRESP ONDENCE.

123

sive periods of time, and only during these
periods of time."

Although Professor Huxley does not
speak of vegetation, yet, undoubtedly, he
would include it also in his statement, and
therefore I venture to bring that, too, into
the discussion, and add, in accordance with
his central idea : The species which compose
the present vegetable kingdom originated
in one distinct period of time preceding the
three animal populations, and only in that
one period of time.

As this " central idea " certainly has no
existence in science, the only question of
interest is : Does it exist in Genesis ; or is
it an interpolation of Professor Huxley's ;
or, rather, is it an unfounded tradition
which he has too readily adopted ? I read
in Genesis i that at a certain time the earth
" brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit-tree bearing fruit whose seed
is in it." * Professor Huxley's central idea
adds, " And there were no plants before
these." The first is true, the last is false.

Again, I read that at a certain time the
waters swarmed with water-creatures, amomr
which were " whales," and every kind of
moving creature, which the waters brought
forth abundantly, and fowls that were to fly
in the air. That is all, and it is true. But
Professor Huxley's central idea adds, "And
before whales and fowl there was no form
of animal life," an addition which is false.

Further on I read that, subsequent to the
plants and animals named, the earth brought
forth cattle, beasts, and creeping things.
This also is true. Professor Huxley's " cen-
tral idea" adds, "And before them there
were no land-animals of any kind." Another
falsehood.

Where the account is simply silent, Pro-
fessor Huxley fills the hiatus, and then says,
in substance: How unworthy of scientific
notice ; how false three statements in a
few lines, important ones too, which every
geologist knows are not true ! It is clear
that the story is a myth.

It may be said True, Moses does de-
scribe modern species, but here is where
his error lies. He intended to describe the
beginning of organic life, and, instead, has
described only the latest. If so, he built
more wisely than he knew. Intending to
state what geologists now know would have
been false, he has, in fact, stated what they
know to be true. It seems to me that his
intention was to say that all things were
made by God, and, looking around on the
universe, he names what he saw the heav-
ens, the light, the firmament, the land and
seas, the sun, moon, and stars, the vege-
table and animal world then in existence.

* Eevised Version says, v. 12 : "And the earth
brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its
kind and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed
thereof after its kind."

These, or rather their coming into being, he
names in a certain order. All, save the last
two, are not mentioned in Professor Hux-
ley's article, but they are the basis of his
indictment ; it is therefore eminently proper
to see what are the facts of our world's his-
tory pertaining to the advent of life, and
how they accord with the three statements
in Genesis.

" The following propositions " I quote
from Professor Huxley's tenth " Lay Ser-
mon" " are regarded by the mass of pale-
ontologists as expressing some of the best-
established results of paleontology " :

" Animals and plants began their exist-
ence together, and these succeeded each
other in such a manner that totally dis-
tinct faunae and flora; occupied the whole
surface of the earth, one after the other,
and during distinct epochs of time.

" A geological fauna or flora is the sum
of all the species of animals or plants which
occupied the surface of the globe during
one of the epochs."

I add : a geological horizon * is the sum
of all the species of plants and animals of
one of those epochs. There were many
horizons as many as epochs. Professor
Dana makes upward of fifty (" Manual of
Geology," pp. 142, 143). I note a few which
are of peculiar importance, either in them-
selves or in relation to this account.

In the earliest are found traces of ma-
rine plants only, and of the lowest forms of
animal life (an Archaean horizon).

In another, perhaps a million years later,
radiates, mollusks, and articulates are found,
while sea-weeds are the highest type of
plants.

Another million or so of years brings us
to the Upper Silurian, where are found a
few land-plants, but among them no fruit-
trees.

Another vast stretch brings a Devonian
horizon, with more land-plants, but no such
flora as Moses describes. There were fishes,
but neither "whales" nor "fowl."

Long after this came the Carboniferous
period, with water-animals and land-animals,
and an abundant flora. Still, there were no
fruit-trees, nor were there whales in the
seas or cattle on the land.

Later, again, in the Tertiary, we find a
flora exactly answering to that in Genesis,
containing, as it does, grasses, herbs, and
fruit-trees with the seed in the fruit i. e.,
angiosperms, including in that term palms.
As to the animals of this horizon, there
were then fishes, birds, and mammals, but
not of living species. Professor Dana,
(" Manual of Geology," revised edition, page
518), says, " All the fishes, birds, reptiles,
and mammals of the Tertiary are extinct."
These, therefore, were not the fauna of

* " On the same horizon * is said of the fossils
and strata of one age. " Imperial Dictionary."

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which Moses wrote ns " living creatures."
But still later, in the Quaternary, there were
fishes, amphibians or reptiles, mammals
and birds, whales and seals. Most of the
birds are still represented. Some, however,
have died out very recently, say within a
century or less. Of the others, save the
mammals, all kinds, so far as known, are
still in existence. The mammals are nearly
all extinct.*

At this time, therefore, the marine life
and the " fowl " of to-day came into exist-
ence. I note here a circumstance that is in
remarkable harmony with the well-known
fact that many species of invertebrates, and
perhaps some others, have come down from
the Tertiary. There is the fiat that the
waters were to swarm with living creatures,
and then, in the next verse, an assertion of
crcatorship so broad as to include every
living creature as if it said God " created, "
through his way of doing such things, all
that appeared for the first at that time, as
well as all else then living.

Coming still further down in the world's
history, we reach the horizon of to-day, with
its living species of land-animals, including
cattle, beasts, and creeping things. The
remark about the previous horizon applies
here also.

I submit, therefore, as the result of an
examination of the Mosaic record, that Pro-
fessor Huxley's " central idea " has no ex-
istence in Genesis if taken without " flexi-
bility " or additions ; and, it appears to me
that, according to geology, the story as told
in Genesis is true as to its order. A flora
containing fruit-trees did come before the
living air and water population ; and these
came before living cattle and beasts.

As to all other matters pertaining to
life the account is silent, but silence is not
falsehood.

In the limited space of a letter I have
been able to give but scant justice to my
theme.

Other important questions press upon
me. What about man ? What is the true
" central idea " ? What about the rest of
the chapter ; will it bear this intensely liter-
al treatment ? And the " days," are they
days or periods ?

I can but hint at answers, and that only
to two of the questions. Paleontology tells
very little about man. Genesis says only
that God made a pair whom he called
Adam.f There may have been older races.
Such seem to be referred to when Cain says
he is afraid that whoever meets him will
kill him ; and so where the account speaks

Page 345. Nicholson's M Ancient Life Historv" :
tt No extinct forms of fishes, amphibians, or reptiles
are known to occur." Also Dana. " Manual of Geol-
ogy ." third edition, p. 503: "The mammals are
nearly all extinct."

t Or man, according to the margin of the Re-
vised Version.

of. the sons of God and the daughters of
men.

The true " central idea " is God's cre-
atorship. This might have been given in
one sentence, or have been extended into
particulars, and these particulars might
have been given in any order, or, if the au-
thor was wise enough to be able to do it,
the particular acts of creatorship might
have been named in the order of their oc-
currence. As there are, on a close analysis,
some forty matters of order or fact in this
story, it is impossible that by any chance or
guess they should fall into the true order.
But what if they are there ? As to the
" days," I suppose that they were twenty-
four hours long, and that creation was mill-
ions of years in being accomplished. The
paradox is, as it seems to me, easily explained,
but to attempt it noAv, or to give my reasons
for believing the order identical with that
revealed by science, would extend this letter
beyond its due limits. Yours truly,

C. B. Warring.
Poughkeepsie, N. T., March 21, 18S6.

ANTIDOTES FOR SNAKE-POISON.

Messrs. Editors :

In " The Popular Science Monthly " for
May, 1S85, I read with great interest an
address by Professor William W. Keen,
M. D., in the course of which he mentioned
Drs. Weir Mitchell and Reichert, of Phila-
delphia, as being engaged in experiments
on the venom of the cobra and rattlesnake.
At that time I decided to send you the ac-
count of an incident which might furnish a
clew to a proper antidote for this venom ;
but a protracted illness in my family has
hitherto prevented the carrying out of this
intention. I am now in a position to do
so, and shall therefore proceed at once to
the narrative of the incident in ques-
tion.

In the summer of 18S3, while engaged
in some field-work in Polonio Pass, San
Luis Obispo County, California, a young
"setter" dog, belonging to a comrade, was
bitten on the nose by a rattlesnake. The
dog suffered for a few days, but did not die.
However, from a sprightly and intelligent
animal, he became transformed into a sickly
and stupid one. He became emaciated and
miserable, and his vision was greatly im-
paired in fact, all of his faculties seemed
to be benumbed.

Shortly afterward we went up into the
Sacramento River Canon, and took this dog,
together with a host of others (the usual
concomitants of an engineer's camp), with
us to our new field of labor. Now, in the late
autumn the banks of the upper Sacramento
River become annually lined with the decay-
ing bodies of large numbers of " dog " sal-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

125

mon salmon that have died from exhaus-
tion while endeavoring to force themselves
to the head-waters of the river for spawning
purposes ; and in the fall of 1883 our canine
camp-followers partook voraciously of this
free salmon-feast, with the result that all of
them, with one single exception, died with
every indication of being poisoned. The
single exception was the young dog that
had suffered from the rattlesnake-bite. He
apparently experienced no discomfort from
his meal ; and, strangest of all, from that
day he became a well dog ! He regained
his youthful elasticity of spirit, became ro-
bust, and, when I last saw him, was as play-
ful and intelligent a dog as I have ever seen.
There is no exaggeration in any of these

lines, and what I have here stated can be
verified by at least a dozen witnesses.

To my mind this incident seems to point
to the conclusion that there is developed in
salmon, and possibly in other decaying fish,
an organic principle, in itself poisonous, but
which may prove to be a counter-agent for
the poison of the rattlesnake and of other
venomous serpents. I am therefore inclined
to believe that an examination of this mat-
ter might result in the production of an an-
tidote to the terrible venom of the poisonous
snakes ; and, in the hope that such may be
the case, I remain, respectfully yours,

Bernard Bienenfeld.

1018 Post Street, San Francisco, |
November 29, 1885. j

EDITOR'S TABLE.

CHARITY AND SENTIMENTALITY.

AN apostle once wrote, "Let love
be without dissimulation." Had
he lived in our day, he might have
thought it quite as important to say,
"Let love be without sentimentality."
In looking over the reports of charita-
ble institutions especially purely vol-
untary ones we are frequently struck
by the utter absence of any attempt to
deal in what might be called a scientific
manner with the facts that come within
their scope. Instead of this, we have
any amount of sentimentality and gush,
pious ascriptions of thanks to Provi-
dence, considerable laudation of the
officers engaged in the work of the in-
stitution, and long lists of donations,
with the names of the donors, of
course. Now, we would cheerfully
exchange all this for a little informa-
tion likely to be servicable in a scien-
tific point of view. Say it is an "or-
phans' home." What we should like
to know in connection with the opera-
tions of such an institution may be
roughly indicated under the following
heads: 1. In regard to each inmate,
whether he or she is really an orphan
or not. 2. If so, how the condition of
orphanage and dependence arose. 3.
How it happened that private aid from
friends or relatives was not forthcom-

ing whether, for example, the exist-
ence of a convenient asylum into which
the orphan could be put had anything
te do with the child's being placed
there rather than otherwise provided
for. 4. What moral effects seem to
flow from the absence of parental af-
fection and influence. 5. What the
special influences of the home or asylum
seem to be in different classes of cases.
6. What the subsequent course in life
of children released from the home has
been.

It is too much the habit of the
present day to think that, if things are
done from a right motive, they must
be done well. One evil effect of this
is to discourage criticism of motives
apparently good; yet the interests of
society as a whole call for nothing
more strongly than for a stringent criti-
cism of motives as well as of actions.
Take the case of our orphan asylum
again. In some small town, a lot of
benevolent people, chiefly of the more
emotional sex, will decide that an or-
phan asylum is wanted. There may
be only three or four cases within their
knowledge at the time that in any way
call for such an institution ; and proba-
bly no very great amount of private
effort would be required to dispose of
these satisfactorily in a private way.

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Still, the idea of an orphan asylum,
managed by a society of ladies, is a
very taking one. It will make room
for a lady president, two or three
lady vice-presidents, a lady secre-
tary, a managing committee of la-
dies, and, of course, lady visitors. So
the asylum is ushered into existence.
Though modest in its beginnings, it is
still bevond the real wants of the local-
ity. The few known orphans are gath-
ered in ; and then the ladies, hungry
for objects of benevolence, look round
for more ; rather than have empty
rooms and a half-employed matron,
they " rope in," on one pretext or an-
other, children who are not orphans at
all. Then they challenge public atten-
tion by annual reports and annual col-
lections. Of course, every man in the
community who wants to be credited
with even a fragment of a soul must
subscribe to the orphan asylum. It
would be as much as one's social ex-
istence was worth to so much as hint
a doubt as to whether an institution
with a name so redolent of charity
was really performing a useful office in
the community. So the funds come
in freely. The ladies, finding how
prompt is the response to their benevo-
lent appeals, conceive large and dar-
ing schemes. They are going to have
a building now that will be a credit to
the town, and that will not only rob
orphanage of half its terrors, but widely
advertise the willingness of the com-
munity to shoulder everybody's private
burdens in the matter of children need-
ing protection through the loss of par-
ents. So a ridiculously large building
goes up, to the infinite pride and satis-
faction of the lady managers, and the
silent wonderment of the meditative
citizen with a gift for arithmetic and
averages, but perhaps no experience as
to how the orphan business like other
businesses can be " boomed."

Now, the hard, bottom fact is, that
fuss and vanity enter very largely into
many of these schemes of so-called

charity. They reek with sentimental-
ity ; and therefore it is no wonder that
those who work them content them-
selves with reports at once jejune and
nauseating jejune in facts, nauseat-
ing in phraseology. The best possible
way to check these flabby imitations of
real charity would be to summon them
somewhat peremptorily to give such
facts as might furnish material for a
really scientific study of their opera-
tions. They could not in decency re-
fuse the demand, if made by a certain
number of their respectable supporters ;
and yet we are convinced that, to com-
ply with the demand in anything like
an honest and thorough fashion, would
be to show that their work was, in part
at least, hollow and even hurtful. We
believe that a vast amount of harm is
being done, not only by thoughtless
private charity, but by ill-organized,
ill-directed, and over-ambitious corpo-
rate charity. However, let scientific
thinkers, men who have taken to heart
all that is implied in the great truth
that two and two make four, settle
right down to work on the reports of
some of these pretentious concerns ;
and, where they find information lack-
ing that ought to be given, quietly
ask for it. The world would be none
the worse for the puncturing of a few
of the bubbles blown by vanity and
floated by sentimentality ; and the way
to puncture them is to bring the " sci-
entific method " to bear on their very
unscientific operations.

"We are glad to see that the views
expressed in these columns a year ago,
in regard to the inexpediency of giving
Federal aid to education in the South
or anywhere else, are gaining ground
among the most intelligent representa-
tives of public opinion. The "Boston
Herald," one of the most progressive
papers in the country, which at one
time favored the scheme, now opposes
it. There is altogether too strong a
disposition in certain quarters to bring
the Federal Government into play for

LITERARY NOTICES.

127

the redress of all kinds of wrongs. The
ideal should rather be to reduce its func-
tions to the narrowest limits in order
that all the more life may reside in
our local institutions, and all the more
scope be left to private initiative. It
is easier to stereotype a civilization than
people imagine, and the way to do it is
to look to the Government for every-
thing.

To show how easy it is to make a
fallacious use of figures, we may men-
tion that in the alarming statistics fre-
quently published in support of the
Blair Bill for Federal aid to education in
the South statistics intended to show
what an overwhelming mass of igno-
rance existed in the Southern States
no account was taken of the fact that
a very large proportion of the illiterate
blacks belonged to a class the adult
population whom educational meas-
ures could never reach, however lib-
eral might be the appropriations made
therefor. A recent writer has pointed
out that when we come to compare
the percentage of children attending
school in the South with the percentage
so attending, say, in New England, the
difference is by no means very striking.
The South is evidently doing well, and
will yet do better, if no intrusive and
demoralizing aid is afforded to it out
of the national treasurv.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Three Years of Arctic Service. An Ac-
count of the Lady Franklin Bay Ex-
pedition of 18Sl-'84, and the Attain-
ment of the Farthest North. By
Adolphus W. Greely. New York :
Charles Scribner's Sons. Two vols.
Pp. xxv-428, and 444, with Maps.

No story of tragic adventure has ever
excited greater interest or invoked stronger
sympathy than that of the life and suffer-
ings of Lieutenant Greely and his party of
twenty-four men at Cape Sabine during the
winter of 1883-84. Other parties have
suffered intense privations and pains, in the
Arctic regions and other inhospitable parts
of the globe ; but, as a rule, there have been

features of some kind to set off and relieve
the uniformity of their misery, or else, all
having perished, the world has escaped the
sorrow of viewing the picture of their suf-
fering in photographic detail. But with this
party of our countrymen there were nine
months of monotonous uniformity of suffer-
ing, and slow, steady progress toward death ;
and enough have survived its perils to de-
scribe the pains in all their colors. It is
right that we should have this full story of
the expedition from its commander. He
was responsible for its management, and
he was the member of it, if any, who was
best able to take a complete view of it as a
whole, and in all its aspects. In preparing
his account,' he has, he says, spared neither
health nor strength. For materials he has
drawn upon his own diary, the official field
reports, and the journals of Lieutenant Lock-
wood and Sergeant Brainard, the only com-
plete ones, with his own, that were kept.
As is fitting, the story of the last terrible
days of starvation, freezing, and death, is
told almost wholly in the words of the dia-
ries as it was recorded from day to day at
the time, with hardly a word of comment.

The expedition commanded by Lieuten-
ant Greely was intended to establish one of
the international stations for circumpolar
observation that had been decided upon
after the suggestion of Lieutenant Wey-
precht, of the Austrian Navy, by the Polar
Conferences which met in Hamburg and
Berne in 1879 and 1880.' Two of the four-
teen stations established were assigned to the
United States one at Point Barrow, in lati-
tude 71 18' north, longitude 156 24' west,
under Lieutenant Ray, and one at Lady
Franklin Bay, latitude 81 44' north, longi-
tude 64 45' west, under Lieutenant Greely.
The station at the latter point, when estab-
lished, was named Fort Conger, after Sen-
ator Conger, of Michigan, who had inter-
ested himself specially in behalf of the ex-
pedition. Hardly had the party landed,
when a defect in its organization revealed
itself, in the shape of inharmonious ele-
ments and the want of strong enough au-
thority. The circumstance, says Lieutenant
Greely, emphasizes " the necessity of select-
ing for Arctic service only men and officers
of thoroughly military qualities, among
which subordination is by no means of see-

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ondary importance." Our wonder is that
the thought of a plan of selection from
which this was omitted should have been
tolerated for an instant. The primary ob-
ject of the expedition being to carry out the
scientific programme of the Hamburg Polar
Conference, the utmost care was given to
physical observations. The series began
July 1, 1831, at St. John's, Newfoundland,
and terminated June 21, 1884, forty hours
before the rescue of the survivors. Sum-
marics of them are given in the appen-
dixes to the book, and a chapter is allotted
to the description of the manner in which
they were taken. Natural history observa-
tions and collections were also made, but
the collections, of course, in the straits to
which the expedition was reduced, could not
be brought home. As good provisions as
were possible under the circumstances were,
however, made for the preservation of the
scientific results. They were cached, at
places which were suitably marked and de-
scribed, and may possibly be recovered by
more fortunate adventurers. A suggestive
glimpse of the character of Arctic life dur-
ing the winter darkness is afforded by the
fact that some of the observations and the
places for taking them were arranged so as
to afford the men reasonable occasions, in
going to mark them, for going out-of-doors
and taking walks of considerable length.
Exercise is as indispensable in the winter
of the poles as in more favored regions,
and one of the difficult problems for explor-
ers is to manage matters or " sugar-coat "
it, so that it shall be taken regularly and in
sufficient amount without appearing to be
administered as a medicine.

Two important geographical achieve-
ments stand to the credit of the expedi-
tion: They are the journey of Lieutenant
Lockwood, Sergeant Brainard, and the Es-
kimo Christiansen to the farthest north, and
the exploration of Grinnell Land. The itin-
erary of the northerly journey, as given
from the journals of the explorers, is very
interesting, and, with the aid of the accom-
panying maps, is very clear. It was on the
13th of May, 1882, when, having made six-
teen miles in ten hours, and worn out by
travel through deep snow, the party made
their farthest camp at the north end of
Lockwood Island, which, by circum-meridian

and subpolar observations reduced by Gauss's
method, was determined to be in 83 23*8'
north, the highest latitude ever attained by
man. The highest latitude reached previous
to this was by Markham, on sea, in 1876,
83 20' 26". Of this event Sergeant Brain-
ard's field-notes say : " We have reached a
higher latitude than ever before reached by
mortal man, and on a land farther north
than by many was supposed to exist. We
unfurled the glorious Stars and Stripes to
the exhilarating northern breezes with an
exultation impossible to describe." So, says
Lieutenant Greely, " with proper pride, they
looked that day from their farthest vantage-
ground of the farthest north (Lockwood
Island) to the desolate cape which, until sur-
passed in coming ages, may well bear the
grand name of Washington." Of this party
Sergeant Brainard, " without whose efficient
aid and restless energy, as Lockwood said,
the work could not have been accomplished,"
is the only survivor. The exploration of
Grinnell Land begun by Lieutenant Greely
in the spring, whose journey of two hundred
and fifty miles of travel in twelve days was
marked by the discovery of the large Lake
Hazen and the interesting Henrietta Nesmith
Glacier, was continued in the summer with
the results, as summed up by the author, of
the satisfactory, if not complete, determina-
tion of the extent of North Grinnell Land ;
the outlining of the extraordinary and pre-
viously unsuspected physical conditions of
the interior of Jhat country ; and the dis-
covery of numerous valleys covered with
comparatively luxuriant vegetation, which
afford sufficient pasturage for large num-
bers of musk-oxen. About five thousand
square miles of newly discovered land fell
under observation, of which over one half
was determined with sufficient accuracy to
enable its physical geography to be passed
upon. Lieutenant Greely's discoveries ac-
cord closely with the opinions of Sir Joseph
Hooker ; and " the intimate relation be-
tween the physical sciences is forcibly illus-
trated by the ability of a highly trained and
accomplished specialist to state from a hand-
ful of plants the insularity or continental
configuration of a land and its physical con-
dition." Another expedition was made,
across Grinnell Land, by Lieutenant Lock-
wood, who carried out his commander's in-

LITERARY NOTICES.

129

structions to their full extent, although he
started under the belief that they could not
be accomplished.

Lieutenant Greely has his views of the
constitution of the polar regions, and they
are entitled to all the respect which the
opinions of a man of intelligence who has
had unusual opportunities for observation
have a right to command. He does not
doubt " that in the vicinity of the north
and south poles are glacial lands entirely
covered by ice-caps of enormous thickness,
which throw off the huge floebergs of the
north and the yet more remarkable flat-
topped icebergs of the south. The north
polar land is, I believe, of limited extent,
and its shores, or the edges of its glaciers,
are washed by a sea which, from its size and
consequent high temperature, its ceaseless
tides and strong currents, can never be en-
tirely ice-clad. . . . Far be it from me to
advocate a navigable polar sea. On the
contrary, I am firmly possessed with the
idea that an ice-belt from fifty to a hundred
miles wide borders the lands to the south-
ward, and that the water-space to the north-
ward can only be entered in extremely favor-
able years by the Spitzbergen route."

We had marked many passages illustra-
tive of the monotonous life of the Arctic
winters and its depressing and irritating
effect upon the minds of the men ; descrip-
tive of the toilsome journey from Camp
Conger to Cape Sabine, and of the attempt
to cross Smith Sound ; and incidents of the
unprecedented sufferings of the party in their
spring of cold starvation at Cape Sabine ;
but we have no space for them. The story,
moreover, is not one that can be represented
by incidents selected here and there, but
should be taken in a whole. The head-
ings of the closing chapters fittingly suggest
its character. They are : " The Beginning
of the End " ; " The Last of Our Rations " ;
" The End by Death and Rescue." Of the
whole, Lieutenant Greely says : " No pen
could convey to the world an adequate idea
of the abject misery and extreme wretched-
ness to which we were reduced at Cape Sa-
bine. Insufficiently clothed, for months
without drinking water, destitute of warmth,
our sleeping-bags frozen to the ground, our
walls, roof, and floor covered with frost and
ice, subsisting on one fifth of an Arctic ra-

VOL. XXIX. 9

tion, almost without clothing, light, heat, or
food, yet we were never without courage,
faith, and hope. The extraordinary spirit
of loyalty, patience, charity, and self-denial
daily and almost universally exhibited by
our famished and nearly maddened party
must be read between the lines in the ac-
count of our daily life penned under such
desperate and untoward circumstances."

Easy Lessons in German. By Adolphe
Dreyspring. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 103. Price, 70 cents.

The " Easy Lessons " is intended as an
introduction to the author's "Cumulative
Method," and to be adapted both to schools
and to home instruction. It is designed not
only for those who shun "full-grown" text-
books, and to whom price is a material con-
sideration, but more especially for the boys
and girls of the primary classes, to whose
intellectual status it is better adapted than
are the larger works. The aid of illustra-
tions is freely called in to enforce the mean-
ing of the nouns and verbs, so that each of
the conventional lessons into which the work
is divided is in fact a series of object-lessons.
We regard the author's system, which con-
sists of frequent repetition and the putting
of the word or set of words, which is the par-
ticular subject of the lesson, through its va-
rieties of combinations and changes, as an
excellent one. The exercises are conver-
sational, are made interesting and amusing,
and are so directly to the point they are de-
signed to enforce, that by the time the pupil
is through with one of them, it is well im-
pressed upon his mind, and not likely to be
forgotten.

The Determination of Rock-forming Min-
erals. By Dr. Eugen Hussak. Author-
ized Translation from the German, by
Erastus G. Smith, Ph. D. New York :
John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 233. Price,
$3.

This book is intended to supply a want
long felt by students of mineralogy and li-
thology. It presents, in a shape adapted for
use in the class-room and the laboratory, a
digest of numerous articles bearing upon the
subject, that have appeared in technical
journals and other publications of various
countries.

The first part of the work treats of the

130

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

methods of investigation adopted in min-
eralogical and petrographical research ; the
optical methods and the micro-chemical
methods are considered in turn.

The second part is devoted to the study
of mineral determination. A table for de-
termining the system of crystallization of the
rock-forming minerals is followed by a most
elaborate set of tables which give the com-
position and chemical reactions of the min-
erals, their structure, association, etc.

A great number of illustrations are scat-
tered through the book, and a feature that
will prove most welcome is the bibliography
to Part II, which contains references to
many works on mineralogy, and to numer-
ous memoirs that have been published in
scientific periodicals.

History of the Pacific States of North
America. By Hubert Howe Bancroft.
Vol. XXVIII. Alaska, 1730-1885. San
Francisco : A. L. Bancroft & Co. Pp.
775. Price, $5.

Alaska furnishes materials for a more
varied and interesting history than any one
would imagine before reading this volume.
The story is really full of incident and ad-
venture, and is graphically presented. The
early history of Alaska, as the publishers
well remark, is wholly different from the
history of any other part of America. It
dates from a different quarter of the globe ;
the territory was seized and occupied by a
people who never mingled in American af-
fairs before or since. " For reckless cour-
age, for indifference to suffering and death,
for cruelty and iniquity, the Russians were
in no wise behind the Spaniards. And the
character and customs of the Russians them-
selves are no less objects of interest than
those of the natives of Alaska, which, for
the most part, are unlike those of other
American aboriginal peoples. The Russian
fur-trade, as it was in the beginning, the
century march of the Cossacks across Si-
beria, the voyages of discovery to the oppo-
site coast of America, and the fur-hunting
expeditions which followed, are all full of
thrilling interest." Of the importance of
Alaska the author has a much better opin-
ion than generally prevails, and observes
that " Scandinavia, her Old-World counter-
part, is possessed of far less natural wealth,

and is far less grand in natural configuration.
In Alaska we can count more than eleven
hundred islands in a single group. We can
trace the second largest water-course in the
world. We have large sections of territory
where the average yearly temperature is
higher than that of Stockholm or Chris-
tiania, where it is milder in winter, and
where the fall of rain and snow is less than
in the southern portion of Scandinavia."
And the area of this part of the terri-
tory is greater than that of Scotland and
Southern Scandinavia combined. The re-
sources, also, of Alaska, " though some of
them are not yet available, are abundant,
and of such a nature that, if properly econ-
omized, they will never be seriously im-
paired." To procure material for this his-
tory, Mr. Bancroft dispatched an agent well
acquainted with its affairs, on three distinct
journeys to Alaska, who visited all places
of historical importance and persons of his-
torical note, and thus obtained much fresh
information ; explored, by his assistants,
documentary material in Sitka, San Fran-
cisco, and Washington ; was aided by his
friend M. Pinart, and men of letters and
officers in St. Petersburg, in collecting in-
formation from the Russian archives ; and
obtained all the accessible authorities in
print in Russia, other European countries,
and the United States. This volume has
the distinction from the others of being the
first of the series which is complete in itself,
with preface, and index from the beginning
of the history to the present day.

Practical and Analytical Chemtstry. By
Hexry Trimble, Ph. G. Philadelphia :
P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 94. Price,
$1.50.

This book is intended for the use of
students of medicine, pharmacy, and others
who may have but a comparatively limited
amount of time to devote to the study of
chemistry. Part I, " Practical Chemistry,"
discusses briefly the preparation and proper-
ties of gases and the preparation of salts ;
Part II treats of " Qualitative Analysis " ;
Part III of " Quantitative Analysis." The
former contains some reference to the reac-
tions of organic compounds, the latter em-
braces examples for practice in both gravi-
metric and volumetric estimation.

LITERARY NOTICES.

131

Evolution of To-Day : A Summary of the
Theory of Evolution as held by Scien-
tists at the Present Time, and an Ac-
count of the Progress made by the Dis-
cussions and Investigations of a Quarter
of a Century. By H. W. Conn, Ph. D.,
Instructor of Biology at Wesleyan Uni-
versity. New York : G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Pp. 342. Price $1.75.

The greater evolution of ideas precipi-
tated with such unparalleled rapidity dur-
ing the lat generation by the promulgation
of the sceneral doctrine of evolution and
the wide-spread interest in the subject
which has followed have brought us, as
was inevitable, to a stage of popular lit-
erature upon the question which shows
plenty of signs that it is no longer the
scientific world that is chiefly addressed.
The number of those who think themselves
competent to explain evolution to ordinary
people is largely increasing, but, while their
efforts are undoubtedly commendable, it
must be admitted that much of their work
is inferior and unsatisfactory. The subject
itself is extensive, complex, and unsettled,
and it requires a good deal of sound infor-
mation, careful habits of thinking, and ex-
cellent scientific judgment, so to present it
as not to convey to uninstructed minds about
as much error as truth.

The present volume, although not with-
out merit, belongs nevertheless to this un-
satisfactory class of books upon evolution.
In the first place, the title is mischievously
misleading. It would lead us to expect a
discussion of the subject in its full breadth
and latest developments and applications ;
whereas it is confined, we might almost say,
strictly to one branch of the subject organic
evolution ; and the book might much better
be named a treatise on Darwinism than an
exposition of the evolution of to-day. While
dealing with the details of biological devel-
opment, Dr. Conn writes with tolerable
clearness ; but when he tries to expound
the fundamental conceptions of his volume,
as presented in its title, he writes neither
clearly nor correctly, and betrays consider-
able confusion of mind over the larger re-
lations of his subject. In his introduction,
Dr. Conn says : " Evolution is not Darwin-
ism. We have now reached the conclusion
as to what is now ordinarily meant by evo-
lution" (derivation of species by descent,

Ed.), " and such was Darwin's understand-
ing of the term. But it must not be con-
founded with Darwinism. Evolution is sim-
ply a theory as to the method by which
species have been introduced into the world,
entirely independent of any idea as to the
causes which have brought about their in-
troduction. Darwinism is evolution, but it
is more than this ; it is at the same time an
attempt at an explanation of the causes of
evolution.' ' Again, he says, " Darwinism
proper, then, is not evolution, but its ex-
planation."

Now, these views are probably original
with Dr. Conn ; at any rate, we have never
met them before, and they are certainly far
from representing the "evolution of to-
day." Evolution, as now most generally
held, is a law of Nature a law of trans-
formation by which phenomena undergo
changes, passing from one form to another,
by which the past has given rise to the pres-
ent, and the present determines the future
through the agencies of the natural world.
Evolution is a phase of the order of Nature
of great comprehensiveness, or it is noth-
ing ; it has its large divisions, of which or-
ganic evolution is one. Mr. Darwin devoted
himself to the study of one of the elements
or factors of organic evolution the origin
of species by means of natural selection.
To define evolution as excluding the study
of causes, and then to define Darwinism
as a study of causes, or as explanation of
evolution, is simply absurd. As a matter of
science, evolution is essentially, and indeed
solely, a problem of forces and causes, and
Mr. Darwin did what he could to trace them
out in the line of his special work ; but he
never made even an attempt to study the
theory of evolution as a general law of Na-
ture, to analyze, formulate, or reduce it to
scientific expression.

The Sun. By Amedee Guillemin. Trans-
lated from the French, by A. L. Phipson.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons.
Pp. 297. Price, $1.

This book forms one of a series termed
" The Illustrated Library of Wonders," of
which Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons are
now publishing a new and revised edition.
Inviting his readers to join him in a lit-
tle trip of the imagination a trifle of some

132

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ninety million miles or thereabout the au-
thor discourses pleasantly on that luminous
sphere that forms the destination of this
astronomical journey.

The sun is considered as the source of
lteht. of heat, and of chemical action ; its
influence on living beings, on animals and
plants, is commented upon. The position of
the sun in the planetary world, its rotation,
its physical and chemical constitution, are
all studied in turn ; and, finally, there are
given the reasons why life is, must be, im-
possible upon its surface. Numerous illus-
trations are scattered throughout the text.

History of California. By Theodore H.
Hittell. San Francisco : Occidental
Publishing Company. Pp. 799. Price,

$5.

The author of this history is a well-
known legal writer of California, who has
spent many years of industrious labor in its
preparation. His purpose has been to give
an account, and, at the same time, a pict-
uresque history of the State, a popular his-
tory, adapted to the use of those who have
not time to read a larger work, but who de-
sire at the same time a comprehensive re-
view of the subject, in which every branch
is treated in due proportion to its relative
importance as viewed with regard to the
whole. No other State, the publishers
claim, possesses so romantic a history as
California, and in no work on the subject
that we have observed has more effort been
made with greater success to present it in a
way which, while it does not lack in the es-
sential point of accuracy, shall make the story
interesting and pleasant in the reading.
Beginning with the very first account of the
country found in the older records, it traces
the development, illustrates the progress,
and shows how, step by step, the State be-
came what it is. The old voyages, with
their interesting incidents ; the heroic tale
of the early settlements ; the labors of the
missionaries, and their establishment of the
missions ; the lives and acts of the Span-
ish and American governors ; the changes
wrought in the condition of the country by
the revolution against Spain and Spanish
ideas ; the growth of the civil as opposed
to the ecclesiastical, and the popular as op-
posed to the monarchical power ; the strug-

gles of individuals and factions ; and the
evolution of the new State, are related in a
plain, engaging style. In the present vol-
ume the first book is devoted to the stories
of the early voyagers ; the second book
covers the period of the Jesuit mission set-
tlements of Lower California, and closes
with an account of the Indians of that re-
gion ; the third book covers the period of
the Franciscan missions and the beginnings
of Alta California ; and the other books
include the history of the Spanish govern-
ors, the Northwest coast fur-trade, later
Northwest coast - voyages and discoveries,
overland expeditions and explorations, and
the Indians of Alta California. The second
volume, which will complete the work, is
promised soon.

A Text-Book of Inorganic Chemistry. By

Professor V. von Richter. Authorized

Translation, by Edgar F. Smith, Ph. D.

Philadelphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co.

Pp. 423. Illustrated. Price, $2.

The fact alone that this volume bears
the imprint, " Second American from the
fourth German edition," would seem to be-
speak for this work a degree of merit not
common to many of the numerous produc-
tions that have appeared in this field of sci-
ence. A careful examination of its pages
confirms this impression. Usually text-
books on this subject present but a more
or less complete enumeration of facts. The
different elements are considered in turn :
their occurrence, modes of preparation,
properties, important compounds, etc., are
discussed ; but little effort is made to point
out the theories deduced from the observa-
tions and experiments.

In this work, however, the inductive
method is followed throughout. Experi-
ments are given and carried out, with the
intention of drawing conclusions from them,
and of illustrating the close relation be-
tween the results obtained and the theories
founded upon them.

The introduction briefly defines the prov-
ince of chemistry, refers to the principle of
the indestructibility of matter, the conser-
vation of energy, chemical energy, condi-
tions of chemical action, chemical symbols
and formulEe. The elements are classified
according to the law of periodicity, this
meaning simply that the properties of the

LITERARY NOTICES.

*33

elements and their compounds present them-
selves as a periodic function of their atomic
weights.

Attention must also be directed to an-
other feature of this book, as important as
it is novel in a text-book on inorganic
chemistry. When bodies enter into chemi-
cal combination, heat is almost invariably
evolved ; and, on the other hand, when a
compound is decomposed into its constit-
uents, heat is absorbed and transformed
into chemical energy. The study of these
phenomena, thermo-chemistry, is here in-
troduced in connection with the different
groups of the elements, thus familiarizing
the student from the start with one of the
fundamental principles of chemical science,
yet one which has heretofore been almost
entirely relegated to works on theoretical
chemistry. In short, Von Richter offers a
most clear, vivid, and interesting presenta-
tion of his subject.

Van Nostrand's Science Series. Ventila-
tion of Buildings. By W. F. Butler.
Re edited and enlarged, by James L.
Greenleaf, C. E. Pp. 147.

Water-Meters. By Ross E. Browne. Pp.

89.
The Preservation of Timber by the Use

of Antiseptics. By S. B. Boulton. Pp.

223.

Mechanical Integrators ; including the
Various Forms of Planimeters. By Pro-
fessor Henry S. H. Shaw. Pp. 212.
Price, 50 cents each.

Ventilation of Buildings. This essay
was originally prepared for delivery before
an audience, which will account for the fact
that it contains remarks and comments on
subjects which can hardly be considered as
specially connected with the ventilation of
buildings, though in themselves of interest
and importance. It was written for English
conditions, and the present copy has been
re-edited and enlarged by Mr. Greenleaf to
adapt it for use in this country. The needs
for ventilation are first discussed, and then
a method i3 given for ventilating private
houses, showing how this method may be
adapted to old and to new buildings. Ap-
pended to the book is a reprint from " Van
Nostrand's Magazine " on " How much Ven-
tilation ? " by the editor of this issue.

Water-Meters. A brief treatise on some
of the principal forms of water-meters in

use, embracing descriptions of the promi-
nent features of two forms of piston-meter,
the Worthington and the Kennedy, and
three forms of velocity-meters, the Siemens
of English manufacture, the Siemens of Ger-
man manufacture, and the Hesse meter. A
series of tests conducted with the latter is
given. An appendix contains a translation
of an article on some forms of water-meters
not considered in the text previous. This
article is by Charles Andre and was pub-
lished in the " Genie Civil." The book is
intended mainly for hydraulic engineers.

The Presei'valion of Timber by the Use
of Antiseptics. A paper prepared for the
Institution of Civil Engineers and discussed
before them ; the discussion is appended.
It is a careful review of the history of pre-
serving timber, and the chief methods
adapted to that end.

Mechanical Integrators. Descriptions of
various devices that may be designated as
mechanical aids to mathematical computa-
tion ; chiefly such are considered as will
prove of value to engineers.

Chemical Analysis for Schools and Sci-
ence Classes. Qualitative - Inorganic.
By A. H. Scott- White, B. Sc. New
York : Scribner & Wclford. Pp. 130.

A concise text-book intended in the first
place for students fitting for examinations
at English colleges. Valuable hints are
given as to the preliminary analysis, then
follow schemes of examination for bases
and for acids, and appended are notes on
apparatus, on the preparation of reagents,
etc. A quite extensive list of the chemical
symbols of substances made use of in the
analytical work is given. These symbols
are arranged in alphabetical order, and, as
the corresponding names are also given, will
prove very convenient for the student.

First Lessons in Philosophy. By M. S.
Handley. New York : Scribner & Wel-
ford. Pp. 59.

A brief presentation, in the form of con-
versations, of the elementary conceptions of
philosophy. This book is intended to serve
as an introduction to metaphysics and logic.
It is essentially based on the writings of
S. H. Hodgson, principally on " Time and
Space," by this author.

134

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Chemical Equilibrium the Result of the
Dissipation of Energy. By G. D. Live-
ing, M. A., F. R. S. New York : Scrib-
ner & Welford.

This essay presents the substance of a
course of lectures delivered by the author
iu the University of Cambridge. The doc-
trine of the dissipation of energy is, that
" there is a universal tendency in nature for
energy to take such forms and to be so dis-
tributed that it is not available to do me-
chanical work." This theory is here con-
sidered in a form especially adapted to the
problems of chemistry, and will prove of in-
terest to students of chemical philosophy.

Moisture and Dryness ; or, the Analysis
of Atmospheric Humidities in the
United States. By Charles Denison,
A. M., M. D. Chicago : Band, McNally
& Co. Pp. 30, with~Charts. Price, $1.

An essay read before the American
Climatological Association, and reprinted
from " The New York Medical Journal "
for September, 1884. The author takes the
position that " an actually small amount of
atmospheric moisture is the most important
element in the best climates for phthisis."
The causes affecting dryness, i. e., temper-
ature, altitude, the seasons, etc., are con-
sidered ; tables of Signal-Service stations in
the United States, rated in order of dryness,
are given ; and, finally, the physical effects
of dryness are discussed.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIYED.

Pennsylvania Boroughs. By William P. nol-
combe. Baltimore : N. Murray. Pp. 51. 50 cents.

Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of "Washing-
ton. Vol. VIII, 18S5. Washington : Smithsonian
Institution. Pp. 110. 75 cents.

Forests and Fruit-Growers. By Abbot Kinney,
Los Angeles, California. Pp. 5.

Eczema. By George H. Rohe, M. D. Balti-
more : Thomas & Evans. Pp. 46.

Bulletin of the Scientific Laboratories of Deni-
son University. Edited by C. L. Herrick, Gran-
ville, Ohio. Pp. 136, with Tables and Plates.

American Society of Microscopists. Eighth An-
nual Meeting, August. 1SS5; Proceedings. D. 8.
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Reflex Irritation from Hypertrophy of Labia
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Electric Lighting : Its Present Condition. By
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135

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POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Glacial Elevations of the New England
Coast. Professor N. S. Shaler, in the course
of his studies to investigate the origin of
kames or " Indian ridges," which are particu-
larly abundant and characteristic along the
New England sea-coast south of Portland,
Maine, has been led to the conclusion that
the glacial submergence along this coast was
much greater than is commonly assumed.
Very distinct cross-bedded sands in exten-
sive sheets occur at points as much as one
hundred and seventy feet above high tide,
in positions where, owing to the contour
of the ground, one can not believe that
they were formed in any inclosed basin of
fresh water. They are found at Randolph
Station, on the Old Colony Railway, and
about Attleboro, Massachusetts, at heights
of from one hundred and ninety to two
hundred feet. These deposits were clearly
distributed by tidal action, and, as we must
suppose that the water lay to the depth of
fifty feet or so above the place of the de-
posit, there must have been something like
two hundred feet of depression along this
shore where the glacier left it. Between
this level and the present shore -line the
kames are plentifully scattered. In consid-
eration of their delicate structure and sharp

13 6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

outlines and other features, it is difficult to
see how they escaped the cutting action of
the sea-beach that must have been dragged
over all of this surface as it was emerging
from the sea. A single month of exposure
to such waves as act even in the more shel-
tered bays would entirely destroy their more
delicate outlines. After a careful examina-
tion of the evidence, Mr. Shaler has been
driven to suppose that at the close of the
glacial period the re-elevation of the land
must have been accomplished with a very
great suddenness.

The Genesis of Inventions. In a paper
read before the Anthropological Society of
Washington, on "The Genesis of Inven-
tions," Mr. Franklin A. Seely proposes the
term Eunematics to designate the study of
invention. He lays down, as fundamental
postulates of this science, that, given any
artificial implement or product, we must
assume that there was a time when it did
not exist ; that before it existed there must
have been a creature capable of producing
it ; and that such creature before producing
it must have been conscious of needing it,
or must have had use for it. Further, that
every human invention has sprung from
some prior invention or from some prior
known expedient; that inventions always
generate wants, and these wants generate
other inventions ; that the invention of tools
and implements proceeds by specialization ;
and that no art makes progress alone. The
last four of these propositions are verifiable
from the history of any and of all modern
inventions ; the three former are deduced,
and must be confirmed, if they need con-
firming, by the study of prehistoric inven-
tions. In illustration of their force, Mr.
Seely produces a theoretical study of the
invention of the stone hatchet, a tool which
represents the earliest human workmanship
of which any knowledge has come to us,
and presents in its rudest form the evi-
dences of being the fruit of long-antecedent
growth. When men used wooden poles for
pikes, they found that their weapons were
better if they were pointed. One man found
that he could point pikes by rubbing them
back and forth on a certain gritty stone he
had. Other men brought their pikes to
him to be sharpened. Then they found

that they could sharpen them themselves
on other stones. The sharp edge of a cliff
was found to be particularly good for this
purpose, and, when it was rubbed dull, an-
other cliff-edge was looked out. Then, by
some accident, the dulled cliff-edge was
broken off, and a new edge, possibly even
sharper than the old natural edge, was pre-
sented. The step was not long from this
discovery to designedly breaking off cliff-
edges. Then some one discovered that the
broken piece, fixed so as to be steady, or
held in the hands, would also cut. When
the stick-sharpener found that he could hold
the stick firmly and trim it by passing over
it the sharp stone held in the hand, he had
a flint knife. Another series of experi-
ments led to inserting the sharp stone into
a handle, and another series to the differ-
entiation of stones of different shapes and
sizes for various purposes. Parallel with
these processes were those of the develop-
ment of cords for tying, from the first acci-
dental shred of bark to fabricated strings
of twisted bark or cut strips of hide.

Parental Peculiarities in Fishes and
Frogs. Fish and frogs arc not usually re-
garded as very careful parents, but a few
species exercise something like a particular
care for their young. Sticklebacks build
nests for the reception of the eggs, and the
males watch them and defend them against
intruders. The males of sea-horses {Hippo-
campi) and pipe-fishes are provided with
pouches in the under side of the body, re-
minding us of those of the opossum, in
which the eggs are put after having been
cast by the female, and are cared for till
they are developed. These pouches seem
also to be a kind of home for the young.
The female of the genus Solenostoma also
has a pouch, formed by the union of the
ventral fins with the body, in which the
ejrS are laid and hatched, and this is fur-
nished with a series of long, thread-like
bodies bearing small projections, for the
attachment of the eggs, and possibly for
the nutrition of the young. The skin and
tissues of the under-body of the mother As-
predo y when the egg-laying season comes
round, assumes a soft, spongy texture, to
which the eggs adhere till they are hatched,
when the skin becomes smooth again. The

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

l 37

male of the Arins of Ceylon and the Chio-
nais of the Sea of Galilee carry the eggs in
the back part of the mouth. The eggs of
dog-fishes, sharks, skates, and rays are in-
closed in capsules which in texture resem-
ble a bit of sea-weed. The mother-frog of
the Alytes obstetricans lays her eggs in long
chains of sixty or more. The male takes
this string, twines it around his thighs, and
retires till the young are ready to leave the
ejrg : then he goes into the water, and the
young swim out. The eggs of the Ameri-
can frogs are placed in pouches in the back
of the mother, and in the Surinam toad the
egg and the tadpole go through their full
development thus inclosed, each in its own
cell, till, when they emerge, they differ only
in size from the parent. More than one
hundred and twenty of these tadpole-cells
have been counted in the back of a single
female of this species. A Chilian frog has '
the organs, corresponding with the " vocal
sacs" of our bull-frogs greatly distended, !
and the young are hatched in these. The j
exaggeration of these organs has produced j
more or less of distortion in other parts of
the animal.

Happy Tenant-Farmers. A writer in
" Chambers's Journal " holds up Lord Tolle- j
mache, of Peckforton Castle, Cheshire, as
a landlord who has found a plan of dealing
with his tenants that satisfies his farmers,
his laborers, and himself, and which is work-
ing with encouraging results. This propri-
etor set out to establish cottage-farms upon
his estate, for the purpose of attaining three
results : To satisfy the natural and praise-
worthy desire of the laborers to have a cow,
and land to maintain it ; to train the rising
generation of laborers' children from infan-
cy in dairying and agricultural pursuits ;
and to secure a supply of high-class labor-
ers for his large tenant-farmers. All of
these results are in process of accomplish-
ment. The cottage-farms consist of house-
inclosures the houses being built in pairs
and fitted with conveniences of about half
a rood of garden-land each, with a tract
attached, including pasture, of about three
acres, and are leased at a fixed rent of fifty
dollars a year, for twenty-one years. The
laborers thus housed are declared markedly
superior to those of their class in most

counties. "Their wives are robust, their
children are unusually intelligent, and the
social atmosphere of the neighborhood is
exhilarating. In every house visited the
furniture was good and excellently cared
for. Neatness and cleanliness were evi-
dently habitual. . . . And it is the proud
boast of the neighborhood that the laborers
on the Tollemache estates are unexcelled
in England." As a consequence of this
system, "while dread and perplexity per-
vade the shires, the happy dwellers upon
Lord Tollemache's estate are at peace. Ev-
ery large farm is occupied, and the obtain-
ing of one is the great object of those liv-
ing outside."

Automatic Fire - Extingnishers. Pro-
fessor Silvanus P. Thompson, in a recent
address before the Society of Arts, dwelt
upon the fact that great fires usually owe
their magnitude and their consequent ter-
rors to the circumstance that a certain in-
terval of time necessarily elapses before
any application is made to extinguish them
because no one is at hand and ready to
act on the instant. It is to the fatal two
minutes or five minutes that pass before
help arrives, that the mischief is due. Noth-
ing but a self-acting or automatic system,
which will operate at the right moment and
at the very spot, without the intervention of
the human hand, will meet the case. Au-
tomatic systems exist, and are of several
kinds, and efficient. Automatic sprinklers
are self-acting valves connected with a sys-
tem of water-pipes placed in the ceiling of
a room, which, on the outbreak of a fire,
open and distribute water in a shower or
spray exactly at the place where the fire
breaks out. The apparatus may be arranged
so that, whenever it is called into operation
by the heat, it shall sound an alarm-bell
and summon aid to the spot. These devices
are relied upon in many of the manufactur-
ing establishments of New England, with
an estimated reduction of the risk of con-
flagration to one twentieth of what it for-
merly was. Several designs for sprinklers
depend for their efficacy on the melting of
some kind of easily fusible solder or cement
by the heat of the incipient fire, and the
consequent loosening of the valve which
holds the water back. The obvious requi-

i 3 8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sites of a good sprinkler are that the solder
should fuse at a low and well-defined tem-
perature, without any appreciable prior soft-
ening; that the mechanism should not be
liable to get out of order or stick ; that the
parts opened by heat should be capable of
ready replacement without skilled labor;
that there should be no leakage at the
valve ; and that the quantity of solder to be
melted should be small, and so placed that
it is not cooled by contact with too great a
mass of metal, or exposed to the drip of the
opening valve. Closely allied to the auto-
matic sprinkler proper is the system of
sprinkling by perforated pipes through an
automatic valve. The automatic fire-door,
which should not be of iron, because it curls
up, but of wood protected by sheathings of
tin-plate, is arranged to shut on an inclined
track, and is kept open by a rod made with
a scarf -joint in two parts twisted in the
center, and secured by a fusible solder ; or
the door may be held by a cord holding a
weight, the fall of which releases the door ;
the fall to be produced by the melting of a
solder set in some convenient part of the
cord. Another class of devices depends
upon the introduction into the electric cir-
cuit of a fusible link, the melting of which
breaks the circuit ; or into the broken cir-
cuit of a strained catgut band, the contrac-
tion of which by the heat brings the wires
into contact. In one of the applications of
this system a reservoir of carbonic acid is
opened and the acid distributed. Mr. John
has invented an arrangement for making the
hand grenade extinguisher automatic. He
proposes to hang the grenade at the top of
a room in a sort of a cage, which is pro-
vided with a small button held together with
fusible alloy. When that is affected by the
ascending hot air, the button bursts, and the
cage opens and allows the grenade to fall,
while an iron weight follows it, and, break-
ing it in mid-air, causes the liquid to be
sprinkled about.

Parasitic Fungi on Plants. Professor
T. J. Burrill, in a paper of the Illinois State
Laboratory of Natural History on the para-
sitic fungi of the State, remarks with ref-
erence to the nature of these pests, that
" during the last part of the first half of
this century learned discussions arose upon

the specific distinction between the parasite
and the host, and esteemed botanists held
the view that what was taken for the for-
mer was but a diseased condition of the lat-
ter the rust of wheat, for example, was
only the degraded cell-tissues of the wheat
itself. Such difference of opinion, however,
no longer exists among those who have pos-
session of the information now acquired.
The tissues of higher plants do not change
by any process of degradation or transfor-
mation into the things called fungi, neither
do the latter originate in any other manner
than as descendants of pre-existing forms
through as rigid specific lines as can be
traced among any animals or plants. It is
known, too, that however much the fungus
is found within the tissues of the host-plant,
it began its growth outside of the latter,
and gained introduction only by forcible en-
trance. Spores are never taken up by ab-
sorption and carried by the aqueous cur-
rents from part to part of the plant. The
fungus passes through the tissues very much
as roots pass through soil, sometimes appar-
ently without in any degree successful op-
position, sometimes nearly or quite baffled
in the struggle by the mechanical and physio-
logical resistances of the host-plant."

The Punjab. The Punjab derives its
name which means " five waters " from
the five great rivers traversing it the Jhe-
lum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej which,
united, flow into the Indus about five hun-
dred miles above its mouth. In early times
the country was called the land of the
" seven rivers," and the Indus itself, on the
one side, and the Saraswati, on the other
side, were counted in addition to the five
streams already named. The Saraswati,
according to General R. Maclagan, presents
an interesting problem. All the other rivers
of the seven take their rise in the snows of
lofty mountains, and, being fed from unfail-
ing sources, are always great streams ; but
the Saraswati rises in the low outer hills,
depends on periodical rains only, and, while
subject to floods, is dry for a great part of
the vear. Even in the flood season, the
water with which its upper valley is inun-
dated runs off so quickly that it all disap-
pears before it can reach the Sutlej or the
Indus. Yet in the ancient Indian writings

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

*39

it is described as a mighty river like the
others. The name, which means "having
running water," seems to mark it as a con-
stant as well as powerful stream, and is ap-
plied as an epithet to the Indus and other
great rivers. The volume of the stream
may have been partly affected by the changes
which the country in general has undergone,
but a considerable part of the discrepancy
must be attributed to the poetic character
of the Vedas and the imperfect knowledge
which the Sanskrit people may have pos-
sessed of the character of this river. In the
later writing, dating from about the sixth
century b. C, the Saraswati is said to sink
into the earth and to pass underground to
join the Ganges and the Jumna at their con-
fluence. The people had then gone farther
into the country, and had become better ac-
quainted with the Saraswati.

Influence of Direct Solar Heat on Vege-
tation. Mr. M. Buysman has published a
paper on the " Influence of Direct Sunlight
on Vegetation." On account of the con-
stant high temperature in the tropical re-
gions, plants there are less dependent on
direct solar heat than in the temperate and
frigid zones, but there are some even there
which require thi3 condition for their luxu-
riant growth. Among these are the date-
palm and the sugar-cane. In the warm
temperate zone, the orange grows best in
the direct sunlight, and the vine requires
the heat of after-summer to ripen its fruits.
Everywhere, whether in the warm or tem-
perate region, corn is grown with success
wherever there is in summer direct sun-
light enough to ripen its grains. On high-
lands, the influence of insolation is very
much increased. But the solar warmth of
the after-summer is necessary to ripen the
fruits of the most important plants ; and
it is for lack of this, and not from any de-
ficiency in the mean temperature, that the
vine can not be cultivated successfully in
cloudy England. The limit of corn culti-
vation ascends on the continent generally
farther to the north than on the shores. In
Norway, it reaches 70 ; at Fort Norman,
Canada, 65 ; at Yakutsk, Siberia, 62 ; on
the northeast shores of Asia and the north-
eastern shores of America, nearly to 50 ;
on the western shores of America, 57. No- !

where else is the influence of insolation
more distinctly observed than in the Arctic
regions. Richardson remarks, of the vicin-
ity of Slave River, near 60 north latitude,
that he had never felt the heat of the trop-
ics so oppressive as he experienced it on
some occasions in those regions, though the
sun's rays are there always horizontal in-
stead of vertical, as i3 the case in the trop-
ical countries. This is because in summer
the sun rests above the horizon. In Nova
Zembla the vegetation is, in places exposed
to the sun's rays, " like an arctic flower-
garden," for the surface of the soil is not
covered with grass as in the temperate re-
gions ; and the flowers are of a much greater
size than the leaves. In the Tundra of Si-
beria, on the declivities of hills sheltered
from the winds and exposed vertically to
the sun's rays, the same herbaceous vegeta-
tion, with its large, splendidly colored flow-
ers, is observed, but this is not the case in
plains where the sunlight in its horizontal
direction can not have so much influence on
the vegetation of the frozen ground. There-
fore these plains are in general really des-
erts, covered only with moss. Insolation is
also the cause of the rich vegetation in
some parts of the mountains in the tem-
perate zone. Even in the most northern
regions there can be a rich vegetation
where the plants in sheltered localities are
exposed to the sun. Several instances are
mentioned by Mr. Buysman in which plants
have been found blooming in these regions
while their roots were frozen.

A Bee Nuisance. Iff. Delpech, of the
Hygienic Council of the Department of the
Seine, has published a report on the damage
done by bees and the dangers resulting
from the existence of apiaries in the city
of Paris. The bees, it appears, have be-
come a real and formidable nuisance in
some parts of Paris, especially in the neigh-
borhood of the sugar-refineries and the rail-
way-stations, where hundreds of stands are
kept. The extent of their depredations
upon the Say sugar-refinery is estimated at
25,000 francs, or $5,000, a year. A glass
filled with sirup will be emptied by them
in less than two hours; and, if a trap is
set, more than a hectolitre, or nearly three
bushels of them, may be caught in a day.

140

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The laborers in the refinery, who have to
work half naked, and whose skin is soiled
with molasses, suffer greatly from them, so
much that operations have to be suspended
at times. Children in the schools near the
bee-stands are frequently stung, and horses
passing in the neighborhood are in constant
danger. M. Delpech maintains that bees
are in reality much more dangerous than is
generally believed. He makes a triple classi-
fication of the accidents that may arise from
the wounds they inflict: 1. Trifling acci-
dents, with heat and swelling, followed by
a feeling of oppression and itching; 2.
More serious accidents, which are cured,
beginning with the same symptoms as the
former, followed by great weakness, pre-
cordial anxiety, cold in the extremities, nau-
sea, insupportable headache, often by net-
tle-rash, and sometimes by convulsive and
tetanic symptoms; 3. Accidents resulting
in death, which often speedily follows stings
in the face, head, neck, etc. The fatal ter-
mination is preceded by two kinds of symp-
toms those resulting from local lesions,
the exceptional gravity of which is due to
the seat of the injury, as where a swelling
in the throat is produced resulting in as-
phyxia ; and those in which the toxic action
of the poison introduced into the circula-
tion seems to be the immediate cause of
death. In this case we have a condition of
syncope and asphyxia, with signs of con-
vulsion and tetanus. A considerable num-
ber of cases of death resulting from bee-
stings are cited in the report.

Ancient Honse Sanitation. Dr. *W. H.

Corfield reviewed the " History of House
Sanitation " in an address which he recently
delivered, as president, before the English
Society of Medical Officers of Health. The
necessity of removing surplus rain-water for
preventing dampness in the soil of resi-
dences has been recognized from the most
ancient times, and found emphatic expres-
sion in Rome twenty -five hundred years
ago, when a grand drainage system for the
city, a part of which is still in operation,
was constructed by Tarquin the Elder ; and
the main drain of his work, " The Cloaca
Maxima," is styled by Dr. Corfield "the
great pattern of all drains." The device
for deodorizing excrement by mixing it with

dry earth is at least as old as the time
of Moses. According to Livy, the Cloaca
Maxima was used also to carry away the
filth of the city ; and, according to Mr. Bald-
win Latham, the water-closet is a very an-
cient device, the use of which "has been
traced to all nations that had arrived at a
certain degree of refinement." They were
probably of Asiatic origin. They wei'e in-
troduced into Rome during the republic;
and remains of them have been found in the
Palace of the Cassars at Rome, and in the
ruins of Pompeii.

A IVew Prospective Source of Heat. Mr.

J. Starkie Gardner has published a paper on
the utilization of the underground heat of the
earth. He holds that the crust of the earth
is thin, and that its movements are more
compatible with a thickness of ten than of
fifty miles. The deepest artesian well in
the world is being bored at Pesth, Hungary,
with the object of securing an unlimited
supply of warm water for the city baths,
and has already reached a depth of more
than three thousand feet. The present tem-
perature of the water is 161 Fahr., and the
borings will be prosecuted till water of 178
is obtained. " It needs no seer," says Mr.
Gardner, " to pierce the not distant future
when we shall be driven to every expedient
to discover modes of obtaining heat without
the consumption of fuel, and the perhaps
far more remote future when we shall bore
shafts down to the liquid layer, and conduct
our smelting operations at the pit's mouth."

Bacteria nnder nigh Pressure. M. A.

Certes has reported on experiments which he
has made on the decomposition of organic
matter under high pressure, with the pur-
pose of ascertaining whether the process
takes place in the depths of the sea in the
same manner as in the open air. He found
that bacteria thrive and increase under
pressures of from three hundred to six hun-
dred atmospheres, almost as in a normal
temperature, except that the microbes are
different and the results of their action have
only a feeble instead of a strong odor, and
are acid instead of alkaline in their reaction.
M. Certes will continue his experiments in
the winter at the normal temperature of the
sea depths, or 39.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

141

Canadian Forest PreserYation. In his

paper at the American Forestry Congress,
on "Forest Preservation in Canada," Mr.
A. T. Drummond sketched a plan for the
preservation and renewal of forests which
might in some respects be equally applica-
ble to the United States and Canada. Leases
of public timber areas should be restricted
to definite periods of five or at most seven
years, with a rule that, after the expiration
of the lease, the land should have rest for
twenty years to allow the young timber to
grow up. The timber limits should be re-
stricted in size to about fifty square miles,
as is now done in Manitoba. This would
enable the Government more systematically
to carry out the system of alternate leases
and rests. The production of square tim-
ber should be discouraged, on account of
the great waste of material in forming the
square log, and of the additional food for
forest-fires which the waste material cre-
ates. The cutting on public lands of trees
under twelve inches at the stump should be
punishable by a heavy fine. This would
have the effect of preserving the younger
trees till they attained a merchantable size.
The starting of forest-fires should be made
criminal. Wherever the forests have been
cut over by the lumbermen and wherever
fires have swept through areas of public
lands not specially suitable or available for
settlement, reserving or replanting with
proper kinds of timber should be attended
to. Lastly, the forests should be put under
the charge of suitable officers.

Sea Air and Mountain Air. In a paper
on "the Climatic Treatment of Phthisis,"
Dr. Harold Williams, of Boston, considers
the question of what conditions make a
climate say of the sea or the mountains, to
either of which patients are generally sent
favorable for the treatment of consumption.
They can not be conditions of moisture, or
of atmospheric pressure, or of variability of
temperature, for these are opposite on the
sea and on mountains. The only conditions
in which the two classes of location agree
with any precision are those of purity of
air and of the proportion of ozone constitu-
ent. Sea air contains small quantities of
saline particles, and of iodine and bromine,
while mountain air is usually lower in tem-

perature and more diathermanous ; but these
are not regarded as essential qualities. One
fact to be regarded in considering the ques-
tion is that, with or without treatment, cer-
tain cases of phthisis naturally tend to re-
covery. Another fact is that any change of
climate which is often accompanied by a
change of scene, of habits, of exercise, of
food, of dress, of thought, and of surround-
ings is of importance in cases of disease.
When all the meteorological differences be-
tween the air of the mountains and the air
of the sea are summed up, the sea-air seems
to possess certain possible advantage over
that of the mountains, " in that it is warmer
and purer, and that it presents slighter va-
riations, both of temperature and humidity.
But this, it must be remembered, is the air
over the sea itself, air that can only be pre-
scribed through the medium of ocean voy-
ages, a prescription open to the grave ob-
jections of idiosyncrasy against the sea ;
sea-sickness ; anxiety at leaving friends,
fears of dangers, lack of companionship,
variety, and exercise ; and, above all, inferi-
ority of food. Added to which is the diffi-
culty of selecting a voyage which shall ex-
tend over a sufficiently long period of time."
Hence sea air, though perhaps the best of
all kinds, is really available for only a few.
Island and seaboard stations resemble most
nearly the sea, but differ from it with re-
spect to variations of temperature and hu-
midity, and purity of the air. " Physiologi-
cally speaking, therefore, it may be said that
mountain air is no better than island or sea-
board air, because it is colder and more lia-
ble to sudden and excessive changes of tem-
perature, while, on the other hand, it may
be contended that island or seaboard air is
no better than mountain air, because of its
diminished purity." An important factor
always to be consulted is the idiosyncrasy
of the particular patient, for or against the
sea or the mountains. "We must admit
that, in the present state of our knowledge,
the meteorological differences of climate
have been proved to be of little importance
in the treatment of phthisis." But there
are probably beneficial effects of a change
of climate which we may regard as due to
factors common to all groups of health re-
sorts, and which vary only in degree. These
factors are : the change itself ; the purity

142

TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the air ; the increased number of hours
of open-air exercise permitted ; and the im-
proved hygienic surroundings of the patient.
An ideal health resort for consumption
" should be sparsely and newly settled. It
should possess a pure water-supply and ade-
quate drainage. It should be of a dry and
porous soil, and should be favorably situ-
ated with respect to neighboring heights
and marshes and prevailing winds. It
should be equable in temperature and
should possess the maximum of pleasant
weather. It should not be so hot as to be
enervating, nor so cold as to prevent out-
door exercise and proper ventilation of the
houses. It should afford plenty of amuse-
ment ; it should not be crowded with con-
sumptives, and it should be sufficiently
unfashionable to admit of hygienic dress.
Above all, it should afford suitable accom-
modations for the invalid."

Intelligence of Swallows. Professor
Grant Allen, speaking of swallows, says
that no other race has lived in such close
connection with man and yet learned so
little from his companionship. Still, they
show some signs of intelligence. In mak-
ing the mud walls of their nests, for in-
stance, they allow each layer to dry thor-
oughly before proceeding to top it by
another course. In acquiring the habit of
building in chimneys, which has been car-
ried to swallows by the westward course
of civilization, they exhibit some faculty of
adaptation. As a rule they place their nest
five or six feet below the top of the chim-
ney, to keep it out of the way of owls, not
directly over the kitchen-fire, but over an
adjoining flue. And it requires some art to
get down into the shaft. The emergence of
the young swallows from this place is a re-
markable instance of intelligent action still
wavering on the brink of mere hardened in-
stinct. As soon as they are strong enough
to move, the chicks clamber rather than fly
up the perpendicular shaft, by beating their
wings " in some ineffectual compromise be-
tween a flop and a flutter." Often they fail
and fall crushed to the hearth. Then, hav-
ing reached the summit, it is some time be-
fore they venture upon flight, and they ac-
quire the art only by degrees as it were.
Mr. Romanes has collected a few yet more

unequivocal cases of intelligence in swal-
lows. In one case a bell-wire, on which a
swallow's nest partly rested, twice demol-
ished it. Convinced that it was a dangerous
object, they constructed a tunnel for the wire
to pass through, and were troubled by it no
more. In another case a pair of swallows
were molested by sparrows trying to dispos-
sess them of their nest. They thereupon
modified the entrance to their home, so that,
instead of opening by a simple hole, it was
carried on outward in the form of a tunnel.
Instances are recorded where several swal-
lows have combined to drive away sparrows
which had robbed a pair of comrades of
their nest.

A Pony Champion." Land and Water"
has a remarkable story of a pony which
saved its master from destruction by a sav-
age dog. The master, a clergyman residing
in a lonely neighborhood, was going, with
the pony, a retriever, and a Dachshund, while
obeying a call to visit a sick parishioner in
the night, past a shepherd's cottage where
a very fierce dog was kept. This dog, hav-
ing got loose, made an attack on the party,
trying the retriever first and then the Dachs-
hund. The pony became frightened, and
the master dismounted, when the dog turned
upon him. The affair became very serious
for the clergyman ; the Dachshund had
been put out of the combat, the retriever had
hid behind the hedge, and he had to keep
up the fight alone, with no other weap-
on than a riding-whip. Then he "heard a
scampering, and the next moment the faith-
ful pony rushed up and darted so suddenly
between the combatants that the dog turned
tail and fled, evidently thinking the pony to
be a larger and dangerous edition of him-
self. The gallant little fellow pursued the
cur until he was fairly chased back to the
cottage-door. Then he returned quite do-
cile to his master, and the friendly quartet
were able to continue their way in peace
and safety once more."

NOTES.

A reproduction in phototype of seven-
teen pages of a Syriac manuscript, contain-
ing the epistles known as the " Antilegome-
na," is to be published by the Johns Hopkins
University, under the editorial supervision

NOTES.

143

of Professor Isaac H. Hall. The manuscript
consists of the Acts and Catholic Epistles,
and the Pauline Epistles, with Hebrews, to-
gether with tables to find Easter, etc., tables
of ecclesiastical lessons, and a poem giving
the history of the genesis of the manu-
script.

Professor Germain See, of Paris, re-
marks, concerning the alimentary impor-
tance of water, that it is essential to dissolve
the salts taken in with the food and elimi-
nate them from the system. He denies that
man can live on a purely vegetable diet,
and points out that the vegetarians them-
selves confess the fallacy of their theory by
using eggs, milk, and butter, by which they
make up for the want of solid meat.

Professor H. A. Rowland, of Johns
Hopkins University, has completed a photo-
graphic map of the solar spectrum, from
wave-length 3,680 to 5,7^0, and has nearly
ready the portion above 3,680, to the ex-
tremity of the ultra-violet, wave-length
about 3,100. A scale of wave-lengths has
been added, and the whole is claimed to be
more exact and give greater detail than any
other map in existence. While the error in
wave-length at no part exceeds ttotiWi the
wave-lengths of more than 200 lines in the
spectrum have been accurately determined
to 5 00* 00 P art -

A comical feature of the almanacs pub-
lished for use in Belgium has been brought
to light. With the exception of two scien-
tific works, whose editions are limited, they
are all 495,000 out of a total of 500,000
copies a year calculated for Paris. They
give the times of the rising of the sun and
moon, in which the local difference is often
fifteen minutes, for Paris, making at cer-
tain seasons the day half an hour longer
or shorter than it actually is in Belgium !
Eclipses are calculated in detail as for Paris,
even if they will not be seen at all in Bel-
gium ; and, if such an event should occur
as an eclipse visible in Belgium which will
not be seen in Paris, the almanac will know
nothing about it. The " Grand double Al-
manack de Liege " does not recognize any of
the discoveries that have been made in the
solar system during the last three quarters
of a century!

In addition to three cases previously re-
ported for the current season, the " Lancet "
records, in three weeks, three other deaths
occasioned by accidents in playing foot-ball.
In one case, the victim was kicked in the
stomach by an opposing player ; the second
case was also traced to a kick in the stom-
ach, followed in time by fits ; and, in the
third case, the player's head, in the rush,
was doubled under his breast, and the spinal
cord was ruptured. Evidently a reform is
needed in the conduct of this game.

An Association for the Protection of
Plants was formed at Geneva in January,
1883. On the 1st of January, 1885, it num-
bered 226 members, resident in eight can-
tons of Switzerland, with correspondents in
France, Belgium, England, and Italy. It has
established a garden of acclimatization for
Alpine plants, and has distributed the seeds
of five hundred species for cultivation in
other countries. It has also received, by
gifts or exchange, seeds from other coun-
tries for its own botanical garden. Its latest
" Bulletin " contains a paper on a local flora
near Geneva, and a paper by Henry Corre-
von, director of the garden at Geneva, rec-
ommending the cultivation of the edelweiss.

M. Forel has made a communication on
the behavior of rivers derived from glaciers,
like the Rhine and the Rhone, when they
run across lakes. They have been found
to preserve their distinct existence, and to
continue their course in deep ravines exca-
vated through the lake-bottoms. The ra-
vine of the Rhine in the Lake of Constance
has been traced for five kilometres in length
and to 1'65 metres below the level of the
water. Where it is most largely developed,
it is six hundred metres wide and seventy
metres deep. The ravine of the Rhone is
of similar dimensions, and has been traced
for six kilometres. The course of these
ravines is tortuous. They appear to be
of recent origin, or in course of formation,
and are a result of the superior density of
the cold, sediment-charged glacial water of
the rivers.

The anti-vivisectionists predicted, some
years ago, that the investigators to whose
objects they are " anti " would come at last
to experiment on the human subject. Mr.
W. Mattieu Williams has become aware of
three instances in which this horrible pre-
diction has been fulfilled, in each case with
the full consent of the subject and without
injury to him. Pasteur has mutilated hu-
man skin and moistened the blood with
the poisonous secretions of mad rabbits.
Dr. B. W. Richardson has invented a pain-
less cutting-knife, and has tested it upon his
own arm. And Mr. Harrison Branthwaite,
in the interest of temperance, has adminis-
tered brandy, for the purpose of testing its
thermic effects, to three classes of persons
habitual drunkards, moderate drinkers, and
abstainers.

MM. Millardet and Gayon, having ma-
nured the vine with sulphate of copper,
mixed with lime, find that most of the cop-
per is deposited in the leaf, while merely a
doubtful trace can be found in the juice of
the grape. Other experiments, with other
salts and other plants, indicate that the
chlorophyl of the leaves is the most active
agent in picking up the foreign matter.

144

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The London "Sanitary World" pub-
lishes regulaily a " Black-list," including
the names of dealers who have been proved
to be selling falsified or adulterated goods.
It intends to secure for this list the records
of all proceedings under the Foods Act, and
against the owners of rookeries, throughout
England, so that the people of all the vil-
lages can learn at once who is cheating them
and selling them unwholesome goods.

A new artificial fire-proof stone or plas-
ter has been invented, the principal con-
stituent of which is the mineral asbestine, a
silicate of magnesium. This is mixed with
powdered flint and caustic potash, and with
sufficient water-glass (silicate of soda) to
make it into an adhesive plaster. It is fur-
ther mixed with sand before use. It does
not require lathing, but adheres to a smooth
surface, and may be applied upon a wall or
ceiling of sheet-iron.

For fixing soils in embankments, or
where there is wash, reliance is usually
placed upon the roots of grass or other
plants ; and long delays are often incurred,
with frequent renewals and repairs of gul-
leys, before a network of roots can be ob-
tained capable of giving a firm foundation.
M. Cambier, of the French railway service,
has found in the double poppy a most
valuable plant for this purpose. It grows
quickly, and helps to support the soil in
about two weeks, while, at the end of three
or four months, it forms a stronger net-
work of roots than any grass known. It is
an annual, but sows itself after the first
year.

According to the Newcastle (England)
"Journal," Mr. Walter McDonald, of Ilder-
ton, near Wooler, while trying to clear a
dam which had been clogged by a freshet,
fell into a snow-drift, and might have been
buried in it but for the extraordinary sa-
gacity of his collie dog. He was struggling
to reach the branch of a tree that overhung
him, which the dog observing, it sprang at
the branch, pulled it down, and held it with-
in its master's reach till he was able to get
a hold upon it.

Mr. Clemens Winkler, of Freiburg, Sax-
ony, announces the discovery by himself, in
the new mineral argyrodite, of a new non-
metallic element, closely related to arsenic
and antimony, to which he has given the
name of Germanium.

OBITUARY NOTES.

Professor John L. Campbell, of the
chair of Geology and Chemistry in Wash-
ington and Lee University, died at Lexing-
ton, Virginia, February 2d, in the sixty-fifth
year of his age. He had been a professor at

Lexington since 1851. He was the author
of contributions on "Virginian Geology in
American Science," his last paper having
been a review of the geological reports of
Professor W. B. Rogers.

The death of M. Jules Jamin, Perpetual
Secretary of the Section of Physical Science
in the Paris Academy of Sciences, is an-
nounced. He was born in 1813, was elected
a member of the Academy in 1858, was an
eloquent teacher and debater, and a fre-
quent contributor to the " Revue des Deux
Mondes " ; he published many papers in the
" Transactions " of the Academy, was author
of a course in physics for the Polytechnic
School, and had patented an electric light.

Mr. Charles William Peach, who was
distinguished as a field geologist of the
southern coasts of England, died in Edin-
burgh on the 28th of February, in his
eighty-sixth year. He was the son of a
country mechanic and inn - keeper, and
served in the revenue coast - guards for
twenty years, and afterward in the cus-
toms, for pay hardly ever much exceeding
five hundred dollars a year. He was an
industrious collector, and an indefatigable
hunter of new species ; he became very early
acquainted with the marine fauna of his dis-
tricts ; first detected the lower Silurian fos-
sils in the supposed Azoic rocks of Corn-
wall ; furnished the Polytechnic Society in
1843 a valuable paper on land and fresh-
water shells and marine animals; discov-
ered the fossils in the altered rocks of the
Highlands, which enabled Murchison to elu-
cidate the structure of that region ; and has
been said by a living geologist to have done
more in the field of old red sandstone fos-
sils "than all other geologists put to-
gether."

Charles James Edward Morren, Pro-
fessor of Botany in the University of Liege,
died February 28th, in his sixty-third year.
He was a son of Professor Charles Morren,
of the University of Ghent, who was after-
ward Professor of Botany in the University
of Liege. Being called upon to assist his
father in teaching, he prepared, as his espe-
cial examination thesis for the doctorate, a
dissertation on green and colored leaves, by
which he first became known to the botan-
ists of Europe. He succeeded his father as
full professor in 1858. He was founder of
the Botanical Institute of Liege ; editor of
the " Belgique Horticole," and author of nu-
merous memoirs and academic dissertations
on questions of botany, chemistry, and vege-
table physiology.

Dr. Heinrich Fischer, mineralogist and
Professor at the Freiburg University, is dead.
He was best known by his book on " Jadite
and Nephrite."

GEORGE ENGELMANN.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1886.

EVOLUTION BOUNDED BY THEOLOGY.

By W. D. LE SUETJK, B. A.

TTNDER the title of "Evolution and Theology," Dr. Lyman Ab-
vJ bott, in the December number of the " Andover Review," under-
takes to indicate certain doctrines to which the philosophy of evolution
will have to adapt itself, under penalty of being brought to naught.
These doctrines, he seems to consider, lend themselves in an especial
manner to vigorous and effective pulpit treatment ; and his advice to
the clergy is to insist as powerfully as possible upon these, and to
"leave severely alone doubtful interpretations of the third chapter of
Genesis, and doubtful discussions respecting the origin of the race."
In other words, the difficulties raised by science in regard to the Bibli-
cal account of creation are to be quietly ignored, while all possible use
is to be made for purposes of edification of such doctrines as appeal
most powerfully to the religious emotions. One may agree with the
writer that it is not well to spend time upon "doubtful interpreta-
tions," and yet hold that it would not be useless to inquire whether a
narrative accepted by thousands as historically true has any just claim
to be so regarded. A certain passage in Homer might be considered
by critics as hopelessly " corrupt " ; but the fact of our giving up the
effort to interpret it would not stand in the way of our forming an
opinion as to whether the Homeric tale of Troy was to be accepted as
sober history. What simple-minded people want to know, in regard
to the early chapters of Genesis, is whether or not they are true, and
this issue can not be evaded by any talk about " doubtful interpreta-
tions." What is meant, after all, by " doubtful interpretations " ? Is
it meant that it is impossible to put any certain interpretation upon
the chapters in question ? That difficulty was not felt in former times,
when days counted as days, and the geological record was as yet un-

VOL. XXIX. 10

146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

read. There is, however, probably no use in pressing this point fur-
ther. Dr. Abbott simply formulates a policy the policy of those who
know enough and have reflected sufficiently to understand that the
recent work of science calls for some readjustment of ancient opinions
even in theological matters, but who would prefer not to ascertain too
precisely what the amount of that necessary readjustment is. There
are others, of course, who make no terms with the scientific enemy, and
persist in holding all declarations of Scripture as equally challenging
and commanding the most submissive acceptance. Thus Mr. Moody,
not long ago, desiring to flout the skeptics with an extreme example,
declared his firm belief in the historical truth of the narrative of
Jonah ! The doctrine of evolution does not trouble Mr. Moody in the
least. He takes the Bible as he finds it, disdaining all criticism that
does not start from the assumption of its infallibility. The position
of Dr. Lyman Abbott is different : evolution troubles him just to this
extent, that he would apparently like to chain it to three theological
cannon-balls, and then let it roam about with whatever ease and free-
dom might be possible to it under the circumstances.

It becomes a question, therefore, whether the proposed limitations
of the doctrine of evolution, or rather of philosophy in general, can
be accepted without sacrifice of the supreme interests of truth. The
latter truth in the widest sense is and must be the ultimate stand-
ard. However valuable or important a system of thought may be in
the eyes of its adherents, it can not safely be made a standard by which
to test other doctrines : these may always claim a free and fair trial
apart from all presumptions created by the credit attached to estab-
lished opinions. Once make any system, the supreme arbiter, and an
intellectual tyranny has been created, the ultimate effects of which can
not fail to be disastrous. The world has seen such tyrannies in the
past ; and, unhappily, is not rid of them in the present. The Romish
Church is such a tyranny, setting itself up, as it does, as the supreme
arbiter of truth. The Westminster Confession is the symbol of an-
other tyranny of an essentially similar character. Could certain per-
sons to-day have their way, a kind of composite evangelical doctrine
would have its place in public-school instruction, and would thus be
created into a tyranny over the community at large. " Ye know not
what mind ye are of," was said by the founder of Christianity to some
of the more zealous of his disciples ; and the remark might well be
addressed to-day to those who are trying to gain for their private be-
liefs the authority and support of the state. Could they have their
way, the time would undoubtedly come when they would rue it.

Before proceeding to define the doctrines by which he would pro-
pose to check the hypothesis of evolution, Dr. Abbott assigns to the
scientist and the theologian the fields in which they are respectively
permitted to. work, and describes their respective methods of opera-
tion. " The scientist," he tells us, " has external Nature for his field,

EVOLUTION BOUNDED BY THEOLOGY. i 47

and observation for his instrument of acquisition ; the theologian has
the human mind for his field, and consciousness for the instrument of
his observation." This seems to me, I must confess, a very singular
utterance. In the first place, why should the scientist be said to
have an "instrument of acquisition" namely, observation, and theology
only an instrument of observation f In what sense can consciousness
be said to be an " instrument of observation " ? And if it is an in-
strument at all, how is it that its use is confined to the theologians ?
No doubt the theologian requires consciousness in order to observe,
but so, I fancy, does everybody else. These objections, however, tend
only to show that Dr. Abbott has used some rather crude and ill-con-
sidered expressions ; but when we pass to his dictum that natural
science has to do only with external Nature, and not with the human
mind the latter falling within the exclusive domain of theology a
stronger protest becomes necessary. The word " natural " here pre-
fixed to science seems almost as if it were intended to smooth the
way for the acceptance of a larger doctrine than the writer cared to
put expressly forward. What many would like to think is that science
human science has nothing to do with mind. Dr. Abbott does not
go as far as this : he only says " natural science," meaning, doubtless, in
his own mind, physical science ; but those who want to hold the wider
proposition will either overlook the word "natural" altogether, or will
interpret it as opposed to "spiritual." The real question is, Does
science such science as man can construct by the aid of his natural
faculties throw any light on mind? If it does, then we are not left
entirely to theology to interpret mind for us. If it does not, and if
theology does, then let us place ourselves in the hands of theology ;
for assuredly the subject is one on which we want all the light we can
get. The real fact is, that science is pushing its researches into mind
with no less vigor than into material things ; and in the face of such
works as those of Bain, Spencer, Maudsley, Taine, Wundt, and
many others, it sounds very odd to find a well-known and able writer
claiming the whole field for theology.

To proceed, however, the first restriction which the evolution
philosophy is called upon to observe is expressed in the proposition
that " we are the children of God." " We " who ? The whole hu-
man family, it must be presumed, from the highest types of European
and American civilization to the most degraded savages that walk the
earth. This, we are told, is more than a revealed doctrine ; it is the
verdict of " the universal consciousness." If so, why put in a caveat
that evolution must not go counter to it ? Surely, if the very con-
sciousness of the evolutionists themselves, in common with that of the
masses of mankind, bears witness to this doctrine, it might be regarded
as reasonably secure against attack from any quarter. Yet evidently
Dr. Abbott, in spite of the sweeping character of his affirmation, has
doubts in regard to what the evolution philosophy may do or attempt

148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to do in the premises. How is this contradiction to be explained ?
The explanation, as we conceive, lies here : There are two aspects of
the doctrine to which the reverend doctor refers one the purely relig-
ious, the other what we may call the historico-theological. In regard
to the first of these he feels, and, as we hold, is justified in feeling,
unbounded certainty ; in regard to the second, he does not feel so
certain, and yet he can not help regarding it as essential to the integ-
rity of the first. It is the latter to which he fears the solvent of evo-
lution may be, if it has not already been, applied with disintegrating
effect.

Let us explain this further. The statement that we are the chil-
dren of God, in so far as it is an affirmation of consciousness, can only
mean that we feel related to the highest object or ideal that our minds
can frame. We may here make a new application of the poet's words :

" 'Tis fife whereof our nerves are scant
O life, not death, for which we pant;
More life and fuller that I want."

The "fuller life," for which we all, at one moment or another, pant,
is that which comes of subjection to the higher law. We feel that
evil in our nature bounds and hampers us on every side ; that through
it our lives are rendered poor and incomplete. This thirst for a higher,
fuller life, is as far removed as possible from mere self -worship, or any
kind of moral dilettanteism ; seeing that what we seek is not an addi-
tion to our individual forces for individual purposes, no mere higher
form of culture, but rather the perfecting of our nature through con-
scious relation with that which transcends and yet embraces it. " We
grow in elevation and nobleness of nature just in proportion as we
merge our individual life and happiness in the happiness and life of
others." These words of Dr. Caird's ("Scotch Sermons," page 36)
contain, as we think, in germ, the whole philosophy of religion. Mani-
festly, it is impossible to conceive that evolution, or anything else,
should ever destroy the forward and upward-reaching tendencies of
human nature, or, in other words, affect, in its religious aspect, the
affirmation that "we are children of God." Even those and in the
present day they are many who through fear of being misunder-
stood might refrain from using these precise words, would still be pre-
pared to understand in them the substantial and essentially religious
truth of man's dependence on and affinity with a higher unity than
that of his individual organism.

It is otherwise, however, with the same affirmation in its historico-
theological aspect. The doctrine of evolution can only deal with facts,
with these it does deal. If authentic history can show that the human
race is descended by procreation, as Dr. Abbott says from God, in
the same way as the Romans claimed to have been descended from
iEneas and his band of Trojans, well and good ; evolution can have

EVOLUTION BOUNDED BY THEOLOGY. 149

no more objection to that fact than to any other. Only in that case
God would be a known term in a known series of phenomena ; and
such a thing, we need hardly say, is scarcely conceivable by any mind
raised above the condition of barbarism. Ancient history, of course,
is full of just such definite statements. Romulus had the god Mars
for his father ; iEneas the goddess Aphrodite for his mother, and so
on ad infinitum. If Dr. Abbott means what he says about the human
race in a literal sense, he should point us to the historical record ;
and, it is needless to say, that record should not be one lending itself
to an infinity of " doubtful interpretations." Where is the record ?
But is it not perfectly manifest that, considered as the historical state-
ment of what happened thousands of years ago, it is utterly impos-
sible that the " universal consciousness " should bear witness to the
procreation the word is Dr. Abbott's of the first man by the God
of the book of Genesis ? It is said to be a wise child that knows its
own father ; and, as to a child's being conscious who its own father
is or was, the idea is simply irrational. It would seem as if Dr.
Abbott, while discouraging inquiry into the meaning of the opening
chapters of Genesis, desires, as far as possible, to save their credit,
and so claims that consciousness confirms the account they contain,
of the origin of mankind. Consciousness, however, does nothing of
the kind could not, by any possibility, do anything of the kind and
if the evolution philosophy should come into collision with the Mosaic
account of man's creation, it will have to deal, not with an affirmation
of the " universal consciousness," but simply with an ancient legend
hardened into a dogma. It has had some experience already in deal-
ing with such things, and need not quail at the prospect of another
encounter. It is really very idle thus to try to frighten away Science
from ground that it is entirely fitted to occupy. The effort irre-
sistibly reminds one of the attempts that savages make to avert an
eclipse by the vigorous beating of tom-toms. Unaffrighted by all
the tom-toms of the pulpit and the theological press, modern science
will press steadily forward, grasping at all facts, and reducing them,
as fast as possible, to order and harmony. It is already concerning
itself with the origin of mankind ; and has taught us more upon that
subject than all the theologies and mythologies put together. We
may claim to know now that primitive man had not a very profound
or very enlarged consciousness of a divine descent, and that any ideas
of divinity that he possessed were not inconsistent with a lively can-
nibalism. But it is science that teaches us this, and not the book of
Genesis, which starts man on his career with a respectable equipment
of theological and industrial knowledge. Dr. Abbott may count with
confidence upon a complete abstention on the part of science from any
interference with the devout experiences or exercises of any human
soul ; but, unless he wishes to see his counsels brought to naught, he
will himself refrain from any attempt to check science in its career

i 5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of discovery, or prevent it from drawing such conclusions as may-
seem reasonable from the facts that come within its range.

The second doctrine which the evolution hypothesis is solemnly
warned not to contradict is that which affirms that " mankind has
sinned and come short of the glory of God." Guilt and imperfection,
we are told and, as the present writer thinks, truly are not synony-
mous. " Sin is always a fall ; when we sin we go down from a higher
to a lower life." Now, what the evolutionist is concerned to know, is
whether he is required to affirm, or at the very least to refrain from
denying, that man was originally created perfect, and that, from that
condition of perfection, he fell by sin, more or less in the manner de-
scribed in the third chapter of Genesis. Dr. Abbott is not as distinct
upon this point as might be desired. Making all allowances for his
natural desire to "leave severely alone doubtful interpretations of the
third chapter of Genesis, and doubtful discussions respecting the origin
of the race," we might still have expected him to tell us clearly
whether he holds that the first human pair were created perfect
" very good " from every point of view and whether this is what he
requires the evolutionist also to believe. The latter might, I fear, have
some trouble with a doctrine of this kind ; but if he is merely asked
to believe that there is a radical difference between guilt and imper-
fection, he will not only be able to toe the mark without difficulty,
but, with the aid of Mr. Spencer, he will be able to discourse some-
what pertinently on the differences between guilt and imperfection.
The sense of guilt arises, he will say, when some higher law of con-
duct, the moral authority of which has been established in the manner
described in Chapter VII of the " Data of Ethics," has been set aside
under the influence of some lower but more clamorous motive. Such
lapses are incidental to man's upward struggle ; and in every such
case he undoubtedly has the sense of a fall. The illustrations which
Dr. Abbott gives of his meaning lead to the belief that he understands
nothing more by guilt than the falling away from some recognized
standard, some attained level, of conduct. If so, he has gone out of
his way to give a very unnecessary warning to his evolutionist brother.
" Every broken resolve," he says, " every high purpose lowered, every
sacrifice of reverence to sensual desire, of conscience to passion, of love
to greed, or ambition, or wealth, is a fall." Surely no decently-read
person supposes there is anything in the evolution philosophy that
conflicts with this. What the evolutionist is in doubt about is whether
the story of the Fall, as embodied in Christian doctrine, is a true
story whether the first human being was all made up of high pur-
pose, reverence, conscience, and love, and whether from that pristine
condition of purity he fell, by one act of disobedience, into that con-
dition of utter corruption described by theologians. There is no use
in mincing matters or using vague language. Either Dr. Abbott
summons the evolutionist to incorporate this doctrine in his philoso-

EVOLUTION BOUNDED BY THEOLOGY. 151

phy, or he does not. If be does, then there will be trouble ; for the
evolutionist will ask for evidence that will scarcely be forthcoming.
If he does not, but merely asks the evolutionist to allow in his system
a place for the sense of sin, the reply of the latter will undoubtedly
be : My dear sir, you are going to unnecessary trouble in this matter ;
for the school to which I belong not only recognizes the fact to which
you refer, but may even claim to have scientifically explained it years
ago.

The third test-doctrine is that of redemption. Evolution must
bow to this also, or else go on its way to destruction. At first sight
the condition may seem hard, but Dr. Abbott has a rare faculty for
minimizing difficulties. Just as he illustrated the Fall for us by refer-
ring to the decadence of Greece, Italy, and the Southern States of the
Union the points of comparison in the latter case being " the moral
utterances of Jefferson and Madison," on the one hand, and those of
the pro-slavery leaders of the period just prior to secession on the
other so, when it comes to expounding redemption, he exhibits it to
us in the action of a higher personality upon a lower : that, for exam-
ple, of father, mother, or teacher upon the wayward character of a
child. It is true that he adds : " No soul, and so no aggregation of
souls, can climb up to God ; he stoops down and lifts us up to him-
self." But this, again, is manifestly the language of devotion. How
can science take any cognizance of such terms? Professor Huxley
spoke not irreverently, but simply as a man of common sense, when,
in his recent controversy with Mr. Gladstone, he observed that he
could not match any detail of the nebular hypothesis with the script-
ural statement that " the spirit of God moved on the face of the
waters." To throw such declarations at the man of science, and ask
him what he makes of them, is eminently unreasonable. They may
and do find an echo in the religious nature ; but they do not lend
themselves to any kind of scientific appraisement. The business of
science, it can not be too often repeated, is not to force its way into
men's hearts, and lay a ruthless hand upon the altar of the religious
life. It is none of its business to apply rule or plummet, or any other
instruments of exact determination, to the religious aspirations, or to
the forms or formulas in which these express themselves. Its business
is with definite, determinate facts or statements ; it builds alone upon
these, it concerns itself alone with these. It respects the religious life,
and would willingly draw a wide precinct around it to preserve it
from all undue intrusion. But, on the other hand, it claims complete
independence within its own region, and will not surrender one atom
of determinate fact, or forego a single one of its conclusions, because,
forsooth, some one asserts that the interests of religion are involved
in having the fact or the conclusion so, rather than so ! Religion has
to learn that it can neither make nor mold facts, nor arbitrarily con-
trol logical processes. It must learn to be self-sufficing in its own

1 52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

region the region of the higher emotions and to respect science as
it would have science respect it. Then all will be well.

It is observable that Dr. Abbott is no more anxious to discuss the
strict theological doctrine of redemption than he is to enter into the
details of the third chapter of Genesis. He prefers to deal with the
process of redemption in its most general aspects, as consisting in the
action of a higher nature on a lower. Taken in this accommodated
and accommodating sense it is not at all hard to believe in ; and the
evolutionist may well congratulate himself that a term of such special
theological import, so commonly associated with the supposed efficacy
of bloody sacrifices, is capable of being explained by a doctor of
divinity in so natural and human a manner. It is satisfactory, also,
to note that the reverend doctor does not summon the modern philos-
opher, on pain of intellectual confusion, to accept the Bible or any
portion of it, but only such truths as are affirmed by the " universal
consciousness." He mentions certain chapters of the Bible, but chiefly
for the purpose of deprecating the spending of much time upon a
discussion of their meaning. In spite, therefore, of an apparently
aggressive tone, the learned doctor's article, when closely examined,
may almost be regarded as a kind of Eirenicon. Possibly, like a very
ancient scriptural character, he may have meant to say worse things
than he actually succeeded in uttering. Science has its foes, who
would like to hear it denounced ; but it is not always easy to com-
mand the prophets. Many of them know too much, and are too
sound at heart, to rail at the modern Israel.

A few words in conclusion. The evolutionist, or, as we should pre-
fer to say, the modern scientific thinker, is not necessarily or natu-
rally an irreligious man. Conversing, as he tries to do, with truths of
deep and wide significance, and seeing, as perhaps no one not engaged
on equally wide questions can see, the littleness of all individual
thought and effort in comparison with the vast operations of Nature
and the limitless record of human action in general, he is not prone
either to set his own personality up as an object of worship, or volun-
tarily to cage himself in a narrow materialistic philosophy. What he
sees and feels at every moment is, that the universe outruns him on
every side, and that he can only be baffled and beaten in any attempt to
do more than take due note of the succession of phenomena. It is a
duty with him, however, to limit his affirmations to the exact facts he
has observed. To go beyond them would be to him as distinctly a sin
as to others it would be an act of piety. This is why he can not join
in many of the devout phrases by which others ease their hearts. It
is not that his heart does not at times require easing too, or that these
phrases have not, considered in themselves and in their associations,
a decided efficacy for that purpose, but simply that he does not him-
self feel authorized to make the affirmations which the phrases either
make or imply. The average member of society has probably little

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 153

idea of the emotional sacrifices which the philosopher makes in order
to preserve his intellectual integrity, and to keep inviolate for others
truths which he believes they will one day, to their great advan-
tage, recognize. Were he alone concerned, he might in most cases
probably would yield to the force of surrounding opinion and social
practice ; but a secret instinct tells him that he is the conservator of
that which he has no right to sacrifice, or even to compromise, in the
interest of his personal convenience or comfort. Such a man may, as
I conceive, worship the Unknown God with as true a devotion as has
ever been shown at the shrine of any of the named divinities of the
human race. He may lack a liturgy and articles of belief ; but he
does not mourn the absence of these, finding his mind all the freer to
turn its gaze ever to the pole-star of truth, and his heart the more
open to every good impulse and to all the best teachings of the great
world-drama that enacts itself before his eyes. Such a man can afford
to be misunderstood, not so much because of his confident appeal to
the future, as because of the present sustaining power of a loyal sub-
mission to the truth. When theologians, even such amiable ones as
Dr. Lyman Abbott, undertake to tell him what he must incorporate
into his system of thought, or what venerable doctrines he must bow to
in passing, he says to himself, in the language of Socrates, " Whither
the sea-breeze of reason carries us, thither must our course be bent."
And so, in spite of all pulpit denunciation, and in spite of all the plead-
ing, special and general, of those who would keep humanity fettered
to the doctrines of the past, modern thought keeps on its way, seeing,
believing, harmonizing, hoping, and looking to be justified some day
of its children.

AJST ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO.

By Hon. DAVID A. WELLS.
HI.

Occupations of the People of Mexico. Agriculture. Although
the main business of the country is agriculture, this branch of
industry is carried on under exceptionally disadvantageous circum-
stances. One of its greatest drawbacks is, that the whole country is
divided up into immense haciendas, or landed estates ; small farms be-
ing rarely known ; and out of a population of ten million or more, the
title to the soil is said to vest in not more than six thousand persons.
Some of these estates comprise square leagues instead of square acres
in extent, and are said to have irrigating ditches from forty to fifty
miles in length. Most of the land of such estates is uncultivated, and
the water is wasted upon the remainder in the most reckless manner.
The titles by which such properties are held are exceedingly varied,

i 5 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and probably to a considerable extent uncertain. Some came from the
old Spanish Government, through its viceroys ; some from Mexico,
through its governors or political chiefs ; while over a not inconsider-
able part of all the good land of the country, the titles of the Church,
although not recognized by the Government, are still, to a certain ex-
tent, respected. Added to all this, there is a marked indisposition on
the part of the large owners of real estate in Mexico to divest them-
selves of such property ; and this for various reasons. Thus, in the
heretofore almost permanently revolutionary condition of the country,
the tenure of movable or personal property was subject to embarrass-
ments from which real estate, or immovable property, was exempt.
Under the system of taxation which has long prevailed in Mexico,
land also is very lightly burdened. And, finally, from what is proba-
bly an inherited tradition from Old Spain, the wealthy Mexican seems
to be prejudiced against investing in co-operative (stock) or financial
enterprises the railways, banks, and mines, in both Old Spain and
Mexico, for example, being to-day mainly owned and controlled by
English or other foreign capitalists. Under such circumstances, there
is no influx of immigrants into Mexico with a view to agriculture, and
settlements, such as spring up and flourish in the United States almost
contemporaneously with the construction of the " land-grant " and
other railroads, are unknown, and are not at present to be expected ;
all of which clearly works to the great disadvantage of all Mexican
railway enterprise and construction. It is also interesting to note, in
connection with this subject, that it is the immobility and uncertainty
of these same old Spanish or Mexican land-grants, which cover a vast
portion of New Mexico, that constitute at present the greatest obstacle
in the way of the growth and development of that Territory.

Statutes offering great inducements for permanent immigration
such as a bonus to each immigrant, the right to purchase public lands
at moderate prices and on long terms, the right to naturalization and
citizenship, and the like were enacted by the Mexican Congress as
far back as 1875, but as yet do not appear to have been productive
of any marked results.

On the other hand, the Mexican land laws discriminate very rigor-
ously against the acquirement of land by foreigners who do not pro-
pose to become Mexican citizens, and seem to be especially framed to
prevent any encroachments on the part of the United States. Thus,
no foreigner may, without previous permission of the President of
the Republic, acquire real estate in any of the border States, within
twenty leagues (sixty miles) of the frontier ; but such permission has
of late been freely given to citizens of the United States for the ac-
quirement of ranching property on the northern frontier. The owner-
ship of real estate by a foreigner in either country or city, within
fifteen miles of the coast, is, however, absolutely forbidden, except
on the condition of a special act of Congress granting it. It is only,

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 155

furthermore, through a direct permission of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs that a foreigner in Mexico is accorded any standing in a court
of justice. By the Constitution of Mexico, a foreigner who purchases
any real estate in that country, without declaring that he retains his
nationality, becomes a citizen of Mexico ; and it is difficult to see how
under such conditions he could properly invoke any protection from
the country of his prior citizenship, in case he considered his rights
in Mexico to be invaded. Again, the laws regulating mining property
in Mexico are very peculiar. No one in Mexico, be he native or for-
eigner, can own a mine absolutely, or in fee, no matter what he may
pay for it. He may hold it indefinitely, so long as he works it ; but
under an old Spanish law, promulgated as far back as 1783, and still
recognized, if he fails " to work it for four consecutive months, with
four operatives, regularly employed, and occupied in some interior or
exterior work of real utility and advantage," the title is forfeited and
reverts to the state ; and the mine may be " denounced," and shall
belong, under the same conditions, " to the denouncer who proves its
desertion." The denouncer, to keep the property, must, however, at
once take possession and begin the prescribed work within a period
of sixty days. This practice has one great advantage over the Ameri-
can mining system ; and that is, that litigation about original titles,
and conflicting claims to mining property are almost unknown in
Mexico.

On the plateau of Mexico, where nine tenths of its present popula-
tion live, there is undoubtedly much good land ; but the great draw-
back to this whole region is its lack of water. During the rainy
season, which commences in June and lasts about four months, there
is a plentiful rainfall for Central and Southern Mexico ; but in North-
ern Mexico the rainfall, for successive years, is not unfrequently so de-
ficient as to occasion large losses, both in respect to stock and to crops.
For the remainder of the year, or for some eight months, little or no
rain falls, and the climatic characteristic is one of extreme dryness.
During the most of the year, therefore, the whole table-land of Mexico
is mainly dependent for its water-supply upon a comparatively few
springs and storage-reservoirs ; and agriculture can not be generally
carried on without resorting to some form of irrigation. One rejoin-
der to what may be an unfavorable inference from these statements
has been the counter-assertion that " in the immediate neighborhood
of the large cities enough grain is raised by irrigation to keep con-
stantly more than a year's extra supply ahead to provide against a
possible failure of crops " ; and, further, that the storage capacity of
the existing reservoirs of Mexico might easily be increased, and thus
greatly extend the area of land capable of cultivation. But, admit-
ting this, how great must be the obstacles in the way of developing
any country where there is a liability to an almost entire failure of the
crops from drought ; and where the small agricultural proprietor,

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

who depends on each year's earnings to meet each year's needs, has
always got to anticipate and guard against such a possibility ! There
are vast tracts of land also in Mexico, especially in the northern part,
where grass sufficient for moderate pasturage will grow all or nearly
all the year, but on which the water-holes are so few, and so entirely
disappear in the dry season, that stock can not live on them. In a
report recently sent (January, 1885) to the State Department, by
Warner P. Sutton, United States consul - general to Matamoros, the
statement is made, that the annual value of the agricultural products
of the State of South Carolina, having an area of 30,570 square miles,
is at least two and half times as great as the whole like product of the
six States of Northern Mexico namely, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon,
Coahuila, Chihuahua, Lower California, and Sonora which have an
area of 355,000 square miles, and represent about one half of the ter-
ritory of the whole republic ; or, making allowance for the areas of
land under comparison, the annual agricultural product of South Caro-
lina is from twenty to twenty-five times as valuable as that of the
whole northern half of Mexico !

On the " tierras calientes" or comparatively narrow belt of coast-
lands, on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of Mexico, there is abun-
dance of wood and water, cheap and fertile land, and most luxuriant
vegetation ; but the climate is such that the white races will never live
there in the capacity of laborers. When one hears, therefore, of pos-
sibilities of these regions in respect to coffee, sugar, tobacco, and a wide
range of other valuable tropical products, this fact has got to be taken
into account. They would, however, seem to be particularly adapted
to the introduction and employment of Chinese labor ; and during the
past year delegations from the associated Chinese Companies of San
Francisco have, it is understood, entered into negotiations with the
Mexican Government, with a view of promoting an extensive immi-
gration into these portions of the national territory.

Again, much of the best land of the plateau of Mexico is in the
nature of valleys surrounded by mountains, or of strips or sections
separated by deserts. Thus, for example, to get from the city of
Mexico into the fertile valley of Toluca, a comparatively short dis-
tance, one has to ascend nearly three thousand feet within the first
twenty-four miles ; while between Chihuahua and Zacatecas there is
an immense desert tract, over which the Mexican Central Railway has
to transport in supply-tanks the water necessary for its locomotives.
It is true that in both of these instances the natural difficulties have
now in a great measure been remedied by railroad constructions ; but
when it is remembered that, outside of the leading cities and towns of
Mexico, there are hardly any wheeled vehicles, save some huge, cum-
bersome carts with thick, solid, wooden wheels (a specimen of which,
exhibited as a curiosity, may be seen in the National Museum at
Washington) ; that the transportation of commodities is mainly ef-

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 157

fected on the backs of donkeys or of men ; that the roads in Mexico,
as a general thing, are hardly deserving of the name ; * and that, even
with good, ordinary roads and good teams and vehicles at command, a
ton of corn worth twenty-five dollars at a market is worth nothing at
a distance of a hundred and twenty miles remembering these things,
one can readily accept the statement that, in many sections of Mexico,
no effort is made to produce anything in the way of crop products,
except what has been found necessary to meet the simplest wants of
the producers ; and for the reason that experience has proved to them
that it was not possible to obtain anything in exchange for their
surplus.

The plow generally in use in Mexico is a crooked stick, with
sometimes an iron point. American plows are beginning to be intro-
duced to a considerable extent ; but the Mexican peasant on coming
into possession of one generally cuts off one handle, in order to make
it conform, as far as he can, to his ancient implement. A bundle of
brush constitutes the harrow. " Their hoes are heavy grub-hoes, and
grass is cut by digging it up with such a hoe."

Nothing exhibits more strikingly the present poverty of Mexico,
and the present inefficiency of her agriculture notwithstanding the
natural advantages claimed for this industry, and that it is undoubt-
edly the principal occupation and support of her people than a brief
comparison of some of the results which have been recently reported
for Mexico and the United States. According to a report published
in 1883, by M. Bodo von Glaimer, an accepted Mexican authority, and
other data, gathered and published by Senor Cubas, United States Con-
sul-General Sutton, and the Agricultural Bureau at Washington, the
value of all the leading agricultural products of Mexico corn, wheat,
sugar, tobacco, beans, coffee, and the like for the year 1882 was esti-
mated at about $175,000,000. But the present estimated value of the
oat-crop alone of the United States is $180,000,000. Again, corn con-
stitutes the staple food of the Mexican people, and its product for
1882 was estimated at about 213,000,000 bushels ; which, with an as-
sumed population of ten million, would give a product of 21^ bushels
per capita. But for the United States for the year 1885 the product
of corn was about thirty-three bushels per capita.

Although much of the soil of Mexico is undoubtedly well adapted
to the cultivation of wheat, it is as yet a crop little grown or used
wheat-bread being eaten only by the well-to-do classes. Its product

* One of the most noted routes in Mexico is from the capital to Acapulco, the best
Mexican port on the Pacific, a route that was traveled, and constituted a part of the
transit for convoys of treasure and rich tropical products between the Indies and Old
Spain, a hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. And yet a journey over
this route, a distance of three hundred miles, consumes ten days on horseback under the
most favorable auspices ; and the path or trail followed has in great part so few of the
essentials of a road that, in popular parlance, it is spoken of as " bum camino de paja-
ros" (a good road for birds).

i 5 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for 1882 was estimated at 12,500,000 bushels, or at the rate of about
1-j^g- bushel per capita ; while for the year 1885, with a very deficient
crop, the wheat product of the United States was in excess of six bushels
per capita. Mexican coffee is as good as, and probably better than, the
coffee of Brazil, and yet Mexico in 1883-84 exported coffee to all coun-
tries to the value of only $1,717,190, while the value of the exports of
coffee from Brazil to the United States alone, for the year 1885, was in
excess of 830,000,000. Much has also been said of the wonderful adap-
tation of a great part of the territory of Mexico for the production of
sugar, and everything that has been claimed may be conceded ; but,
at the same time, sugar is not at present either produced or consumed
in comparatively large quantities in Mexico, and, in common with
coffee another natural product of the country is regarded rather as a
luxury than as an essential article of food. Thus the sugar product of
Mexico for the year 1877-'78, the latest year for which data are readily
accessible, amounted to only 154,549,662 pounds. Assuming the prod-
uct for the present year (1886) to be as great as 200,000,000 pounds,
this would give a Mexican per capita consumption of only twenty
pounds as compared with a similar present consumption in the United
States of nearly fifty pounds. The further circumstance that Mexico
at the present time imports more sugar than it exports ; and that the
price of sugar in Mexico is from two to four times as great as the
average for the United States coarse-grained, brownish-white, unre-
fined sugar retailing in the city of Mexico for twelve and a half cents
a pound (with coffee at twenty-five cents) is also conclusive on this
point. With the present very poor outlook for the producers of cane-
sugars in all parts of the world, owing mainly to the bounty stimulus
offered by the governments of Europe for the production of beet-sugar;
and the further fact that the only hope for the former is in the use of
the most improved machinery, and the making of nothing but the best
sugars at the point of cane production, the idea so frequently brought
forward that labor and capital are likely to find their way soon into
the hot, unhealthy coast-lands of Mexico, in preference to Cuba and
South America, and that the country is to be speedily and greatly
profited by her natural sugar resources, has little of foundation.
And, as additional evidence on these matters, the writer would here
mention, that a statement has come to him from a gentleman who has
been long connected and thoroughly acquainted with the Vera Cruz
and City of Mexico Railroad, which runs through the best sugar and
coffee territory of the country, that not a single acre of land more
is now under cultivation along its line than there was at the time the
road was completed, thirteen years ago.

Whatever, therefore, may be the natural capabilities of Mexico for
agriculture, they are certainly for the future rather than of the present.

Manufactures. Apart from handicrafts there is very little of
manufacturing, in the sense of using labor-saving machinery, in Mex-

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 159

ico ; and, in a country so destitute of water and fuel, it is difficult
to see how there ever can be. In almost all cases where the employ-
ment of machinery is indispensable, mule or donkey power seems to be
the only resource ; as is the case in the majority of the mines and sil-
ver-reducing works of the country not a pound of ore, for example,
being crushed through the agency of any other power, in connection
with the famous mines of Guanajuato. Many years ago an English
company bought the famous Meal del Monte mine, near Pachuca,
which is reported to have yielded in a single year, with rude labor,
$4,500,000. It was assumed that two things only were requisite to
insure even greater returns ; namely, the pumping out of the water
which had accumulated in the abandoned shafts, and the introduction
of improved machinery for working at lower levels. Large steam-en-
gines and other machinery were accordingly imported from England,
and dragged up by mule-power from Yera Cruz, at immense cost and
labor. But the new scheme proved utterly unprofitable, and after
some years' trial was abandoned. The expensive machinery was sold
for about its value as old iron ; the mines reverted to a Mexican com-
pany ; the old methods were again substantially introduced, and then
the property once more began to pay.

Deposits of coal of good quality are from time to time reported as
existing, and readily accessible. But the fact that the Mexican Cen-
tral Railroad supplies itself from the coal-fields of Colorado, nearly
fifteen hundred miles from the city of Mexico, and that the Vera Cruz
Railroad imports its coal from England, is in itself sufficient evidence
that no coal from any Mexican mine has yet been made practically
available for industrial purposes. In Central Mexico, wood commands
at the present time from twelve to sixteen dollars per cord, and coal
from fifteen to twenty-one dollars per ton.

According to the best information available, the number of facto-
ries of all kinds using power, in the republic, is about a hundred, rep-
resenting a valuation of some $10,000,000, and employing about 13,000
hands. Their range of manufacturing is exceedingly limited, and
comprises little besides the coarser cottons and woolens, the coarser
varieties of paper, a few (cloth) printing and dye works, milling (flour),
and the manufacture of unrefined sugar. The textile factories (cotton
and wool) are said to contain 250,000 spindles and 9,500 looms.

No country affords such striking illustrations as Mexico of the fal-
lacy and absurdity of the so-called "pauper-labor " argument for "pro-
tection " ; or of the theory, which has proved so popular and effective in
the United States, for justifying the enactment of high tariffs, that the
rate of wages paid for labor is the factor that is mainly determinative
of the cost of the resulting product ; and that, therefore, for a coun-
try of average high wages, the defense of a protective tariff against a
country of average low wages, is absolutely necessary as a condition
for the successful prosecution by the former of its industries.

160 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"Wao-es, on the average, in Mexico, are from one half to two thirds
less than what are paid in similar occupations in the United States ;
and yet in comparison with the United States the price of almost
all products of industry in Mexico is high. Thus, in the city of Mexi-
co, where wages rule higher than in almost any part of the republic,
the average daily wages in some of the principal occupations during
the year 1885 were as follow : Laborers, porters, etc., forty to fifty
cents ; masons, seventy-five cents to one dollar ; assistants, thirty-
seven and a half to fifty cents ; teamsters, fifty cents ; blacksmiths,
one dollar and fifty cents ; printers, one dollar ; saddle and harness
makers, sixty-two cents ; tailors, seventy-five cents ; painters, eighty-
seven and a half cents ; weavers in the cotton-mills at Tepic and San-
tiago, four dollars per week of seventy-two hours ; spinners, three dol-
lars ditto. In the cotton-mills in the vicinity of the city of Mexico a
much higher average is reported. The operatives in the woolen manu-
factories of Mexico are in receipt of higher average wages than those
in almost any other domestic industry ; and Mexican woolen fabrics
are comparatively cheap and of good style and quality. Underground
miners, at the great mines of Zacatecas and Guanajuato, receive an
average of nine dollars per week of sixty hours ; underground labor-
ers, three dollars ditto ; agricultural laborers in the district of San
Bias average nineteen cents per day, with an allowance of sixteen
pounds of corn per week. On a hacienda near Regla, in Central Mex-
ico, comprising an area some eighteen miles in length by twelve in
its greatest breadth and including an artificial lake two miles in its
principal dimensions, the wages paid in 1883 were six cents a day
for boys and thirty-seven cents for the best class of adults. In other
districts the wages of agriculturists are reported as from eight to ten
dollars per month, with rations.

The following are the retail prices of some of the principal articles
of domestic consumption in Mexico : Fresh beef, twelve to eighteen
cents per pound ; lard, twenty to twenty-five cents ; coffee, twenty-
five cents ; sugar, unrefined, twelve to twenty cents ; table-salt, six
cents ; potatoes (city of Mexico), twenty-five cents per dozen ; flour,
ten to twelve cents per pound ; corn-meal, not usually in the market,
unless imported ; candles, thirty to fifty cents ; unbleached cottons,
ten to fifteen cents per yard ; calicoes, fifteen to twenty cents per
yard. Utensils of tin and copper are fifty per cent dearer than in
the United States ; while the retail prices of most articles of foreign
hardware (and none other are used) are double, treble, and even four
times as much as in the localities whence they are imported. " Be-
tween the extremes, a modest and economical lady's wardrobe will
cost, at the city of Mexico, about fifty per cent more than the same
style in the United States. This, however, is modified by the climate,
which requires no change of fashions to suit the seasons, as the same
outfit is equally appropriate for every month in the year." (Str other.)

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 161

Imported articles of food are exceedingly high at retail at the city of
Mexico. American hams, in canvas, forty to fifty cents per pound ;
American salmon, cans of one pound, one dollar ; mackerel, eighteen
to twenty-five cents each ; codfish, twenty-five cents per pound ;
cheese, fifty to seventy-five cents. The industry of Mexican pottery,
a handicraft exclusively, employs a great many laborers, but has no
organization every community, and almost every family, in the dis-
tricts where the conditions for production are favorable, making its
own wares, as iron, tin, and copper cooking utensils are almost un-
known in the domestic life of the masses of the Mexican people. The
Indian manufacturer packs his pottery into wicker crates, about two
feet square and from five to six feet long, and starts to different por-
tions of the country, on foot, with the crate. on his back. Consul
Lambert, of San Bias, states that he has known one " to travel more
than two hundred and fifty miles to find a market, and dispose of his
articles at prices varying from one and a half to twelve, and, in the
case of large pieces, as high as eighteen cents ; receiving, in the ag-
gregate, for the sale of his cargo, from twelve to fifteen dollars."

The manufacture of leather is also one of the great industries of
Mexico ; but, with the exception of the sewing-machine, which has
been largely introduced in this and other occupations, the product
is exclusively one of handicraft. In a country where everybody rides
who can, the saddlery business is especially important ; and by gen-
eral acknowledgment there are no better saddles made anywhere in the
world than in Mexico ; and yet the United States has for many years
exported from twenty to thirty thousand dollars' worth of saddles an-
nually to Mexico. The explanation is, that the mechanical appliances
used in the United. States for making the " trees," and for stamping,
cutting, sewing, and ornamental stitching, enable the American manu-
facturers to pay an import duty of fifty-five per cent, and undersell
the hand-product of the low price (but dear cost) Mexican artisan.
Consul-General Sutton, of Matamoros, reports to the State Depart-
ment, under date of July, 1885, that Mexican dealers send to the
United States model saddle-trees and designs for trappings, and find
it more profitable to have the major part of the work of saddle-making
done there, than to do it all by the low-wage hand-labor of their own
country.

In short, this condition of affairs in Mexico, in respect to wages
and the cost of production, is in strict accord with what has been de-
duced within recent years from the experience of other countries ;
namely, that the only form of labor to which the term "pauper" has
any significant or truthful application, is labor engaged in handicrafts
as contradistinguished from machinery production ; and that, where
such handicraft or ignorant labor is employed in manufacturing, the
final cost of its product, as represented by the amount of time re-
quired, or the number of persons called for in any given department,
VOL. xxix. 11

i6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

must of necessity be high. Hence, wages under such circumstances
(as exist in Mexico and elsewhere) will be very low, and the conditions
of life very unsatisfactory and debasing.

On the other hand, when machinery is intelligently applied for
the conversion or elaboration of comparatively cheap crude materials
coal, ores, metals, fibers, wood, and the like a very little manual
labor goes a great way, and production (as in the United States) is
necessarily large. This being sold in the great commerce of the
world, gives large returns, and the wages represented in such produc-
tion will be high, because the cost of the product measured in terms
of labor is low, and the employer is thereby enabled to pay liberally ;
and in fact is obliged to do so, in order to obtain under the new
order of things what is really the cheapest (in the sense of the most
efficient) labor. Or, to state this proposition more briefly, the inva-
riable concomitant of high wages and the skillful use of machinery
is a low cost of production and a large consumption.

The following circumstance curiously illustrates the prevailing low
money rate of wages in Mexico, and the obstacle which such cheap
labor interposes to the attainment of large production : At one point
on the Mexican Central Railroad, while journeying south, a machine,
the motive-power of which was steam, for pumping water into tanks
for the supply of the locomotives, was noticed, and commented upon
for its compactness and effectiveness. On the return journey, this
machinery was no longer in use ; but a man, working an ordinary
pump, had been substituted. The explanation given was, that with
hand-labor costing but little more than the (Colorado) coal consumed,
the continued employment of an engine and an American engineer
was not economical.

But at no point within the observation of the writer, either on the
Continent of North America or in Europe, do wages, or rather remu-
neration for regular labor, reach so low a figure as at Santa Fe, within
the Territories of the United States. At this place, one of the notable
industrial occupations is the transport and sale of wood for use as fuel.
The standard price for so much as can be properly loaded upon a don-
key (or burro) is fifty cents. The money price of the wood is high :
but, as it is brought from a distance of fifteen, twenty, thirty, or even
more miles, each load may be fairly considered as representing the
exclusive service of a donkey for two days going, returning, and
waiting for a purchaser and the services or labor of an able-bodied
man, as owner or attendant, apportioned to from three to five donkeys
for a corresponding length of time. The gross earnings of man and
donkey can not, therefore, well be in excess of twenty-five cents per
day ; from which, if anything is to be deducted for the original cost
of the wood, its collection and preparation, and for the subsistence of
the man and beast, the net profit will hardly be appreciable. Or, in
other words, able-bodied men, with animals, are willing to work, and

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 163

work laboriously, at Santa Fe, in the United States, for simple subsist-
ence ; and a subsistence, furthermore, inferior in quality and quantity
to the rations generally given to acknowledged paupers in most Ameri-
can poor-houses ; and yet no high-priced laborer in the United States
has any more fear of the industrial competition of the pauper laborers
of Santa Fe than he has of the competition of the paupers who are
the objects of charitable support in his own immediate locality.

The largest, best-conducted, and most profitable of the cotton-fac-
tories of Mexico, and the largest manufacturing establishment in the
country, is the "Hercules" mill, located near Queretaro, 152 miles
from the capital. Taking a tramway, with comfortable cars of New
York (Stevenson's) construction, for a distance of about three miles
from the plaza, the visitor, on approaching, finds an establishment,
embracing several acres, entirely surrounded by a massive, high, and
thick wall, with gateways well adapted for defense and exclusion. On
entering, the objects which first arrest attention are an attractive
little park, with semi-tropical trees and shrubs ; handsome residences
for the owner and his family, and a stone armory or guard-house
with men in semi-miiitary costume lounging about containing a com-
plete military equipment for thirty-seven men, horse and foot Win-
chester rifles and two small pieces of artillery. "Without being too
inquisitive, the visitors are given to understand that all this military
preparation was formerly more necessary than at present ; but that
even now it was prudent for the officers or agents of the mill to have
an armed escort in making collections, contingent upon the sale of its
products, from the country dealers and shopkeepers. Back of the
guard-house were the mill-buildings proper, warehouses, stables, boiler-
house, -etc., all well arranged, of good stone construction, scrupulously
clean, and in apparently excellent order.

The machinery equipment was 21,000 spindles and 700 looms ; its
product being a coarse, unbleached cotton fabric, adapted for the
staple clothing of the masses, and known as " manta." Both water-
and steam-power were used. In the case of the former, a small
stream, with a high fall, being utilized through an iron overshot-wheel,
forty-six and a half feet in diameter one of the largest ever con-
structed ; for the latter a fine "Corliss" engine from Providence,
Hhode Island. The spinning-frames and a part of the looms were
from Paterson, New Jersey. The remainder of the looms, the steam-
boilers, and the immense water-wheel, were of English workman-
ship. Wood, costing sixteen dollars per cord, was used for fuel ;
and the motive-power was in charge of a Yankee engineer, who had
been induced to leave the Brooklyn (New York) water-works, by a
salary about double what he had received there ; but who declared
that nothing would induce him to remain beyond the term (two years)
of his contract, which had nearly expired. The motives prompting to
this conclusion were suggested by observing, on visiting his quarters

164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

outside of the gates, that a revolver hung conveniently near the head
of his iron bedstead, while another was suspended from the wall, in
close proximity to the little table on which his meals were served ; and
also bv the following remark, called out by a suggestion from one of
the visitors, that a rug on the hard, unattractive red-tile floors would
seem to be desirable : " If you had to examine your bed every night,
to see that a scorpion or centiped was not concealed in its coverings,
the less of such things you had to turn over the better."

According to information furnished on inquiry, the hours of labor
in this typical Mexican cotton-mill were as follows : " help " work from
daylight until 9.30 p. m., going out a half-hour for breakfast at 9.30
a. m., and an hour for dinner, at 2 p.m. ; Saturday night the machinery
runs later. The spinners earn from thirty-seven and a half to fifty
cents per day ; weavers from six to seven dollars per week. On hear-
ing these statements, one of the visiting party, more interested in hu-
manitarianism than in manufactures or economics, involuntarily re-
marked, " Well, I wonder if they have got a God down in Mexico ! "
There were present at this visit and inspection a representative of one
of the large cotton-factories at Fall River, and one of the best recog-
nized authorities on mechanics and machinery, from Lowell, Massachu-
setts ; and the judgment of these experts, after taking all the facts into
consideration, w r as, that if this Mexican cotton-factory, with all its
advantages in the way of hours of labor and wages, were transferred
to New England, it would, in place of realizing any profit, sink a hun-
dred thousand dollars per annum. And yet the proprietor of this
mill (Don Rubio) and his family are reputed to be among the richest
people in Mexico.

The adoption of the theory of " free trade," or " protection," as
the basis of a national fiscal policy, does not appear to have as yet
interested, to any extent, either the Government or the people of
Mexico ; and it is doubtful whether, since the country achieved
its independence from Spain, it has ever been seriously discussed or
considered by anybody. Under the tariff act in force in 1882, there
were one hundred and four specifications of articles which could be
imported free of duty including vessels of all kinds, machinery,
and most railroad equipments and cars and eleven hundred and
twenty -nine specifications of articles subject to duties, nearly all
of which (only thirty-two exceptions) are simple and specific. No
other rule seems to have been recognized and followed in imposing
duties on imports than that " the higher the duty (or tax) the greater
will be the accruing revenue " ; and the ad valorem equivalents of many
of the apparently simple and moderate duties levied on imports into
Mexico are consequently so excessive that the average rate of the
Mexican tariff is probably greater than that adopted at present by
any other civilized country. All domestic manufacturing industries
that could be exposed to foreign competition as, for example, the

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 165

comparatively few cotton and paper mills, and one or two (calico)
print-works accordingly enjoy a degree of protection that nearly or
quite amounts to prohibition of all competitive legitimate imports ;
though it may be doubted whether the fiscal officers who advised or
determined such rates had any knowledge or care for any economic
theory, but they may have been, and probably were, influenced in
their conclusions by the representations of interested parties. But,
be this as it may, the practical working of such a tariff, in such a
poor, undeveloped country as Mexico, is well illustrated by a recur-
rence to Don Rubio and his cotton-mill. The average fabric produced
at this establishment is protected by a duty on similar imports of nine
cents per square metre, or about eight cents per square yard, and sells
for about fifteen cents per vara, or thirty-three inches. Domestic in-
dustry is thereby promoted, and the family of Don Rubio amass great
wealth.

But let us look at the other side of this picture. The number of
operatives who obtain opportunities for employment by reason of the
existence of cotton manufacturing in Mexico is probably not more than
six or eight thousand, certainly not in excess of ten thousand. The pop-
ulation of Mexico, to whom cotton-cloth is the chief and essential mate-
rial for clothing, may be estimated at ten million. Free from all tariff
restrictions, the factories of Fall River, in Massachusetts, could sell in
Mexico at a profit a cotton fabric as good as, or better than, that pro-
duced and sold by the factory at Queretaro, for five cents a yard, or
even less. A population of ten million, poor almost beyond concep-
tion, have therefore to pay from two to three hundred per cent more
for the staple material of their simple clothing than needs be, in order
that some other eight or ten thousand of their fellow-citizens men
and women may have the privilege of exhaustively working from
fourteen to fifteen hours a day in a factory, for the small pittance of
from thirty-five to seventy cents, and defraying the cost of their own
subsistence. Nor is this all. Under such excessive duties as now pre-
vail, few or no cheap coarse cotton fabrics are legitimately imported
into Mexico, and the Government fails to get the revenue it so much
needs. The business of smuggling is, however, greatly encouraged,
and all along the northern frontiers of Mexico has become so well
organized and so profitable as to successfully defy the efforts of the
Government to prevent it. On the shelves of the stores of all the
Mexican towns and cities, within two hundred and fifty to three hun-
dred miles from the northern frontier, American cotton fabrics pre-
dominate. Five hundred miles farther " southing," however, seems
to constitute an insuperable obstacle to the smuggler, and similar
goods of English and French manufacture almost entirely replace at
such points the American products. The present loss to the Mexican
Government from smuggling along its northern frontier has been re-
cently estimated by the "Mexican Financier " at not less than $1,500,000

166 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

per annum a matter not a little serious in the present condition of
Mexican finances ; while all intelligent merchants along the frontier are
of the opinion that neither the United States nor the Mexican Treasury
officials can, by reason of this great illicit traffic, have any accurate
knowledge of the amount of international trade between the two coun-
tries.

But if the present Mexican tariff on the import of foreign cotton fab-
rics were to be materially reduced, or abolished, would not, it may be
asked, the cotton-factories of Mexico be obliged to suspend opera-
tions ? Undoubtedly they would ; but who, save the rich Don Rubio
and his few associate manufacturers, would thereby experience any
detriment ? The Mexican people would continue to have cotton-cloth
the same as now, and probably in greater abundance ; for there is no
other so cheap and suitable material available to them for clothing.
But as the American and European manufacturers would not make
their cloth a gift, or part with it for nothing, the Mexican would be
obliged to buy it ; or, what is the same thing, give some product of
his labor in exchange for it. Consequently, the opportunity for the
profitable employment of the Mexican people as a whole could not be
restricted, if, in consequence of the abolition of the existing tariff on
the import of cotton fabrics, they were relieved from an exorbitant
and unnecessary enhancement of the cost of their clothing.

Mines and Mining. The mining for the precious metals, and
more especially for silver, has been, since the conquest of the country,
and is now, one of the great industries of Mexico. That the product
and profit of silver-mining in the past have been very great is certain ;
that a considerable number of mines are yet worked to a profit, and
that future mines of great value will be discovered in the future, is
also altogether probable. The popular ideas concerning the amount
of the precious metals that have been furnished by the Mexican mines
since the discovery and conquest of the country by the Spaniards,
and the present annual product of gold and silver by Mexico, are,
doubtless, a good deal exaggerated. The coinage records since the
establishment of mints in Mexico, in 1537, down to 1883-'84, which
are accepted as substantially accurate, and which indicate approxi-
mately the value of precious metals produced by the country during
this period, are as follows :

From 1537 to 1821 (the last year of the Spanish colonial epoch),
gold, 868,778,411 ; silver, $2,082,260,656 ; total, $2,151,039,067.

From 1822-'23to June 30, 1884, gold, $45,605,793 ; silver, $1,023,-
718,366 ; total, $1,069,324,159. At the present time the annual
product of gold and silver in the United States is far greater than
that of Mexico. Thus, for the year 1883 the gold production of the
United States was estimated to have been, gold, $30,000,000 ; silver,
$46,200,000 ; total, $76,200,000. For Mexico, the estimates for the year
1883-'84 were, gold, $500,000 ; silver, $24,000,000 ; total, $24,500,000.

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 167

The greatest obstacle in the way of the successful prosecution and
development of the mining industry of Mexico, as also in the case of
manufactures, is the scarcity of fuel and water for the generation and
application of mechanical power. The impression which an American
visitor to one of the great Mexican silver-mines, or reducing-works, at
first receives, is almost always that of surprise at the apparent rude-
ness and shiftlessness of the methods of working. But a further
acquaintance soon satisfies him that what is done is the result of long
experience, and is the best that probably could be under all the cir-
cumstances. Thus, for example, for the purpose of extracting the
silver from the ore by amalgamation, the rock, ground to a fine pow-
der and made into a paste with water, is spread out on the floor of
a large court, and then worked up, with certain proportions of com-
mon salt, sulphate of iron, and quicksilver into a vast mud-pie, by
means of troops of broken-down horses or donkeys, which for two or
three weeks in succession tramp round and round in the mass ani-
mals and Indian drivers alike sinking leg-deep in the paste at every
movement. When the amalgamation is completed, it is brought in
vessels or baskets, rather than with wheelbarrows, to washing-tanks,
where half -naked men and boys further "puddle" it until the metal
falls to the. bottom, and the refuse runs away. The process is hard,
and even cruel, for both man and beast, and is not expeditious ; but it
is economical (considered in reference to the cost of other methods
involving power), and is effective.

The number of mining properties at present worked in Mexico by
American companies is understood to be about forty.

The popular idea that there are a considerable number of old Span-
ish mines in Mexico which were worked to great profit before the revo-
lution, and then abandoned when their original proprietors were driven
from the country, and are now ready to return great profits to whoever
will rediscover and reopen them, has probably very little foundation
in fact. Sixty-five years have now elapsed since Mexico achieved her
independence, and during all this time the Mexicans, who are good
miners, and to whom mining has to a certain extent the attractiveness
of lottery ventures, have, we may be sure, shrewdly prospected the
whole country and have not concealed any of its business opportunities.
Capital, furthermore, has not been wanting to them. For, in the early
days of the independence of the republic, the idea that the working of
old Spanish mines in Mexico promised great profits, amounted to al-
most a "craze" in England; and millions on millions of British capital
were poured into the country for such objects ; while the mining dis-
tricts of Cornwall were said to have been half depopulated, through
the drain on their skilled workmen to serve in the new enterprises. It
is sufficient to say that the results were terribly disastrous.

Silver Monometallism. Until within a very recent period, Mexico
has furnished to the world a most curious and interesting example of

168 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a somewhat populous country conducting its exchanges almost ex-
clusively by means of a monometallic, silver currency ; no other form
of money, with the exception of a small copper coinage, being practi-
cally used or recognized. The results were most instructive. Thus,
if one proposed to trade, even to a retail extent, or go on a journey,
a bag of coin had to be carried. If it were proposed to pay out a hun-
dred dollars, the weight of the bag would be five and a half pounds ;
if two hundred dollars, eleven pounds ; if five hundred, twenty-seven
pounds. Where collections or payments were to be large, and the dis-
tance to be traversed considerable, regular organizations of armed
men, and suitably equipped animals known as " conductas" were
permanently maintained ; and severe and bloody fights with bandits
were of common occurrence. At the great cotton-mill at Queretaro,
as already noted, the organization of a " conducta " men, arms, and
horses for making collections, was as much an essential of the busi-
ness as the looms and the spindles. " It was obviously impossible to
carry even a moderate amount of such money with any concealment,
or to carry it at all with any comfort ; and the unavoidable exhibition
of it, held in laps, chinking in trunks or boxes, standing in bags, and
poured out in streams at the banks and commercial houses, was one of
the features of life in Mexico," and undoubtedly constituted a stand-
ing temptation for robbery. Within a comparatively recent time, how-
ever, a national bank and banks of foreign incorporators have been
established in Mexico, and authorized to issue notes, on what appears
to be very inefficient security. The Mexican National Bank is under-
stood to be authorized to issue $60,000,000 notes upon a capital of
$20,000,000, which notes are legal tender from individuals to the
Government, but not from the Government to individuals, or between
individuals. The possibilities, if not probabilities, therefore, now are,
that a flood of depreciated paper will ultimately drive silver out of
circulation in Mexico.

WHAT MAT ANIMALS BE TAUGHT?

By M. J. DELBCEUF.

" 1 1 iHERE exists in animals," says Malebranche, "neither mind nor
-L soul as we commonly understand the terms. They eat without
pleasure, they cry out without pain, they grow without knowing it,
they desire nothing, they know nothing, and, if they behave in a man-
ner betokening intelligence, it is because God, who made them, has, to
preserve them, formed their bodies in such a way that they avoid me-
chanically and without fear everything that is capable of destroying
them." Malebranche was more categorical than Descartes on the sub-
ject of soul in beasts. The latter had doubts on the matter. He

WHAT MAY ANIMALS BE TAUGHT? 169

would not have been far from conceding thought to the higher ani-
mals. But then he would have had to concede it to all, even to the
oyster and the sponge ; and what have the oyster and the sponge that
resembles a soul ?

We know how this question occupied the seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries. In the nineteenth century, Frederic Cuvier, Flou-
rens, and others took it up, and tried to establish upon facts a distinc-
tion between intelligence and instinct. Finally, Darwin came and
wiped out every line of demarkation between man and animals. But,
whatever may be the favor rapidly gained that surrounds the doc-
trine of transformism, we must not forget, on the one hand, that it is
not universally accepted, nor on the other hand, that it does not an-
swer the question of the intelligence of animals.

The great physiologist Schwann, for instance, who died in 1882,
maintained that there was an insurmountable barrier between us and
those whom Michelet calls our inferior brethren. To him animals
were alembics and electric batteries ; mechanics, physics, and chemis-
try could account for all their manifestations. Man alone contained
an immaterial principle, the freedom of which constitutes his charac-
teristic appanage. That is what he distinctly declared on that day
when the European great men of science came to Liege with an ova-
tion to the illustrious creator of the cellular theory, on the fortieth an-
niversary of his professorship. " By virtue of the cellular theory," he
said, " we now know that a vital force, fundamentally distinct from
matter, exists neither in the organism as a w r hole nor in every cell.
All the phenomena of animal and vegetable life can be explained by
the properties of atoms, which are the forces of inert nature, or by
other forces of the same atoms hitherto unknown. Freedom alone
establishes a limit at which the explanation by forces of this kind must
necessarily stop. It obliges us to admit only in man a principle that
is incompatible with the properties of matter."

To Schwann, as to Malebranche, the animal was an automaton.
It is true that he did not regard it as a mechanism moved by an in-
ternal or external spring ; it was an aggregation of atoms combined in
a certain manner. On the other hand and in this he was at variance
with Descartes it was not thought, but liberty which, in his eyes, con-
stituted the distinctive attribute of man. But essentially, to him as
to the pure Cartesians, man was an animal inhabited by a spiritual
substance a substance distinct from matter. I learned, however, from
conversations I had with him on the subject, that he did not deny to
animals the faculty of feeling pleasure and pain, memory, intelligence,
and a certain amount of reason. In this he wandered essentially from
Cartesianism, for in it he accorded thought to matter.

From the exclusively logical point of view, Cartesianism is im-
pregnable. Animals do not feel or reason, but have only the appear-
ance of doing so. From the same point of view Schwann's system is

i 7 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

also impregnable. Animals feel and reason, but have not the power of
deciding for themselves. From the point of view of feeling or common
sense, the latter system is much more acceptable than the other. It
may even be said that it satisfies the mind and the heart, and imposes
no hindrance to scientific research. This has also been proved by
Schwann's own example. But it is not less certainly irreconcilable
with transformist theories of the descent of man ; by it man should
have a place aj^art in Nature.

The stories that have been recently published and held up to atten-
tion, as illustrations of the intelligence of animals, have really no bear-
ing unless they indicate that animal intelligence is comparable to ours,
in the sense that a passage may take place from one to the other by
insensible degrees. Otherwise there would be no need of the demon-
stration ; and Schwann as well as Darwin, Malebranche as well as
Descartes, might subscribe to it ; for we might say that, in a certain
sense, a mechanism is intelligent.

Now, there are some facts that bear against the assimilation of the
two kinds of intelligence. An infant, which in the beginning seems
less intelligent than a young puppy, very early manifests its superior-
ity ; and one of the first things it learns is that which can not with
any amount of attention be taught to a dog. It is the capacity of our
race for improvement in contrast with the immobility that seems to
attach to animal races. Need we, to illustrate this, speak of ma-
chines and tools, writing, and the fine arts ? It is true that there are
monkeys that can defend themselves with sticks and pebbles ; fish that
can throw up drops of water to stun the insects they want to swallow ;
and birds that can embellish their nests and form parterres of flowers
which they will keep fresh. But these curious stories are not enough
to close the discussion. Moreover, however similar these acts may ap-
pear in a material sense, they must not always be regarded as mentally
alike. When my dog, at my order, brings my slippers or letters, he
does not act with the same mind as a servant.

Indeed, the assimilation is sometimes justifiable. I had occasion in
some articles that appeared in the " Revue Philosophique," on Mr. G.
H. Lewes's last book (March and April, 1881), to relate a number of
stories in which insects, mollusks, and hydras, as well as dogs, be-
haved, under particular circumstances, as a man would. Let me re-
peat one of them : " I was in the habit of giving bones to my poodle
Mouston during dinner, and he would go into the yard to gnaw them.
A\ hen the bone was too large for him, I would get up and go out
with him, and split it before his eyes with a hatchet. One day, Mous-
ton, after having gone out with his bone as usual, came back bringing
it in his mouth, fixed himself in front of me and wagged his tail. I
ordered him back, but he persisted in staying where he was. Finally,
I thought of what he wanted and arose, while the animal indulged
himself in leaps of satisfaction. The trouble was, that the bone was

WHAT MAY ANIMALS BE TAUGHT? 171

too large for liim. Now, when I call to mind the expression of the dog
when he showed me the bone without getting an answer from me, I
could not help thinking that he must at that moment have had a
very poor opinion of my understanding."

It is evident from this incident that Houston knew explicitly that
the bone would be easier to manage if it was split, and that I alone
had means of splitting it ; and he had a clear and precise idea in antici-
pation of what he expected from me. Finally, he manifested his de-
sire to me by the only means within his power. How much better
could a deaf-mute do than he did ?

But it is one thing to think by resemblances, and another thing to
think by symbols. A story was recently published by M. Dubuc, of
a pointer which had learned after a few years that its master went
hunting every Sunday, while on the other days he went to business ;
and M. Dubuc concluded that the animal had learned to count up to
seven.

This conclusion is not legitimate ; it may even be said to be
wrong. The dog distinguished Sunday by some features that were
peculiar to it ; by the movements about the house, the behavior and
Sunday dress of the servants, the dress of the master, or any one or
more of a number of things that make Sunday different from the
other days of the week ; but we may say without contradiction that
it did not count seven. AYe ourselves, if we were restricted to a life
absolutely uniform, would not be able to distinguish the seventh day
without mnemotechnic aids, and as a rule we seldom recollect the
day or the elate except by the assistance of intrinsic circumstances.

My dog, which was habitually on the watch, perfectly understood
whether I was going out to my lectures or for a stroll. For some
time, he went with me to the university, when I sent him back. But
he very soon took in the signs characteristic of the days and hours
when I went to my duty the regularity, my breakfast habit, my
dress, the books under my arm, the direction I took, and my thoughtful
air. We all know how observing animals are, and every one who has
a dog has remarked how readily they learn that they are to be invited
to go with us.

My Mouston was a great vagabond. He would go off in the morn-
ing as soon as the door was opened, and would sometimes not return
till evening ; but if I said to him, " Mouston, we are going to take a
walk," he would stay around the house and watch my every motion.

The fondness of dogs for going walking with their masters is
worthy of remark. The three dogs I had had the freedom of the
street, but it was a great treat to them all to go with me. Probably
the pleasure of coming up every once in a while to smell their mas-
ter's legs goes a great way to compensate them for the restraint of
following a fixed road and the often-repeated annoyance of the sud-
den interruption of interesting conversations that have hardly been

i 7 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

begun. We also know how quickly animals acquire the idea of the
time of day. Sparrows know when it is time for the bread to be
thrown out for them, and collect around the spot at that hour. Lace-
pede tells of a toad which used to come out of its hole at the time
it was accustomed to be fed. I had a lizard that would leave its nest
and climb up my sleeve at dinner-time. Persons of my age, in Liege,
used to be acquainted with a vagabond dog that regularly at the same
hour made the round of the cafes for the bones or the lumps of sugar
which he was sure to receive from his friends there ; and would as
regularly every evening go to his sleeping-place under a particular
gateway. This animal evidently perceived the time of day by certain
signs that had been taught him by observation ; and M. Dubuc's dog
knew when it was Sunday, or hunting-day, by the same means. And
if, on some Saturday, the house had been arranged and the household
had managed to behave in the manner usual to Sunday, the dog too
would have been found all prepared for his anticipated hunting excur-
sion, just as if it had not been one day short of his accustomed seven.

This faculty of attentive observation of dogs may be stretched so
far as to deceive an experimenter who is a little prepossessed on the
subject.

In his paper before the British Association at Aberdeen, Sir John
Lubbock related how Mr. Huggins, having arranged cards bearing the
ten ciphers, gave his dog a problem, such as to give the square root
of nine, or of sixteen, or the sum of two numbers. He would then
touch each card in succession, and the dog would make a sound to
inform his master when he came to the right one. The dog was
always right. The secret of the experiment was that Mr. Huggins un-
consciously informed the dog by his attitude when he came to the
card that gave the answer. Sir John Lubbock tried to train his dog
not to take a piece of bread till he had counted seven ; but when
he used a metronome the dog showed that he was lost. I made
analogous and systematic experiments with my Mouston. They ex-
tended to the number four, and I aimed to make the sign of the num-
ber more and more indistinct, on each repetition of the experiment.
As soon as it was quite effaced, the dog lost his knowledge of it, and
his perplexed and inquiring look was amusing.

Sir John Lubbock mentions that Lichtenberg pretended to have a
nightingale that could count three. Every day he gave it three meal-
maggots, one at a time, and the bird never came back after it had got
the third. This observation is very interesting, but we ought to know
whether the nightingale did not perceive by some sign that the meal
was over. I have no doubt that, if, in the experiments which I have
made on siskins and gold-finches, I had had only three grains of hemp-
seed in my mouth, they would not have returned after having taken
the third seed, or at least would have been likely not to return ; but in
fact I had many grains, and I frightened them away when they had

WHAT MAY ANIMALS BE TAUGHT? 173

got three. My experiments were not brought to a conclusion, but, if
they had been, it would not have been right to assume too readily that
the birds knew how to count. We should have to inquire whether I
had not involuntarily made some sign manifesting my intention. The
remarkable experiments of Mr. Cumberland have revealed to us a
whole category of motions of this kind which had never been taken
account of before. Who, previous to him, would have suspected that
the hand trembles in a different way when we think of seven and
when we think of three ?

The solution is not advanced, then, when we tell of the cases, curi-
ous and interesting as they may be, in which animals seem to behave
like man ; or, to speak more exactly, these cases are proof only with
respect to persons who are inclined to attribute instincts alone to the
animal, and deny it reflection and calculation. As the philosophers
are still at this point, it may be well to try to undeceive them. Muta-
tis mutandis, the spider chooses the place for its web, and the bird for
its nest, as the colonist selects the location of his farm-house, or of the
pen for his goat or pig. I will agree that we may regard the laying
of the eggs, the making and shaping of the nest, and the selection of
materials as instinctive acts ; but the selection of the place is neces-
sarily of a deliberate and intelligent character.

If there is a difference between animal and human intelligence, it
depends upon special causes, and these are what we are trying to dis-
entangle. I have already remarked that man has the faculty of think-
ing by symbols, while the animal appears not to have it. What is a
symbol ? It is not easy to define the term. Let us say provisionally
that it is a conventional mental sign, representing a clear abstraction.
The definition is neither very good nor very clear, but it will do, for
want of a better one. Before Thales and Pythagoras, thinkers had
distinguished between the common idea and the concept. The com-
mon idea is formed within us, we may say, almost physiologically.
Take, for example, the idea of horse. When I have seen twenty
horses, I have seen for twenty times the qualities which they all have
in common, while I have seen for a less number of times, or only once,
their respective individual qualities ; so that the common image en-
graves itself in the brain or in the sensorium, if that term is preferred,
in deeper and deeper lines and stands out strongly at the base of the
particular and fugitive images.

The concept partakes of the common idea, and it might perhaps be
maintained that it is formed within us in the same manner. But the
degree of abstraction which it necessitates is infinitely more consider-
able. Let it be, for example, the number four. We agree, it is true,
that the idea of, say, any group of four fingers of the hand is a kind
of common idea ; but it is a good way from this idea, from this kind
of group, to that of four distant and different objects, like the four
limbs, the four largest cities in the world, the first four Roman em-

i 74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

perors, or the four largest fruits. But this is not all. The number
four is still easy to transform into images, but that is no longer the
case when we come to higher numbers, such as seven, and, with still
more reason, 20, 100, 1,000, etc. Yet the large numbers are not more
difficult for us to conceive than the small ones. This is because we
represent them by conventional signs, or the figures.

We must not, however, forget that some savage peoples can not
count beyond four or five. Sir John Lubbock tells in his paper an
anecdote of Mr. Galton, who, on one occasion, made a comparison of
the arithmetical comprehension of a Damara savage of South Africa
and a little dog. According to Mr. Galton, the comparison was not
to the advantage of the man.

Let us now examine Sir John Lubbock's experiments. He wrote on
his cards such words as go, bone, water, food, etc., in phonetic orthog-
raphy, so as not to trouble his dog's head with the difficulties of English
spelling ; also words without significance to the animal, such as sim-
ple, nothing, ball, etc. ; and he had cards with nothing written on
them.

Van the dog soon learned to distinguish the blank cards from
the written ones ; then he learned to attach an idea to some of the
latter ; and finally was able to fetch to his master the card that cor-
responded with his wish. To get a single meal he had to fetch some
eighteen or twenty of these cards, and he made no mistakes.

Sir John Lubbock concluded from this success that Yan had learned
to read. In one sense, this conclusion is absolutely false, but that is
not the sense in which Sir John regarded the matter. In another
sense it was true, and this is the point on which we need light.

There was never a dog whose master has not said and thought a
thousand times that he only lacked speech. In fact, the dog seems to
comprehend speech, and speaks in his expression. His eyes behind
which, according to Madame de Stael's fine expression, he seems to
conceal a human soul interrogate, supplicate, and answer ; his ears
are erected, or lop over ; his tail wags, and his whole body assumes
marked attitudes, not to be misinterpreted, of desire, joy, attention,
anger, repentance, fear, shame, and submission. Could he better ex-
press all of his feelings if he spoke ? Should we understand him any
better if he should say to us when he had been guilty of some misdeed,
" I deserve to be punished, but don't, I pray you, be too hard on me,"
or if, after he had been corrected, he should politely thank us for our
moderation ? We perceive at once the distance between his language
and ours. One is natural, the other conventional.

Does he understand our conventional language ? He does, and he
does not, but in the more exact sense he certainly does not. He
understands us when we give him our usual orders : " Down ! "
" Come here ! "." Go back ! " " Give me your paw ! " " Now, the other
one ! " " Seek it ! " " Bring it here ! " " Get out ! " But we forget that

WHAT MAY ANIMALS BE TAUGHT? 175

we accompany our interjections with corresponding gestures, and that
the interjection itself is only one gesture more. We forget how we
have trained him, how we have worked upon his instinct to make him
run for the stick we have thrown, and have taught him to bring it
back in his jaws, by leading him, and showing him how, and petting
him when he performs the trick aright. You accompany your orders
with certain words as if you were speaking to a child, and gave them
a precise signification ; but the dog does not attach this signification
to the word only ; to him the word, or the vowel in the word, is only
a sign that concurs with all the others in helping to make him under-
stand what we want of him.

If, while sitting at my table, I say to my son, "Charles, will you
be so good as to bring me my slippers ? " he will understand me. If
I say the same thing to my dog, in the same tone and without moving,
he will not understand me. I shall have to express myself in a par-
ticular manner and a particular tone of voice. He will understand,
" Houston, bring the slippers ! " or " Houston, slippers ! " or " Houston,
bring ! " But he will not understand the cool, calm request that is
sufficient direction to my boy. The word slippers does not call up
in him the idea of my slippers, but that of a complex action which he
is to perform, consisting of a combination of successive movements
winding up with a caress. Provided I make the accustomed gesture,
he will obey, though I use the wrong word ; and he will not obey,
though I use the right word, if I speak in an indifferent tone as if to
some one behind the scenes.

It frequently occurs to us to think in this way by sensible images,
although we do not remark it. When in the morning I hear the ser-
vants go down, make the fire, and arrange the table, hear the rattling
of the dishes, I do not think in words that they are getting breakfast,
and are preparing the coffee, and putting on the bread, and the butter,
and the sugar ; but I see these preparations in images ; I behold the
coffee-pot, the milk-pitcher, the sugar-bowl and sugar, and the slices
of bread ; and I see in my mind's eye the housemaid in her white
apron going back and forth, opening the cupboards, and arranging the
table-service. When, after this, she knocks at my door, and calls out,
"Breakfast is ready, sir," it is very possible that these words will
not awaken in my mind the idea of breakfast, but that of time to get
up, to wash, dress, and go to business. I attach to the words, with
their strict sense, a more remote sense which is associated with them.
This is the way dogs and animals generally think ; and this is the
meaning our language has to them. They do not analyze, but compre-
hend in block. This is the way the deaf-mute comprehends our signs.

It surely is not by analysis that the child learns to speak ; he
understands our phrases as a whole, and it is not till after some time
that he comes to see in them separate words ; but, finally, he decom-
poses the phrases. Now, if the child can do this, why can not the ani-

i 7 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mal do it too ? Because the animal does not, and the child does speak.
The child speaks whenever it gives utterance to its desire or feeling.
The dog does not speak, when, knowing that he deserves correction,
he comes up, timidly and abjectly, to cringe at the feet of his master.
It is voluntarily, that is, after having found out the how and the why,
that the child has associated certain movements of the larynx with
certain ideas. But you can not teach a dog to come up for correction
gamboling and wagging his tail.

The deaf-mute comprehends and speaks to himself in reading
writing. He speaks to you when he writes to you, because the volun-
tary and trained movement of his eyes or fingers has put on for him a
precise signification. The parrot would be speaking if he said, " Let
us have breakfast " whenever he wanted to eat ; but he does not speak
when he amuses himself by hailing every visitor with these words.

To return to Sir John Lubbock's dog, he speaks when he goes
deliberately to look for the card which corresponds with his desire ;
we might perhaps say that he reads, for he distinguishes it among the
others. Only, the sign might be a triangle or a square, a round figure
or a dart ; the result would be the same, and would have no bearing.
Sir John's idea of phonetic writing has an air of whimsicality ; and I
am inclined to believe it must have been sportive, and that the secret
of the matter lay in the simplification of the figure of which the dog
had to grasp the meaning.

The question now arises whether we can hope to go much further
with the animal. It is one of the most important questions in the
discussion. After all, if the transformist doctrine is true, and there
was an ancestor of man that did not know how to speak, and man has
had to learn to speak, why may not the dog do the same ? Professor
P. J. Van Beneden, of the University of Louvain, had, and may still
have, a dog which could accompany with his voice a tolerably compli-
cated air played on the piano. My dog Marquis could sing in unison
an air of " La Favorita " when a contralto friend gave him the key-
note. Could we not get him to give some signification to his vowels ?
Possibly, but it would be a very hard task, for these reasons :

We speak and we write and read with the eyes. The blind man
reads with his fingers and writes ; the deaf-mute reads with his eyes,
and he writes and even speaks without hearing. Language, under
whatever form it is manifested, consists essentially of a series of vol-
untary and conscious movements, at least in the beginning (I mean
reading with the eyes), to which we attach a certain meaning. These
movements are of the most various and complicated character. The
organs which produce them are either the vocal apparatus, exceed-
ingly mobile and susceptible of assuming a great variety of figures,
which includes the larynx, glottis, palate, cheeks, tongue, teeth, lips,
and nose, or the fingers placed at the end of the arms, capable of vari-
ous movements, or the eyes. The dog has neither our larynx nor

WHAT MAT ANIMALS BE TAUGHT? 177

hands ; there remain to him only the eyes. He can not, then, learn to
speak or to write. Could we teach him to read ; and to what extent ?
The question comes back in a manner to this : Could we teach an arm-
less mute, not deaf, to read? I think it would be a more formidable
task than was that of teaching Laura Bridgman.

Under the old way it was very hard to teach children to read, even
with the help of hearing, the sight, and the voice. We showed them
the letter A, pronounced it, and made them repeat it ; then we passed
to the letter E, and so on. At the end of a year the most intelligent, at
the end of two years less bright, ones were able to attach a determined
sound to certain shapes, that is, when we bring it down to the final
analysis, to certain conscious motions of the eyes. After that we
taught them writing.

Not a great while ago a pedagogue was struck with an inspiration
of genius. It occurred to him to teach reading and writing together.
At first sight it seemed absurd to think of simplifying reading by
adding writing to it. But what was the outcome of his plan ? Why,
that now, children, in the course of three months, and with much
less difficulty and without help from the application of the ruler to
their fingers, learn to read and write with much greater facility and
correctness than they formerly could in three years.

This comes from the fact that the motions of the hand are associated
with those of the eyes, and the form of the letters is thus engraved
upon the memory by means of two different instruments, and therefore
much more quickly, one assisting the other ; and because the other
associations of prolonged sound and articulate sound with that form
have become surer and more rapid.

Would it be possible, by showing him the letter A, to make a mute,
not deaf but armless, understand that the sign corresponds with a
sound? Evidently the experiment would not succeed. We might
with patience teach him to kneel, to get up, to walk, or to make cer-
tain gestures as we show him certain figures. We could do this with
the mute more easily than with the dog, because we could exemplify
the movement to him, and because also, imperfect as he is, he is a
man and Hot a brute. He would also attach the same meaning to the
pronounced sound, and would thus learn that the written sign A
answers exactly to the sound A, as he would obey orders given by the
voice, and we would be able to say that he understood language. He
might also, if we put the alphabet at his command, manifest his wishes
by indicating the sign corresponding with them, and we might be able
to say that he had a language. Possibly we might be able to go
further still, and train him to the point of interpreting the design ; but
I do not hazard much in saying that his education would still leave
an enormous amount to be desired. It is very hard to make a great
scholar even out of a deaf-mute who has arms and has learned to speak,
and Sandersons are exceedingly rare.

VOL. XXIX. 12

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But would the dog ever accomplish much more than to attach a
kind of concrete significance to the figures of the letters ; than to asso-
ciate his necessities or his natural or artificial wants with them ? It is
very doubtful, and that is what is indicated by Sir John Lubbock's
experiments :

Sir John painted six cards, two blue, two red, and two yellow.
Three of these were put before the dog, who was to bring his master
the card of the color that was shown him. Although he was rewarded
every time he succeeded, he never fairly understood what was wanted
of him. This was because the action of bringing the card of the right
color did not appeal directly enough to his senses. Sir John obtained
no better result with six cards marked I, II, III, etc. Van never ex-
actly grasped the conformity of the figures.

What was it prevented my dog, upon whom I tried experiments in
numbers, grasping the difference between three and four pieces of meat?
He failed because he had to abstract the ideas of the numbers 3 and 4
from the variety of the figures which were presented to him. I have
no doubt he might in time have learned to distinguish the triangles
from the squares which I formed on the plate with the three and the
four pieces of meat. The thing that baffled the beast we must not
forget that the dog carries the faculty of observation to a considerable
length was the incessantly variable diversity of the figures. Under
these circumstances, the problem was made too complicated for his
head, those means only being given which I had prepared for enter-
ing into communication with his intelligence.

If any of the readers of these pages is tempted to teach a dog arith-
metic, he would do well, I think, to begin by making him distinguish
one from two, permitting him to touch only a single piece at the word
one, and two pieces at the word two. Then he could pass on to three,
and, if he went so far, to four. After that, he might essay addi-
tion : one and two, one and three, and two and three. The experi-
ment would be very interesting and instructive, whatever the result
might be. For, as Sir John Lubbock says, we ought not to aim for
any one result rather than another, but for the truth.

Is the dog, after all, a suitable subject to experiment upon, in re-
gard to the distance that separates man from animals? Would it not
be better to select the monkey, intractable as he is, but formed like us,
and not only able to imitate our gestures but fond of doing so ? We
might by this means attempt a verification of M. Noire's seductive hy-
pothesis respecting the origin of language : that it is the product of
a social state already considerably advanced, and that the sounds, being
at first simply utterances accompanying the movements of the whole,
finally become the signs of those movements. But suppose, for a mo-
ment, that the dog acquires some notion of number, what are we to
conclude from it ? Is the advance of such a kind that it can be com-
municated to the whole species or to a particular breed ? That would

WHAT MAY ANIMALS BE TAUGHT ? 179

be at least doubtful. There have been very serious and learned con-
troversies respecting the possibility of the transmission by generation
of acquired advantages. Weissmann decides the question in the nega-
tive. Only aptitudes are transmitted by descent. The discussion ap-
pears to be, to some extent, an affair of words. Some say pointer-
dogs have been formed by hunters, who taught particular individuals
not to chase after game, but only to signalize its presence, and that
the knowledge of the fathers passed to their posterity. Others reply
that this is not the case ; even in the times of the corporations or trade-
guilds the sons of shoemakers were not born shoemakers. Special
aptitudes, manifested by particular individuals, have been turned to the
best advantage ; they have been cultivated, and thus breeds have been
created by selection. I say that this is a question of words, because
in any case the re-enforcement of the aptitude is something acquired,
and this acquisition, it is admitted, passes to descendants.

Let us suppose, then, that we have created a race of calculating
dogs. We might, by a bold but legitimate generalization, infer from
that that all animals would be susceptible of acquiring abstract notions
or of thinking by symbols. But the dog would have had an educator.
Must man, then, also have had his educator? We see, thus, how this
question would take shape, and it certainly would be no less grave or
less perplexing than the alternative.

Again, let us suppose that the attempts utterly fail. We might,
indeed, contend that the check was only a temporary one. But let us
waive the evasion, and reason as though the dog were radically incapa-
ble of representing his thoughts by symbols. Would not absolute
transformism, that is, the applicability of transformism to man, receive
a mortal blow ? I do not believe it. The only really legitimate con-
clusion would be, that not all species are indefinitely perfectible, but
that only a few species, perhaps only one, have really entered upon the
road to infinite progress, while the others have gone into a kind of
blind alley. It is in the same way that the main stem of a tree may
theoretically grow up indefinitely toward the sky, while the develop-
ment of the lateral branches is necessarily limited by the power of the
wood to resist rupture.

We thus see that this problem is one of an exceedingly interesting
and tempting character. Although Malebranche has no partisans now,
those who agree to some extent with Schwann form legions, and in
their eyes transformism has only the value of a general doctrine. It
is the question of the origin of man and his place in the world, which
is raised by Sir John Lubbock's cards, and on which, with the co-op-
eration of his dog Van, he has contributed to throw a little light.
Anthropology also can only follow his experiments, the abortive ones
as well as the successful ones, with legitimate curiosity, and return its
most earnest thanks for them. Translated for the Popular Science
Monthly from the Mevue Scientiflque.

i8o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

PKIMITIYE CLOCKS.

By FEEDEEIC G. MATHEE.

THE story is that King Alfred had no better way to tell the time
than by burning twelve candles, each of which lasted two hours ;
and, when all the twelve were gone, another day had passed. Long
before the time of Alfred, and long before the time of Christ, the
shadow of the sun told the hour of the day, by means of a sun-dial.
The old Chaldeans so placed a hollow hemisphere, with a bead in the
center, that the shadow of the bead on the inner surface told the
hour of the dav. Other kinds of dials were afterward made with a
tablet of wood or straight piece of metal. On the tablets were marked
the different hours. When the shadow came to the mark JN. y it was
nine o'clock in the morning. The dial was sometimes placed near the
ground, or in towers or buildings. You see, in the picture, two sun-

dials that are on the Gray and Black Nunnery in Ottawa, the capital
of Canada. The old clock on the eastern end of Faneuil Hall in Bos-
ton was formerly a dial of this kind ; and on some of the old church-
towers in England you may see them to-day. Aside from the kinds
mentioned, the dials now in existence are intended more for ornament

PRIMITIVE CLOCKS. 181

than for use. In the days when dials were used, each one contained
a motto of some kind, like these : " Time flies like the shadow " ; or,
"I tell no hours but those that are happy."

But the dial could be used only in the daytime ; and, even then,
it was worthless when the sun was covered with clouds. In order to
measure the hours of the night as well as the hours of the day, the
Greeks and Romans used the clepsydra, which means, " The water
steals away." A large jar was filled with water, and a hole was made
in the bottom through which the water could run. The glass, in those
days, was not transparent. No one could see from the outside how
much water had escaped. So there were made, on the inside, certain
marks that told the hours as the water ran out ; or else a stick with
notches in the edge was dipped into the water, and the depth of what
was left showed the hour. Sometimes the water dropped into another
jar in which a block of wood was floating, the block rising as the hours
went on. Once in a while, some very rich man had a clepsydra that
sounded a musical note at every hour.

Another way of measuring time among the ancients was by the
sand, or hour-glass. This was made of pear-shaped bits of hollow
glass with a very small opening between them. It held just sand
enough to run from the upper into the lower pear in the space of one
hour. The glass was then turned the other side up and the sand ran
back, also taking an hour. You have seen glasses of this kind where
the sand runs out in three minutes. They are used for boiling eggs.
King Charlemagne, a thousand years ago, had a glass of this kind that
ran for twelve hours without turning. It was marked on the outside
with red lines to show the escape of the sand. Hour-glasses were so
common after this that they were carried in the pocket like watches.
Every minister had one to mark the length of his sermon, which was
a very serious matter in England during the protectorate of Cromwell,
very few sermons being as short as one hour. It is said of one min-
ister that when the sand ran out of his glass he turned it over, saying,
" I know that you are all good fellows, so let's have another glass."
Once, when the preacher had turned his glass a second time, showing
that he had already preached two hours, the sexton asked him to lock
the door and put the key on the nail when he was through, because
the few people that were left wanted to go home to dinner. We also
read that, in the early history of New York, the soldiers who defended
the city used hour-glasses to tell when they should go on guard.

We have seen that the dial could be used neither at night nor in
cloudy weather. We have also noticed that the hour-glass had to be
watched so that it might be turned at the very moment the sand ran
out. And we have also seen how inconvenient it was to measure time
by the running of water. None of these ways was accurate enough,
for minutes and even hours would be lost. A better means of measur-
ing time was sought for ; and this was found by means of a clepsydra,

i8z TEE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

in which the water drove a wheel that marked the hours by a hand.
The old Romans used this water-clock ; but, when their empire was
destroyed, all Western Europe forgot the existence of such a thing.
In the year 807 a. p.. the Caliph of Bagdad, Haroun-al-Raschid, sent
to Charlemagne a water-clock of this kind. Soon after we learn
that, instead of the running water, a weight was used for turning the
wheel. But whether the clock was run bv water or bv a weight it
was always a hard matter to have the hours of the same length. The
escapement, which we shall speak of presently, made one hour more
nearlv the length of everv other hour. The machine for telling the
hours was, for manv Tears, called the horologe, or "hour-teller."
The word " clock " was applied only to the bell that struck the hours.
It sounds very much like the Saxon, French, and German words that
mean ''bell." About nine hundred Years ago horologes were brought
into England bv the Catholic clergv. Very large horologes were
built into the towers at Canterbury Cathedral, in 1292 ; at "Westmin-
ster, in 1290 ; at Exeter Cathedral, in 1317 the striking part of which
is still in use ; at the cathedrals of Wells and Peterborough ; and at
St. Albans Abbev in 1326. A smaller horologe was made for Charles
V of France in 1370, by a German named Vick.

Horologes, or clocks, would have remained in this imperfect state
until to-day if it had not been for the invention of the pendulum,
which means "something that swing-.'* You all remember the story
of Galileo, who, when a boy, watched the chandelier as it swung to
and fro in the cathedral at Florence. The voung bov noticed that it
moved with great regularitv. If it had moved all the wav around the
point where it was held, or suspended, it would have made a circle ;
but as it moved only a small part of the way, it moved in what is
called the u arc " of a circle. Galileo saw that it took just as long a
time to go from one end of the arc to the other as it did to return.
This is called isochronism, or "equal times." In 1620, several years
after Galileo's discovery, Huygens first used the pendulum to regu-
late the movement of a clock. You may see how this is done by look-
ing at Fig. 1. We have here the simplest form of clock-work, or
14 movement," as it is called. A wheel, with teeth on the edge, turns
on a pin, i, by the force of the weight h, the string being wound
about what is called a " barrel n at i. If there is no way of stopping
the wheel, it will run down very fast and very unevenly. Here is just
where the pendulum becomes useful. The pendulum is a long wire,
a c, the part c being enlarged into what is called a "bob." The pen-
dulum swings on the point a. It has an arm, d g, fastened to it and
swinging with it. The points of this arm are called the " pallets."
When the pendulum is in the position marked by the black line you
will see that the wheel is stopped by the pallet d. But, when the
pendulum swings to the place marked by the dotted line, the pallet d
moves out to e. This lets the wheel move a little ; but, before it

PRIMITIVE CLOCKS.

183

moves a notch, the pallet g has moved to /and catches the wheel be-
low. When the pendulum swings from b back to c,/is moved to g,
and the pallet d stops the wheel from going any farther. So that,
while the pendulum has gone from c to b and back again, only one
tooth of the wheel has es-
caped instead of two. The
arm of the pendulum which
acts upon the teeth of the
wheel and the wheel itself
are called the " escapement,"
because they let only a little
of the power in the weight
escape at a time just as the
hour-glass allowed but a little
of the sand to escape at once,
and as the clepsydra allowed
only a little of the water to
run out at a time.

The earliest form of an
escapement was that of Vick.
It was a small wheel that was
turned back and forth by a
twisted string. Afterward it
was turned by a spiral spring,
the wheel beinor alwavs hori-
zontal, or running at risrht an-
gles to the other wheels, that

were vertical. A new " scape- wheel," as it is called, was invented by Dr.
Hooke, which moved vertically, or in the same plane with the other
wheels. This is the wheel that is shown in Fig. 1. You will see by
the figure that, when the bob is at b, and the tooth of the wheel comes
on the pallet/, it will throw /over to g and help the bob to move from
b to c. This is called the "recoil" escapement, because the force of
the wheel gives such a sudden jerk to the pendulum. The cheaper
clocks frequently have the recoil escapement. Very much of this
jerking motion is saved by the " dead-beat " escapement, invented by
Graham, an Englishman. It is so called because the tooth of the
wheel falls dead upon the pallet and stays there until the pendulum
starts back and releases it. The teeth of the dead-beat scape-wheel
are of a different shape from those shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The
" gravity " escapement is so called because another weight beside the
principal weight gives an impulse, or motion, to the pallet. There
are many other kinds of escapements, that are too difficult to be ex-
plained here. I have described only the simpler kinds.

In Fig. 1 the pendulum is made very much shorter than it should
be, so that it will not take up the whole of the page. At the earth's

184

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

equator it should be about thirty-nine inches long, to " vibrate," or go
from c to b in one second. At the latitude of Washington, where the
force of gravity is greater, the length is thirty-nine and one tenth inches.
At London, which is still farther north, the length is thirty-nine and
one seventh inches. A pendulum of the right length in London would
lose two and one quarter minutes a day at the equator. The pendulum
that vibrates from e to b in two seconds must be four times the length
of a one-second pendulum. The pendulum of the great clock at West-
minster moves once in two seconds. It is nearly fifteen feet long, and
it weighs seven hundred pounds the heaviest in the world. The
heavier and longer the pendulum, the more regularly will the clock
move. But pendulums may be too long and too heavy. Almost all of
the clocks that were made before the year 1800 had pendulums about

thirty-nine inches long, and
they stood with their cases
over five feet high usually
in the corner of the room.
They were so clumsy that
only the machinery was ped-
dled about from place to
place the nearest cabinet-
maker being called upon to
make the case. By-and-by
it was found that, if, in Fig.
1, the pendulum would go
from c to b in one second, it
would go from c to b, back
again to c or twice as fast
if it were one quarter as
long. After that, clocks were
made short enough to stand
on a shelf.

It had also been found
that the bob of the pendu-
lum, when moving in the arc
of a circle, was not reliable ;
but that all the trouble was
avoided if it moved in the
arc of a cycloid (or " like a
/ circle"). This arrangement
is shown in Fig. 2. The pen-
dulum hano-s from a fixed
point, a, where it is fastened
securely. The upper end of
the wire is beaten into a very thin spring. When the bob b moves back
and forth, it does not move in the arc of the circle c d, but on the dotted

Fig. 2.

PRIMITIVE CLOCKS. 185

line ef. Great care is taken in preparing the spring at a, so that the
bob will have no other motion than that from e tof. Should it move
sidewise, or twist about, the clock will be spoiled. The bob was for-
merly flat, like a small plate, or round, like a ball. It was then a diffi-
cult matter to run the pendulum-wire through the exact center, and
therefore the best bobs are now made in the form of a cylinder. A
nut at the end of the wire keeps the bob from slipping off. If the nut
is turned to the right, the pendulum is shortened, and the clock goes
faster. If it is turned to the left, the clock goes slower. Sometimes
it is necessary to regulate the pendulum without stopping it. This is
done by placing small weights on the parts of it that project. In
order to keep them of the same length, both in summer and in winter,
pendulums were often made of wood ; but it has been found that if
the bob is made of bars of iron and zinc, or brass and steel, in the
form of a gridiron, the different expansions of the two metals keep the
pendulum at the right length. The pendulum-rod sometimes ends in
a cup of mercury at the bob. When the heat expands the rod, the
mercury is forced upward in the cup and nearer the fixed end of the
pendulum. The object of both the gridiron pendulum and the mercu-
rial is to bring the " center of oscillation " as near as possible to the
"center of gravity." Another kind of a pendulum is called the
"rotary," because the bob moves in a circle instead of going from
side to side, but this is not thought to be at all reliable.

From what has been said already, you will see that the weight h
(Fig. 1) would soon run away with the scape- wheel unless the pallets
defg dodged in and out among the teeth and stopped it from going
so fast. The pendulum, too, instead of moving back and forth be-
tween b and c, would stop half-way between them in a vertical or up-
and-down line, like the plummets that the bricklayers use. A clock
with simply the scape-wheel and the pendulum will soon run down ;
you must therefore have more wheels and a heavier weight to move
them, or else your wheels will not move evenly enough to carry the
minute- and hour-hands over the " face " that is outside. In Fig. 3
you will see that we have added other wheels ; but you will recognize
the scape-wheel in c, and the weight hanging to the wheel a. As it
descends, the weight pulls the wheel a in the direction of the arrow.
The wheel A turns with the wheel a, and it has seventy-eight "teeth,"
as the cogs are called. At b is a small wheel called a " pinion," with
six "leaves," as the cogs are called. The large wheel, B, has also
seventy-eight teeth ; and the pinion c has also six leaves. While A
is turning round once, B and b turn thirteen times, because b has one
thirteenth as many teeth as A. In the same way C and c turn thirteen
times as fast as B and b. I have a clock before me in which the wheel
A turns once in one hundred and thirty minutes, or two hours and ten
minutes. The wheel B turns in ten minutes, and the wheel C in ten
thirteenths of a minute. You will see that the scape- wheel C does

i86

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not always take exactly a minute to go round. This scape-wheel has
forty-two teeth, which is more than the usual number. If there were
sixty teeth, and the pendulum marked one second at each swinging,
the scape-wheel would turn once every minute. But this is not neces-
sary ; besides, the scape-wheel must be small enough for the pallets
to take in about nine teeth between them, and yet be able to swing
clear of them altogether.

The series of wheels in Fig. 3 is called the " train." You can not
see the train in the clock so plainly as it is drawn in the picture, be-

Fig. 3.

cause one wheel is placed behind the other in order to take as little
room as possible. Sometimes, instead of only one wheel, B, between
A and C, there will be two or three wheels all of them smaller. The
train of wheels is then harder to move, and the weight must be heavier.
If the weight drops two inches in twenty-four hours, it will need a space

PRIMITIVE CLOCKS. 187

of sixteen inches if it is to run eight days. The length of time that
the clock will run depends upon three things : 1. The length of the
pendulum ; 2. The space through which the weight falls ; 3. The
number of wheels in the train, and the number of teeth in each
wheel. We have already seen how the length of the pendulum
can be regulated. If the weight has a small space allowed for its
fall, the clock may be made to run longer by increasing both the
weight and the number of teeth. The number of teeth may be in-
creased by increasing the number of wheels, or by putting in new
wheels.

The wheel D, Fig. 3, is called the " center wheel," because it turns
once in an hour. It has thirty-six teeth. In former times the wheel
A turned once in twelve hours ; and the axle, or " arbor," a, went
through a hole in the face of the clock. A hand on the end of the
arbor passed over certain figures on the face which marked the hours
from one to twelve. This hand was called the hour-hand ; but, as it
could not mark the minutes, the center wheel, D, was so made that it
would turn once in an hour, and thus, by carrying a hand over the face
outside, marked the minutes. After this change was made no one
cared whether the wheel A turned in one hour or in three hours, or
whether the wheel C turned in one half minute or in two minutes, if
only the wheel D turned in exactly one hour. At d is a " cannon "
pinion that sticks to the arbor by friction. The minute-hand, which
is placed upon the pinion, may thus be moved without turning the
wheel D or any of the other wheels.

We must now provide an hour-hand. The cannon-pinion a
(Fig. 4), with twelve leaves, runs on the arbor of the center wheel ;
but it could not be drawn in Fig. 3, because it is
behind the center wheel, D. These twelve leaves, ,**' " %

A (Fig. 4), run into thirty-six teeth in the wheel
B. You will notice that the teeth and the leaves
are not drawn in the picture. On the farther side
of B is the pinion b, with twelve leaves which run
into the forty-eight teeth of the wheel C. The
wheel C and the pinion b are marked with dotted
lines, because they are behind the pinion a and
the wheel B. If a turns once in an hour, B will
turn once in three hours, and C once in twelve
hours. If what is called a "barrel" is placed
over the cannon-pinion of the center wheel, and FlG 4

one end of it is fastened to the wheel C, the other
end that comes through the face of the clock will carry the hour-hand.
These wheels, in Fig. 4, are independent of the wheels in Fig. 3, except
that a, in Fig. 4, fits upon the arbor d, of D, in Fig. 3 so loosely that
you may turn the hour- and the minute-hand whenever you choose, and
yet tightly enough to turn about with the wheel D if they are not dis-

188 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

turbed. You can, therefore, move the two hands of the clock without
disturbing any of the wheels in Fig. 3.

We have seen that the weight must keep pulling, or the clock will
stop. Sometimes, instead of the weight, a spring is used, especially if
the clock is small. The spring simply pushes the wheel A in the di-
rection of the arrow (Fig. 3). When the spring is used the clock may
have a pendulum escapement, or it may have a wheel escapement like
that of a watch. But if the pressure of the spring is removed, or if
the weight (should there be one) is lifted, the clock will stop. When
you wind up the clock it is the same thing as taking away the weight,
or the spring, while you are winding. How, then, can you wind it and
still keep it going ? This is done by what is called a " going-barrel,"
or " maintaining- works." In Fig. 3 you will notice that the wheel A
turns in the direction of the arrow when the weight pulls down.
When you wind up the clock the force of the weight is taken off. A
strong spring is placed on the side of the wheel A that pushes it along
in the direction of the arrow for the few seconds that you take in
winding. Another wheel, or barrel, a, is placed on the large wheel A,
and on this the string that holds the weight is wound. This wheel
you turn in the opposite direction to that of the arrow. At the same
time the spring pushes A in the direction of the arrow. You will
sometimes see an old clock with an endless chain so arranged that,
by pulling on a small weight, you may lift a large weight, and thus
wind the clock. Others of the old time-pieces have weights that are
hung by chains with rings at the upper end. When the weight has
run down you can pull on the ring and the weight is lifted. You
will find that all the best clocks, and all the watches, have the " main-
taining-works."

The striking part of a clock is a very interesting study. It has a
train of wheels and a weight entirely separate from the train that tells
the hours and minutes by the hands. The large wheel, B, in Fig. 5,
really consists of two wheels fastened together. The larger or outer
wheel has seventy-eight teeth that run into a pinion, , with thirteen
leaves. The cord that holds the weight is wound on the axle of , on
which A is also fastened. There are thirteen pins on the surface of A.
They can not be seen, because they are on the other side of the wheel ;
but they have been drawn in the picture so that the explanation may
be more easily understood. As the wheel A turns, each pin strikes
the end of the lever c, which, when it is released, springs back and
strikes the bell d. The smaller wheel, B, has notches all about it
first, one notch ; then two notches close together ; then three notches
close together ; and so on until you find twelve notches all in one
place. This makes seventy-eight notches in all. Behind the wheel
B is a pinion that you can not see. It is turned by the wheel A, but
it is entirely independent of B, although it turns on the same axis.
This independent pinion turns a wheel almost as large as B, which

PRIMITIVE CLOCKS.

189

itself turns a small pinion that carries the "fly-fan." The use of the
fan is to keep an even motion. The large wheel that we have spoken
of turns once at every stroke of the bell. In Fig. 5, a wire, e, runs
over to the center wheel, D. In Fig. 3, a pin on the center wheel
pushes up this wire when the clock is ready to strike. If the end of
the wire (in Fig. 5) rests at the four notches, it shows that four o'clock

Fig. 5.

has been struck. If the center wheel pushes the wire up again, or pulls
it out from the notch where it is resting, the large wheels at B are
released ; the weight commences to turn A and B, and the pins in A
set the hammer c to striking the bell d. It keeps on striking until
five has been struck. The wire then drops into a notch and holds
the striking-wheel fast until the center wheel moves the wire again
thus saying that it is time to strike six. The wheels then turn again
until the wire comes down and stops them. Alarm-clocks have an
arrangement by which the spring that sounds the alarm is let loose at
the hour when the owner wishes to be awakened.

The boys who went to school in New England sixty years ago had
no such device to waken them in cold winter mornings as the modern
alarm-clock ; they had to waken each other, in order to have a good
start in kindling their fires, so that they could enjoy an hour's hard
study, and sometimes a recitation, before breakfast.

i 9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But it was not always convenient for one to keep awake in order
to waken his companions. The one who was on guard was as sleepy
as any of the rest : so the inventive brains of the Yankee boys were
set to work to find some way of giving an alarm at the right time.
Let it be remembered that, while primitive alarm-clocks were to be
had in Europe, and while " repeating "- watches were a luxury in
America, neither of them were to be found in New England as it
was then. Even if the repeating-watch had been in general use, it
was valueless, except to tell the time in the dark when one was
awake. The invention of the alarm-clock was, therefore, a greater
advance in the history of clock-making than was the invention of
time-locks in the history of lock-making. The essential feature of
the time-lock is a chronometer that turns a wheel containing a pin so
adjusted that it will reach a certain point in a fixed time. Then a
"dog" drops down, removes the obstruction, and allows the bolt to
be shoved back. Two chronometers are used, so that, in case one runs
down, the other will do the work. They are hung on springs, for fear
that they will run down if the burglars should use dynamite, or some
other explosive, to give them a sudden jar.

The Yankee boys, at the time that I have spoken of, were equal
to the difficulty of awakening at the exact time. They invented a
contrivance which was an indication of what was corain & in both the
alarm-clock and the time-lock. Indeed, it was so nearly a combina-
tion of the two that we must take away from the more modern invent-
ors some of the credit and bestow it upon the boys.

In order to explain the plan more clearly, I ought first to say that
the watches worn by both the men and the boys were of the large and
coarse pattern known as " bull's-eyes " a name given because the
crystals were very thick, and bulged out something like the lens of a
dark-lantern. The watches of this kind were not only very thick, but
they were very large in diameter. The springs were very strong, and
the hands were very stout. Therefore, the power that moved the
hands was much greater than the power that moves the hands in the
watches that are made to-day.

The boys prepared a board, abed, Fig. 6, about a foot square.
Toward the upper edge, at e, they scooped out a place large enough
for the watch to drop into, and have the face even, or flush, with the
surface of the board. The face of the watch was then fastened to
the board. The crystal was opened, or taken away entirely, and thus
the hands traveled around just as if they had been on the board itself.
A small wooden lever, j g, was fastened to the board by a nail, f, that
acted as a fulcrum. Another lever, g i, had a fulcrum at A, and
touched the first lever at g. The board fras kept at a slant on the
table by the prop n, or else by a pile of books behind it. The lever
gj was so adjusted that the minute-hand of the watch would pass
over the end,J but when the given hour-hand, v, for instance, came

PRIMITIVE CLOCKS.

191

round, it would strike/ to the left. The effect would be this : g would
move to the right and i to the left, thus pushing the weight at i from
the little shelf on which it was balanced, and causing it to tumble
toward the floor.

Fig. 6.

You can imagine that the force set in motion by the hour-hand of
the watch, even of a " bull's-eye," was not enough to start a very
heavy weight. Therefore, the dropping of the weight at i was not
enough of a noise to awaken the boys, but the force that was exerted
was enough, applied at the end of a long lever, to transfer itself to a
point where it would do more good. The weight i, in dropping,
pulled a string that was fastened on the long arm of the lever k m.
This lever was fastened to the edge of the same table that held the
square board by a gimlet, or nail, as a fulcrum, at I. When i dropped,
it pulled h down and pushed m up. The sudden jerk at m pushed
over a nicely balanced table, upon which had been placed nearly all
the chairs and other furniture in the room. This certainly made
enough noise to awaken the occupants of the room, and it is not likely
there was much sleep after that. It was a great deal of trouble to
adjust so nicely all the different parts of this primitive alarm-clock ;
but it never failed to work when care was taken with all the details.
Let us praise the boys for studying out a scheme which others have
adopted and called their own. They preferred to lie in bed as long
as possible, and did not propose to keep awake all night, if any ma-
chinery could be devised to do the awaking for them.

A few words in regard to the dial on the face of the clock. The
dial of a clock, if it is a cheap one, is made of wood and painted white.
If the dial is small and expensive, it is made of copper on which is
baked a white enamel surface. The figures are marked in black paint,
which is sometimes burned or " baked in." The usual size of the fig-

i 9 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ures from I to XII is one third of the distance from the outer circle
toward the center. If the face of the clock is white, the figures and
the hands should be black. If the face is black, or any dark color, the
figures and hands should be either white or gilt. The dials of tower-
clocks are frequently illuminated by gas or electricity, so that the time
may be easily determined at night.

-+++-

THE FACTOKS OF OEGAKLC EYOLUTIOK

By HEEBEET SPENCEE.

in.

LIMITED, as thus far drawn, to a certain common trait of those
minute organisms which are mostly below the reach of unaided
vision, the foregoing conclusion appears trivial enough. But it ceases
to appear trivial on passing beyond these limits, and observing the im-
plications, direct and indirect, as they concern plants and animals of
sensible sizes.

Popular expositions of science have so far familiarized many read-
ers with a certain fundamental trait of living things around, that they
have ceased to perceive how marvellous a trait it is, and until inter-
preted by the Theory of Evolution, how utterly mysterious. In past
times, the conception of an ordinary plant or animal which prevailed,
not throughout the world at large only but among the most instructed,
was that it is a single continuous entity. One of these living things
was unhesitatingly regarded as being in all respects a unit. Parts it
might have, various in their sizes, forms, and compositions ; but these
were components of a whole which had been from the beginning in its
original nature a whole. Even to naturalists fifty years ago, the as-
sertion that a cabbage or a cow, though in one sense a whole, is in
another sense a vast society of minute individuals, severally living in
greater or less degrees, and some of them maintaining their independ-
ent lives unrestrained, would have seemed an absurdity. But this
truth which, like so many of the truths established by science, is con-
trary to that common sense in which most people have so much confi-
dence, has been gradually growing clear since the days when Leeu-
wenhoeck and his contemporaries began to examine through lenses the
minute structures of common plants and animals. Each improvement
in the microscope, while it has widened our knowledge of those minute
forms of life described above, has revealed further evidence of the fact
that all the larger forms of life consist of units severally allied in their
fundamental traits to these minute forms of life. Though, as formu-
lated by Schwann and Schleiden, the cell-doctrine has undergone quali-
fications of statement ; yet the qualifications have not been such as to
militate against the general proposition that organisms visible to the

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 193

naked eye, are severally compounded of invisible organisms using
that word in its most comprehensive sense. And then, when the de-
velopment of any animal is traced, it is found that having been prima-
rily a nucleated cell, and having afterwards become by spontaneous
fission a cluster of nucleated cells, it goes on through successive stages
to form out of such cells, ever multiplying and modifying in various
ways, the several tissues and organs composing the adult.

On the hypothesis of evolution this universal trait has to be ac-
cepted not as a fact that is strange but unmeaning. It has to be ac-
cepted as evidence that all the visible forms of life have arisen by
union of the invisible forms ; which, instead of flying apart, when
they divided, remained together. Various intermediate stages are
known. Among plants, those of the Volvox type show us the com-
ponent protophytes so feebly combined that they severally carry on
their lives with no appreciable subordination to the life of the group.
And among animals, a parallel relation between the lives of the units
and the life of the group is shown us in Uroglena and Syncrypta.
From these first stages upwards, may be traced through successively
higher types, an increasing subordination of the units to the aggre-
gate ; though still a subordination leaving to them conspicuous
amounts of individual activity. Joining which facts with the phe-
nomena presented by the cell-multiplication and aggregation of every
unfolding germ, naturalists are now accepting the conclusion that by
this process of composition from Protozoa were formed all classes of
the Metazoa* (as animals formed by this compounding are now
called) ; and that in a similar way from Protophyta, were formed all
classes of what, by analogy, I suppose will be called Metap>hyta,
though the word does not yet seem to have become current.

And now what is the general meaning of these truths, taken in
connexion with the conclusion reached in the last section ? It is that
this universal trait of the Metazoa and Metaphyta, must be ascribed
to the primitive action and re-action between the organism and its
medium. The operation of those forces which produced the primary
differentiation of outer from inner in early minute masses of proto-
plasm, pre-determined this universal cell-structure of all embryos,
plant and animal, and the consequent cell-composition of adult forms
arising from them. How unavoidable is this implication, will be seen
on carrying further an illustration already used that of the shingle-
covered shore, the pebbles on w T hich, w T hile being in some cases select-
ed, have been in all cases rounded and smoothed. Suppose a bed of
such shingle to be, as we often see it, solidified, along w T ith interfused
material, into a conglomerate. What in such case must be considered
as the chief trait of such conglomerate ; or rather what must we re-
gard as the chief cause of its distinctive characters ? Evidently the
action of the sea. Without the breakers, no pebbles ; without the

* A Treatise on Comparative Embryology, By F..M. Balfour.. Tol. II, chap. xiii.
vol. xxix. 13

i 9 4 TJ;}: POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

pebbles, no conglomerate. Similarly then, in the absence of that
aetion of the medium by which was effected the differentiation of

outer from inner in those microscopic portions of protoplasm consti-
tuting the earliest and simplest animals and plants, there could not
have existed this cardinal trait of composition which all the higher
animals and plants show us.

So that, active as has been the part played by natural seleetion,
alike in modifying and moulding the original units largely as sur-
viva! of the fittest has been instrumental in farthering and controlling
the a cerebration of these units into visible organisms and eventually
into large ones : ye: we must ascribe to the direct effect of the me-
dium on primitive forms of life, that primordial trait of which this
everywhere-operative factor has taken advantage.

Let us turn now : a another and more manifest trait of higher or-
nisms, for whieh also there is this same general cause. Let us ob-

serve how, on a higher platform, there recurs this differentiation of
outer from inner how this primary trait in the living units with
whieh life eommenees, re-appears as a primary trait in those aggre-
- eh units whieh constitute visible organisms.

I:: its simplest and most unmistakable form, we see this in the
early ehanges of an unfolding ovum of primitive type. The original
fertilized single cell, having by spontaneous fusion multiplied into a
cluster of sueh cells, there begins to show itself a contrast between
periphery and centre ; and presently there is formed a sphere consist-
ing of a superficial layer unlike its contents. The first change, then,
is the rise of a difference between that outer part which holds direct
".verse with the surrounding medium, and that inclosed part which
does not. This primary differentiation in these compound embryos
of higher animals, parallels the primary differentiation undergone by
the simplest living things.

Leaving, for the present, succeeding changes of the compound
embryo, the significance of which we shall have to consider by-and-
by. let us pass now to the adult forms of visible plants and animals.
In them we find cardinal traits which, after what we have seen above,
will further impress us with the importance of the effects wrought on
the organism bv its medium.

From the thallus of a sea-weed up to the leaf of a highly developed
pha?nogam, we find, at all stages, a contrast between the inner and
outer parts of these flattened masses of tissue. In the higher Alg
"' he outermost lavers consist of smaller and firmer cells, while the
inner cells are often very large, and sometimes extremely long : n *
and in the leaves of trees the epidermal layer, besides differing in the
sizes and shapes of its component cells from the parenchyma forming
the inner substance of the leaf, is itself differentiated bv having a con-

* Sachs, p. 210.

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTIOX. 195

tinuous cuticle, and by Laving the outer walls of its cells unlike the
inner walls.* Especially instructive is the structure of such inter-
mediate types as the Liverworts. Beyond the differentiation of the
raring cells from the contained cells, and the contrast between up-
per surface and under surface, the frond of Marchantia polymorph".
clearly shows us the direct effect of incident forces : and shows us,
too, how it is involved with the effect of inherited proclivities. The
frond grows from a flat disc-shaped gemma, the two sides of which
are alike. Either side may fall uppermost ; and then of the develop-
ing shoot, the side exposed to the light "is under all circumstam
the upper side which forms stornata, the dark side becomes the under
side which produces root-hairs and leafy processes.' 1 i 80 that while
we have undeniable proof that the contrasted influences of the medi-
um on the two sides, initiate the differentiation, we have also proof
that the completion of it is determined by the transmitted structure
of the type ; since it is impossible to ascribe the development of
stomata to the direct action of air and light. On turning from
foliar expansion to stems and roots, facts of like meaning m-
08. Speaking generally of epidermal tissue and inner tissue, Sachs
remarks that "the contrast of the two is the plainer the more the
part of the plant concerned is exposed to air and light." J E^ -
where, in correspondence with this, it is said that in roots the cells
of the epidermis, though distinguished by bearing hairs, "are other-
wise similar to those of the fundamental tissue " * which they clothe,
while the cuticular covering is relatively thin ; whereas in stems
the epidermis (often further differentiated) is composed of layers of
cells which are smaller and thicker- walled : a stronger contrast of
structure corresponding to a stronger contrast of conditions. By way
of meeting the suggestion that these respective differences are wholly
due to the natural selection of favourable variations, it will suffice if
I draw attention to the unlikeness between imbedded roots and ex-
posed roots. "While in darkness, and surrounded by moist earth, the
outermost protective coats, even of large roots, are comparatively
thin ; but when the accidents of growth entail permanent exposure to
light and air, roots acquire coverings allied in character to the cover-
ings of branches. That the action of the medium causes these and
converse changes, cannot be doubted when we find, on the one hand,
that "roots can become directly transformed into leaf-bearing shoot-. "
and, on the other hand, that in some plants certain "apparent roots
are only underground shoots," and that nevertheless "they are similar
to true roots in function and in the formation of tissue, but have no
root-cap, and, when they come to the light above ground, continue to
grow in the manner of ordinary leaf-shoots." ] If, then, in highly de-
veloped plants inheriting pronounced structures, this differentiating

* Sachs, pp. S3-4. f Ibid., p. 135. J Ibid., p. 3. * PAd., p. 83.

I Ibid., p. 147.

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

influence of the medium is so marked, it must have been all-important
at the outset while types were undetermined.

As with plants so with animals, we find good reason for inferring
that while all the specialities of the tegumentary parts must be as-
cribed to the natural selection of favourable variations, their most
general traits are due to the direct action of surrounding agencies.
Here we come upon the border of those changes which are ascribable
to use and disuse. But from this class of changes we may fitly ex-
clude those in which the parts concerned are wholly or mainly passive.
A corn and a blister will conveniently serve to illustrate the way in
which certain outer actions produce in the superficial tissues, effects of
a purely physical kind effects related neither to the needs of the
organism nor to its structural proclivities. They are neither adaptive
changes nor changes towards completion of the type. After noting
them we may pass to allied, but still more instructive, facts. Contin-
uous pressure on any portion of the surface causes absorption, while
intermittent pressure causes growth : the one impeding circulation and
the passage of plasma from the capillaries into the tissues, and the
other aiding both. There are further mechanically-produced effects.
That the general character of the ribbed skin on the under surfaces of
the feet and insides of the hands is directly due to friction and inter-
mittent pressure, we have the proofs : first, that the tracts most ex-
posed to rough usage are the most ribbed ; second, that the insides of
hands subject to unusual amounts of rough usage, as those of sailors,
are strongly ribbed all over ; and third, that in hands which are very
little used, the parts commonly ribbed become quite smooth. These
several kinds of evidence, however, full of meaning as they are, I give
simply to prepare the way for evidence of a much more conclusive
kind.

"Where ulceration has eaten away the deep-seated layer out of
which the epidermis grows, or where this layer has been destroyed by
an extensive burn, the process of healing is very significant. From
the subjacent tissues, which in the normal order have no concern with
outward growth, there is produced a new skin, or rather a pro-skin ; for
this substituted outward-growing layer contains no hair-follicles or other
specialities of the original one. Nevertheless, it is like the original one
in so far that it is a continually renewed protective covering. Doubtless
it may be contended that this make-shift skin results from the inherited
proclivity of the type the tendency to complete afresh the structure
of the species when injured. "We cannot, however, ignore the imme-
diate influence of the medium, on recalling the facts above named, or
on remembering the further fact that an inflamed surface of skin,
when not sheltered from the air, will throw out a film of coagulable
lymph. But that the direct action of the medium is a chief factor we
are clearly shown by another case. Accident or disease occasionally
causes permanent eversion, or protrusion, of mucous membrane. After

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. i 97

a period of irritability, great at first but decreasing as the change ad-
vances, this membrane assumes the general character of ordinary skin.
Nor is this all : its microscopic structure changes. Where it is a mu-
cous membrane of the kind covered by cylinder-epithelium, the cylin-
ders gradually shorten, becoming finally flat, and there results a squa-
mous epithelium : there is a near approach in minute composition to
epidermis. Here a tendency towards completion of the type cannot
be alleged ; for there is, contrariwise, divergence from the type. The
effect of the medium is so great that, in a short time, it overcomes the
inherited proclivity and produces a structure of opposite kind to the
normal one.

Fully to perceive the way in which these evidences compel us to
recognize the influence of the medium as a primordial factor, we need
but conceive them as interpreted without it. Suppose, for instance,
we say that the structure of the epidermis is wholly determined by
the natural selection of favourable variations ; what must be the posi-
tion taken in presence of the fact above named, that the cell-structure
of mucous membrane changes into the cell-structure of skin when
mucous membrane is exposed to the air ? The position taken must be
this : Though mucous membrane in a highly-evolved individual or-
ganism, thus shows the powerful effect of the medium on its surface ;
yet we must not suppose that the medium had the effect of producing
such a cell-structure on the surfaces of primitive forms, undifferen-
tiated though they were ; or, if we suppose that such an effect was
produced on them, we must not suppose that it was inheritable. Con-
trariwise, we must suppose that such effects of the medium either were
not wrought at all, or that they were evanescent : though repeated
through millions upon millions of generations they left no traces.
And we must conclude that this skin -structure arose only in conse-
quence of spontaneous variations not physically initiated (though like
those physically initiated) which natural selection laid hold of and in-
creased. Does any one think this a tenable position ?

And now we approach the last and chief series of morphological
phenomena which must be ascribed to the direct action of environing
matters and forces. These are presented to us when we study the
early stages in the development of the embryos of the Metazoa in
general.

We will set out with the fact already noted in passing, that after
repeated spontaneous fissions have changed the original fertilized germ-
cell into that cluster of cells which forms a gemmule or a primitive
ovum, the first contrast which arises is between the peripheral parts
and the central parts. Where, as with lower creatures which do not
lay up large stores of nutriment with the germs of their offspring, the
inner mass is inconsiderable, the outer layer of cells, which are pres-
ently made quite small by repeated subdivisions, forms a membrane

i 9 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

extending over the whole surface the blastoderm. The next stage of
development, which ends in this covering layer becoming double, is
reached in two ways by invagination and by delamination ; but which
is the original way, and which the abridged way, is not quite certain.
Of invagination, multitudinously exemplified in the lowest types, Mr.
Balfour says : " On purely d priori grounds there is in my opinion
more to be said for invagination than for any other view " ; * and, for
present purposes, it will suffice if we limit ourselves to this : making
its nature clear to the general reader by a simple illustration.

Take a small india-rubber ball not of the inflated kind, nor of the
solid kind, but of the kind about an inch or so in diameter with a small
hole through which, under pressure, the air escapes. Suppose that in-
stead of consisting of india-rubber its wall consists of small cells made
polyhedral in form by mutual pressure, and united together. This will
represent the blastoderm. Now with the finger, thrust in one side of
the ball until it touches the other : so making a cup. This action will
stand for the process of invagination. Imagine that by continuance of
it, the hemispherical cup becomes very much deepened and the open-
ing narrowed, until the cup becomes a sac, of which the introverted
wall is everywhere in contact with the outer wall. This will repre-
sent the two-layered "gastrula" the simplest ancestral form of the
Metazoa: a form which is permanently represented in some of the
lowest types ; for it needs but tentacles round the mouth of the
sac, to produce a common hydra. Here the fact which it chiefly
concerns us to remark, is that of these two layers the outer, called
in embryological language the epiblast, continues to carry on direct
converse with the forces and matters in the environment ; while the
inner, called the hypoblast, comes in contact with such only of
these matters as are put into the food-cavity which it lines. We
have further to note that in the embryos of Metazoa at all ad-
vanced in organization, there arises between these two layers a third
the mescblast. The origin of this is seen in types where the devel-
opmental process is not obscured by the presence of a large food-yolk.
While the above-described introversion is taking place, and before the
inner surfaces of the resulting epiblast and hypoblast have come into
contact, cells, or amoeboid units equivalent to them, are budded off
from one or both of these inner surfaces, or some part of one or other ;
and these form a layer which eventually lies between the other two
a layer which, as this mode of formation implies, never has any con-
verse with the surrounding medium and its contents, or with the nu-
tritive bodies taken in from it. The striking facts to which this de-
scription is a necessary introduction, may now be stated. From the
outer layer, or epiblast, are developed the permanent skin and its out-
growths, the nervous system, and the organs of sense ; from the intro-

* A Treatise on Comparative Embryology. By Francis M. Balfour, ll. d., f. r. s. Yol.
II, p, 343 (second edition).

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 199

verted layer, or hypoblast, are developed the alimentary canal along
with those parts of its appended organs, liver, pancreas, &c, which
are concerned in delivering their secretions into the alimentary canal,
as well as the linings of those ramifying tubes in the lungs which con-
vey air to the places where gaseous exchange is effected. And from
the mesoblast originate the bones, the muscles, the heart and blood-
vessels, and the lymphatics, together with such parts of various internal
organs as are most remotely concerned with the outer world. Minor
qualifications being admitted, there remain the broad general facts,
that out of that part of the external layer which remains permanently
external, are developed all the structures which carry on intercourse
with the medium and its contents, active and passive ; out of the in-
troverted part of this external layer, are developed the structures which
carry on intercourse with the quasi-external substances that are taken
into the interior solid food, Water, and air ; while out of the meso-
blast are developed structures which have never had, from first to last,
any intercourse with the environment. Let us contemplate these gen-
eral facts.

Who would have imagined that the nervous svstem is a modified
portion of the primitive epidermis? In the absence of proofs fur-
nished by the concurrent testimony of embryologists during the last
thirty or forty years, who would have believed that the brain arises
from an infolded tract of the outer skin, which, sinking down beneath
the surface, becomes imbedded in other tissues and eventually sur-
rounded by a bony case ? Yet the human nervous system in common
with the nervous systems of lower animals is thus originated. In the
words of Mr. Balfour, early embryological changes imply that

" the functions of the central nervous system, which were originally taken
by the whole skin, became gradually concentrated in a special part of the skin
which was step by step removed from the surface, and has finally become in the
higher types a well-defined organ imbedded in the subdermal tissues. . . . The
embryological evidence shows that the ganglion-cells of the central part of the
nervous system are originally derived from the simple undifferentiated epithelial
cells of the surface of the body." *

Less startling perhaps, though still startling enough, is the fact that
the eye is evolved out of a portion of the skin ; and that while the
crystalline lens and its surroundings thus originate, the "percipient
portions of the organs of special sense, especially of optic organs, are
often formed from the same part of the primitive epidermis" which
forms the central nervous system, f Similarly is it with the organs
for smelling and hearing. These, too, begin as sacs formed by infold-
ings of the epidermis ; and while their parts are developing they are
joined from within by nervous structures which were themselves epi-
dermic in origin. How are we to interpret these strange transforma-
tions ? Observing, as we pass, how absurd from the point of view of

* Balfour, I.e. Vol. ii, p. 400-1. f Ibid., p. 401.

2oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the special-creationist, would appear such a filiation of structures, and
such a round-about mode of embryonic development, we have here to
remark that the process is not one to have been anticipated as a result
of natural selection. After numbers of spontaneous variations had
occurred, as the hypothesis implies, in useless ways, the variation which
primarily initiated a nervous centre might reasonably have been ex-
pected to occur in some internal part where it would be fitly located :
its initiation in a dangerous place and subsequent migration to a safe
place, would be incomprehensible. Not so if we bear in mind the
cardinal truth above set forth, that the structures for holding converse
with the medium and its contents, arise in that completely superficial
part which is directly affected by the medium and its contents ; and
if we draw the inference that the external actions themselves initiate
the structures. These once commenced, and furthered by natural
selection where favourable to life, would form the first term of a series
ending in developed sense organs and a developed nervous system.*

Though it would enforce the argument, I must, for brevity's sake,
pass over the analogous evolution of that introverted layer, or hypo-
blast, out of which the alimentary canal and attached organs arise.
It will suffice to emphasize the fact that having been originally exter-
nal, this layer continues in its developed form to have a quasi-exter-
nality, alike in its digesting part and in its respiratory part ; since it
continues to deal with matters alien to the organism. I must also re-
frain from dwelling at length on the fact already adverted to, that
the intermediate derived layer, or mesoblast, which was at the outset
completely internal, originates those structures which ever remain
completely internal, and have no communication with the environment
save through the structures developed from the other two : an antithe-
sis which has great significance.

Here, instead of dwelling on these details, it will be better to draw
attention to the most general aspect of the facts. Whatever may be
the course of subsequent changes, the first change is the formation of
a superficial layer or blastoderm ; and by whatever series of transfor-
mations the adult structure is reached, it is from the blastoderm that
all the organs forming the adult originate. "Why this marvellous
fact ? "Why out of the primitive mass of organizable substance which
is to form a new creature, should its surface be the part from which is
remotely derived its entire structure ? Before embryologists had es-
tablished this truth, anyone who had asserted it would have been
thought insane ; and even now it remains a mystery if we refuse to
take account of the direct relations between the organism and the
medium. But we need only consider the incidents of this relation to
get a feasible explanation. Before yet the primitive metazoon had any
structure beyond that possessed by its component cells, its outer sur-

* For a general delineation of the changes by which the development is effected, see
Balfour, I.e. Vol. ii, pp. 401-4.

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 201

face was the part through which nutritive matters were taken in and
through which were absorbed and exhaled, oxygen and carbonic acid.
Its outer surface was the part which now touched quiescent masses, and
now received the collisions consequent on its own motions or the mo-
tions of others similarly carried along by their cilia. Its outer surface
was the part to receive the sound-vibrations occasionally propagated
through the water ; the part to be affected more strongly than any
other by those variations in the amounts of light caused by the pass-
ing of small bodies close to it ; and the part which met those diffused
molecules constituting odours. That is to say, at the outset the sur-
face was the part on which there fell the various influences pervading
the environment, through which there passed the materials for growth
furnished by the environment, by which there were received those im-
pressions from the environment serving for the guidance of actions,
and which had to bear the mechanical re-actions consequent upon such
actions. Necessarily, therefore, the surface was the part in which
were initiated the various instrumentalities for carrying on intercourse
with the environment. To suppose otherwise is to suppose that such
instrumentalities arose internally where they could neither be operated
on by surrounding agencies nor operate on them, where the differen-
tiating forces did not come into play, and the differentiated structures
had nothing to do ; and it is to suppose that meanwhile the parts
directly exposed to the differentiating forces remained unchanged.
Clearly, then, organization could not but begin on the surface ; and
having thus begun, its subsequent course could not but be determined
by its superficial origin. And hence these remarkable facts showing
us that individual evolution is accomplished by successive in-foldings
and in-growings. Doubtless natural selection soon came into action,
as, for example, in the removal of the rudimentary nervous centres
from the surface ; since an individual in which they were a little more
deeply seated would be less likely to be incapacitated by injury of
them. And so in multitudinous other ways. But nevertheless, as we
here see, natural selection could operate only under subjection : it
could do no more than take advantage of those structural changes
which the medium and its contents initiated.

See, then, how large has been the part played by this primordial
factor. Had it done no more than give to Protozoa and Protophyta
that cell-form which characterizes them had it done no more than
entail the cellular composition which is so remarkable a trait of Meta-
zoa and Metaphyta had it done no more than cause the repetition in
all visible animals and plants of that primary differentiation of outer
from inner which it first wrought in animals and plants invisible to
the naked eye ; it would have done much towards giving to organ-
isms of all kinds certain leading traits. But it has done more than
this. By causing the first differentiations of those clusters of units
out of which visible animals in general arose, it fixed the starting place

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for organization, and therefore determined the course of organization ;
and, doing this, gave indelible traits to embryonic transformations and
to adult structures.

Though mainly carried on after the inductive method, the argument
at the close of the foregoing section has verged towards the deductive.
Here let us follow for a space the deductive method pure and simple.
Doubtless in biology d priori reasoning is dangerous ; but there can
be no danger in considering whether its results coincide with those
reached by reasoning d posteriori.

Biologists in general agree that in the present state of the world,
no such thing happens as the rise of a living creature out of non-living
matter. They do not deny, however, that at a remote period in the
past, when the temperature of the Earth's surface w T as much higher
than at present, and other physical conditions were unlike those we
know, inorganic matter, through successive complications, gave origin
to organic matter. So many substances once supposed to belong ex-
clusively to living bodies, have now been formed artificially, that men
of science scarcely question the conclusion that there are conditions
under which, by yet another step of composition, quaternary com-
pounds of lower types pass into those of highest types. That there
once took place gradual divergence of the organic from the inorganic,
is, indeed, a necessary implication of the hypothesis of Evolution, taken
as a whole ; and if we accept it as a whole, we must put to ourselves
the question What were the early stages of progress which followed,
after the most complex form of matter had arisen out of forms of mat-
ter a degree less complex ?

At first, protoplasm could have had no proclivities to one or other
arrangement of parts ; unless, indeed, a purely mechanical proclivity
towards a spherical form when suspended in a liquid. At the outset
it must have been passive. In respect of its passivity, primitive or-
ganic matter must have been like inorganic matter. No such thing
as spontaneous variation could have occurred in it ; for variation
implies some habitual course of change from which it is a divergence,
and is therefore excluded where there is no habitual course of change.
In the absence of that cyclical series of metamorphoses which even
the simplest living thing now shows us, as a result of its inherited
constitution, there could be no point oVappiti for natural selection.
How, then, did organic evolution begin ?

If a primitive mass of organic matter was like a mass of inorganic
matter in respect of its passivity, and differed only in respect of its
greater changeableness ; then we must infer that its first changes con-
formed to the same general law as do the changes of an inorganic
mass. The instability of the homogeneous is a universal principle.
In all cases the homogeneous tends to pass into the heterogeneous, and
the less heterogeneous into the more heterogeneous. In the primor-

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 203

dial units of protoplasm, then, the step with which evolution com-
menced must have been the passage from a state of complete likeness
throughout the mass to a state in which there existed some unlikeness.
Further, the cause of this step in one of these portions of organic mat-
ter, as in any portion of inorganic matter, must have been the differ-
ent exposure of its parts to incident forces. What incident forces ?
Those of its medium or environment. Which were the parts thus
differently exposed ? Necessarily the outside and the inside. Inevi-
tably, then, alike in the organic aggregate and the inorganic aggregate
(supposing it to have coherence enough to maintain constant relative
positions among its parts), the first fall from homogeneity to hetero-
geneity must always have been the differentiation of the external sur-
face from the internal contents. No matter whether the modification
was physical or chemical, one of composition or of decomposition, it
comes within the same generalization. The direct action of the me-
dium was the primordial factor of organic evolution.

In his article on Evolution in the Encyclopedia Britannica, Pro-
fessor Huxley writes as follows :

"How far 'natural selection' suffices for the production of species remains
to be seen. Few can doubt that, if not the whole cause, it is a very important
factor in that operation. . . .

On the evidence of palaeontology, the evolution of many existing forms of animal
life from their predecessors is no longer an hypothesis, but an historical fact; it
is only the nature of the physiological factors to which that evolution is due
which is still open to discussion."

With these passages I may fitly join a remark made in the admirable
address Prof. Huxley delivered before unveiling the statue of Mr.
Darwin in the Museum at South Kensington. Deprecating the sup-
position that an authoritative sanction was given by the ceremony to
the current ideas concerning organic evolution, he said that "science
commits suicide when it adopts a creed."

Along with larger motives, one motive which has joined in prompt-
ing the foregoing articles, has been the desire to point out that already
among biologists, the beliefs concerning the origin of species have
assumed too much the character of a creed ; and that while becoming
settled they have been narrowed. So far from further broadening
that broader view which Mr. Darwin reached as he grew older, his
followers appear to have retrograded towards a more restricted view
than he ever expressed. Thus there seems occasion for recognizing
the warning uttered by Prof. Huxley, as not uncalled for.

Whatever may be thought of the foregoing arguments and conclu-
sions, they will perhaps serve to show that it is as yet far too soon to
close the inquiry concerning the causes of organic evolution.

2o 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TEIBES.

By HOEATIO HALE.

THE tribes composing the Blackf oot Confederacy, as it is commonly
styled, are in some respects the most important and interesting
Indian communities of the Northwest ; but they have been until re-
cently less known than any others in that region. A report on these
tribes having been requested by the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, a correspondence was opened by the writer
with two able and zealous missionaries residing among those Indians.
These were the Rev. Albert Lacombe, widely and favorably known as
Father Lacombe, author of a valuable grammar and dictionary of the
Cree language, and now missionary among the Siksika, or proper Black-
foot Indians ; and the Rev. John McLean, missionary of the Canadian
Methodist Church to the Blood and Piegan tribes, who is now pre-
paring a translation of the Scriptures into the Blackfoot tongue. To
these gentlemen, who responded most courteously and liberally to the
inquiries made of them, the report (of which the following is mainly
a summary) is indebted for most of the facts which it contains. For
the conclusions drawn from these facts the writer only is responsible.
Some other sources have been consulted, particularly the valuable
official reports of the Canadian and United States Indian Depart-
ments. Something has also been drawn from the writer's own notes,
made formerly during an exploring tour in Oregon.

Fifty years ago the Blackfoot Confederacy held among the West-
ern tribes much the same position of superiority which was held two
centuries ago by the Iroquois Confederacy (then known as the Five
Nations) among the Indians east of the Mississippi. The tribes of the
former confederacy were also, when first known, five in number. The
nucleus, or main body, was as it still is composed of three tribes
speaking the proper Blackfoot language. These are the Siksika, or
Blackfeet proper, the JTena, or Blood Indians, and the Piekane, or
Piegans (pronounced Peegans) a name sometimes corrupted to Pa-
gan Indians. Two other tribes joined this original confederacy, or,
perhaps, more accurately speaking, came under its protection. These
were the Sarcees from the north and the Atsinas from the south. The
Sarcees are an offshoot of the great Athabascan stock, which is spread
over the north of British America, in contact with the Esquimaux, and
extends, in scattered bands the Umpquas, Apaches, and others
through Oregon and California, into Northern Mexico. The Atsinas,
who have been variously known, from the reports of Indian traders,
as Fall Indians, Rapid Indians, and Gros Ventres, speak a dialect simi-
lar to that of the Arapahoes, who now reside in the " Indian Terri-
tory" of the United States. It is a peculiarly harsh and difficult Ian-

ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TRIBES. 205

guage, and is said to be spoken only by those two tribes. None of
the Atsinas are now found on Canadian territory, and no recent infor-
mation has been obtained concerning them except from the map which
accompanies the United States Indian Report for 1884, in which their
name appears on the American Blackfoot Reservation.

The five tribes were reckoned, fifty years ago, to comprise not less
than thirty thousand souls. Their numbers, union, and warlike spirit,
made them the terror of all the Western Indians. It was not uncom-
mon for thirty or forty war-parties to be out at once against the hos-
tile tribes of Oregon and of the eastern plains, from the Shoshonees
of the south to the Crees of the far north. The country which the
Blackfoot tribes claimed properly as their own comprised the valleys
and plains along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, from the
Missouri to the Saskatchewan. This region was the favorite resort of
the buffalo, whose vast herds afforded the Indians their principal
means of subsistence. In the year 1836 a terrible visitation of the
small-pox swept off two thirds of the people ; and five years later they
were supposed to count not more than fifteen hundred tents, or about
ten thousand souls. Their enemies were then recovering their spirits
and retaliating upon the weakened tribes the ravages which they had
formerly committed.

In 1855 the United States Government humanely interfered to
bring about a complete cessation of hostilities between the Blackfoot
tribes and the other Indians. The commissioners appointed for the
purpose summoned the hostile tribes together and framed a treaty for
them, accompanying the act with a liberal distribution of presents to
bring the tribes into good-humor. This judicious proceeding proved
effectual. Dr. F. V. Hayden, in his account of the Indian tribes of
the Missouri Valley, states that from the period of the treaty the
Blackfoot tribes had become more and more peaceful in their habits,
and were considered, when he wrote, the best disposed Indians in the
Northwest. He remarks that their earlier reputation for ferocity was
doubtless derived from their enemies, who always gave them ample
cause for attacking them. "In an intellectual and moral point of
view," he adds, " they take the highest rank among the wild tribes of
the West." The recent reports of the Indian agents and other officials
of the Canadian Northwest confirm this favorable opinion of the supe-
rior honesty and intelligence of the Blackfoot tribes. While con-
stantly harassed on their reserves by the incursions of thievish Crees
and other Indians, who rob them of their horses, they forbear to re-
taliate, and honorably abide by the terms of their late treaty, which
binds them to leave the redress of such grievances to the Canadian
authorities.

Since the general peace was established by the American Govern-
ment, the numbers of the Blackfeet have apparently been on the in-
crease. Dr. Hayden reports the three proper Blackfoot tribes as num-

2 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bering, in 1855, about seven thousand souls. The present population
of the three Canadian reserves is computed at about six thousand,
divided as follows : Blackfeet proper (Siksika), twenty-four hundred ;
Bloods, twenty-eight hundred ; Piegans, eight hundred. On the
American reservation there are said to be about twenty-three hundred,
mostly Piegans. This would make the total population of the three
tribes exceed eight thousand souls. The adopted tribe, the Sarcees,
have greatly diminished in numbers through the ravages of the small-
pox. There are now less than five hundred, who reside on a small
reserve of their own, near the town of Calgary.

During the past five years, as is well known, a great change has
taken place in the condition of all the Western tribes through the
complete extermination of the buffalo. The Blackfeet have been the
greatest sufferers from this cause. The herds were not only their
main dependence for food, but also furnished the skins which made
their tents and their clothing. Suddenly, almost without warning,
they found themselves stripped of nearly every necessary of life. The
Governments both of the United States and of Canada came to their
rescue ; but in the former country the urgency of the case was not at
first fully comprehended, and before the necessary relief came many
of the Indians perished from actual starvation. On the Canadian side,
fortunately, the emergency was better understood. Arrangements
were at once made for settling the Indians on reserves suited for agri-
culture, and for supplying them with food and clothing, and teaching
them to erect wooden houses and cultivate their lands. The Indians
displayed a remarkable readiness to adapt themselves to their new
conditions. In 1880 the buffalo finally disappeared. In 1882, accord-
ing to the official reports, more than half a million pounds of potatoes
were raised by the three Blackfoot tribes, besides considerable quan-
tities of oats, barley, and turnips. The Piegans had sold one thou-
sand dollars' worth of potatoes, and had a large supply on hand. " The
manner in which the Indians have worked," writes the agent, "is real-
ly astonishing, as is the interest they have taken and are taking in
farming." Axes and other tools were distributed among them, and
were put to good use. In November, 1882, the agent writes that log-
houses "had gone up thick and fast on the reserves, and were most
creditable to the builders." In many cases the logs were hewed, and
in nearly all the houses fireplaces were built. In the same year
another official, the Indian commissioner, going through the reserves,
was surprised at the progress which he saw. He found comfortable
dwellings, cultivated gardens, and good supplies of potatoes in root-
houses. Most of the families had cooking-stoves, for which they had
sometimes paid as much as fifty dollars. He " saw many signs of
civilization, such as cups and saucers, knives and forks, coal-oil lamps,
and tables ; and several of the women were baking excellent bread,
and performing other cooking operations." Three years before, these

ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TRIBES. 207

Indians were wild nomads, who lived in skin tents, hunted the buffalo,
and had probably never seen a plow or an axe.

The Blackfeet have been known to the whites for about a century,
and during that period have dwelt in or near their present abode.
There is evidence, however, that they once lived farther east than at
present. Mackenzie, in 1789, found the three Blackfoot tribes, with
their allies, the Fall Indians (or Atsinas), holding the South Branch
of the Saskatchewan, from its source to its junction with the North
Branch a region of which the eastern portion was at a later day
possessed by the Crees. Of the Blackfoot tribes, he says : " They are
a distinct people, speak a language of their own, and I have reason
to think are traveling northwest, as well as the others just mentioned
(the Atsinas) ; nor have I heard of any Indians with whose language
that which they speak has any affinity."

The result of Mr. McLean's inquiries confirms this opinion of the
westward movement of these Indians in comparatively recent times.
" The former home of these Indians," he writes, " was in the Red
River country, where, from the nature of the soil which blackened
their moccasins, they were called Blackfeet." This, it should be
stated, is the exact meaning of Siksika, from siTcsinam, black, and
ha, the root of ohkatsh, foot. The westward movement of the Black-
feet has probably been due to the pressure of the Crees upon them.
The Crees, according to their own tradition, originally dwelt far east
of the Red River, in Labrador and about Hudson Bay. They have
gradually advanced westward to the inviting plains along the Red
River, pushing the prior occupants before them by the sheer force of
numbers. This will explain the deadly hostility which has always
existed between the Crees and the Blackfeet.

Father Lacombe, it should be stated, is disposed to question the
fact of the former residence of the Blackfeet in the Red River country,
on the ground that their own tradition seems to bring them from the
opposite direction. " They affirm," he writes, " that they came from
the southwest, across the mountains ; that is, from the direction of
Oregon and Washington Territory. There were bloody conflicts be-
tween the Blackfeet and the Nez Perces, as Bancroft relates, for the
right of hunting on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains." Mr.
McLean, who mentions the former residence of the Blackfeet in the
Red River region as an undoubted fact, also says, " It is supposed
that the great ancestor of the Blackfeet came across the mountains."
Here are two distinct and apparently conflicting traditions which call
for further inquiry. One of the best tests of the truth of tradition is
to be found in language. Applying this test in the present instance,
we are led to some interesting conclusions. It has been seen that
Mackenzie, to whom we owe our first knowledge of the Blackfoot
tribes, declared that their language had no affinity with that of any
other Indians whom he knew. He was well acquainted with the Crees

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and Ojibways, who speak dialects of the great Algonkin stock, but he
recognized no connection between their speech and that of the Black-
feet. Later inquirers, and at first even Gallatin himself (after study-
ing a brief list of Blackfoot words), took the same view. Subsequent
investigations satisfied that distinguished philologist that his first im-
pressions were incorrect, and that the Blackfoot language really be-
longed to the Algonkin stock. More recently the French missionaries
have made the same discovery, " by studying," as M. Lacombe writes
to me, " the grammatical rules of these languages." From the exten-
sive comparative list of words and grammatical forms in the Black-
foot, Cree, and Ojibway languages, with which he has favored me, it
appears that while the Blackfoot is in its grammar purely Algonkin,
many of the most common words in its vocabulary are totally differ-
ent from the corresponding words in the Algonkin tongues. Others
which are found, on careful examination, to be radically the same as
the corresponding Algonkin terms, are so changed and distorted that
the resemblance is not at first apparent. These facts admit of but one
explanation. They are the precise phenomena to which we are accus-
tomed in the case of mixed languages. In such languages (of which
our English speech is a notable example), we expect the grammar to
be derived entirely from one source, while the words will be drawn
from two or more. Furthermore, wherever we find a mixed language,
we infer a conquest of one people by another. In the present instance,
we may well suppose that when the Blackfoot tribes were forced west-
ward from the Red River country to the foot of the Rocky Mountains,
they did not find their new abode uninhabited. It is probable enough
that the people whom they found in possession had come through the
passes from the country west of those mountains. If these people were
overcome by the Blackfeet, and their women taken as wives by the
conquerors, two results would be likely to follow. In the first place,
the language would become a mixed speech, in grammar purely Al-
gonkin, but in the vocabulary largely recruited from the speech of
the conquered tribe. A change in the character of the amalgamated
people would also take place. The result of this change might be
better inferred if we knew the characteristics of both the constituent
races. But it may be said that a frequent if not a general result of
such a mixture of races is the production of a people of superior intel-
ligence and force of character.

The religion of these tribes (applying this term to their combined
mythology and worship) resembles the language. It is in the main
Algonkin, but includes some beliefs and ceremonies derived from some
other source. In their view, as in that of the Ojibways, the Dela-
wares, and other Algonkin nations, there were two creations the pri-
mary, which called the world into existence, and the secondary, which
found the world an expanse of sea and sky (with, it would seem, a few
animals disporting themselves therein), and left it in its present state.

ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TRIBES. 209

The primitive creation is attributed to a superior divinity, whom they
call the Creator {Apistotokin) , and sometimes identify with the sun.
After this divinity of whom their ideas are very vague had created
the watery expanse, another deity, with the aid of four animals, of
which the muskrat was the chief, brought some earth from the bottom
of the abyss, expanded it to the present continent, and peopled it with
human beings. This deity is commonly styled by them the " Old
Man " (JYapiw), a name implying, as used by them, a feeling of affec-
tionate admiration. He is represented as a powerful but tricksy spirit,
half Jupiter and half Mercury. " He appears," writes M. Lacombe, " in
many other traditions and legendary accounts, in which he is associ-
ated with the various kinds of animals, speaking to them, making use
of them, and especially cheating them, and playing every kind of
trick." In this being we recognize at once the most genuine and
characteristic of all the Algonkin divinities. In every tribe of this
wide-spread family, from Nova Scotia to Virginia, and from the Dela-
ware to the Rocky Mountains, he reappears under various names
Manabozho, Michabo, Wetuks, Glooskap, Wisaketjak, Napiw but
everywhere with the same traits and the same history. He is at once
a creator, a defender, a teacher, and at the same time a conqueror, a
robber, and a deceiver. But the robbery and deceit, it would seem,
are usually for some good purpose. He preserves mankind from their
enemies, and uses the arts of these enemies to circumvent and destroy
them. In Longfellow's charming poem, he is confounded with the
Iroquois hero, Hiawatha. In Dr. Brinton's view, his origin is to
be found in a Nature - myth, representing " on the one hand the
unceasing struggle of day with night, light with darkness, and on
the other that no less important conflict which is ever waging be-
tween the storm and sunshine, the winter and summer, the rain and
clear sky."

Napiw, the " Old Man," has, it seems, other names in the Blackfoot
tongue. He is known as Kenakatsis, "he who wears a wolf -skin
robe," and Mik-orkayew, "he who wears a red-painted buffalo-robe."
These names have probably some reference to legends of which he is
the hero. The name of the Creator, Apistotokin, as explained by M.
Lacombe, affords a good example of the subtile grammatical distinc-
tions which abound in the Siksika, as in other Algonkin tongues. The
expression "he makes," which, like other verbal forms, may be used
as a noun, can be rendered in four forms, of varied shades of meaning :
Apistototsim signifies "he makes," or "he who makes," when the
complement, or thing made, is expressed, and is an inanimate object.
Apistotoyeio is used when the expressed object is animate. ApistotaJciw
is the indefinite form, used when the complement, or thing made, is
not expressed, but is understood to be inanimate ; and, finally, Apis-
totokin, the word in question, is employed when the unexpressed object
is supposed to be animate. By this analysis we gain the unexpected

VOL. XXIX. 14

zio THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

information that the world, as first created, was in the view of the
Blackfoot cosmologists an animated existence.

But while these beliefs are all purely Algonkin, the chief religious
ceremony of the Blackfoot tribes is certainly of foreign origin. This
is the famous " Sun-dance," to which they, like the Dakota tribes and
some of the Western Crees, are fanatically devoted. That this cere-
mony is not properly Algonkin is clearly shown by the fact that
among the tribes of that stock, with the exception of the Blackfeet
and a few of the Western Crees, it is unknown. Neither the Ojibways
of the Lakes, nor any of the tribes east of the Mississippi, had in their
worship a trace of this extraordinary rite. The late eminent mis-
sionary among the Dakotas, the Rev. Stephen R. Riggs (author of the
"Dakota Grammar and Dictionary"), says of this ceremony: "The
highest form of sacrifice is self-immolation. It exists in the Sun-
dance, and is what is called "vision-seeking." Some, passing a knife
under the muscles of the breast and arms, attach cords thereto, which
are fastened at the other end to the top of a tall pole, raised for the
purpose ; and thus they hang suspended only by those cords, without
food or drink, for two, three, or four days, gazing upon vacancy, their
minds intently fixed upon the object in which they wish to be assisted
by the deity, and waiting for a vision from above. Others, making
incisions in the back, have attached, by hair ropes, one or more buffalo-
heads, so that every time the body moves in the dance, a jerk is given
to the buffalo-heads behind. The rite exists at present among the
western bands of the Dakotas in the greatest barbarity. After mak-
ing the cuttings in the arms, breast, or back, wooden setons sticks
about the size of a lead-pencil are inserted, and the ropes are attached
to them. Then, swinging on the ropes, they pull until the setons are
pulled out with the flesh and tendons ; or, if hung with buffalo-heads,
the pulling is done in the dance, by successive jerks, keeping time
with the music, while the head and body, in an attitude of supplica-
tion, face the sun, and the eye is unflinchingly fixed upon it."

A letter from the Rev. Mr. McLean furnishes a detailed and
graphic account of this ceremony, as he witnessed it in June last,
when most of the Kena or Blood Indians were present as actors or
spectators. His narrative is too long for insertion here, but the con-
cluding portion will show the resolute constancy with which this
sacrifice of self-immolation is performed some new features being
added which are not comprised in Mr. Riggs's brief account, and pos-
sibly are not found among the Dakotas :

" This year, several persons, young and old, who had made vows
during times of sickness or danger, had a finger cut off at the first
joint, as an offering to the sun ; and others had the operation of cut-
ting their breasts and backs. The old woman who cut the fingers off
held the suppliant's hand up to the sun, and prayed then placed it
upon a pole on the ground, laid a knife on the finger, and with a blow

ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TRIBES. 211

from a deer-horn scraper severed the member. The severed piece was
taken up, held toward the sun, and the prayer made, when it was
dropped into a bag containing similar members. This ceremony was
gone through with each in turn. After this was done, each carried
an offering, and climbing the sacrificial pole, with the face reverently
turned toward the sun, placed the offering on the top of the pole.
This year seven or eight persons went through the above ceremony.
The other sacrificial ceremony consisted of the slitting of the flesh, in
two pieces in each breast. A wooden skewer was thrust through each
breast, a rope fastened to the sacrificial pole was placed around each
skewer, and then the suppliant whistling all the time upon the bone
whistle jumped about until the flesh gave way. In some instances
the flesh was cut so deeply that two men had to press upon the per-
former's shoulders in order to tear it away. The ' shield ceremony '
was the same process, only performed on the back, and the rope with
a shield attached fastened to the skewers, and the ceremony continued
until the suppliant was released."

Mr. Riggs, it will be noticed, says that the ceremony was most
zealously performed among the most westerly of the Dakota tribes,
that is, those w T hich are nearest to the Rocky Mountains and to the
Blackfeet. Possibly the Blackfeet may have learned the rite from
the tribe from which they acquired the foreign element of their lan-
guage, and may have taught it to the Western Dakotas and Crees.
In any case, it is clear that they have a mixed religion as w r ell as a
mixed language which are both facts of considerable interest in
ethnological science.

The form of government among the Blackfeet, as among the Al-
gonkin tribes generally, is exceedingly simple, offering a striking con-
trast to the elaborately complicated system common among the nations
of the Iroquois stock. Each tribe has a head chief, and each of the
bands composing the tribe has its subordinate chief ; but the authority
of these chiefs is little more than nominal. The office is not hereditary,
the bravest or richest being usually chosen. The term " confederacy,"
commonly applied to the union of the Blackfoot tribes, is somewhat
misleading. There is no regular league or constitution binding them
together. " They consider themselves," writes M. Lacombe, " as form-
ing one family, whose three branches or bands are descended from
three brothers. This bond of kinship is sufficient to preserve a good
understanding among them." They can hardly be said to have a gen-
eral name for their whole community, though they sometimes speak of
themselves as Sawketapix, or "Men of the Plains," and occasionally as
Netsepoye, or " People who speak one language."

The facts thus derived from the best authorities concerning this
interesting people suggest some important conclusions. The opinion,
still entertained by many, of the impossibility of bringing the nomadic
Indians or at least the grown-up people under the restraints of civ-

212 TEE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

ilization, has certainly not proved correct in this case, where we see a
large body of wandering hunters converted within three years into a
community of industrious and successful farmers. If it be said that
the Blackfeet are, to some extent, an exceptional people, we are led to
inquire into the origin of their superiority ; and we can find no other
cause than the fact that they are evidently a people of mixed race.
As the Chilians, who are of mingled Spanish and Araucanian origin,
are taking the lead among; the nations of South America as the Fee-
jeeans, who are of mixed Polynesian and Alelanesian race, are fore-
most in mental vigor among the islanders of the South Pacific so it
would seem that the Blackfeet may owe their unusual capacity for
improvement to a like cause. Instead of holding the melancholy be-
lief which was common a few years ago but which science is now
repudiating that Mature is opposed to a mingling of the human races,
we may find in such evidences reason to believe that Nature is prepar-
ing to produce, by a commixture of the most opposite races, the most
progressive, and possibly the predominant, race of the future.

RAFINESQUE.*

By Peofessob DAVID STARE JORDAN.

IT is now nearly seventy years since the first student of our fishes
crossed the Falls of the Ohio and stood on Indiana soil. He came
on foot, with a note-book in one hand and a hickory stick in the other,
and his capacious pockets were full of wild flowers, shells, and toads.
His mantle (since fallen upon me) was " a long, loose coat of yellow
nankeen, stained yellower by the clay of the roads, and variegated by
the juices of plants." In short, in all respects of dress, manners, and
appearance, he would be described by the modern name of " tramp."

Nevertheless, no more remarkable figure has ever appeared in the
annals of science or in the annals of Indiana. To me it has always
possessed a peculiar interest, and so, for a few moments, I wish to call
up before you the figure of Rafinesque, with his yellow nankeen coat,
"his sharp, tanned face, and his bundle of plants, under which a ped-
dler would groan," before it wholly recedes into the shadows of ob-
livion.

Coxstaxtixe Samuel Rafinesque was born in Constantinople, in
the year 1784. His father was a French merchant from Marseilles
doing business in Constantinople, and his mother was a German girl
born in Greece, of the family name of Schmaltz. Rafinesque himself,
son of a Franco-Turkish father and a Grseco-German mother, was an
American.

Before he was a year old his life-long travels began, his parents
* Read before the Indiana Academy of Sciences, December 30, 1885.

RAFINESQUE. 213

visiting ports of Asia and Africa on their way to Marseilles. As a
result of this trip, we have the discovery, afterward duly announced
by him to the world, that "infants are not subject to sea-sickness."

At Marseilles his future career was determined for him ; or, in his
own language : " It was among the flowers and fruits of that delight-
ful region that I first began to enjoy life, and I became a botanist.
Afterward, the first prize I received in school was a book of animals,
and I am become a zoologist and a naturalist. My early voyage made
me a traveler. Thus, some accidents or early events have an influ-
ence on our fate through life, or unfold our inclinations." *

Rafinesque now read books of travel, those of Captain Cook, Le
Vaillant, and Pallas especially, and his soul was fired with the desire
" to be a great traveler like them. . . . And I became such," he adds
shortly. At the age of eleven he had begun an herbarium, and had
learned to read the Latin in which scientific books of the last century
were written. " I never was in a regular college," he says, " nor lost
my time on dead languages, but I spent it in reading alone, and by
reading: ten times more than is read in the schools. I have undertaken
to read the Latin and Greek, as well as the Hebrew, Sanskrit, Chinese,
and fifty other languages, as I felt the need or inclination to study
them."

At the age of twelve he published his first scientific paper, "Notes
on the Apennines," as seen from the back of a mule on a journey from
Leghorn to Genoa. Rafinesque was now old enough to choose his
calling in life, and he decided to become a merchant, for, said he,
" commerce and travel are linked." At this time came the first out-
breaks of the French Revolution, and the peasants of Provence began
to dream of " castles on fire and castles combustible," so Rafinesque's
prudent father sent his money out of France and his two sons to
America.

In Philadelphia Constantine Rafinesque became a merchant's clerk,
and his spare time was devoted to the study of botany. He tried also
to study the birds, but he says, " The first bird I shot was a poor chick-
adee, whose death appeared a cruelty, and I never became much of
a hunter." During his vacations Rafinesque traveled on foot over
parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. He visited President Jefferson,
who, he tells us, asked him to call again. In 1805, receiving an offer
of business in Sicily, Rafinesque returned to Europe. He spent ten
years in Sicily, the land, as he sums it up, " of fruitful soil, delightful
climate, excellent productions, perfidious men, and deceitful women."
Here in Sicily he discovered the medicinal squill, which, aided by
the equally medicinal paregoric, was once the chief delight of child-
hood. He commenced gathering this in large quantities for shipment

* This and most of the other rerbal quotations in this paper are taken from an " Au-
tobiography of Rafinesque," of which a copy exists in the Library of Congress. A few
quotations have been somewhat abridged.

2i 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to England and Russia. The Sicilians thought that he was using it
as a dye-stuff, and this, said he, "I let them believe." Nearly two
hundred thousand pounds had been shipped by him before the secret
of the trade was discovered, since which time the Sicilians have prose-
cuted the business on their own account, lie began to turn his atten-
tion to the animals of the sea, and here arose his passion for iehthyol-
;v. All the red-shirted Sicilian fishermen brought to him the strange
creatures which came in their nets. In 1810 he published two works
on the fishes of Sicily, and for our first knowledge of very many of
the Mediterranean lishes we are indebted to these Sicilian papers of
Rafinesque.

It is unfortunately true, however, that very little real <rain to sci-
ence has come through this knowledge. Rafinesque's descriptions in
these works are so brief, so hastv, and so often drawn from memory,
that later naturalists have been put to great trouble in trying to make
them out. A peculiar, restless, impatient enthusiasm is characteristic
of all his writings, the ardor of the explorer without the patience of
the investigator.*

In Sicily, Rafinesque was visited by the English ornithologist.
William Swainson. Swainson seems to have been a great admirer of
"the eccentric naturalist,"' and of him Rafinesque says: "Swainson
often went with me to the mountains. He carried a butterfly-net to
catch insects with, and was taken for a crazv man or a wizard. As he
hardly spoke Italian, I had once to save him from being stoned out of a
field, where he was thought to seek a treasure buried by the Greeks. "
Rafinesque now invented a new way of distilling brandy. He es-
tablished a brandy-distillery, where, said he, "I made a very good
brandy, equal to any made in Spain, without ever tasting a drop of it,
since I hate all strong liquors. This prevented me from relishing this
new employment, and so I gave it up after a time."

Finally, disgust with the Sicilians, and fear of the French wars,
caused Rafinesque, who was, as he says. u a peaceful man,'' to look
a^ain toward the United States. In 1815 he sailed again for Amer-
ica, with all his worldly goods, his reams of unpublished manuscripts,
his bushels of shells, and a multitude of drawings of objects in natural
historv. According to his own account, the extent of his collections
at that time was enormous, and from the great number of scattered
treatises on all manner of subjects which he published in later years,
whenever he could get them printed, it is fair to suppose that his
pile of manuscripts was equally great. A considerable number of his
note-books, and of papers for which, fortunately for scientific nomen-
clature, he failed to find a publisher, are now preserved in the United
States National Museum. These manuscripts are remarkable for two

* Dr. Elliott Coues has wittily suggested that as the words M grotesque" " pictaKftpe,' 1

and the like, are used to designate certain literary styles, the adjective " rafiTiesquc "
may be similarly employed for work like that of the author now under consideration.

RAFINESQUE. 215

things the beauty of the quaint French penmanship and the atrocious
badness of -the accompanying drawings.

His numerous note-books, written in French, represent each the
observations of a busy summer, and these observations, for the most
part unchecked by the comparison of specimens, were by him pre-
pared for the press during the winter. To this manner of working,
perhaps unavoidable in his case, many of Rafinesque's errors and
blunders are certainly due. In one of these note-books I find, among a
series of notes in French, the following remarkable observation in Eng-
lish : " The girls at Fort Edward eat clay ! " In another place I find
a list of the new genera of fishes in Cuvier's "Regne Animal " (1817)
which were known to him. Many of these are designated as synony-
mous with genera proposed by Rafinesque in his " Caratteri" in 1810.
With this list is the remark that these genera of Cuvier are identical
with such and such genera "proposed by me in 1810, but don't you
tell it ! "

Rafinesque was six months on the ocean in this second voyage to
America ; and finally, just as the ship was entering Long Island Sound,
the pilot let her drift against one of the rocks which lie outside of the
harbor of New London. The vessel filled and sank, giving the pas-
sengers barely time to escape with their lives. " I reached New Lon-
don at midnight," says Rafinesque, " in a most deplorable situation.
I had lost everything my fortune, my share in the cargo, my collec-
tions and labors of twenty years past, my books, my manuscripts, and
even my clothes all I possessed, except some scattered funds and
some little insurance-money. Some hearts of stone have since dared
to doubt of these facts, or rejoice at my losses. Yes, I have found
men vile enough to laugh without shame at my misfortunes, instead of
condoling with me. But I have met also with friends who have de-
plored my loss and helped me in need."

I shall pass rapidly over Rafinesque's career until his settlement in
Kentucky. He traveled widely in America, in the summer, always
on foot. " Horses were offered to me," he said, " but I never liked
riding them, and dismounting for every flower. Horses do not suit
botanists." He now came westward, following the course of the
Ohio, and exploring for the first time the botany of the country. He
came to Indiana, and for a short time was associated with the com-
munity then lately established by Owen and Maclure at New Har-
mony, on the Wabash. Though this New Harmony experiment was
a failure, as all communities must be in which the drone and the
worker alike have access to the honey-cells, yet the debt due it from
American science is very great. Although far in the backwoods, and
in the long notorious county of Posey, New Harmony was for a time
fairly to be called the center of American science, and even after half
a century has gone by its rolls bear few names brighter than those of
Thomas Say, David Dale Owen, and Charles Le Sueur.

2 i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Rafinesque soon left New Harmony, and became Professor of Nat-
ural History and the Modern Languages in Transylvania University,
at Lexington, Kentucky. He was, I believe, the very first teacher of
natural history in the West, and his experiences were not more cheer-
ful than those of most pioneers. They would not give him at Lexing-
ton the degree of Master of Arts, he says, " because I had not studied
Greek in a college, although I knew more languages than all the
American colleges united, but it was granted at last ; but that of Doc-
tor of Medicine was not granted, because I would not superintend an-
atomical dissections.

"Mr. Holley, the president of the university, despised and hated
the natural sciences, and he wished to drive me out altogether. To
evince his hatred against science and its discoveries, he had broken
open my rooms in my absence, given one to the students, and thrown
all my effects, books, and collections, into the other. He had deprived
me of my situation as librarian, and tried to turn me out of the col-
lege. I took lodgings in town," said he, " and carried there all my
effects, leaving the college with curses both on it and Holley, which
reached them both soon after, for Holley died of the yellow fever in
New Orleans, and the college was burned with all its contents."

In one of his summer trips Rafinesque became acquainted with
Audubon, who was then painting birds and keeping a little " grocery-
store " down the river, at Hendersonville, Kentucky. Rafinesque
reached Hendersonville in a boat, carrying on his back a bundle of
plants which resembled dried clover. He accidentally met Audubon,
and asked him to tell him where the naturalist lived. The ornithol-
ogist introduced himself, and Rafinesque handed him a letter from a
friend in the East, commending him to Audubon as an "odd fish,
which might not be described in the published treatises." The story
of the interview is thus described by Audubon : " His attire struck me
as exceedingly remarkable. A long, loose coat of yellow nankeen,
much the worse for the many rubs it had got in its time, hung about
him loosely, like a sack. A waistcoat of the same, with enormous
pockets and buttoned up to the chin, reached below over a pair of
tight pantaloons, the lower part of w T hich was buttoned down over
his ankles. His beard was long, and his lank black hair hung loosely
over his shoulders. His forehead was broad and prominent, indicat-
ing a mind of strong power. His words impressed an assurance of
rigid truth, and as he directed the conversation to the natural sciences,
I Hstened to him with great delight.

" That night, after we were all abed, I heard of a sudden a great
uproar in the naturalist's room. I got up and opened the door, when
to my astonishment I saw my guest running naked, holding the han-
dle of my favorite violin, the body of which he had battered to pieces
in attempting to kill the bats which had entered the open window ! I
stood amazed, but he continued jumping and running around and

RAFINESQUE. 217

around till he was fairly exhausted, when he begged me to procure
one of the animals for him, as he felt convinced that they belonged
to a new species. Although I was convinced of the contrary, I took
up the bow of my demolished violin, and giving a smart tip to each bat
as it came up, we soon had specimens enough."

A part of the story of this visit, which Audubon does not tell, may
be briefly related here : Audubon was a great artist, and his paintings
of birds and flowers excited the wonder and admiration of Rafinesque,
as it has that of the generations since his time. But Audubon was
something of a wag withal, and some spirit of mischief led him to
revenge the loss of his violin on the too ready credulity of his guest.
He showed him gravely some ten grotesque drawings of impossible
fishes which he had observed " down the river," with notes on their
habits, and a list of the names by which they were known by the
French and the English settlers. These Rafinesque duly copied into
his note-books, and later he published descriptions of them as repre-
sentatives of new genera, such as Pogostoma, Aplocentrus, J^itholepis,
PilodictiSy and the like.

These singular genera, so like and yet so unlike to anything yet
known, have been a standing puzzle to students of fishes. Various
attempts at identification of them have been made, but in no case have
satisfactory results been reached. Many of the hard things which have
been said of Rafinesque's work rest on these unlucky genera, " com-
municated to me by Mr. Audubon." The true story of this practical
joke was told me by the venerable Dr. Kirtland, who in turn received
it from Dr. Bachman, the brother-in-law and scientific associate of
Audubon. In the private note-books of Rafinesque I have since found
his copies of these drawings, and a glance at these is sufficient to show
the extent to which science through him has been victimized.

About this time Rafinesque turned his mind again toward inven-
tion. He invented the present arrangement of coupon bonds, or, as
he called it, " the divitial invention." Savings-banks were projected
by him, as well as "steam plows," "aquatic railroads," fire-proof
houses, and other contrivances which he was unable to perfect. He
took much delight in the study of the customs and languages of the
Indians. In so doing, if the stories are true, he became, in a meas-
ure, one of the ancestors of Mormonism ; for it is said that his sug-
gestion that the Indians came from Asia by way of Siberia, and were
perhaps the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, gave the first
suggestion to Solomon Spalding, on which he built his book of the
prophet Mormon. In any case, whether this be true or not, it is cer-
tain that Rafinesque is still cited as high authority by the Latter-
day Saints when the genuineness of the book of Mormon is questioned.

Rafinesque now returned to Philadelphia and published " The At-
lantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge," "Annals of Nature," and
other serials, of which he was editor, publisher, and usually sole con-

2i 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tributor. After a time he became sole subscriber also, a condition of
affairs which greatly exasperated him against the Americans and their
want of appreciation of science. He published several historic treatises,
and contemplated a " Complete History of the Globe," with all its con-
tents. An elaborate poem of his, dreary enough, is entitled "The
World, or Instability." He made many enemies among the American
botanists of his time by his overbearing ways, his scorn of their cus-
toms and traditions, and especially by his advocacy of crude and undi-
gested though necessary reforms, so that at last most of them decided
to ignore his very existence. In those days, in matters of classification,
the rule of Linnaeus was supreme, and any attempt to recast his arti-
ficial groupings was looked at as heretical in the extreme. The attempt
at a natural classification of plants, which has made the fame of Jus-
sieu, had the full sympathy of Rafinesque, but to his American con-
temporaries such work could lead only to confusion. Then, again, in
some few of its phases, Rafinesque anticipated the modern doctrine of
the origin of species. That the related species of such genera as Mosa,
Quercus, Trifolium have had a common origin, a view the correctness
of which no well-informed botanist of our day can possibly doubt,
Rafinesque then maintained against the combined indignation and dis-
gust of all his fellow- workers. His writings on these subjects read
better to-day than when, forty -five years ago, they were sharply re-
viewed by one of our then young and promising botanists, Dr. Asa
Gray.

But the botanists had good reason to complain of the application
of his theories of evolution. To Rafinesque, the production of a new
species was a rapid process a hundred years was time enough and,
when he saw the tendency in diverging varieties toward the formation
of new species, he was eager to anticipate Nature (and his fellow-botan-
ists as well), and give it a new name. He became a sort of mono-
maniac on the subject of new species. He was uncontrolled in this
matter by the influence of other writers, that incredulous conservatism
as to one another's discoveries which furnishes a salutary balance to
enthusiastic workers. Before his death, so much had he seen, and so
little had he compared, that he had described certainly twice as many
fishes, and probably nearly twice as many plants and shells, also, as
really existed in the regions over which he traveled. He once sent for
publication a paper describing, in regular natural history style, twelve
new species of thunder and lightning which he had observed near the
Falls of the Ohio !

Then, too, Rafinesque studied in the field, collecting and observing
in the summer, comparing and writing in the winter. When one is
chasing a frog in a canebrake, or climbing a cliff in search of a rare
flower, he can not have a library and a museum at his back. The ex-
act work of our modern museums and laboratories was almost un-
known in his day. Then, again, he depended too much on his memory

RAFINESQUE. 219

for facts and details, and, as Professor Agassiz used to say, " the mem-
ory must not be kept too full, or it will spill over."

Thus it came about that the name and work of Rafinesque fell into
unmerited neglect. His writings, scattered here and there in small
pamphlets, cheap editions published at his own expense, had been sold
as paper-rags, or used to kindle fires by those to whom they were sent,
and later authors could not find them. His " Ichthyologia Ohioensis,"
once sold for a dollar, is now quoted at fifty dollars, and the present
writer has seen but two copies of it. In the absence of means to form
a just opinion of his work, it became the habit to pass him by with a
sneer, as the "inspired idiot" " whose fertile imagination has peopled
the waters of the Ohio."

Until lately, only Professor Agassiz * has said a word in mitigation
of the harsh verdict passed on Rafinesque by his fellow-workers and
their immediate successors. Agassiz says, very justly : "I am satisfied
that Rafinesque was a better man than he appeared. His misfortune
was his prurient desire for novelties, and his rashness in publishing
them. . . . Tracing his course as a naturalist during his residence in
this country, it is plain that he alarmed those with whom he had in-
tercourse, by his innovations, and that they preferred to lean upon the
authority of the great naturalist of the age [Cuvier], who, however,
knew little of the special history of the country, rather than to trust
a somewhat hasty man who was living among them, and who had col-
lected a vast amount of information from all parts of the States upon
a variety of subjects then entirely new to science." f

In a sketch of " A Neglected Naturalist," Professor Herbert E.
Copeland has said : " To many of our untiring naturalists, who sixty
years ago accepted the perils and privations. of the far West, to col-
lect and describe i^Taninials and plants, we have given the only reward
they sought, a grateful remembrance of their work. Audubon died
full of riches and honor, with the knowledge that his memory should
be cherished as long as birds should sing. Wilson is the ' father of
American ornithology,' and his mistakes and faults are forgotten in
our admiration of his great- achievements. Le Sueur is remembered as
the ' first to explore the ichthyology of the great American lakes.'
Laboring with these, and greatest of them all in respect to the extent
and range of his accomplishments, is one whose name has been nearly
forgotten, and who is oftenest mentioned in the field of his best labors
with pity or contempt." J

It is doubtless true ; while, as Professor Agassiz has said, Rafi-

* So early as 1844, Professor Agassiz wrote to Charles Lucien Bonaparte: "I think
that there is a justice due to Rafinesque. However poor his descriptions, he first recog-
nized the necessity of multiplying genera in ichthyology, and this at a time when the thing
was far more difficult than now."

f Agassiz, "American Journal of Science and Arts," 1854, p. 354.

+ " A -nerican Naturalist," 1876.

220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nesque "was a better man than he appeared," and while he was un-
doubtedly a man of great learning and of greater energy, his work
does not deserve a high place in the records of science. And his fail-
ure seems due to two influences : first, his lack of attention to details,
a defect which has vitiated all of his work ; and, second, his versatility,
which led him to attempt work in every field of learning.

As to this, he says himself : " It is a positive fact that in knowledge
I have been a botanist, naturalist, geologist, geographer, historian,
poet, philosopher, philologist, economist, philanthropist. By profes-
sion a traveler, merchant, manufacturer, brewer, collector, improver,
teacher, surveyor, draughtsman, architect, engineer, palmist, author,
editor, bookseller, librarian, secretary, and I hardly know what I may
not become as yet, since, whenever I apply myself to anything which
I like, I never fail to succeed, if depending on myself alone, unless im-
peded or prevented by the lack of means, or the hostility of the foes
of mankind."

" The one prudence in life," says Emerson, " is concentration ; the
one evil, dissipation."

But a traveler Rafinesque chiefly considered himself, and to him
all his pursuits, scientific, linguistic, historic, were but episodes in a
life of travel. Two lines of doggerel French were his motto :

" Un voyageur des le berceau,
Je le serai jusqu 1 au toinbeau."

"A traveler from the cradle,
I'm a traveler to the tomb."

Long before the invention of railroads and steamboats, he had
traveled over most of Southern Europe and Eastern North America.
Without money except as he earned it, he had gathered shells and
plants and fishes on every shore from the Hellespont to the Wabash.
He was the frontiersman of our natural history, the Daniel Boone of
American science.

Concerning one element of Rafinesque's character I am able to
find no record. If he ever loved any man or woman, except as a pos-
sible patron and therefore aid to his schemes of travel, he himself
gives no record of it. He speaks kindly of Audubon, but Audubon
had furnished him with specimens and paintings of flowers and fishes.
He speaks generously of Clifford, at Lexington, but Clifford had given
him an asylum when he was turned out of Transylvania University.
No woman is mentioned in his autobiography except his mother and
sister, and these but briefly. His own travels, discoveries, and publi-
cations, filled his whole mind and soul.

Rafinesque died in Philadelphia, in 1840, at the age of fifty-six.
He had been living obscurely in miserable lodgings in an unfriendly
garret, for his dried plants, and his books published at his own expense,
brought him but a scanty income. His scientific reputation had not

COUNTING UNCONSCIOUSLY. 221

reached his fellow-lodgers, and his landlord thought him " a crazy herb-
doctor." He died alone, and left no salable assets, and his landlord
refused to allow his friends such friends as he had to enter the house
to give him a decent burial. He wished to make good the unpaid rent
by selling the body to a medical college. But at night, so the story
goes, a physician who had studied botany with Rafinesque got a few
friends together, and broke into the garret and carried away the body,
which they buried in a little churchyard outside the town, now oblit-
erated by the growth of Philadelphia.

American naturalists have greater honor now than forty years ago.
Rafinesque died unnoticed and was buried only by stealth. A whole
nation wept for Agassiz. But a difference was in the men as well as
in the times. Both were great naturalists and learned men. Both had
left high reputations in Europe to cast their lot with America. Agas-
siz's great heart went out toward every one with whom he came in con-
tact. But Rafinesque loved no man or woman, and died, as he had
lived, alone.

If some loving hand had followed him to the last, it might have
been with Rafinesque as with Albrecht Durer : " ' ErnigraviV is the
inscription on the headstone where he lies." But there was no such
hand, and there is neither headstone nor inscription, and we know not
even the place where he rests after his long journey.

----

COUNTING UNCONSCIOUSLY.

Br Professor W. PREYER,

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF JENA.

AT first sight the superscription, " counting unconsciously," seems
to contain a contradiction. For, whoever counts from one to
one hundred, realizes at each number, that he is counting ; yet, in
truth, there are so many instances where an educated person counts
without realizing it, that he would feel utterly lost in this world should
this faculty be suddenly taken from him.

Three coins being placed on a table, any one will, on being asked,
"How many are there?" answer, after but a glance, "Three." Even
when four or five coins are seen but for a moment, the answer as to
their number will be correctly given. So quickly is the answer re-
turned that no time can possibly have been taken for counting.
Hence, it follows that counting unconsciously is really an every-day
occurrence. The objection that this is no longer to be termed count-
ing, is not valid ; for if any one can positively state that there are
lying before him three, or four, or five objects, he must be able to dis-
tinguish numbers ; and it is certainly a fact that one who can not
count, can also not answer such questions. Children, in order to dis-

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tin<nrish three marbles from four, must first add each marble to the
other in this way many learn to count before knowing the numerals.
From this it follows that, in order to count, a knowledge of the nu-
merals is not a necessity ; even untrained deaf-mutes, who can neither
read nor write, are capable of counting, without figures, merely by the
aid of their fingers.

From the action of a child who has learned the meaning of the
numerals, it furthermore follows that it is only by practice, that is by
oft-repeated counting of actual objects, that surety is gained in the art
of counting small numbers unconsciously. An idiot, or whoever does
not practice, can not count three without adding one by one, and will
never rise above the lowest plane of mental development.

Now, however, as is well known, no one can tell in a moment how
many objects are lying before him, provided the number of these
objects is somewhat large approximates, say, fifty. Some persons can
count more rapidly than others ; a broker's apprentice will make
groups of three, of five, of ten coins, and then add the groups to-
gether ; the experienced money-broker is able to determine in a few
seconds what the amount is, and this, perhaps, without even touching
the coins. But he too, as well as every one else, must count atten-
tively as soon as the number of pieces exceeds a certain limit. But
what is this limit ?

Dase, the well-known calculator, who died in 1861, stated that he
could distinguish some thirty objects of a similar nature in a single
moment as easily as other people can recognize three or four, and his
claim was often verified by tests. The rapidity with which he would
name the number of sheep in a herd, of books in a book-case, of win-
dow-panes in a large house, was even more remarkable than the accu-
racy with which he solved mentally the most difficult problems. Not
before or after his time has such perfection been attained ; but as
every one possesses this faculty to a small extent, and as it can be im-
proved by practice, it is not impossible that in future other experts in
this line may appear. The only trouble is that so few know how easy
it is to practice.

In the first place, one can by a few trials readily gain the convic-
tion that, without practice, not every one can distinguish six and seven
objects as easily as three and four.

In order to learn that it is a comparatively easy matter to estimate
up to six and seven, and then up to nine, as correctly as from three to
five, one need only make a few trials in guessing at an unknown num-
ber of matches or pins that are concealed beneath a sheet of paper,
and are then exposed to view but for a second.

Great care must be exercised, however, that one does not con-
sciously count in these attempts ; nor will it answer to attempt analy-
sis from memory, after the objects are again hidden from view ; all
this would consume too much time. It is, in fact, necessary to do

COUNTING UNCONSCIOUSLY.

223

nothing more than to estimate, but this must be done with the utmost
attention.

Whoever has for any length of time tried seriously to guess cor-
rectly will be surprised to find that his guesses will soon grow to be
generally correct, whereas at the start they were often erroneous.
Only when the number of objects seen exceeds nine will mistakes
again occur more frequently. However, further practice in estimat-
ing greater numbers of small objects will soon cause considerable
improvement even here. Many, however, do not succeed in estimat-
ing correctly beyond ten, probably because the attention is not suffi-
ciently concentrated at the time, and as it is necessary, at the start at
least, that one's whole attention be closely given ; only after having
attained some degree of proficiency will the exercise of this power no
longer prove fatiguing.

In order to practice this kind of counting, dots and small circles
were drawn on white paper squares. Some of these dots were arranged
symmetrically, others were irregularly placed. These were glanced
at for a moment, and proved of considerable aid in acquiring the art.
A good deal depends on the arrangement of the dots. A card-player

224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

will immediately, and without stopping to count, realize that there are
ten hearts on a ten-spot of that suit, but he will not be able to give as
correctly the number of hearts or of dots if thesebe arranged, for in-
stance, in the form of a cross.

Hence it follows that it is not the symmetry of arrangement that
facilitates the estimating, but acquaintance with the manner of arrange-
ment used.

It is more difficult to correctly estimate the number of dots ar-
ranged in the form of a cross than to determine them if arranged as
on cards and in similar ways.

It is more easy to estimate the dots if arranged as on dominoes ;
the dots must not be too small, and must be made a deep black on a
white ground, or the reverse.

The estimation of the number of dots is most difficult if they
are grouped in an irregular manner, as, for instance, in the following
figures :

Practice, which is naught

% but patient and correct repe-

_ q 9 tition, will, however, even here

# - make perfect. However, it

$9 # may be regarded as proved by

the case of Dase, before re-
ferred to, that practice, how-
ever long continued, can not aid beyond a certain limit. It seems that,
for the rapid estimation or the unconscious counting of dots placed in
unknown symmetrical arrangement, and for objects grouped into ir-
regular forms, twenty is the limit.

Probably already, when the number of the objects exceeds twenty
undoubtedly, when it exceeds thirty accuracy in estimating can
no longer be attained, even after the greatest amount of practice, in
which Dase for one certainly was not wanting.

However, this is not to say that more than thirty dots can not,
under any circumstances, be simultaneously determined ; but in order
that this may be done they must be presented in some well-known
manner of arrangement, which must, as it were, have been fairly
learned by heart. Thus, very skillful card and domino players are
able at a glance to take in as many as forty points, in nines, tens, fives,
sixes, etc. This they do so rapidly as not to be conscious of any addi-
tion. Bat in such cases it is no longer the seeing of single dots, but
seeing the pictures they form, which makes the feat possible. As no
one on seeing the number 8 will count from one to eight, so no card-
player will stop to count on seeing an eight of hearts, for instance.
A child, however, not yet familiar with the appearance of cards, will
count each heart separately, perhaps even touching each one in turn
with his fingrer.

In order to quickly attain the faculty of counting unconsciously, a

COUNTING UNCONSCIOUSLY. 225

book may be used to advantage. If one takes a book, opens the same
the eyes to be kept closed in the mean time and then casts a rapid
glance at a part of the page and tries to estimate how many lines are
visible, this way of doing, if often repeated and always tried on dif-
ferent pages, will soon conduce to great accuracy in estimating. A
small child is not able to estimate even three lines correctly, though
looking at them for fully a second.

As the mind develops, it acquires a more simple and rapid process
of counting. Something that at first had to be undertaken slowly
and with care, perhaps in separate stages, may later on be accom-
plished much more quickly and without requiring any special effort,
or calling for any great amount of attention, in fact almost "me-
chanically."

One is fully conscious of every perfectly new impression received
by the brain; hence the fascination of a novel idea. The more the
charm of novelty fades with the recurrence of the same sensation, the
less will consciousness be called into play.

Counting from one upward, by constant repetition, finally comes
to be done unconsciously, even as the quick movement of the fingers
in practicing on the piano gradually becomes almost automatic, though
at first this, too, required great care and attention. In all similar cases
consciousness is no longer called into play.

An impression that seemed most startling when first received may,
if too often repeated, grow to be trivial. The simple work of count-
ing finally comes to be an unconscious action of the nerve-fibers and
cells of the brain.

On newly built roads, the trains are run but slowly ; the longer
such roads have been used, the more rapidly are trains run on them,
and stops at way-stations are no longer needed ; it is even thus with
the trains of thought in the human brain.

And on this rests the practical importance of rapid counting.
Whoever can, unconsciously but correctly, count up to twenty or even
only up to twelve, has a great advantage over others who can not,
without error, distinguish six from seven in this manner. For such a
one can turn his consciousness to other matters and greatly increase
his knowledge, where another would make but slow progress.

Those movements in man, which take place through some impres-
sion received from without and not aided by any conscious act of the
brain (as, for instance, the contracting of the pupil when a bright
light strikes the eye), are termed reflex actions.

In part these are brought about by arbitrary but oft-repeated
motions, inasmuch as such will gradually take place more rapidly and
without premeditation.

In this way, through practice, counting from one to five is done
unconsciously, and somewhat resembles a reflex action.

If many such simple mental acts (by the repetition of which noth-

TOL. XXIX. 15

226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing new is learned, and time only is lost) could be caused to pass off
more rapidly somewhat resembling reflex actions the brain would be
left free to turn to other, to higher aims. Translated for the Popular
Science Monthly from Die Gartenlaube.

--

THE MILLENNIUM OF MADNESS.

By FELIX L. OSWALD.

IN a recent number of " The Popular Science Monthly " Professor
McElroy's brilliant essay on the cause and cure of feudalism was
prefaced by a question which has, indeed, been but rarely investigated
from a scientific point of view. The debasement of the noblest Cau-
casian nations during the thousand years following the day when the
power of Rome collapsed under the blows of the freedom-loving Goths
seems certainly the most striking anomaly in the history of mankind.
Yet would it have been well for those nations if their debasement had
been confined to that loss of personal liberty which in pagan Greece
and Rome followed the ascendency of a military despotism. But how
shall we account for the fact that in mediaeval Europe that loss was
accompanied by a general neglect of science and education, a general
decadence of industry, and a wide-spread epidemic of monstrous super-
stitions ? Thus supplemented, Professor McElroy's question expresses
the great enigma of the middle ages an enigma which can not be
wholly explained by the " adaptation of the horse to warfare and the
development of defensive armor."

The doctrine of evolution recognizes the fact that the development
of social and physical organisms is not an unbroken march of progress.
Advancement alternates with pauses, as day with night, or life with
death ; the phenomena of progressive life roll through the cycles of
germination, maturity, and decay. In the household of Nature every
grave is a cradle ; the mold of every fallen tree furthers the growth of
new trees. Grecian colonies flourished on the ruins of Troy, Persian
provinces on the ruins of Babylon, Macedonian kingdoms on the grave
of the Persian Empire ; Roman legionaries inherited the wealth and
the culture of conquered Greece. The conquerors of Rome were the
noblest, stoutest, and manliest races of the Caucasian world ; freemen,
in love with health and Nature, yet withal with poetry, glory, honor,
justice, and honest thrift. They planted their banners in the garden-
lands of the West ; and their empires, gilt by the morning light of a
new era, were founded under auspices far happier than those of the
Arabian satrapies in the worn-out soil of the East. In less than five
hundred years after the establishment of their political independence,
the civilization of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabs, had de-
veloped its fairest flowers industry, commercial activity, art, liberal

THE MILLENNIUM OF MADNESS. 227

education, flourishing schools of philosophy, poetry, and natural sci-
ence. Five hundred years after the triumph of the Gothic conquerors
we find their empires groaning under a concentration of all scourges.
The day-star of civilization had set in utter night ; the proud nations
of the West had sunk in poverty, bigotry, general ignorance, cruel
abasement of the lower classes, squalid misery of domestic life, sys-
tematic suppression of political, personal, and intellectual liberty.

How shall we explain that dreadful aphanasia, that thousand years'
eclipse of reason and freedom that followed like an unnatural night
upon the brightest sunrise in the history of the human race ? A year
after the death of the prophetess Sospitra, says the pagan historian
Eunapius, her son was one day standing before the temple of Serapis,
when the prophetic spirit of his mother fell upon him : " Woe be our
children ! " he exclaimed, when he awakened from his trance ; " I
see a cloud approaching : a great darkness will fall upon the human
race."

And, verily, that cloud did not come from Olympus or Mount Sinai.
The law revealed in the " conservation of forces " holds good in many
phenomena of the moral world. Every apparent annihilation of energy
is only a metamorphosis of its manifestations, and we can often dis-
cover the principle of that metamorphosis by ascertaining the active
concomitants of its results. Just as mechanical force can be converted
into heat, or heat into electricity, the energy diverted from rural pur-
suits may assert itself in political, industrial, or scientific activity. The
pent-up vigor of the middle ages had no such outlets. War, now a
curse, was then a welcome, but limited, alternative of stagnation ; the
lethargy of the dreary intervals was for millions a night without even
the starlight of hope. Yet that strange torpor was accompanied by
the feverish activity of a novel pursuit a relentless war against the
instincts of Nature. The children of freedom-loving ancestors were
imprisoned in convents, where bigotry and superstition conspired for
the suppression of every natural feeling. Hordes of self -torturing
fanatics roamed the land, appalling the wretched peasants by their
direful predictions of approaching calamities. Fourteen different or-
ders of monastic devotees vied in the systematic mortification of their
natural desires, the depletion of their physical and intellectual vigor,
the enforcement of health-destroying penances, and reason-insulting
dogmas and ceremonies. While science withered to its very roots in
the famished love of knowledge, the mania of antiphysics rioted in
the production of thousands upon thousands of voluminous manu-
scripts devoted to the propaganda of self-torture and self-abasement,
and the glorification of Nature-insulting fanatics. Art worshiped at
the same shrine. Painters exhausted their fancy in the representation
of physical wrecks and ghastly tortures. Winckelmann estimates that
hardly one in ten thousand of the plastic masterpieces of a Nature-lov-
ing antiquity escaped the fury of the monastic iconoclasts. The war

22 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

against Nature was carried into every branch of moral and mental
education.

Such doctrines did not fail to bear their fruit. Ignorance gloried
in her indifference to the vanities of worldly science. Cruelty moral-
ized on the duty of stifling the appeals to the law of Nature. Des-
potism enforced the precepts of self-abasement and passive obedience.
Indolence welcomed the dogma of renunciation. The suppressed love
of natural science begat a chimera-brood of pseudo-sciences astrol-
ogy, necromancy, alchemy, demonology, exorcism, thaumaturgism.
Monkery and the neglect of rational agriculture conspired to turn
garden-lands into deserts and freemen into serfs. The suppression of
free inquiry begat hypocrisy and a mental sloth never equaled in the
darkest ages of pagan barbarism. Freedom, driven from the open
land, took refuge behind walled castles, and soon learned to make
might the measure of right. Feudalism was the result, rather than
the cause, of social degeneration. All the better instincts of the hu-
man mind were either suppressed or perverted by the influence of a
principle equally foreign to the philosophy of the pagan moralists and
the ethics of the Semitic religions so foreign, that the attempt to
amalgamate its doctrines with the manful monotheism of the Hebrew
lawgiver is the chief cause of those mysterious inconsistencies which
have so often frustrated the zeal of its propagandists : a benevolent
Allfather, who yet frightfully and eternally tortures a vast plurality
of his children ; a God-created earth, that must be renounced to avoid
the wrath of its creator ; a godlike body, fit only to be despised and
mortified.

Yet that mystery was solved by the same key that unlocked the
etymological riddles of the Aryan languages the study of the Hin-
doo scriptures. As the Vedas elucidated the origin and development
of the Indo-Germanic tongues, the sacred writings of Buddhism re-
vealed the root-dogma that bore its logical fruit in self-torture and
renunciation : the doctrine of the worthlessness of earthly existence,
and the necessity of salvation by the suppression of all earthly desires.
According to the gospel of Buddha Sakyamuni, not the abuse of life,
but life itself, is an evil. All earthly blessings are curses in disguise.
The beauty of earth is the snare of the Maya, a mirage luring its
dupes from error to error toward grief and repentance. Only he who
has lifted the veil of that delusion has entered the path of salvation.
Total abstinence from the joys of life is the only cure for its ills, and
the highest goal of the future is Nirvana peace and absolute deliver-
ance from the vexations of earthly desires.

In their progress from the banks of the Ganges to the shores of the
Atlantic those doctrines underwent various mystifying modifications,
and under the humanizing influence of pagan ethics Asceticism as-
sumed a meaning akin to that of Stoicism frugality, self-control, vir-
tuous preference of manly to effeminate pleasures. But, in the Ian-

THE MILLENNIUM OF MADNESS. 229

guage of the East-Grecian anchorites, Askesis meant simply endeavor,
and that endeavor was an effort to tear the human mind from the
roots of its earthly sympathies. The doctrines which his successors
veiled in mystery, the hermit of Nepaul proclaimed with stern direct-
ness : absolute abstinence from all pleasures whatever, complete sup-
pression of all earthly instincts and desires. He who would hope to
reach the goal of salvation must court sorrow and affliction as others
woo the smiles of Fortune. He must avoid everything that could
reconcile him to life and lure him back to the delusions of earthly pur-
suits. He must despise worldly knowledge, the great object of life
being the suppression of our natural inclinations, and, if possible, of
our natural thoughts and feelings. He must have no fixed habitation,
and must avoid sleeping twice under the same tree, lest an undue affec-
tion for any earthly object should hinder his spirit in the progress of
its emancipation from the vanities of life !

The question remains, How could delusions of that sort ever as-
sume an epidemic form ? Upon which germ in the instincts of the
human mind could the gospel of renunciation ingraft its monstrous
dogmas ? There is a significant tradition that Buddha Sakyamuni en-
tered upon his mission only after exhausting the pleasures of wealth
and luxury. It is an equally suggestive circumstance that the chief
success of that mission was attained among the most effete nations of
the overpopulated East the Chinese, the Siamese, and the soul-sick
pariahs of the Indian Peninsula. The doctrines of Buddhism recom-
mended themselves to the pessimistic bias of a worn-out generation ;
moribund Impotence pleased herself in the idea that her lot is prefer-
able to that of the survivors. Anti-naturalism is an appeal to the life-
weary instincts of decrepitude.

In the evening twilight of life Nature relaxes the bonds of vitality,
in order to reconcile her children to the prospects of the coming
change. The weariness of a toilsome day sweetens the rest even of a
dreamless sleep. To the germ of that instinct the doctrine of renun-
ciation applies its fomenting stimulus. Quietism is a precocious senil-
ity. It is the premature development of an instinct that should assert
itself only as a concomitant of superannuation. Hence the antago-
nism its dogmas encountered in the homes of health, hence the oppo-
sition of pagan philosophy and the latent protestantism of all manly
nations. Hence, its concomitance with disease and decrepitude, its
popularity in the bond-house of Despotism, its revival in the world-
renouncing zeal of caged criminals, worn-out sensualists, and superan-
nuated coquettes. Hence, also, the unparalleled progress of mankind
since the time when the sluice-gates of Asceticism were finally forced
by the explosion of the Protestant Revolt. Like the floods of a dam-
breaking river, the energies of the Caucasian race are rushing down
the long-forsaken channels of their former activity, and in all essen-
tial respects the triumphs of our boasted civilization have but followed

230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the resumption of a work suspended when the workmen of antiquity
were interrupted by the shadow of the great eclipse the millennium
of ascetic insanity.

The true significance of the anti-cosmic principle was first revealed
by the analytical studies of Arthur Schopenhauer, whose conclusions
were strikingly confirmed by the historical researches of Wassiljew,
Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, Beal, Rhys Davis, Hue, Burnouf, Kern, Las-
sen, and Oldenberg. Like the doctrine of evolution, his theory met
at first with obstinate opposition, but, like the doctrine of evolution,
it will prevail by solving many riddles.

--

THE PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC FIKEPLACE CON-
STRUCTION.*

By T. PKIDGIN TEALE, F. E. C. S.

IF there be a place in the kingdom in which a lecture on the subject
selected for to-night could appropriately be given, surely it is the
theatre in which we are assembled. Some of my hearers may be
aware of the mutual fitness of subject and place. Many, perhaps, are
not aware, as, indeed, was the case with myself three months ago, that
the principles of fireplace construction which will be laid before you
to-night, and which I have been working out and teaching for the last
three or four years, were urged, written about, and acted upon at
the end of the last century by your founder, Count Rumford, and
that a great portion of his time, his writings, and his work was de-
voted to this very question.

Hardly any subject would be more in harmony with the aims
which he set before him in founding this society, as we may learn
from the following quotation from the "Prospectus of the Royal
Institution," published at the end of the fifth volume of Rumford's
works : " But if it should be proved, as in fact it may, that in the
applications of fire, in the management of heat, and in the production
of light, we do not derive half the advantage from combustion which
might be obtained, it will readily be admitted that these subjects must
constitute a very important part of the useful information to be con-
veyed in the public lectures of the Royal Institution."

And why should it be necessary, at the end of this nineteenth
century, to give a lecture on " The principles of fireplace construc-
tion " ? Why should such a title draw together an audience ? Clearly
from the fact that correct principles have been habitually, and, until
the last few years, almost universally violated, and because the rules
so ably worked out, so earnestly and forcibly advocated by Rumford,

* A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, February 5, 18S6.

DOMESTIC FIREPLACE CONSTRUCTION'. 231

have lain dormant, lingering here and there, chiefly in old-fashioned
houses, and almost forgotten.

Again, why should a layman, whose profession lies outside that of
the architect, the builder, and the manufacturer, take upon himself to
teach principles that are to guide other professions than his own ?
Mainly for two reasons : one, that there are principles which a medi-
cal man may work out without reproach, as tending to contribute to
the happiness, the comfort, and the health of mankind ; the other, that
when principles have to be insisted upon, and to be made a subject
of public instruction, they can be urged with more effect by those who
are hampered by no relations to any patents, and have no pecuniary
interest in the success or failure of the application of the principles in
question. On this point we have a good example in Count Rumford,
who says in a note : " The public in general and particularly those
tradesmen and manufacturers whom it may concern, are requested to
observe that, as the author does not intend to take out any patent for
any invention of his which may be of public utility, all persons are at
full liberty to imitate them, and vend them for their own emolument,
when, and where, and in any way they may think proper."

Three evils result from the prevalence of bad principles in con-
struction : 1. Waste of fuel and loss of heat. 2. Excessive produc-
tion of soot and smoke. 3. Large addition to ash-pit refuse by cinders,
which are really unburned, and therefore wasted fuel. These are mat-
ters of national concern, and it has been the main object of my labors
on this question during the last four years to endeavor to convince
the public that it is the interest no less than the duty of every house-
holder to burn his fuel on correct principles, and to do his part toward
the diminution of these evils.

On the first point, " waste of fuel and heat," let us listen to Rum-
ford, whose words are as true to-day as when written eighty years
ago : " Though it is generally acknowledged that there is a great
waste of fuel in all countries, arising from ignorance and carelessness
in the management of fire, yet few very few, I believe are aware of
the real amount of this waste. . . . From the result of all my inquiries
upon this subject, I have been led to conclude that not less than seven
eighths of the heat generated, or which with proper management
might be generated, from the fuel actually consumed, is carried up into
the atmosphere with the smoke, and totally lost. . . . And with regard
to the economy of fuel, it has this in particular to recommend it, that
whatever is saved by an individual is at the same time a positive
saving to the whole community."

Heat is wasted in three ways either by combustion under the
impulse of strong draught, which means rapid escape of heat up the
chimney ; or by imperfect combustion of the gases which are gener-
ated during the burning of the coals ; or by escape of heat through
the iron sides and back into the space between the range and the

2 3 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

brickwork, and so into the chimney. The greatest offenders are the
ordinary register grates. Iron all over, back, and sides, and roof, they
are usually set in a chamber open above to the chimney, and imper-
fectly filled in, or not filled in at all, with brickwork. The heat es-
capes through the iron to this chamber, and thence is lost. Another
fault is that the " register-opening," in other words the " throat of the
chimney," being immediately above the coal, submits the burning fuel
to the full concentrated force of the current to the chimney, convert-
ing the fire into a miniature blast-furnace. On this point Rum ford
says : " But there are, I am told, persons in this country who are so
fond of seeing what is called a great roaring fire, that even with its
attendant inconveniences, of roasting and freezing opposite sides of
the body at the same time, they prefer it to the genial and equable
warmth which a smaller fire, properly managed, may be made to pro-
duce, even in an open-chimney fireplace."

The second result of faulty construction in fireplaces is "undue
production of smoke and soot." Smoke and soot imply imperfect
combustion, and to this two defects in a fire mainly contribute, one,
too rapid a draught through the fire which hurries away and chills
below burning-point the gas rising from the heated fuel. The other
defect is too cold a fire, i. e., too small a body of heat in and around
the fuel, so that the temperature of the gases is not raised to a point
at which they will burn. On the smoke question Rumford waxes
eloquent : " The enormous waste of fuel in London may be estimated
by the vast dark cloud which continually hangs over this great me-
tropolis, and frequently overshadows the whole country, far and wide ;
for this dense cloud is certainly composed almost entirely of uncon-
sumed coal, which, having stolen wings from the innumerable fires of
this great city, has escaped by the chimneys, and continues to sail
about in the air till, having lost the heat which gave it volatility, it
falls in a dry shower of extremely fine black dust to the ground, ob-
scuring the atmosphere in its descent, and frequently changing the
brightest day into more than Egyptian darkness."

A few years ago the prevalence of unusually dense fogs roused the
metropolitan public to a sense of this great evil. The Smoke Abate-
ment Society was formed, and under its auspices exhibitions of smoke-
consuming apparatus and improved fireplaces were held in London and
Manchester. Beyond the fact that certain grates were pronounced to
be good in point of economy, and moderate in the production of smoke,
and that the public has been led to take an interest in and inquire into
the relative value and economy of various patent fireplaces, there has
been but little advance in the education of the public in the principles
which lie at the root of the whole question.

A third result of bad construction is the " production of cinders."
With good coal, cinders are inexcusable. They are unconsumed car-
bon coke and imply a faulty fireplace. If thrown into the ash-pit,

DOMESTIC FIREPLACE CONSTRUCTION. 233

as is the case in ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they are shameful
waste, and more than waste, for they entail a great cost for their re-
moval. The town of Leeds pays about fourteen thousand pounds a
year for the scavenging of the streets and the emptying of ash-pits.
Nearly every house in Leeds supplies in the way of cinders at least
twice as much ash-pit refuse as it might do, were the fireplaces proper-
ly constructed. The ash-pit refuse of Leeds is burned in a " de-
structor," and the cinders in the refuse provide not only heat enough
for its reduction to a mineral residue, but spare heat for driving two
sixty-horse-power engines, and for consuming a reasonable amount of
pigs, etc., killed by or on account of disease.

These three great evils, evils affecting not only individuals, but the
community, waste of fuel and heat, production of soot, production of
cinders, are a direct result of the violation of the correct principles in
fireplace construction.

Let us next inquire what are the principles which promote good
combustion in an open fireplace i. e., what are the conditions which
are essential to enable fuel to give out to a room " good money's worth
in heat." That such a result may be obtained, fuel must burn well
but not rapidly. Two things in combination are essential to the com-
bustion of fuel a supply of oxygen, and a high temperature i. e.,
plenty of heat around the fuel. If fuel be burned with a hot jacket
around it, a very moderate amount of oxygen will sustain combustion,
and, if the supply of oxygen be moderate, combustion is slow. Burn
coal with a chilling jacket around it, a rapid conductor like iron, and
it needs a fierce draught of oxygen to sustain combustion, and this
means rapid escape of actual heat, and also of potential heat in un-
burned gases and smoke, up the chimney. This is the key to the whole
position ; this is the touchstone by which to test the principles of fire-
place construction.

Few people probably realize the exact conditions of combustion,
which may be well illustrated from the process of manufacture of coal-
gas. In coal we have three kinds of constituents : One mineral, in-
combustible, seen in the ash residue, which for good coal amounts to
barely three per cent. The second, volatile, and which, under the
influence of heat becoming gaseous, appears in an open fire as tall
flame and smoke, and, where combustion is imperfect, produces soot.
The third constituent is carbon or charcoal, familiarly known as coke
or cinder, and when burning gives a short, shallow, bluish flame. The
carbon and the volatile portions can be raised to a high temperature,
and still will not burn unless oxygen be brought into contact with
them.

In the manufacture of gas, coal is raised to a high temperature,
and the gases are driven off by roasting the coal in an oven from
which air, i. e., oxygen, is shut out. The gases are conducted away,
cooled, purified, and stored for future use in a gasometer ; the com-

234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bined carbon and mineral residue, being non-volatile, is cooled down
before being exposed to the air, and is sold as coke. Here we have a
striking proof of the fact that high temperature in fuel does not of
itself involve combustion. If air were admitted to the red-hot coke,
or to the gases as they escape in their heated condition from the fur-
nace, they would burn. But when coke has become cold, and the
gases are cold, as in a gasometer, no amount of oxygen will of itself
start combustion.

The deduction from all this is, that complete oxidation, i. e., good
combustion, is possible only when the fuel and gases are at a high
temperature, and that high temperature of fuel does not produce com-
bustion until oxygen is introduced : therefore we can have a high tem-
perature of fuel, without rapid combustion, provided we control and
limit the supply of oxygen. If we have thoroughly grasped these
elementary facts, we shall be in a position to understand the points to
be aimed at in the construction of a fireplace.

My attention was first directed to the question of waste of fuel at
the time of the coal-famine some twelve years ago. I read in the
" Times," and acted upon the suggestion, to economize coal by insert-
ing an iron plate on the grid under the fuel so as to cut off all draught
through the fire. This undoubtedly induced slow combustion, and
economized fuel, but the fire was dull, cold, and ineffective. The plan
was abandoned. It taught me, however, the fact that combustion
could be controlled by cutting off the under-draught, but I did not
then see why combustion was spoiled. The reason was that the
under surface of the fire was chilled, and the fuel lost its incandes-
cence owing to the rapid loss of heat through the iron toward the
open-hearth chamber. To some persons even now "slow-combustion
stoves " are an abomination, and are supposed to by synonymous with
bad combustion.

The next stage in my fireplace education was the adoption of the
Abbotsford grate. I thereby learned that the reason why an Abbots-
ford grate was an advance upon the iron plate lay in the fact that the
solid fire-brick bottom stored up heat and enabled the fuel to burn
more brightly resting upon a hot surface not upon a cooling iron
plate. But Abbotsford grates, and the other class of grates with solid
fire-brick bottoms, the Parson's grates, have disadvantages. They are
apt to become dull and untidy toward the end of the day, and do not
burn satisfactorily with inferior coal. There is a better thing than a
solid fire-brick bottom, and that is the chamber under the fire closed
in front by an " Economizer."

The history of the next, the most important stage of my fireplace
education, was as follows :

Some five years ago I made, somewhat accidentally, the discovery
that the burning of coal in an ordinary fireplace could be controlled
and retarded by the adoption of a very simple and inexpensive con-

DOMESTIC FIREPLACE CONSTRUCTION. 235

trivance, applicable to nearly every existing grate, and that this result
could be attained without impairment of, and often with increase of,
the heating power of the fire. This contrivance, which I have named
an " Economizer," was simply a shield of iron, standing on the hearth,
and rising as high as the level of the grid at the bottom of the grate,
converting the hearth-space under the fire into a chamber closed by a
movable door.

The effect was twofold : The stream of air, which usually rushes
through the bottom of the fire, and causes for a short time rapid com-
bustion at a white heat, was thereby cut off, and the air under the fire
was kept stagnant, the heated coal being dependent for its combustion
on the air passing over the front and the upper surface. The second
point was that this boxing up rendered the chamber hotter, and this
increased temperature beneath the fire-grate, i. e., under the fuel,
added so materially to the temperature of the whole, even of the cin-
ders coming into contact with the iron grid, that the very moderate
supply of oxygen reaching the front and upper surface of the fuel was
sufficient to maintain every portion in a state of incandescence. More-
over, I observed that combustion was going on at an orange, not at a
white, heat.

Let us contrast a white with the orange heat. A white heat in a
fire means rapid combustion, owing to the strong current of air, oxy-
gen, which passes under the grate, through the center of the fire, and up
the chimney. As soon as the heart of the fire has been rapidly burned
away at a white heat, the fuel cools ; the iron grid cools also ; and the
cinders in contact with the grid are chilled below combustion point.
They then cease to burn, and the bottom of the fire becomes dead and
choked. The poker must now be brought into play to clear away the
dead cinders, and to reopen the slits in the choked grid. New coal is
added to the feeble remnant of burning embers, with no reserve of
heat in the iron surroundings ; and in time, and perhaps very slowly,
the fire revives, and rapid combustion sets in afresh under the influ-
ence of the renewed current of oxygen passing through the heart of
the fire. An orange heat means that the coke, i. e., the red-hot cinder,
is burning with a slowly applied stream of oxygen, a degree of com-
bustion which is only possible when the coal is kept warm by the hot
chamber beneath, and by a reasonable limitation of loss of heat at the
back and sides by fire-brick, either in contact with the fuel, or at least
close behind the iron surrounding it. This effect is seen, partially, in
the grates with solid fire-brick bottom, but far more perfectly in the
grates with the chamber closed by the "Economizer."

This hot chamber has the following effects : The incandescent
coal remains red-hot from end to end of the grate, until nearly all is
consumed, thus maintaining a larger body of the fuel in a state to
radiate effective heat into a room. The cinders on coming into con-
tact with the iron grid also remain red-hot, and so continue to burn

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

away until they fall through the grid as a fine powder. This allows
the fire to burn clearly all day long almost without poking. When
the fire is low, and new coal is added, the reserve of heat in the hot
chamber is such that the addition of cold fresh fuel does not tempora-
rily quench the embers, and the fire is very quickly in a blaze after
being: mended.

Having made the discovery by the observation of a grate supplied
to me with an " Economizer," the value of which, I suspect, was hard-
ly appreciated by the makers, I applied " Economizers " one by one to
all my grates, kitchen included. The result surpassed my expecta-
tions. There was a saving of at least a fourth of my coal. The ex-
perience of many friends, who, at my advice, adopted the system, con-
firmed my own results. It was, therefore, clear to me that I was
bound to make widely known a discovery which was fraught with
such benefit to myself, and was likely to prove a great boon to the
public.

My chief aim hitherto has been to persuade the public to apply
the " Economizer " to existing fireplaces. After steady exertions for
four years, some impression has been made on the inertia of the pub-
lic, and extensive trials of the " Economizer " are taking place in many
parts of the country. To-day, however, my aims are more complete.
It is my wish to advocate not one principle alone, although that is the
cardinal one, but to urge all the best principles which enter into the
construction of a really effective fireplace, and to induce those whom
it may concern to replace bad by an entirely new construction, right
in every point.

The rules of construction which I shall lay down have been arrived
at entirely by my own observation of what appeared to be the best
points in various fireplaces. It was, therefore, no less a satisfaction
to me than a surprise to discover, on reading Rumford's work in prepa-
ration for this lecture, that nothing which I have to advocate is new,
but that every principle, and the " Economizer " is hardly an excep-
tion, was advocated no less enthusiastically by him at the very com-
mencement of this century.

Having considered the principles that should guide us, we are now
prepared to lay down strict rules which should be acted upon in the
construction of fireplaces. I trust that what I have said has so far
commended itself to your judgment that the fourteen rules here drawn
up will command your hearty assent, and in due time will win their
way into the confidence of our architects, our builders, and the public :

Rule I. "As little iron as possible." The only parts of a fire-
place that are necessarily made of iron are the grid on which the coal
rests, and the bars in front. The " Economizer," though usually made
of iron, from convenience in construction, might be of earthenware,
and so would be more perfectly in harmony with this rule. On this
point Rumford speaks most emphatically : " Those (grates) whose

DOMESTIC FIREPLACE CONSTRUCTION. 237

construction is the most simple, and which, of course, are the cheap-
est, are beyond comparison the best, on all accounts. Nothing being
wanted in these chimneys but merely a grate for containing coals, and
additional apparatus being not only useless but very pernicious, all
complicated and expensive grates should be laid aside, and such as are
simple substituted in their stead. In the choice of a grate, beauty and
elegance may easily be united with perfect simplicity. Indeed, they
are incompatible with everything else." Again he says, " Iron, and
in general metals of all kinds, are to be reckoned among the very
worst materials that it is possible to employ in the construction of a
fireplace."

Rule II. " The back and sides of the fireplace should be of brick,
or fire-brick." Brick retains, stores, and accumulates heat, and radi-
ates it back into the room, and keeps the fuel hot. Iron lets heat slip
through it up the chimney, gives very little back to the room, and
chills the fuel. On this point also Rumford speaks very strongly.
"The best materials I have hitherto been able to discover are fire-
brick and common bricks and mortar. . . . The fuel, instead of being
employed to heat the room directly or by the direct rays from the fire,
should be so disposed or placed as to heat the back and sides of the
grate, which must always be constructed of fire-brick or fire-stone, and
never of iron or any other metal."

Rule III. " The fire-brick back should lean over the fire, not lean
away from it" as has been the favorite construction throughout the
kingdom. The lean-over not only increases the power of absorbing
heat from rising flame otherwise lost up the chimney but the in-
creased temperature accumulated in the fire-brick raises the tempera-
ture of gases to combustion-point, which would otherwise pass up the
chimney unconsumed, and thus be lost. Rumford discovered accident-
ally the value of this " lean-over," and at once realized its immense
importance. He does not, however, seem to have earned out his in-
tention of working out for general adoption this form of back.

He first of all condemns to alteration all fire-backs which lean away
from the fire. " It frequently happens that the iron backs of grates
are not vertical, but inclined backward. Where the grates are wide,
and can be filled up with fire-brick, the inclination of the back will be
of little consequence, since, by making the fire-brick in the form of a
wedge, the front may be made perfectly vertical, the iron back being
hid in the solid work of the fireplace. If the grate be too shallow to
admit of any diminution, it will be best to take away the iron back
entirely, and cause the vertical back of the fireplace to serve as the
back to the grate."

He next describes his discovery of the value of the " lean-over " :
"In this case I should increase the depth of the fireplace at the hearth
to twelve or thirteen inches, and should build the back perpendicular
to the height of the top of the burning fuel, and then, sloping the back

238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by a gentle inclination forward, bring it to its proper place, that is to
sa y> perpendicularly under the back part of the throat of the chimney.
This slope (which will bring the back forward four or five inches,
or just as much as the depth of the fireplace is increased), though it
ought not to be too abrupt, yet it ought to be quite finished at the
height of eight or ten inches above the fire, otherwise it may perhaps
cause the chimney to smoke.

" Having been obliged to carry backward the fireplace in the man-
Der here described, in order to accommodate it to a chimney whose
walls in front were remarkably thin, I was surprised to find, upon
lighting the fire, that it appeared to give out more heat into the room
than any fireplace I had ever constructed. This effect was quite un-
expected ; but the cause of it was too obvious not to be immediately
discovered. The flame rising from the fire broke against the part of
the back which sloped forward over the fire, and this part of the back
being soon very much heated, and in consequence of its being very
hot (and when the fire burned bright it was frequently quite red-hot),
it threw off into the room a great deal of radiant heat. It is not pos-
sible that this oblique surface (the slope of the back of the fireplace)
could have been heated red-hot merely by the radiant heat projected
by the burning fuel ; for other parts of the fireplace nearer the fire,
and better situated for receiving radiant heat, were never found to be
so much heated ; and hence it appears that the combined heat in the
current of smoke and hot vapor which rises from an open fire may be,
at least in part, stopped in its passage up the chimney, changed into
radiant heat, and afterward thrown into the room.

" This opens a new and very interesting field for experiment, and
bids fair to lead to important improvements in the construction of
fireplaces. . . . But, as I mean soon to publish a particular account of
these fireplaces, with drawings and ample directions for constructing
them, I will not enlarge further on the subject in this place. It may,
however, not be amiss just to mention here that these new invented
fireplaces not being fixed to the walls of the chimney, but merely set
down upon the hearth, may be used in any open chimney ; and the
chimneys altered or constructed on the principles here recommended
are particularly well adapted for receiving them."

Of recent years " lean-over " backs have been reinvented and spar-
ingly used. The " Milner " back is excellent. It burns fuel well, and
gives out a great heat. But it is extravagant in consumption, unless
controlled by the " Economizer."

Captain Douglas Galton saw the virtue of the " lean-over," and
adopted it in the grate which goes by his name. The " Bee-hive "
back was the same in principle and very good, and, having a very
small grid, was economical.

The " Rifle " back gives an admirable fire, little short of perfec-
tion ; but observation shows that the " tall " flame extends far beyond

DOMESTIC FIREPLACE CONSTRUCTION. 239

the bend, and is therefore soon lost as a heating factor, the heat being
wasted in the chimney.

From the commencement of my study of the fireplace question the
value of the " lean-over " has not only taken firm hold of my fancy,
but my sense of its importance has been growing in intensity, until I
saw that the best construction must show the greatest possible extent
of " lean-over " that could be obtained without sacrifice of other im-
portant details of construction. How to accomplish this will appear
in considering the fifth rule.

Rule IV. " The bottom of the fire, or grating, should be deep from
before backward, probably not less than nine inches for a small room,
nor more than eleven inches for a large room" This is a corollary to
Rule III. We can not possibly have the back of the fireplace over-
hanging the fire when there is a shallow grid. If for no other reason
than the demands of the " lean-over," depth of fire-space is essential.
But there is gain, thereby, in another direction. It affords plenty of
room for the burning fuel to lie down close to the grid, and away
from swift air-currents, and prevents the tendency of the fire to burn
hollow.

On this point Rumford has a word to say : " But as many of the
grates now in common use will be found too large when the fireplaces
are altered and improved, it will be necessary to diminish their ca-
pacities by filling up with pieces of fire-brick. But, in diminishing the
capacities of grates, care must be taken not to make them too narrow,
i. e., too shallow.

" The proper depth for grates for rooms of middling size will be
from six to eight inches. But, where the width (i. e., depth) is not
more than five inches, it will be very difficult to prevent the fire going
out."

"Where grates designed for rooms of middling size are longer
(and broader) than fourteen or fifteen inches, it will always be best to
diminish their length by filling them up at their two ends by fire-
brick."

Rule V. " The sides or 'covings'* of the fireplace should be in-
clined to one another as the sides of an equilateral triangle " (Fig. 2).
The working out of this rule has cost me much thought and experi-
ment. It was worked out more or less empirically with a view to
attain certain objects, and, having attained them, I discovered that I
had unwittingly selected the sides of an equilateral triangle. It is of
some importance, and may be of interest, to tell how the question
arose. In my earlier fireplaces the sides or " covings " were parallel
to each other, and had the defect that they radiated most of their heat
from one to the other, not into the room, with the probable result that
much of such heat would eventually escape up the chimney.

It was clear, then, that the sides must be set at an angle with the
back, so as to face toward the room. But at what angle ? My first

240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

experiments were determined by the shape of the corner bricks which
were in the market. These determined the inclination of the sides to
be such that, if prolonged, they would meet at a right angle. This is
the angle laid down by Rumford as the angle of selection, but as the
largest angle admissible in a good fireplace. This angle, however,
brought me into difficulties with my " lean-over " back. The openness
of the angle made the back, as it ascended, spread out so rapidly that
what was gained in width was lost in height. Moreover, my critics
objected to its appearance as ugly. What, then, should determine the
inclination of the sides ? The point was thus determined : Seeing
that a heated brick throws off the greatest amount of radiant heat at
a right angle with its surface, the " covings" should be at such an
inclination to each other that the perpendicular line from the inner
margin of one " coving " should just miss the outer margin of the
opposite "coving." Where the " covings," as in my earlier attempts
and in Count Rumf ord's fireplaces, are at a right angle to each other,
this perpendicular line misses the opposite margin by several inches.
It was clear, therefore, that the inclination might be made more acute.
Guided by this idea, and having determined the principle on which
the shape of the grate should depend, an inclination was arrived at
which turned out to be an angle of 60, i. e., the inclination of the sides
of an equilateral triangle.

Count Rumford came very nearly to the same conclusions : " I
have said, in my essay on chimney fireplaces, that where chimneys are
well constructed and well situated, and have never been apt to smoke,
in altering them the 'covings' may be placed at an angle of 135
with the back ; but I have expressly said that they should never ex-
ceed that angle, and have stated at large the bad consequences that
must follow from making the opening of a fireplace very wide, when
its depth is very shallow."

Rule VII. " The ' lean-over"* at the back should be at an angle of
70 " (Fig. 1). Commencing at a level (A) corresponding with the top
of the front bars, and leaning forward at an angle of 70 with the
horizontal line of the hearth, the back should rise to such a point that
the angle where it returns toward the chimney (B) should be vertical-
ly over the insertion (C) of the cheeks of the fire-grate. This angle
(B) will be about twenty-eight inches from the hearth, or sixteen inch-
es from the top of the fire, and about three and a half to four and a
half inches from the front line of the fireplace, according to the size
of the grate. These points will be obvious from the vertical section
of the fireplace here shown, and from C, Fig. 2.

So far, in the fireplaces built after my rules, the height of the grid
from the hearth has been taken at two bricks, or six inches, and the
height of the bars from the grid also at two bricks, or six inches. It
follows, therefore, that the lean-over commences at twelve inches from
the hearth. It is possible that a better angle than 70 may eventually

DOMESTIC FIREPLACE CONSTRUCTION.

241

be fouDd such as an angle of 60 but commencing a few inches
above the fire so as not to lower the angle B where the lean-over
returns to the chimnev.

. 1 2 3 4 S 6 r 8" 9 10 II 1/2 laches.
-^ / fiot. -^

FlQ. 1.

Rule VIII. "The shape of the grate should be based upon a square
described within an equilateral triangle, the size to vary in constant
proportion to the side of the square" (Fig. 2). The shape of the grate,
or grid, is arrived at in the following way : Describe a square, D, of
which the sides shall be eight, nine, or ten inches, according to the size
of the room, within an equilateral triangle, E, the two sides of which

TOL. XXIX. 16

242

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shall represent the "covings" of the fireplace, and the base the front
line of the fireplace. From each front angle of the square carry a
line from D to C, to the " covings " or sides of the triangle, at an angle
of 45 with the front line of the fireplace. These two lines, with the
side of the square from which they are drawn, form the front of the
grid. The back line of the grid does not correspond with the cor-
responding side of the square, but is carried one and a half inch far-
ther back, so as to give greater depth to the grate, and allow the fire-
brick back to overhang the back of the grid to the extent of one and
a half inch (see A, Fig. 1) before it ascends as the " lean-over."

|iffi, E

A"

D D

I 2 S V S 6 7 8

I I ! ' I I I

Fig. 2.

^

The diagram of the grate, with the square and triangle on which it
is based in dotted lines, will, I hope, make this description sufficiently
intelligible. Whenever a grate on this principle proves too hot for
a room, and in summer when a smaller fire is needed, the size should
be reduced in width by triangular fire-bricks at each side, which reduce
the fire-space to a square, with the addition of the one-and-a-half-inch
space under the back. This rule secures sufficient depth from front to
back, and a constant proportion between depth and width, whatever
be the size of grate.

Rule IX. " The slits in the grating, or grid, should be narrow,
perhaps one fourth inch for a sitting-room grate and good coal, three
eighths for a kitchen-grate and bad coaV When the slits are larger,
small cinders fall through and are wasted.

Rule X. u The front bars should be vertical, that ashes may not
lodge and look untidy ; narrow, perhaps one fourth inch in thickness,
so as not to obstruct heat and close together, perhaps three fourths of
an inch apart, so as to prevent coal and cinder from falling on the
hearth" (Fig. 3). It is too soon to judge as to the lasting powers of
one-fourth inch bars. Those in one of my own grates are round, and,

DOMESTIC FIREPLACE CONSTRUCTION.

243

after four and a half months' daily wear, show no sign of burning away.
Flat bars, one fourth inch by one half inch, or even by two thirds of
an inch, might perhaps resist fire better, if the one-fourth-inch round
bars burn away. The bars are so arranged that, if one fails, it can
easily be renewed. I have round bars about one third of an inch in
diameter at present on trial in my kitchen-range.

I'2 3 $ S t 7 8

I

Fig. 3.

Rule XL " There should be a rim one inch or one and a half
inch in depth round the lower insertion of the vertical bars " (Fig.
3). The object of this is to conceal the ash at the bottom of the fire,
and to enable the front cinders to burn away completely by protect-
ing them from the cold air. This rim (F) contributes greatly to tidi-
ness, and as a rule will prevent the need of any sweeping up of the
hearth during the day.

244 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Rule XII. " The chamber under the fire should be closed by a
shield or economizer''" (G, Figs. 1 and 3). This has been already
spoken of, and described as the central principle which enhances
greatly the value of all the rest.

Rule XIII. " Whenever a fireplace is constructed on these princi-
ples, it must be borne in mind that a greater body of heat is accumu-
lated about the hearth than in ordinary fireplaces. If there be the
least doubt whether wooden beams may possibly run under the hearth-
stone, then an ash-pan should be added, with a double bottom, the space
between the two plates being filled with artificial asbestus, ' slag-wool,''
two inches in thickness?''

Rule XIY. " A fireplace on this construction must not be put up
in a party wall, where there is no projecting chimney -breast, lest the
heated back should endanger woodwork in a room at the other side"

Having now worked up rules for the construction of an effective
fireplace, let us consider what benefits result.

1. Economy of Fuel. I have already stated that my own experi-
ence of the application of the "Economizer" to all my original fire-
places, including kitchen and scullery, was a saving of more than one
fourth. Friends who have followed my advice report variously from
a sixth to one third. The saving in the Leeds Infirmary, according
to returns supplied to me by Mr. Blair, the general manager, has
been nearly a sixth, amounting to nearly one hundred tons in the
year. What the saving in the fireplaces constructed on the best rules
may be I can not say, probably about the same degree of saving,
with a large increase of heat given into the room. My conviction is
that such fireplaces make one ton of coal give out as much heat into a
room as two tons would yield if burned in the worst forms of the
nearly obsolete register-stove.

2. Reduction of Soot. This is, perhaps, from a national point of
view, the most important point in connection with our subject and
yet it is the portion of it in which my evidence is the most defective.
I can only offer you my general impression that there is a very im-
portant reduction in the amount of soot, an impression based upon
observation of the smoke issuing from chimneys where " Economiz-
ers " are in use, and of the diminution of soot falling about my own
house, which is confirmed by the testimony of Miss Gordon, Lady
Superintendent of the Leeds Infirmary, as to the lessened amount of
soot which finds its way into the wards.

3. Reduction of Ash-pit Refuse. This point is clearly proved by
the fine, snuff-like powder, free from cinders, which I show ; and by
the fact that the whole produce in the ash-pit of my kitchen fireplace
for one week was contained in one ash-pan, and weighed fifteen
pounds.

Danger of Fire. Seeing that improved fireplace construction
involves increased heat about the hearth, an actual danger of fire will

SCRATCHING IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 245

be created where the hearthstone rests on wood, unless the hearth
itself be protected. It was therefore my duty to find out a means of
protecting the hearth. With this view, experiments have been made
with ash-pans with double bottoms and a small air-space between the
ash-pan and the hearth. The results are shown in the specimens of
cotton-wool, wood, etc., which have been exposed under ash-pans of
various constructions. My conclusion is that two inches of artificial
asbestus at the bottom of an ash-pan would render any hearth safe.
Such an ash-pan may be named a " Hearth-Protector." Another cau-
tion should be given against erecting one of these improved fireplaces
where there is no projecting chimney-breast, lest there should be in-
sufficient depth of brick between the back of the fire and the wood-
work of a room at the other side.

" Kitchen Kefuse" In some households there are certain portions
of kitchen refuse which are apt to find their way into the dust-bin,
instead of the pig-tub. You here see the remains of refuse, consisting
of celery-stalks, potato-parings, etc., which have been roasted in a
wire cage underneath my kitchen-fire in the chamber closed by the
" Economizer." The wire cage is necessary to allow the heat to reach
the under surface of the refuse.

Having now for four years done my best to persuade the public to
take measures in reference to fireplaces which will confer upon them
a saving in the cost of fuel, a saving in the labor of servants, an in-
crease in the warmth and comfort of rooms, a lessening of the soot in
the atmosphere of towns, and a possibility of reduction of scavenging
rates, it is no little satisfaction to feel that my views are at last
making way, and acquiring a momentum of their own.

It only remains for me now to bring my address to a conclusion
with the words of the Roman poet

" Nonfumum exfulgore, sed exfumo dare lucem."

Hoe., Aes. Poet.

which I will translate in the words of one of our greatest Latin
scholars, the late Professor Conington :

" Not smoke from fire my object is to bring,
But fire from smoke, a very different thing."

-*-

SCRATCHING IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

By Professor SAMUEL LOCKWOOD.

FOR nearly two weeks, one midwinter, my studies were pleasantly
interrupted by a nightly visit of that funny arachnidan, Phalan-
gium clorsatum, Say. We often hear it called Daddy-long-legs, which
name in England is given only to the long-legged dipteran, the Ttpula,
or crane-fly. My visitor's domicile was a nook somewhere in the

246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

library. As appearances are often deceptive, it would not be safe to
predicate a literary taste of my bookish visitor, but the creature's meas-
ured gait and pedal sprawl over my written page did suggest the airs
of a stilted critic. And yet, to use a trade-phrase, with all its seeming
bigness, phalangium did not " size up much." Its egg-shaped body
was exactly a quarter of an inch in length, and an eighth wide at its
thickest part. Of its eight legs, each one in the shortest pair measured
an inch and five eighths, and in the longest pair the measurement ex-
ceeded three inches, a considerable spread for so little timber. There
was quite a good understanding between us. It would allow me to
touch the long, thread-like legs with my pen, and even to lift one up
above the others, and the queer thing would keep the limb raised for
several minutes, precisely as I would leave it, as if it were hypnotized.

The phalangium is a member of a tribe of the spiders known as the
Pedipalpi, because the palps or feelers end, like the feet of many
insects, in a claw, sometimes a pair, thus making a forceps. After my
tickling his perambulators, Daddy seemed to have got his ideas started,
for, having adjusted his octapodal highness upon my manuscript in
most admirable equipoise, he began the delectable exercise of scratch-
ing his legs. I am sure that the operation was enjoyable to him, while
to me the sight was very interesting. If Captain Cuttle should find
it necessary to try the flexibility of a whip-stock, it is supposable that
he would take the handle in his left hand, and with a pressing motion
pass the whip for its entire length through the iron hook which served
for his right hand. The whip would thus take on a loop-like curve,
and would straighten itself out with somewhat of a snap. Just in
this way did my spider scratch his slender legs for one at a time were
these long elastic limbs passed through the hook of the palp, when the
limb would be bent like a loop or bow in the process, and as it left the
hook or claw by its elasticity would do so with an almost whip-like
snap.

The higher one ascends the animal scale in such observations, the
more pronounced is found this habit of scratching the skin-surface of
the body. Individually, Maud S. and Coomassie may be "too high-
toned " for such a practice. But these creatures are coddled out of
conscience by the groom, who has the comb and the brush almost
always on their pelts ; hence, if these "high-bloods" come not to the
scratch, it is because the scratch comes to them. Cushie and Dray,
put upon their own resources, enjoy hugely a good rubbing self -ad-
ministered against a tree or post.

Happening one day in my lady's boudoir, I picked from the cabinet
what I took for a pretty bit of bric-a-brac. It was an ebony stem,
about fourteen inches long, not thicker than one's finger, and quite
daintily turned. At one end was attached a pretty little hand deftly
wrought in ivory. It could not be called a fist, for I noticed that the
fingers were only half closed. The nails were well developed, and

SCRATCHING IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 247

their ends or edges were set in a line. This artistic trifle seemed, to
me made for some special purpose. A whisper from a friend enlight-
ened my wonderment " A back-scratch." I caught at once. Now,
I have read of a toy formerly common in England, which at fairs or
upon occasions of a crowd, would be passed over the back of a rustic,
when it made a noise like the tearing of cloth, and suggestive of a
rent behind, to the poor man's dismay. This, too, was called a "back-
scratch." But that was simply the vehicle of a bit of mischief. My
lady's back-scratch was for use in that very much out-of-the-way place
between the shoulder-blades. This handy implement, though an arti-
cle of virtu, was in the line of luxury, although the amenities would
hardly approve the indulgence before eyes polite.

The above reminds how gingerly and faulty the treatment of the
word is by the lexicographers. One would think it only meant to
abrade, lacerate, excoriate, whereas how common the usage by which
it signifies to titillate with mild friction ! The Latin expresses the ac-
tion nicely, scabere cutem leviter ungue, which in good English is
simply to rub the skin lightly with one's nails. Pliny has aures pe-
dibus, scratching the ears with the feet, which suggests the experience
of that tourist in Italy who rode a mangy mare. The beast had a
bad habit of stopping to scratch her ears, and, the hind-feet being
used for that purpose, the thighs of the rider received all the benefit
of the operation, which, like tickling with a brickbat, was too crude
for real comfort. But the ungulates generally are bunglers at this
trick, though not insensible to opportunity, as witness when our
neighbor's cow got into the lawn, and, wild with delight, went tearing
through the soft evergreens, our pretty arbor-vitae trees, which was so
much nicer than rubbing against a fence.

It behooves to confess that Nature has been a niggard in this mat-
ter unto man, having done less for him in this line than she has for
the beasts that perish. "The paragon of animals "is the victim of
irritation from eczema in a hundred forms and degrees. Though hav-
ing already thrown a stone at the lexicographers, here goes another,
for we must cite from memory that churlish dictionary-maker, Dr.
Johnson, who wrote in the first edition of his dictionary, "Oat a
grain used in England to feed horses ; in Scotland, men." This was
very unbecoming. But the food has much to do with the condition
of the cuticle. Hence we put together the Scotsman's " oaten cakes "
and the legend of the benevolent nobleman who set up scratching-
posts in the streets of Edinburgh, and the canny benediction of each
user of them, " God bless the Duke of Argyll ! "

On the physical or rather physiological side of the question, a
good deal might be said for this mild friction of the skin. Near the
surface that is, just under the scarf, or epidermis the capillaries,
almost microscopic blood-veins, abound in well-nigh infinite numbers.
Each of these minute carriers or distributors of the crimson life-

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stream has along its sides its complement of nerves nearly parallel.
Between these nerve-fibers lies the undifferentiated protoplasm, or life-
stuff, which is the supply of constructive matter for the use of these
tinv builders, for out of this life-matter, or bioplasm, each cell is
built. But even mortar may need quickening so this life-stuff may
become too passive, that is, quasi torpid. These nervous fibrillae are
the electric wires, and gentle friction is the dynamo to generate the
mysterious fluid and quicken the conductivity along the lines.

Strange to say, this scratching has also its psychological side. Let
a puzzle be propounded, and why on the instant does the nonplused
one institute a rummaging for an idea in the hirsute thatch of his
cranium ? And everybody does it, even he " of the front of Jove
himself " more than the beetle-headed clown. We asked an explana-
tion of our encyclopedic friend who " knows it all," and quoted to him
the well-worn distich :

" Be mindful, when invention fails,
To scratch your head and bite your nails."

Upon the word he began disheveling his carefully brushed hair, say-
ing it was " a poser," and, by way of compliment, that it " was not
slow " ; to which our response, " No, it's Swift " ; at which he laughed,
though he had quite missed the point, for he rejoined that he always
thought us " a little fast."

It is truly wonderful how lavishly and admirably Nature has gifted
many animals for this very exercise of scratching lightly with the claws.
At my feet lie Tom and Dick, two good friends. The former is a fine
young Maltese, the latter an old black-and-tan. The cat's claws are
very sharp, the dog's are less so. Both animals are clean and in good
condition, yet both appear to take delight in a good scratching at the
back of the head, and especially behind the ears. The hind-foot is the
instrument used, and with what delicacy yes, nicety, or precision of
adjustment ! So rapidly does that foot move, that it makes a fan-like
shadow ; and so exact the distance at which the keen, protruded claws
are set, that it secures only a delicate touching of the parts, producing
the pleasant titillation of the tonsorial brush. Any coarser adjustment
of those needle-pointed hooks and the blood would flow from the lacer-
ated skin.

But, even more than with the mammals, is this cuticular titillation
a necessity with the ordinary fishes ; and, since they have neither
hands nor feet, how is this want in their case gratified ? I have wit-
nessed the operation many times, yet fear a failure to adequately de-
scribe it. The scaly coating of a fish needs an occasional cleaning, as
does the copper sheathing of a ship ; for, with both, a foul surface im-
pedes progress through the water. On each side of a typical fish is a
thin line, known as the lateral line. It is, in fact, a mucous canal, from
which issues at the will of the animal a lubricating fluid, which, spread
over its scaly sheathing, lessens friction, and so facilitates movement

SCRATCHING IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 249

in the water. This mucous line is made up of rows of pores, which
communicate with the slime-secreting glands. Leydig discovered that
each of these oil-producers had its own nerve, thus constituting a series
of sense-organs. And very delicate is their sense, as by them the fish
gauges the weight of the water-mass, also the direction and resistance
of currents. But associated with these nerves arranged in tufts, or
buttons, are air-cells, hence it seems certain that the fish is able to
appreciate vibration in water, whose wave-lengths are larger than are
those of sound. The faculty of appreciating the waves of light, we
call seeing, and similarly of sound, hearing, whose waves are much
larger than those of light. But our scaly subject is endowed with a
third wave-measuring sense, in which possession it out-paragons " the
paragon" himself. It can appreciate the trills or waves of water
vibration, and of this faculty our language has no word to express
the name.

Now, these oil-yielding tubes above described may get clogged, or
the glands become torpid. Here, then, are sense-organs to declare the
state of affairs. Hence arises the necessity for the animal either to
clean off its body armor, or to stimulate into activity the indolent or-
gans. And, in fact, in other ways, fishes have their own eczema, or
diseases of the skin. Sometimes there is a blistering or deterioration of
the cutis, and sometimes a species of Saprolegnia, a fungous parasite,
sets up a floculent growth on the cuticle. For any of these instances
friction is the only remedy, and its exercise is unquestionably pleasant
to the fish.

But how can a fish scratch itself ? Sometimes in the way of Cushie,
as when she rushed through the evergreens. So a fish will often dart
through a dense clump of soft water-weeds. But this amounts to lit-
tle else than a gentle titillation. The scaly sheath is not to be cleansed
so easily. I have seen the performance many times, and by several
species, but none have so much interested me in this respect as the sun-
fish. Take the one best known to the pin-hook anglers, and often
called "pumpkin-seed." There is a bowlder with a smooth, clean sur-
face. The fish is steady ; its big eyes seem of a sudden to glow with
a blue light. Every fin is set, even to the dorsal, which bristles with
its keen spines. The fish seems aiming for that stone. The propul-
sion must come from the caudal and the side fins, but mostly from the
former. All these give a simultaneous blow against the water ; at the
same time, as if it were in the way, the top-sail that is, the dorsal falls
and is snugly reefed. All this is done in a moment, and such the force
that the fish truly darts, threatening to butt its nose against the rock.
The speed is high, but, just ere the rock is reached, there is a marvel-
ously sudden bend of the body, the most convex point being the exact
spot which is to be scratched. Though very rapid, so well-timed is
the movement, and so nice the adjustment of the position, that the
pressure or amount of rub or friction is correctly received, and the

250 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

point of impact is precise, and the body glances from the rock. The
collision is so accurately gauged that no harm is done. And similarly,
and with a great variety of ingenious posturing, the fish subjects all
]3arts of its body to this treatment. It even contrives to scratch the
top of its head, by bringing the desired spot into the proper position
at the precise moment of the glancing impact with the stone. The
feat is delicate and deftly, as if an acrobat should in his somersaults
comb his hair against a rock with no harm done every time.

Having enjoyed the use of a large aquarium for the study of fishes,
it has been an object with me to anticipate their wants. Hence I have
purposely given them scratching-stones properly adapted to their needs.
I was surprised that a favorite object for this purpose was a large live
river-mussel, the Anodonta excurvata. The corrugations of the shell,
which mark its growth, form a series of smooth ridges, upon and
against which, with their contortions of twists and bends and tilts,
these fishes glance in scratching themselves. As to ichthyic emotion,
one can not say much. That they enjoy these exercises, I am sure ;
and I almost think they know their benefactor, for they come at his
call at feeding-time though up to this present writing I have not
observed anything that might be interpreted as a grateful recognition
of benefits conferred ; certainly nothing commensurate with the canny
benediction, " God bless the Duke of Argyll ! "

THE POISONS IX SPOILING FOOD.

Bt JULIUS STDTDE.

IT is a well-known fact that food undergoing decomposition spoil-
ing, as it is termed is unwholesome. Cases of poisoning that
have occurred on the partaking of meat, fish, sausage, and cheese, that
is, food of animal origin, will be readily recalled, for on such occasions
the daily press has rarely failed to sound notes of warning. Until
quite recently, however, the nature of these poisons was veiled in ob-
scurity, and it is chiefly owing to the excellent investigations of Pro-
fessor L. Brieger, at Berlin, that some light has been thrown on this
subject.

As the study of the poisons of putrefaction is not only of great
interest from the scientific point of view, but of the utmost impor-
tance in every-day life (for these poisons may be generated and pro-
duced daily in pantry and cellar), it seems desirable, in the interest of
hygiene, to relate the new discoveries that have been made in this
field, and review the earlier work done in it.

Schlossberger, who for some time past has been compiling statis-
tics of cases of poisoning caused by food that had spoiled, records for
Swabia alone, from the year 1793 to 1853, four hundred cases of sick-

THE POISONS IN SPOILING FOOD. 251

ness caused by sausage-poison ; of this number, one hundred and fifty
terminated fatally. Cases where cheese was the cause of poisoning
are also on record ; the symptoms in these instances were those of
typhus fever. The plague-like epidemic which occurred some time
ago in the Volga district, and spread terror throughout Europe, was
traced and ascribed to the diet of the population in those regions,
which consisted almost exclusively of fish. Illness resulting from the
eating of food that has spoiled is of so common occurrence that many
will be able to recall instances of it from among the circle of their
own friends and acquaintances.

Animal food that has entered into decomposition may generally be
distinguished from fresh food by its presence proving unpleasant to
the eye and nose. In fact, the nose may be considered as a sort of
guardian of safety, for, generally speaking, whatever proves disagree-
able to the sense of smell is injurious to the system. However, an ill-
advised economy often causes these warnings to be not heeded; and
among the lower classes we sometimes meet with so great an indiffer-
ence, the result of habit, as to such indications, that frequently no dis-
tinction is made between food in a state of good preservation and
that having a bad odor. To this circumstance must be ascribed the
fact that diseases resulting from the poisons of putrefaction are of
relatively much more frequent occurrence among the poorer ranks.

Cases of poisoning by food have, however, also been noted where
no warning was given by the sense of smell. The explanation of this
must be sought in the fact that the pure poisons of putrefaction are
odorless compounds, and may probably occur without necessitating
at least, in any perceptible degree the formation of products of de-
composition which possess a strong odor.

The Danish scientist, Panum, had already ascertained that the poi-
son of putrefaction is not destroyed by boiling. G. O. Weber, Ham-
mer, and Schwenninger, further inferred from their investigations that
it is of a chemical nature. Brieger, however, was the first clearly to
establish this ; he has succeeded in preparing the poisons of putrefac-
tion in a pure state, and has given an explanation of their chemistry.
He mixed pure white of egg with the juice from the stomach of a
pig freshly killed, and allowed the mixture to stand twenty-four hours
at a temperature of blood-heat. By means of a rather complex chem-
ical process he succeeded in obtaining pure a small quantity of a sub-
stance, a few drops of an aqueous solution of which were sufficient to
kill frogs in fifteen minutes. Rabbits died in the same time after
inoculation with a larger quantity. From this it must be inferred that
a poisonous principle was formed from the white of egg when it was
subjected to artificial digestion.

From putrid meat Brieger succeeded in preparing a substance,
neuridine, which acted as a poison as long as it was contaminated
with other products of putrefaction ; but when obtained in a state of

252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

purity it was perfectly harmless. It is closely related to two sub-
stances which occur in the human system in its normal condition,
namely, neurine, one of the constituents of the brain, and choline,
which is present in the bile. By putrefaction, neuridine and the rather
harmless choline are transformed into neurine, which is highly poison-
ous. It is a remarkable fact that neurine, which is identical with
muscarine, the poisonous principle of a toad-stool (Agaricus musca-
rius), and which is a normal constituent of the human system, should
prove so destructive when introduced into the body from an outside
source.

The proof that the poisons of putrefaction are of a chemical nature
is of the utmost importance. The fact affords an explanation of the
presence of poisons which have been found in corpses, subjected to
examination in cases where murder was suspected ; for the poisons
formed by putrefaction bear a certain resemblance to the alkaloids of
the hemlock, strychnine, veratrine, etc. Thus, there was found in the
corpse of General Gibbone, in Rome whose sudden death excited a
suspicion that he had been murdered by his servant a virulent poi-
son, which occurs in the larkspur. However, the rare occurrence of
this poison led to a more careful examination of the substance found,
which indeed bore a great resemblance to the vegetable poison re-
ferred to, but was ultimately recognized as having been formed in the
corpse, for Professor Selmi, of Bologna, obtained the same substance
from the corpse of another person, where every suspicion of poisoning
was excluded.

Brieger was eminently successful in the preparation of the poisons
found in corpses, and which are termed " ptomaines " by chemists.
According to his investigations, they are created by the putrefac-
tion of white of eggy meat, fish, cheese, gelatine, and yeast, all of
them substances used as articles of food. The presence of moisture is
an essential condition, whence it follows that the moist mixture of
sausage-filling is especially well adapted to the formation of ptomaines.
In accordance with this is also the observation that a great many cases
of poisoning have occurred after the consumption of sausage or of fish
that had been kept damp. A careful supervision of the markets and
a destruction of all spoiled food of animal origin should be strictly
insisted upon especially so, as it is known that the poisons of putre-
faction, when once formed, are not to be destroyed by boiling or by
roasting. The action of the ptomaines is more virulent when they are
introduced into the circulation through wounds than when they are
brought into the stomach. Cuts and other wounds received while
dissecting corpses have often been the cause of blood-poisoning ending
in death. The savages of the New Hebrides are not only acquainted
with the properties of poison of this kind, but make use of it in their
wars. They plunge the points of their arrows, which are made of
human bones and provided with grooves, into a corpse, about a week

THE POISONS IN SPOILING FOOD. 253

old, and then coat them with the sap of a certain creeping plant. Be-
fore discharging the arrow they dip it into water. A serious wound
caused by such an arrow is inevitably followed by death in from three
to five days. Report as to a similar practice comes from the Narrin-
jeris, inhabitants of South Australia. They are said to wound their
enemies by splinters of bone previously plunged into corpses under-
going putrefaction.

Jacob Doepler, in his " Theatrum Poenarum," mentions a method of
poisoning wells, the account of which was formerly discredited, but
has become plausible in the light of modern researches. He states
that people suffering from leprosy took of their blood, mixed it with
herbs and toad-spawn, formed little pellets of the mixture, and threw
the pellets weighted with stones into the wells. Many people who
drank from these wells were taken with the same disease, and some of
them died. This happened in the reign of Philip V of France, who
caused all lepers cognizant of the outrage to be burned, and the Jews,
who were accused of being the instigators of the crime, to be perse-
cuted.

That many who drank of such water should become leprous seems
very likely, inasmuch as the partaking of spoiled food causes eruption
of the skin, nettle-rash, etc., in many persons ; chiefly are these symp-
toms to be noticed after eating spoiled fish. Of course the effects are
more serious with some persons than with others. Some people are
so sensitive that partaking of fish, seemingly fresh, will cause them in-
convenience ; others are liable to suffer from a peculiar eruption of
the skin after eating crabs or lobsters. Possibly the meat of these
animals, even when in the normal condition, contains neurine sufficient
to exert its influence on persons susceptible to it, while it may not
affect others at all. In the maize-porridge which is called " polenta,"
and which is the chief food of a certain class of Italian working-men,
there is formed, by putrefaction, during the hot months, a poison
which causes " pellagra." This is an eruption of the skin, resembling
erysipelas, which grows worse in time and finally induces death.

In connection with this subject, the investigations of Pouchet must
be referred to. Pouchet isolated a ptomaine from the excreta of chol-
era-patients, which seemed to possess highly poisonous properties, for,
when he tried to crystallize the salt he had obtained, he inhaled the
fumes, and eighteen hours later was seized with chills and cramps in
the limbs, while he also experienced an irregular pulse and nausea
without vomiting. His assistant, who was not so much exposed to the
fumes, was taken ill with the same symptoms, but not to the same ex-
tent.

The development of cholera and the processes of putrefaction are
ascribed to the agency of minute living organisms, the bacilli, a great
variety of which have been found in cases of putrefaction and infec-
tious diseases. Professor Brieger has discovered in both fresh meat

254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and meat undergoing putrefaction, also in the white of eggs, the non-
poisonous neuridine from which is formed the poisonous neurine. The
bacilli decompose the neuridine and form neurine from it. Sjjread on
fish they generate muscarine, the virulent poison also found in cer-
tain toad-stools. These bacilli hence produce a peculiar ptomaine,
according to the soil in which they happen to be growing. We
have as an instance the poison of the pellagra and of cholera, which,
when formed in the human system, will exercise a most deadly effect
upon it.

In every-day life, too, the ptomaines very often give proof of their
presence. Heretofore, however, such cases have not always been well
understood. The frequent inflammations of the fingers of persons
engaged in washing dishes, etc., are due to this cause. The poisons
of putrefaction, so easily formed, need only enter into a scratch or
abrasion of the skin, and they will cause a slight poisoning. This is
commonly termed having a "sore finger," and is rather unpleasant,
but is generally soon cured. The best remedy for the evil is washing
with soap, which acts like a mild disinfectant.

The investigation of these poisons of putrefaction is, however, by
no means brought to an end by the results reached thus far. Much
remains to be done in order to solve the new questions constantly
arising. So far as practical life is concerned, it is evident that all
food, be it of vegetable or of animal origin, must be regarded with
suspicion as soon as the first signs of decomposition become notice-
able. Especially should great care be taken in times of epidemics.
Hygiene alone, in kitchen and cellar, is competent to guard against
the evil ! Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from Daheim.

#

EELS AKD THEIR YOUNG.

EELS are among the mysteries of this world. In spite of the way
in which Dame Science has persistently poked her nose into most
things, and has harried them and laid them bare, she has succeeded in
finding out but little about eels and their mode of life. However, it
would be rash to go as far in our confession of ignorance as a con-
temporary recently did, and declare that "we know next to nothing
of eels beyond the periods of their migration." If we knew nothing
more than that, we should indeed know but little, as in many places
eels never migrate at all, but grow fat and flourish from year to year
in the pond or lake where they were born, without ever leaving it to
seek the brackish water of estuaries which some authorities deem
necessary to their existence. The same writer who made the above
remark asserts that the distinction between " shovel-nosed " and
" pointed-nosed " eels is purely " fanciful," and accounts for the differ-

EELS AND THEIR YOUNG. 255

ence by saying that " most fish develop a shovel-nose when they are
working up-stream." If this were the case, an eel would have a
shovel-nose in the spring and a sharp nose in the autumn ! Such a
capability of altering his features would be certainly open to envy ;
but, unfortunately for this theory, the structure of the two fish is
materially different, and the single fact that the shovel or broad-nosed
eel has one hundred and fifteen vertebrae, while his sharp-nosed rela-
tive only possesses one hundred and thirteen is sufficient to prove the
fallacy of the idea that the two fish are identical.

Of fresh-water eels as apart from their mighty cousin the conger,
there are three distinct kinds the sharp-nosed eel, the broad-nosed or
frog-mouthed eel, and the snig. Of these three, the sharp-nosed eel
is both the largest fish and the best eating, though some prefer the
snig-eel as having a superior flavor. The snig, however, in spite of
its excellence, has not the same value as the sharp-nosed eel ; for it
seldom, if ever, attains more than half a pound in weight. The sharp-
nosed eel, on the contrary, attains an enormous size. One on record
that was taken in the Medway, not far from Rochester, weighed
thirty-four pounds, measured six feet in length, and had a girth of
twenty-five inches. Another eel, taken in Kent, weighed forty pounds
and measured five feet nine inches. Yarrell speaks of having seen at
Cambridge the preserved skins of two which had weighed together
fifty pounds ; the heaviest twenty-seven pounds, the other twenty-three
pounds. But these instances, though not to be regarded as apocry-
phal, are still very exceptional ; and a very fair average weight for
sharp-nosed eels is six pounds. Eels of even ten pounds weight are
not common, and Mr. Frank Buckland speaks of one of that size as
being the largest he had ever seen. From time immemorial eels have
always been much esteemed by epicures, more perhaps in ancient days
than they are now. Aristotle and Aristophanes both mention eels in
terms of high praise ; indeed, the former may be considered to have
known more about eels than the contemporary we have already re-
ferred to, for he recognized at least two distinct species of eels. By
the Egyptians eels were regarded with great abhorrence, as the embodi-
ment of an evil demon ; but other nations did not share the prejudice,
for the Boeotians, who were celebrated for their eels, used them as
sacred offerings. Misson, in his " Travels," tells of a vow made by
the inhabitants of Terracina, a seaport of Italy, when besieged by the
Turks. They vowed to offer twenty thousand eels a year to St.
Benedict if he would deliver them from their peril. Whether a fond
memory of stewed eels touched the saint we do not know, but the siege
was raised, and the Benedictine monks got their eels every year from
the virtuous and grateful inhabitants. The Venerable Bede mentions
the eel-fisheries of Britain in his " History of the Anglo-Saxon Church,"
and an instance is quoted of the magnificence of the famous Arch-
bishop Thomas a Becket that, when he traveled in France, "he ex-

256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pended the large sum of a hundred shillings in a dish of eels." Any-
one who could now sit down to cope with a dish of eels of the value
of five pounds would indeed have gastronomic capabilities likely to
make an alderman die of envy. But, in the eating of eels, excellent
as they are, it is well to remember the advice given in the ancient
medical book entitled " Regimen Sanitatis Salernise " :

" Who knows not physic should be nice and choice
In eating eels, because they hurt the voice.
Both eels and cheese, without good store of wine
Well drunk with them, offend at any time."

For a long time the most extraordinary theories were accepted
regarding the birth of young eels. Aristotle believed they sprang
from the mud (wherein he was not far wrong, as eels deposit their
spawn in mud and sand) ; Pliny maintained that young eels devel-
oped from fragments separated from the parents' bodies by rubbing
against rocks ; others supposed that they proceeded from the carcasses
of animals ; Helmont declared that they came from May-dew, and
gave the following receipt for obtaining them : " Cut up two turfs
covered with May-dew, and lay one upon the other, the grassy side
inward, and then expose them to the heat of the sun ; in a few hours
there will spring from them an infinite quantity of eels." Of that
ancient superstition of one's childhood that horse-hairs cut up and
deposited in water would turn into eels it is hardly necessary to speak,
for who can not remember those unpleasant little bottles, erst used for
medicine, which garnished one's nursery, in which the propagation of
eels from horse-hair was carried on with the profound faith of child-
hood? Eels generally shed their spawn in April, and, when not
hindered, they almost invariably choose an estuary, where they scatter
the spawn loosely in the sand or soil. But that an annual visit to the
sea is by no means necessary to their existence is proved by the fact
that many eels who inhabit inland ponds and lakes never visit the
sea at all. A gentleman digging in the month of October in the
gravel-banks of the river Stour found the place " alive with young
eels, some of them scarcely hatched, at the depth of from five to
fifteen inches " ; and at one of the meetings of the British Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science a member stated that he had
seen a considerable number of young eels rise up through a small
opening in the sand at the bottom of a small stream, the Ravens-
bourne. The greater number of eels, however, do visit the sea, and
the " passing up " a river of the young eels is one of the most curi-
ous sights of natural history. This passage of young eels is called
eel/are on the banks of the Thames ; and it has been thought by
some that the term elver, which on the banks of the Severn is used
indiscriminately for all young eels, is a corruption of the word eel-
fare. In the Thames this eel/are takes place in the spring, in other

EELS AND THEIR YOUNG. 257

rivers in the summer ; and some idea of the numbers of these young
eels, each about three inches long, may be gathered from the rec-
ord of Dr. William Roots, who lived at Kingston in 1832. He cal-
culated that from sixteen to eighteen hundred passed a given point
in the space of one minute of time. These baby-eels travel only by
day and rest by night. In large and deep rivers, where they probably
find the current strong, they form themselves into a closely compacted
company, " a narrow but long-extended column," as it has been de-
scribed ; but in less formidable streams they abandon this arrangement
and travel, each one more or less at his own sweet will, near the bank.
The perseverance of these little creatures in overcoming the obstruc-
tions they may encounter is quite extraordinary. The large flood-
gates, sometimes twenty feet high, that are to be met with on the
Thames would be sufficient, one would imagine, to bar the progress
of a fish the size of a darning-needle. But young eels have a whole-
some idea that nothing can stop them, consequently nothing does. As
one writer says, speaking of the way in which they ascend flood-gates
and such like barriers, " Those which die stick to the posts ; others
which get a little higher meet with the same fate, until at last a suffi-
cient layer of them is formed to enable the rest to overcome the diffi-
culty of the passage." The mortality resulting from such "forlorn
hopes" greatly helps to account for the difference of number between
the upward migration of young eels and the return of comparatively
few down-stream in the autumn. In some places these baby-eels are
much sought after, and are formed into cakes which are eaten fried.
On one occasion at Exeter two cart-loads of these little fish, not larger
than darning-needles, were sold, each cart-load weighing four hundred-
weight. They were sold for fourpence per pound. The term elver,
which, as we have said, is in some places indiscriminately used to de-
note all young eels, in reality only belongs to the " transparent " eels
which are occasionally found among their more opaque brethren.
These elvers are so transparent that most of the internal organs and
the action of the heart and blood-vessels can easily be seen. Little is
known of them. They are not supposed to form a distinct species, for
they have been found with the characteristics of both sharp-nosed and
broad-nosed eels. They have been met with in the rivers in January
as well as in June, and, even when caught and confined in a tank, they
in no way grow out of their peculiar transparency ; so they have re-
mained one of the many mysteries of the eel family till now. They
are doubly interesting to study on account of this transparency. One
of the greatest peculiarities possessed by eels is that they have a sec-
ond heart situated in the extremity of their tails ; of course, in the
transparent elvers the action of this heart can be more easily noted
than in the ordinary eels. In all, however, its action is plainly mani-
fest, especially if the fish has been out of water any time or exhausted,
a fact known to the street venders of live eels, who therefore are care-

VOL. XXIX. 17

2 5 3 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ful to cover their eels with sand to hide the caudal pulsations. Dr.
Marshall Hall, who in 1S31 discovered this secondary heart of the
eel, savs of it that "the action of this caudal heart is entirely in-
dependent of the pulmonic heart ; while the latter beats sixty the
former beats one hundred and sixty times in a minute. It continues
for a very long time after the influence of the pulmonic heart is en-
tirely removed." It is probably owing to this caudal heart that the
eel's tail is so highly sensitive and so strong. Eels can almost use
their tails like hands ; as, for instance, if confined to a tank or bucket,
they will grasp the edge with this hand-like tail, and by its help lift
themselves bodily over. Eels are very clean feeders ; if possible,
they like their food 'alive, and in all cases it is most essential that it
should be fresh. Even the slightest taint is too much for their keen
sense of smell and taste. They are sometimes seen cropping the
leaves of water-cresses, and other aquatic plants, as they float about
in the water ; but as a rule their food is altogether animal. They are
immense devourers of spawn of all kinds of fish. There are certain
well-known spawning-grounds in the Norfolk Broads, where the roach
and bream collect in vast numbers to spawn in the spring. To these
grounds the eels follow in hundreds. Mr. Davies, in his pleasant book
on " Norfolk Broads and Rivers," speaks of this habit of the eels,
and adds : " You can hear the eels sucking away at the spawn
in the weeds ; and they gorge themselves to such an extent that
they will lie motionless on their backs on the gravel, with distended
stomachs ; and when caught by the bab they will frequently die dur-
ing the night, instead of living for days, as an eel will otherwise do
in a boat."

There are a good many ways of catching eels ; the commonest, of
course, being by the eel-bucks which are so often to be met with on
the Thames. Eel-bucks that are intended to catch the sharp-nosed or
frog-mouthed eels are set against the stream, and are set at night, as
those two descriptions of eels feed and run only at night. The snig-
eel, which is chiefly found in Hampshire, feeds by day ; and fishermen
have found by experience that snigs are only taken in the eel-bucks if
they are set with the stream, instead of against it. In Norfolk, where
immense quantities of eels are caught- every year, the capture is most-
lv effected bv eel-sets, which are nets set across the stream, and in
which the sharp-nosed eel is the one almost invariably taken. Besides
these eel-sets, however, the Norfolk Broadmen also fish for eels with
" babs," which can hardly be called sport in any sense of the terra.
The " bab," or " clod," as it is sometimes called, is a number of lob-
worms threaded on pieces of worsted, and all tied up in a bunch not
unlike a small mop. The bab is then tied on to the end of a cord at-
tached to a stout pole. The eel's teeth get entangled in the worsted
as soon as he attempts to take the bab, and he can then be lifted out
of the water either into the boat if the angler be in one, or else al-

EELS AND THEIR YOUNG. 259

lowed to drop off the line into a pail, which the angler should place on
the bank at a convenient distance from his standing-place. Norfolk
" babbers " frequently catch four stone weight of eels to a boat per
night, especially in the spawning-grounds. Night-lines are also much
used for eels. These are long lines, weighted heavily at each end and
in the middle, and garnished with baited hooks one yard apart.
" Sniggling," immortalized by Mr. Burnand in his " Happy Thoughts,"
is one of the most favorite ways of catching eels, and " stichering," a
Hampshire method, is perhaps one of the most amusing, though the
sticherer probably catches fewer eels than any other eel-hunter. The
only apparatus used is an old sickle, worn short and chipped so as to
present something of a saw-like edge ; this is tied firmly on to a light
pole about twelve feet long. Armed with these the sticherers betake
themselves to the water-meadows. In the wide, deep drains used for
irrigation eels abound, and the object of the sticherer is to thrust the
sickle under the eel's body, and, with a sudden hoist, to land him on the
bank, from which he is transferred to the bag. That there is every
chance, when on a stichering party, of having your eye poked out, or
your ear sawn off, of course only adds the necessary amount of dan-
ger and pleasurable excitement, without which all sport is tame. Of
all forms of eel-capture, however, there is none to compare to spear-
ing, of which there are two methods. The Norfolkmen mostly use
"picks" formed of four broad blades, spread out like a fan, between
which the eels get wedged. These are mounted on long, slender poles,
to enable them to be thrust into the mud, where the "picker" notices
the tell-tale bubbles rise which denote the presence of " Anguilla."
Eel-spearing of this kind takes place chiefly in winter, but there is an-
other form of this sport called " sun-spearing," which is much sought
after in the Irish loughs during the months of June and July. In the
early sunny mornings at that time of the year, when the water seems
to be principally composed of sunbeams, with a little hydrogen and
oxygen added, the sun-spearer sallies forth in any little boat he can lay
his hands on. Standing up in the bows, and, if alone, using his spear
to propel the boat gently along, he steals over the crystal waters of
the lough. Presently he sees the gleam of the " silver " eel as he lies
quietly at length on the sandy bottom. The spearer takes aim ; there
is a sudden " splitting of the atmosphere," as Mark Twain would say,
a splash, and either Anguilla comes up writhing on the twelve close-set
teeth of the sun-spear, or the spearer has taken a header into ten feet
of water. If the latter is a tyro at the apparently simple art of sun-
spearing, it may safely be prognosticated that, if he makes acquaint-
ance with the eel he is after, the meeting will be more likely to take
place under water than above it.

Eels have the immense merit in the eyes of all careful people that
they more than repay any cultivation bestowed upon them. There is
always a demand for eels, and they never seem to be out of season.

2 6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The London market is chiefly supplied from Holland, the eels being
brought over alive in welled vessels. Queen Elizabeth gave a free
mooring to these Dutch skoots, and this privilege has been taken ad-
vantage of up to the present time. The Dutch eels, however, are
very much inferior in flavor to the English, and it seems, therefore,
somewhat of a pity that they should have almost a monopoly of the
London market. The Norfolk eels, that are caught in such huge quan-
tities, are nearly all sent to Birmingham and the Black Country. In
Scotland eels are looked upon with abhorrence, consequently eel-fisher-
ies may be said not to exist there. In Ireland, however, the eel-fisher-
ies are enormously valuable ; the eel-weirs on the Erne are said to
bring in five or six thousand pounds sterling a year. At Ballisodare
the eel-fisheries were found to greatly increase in value by hanging
loosely plaited ropes of straw or hay over any obstructions which
would be likely to bar the course of the elvers up-stream. These
ropes act as ladders, up which the elvers climb, and the immense
annual destruction we have already spoken of is averted. Eels cost
but little to cultivate, never fail to find a good market, and are one of
the richest and most nutritious forms of food possible to find ; surely,
therefore, in all questions of cheap food-supply they should receive
the highest attention. The late Mr. Frank Buckland showed his usual
good sense when he declared that the English eel-fisheries were not
half developed, and that they deserved considerably more attention
than they had hitherto got. That they should soon get this attention
must be the hope of all those who do not like to see the good gifts
of Nature contemptuously thrown aside and disregarded. Saturday
Hevieio.

>

SKETCH OF GEOEGE ENGELMANN, M. D.

THE United States has had many botanists who, making the best
use of the immense resources of fresh material which our large
and virgin country afforded, have made extensive and important addi-
tions to the scope of their science. None among them, perhaps un-
less we make a single exception has done better work in this line and
made more valuable contributions than Dr. George Engelmann. " More
than fifty years ago," says Dr. Asa Gray, in his sketch of him, " his
oldest associates in this countrv one of them his survivor dedicated
to him a monotypical genus of plants, a native of the plains over
whose borders the young immigrant on his arrival wandered solitary
and disheartened. Since then the name of Engelmann has, by his
own resources and authorship, become unalterably associated with the
buffalo-grass of the plains, the noblest conifers in the Rocky Mount-
ains, the most stately cactus in the world, and with most of the asso-

SKETCH OF GEORGE ENGELMANN, M. D. 261

ciated species, as well as with many other plants, of which perhaps
only the annals of botany may take account."

George Exgelmaxx was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, February
2, 1809, and died in St. Louis, Missouri, February 4, 1884. He came
of a family of clergymen who had been settled for several generations
as pastors at Bacharach on the Rhine, and was the eldest of thirteen
children. His father was director of a school for girls at Frankfort.
He went through the usual course of gymnasia! instruction in that
city, and there acquired his taste for scientific studies, which was
stimulated under the inspiration given by the Leuckenberg Philo-
sophical Society, a body to which the journey of Rupell, one of its
members, in Nubia, Kordofan, Arabia Petrsea, and Abyssinia, had
given considerable renown. In the spring of 1827, when he was
eighteen years old, he entered the University of Heidelberg, where he
met as fellow-students Alexander Braun, who afterward became an
eminent botanist, and Carl Schimper, whose name is associated with
the early history of phyllotaxy. A close fellowship, which lasted
through Braun's life, sprang up between him and Braun, and they
were accustomed, at their evening meetings, to discuss questions of
the physiology and morphology of plants. Here he also met and
made friends with Agassiz, who afterward became a brother-in-law of
Braun's. In 1828 he removed, in consequence of a political incident
at Heidelberg, to the University of Berlin, whence, after two years of
residence there, he went to Wiirzburg, and there took the degree of
Doctor of Medicine in 1831. His graduating thesis, " De Antholysi
Prodromus" a morphological dissertation on the study of monstrosi-
ties, illustrated with his own drawings, was an important contribution
to teratology, and has held a prominent place in the literature of
morphology. Having been brought under the notice of Goethe, who
had forty years before published an essay on the morphology of
plants, only four weeks before his death, that great author testified
his appreciation of the mastery which the young botanist had attained
of the subject by offering to present to him the unpublished notes and
sketches which he had accumulated. Engelmann's original manu-
script of the thesis, with his drawings, is now preserved in the library
of the Herbarium of Harvard University.

This pamphlet, written in Latin, and that not the most classic, has
been compared, in " Nature," by Mr. Maxwell F. Masters, with the
more elaborate " lemens de Teratologic Vegetale " of Moquin-Tan-
don, written nearly ten years later, or in 1841. Moquin's work, says
Mr. Masters, " is written in a style which even a foreigner can read
with pleasure. Its method, too, is clear and symmetrical ; but when
we compare the two works from a philosophical point of view, and
consider that the one was a mere college essay, while the other was the
work of a professed botanist, we must admit that Engelmann's treatise,
so far as it goes, affords evidence of a deeper insight into the nature

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and causes of the deviations from the ordinary conformation of plants
than does that of Moquin."

Engelmann spent a part of 1832 in Paris, in the study of medicine
and science, along with Braun and Agassiz. Some of his relatives
had determined to make investments in land in the Mississippi Val-
ley, and one of them had settled in Illinois, near St. Louis. The
others invited him to visit the country, as an agent for them, and he
accepted the proposition, being moved to do so, one of his biographers
suggests, by the expectation of finding in America an interesting field
of botanical research. He sailed from Bremen in September, 1832,
landed in Baltimore, after a voyage of six weeks, visited Philadelphia,
where he made the acquaintance of the botanist Nuttall, and arrived
at a friend's farm in Missouri in the middle of the ensuing winter. He
resided on the farm of his uncle Fritz, near Belleville, Illinois, till the
spring of 1835, when he undertook a horseback-journey through
Southwestern Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, down to Louisiana.
After nearly dying of fever during the summer in the swamps of
Arkansas, he returned to St. Louis, then a frontier town of eight
thousand inhabitants, and began the practice of medicine there in
December. He combined with his medical practice, which was very
successful, and became so extensive as to make him one of the leading
physicians of St. Louis, botanical investigations as a side pursuit. He
made collections which he sent, with his own scientific descriptions,
to the European museums, and also for his own herbarium. It was
through one of h is herbariums, which Dr. Gray examined in Berlin,
that that botanist became acquainted with Dr. Engelmann's studies ;
and when the latter passed through New York on his return from his
marriage-journey to Kreuznach, in 1840, Dr. Gray embraced the oppor-
tunity of making his acquaintance, and formed with him a life-long
friendship.

Dr. Engelmann made a second botanical excursion south, to Ar-
kansas in 1837. His first botanical work, " A Monography of North
American Cuscutinea^," or dodders, was published in 1842, in the
" American Journal of Science," and made him known throughout the
scientific world. Till this time only one species of dodder indigenous
to the United States was known. Engelmann's monograph treated of
fourteen species, all found within the Mississippi Valley, or east of it.
A more systematic treatise, published in the " Transactions of the
St. Louis Academy of Sciences," in 1859, after investigation of the
whole genus in America and Europe, gave the characteristics of sev-
enty-seven species.

The botanical chapter in the report of Colonel Doniphan's expe-
dition of 1846 and 1847 to New Mexico, published by the Government
in 1848, was prepared by Dr. Engelmann from material furnished by
Dr. Wislizenus, his colleague in the medical profession, who was a
member of the expedition.

SKETCH OF GEORGE ENGELMANN, M. D. 263

In 1849 Dr. Engelmann published, in the "Memoranda of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences," the " Plantae Fendlerianae,"
thereby, says his biographer in the St. Louis " Universe," " drawing
from obscurity another German-American botanist, August Fendler."
Fendier and he had become acquainted on a governmental expedition
to the Rocky Mountains, to which the former was attached as engi-
neer. He was afterward engaged for two years, upon Engelmann's
recommendation, in classifying and arranging the Henry Shaw col-
lections of plants. He traveled in the Rocky Mountains, California,
Mexico, Central America, and Brazil, and died in the Island of Trini-
dad in 1882. His name, the " Universe " adds, can not be forgotten
in the history of the American flora. A number of plants are named
after him, among them one of the handsomest cactuses, the Cereus
Fendleri.

Dr. Engelmann's work upon the cactus family is styled by Dr. Gray,
in the " American Journal of Science," most extensive and important,
as well as particularly difficult, and his authority the highest. " He
essentially for the first time established the arrangement of these
plants upon floral and carpological characters." This work was begun
in the report of the Doniphan expedition, and was continued, by his
account in the " American Journal of Science," in 1852, of the giant
cactus of the Gila ( Cereus giganteus) and an allied species ; " by his
synopsis of the Cactacece of the United States, published in the
* Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,' 1856 ;
and by his two illustrated memoirs upon the Southern and Western
species, one contributed to the fourth volume of the series of * Pacific
Railroad Expedition Reports,' the other to Emory's ' Report on the
Mexican Boundary Survey.' He had made large preparations for a
greatly needed revision of at least the North American Cactacece.
But although his collections and sketches will be indispensable to the
future monographer, very much knowledge of this difficult group of
plants is lost by his death. Upon two other peculiarly American
groups of plants, very difficult of elucidation in herbarium specimens,
Yucca and Agave, Dr. Engelmann may be said to have brought his
work up to the time. Nothing of importance is yet to be added to
what he modestly styles ' Notes on the Genus Yucca? published in the
third volume of the * Transactions of the St. Louis Academy,' 1873,
and not much to ' Notes on Agave ' illustrated by photographs, in-
cluded in the same volume and published in 1875."

Other special works mentioned by Dr. Gray are those on Jitncus,
in the second volume of the " Transactions of the St. Louis Academy " ;
Euphorbia, in the fourth volume of the "Pacific Railroad Reports," and
in the " Botany of the Mexican Boundary " ; Sagittaria and its allies ;
Isoetes / the North American Eoranthacece / Sparganium / certain
groups of Gentiana ; and some other genera. " Of the highest inter-
est, and among the best specimens of Dr. Engelmann's botanical work,

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

are his various papers upon the 'American Oaks' and the Coniferce,
published in ' Transactions of the St. Louis Academy ' and elsewhere,
the results of Ions-continued and most conscientious study. The same
must be said of his persevering study of the North American vines, of
which he at length recognized and characterized a dozen species ex-
cellent subjects for his nice discrimination, and now becoming of no
small importance to grape-growers, both in this country and in Eu-
rope. Nearly all that we know scientifically of our species and forms
of Yitis is directly due to Dr. Enselmann's investigations." The
list of his papers published in " Coulter's Botanical Gazette " for
May, 18S4, which is not quite complete, contains about a hundred
entries.

Dr. Engelmann made several journeys of considerable length in
the interest of science, or for geographical observation. Two of them
were to the Rocky Mountains and Colorado, and New Mexico ; a
longer tour was to the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee and North
Carolina ; and a third, in 1880, to the Pacific coast and Oregon, where
" he saw for the first time in their native home the plants described
thirty years previous."

Dr. Engelmann's meteorological observations constitute another
important feature of his scientific work. They were begun as soon as
he had established himself in St. Louis, and were kept up unintermit-
tingly from New-Year's-day of 1836, to February 2, 1884 two days
before his death or during a period of forty-eight years. He visited
his instruments regularly and systematically, every morning at seven
o'clock, at noon, and at nine o'clock in the evening ; and " even in the
last week he was seen sweeping a path through the snow in his garden
to reach his maximum and minimum thermometers." His last publi-
cation was a digest of the thermometrical part of these observations.
In offering this paper to the St. Louis Academy of Sciences at nearly
the last meeting of that body which he attended, he apologized for
not waiting till the half-century had been completed before present-
ing his results, saying that they could not be appreciably different
after two or three years more. He had been endeavoring to discover
some law eroverninor the weather, but had failed to do so. A member
of the Academy expressed the hope that the half -century would be
completed. Dr. Engelmann replied that he had some misgivings on
the subject.

Dr. Engelmann was known, through his life in St. Louis, as a pub-
lic-spirited citizen, who always had the interests of the town unselfish-
ly at heart. He also showed a practical interest in the efforts of the
European peoples to gain their freedom ; and, when the revolutions
broke out in 184S, he became the head of an organization which was
formed at St, Louis to assist them. He took part, in 1836, in the
organization of the "Western Academy of Science," which, coming
before the times were ripe for such an organization, had only a short

SKETCH OF GEORGE ENGELMANN, M. D. 265

life. He was the first president, and served in several subsequent
terms as president, of the " Academy of Science of St. Louis," organ-
ized in 1856 ; he always had something of interest to communicate at
its meetings ; and, under the inspiration he gave it, it became a living
and active body, though not large in numbers.

Dr. Engelmann with his family visited Europe in 1808, when his
son entered upon the pursuit of his medical studies at Berlin. Again,
a few months after the death of Mrs. Engelmann, suffering from ill
health, he went to Germany in the summer of 1883, seeking the bene-
fits of a change of scene. He returned home, having gained a consid-
erable accession of strength. His death was finally accelerated by a

sudden cold.

His companions, says the " Universe," " will never forget his pluck

and energy, his enthusiasm and diligence, and the geniality and atten-
tiveness shown toward all of them." He was accustomed always to
re-examine established suppositions in order to receive new light
through newly discovered facts. In all his doings he was very deter-
mined ; "he had no great esteem for speculation, but relied only upon
facts gained by hard and strenuous study. He was a man of strict
scientific truth. He could examine a plant again and again in all the
stages of its growth, microscopically and chemically, before he came
to a conclusion, and what he then wrote was the accurate result of his
painful observations, without any hypothetical suppositions. "Noth-
ing," says Dr. Gray, " escaped his attention ; he drew with facility ;
and he methodically secured his observations by notes and sketches,
available for his own after-use and for that of his correspondents. But
the lasting impression which he has made upon North American bota-
ny is due to his wise habit of studying his subjects in their systematic
relations, and of devoting himself to a particular genus or group of
plants (generally the more difficult) until he had elucidated it as com-
pletely as lay in his power. In this way all his work was made to tell
effectively."

Not very many of those, Dr. Gray adds in another part of his
sketch, " who could devote their whole time to botany have accom-
plished as much " as did this doctor in practice, who could give it only
the time he could spare from his duties as a physician. " It need not
be said," Dr. Gray continues, "and yet perhaps it should not pass
unrecorded, that Dr. Engelmann was appreciated by his fellow-botan-
ists both at home and abroad ; that his name is upon the rolls of most
of the societies devoted to the investigation of Nature ; that he was
1 everywhere the recognized authority in those departments of his
favorite science which had most interested him ' ; and that, personally
one of the most affable and kindly of men, he was as much beloved as
respected by those who knew him."

266

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

LABOR TROUBLES.
TTTHATEVER we may fail to see
VV nowadays when we take up a
newspaper, there is one thing certain
to meet onr eyes on the first page,
with a continuation probably on other
pages. We refer, of course, to the per-
petually recurring accounts of strikes
and other labor troubles. If we do
not see our way out of these difficul-
ties, it is not for want of having our
attention repeatedly and powerfully di-
rected to them ; nor is it because our
interests are not seriously concerned
in the matter. Yet we are not aware
that recent discussion has thrown any
important light either upon the cause
of the troubles or upon the method of
their cure. In this there is room for
the application of scientific principles.
All the facts that have any bearing on
the case require to be carefully gath-
ered. We should ask not only what
are the open pretensions of the parties
to the struggle, but what are their se-
cret thoughts and purposes. "We fear
that there is a great deal of working in
the dark, simply from lack of informa-
tion as to "bottom facts. 1 ' Platforms
and manifestoes never tell the whole
truth. They may formulate a tempo-
rary modus vivendi; but they never
state ultimate intentions. Consequent-
ly, as long as we confine our attention
to these, we are liable to continual mis-
understandings. For example, some
are disposed to think that the legal es-
tablishment of boards of arbitration
would meet the present difficulties.
The idea appears to us, on the other
hand, absurd. Those who adopt it do
so, no doubt, on the strength of the
declarations made on either side of a
desire for a reasonable settlement of
disputes. We reject the idea, because
we suspect that no definite sense can

be attached to the word u reasonable "
or the word " equitable," as used in the
public statements either of labor unions
or of the great employers of labor.
Each side has its own secret tendency,
and until we get at that we are all in
the dark. Meanwhile it seems certain
that neither capitalist nor workman
would consent to have a course dic-
tated to him by any form of official
authority. There is no getting over
the homely maxim that everybody
knows his own business best; and we
can hardly understand how any rational
man can bring himself to believe that
any large business could be run, against
the judgment of its head, upon lines
laid down by outsiders. Still more
difficult is it to understand how, if the
workmen were dissatisfied with the de-
cision of an official board, they could
be forced to respect that decision.

The proposition simply affords an-
other example of the readiness with
which in these days government or
legislative interference is invoked for
the settlement of difficulties. What
common sense or the instinct of justice
between man and man can not, or ap-
parently can not, effect, that the Legis-
lature, in its infinite justice and wis-
dom, is asked to undertake. Such
efforts tend only to obscure the real
elements of the situation. We may be
mistaken, but it seems to us that the
position taken to-day by the laboring
classes (to use the common expression)
involves the principle that free com-
petition for wealth between man and
man in society should not be allowed.
Every intelligent man, whatever his
status in society, would allow that were
all the wealth in the world to be redis-
tributed equally to-day, a year would
not elapse, under the regime of free
competition, before there would again

EDITOR'S TABLE.

267

be marked inequalities of fortune, while,
in ten years, there would be million-
aires at one end of the scale and beg-
gars at the other. This, we believe, is
what many object to, though they do
not always avow it to themselves. The
cry seems to go up from the multitude,
" Save us from the strong man, or we
shall take the law into our own hands
and make an end of his wealth, if not
of him!" The common idea of the
capitalist is that he is a man who ab-
sorbs into his own personality and pos-
sessions all the richest juices of the la-
boring man's organization. The work-
ing-man toils, and the capitalist reaps
all the best fruits of his toil, leaving to
the former a mere subsistence, and a
more or less precarious one at that. A
fact, however, that is generally lost
sight of is that, but for the capitalist,
labor would not be so productive as it
is. The share taken by the capitalist
is not deducted from a total product
which would equally have existed had
he never appeared upon the scene with
his experience, his talent for direction,
his enterprise, his pecuniary resources,
but from a product in large part prob-
ably due to his personal usefulness.
"What an army under a skillful general,
and with a well-supplied commissariat,
can accomplish, is something very dif-
ferent from what it can accomplish
without any superior leadership. This
obvious truth should certainly be taken
into account in striking the balance be-
tween the capitalist and those whose
labor he employs.

If, then, the secret aspiration of the
laboring class, or at least of a large
portion of it, is, to be protected against
the competition of men of subtiler
brains and stronger resolution, the
question may be asked, What is the
secret thought of the capitalist class,
the men who have these superior re-
sources, or whose fathers had them,
and who consequently rule in the in-
dustrial world? If it is true that labor
would not be so productive as it is, that

wealth would not be created in the
same quantity, but for the organizing
power of the captains of industry, it is
also true that all wealth is a social
product, requiring a concurrence of ef-
forts to produce it, and a social medium
to give it its value. What would the
wealth of the Indies have been to Rob-
inson Crusoe on his desert isle? His
man Friday was a greater fortune to
him than would have been the riches
of the Rothschilds. These considera-
tions suffice to show that, in whatever
light the holders of great wealth may
regard themselves, they should regard
themselves not as mere irresponsible
giants of finance, at liberty to toss
about millions as it may please their
vanity or their ambition, but as bound
to lives of social usefulness. The secret
thought, we fear, of too many very rich
men is, that they are absolutely irre-
sponsible to society, and quite at liberty
to dismiss from their minds every other
aim than that of adding to their already
great possessions. Their secret prayer
would be, to be delivered from all bond-
age to public opinion, so that they
might pursue an unchecked career in
gratifying their selfish ambition. Crip-
ple or debauch public opinion, and the
watering of stocks, the making of cor-
ners, and all the rest of the diabolical
jugglery of the modern financial world
can be carried on without apprehen-
sion, as without a qualm. But public
opinion, we trust, is not going to be
permanently crippled or debauched.
True, there is an altogether inordinate
social admiration of great wealth, as
Mr. Spencer has forcibly pointed out;
but the feeling, on the whole, is grow-
ing, that great wealth means propor-
tionate social responsibility. It is not
to be concluded from this that the chief
business of the capitalist is to endow
hospitals, libraries, or universities. By
no means ; it is well that every one in
the community should contribute to
these things according to his ability,
and realize for himself the blessedness

268

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of giving to worthy objects. The capi-
talist could not render a much worse
service to the community than to take
entirely off other people's shoulders
burdens that it is best every one should
bear in some degree. No, but the capi-
talist should certainly employ his great
advantages and resources in bringing
the conditions of a really human life
within the reach of ever - increasing
numbers of human beings. It does not
do to regard our fellow-men as mere ci-
phers, as pawns on the chess-board of
life, to be used or sacrificed according
to the exigencies of the game. Mr.
Gladstone was greatly laughed at some
years ago by the cynical school so large-
ly represented in English journalism,
particularly in weekly journalism, be-
cause he had used the argument that,
after all, the voters whom he proposed
to enfranchise were " our own flesh and
blood." For all that, the truth he hint-
ed at is a good one to remember. Cer-
tainly it is a bad one to forget; and
terrible trouble may come of carrying
forgetfulness of it too far. Our object
in this brief article has been mainly to
express the opinion that much good
would come of greater frankness on
both sides in the now pending labor
contests. If both sides would really
talk business, which they can only do
by expressing their real thoughts and
purposes, there would be more hope
of a permanent reconciliation. We be-
lieve that, when it came to the rub,
thousands of the working class would
shrink from pronouncing against the
regime of free competition ; while the
holders of wealth would certainly be
slow to formulate the doctrine of social
irresponsibility.

"DOITT!"

A little manual of social proprieties,
published under the name of "Dont! "
has obtained a wide circulation ; and, as
its negative precepts are inspired by
much good sense and good taste, we

have no doubt the tiny book will prove
of real value. But, while good social
habits are well worth forming, good
intellectual ones are at least of equal
importance; and it occurs to us that
there is ample room for a manual that,
in a series of brief and pithy sentences,
would place people on their guard
against the most obvious intellectual
errors and vices. Possibly the objec-
tion might be raised that, while every-
body wants to be cured of his or her
social solecisms (if the expression may
be permitted), none so little desire to
be cured of intellectual faults as those
who are most subject to them. Who,
it might be asked, applies the moral
denunciations of the pulpit to himself?
Who would apply to himself the cau-
tions of your proposed manual ? Grant-
ed, we reply, that it is easier to bring
home to the individual conscience the
sin of eating with a knife than the sin
of reasoning falsely or acting unjust-
ly, we should still be glad to see a tell-
ing compilation of the most needed
"Dont's" for the use of all and singu-
lar who make any profession of an in-
dependent use of their intellects. Some
of the maxims would be commonplace ;
but then the object would not be to lay
down novel truths so much as to en-
force old ones. Let us throw out a
few at random, by way of a start :
Don't think that what you don't know

is not worth knowing.
Don't conclude that, because you can't
understand a thing, nobody can un-
derstand it.
Don't despise systems of thought that
other men have elaborated because
you can not place yourself at once at
their point of view.
Don't interpret things too much accord-
ing to your own likes and dislikes.
The world was not made to please
anybody in particular, or to confirm
anybody's theories.
Don't imagine that, because a thing is
plain to you, it ought to be equally so
to everybody else.

LITERARY NOTICES.

26g

Don't insist on making things out sim-
pler than they really are ; on the
other hand

Don't affect far-fetched and over-elabo-
rate explanations.

Don't be overwise. "Why should you
make a fool of yourself?

Don't imagine that anything is gained
by juggling with words or by evad-
ing difficulties.

Don't refuse to change the point of
view of a question, if requested by
an opponent to do so. A true con-
clusion can not be invalidated by any
legitimate process of argument.

Don't be inordinately surprised when a
man who knows quite as much as you
do on a given subject, and perhaps a
little more, does not agree with you
in your conclusions thereon. Try
the effect of being surprised that you
don't agree with him.

Don't keep on hand too many cut-and-
dried theories. A foot-rule is a con-
venient thing for a carpenter to car-
ry about with him ; but a man who
is always " sizing up " other people's
opinions by a private rule of his own
is apt to be a bore.

Don't be in a hurry to attribute bad
motives or dishonest tactics to an op-
ponent. Try to get an outside view
of your own motives and tactics.

Don't refuse to hold your judgment
in suspense when the evidence is not
sufficient to warrant a conclusion.

Don't imagine that, because you have got
a few new phrases at your tongue's
end, yon have all the stock-in-trade
of a philosopher, still less that you
are a philosopher.

Don't try to express your meaning till
you have made it clear to yourself.

Don't argue for the sake of arguing;
always have some practical and use-
ful object in view, or else hold your
peace.

Don't grudge imparting what you know,
and do it with simplicity.

Don't prosecute any study out of idle
curiosity or vanity. If you have time

for intellectual work, be a serious and

honest worker.
Don't be too eager to "get credit" for

what you do.
Don't undervalue the work of others.

Here we have a score or so of max-
ims of the prohibitive kind, and the
number might be indefinitely increased.
There is no doubt the intellectual prog-
ress of the world might be hastened,
and the good order and harmony of so-
ciety greatly improved, if these precepts
and others like unto them were more
carefully observed. Whether we get an-
other " Don't " manual or not, sensible
people should think of these things, and
try to bring their intellectual habits at
least up to a level with their social ones.

LITERARY NOTICES.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC 8EEIES.
VOL. LIV.

Comparative Literature. By Hutcheson
Macaulay Posnett, M. A., LL. D.,
F. L. S., Barrister-at-Law, Professor of
Classics and English Literature, Uni-
versity College, Auckland, New Zealand,
author of "The Historical Method. 1 '
New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1885.

This is in many ways a remarkable book.
For some years, not many to be sure, a cer-
tain number of critics have been urging: the
necessity of applying to the study of litera-
ture the principles of scientific treatment
which has brought forth rich fruit from
many seemingly arid sources. While they
have been apostrophizing vaguely on the
general need of some such change, and gen-
erally with but little apparent success, we
have in this volume tangible proof of the
good results that the method can produce
in competent hands. Naturally enough, the
mere novelty of the theory excites angry
surprise ; then, too, the venerable habit of
regarding literature and science as two irrec-
oncilable poles of thought has opposed the
recognition of the inevitable advance of sci-
ence into every department of investigation,
and it has been held it is still held that
genius is something which defies analysis
as it defies definition ; that it was only neces-
sary to have a creative mind to create mas-
terpieces ; and that to attempt to show how

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

any great man in the past wrote, what in-
fluences controlled and directed him, was
mere presumptuous extravagance. We are
also told that literature is made up of
beauty, and is only to be enjoyed ; students
of its principles are carefully warned off
from its treasures. Yet one might as well
tell a botanist that flowers are only to be
enjoyed, or a mineralogist that gems exist
but for the purpose of evoking admiration ;
the sciences of these imaginary men would
survive such impossible advice, and the ex-
istence of these sciences, it may be well to
notice, has not yet tended to diminish the
interest or delight in the objects with which
they are concerned.

If, then, the reasonableness of some form
of the scientific study of literature may be
acknowledged, this book, which contains a
serious application of the results of socio-
logical investigation to various early litera-
tures, is well worthy of attention. The con-
ditions of early society have been ascertained
by long and careful investigation ; the com-
parative study of its beginnings has been
facilitated by observing phenomena still
existent among rude races, and in this vol-
ume Mr. Posnett applies to letters the up-
shot of these studies. Naturally, it is to the
literature of Greece that he turns with es-
pecial interest, for, besides its importance
to all later civilizations, it bears distinctly
the marks of autochthonous growth. Inas-
much as society developed from the com-
munal form of the clan into the fuller ex-
pression of individuality, it becomes im-
portant to examine the growth of literature
by the light of these discoveries, as this au-
thor has done, and the result is most grati-
fying. It is obvious that any one who ap-
proaches Greek territory with such inten-
tions is sure to stir up a hornets' nest.
Anything that tends to show that the sacred
spirit of Hellas has grown up under con-
ditions that may be explained by studying
other races is held to lay profane fingers
on a carefully guarded art. Mr. Andrew
Lang has tasted some of the wrath of zealous
scholars who have not fancied his proof that
the stone age of Greece was like the stone
age of every other race ; and it is hard to
conceive the miserable fate that awaits Mr.
Posnett for daring to compare the early
Doric choral dances to the buffalo-dance of

the North American Indians. Yet he has
done this ; and, moreover, he has shown
how the customary belief of clans in in-
herited guilt and in vicarious sacrifice sur-
vived in the plays of ^Eschylus and Sopho-
cles, only to disappear in those of Euripi-
des with the growth of individuality. His
proof of the limitations of the Greek ideas
through these bonds is most valuable. Here
at last we have something like solid ground
to take the place of a priori hypothesis.
To enforce his points he has brought togeth-
er abundant testimony from the early He-
brew, Sanskrit, Persian, Chinese, Japanese,
Arabic, and other literatures, which is the
only way in which this vast subject can be
properly studied. The study of Greek liter-
ature alone has led to extravagant notions
of the miraculous force of genius ; by ex-
amining all the testimony, though the task
is an arduous one, sounder ideas will prevail.
Space is lacking for even a statement of
all that is contained in this excellent book,
but it may be said that every student of
literature will find his reward in mastering
its pages. No one will agree with every-
thing that Mr. Posnett says, but whoever
learns to apply to the foundation of litera-
ture the light obtained from the study of
contemporary society may be sure that he
is on the right path. That is the whole
secret: to study literature as but a part
of man's development, not as a separate,
divinely inspired entity a mysterious thing
created by incomprehensible genius.

Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. By Theo-
dore Roosevelt. New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 347. Price, $3.50.

The character of this book is further
described by its sub-title, " Sketches of Sport
on the Northern Cattle-Plains " ; and this
makes it appropriate to begin the story
with a description of those plains and their
for the time at least great industry.
They lie in the basin of the Little Missouri
River, and " stretch from the rich wheat-
farms of Central Dakota to the Rocky Mount-
ains, and southward to the Black Hills and
the Big Horn Chain, thus including all of
Montana, Northern Wyoming, and extreme
Western Dakota." The region is a nearly
treeless one, of light rainfall, cut up by
streams of the most capricious character,
diversified with deserts of alkali and sage-

LITERARY NOTICES.

271

brush, prairies, rolling hills, and fantasti-
cally carved and colored " bad lands." The
country was won from the Indians only
about half a dozen years ago, and was al-
most immediately occupied by the cattle-
herders, owning from hundreds to tens of
thousands of head, and occupying land of
extent to correspond, with not very exactly
defined boundaries and no legal titles. With
them came the now famous cowboys, of
whom and their habits Mr. Roosevelt gives
a very interesting description. The home-
life of thi3 wild region, which is, of course,
usually a bachelor's life, with cowboys for
neighbors, and rough enough, forms the
subject of a lively running sketch, passing
from topic to topic, after which the reader
is introduced to the game in its several
kinds waterfowl, grouse, jack-rabbits, wild
turkeys, and the larger animals. The white-
tailed deer is the best known and most
widely distributed of all the large game of
the United States, and the kind which un-
der any sort of decent treatment is proba-
bly likely to stay longest at large among us.
These deer have the capacity of living in a
region even when it has become thickly
settled, and making themselves at home
among tame cattle, and still exist in nearly
every State. They "are very canny, and
know perfectly well what threatens danger
and what does not; keep themselves con*
cealed in the densest thickets of the river-
bottoms, and at the first intimation of dan-
ger steal off noiselessly almost from under
the eyes of the hunter." Mr. Roosevelt tells
of the best ways of killing them, but our
interest is in the ways they have of keeping
from being killed, in which we hope they
will improve. The black-tail deer, more
important animals in some respects, in their
unsophisticated state are very easy to ap-
proach, but a short experience of danger on
their part changes their character, and when
hunters are often afoot, they become "as
wild and wary as may be." They would be
extremely difficult to hunt except for their
inordinate curiosity, which gives them the
habit of turning round every once in a while,
stopping, and looking at their pursuer. An-
telopes, or prong-horns, are also very wary
game, but may be betrayed by their morbid
curiosity or their unhappy liability to be
thrown into a panic. No other plains game,

except the big-horn, is as shy and sharp-
sighted ; " and if a man is once seen by the
game the latter will not let him get out of
sight again, unless it decides to go off at a
gait that soon puts half a dozen miles be-
tween them. It shifts its position so as to
keep the hunter continually in sight, . . .
and after it has once caught a glimpse of
the foe, the latter might as well give up
all hopes of getting the game." The big-
horn, or mountain sheep, "are extremely
wary and cautious animals, and are plentiful
in but few places." They are almost the
only kind of game on whose haunts cattle
do not trespass. They live on the rocks,
and are not annoyed by rival claimants to
their sterile estates. Their movements are
not light and graceful like those of the an.
telopes, but they have a marvelous agility
which proceeds " from sturdy strength and
wonderful command over iron sinews and
muscles." There is probably no animal in
the world their superior in climbing - ; and
" the way that one will vanish over the
roughest and most broken ground is a per-
petual surprise to any one that has hunted
them." Regarding the buffalo, Mr. Roose-
velt observes that its rapid extermination
" affords an excellent instance of how a
race that has thriven and multiplied for
ages under conditions of life to which it
has slowly fitted itself by a process of
natural selection continued for countless
generations, may succumb at once when
these surrounding conditions are varied by
the introduction of one or more new ele-
ments, immediately becoming the chief forces
with which it has to contend in the struggle
for life." These new elements are the bar-
barity of civilized man in hunting the buf-
falo, and the greed of the cattle-herders for
its pasture-lands ; and their presence has
made the other conditions and habits which
were most favorable to the preservation of
the animal to contribute to its extinction.
Happily, " events have developed a race of
this species, known either as the wood or
mountain buffalo, which is acquiring, and
has already largely acquired, habits widely
different from those of the others of its
kind. It is found in the wooded and most
precipitous portions of the mountains, in-
stead of on the level and open plains ; it
goes singly or in small parties, instead of in

272

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

huge herds ; and it is more agile and infinite-
ly more wary than its prairie cousin. The
formation of this race is due solely to the
extremely severe process of natural selec-
tion that has been going on among the buf-
falo-herds for the last sixty or seventy
years." Elk were formerly plentiful all over
the plains, but they have been driven off
the ground nearly as completely as the buf-
falo. They are still, however, very com-
mon in the dense woods that cover the Rocky
Mountains and the other great Western
chains ; but they are unfortunately one of
the animals seemingly doomed to total de-
struction at no distant date. Already their
range has shrunk to far less than one half
its former size. " Ranged in the order of
the difficulty with which they are approached
and slain," says Mr. Roosevelt, " plains
game stand as follows : big-horn, antelope,
white-tail, black-tail, elk, and buffalo. But,
as regards the amount of manly sport fur-
nished by the chase of each, the white-tail
should stand at the bottom of the list, and
the elk and black-tail abreast of the ante-
lope. Other things being equal, the length
of an animal's stay in the land, when the
arch foe of all lower forms of animal life
has made his appearance therein, depends
upon the difficulty with which he is hunted
and slain. But other influences have to be
taken into account. The big-horn is shy
and retiring; very few, compared to the
whole number, will be killed ; and yet the
others vanish completely. Apparently they
will not remain where they are hunted and
disturbed. With antelope and white -tail
this does not hold ; they will cling to a place
far more tenaciously, even if often har-
assed. The former, being the more con-
spicuous and living in such open ground, is
apt to be more persecuted ; while the white-
tail, longer than any other animal, keeps
its place in the land in spite of the swinish
game-butchers. ... All game animals rely
upon eyes, ears, and nose to warn them of
the approach of danger ; but the amount of
reliance placed on each sense varies greatly
in different species."

The Influence of Sewerage and Water-
Supply ON THE DEATH-RATE IN ClTIES.

By Erwin F. Smith. Pp. 84.
This paper was read at the Sanitary
Convention at Ypsilanti, Michigan, July,

1885, and is reprinted from a supplement
to the " Annual Report of the Michigan State
Board of Health for 1885." As the author
himself states, nc effort has been made to
present anything new in this article, but he
has rather sought to place, in a form suit-
able and convenient for study and compari-
son, facts and data otherwise not readily
accessible. It will seem somewhat surpris-
ing at first sight that so much of the mate-
rial used is from foreign sources ; yet this
could not be avoided, as the writer forcibly
points out, for, although there is no lack of
so-called statistics in our own country, yet
reliable and therefore valuable mortuary
data are obtainable from but few localities.
While we can not, in our space, mention all
the questions and matters touched upon in
this pamphlet, we would call especial atten-
tion to the charts appended to it. An ex-
amination of them ought to be sufficient to
convince the most skeptical as to the direct
relation an improvement in the system of
sewerage and the water-supply of a city
holds to the decrease in the death-rate of
its inhabitants from certain diseases.

In Chart I, which records the deaths
from typhoid fever to each 10,000 inhabit-
ants before, during, and since the introduc-
tion of sewerage and water-supply, Munich,
in Germany, shows for the years 1851 to
1859 twenty-one deaths from this disease
to each 10,000 inhabitants, while for the
period from 1874 to 1884 the rate has
fallen to six and three tenths per 10,000.

Another chart, designed to show the
protective influence of sewerage and water-
supply in the cholera epidemic of 1865-'66,
is divided into two groups. The cities
enumerated in Group I were abundantly
supplied with good water, and in most cases
were also well sewered ; those in Group II
were incompletely sewered, or entirely desti-
tute of modern sewers, and very dirty ; their
water-supply was scant or open to infection.

In the first group, where we find, among
other cities, New York and Brooklyn, the
former shows 12 - 8 deaths per each 10,000
inhabitants, the latter 16*5.

Memphis, Tennessee, which is placed in
the second group, shows 268 deaths from
cholera per each 10,000 of its population.
St. Louis has 173*0 as its record ; while Chi-
cago, which in this group makes the best

LI TEL ART NOTICES.

2 73

showing, stands charged with 43*7 for every
10,000 of its inhabitants.

Figures like these themselves furnish an
impressive sermon.

The Epic Songs of Russia. By Isabel
Florence Hapgood. With an Intro-
ductory Note by Professor Francis J.
Child. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons. Pp. 359. Price, $2.50.

What are here called " Epic Songs " are
really the folk-songs, or songs of the com-
mon people, whose only literary existence
is in the form of copies taken down from
the mouths of some of the singers, after they
have been handed down by oral tradition
for, it may be, hundreds of years. Besides
the pleasure to be got from the works them-
selves as stories and poetry, the perusal of
them, as Professor Child says, is well adapt-
ed to help to an appreciation of those of our
fellow-men who have been educated by tra-
dition and not by books, and who, though
living on the plainest fare of oats, feel and
cherish poetry " not less than those who
have been nursed in comfort and schooled
in literature." These Russian epics possess
a striking distinction from those of Western
Europe, in that while the latter passed from
the popular mouth to writing during the
middle ages, and are no longer to be found
except in books, the Russian epics are still
living in some districts of the country, and
are " even extending into fresh fields " ; and
" it is only within the present century
within the last twenty-five years, in fact
that the discovery has been made that Rus-
sia possesses a national literature which is
not excelled by the finest of Western Eu-
rope." Although one or two small collec-
tions had been previously published, which
gave, however, no real indication of the rich-
ness of the field to be explored, systematic
investigation of this literature was first be-
gun by Petr N. RyTmikof, of Petrzavodsk,
on Lake Onega, about 1860. He discov-
ered the chief minstrel of the region and
the most important poem, and succeeded
in collecting more than 50,000 verses. A.
F. Hilferding, who followed him in 1870,
made a still larger collection. " Two of the
causes which have aided in the preservation
of epic poetry in these remote districts, long
after its disappearance from other parts of
Russia, are liberty and loneliness. These
vol. xxix. 18

people have never been subjected to the
oppressions of serfdom, and have never lost
the ideal of free power celebrated in the an-
cient rhapsodies." In the isolation of their
forests, moreover, they do not come in con-
tact with the world, and have never felt the
influence of change conditions remain as in
epic times. They also thoroughly believe the
truth of the marvelous things recited in the
poems. A curious incident is related, in
which the imposition of a new forestry reg-
ulation contributed to the extension of the
songs. A community were compelled to
abandon their farms, and went to net-mak-
ing. As farmers, they knew nothing of the
songs ; in company with the net-makers and
other handicraftsmen, they learned them all.
The singing of the poems is not now a pro-
fession, but is a domestic diversion , and the
present minstrels all belong to the peasant
class, and are nearly all well-to-do. The
epic songs proper are divisible into three
groups the cycle of Vladimir or Kiev, that
of Novgorod, and that of Moscow and these
are preceded by three songs of the Elder
Heroes. In the songs of the Vladimir cycle,
the recently Christianized people for con-
venience' sake baptized their heathen gods,
making of Perun, the thunderer, nya, or
Elijah the Prophet, the hero of the series,
and earned the epithet of " two-faithed,"
which was applied to the Russian people by
their older writers. The Novgorod cycle is
more restricted, consisting practically of but
two songs, and is more definite, more prac-
tical, and closer to history than the Kiev
cycle. The Moscow cycle begins with Ivan
the Terrible and ends with Peter the Great,
and is not represented in this volume. A
running view of the development of this
poetry is given in the author's introduction.

Applied Geology : A Treatise on the Indus-
trial Relations of Geological Structure ;
and on the Nature, Occurrence, and
Uses of Substances derived from Geo-
logical Sources. By Samuel G. Will-
iams, Professor of General and Eco-
nomic Geology in Cornell University.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1886.
Pp. 386. Price, $1.50.

The study of geology may be carried on
with two entirely different aims. For one
who undertakes the study for the sake of
the science itself, the chief interest lies in
tracing out from the records of stone a his-

274

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tory of the surface of our globe, in noting
the manifold changes which it has under-
gone, and perhaps, incidentally, studying the
flora and fauna that have flourished upon
it. Others, however, will regard geology
from a different standpoint. Knowledge
of the earth's structure, of the location and
the occurrence of its various constituents,
can be made use of for the interests of man.

A moment's thought of the great num-
ber of substances needed by man, for the
supply of which he must look to old Mother
Earth, will show how closely geological
knowledge, applied to this end, is connected
with the very progress of the human race.
There has been no lack of excellent books
devoted to the study of geology as a science,
to theoretical geology, if this term be per-
missible. However, the need has long been
felt of some work that would serve as an
aid in making a knowledge of the earth's
structure available for practical purposes.
Professor Williams has written his " Ap-
plied Geology " to meet this want.

It was a question of no small impor-
tance how such a work should be conceived
and arranged. On the one hand, it was de-
sirable to have the treatise of value to the
student of geological science ; on the other
hand, the book was to be made available for
a large class in the community whose pur-
suits, although not exactly calling for a
training in geology, yet make a thorough
knowledge of some features of this science
most desirable. In our opinion, the author
has been very successful in meeting this
twofold purpose.

The first forty-odd pages of this book
are given to a consideration of the rock-
forming minerals and their classification ;
to a description of rocks and the arrange-
ment of rock-masses. To one who has al-
ready studied geology, these pages will prove
a welcome review of certain parts of the sci-
ence that bear more directly on the subjects
to follow ; for one who has not before en-
gaged in the study, a careful perusal of
this part is essential to an understanding
of the sequel. The economic relations of
geological structure are then discussed ; the
important bearing of structure on the rela-
tive accessibility of valuable substances and
deposits is pointed out ; the need of a thor-
ough acquaintance with the obtaining geo-

logical conditions, by those undertaking
great architectural or engineering struct-
ures, is referred to, and so on.

The next chapter is devoted to materi-
als of construction. This embraces a thor-
ough discussion of building-stones, their
properties, strength, and durability. Their
geological positions and distribution are
considered. Some notes on materials for
mortars and cements are added.

Then follow chapters on the relations of
geology to agriculture and to health. The
former takes up the question of the origin
of soils, and their composition ; of geologi-
cal fertilizers, of drainage, and subsoils.
The latter covers but a few pages and
touches on the water-supply of households
and communities, and the problems of
drainage.

Mineral fuels and geological materials
for illumination are taken up in turn. A
classification of the coals (with numerous
analyses of different kinds) is followed by a
review of the geological horizons of min-
eral fuels ; the fuel value of coals, based on
their analysis, is explained, and hints are
given on the selection of coals adapted to
different purposes. The chapter on geologi-
cal materials for illumination discusses the
occurrence of petroleum and the modes of
mining and refining this oil.

Next in order comes the consideration
of metalliferous deposits. This theme, as is
due its importance, occupies a considerable
part of the book. Each of the more im-
portant ores receives attention in a separate
chapter, and the whole forms a most valu-
able resume of the subject. Tables showing
the annual production of many of the lead-
ing minerals, compiled from the most recent
data, will prove of especial interest to manu-
facturers. The closing chapters of the book
treat of substances adapted to chemical
manufacture or use, fictile materials, refrac-
tory substances, ornamental stones, and
gems.

From all that has been said, an idea
may be formed as to the nature and the
scope of this work. A book of this kind
must naturally rely to a certain extent on the
work done by others. The author's task, in
great part, has consisted in collecting and
collating material from many sources. But
from this it must not be inferred that the

LITERARY NOTICES.

275

work in question is merely a collection
of dry facts and data. On the contrary,
written by one evidently thoroughly famil-
iar with the ground covered, the book pre-
sents in a most interesting manner a vast
amount of information of the greatest prac-
tical value. The style is clear and concise,
and the book will form most pleasant read-
ing, even for one not directly interested in
applied geology.

Fifth Annual Report of the United States
Geological Survey to the Secretary
of the Interior. 1883-84. By J. W.
Powell, Director. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 469, with
Plates and Pocket Map.

The topographic work of the survey has
been prosecuted in New England, of which
the preparation of a map has been begun,
and where the State of Massachusetts is co-
operating with the survey; in an area of
19,750 square miles in Western Maryland,
West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, West-
ern North Carolina, and Eastern Tennes-
see ; and in various parts of the districts of
the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin,
and the Pacific. The geologic work em-
braces the survey of the Yellowstone Na-
tional Park, by Mr. Arnold Hague ; studies
in Dakota and Montana, by Dr. Hayden ;
of glacial phenomena, by Professor T. C.
Chamberlain; of the archaean rocks of
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Dako-
ta, by Professor Roland T. Irving ; of the
Quaternary lakes of the Great Basin, by Mr.
G. K. Gilbert ; of the Cascade Range, by
Captain C. E. Dutton ; a survey of the Dis-
trict of Columbia and adjacent territory by
Mr. W. J. McGee ; economic studies in Col-
orado, by Mr. S. F. Emmons ; and surveys
of the Sulphur Bank, Knoxville, and New
Idria quicksilver-mining districts, by Mr. G.
F. Becker and Dr. W. H. Melville ; and of
the Eureka District, by Mr. J. S. Curtis.
The paleontologic work includes Professor
Marsh's labors on vertebrate fossils and
those of Dr. C. A. White, Charles C. Wal-
cott, and others, on invertebrates, and the
investigations of Mr. Lester F. Ward and
Professor Fontaine in fossil plants. Chem-
ical analyses have been carried on by Pro-
fessor Clarke and Dr. T. M. Chatard, and
physical investigations by Carl Barus. Spe-
cial papers representing a considerable num-

ber of these investigations are incorporated
in the volume containing the report.

Gyrating Bodies. An Empirical Study.
Illustrated by upward of Fifty Figures
" from Life." By C. B. Warring, Ph. D.
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Pp. 106. With
Three Plates.

A gyrating body is defined as " a body
revolving on an axis passing through its
center of gravity, and acted upon by a con-
tinuous force tending to make it revolve on
another axis at right angles to the first."
The term includes the top, the gyroscope,
several toys to the principle of which these
furnish the key, and, according to the au-
thor, the earth. Such bodies have some
curious and paradoxical properties, which,
though they may have been carelessly ob-
served without being remarked upon, will
be looked upon as strange when attention is
called to them ; for they seem to contradict
our ideas of the operation of the laws of mo-
tion. Mr. Warring's studies cover several
instruments of the class, and were prosecuted
for the purpose of investigating these prop-
erties and explaining them. Having reached
an explanation, he finds that similar proper-
ties reside in the complicated movements of
the earth, and that by them such phenomena
as nutation and precession may be account-
ed for.

American Diplomacy and the Further-
ance of Commerce. By Eugene Schuy-
ler. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons. Pp. 469. Price, $2.50.

The author of this work is able to pre-
sent, in evidence of his understanding of the
subject, a record of seventeen years of con-
tinuous service in diplomatic positions un-
der our Government, in Russia, Constants
nople, England, Rome, Roumania, Greece,
and Servia, in all of which stations he has
proved himself a useful and efficient agent,
and has reflected credit on the American
name. The substance of the book is derived
from courses of lectures which he delivered
last year at Johns Hopkins and Cornell Uni-
versities, the purpose of which, in the first
series, on our consular and diplomatic serv-
ice, was to explain the actual workings of the
State Department, and to set forth the use-
fulness and needs of those services to young
men who are shortly to be called upon to

276

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

perform the duties of citizens ; and, in the
second series, to show how our diplomacy
has been practically useful in furthering our
commerce and navigation. Under the for-
mer head are the chapters on " The Depart-
ment of State," "Our Consular System,"
and " Diplomatic Officials," in which the his-
tory, theory, purpose, and operations of those
services are fully described ; and under the
second head is shown M how we asserted our
rights to freedom of navigation, freedom
from tribute such as was paid to the Bar-
bary pirates, freedom from the police super-
vision of the ocean which Great Britain at
one time wished to obtain, and freedom
from the restrictions on the free navigation
of rivers and seas, about which we had dis-
putes with powers so remote as Spain,
Great Britain, Russia, Denmark, and Bra-
zil." Chapters have also been devoted to the
fishery question, and to the efforts of our
Government to conclude commercial treaties
with foreign powers. The whole subject is
a very large one, and Mr. Schuyler calls at-
tention to the fact that several points still
remain to be considered.

Dutch Village Communities on the Hud-
son River. By Irving Elting. Pp.
68. Town Government in Rhode Isl-
and. By William E. Foster. Pp. 36.
The Narragansett Planters. By Ed-
ward Channing. Pp. 23. Pennsyl-
vania Boroughs. By William P. IIol-
comb. Pp. 51. Baltimore: N. Murray.

These monographs, Nos. 2 and 3 being
bound together, form the first four num-
bers of the fourth series of " Johns Hop-
kins University Studies in Historical and
Political Science." The interest of the
studies shows no signs of flagging; there
appears to be abundance of material at
hand on which to base the successive new
researches, and it is well used by the several
authors. Concerning the lessons that may
be learned from the studies, Mr. Foster
remarks, in the opening of his paper, that
" the application of the comparative meth-
od to the study of early American history
has within recent years been attended with
results of the most substantial value. The
scattered communities along the Atlantic
coast which, since 1776, have been united
in a common bond of government, had
their origin in widely diverse sets of condi-

tions. While, therefore, their development
has been characterized by institutions bear-
ing a general analogy to each other, there is
sufficient individuality and local differentia-
tion to be observed, in any one instance, to
render a somewhat close comparison of
their points of resemblance and difference
extremely serviceable. It is plain, more-
over, that the further down in the scale of
local division we can go, the more fruitful
will be the study of these local institutions."

Mr. Elting's paper, on "Dutch Village
Communities on the Hudson River," shows
how these communities, which were in fact a
secondary though more natural form of or-
ganization supplementing the first artificial
and unsatisfactory aristocratic form, were
really the outgrowth of German institutions
that are known to have existed at least as
far back as the time of Julius Caesar. The
same idea of community in the ownership
of the land appears to mark them both. In
conclusion, the author asserts, with consid-
erable boldness, we think, that " from the
banks of the Rhine, the germs of free local
institutions, borne on the tide of Western
emigration, found here, along the Hudson, a
more fruitful soil than New England af-
forded for the growth of these forms of
municipal, State, and national government,
which have made the United States the
leading republic among the nations."

Mr. Foster, in his " Town Government in
Rhode Island," dwells upon the independent
origin and independent action of the towns,
which prevented them from associating
themselves together except under great
stress of circumstances, and then under
reservations which fixed a stamp on the
character of the State ; and this trait of
original organization explains the hesitation
which was shown by Rhode Island in adopt-
ing the Federal Constitution. In the " Nar-
ragansett Planters," Mr. Channing describes
a peculiar landed aristocracy possessing
large estates, who, obtaining a holding on
Narragansett Bay, produced a state of so-
ciety which had no parallel in New England,
and "was an anomaly in the institutional
history of Rhode Island."

In " Pennsylvania Boroughs," Mr. Hol-
comb glances at the antiquity of the borough
in England, considers the meaning of the
term, especially as used in Pennsylvania, in

LITERARY NOTICES.

277

distinction from " town," studies early bor-
ough government in Germantown as the
first borough organized in the State, and in
Bristol as a type of the boroughs of the
eighteenth century, and examines the char-
acter and the possibilities of the present
borough.

Proceedings of the American Society of

Microscopists. Eighth Annual Meeting,

1885. Pp. 258. Price, $2.

Among the numerous essays printed in
this volume many of which will undoubt-
edly prove enjoyable reading for the spe-
cialist are a few which will claim the in-
terest of a wider circle.

"The Cultivation of Bacteria, and the
Cholera Bacillus,'' by Lester Curtis, treats
of the mode of growth and development of
this peculiar bacillus that has of late cre-
ated such a stir and commotion in the
learned world abroad. The differences be-
tween the bacillus of Koch and that of
Finkler-Prior, with which it was by some
considered identical, are clearly pointed out.
To the author, " the proof that this bacil-
lus is unlike any other form, and is peculiar
to cholera, seems conclusive." And further
on he states, " That it is the cause of the
disease seems to me scarcely less so."

Considerable comfort will be derived
from the statement that cholera is a disease
not contagious as small-pox and measles
are ; it is only caused by the bacillus gain-
ing entrance to the intestinal canal, and can
therefore, by simple precautions, be readily
guarded against. Moreover, the germ is
easily destroyed; exposure to superheated
steam for half an hour or so will, it is
claimed, cause its death. Cold will retard
the development of these organisms, but
does not kill them.

An article on " Poisonous Dried Beef,"
by H. J. Ditmers, seeks to ascribe to the
presence of certain micrococci, of which a
great number were found in the meat ex-
amined, the sickness caused by its consump-
tion. That is to say, to these micrococci
is ascribed the formation of the poisonous
principle present.

From the fact that nearly all pathogenic
bacteria are powerless to cause harm unless
conditions suitable for their development
are offered by the animal organism, the
writer further infers that the beef in ques-

tion was the flesh of some animal or ani-
mals that were in a dying, or else in a high-
ly frenzied, condition when slaughtered.
That the meat of an animal in such a con-
dition is sometimes not always very poi-
sonous, is a matter of record, and meat
obtained from such a source should be
condemned as unfit for food.

Studies in General History. By Mary
D. Sheldon, formerly Professor of His-
tory in Wellesley College and Teacher of
History in Oswego Normal School, New
York. Students' Edition. Boston: D.
C. Heath & Co. 1885. Pp.656. $1.60.

This text-book is not designed for chil-
dren, but for pupils well on in their teens
and twenties. It is an attempt to apply
what is known as the " Objective Method "
of teaching science to the study of history.
To this end, instead of memorizing the con-
clusions of others, the pupil is put in such
relations to the data of history that he will
draw his own conclusions. Temples, walls,
aqueducts, pyramids, men have built ; coun-
tries they have conquered, settled, aban-
doned ; their laws, arts, literature, amuse-
ments, their heroes, enemies, gods, are the
sort of " historical realities presented, with
accompanying pictures, maps, stories, quo-
tations, and facts. Questions and problems,
such as will compel thought upon these data
and their relations, are an important part
of this unique plan of converting one of the
last strongholds of rote-learning into a train-
ing of the reflective faculties."

Second Report on the Injurious and
other Insects of the State of New
York. By J. A. Lintner, State Ento-
mologist. Albany: Weed, Parsons &
Co. Pp. 265.

The present publication presents mainly
studies and observations that were made in
the years 1882 and 1883, with a few of a
later date. The insect depredations during
these two years were less than for the pre-
ceding year, and no formidable new pest
was remarked as threatening any principal
crops. The years, of late, the report adds,
in which such additions have not been
made, are unfortunately exceptional ones.
The zebra-caterpillar was unusually destruc-
tive on mangold-beets. While the grass-
lands were relieved from the Vagabond
Crambus which had visited them in 1881,

278

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and the corn-worm wa3 absent, the clover-
seed midge has covered a more extensive ter-
ritory, although its ravages do not appear to
be increasing where it has been abundant,
and the punctured cloyer-leaf weevil has
steadily and rapidly extended its area of op-
erations. The Colorado potato-beetle seems
to be diminishing. The chinch-bug was re-
marked for the first time in injurious num-
bers in the State of New York. The sub-
stance of the report consists chiefly of full
descriptions of the injurious species of in-
sects, accompanied by as many illustrations
as the State printers found it convenient to
insert. On this subject, Dr. Lintner well
remarks that many years must elapse before
good figures of any of our common and
more destructive insect pests can be re-
peated so often that a general familiarity
with them and the species that they rep-
resent in nature shall render their further
repetition useless.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Aliette. By Octave Feuillet. Translated from
the French by J. Henry Hager. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. 1886. Pp. 250. 50 cents.

On the Chemical Behavior of Iron in the Mag-
netic Field. By E. L. Nichols. Pp. 13.

The Germ -Theory. By J. B. Olcott, South
Manchester, Conn. Pp. 41.

The Descent of Man. Office of the " Standard,"
9 Spruce Street, New York. Pp. 48. 10 cents.

United States Government Publications. Month-
lv Catalogue. Vol. I, No. 12. December, 18?5.
Washington: J. II. Hickcox. Pp.48. $2 per an-
num.

Industrial Education in our Common Schools.
By H. H. Dinwiddie, Fort Worth, Texas. Pp. 16.

"Texas Review; 1 C. R. Johns and S. G. Sneed,
editors. Austin, Tex. : C. R. Johns & Sons. March,
1886. Pp. 80. $3 a year ; 25 cents a single num-
ber.

Outlines for a Museum of Anatomy, prepared
for the Bureau of Education. By R. W. Shufeldt.
Washington : Government Printing-Office. Pp. 65.

The Manufacture, etc., of Iron, Steel, and Coal,
in the Dominion of Canada. By James H. Bartlett.
Montreal : Dawson Brothers. Pp. 167.

The Influence of Emerson. By William R.
Thayer. Boston : Cupples, Upham, & Co. Pp.
80. 25 cents.

American Historical Association. Report of
Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting, at Sara-
toga, September, 1885. By Herbert B. Adams.
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 73. 50
cents.

Insects affecting the Orange. By H. G. Hub-
bard. Washington : Government Printing-Office.
Tp. 220, with Plates.

Watkins's "Advertisers' Gazette." Prospect. O. :
R. L. W'atkins, Newspaper Advertising Bureau.
Pp. 102.

Report of the Hydrographer of the Bureau of
Navigation to June 80, 1SS5. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 41, with Plates and
Charts.

The Irish in America. By William R. Grace.
Chicago : McDonnell Brothers. Pp. 81,

Ninth Report of the State Board of Health of
Wisconsin, lb5. Madison, Wis.: Democrat Print-
ing Company. Pp. 308.

New York Agricultural Experiment Station,
Bulletin No. 8. Geneva, N. Y. E. Lewis Sturte-
vant, Director. Pp. 2.

Department of Agriculture, Alabama. Bulletin
No. 7. E. C. Betts, Commissioner. Pp. 24.

The Museums in the Park, why they should be
open on Sunday. New York: The "Truth-Seek-
er" Company. Pp.32.

The Craters of Mokuaweoweo, on Mauna Loa.
Surveyed by J. M. Alexander. October, lso5.
Pp.6.

Accurate Mountain Heights. Pp. 5. Observa-
tions of Variable Stars in 1^5. Pp. 16. A New
Form of Polarimeter. Pp. 10. Atmospheric Re-
fraction. Pp. 24. By Edward C. Pickering, Har-
vard Observatory.

The Annual River and Harbor Fraud. By Henry
Francis Knapp, 135 Pearl Street, New York. Pp. 4.

A Plea for Impartial Taxation. Addresses by
S. B. Duryea, T. B. Wakeman, and G. R. Hawes.
New York : The " Truth - Seeker " Company.
Pp.38.

Common Sense applied to Disease and ita
Treatment. By F. J. McKenzie, Oshkosh, Wis.
Pp. 8.

Topographic Surveys of States. By H. F. Wall-
ing. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 10.

The Etiology, Morbid Anatomy, Varieties, and
Treatment of Club-Foot. By A. Sydney Roberts,
M. D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son, & Co.
Pp. 32.

Annual Address of C. V. Riley, President of the
Entomological Society of Washington. Pp. 10.

The Mildews of the Grape- Vine. By Dr. C. V.
Riley. Five-column sheet.

On the Conditions that determine the Length of
the Spectrum. By Amos E. Dolbear, College Hili,
Mass. Pp. 2.

The Mind-Cure. By Eldridge C. Price, M. D.,
New York. Pp. 32.

Primary Phenomenal Astronomy. By F. H.
Bailey, Northville, Mich. Pp. 97.

The Mark of Cain. By Andrew Lang. New
I York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.173. 25 cents.

Cremation of Human Bodies not a Necessary
I Sanitary Measure. By Frank H. Hamilton, M. D.

! Pp. 11.

The Requisite and Qualifying Conditions of Ar-
tesian Wells. By Thomas C. Chamberlain. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Office. Pp. 50.

Notes on Maya and Mexican Manuscripts. By
Cyrus Thomas. Washington: Government Print-
ing-Office Pp. 65.

Tales of Eccentric Life. By William A. Ham-
mond and Clura Lanza. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 209. 25 cents.

For Maimie's Sake. By Grant Allen. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 232. 25 cents.

Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck. New
York : Cassell & Co. Two vols. Pp. 192 and 191.
10 cents each.

War and Peace : the Invasion. By Count Leo
Tolstoi. New York : W. S. Gottsberger. Two
vols. Pp. 321 and 270.

Kant's Ethics. A Critical Exposition. By Noah
Porter. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 249.
$1.25.

Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves. By Sir John Lub-
bock. London and New York: Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 147. $1.25.

Hand-Book of Plant Dissection. By J. C. Ar-
thur, C. R. Barnes, and J. M. Coulter. ISew York :
Henry Holt & Co. Pp.256. $1.50.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

279

A Manual of Mechanics. By T. M. Goodeve.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 227.

Unwise Laws. By Lewis H. Blair. New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 178.

Scriptures, Hebrew and Christian, arranged and
edited for Young Readers. By Edward T. Bartlett
and John P. Peters. New York : G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Pp. 545. $1.50.

Eeport of the Smithsonian Institution for 1884.
"Washington : Government Printing - Office. Pp.
904.

Class-Book of Geology. By Archibald Geikie.
London and New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp.
16. $2.60.

Persia. By James Bassett. New York : Charles
Scribner's Sons. Pp. 343. $1.50.

Labor, Land, and Law. By William A. Phillips.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 471.
$2.50.

Terminal Facilities for handling Freight of the
Railroads entering the Port of New York. By
Gratz Mordecai. New York : " Bailroad Gazette."
Pp. 68, with Maps.

The Country Banker. By George Eae. New
York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.320. $1.50.

Triumphant Democracy. By Andrew Carnegie.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.519. $2.

History of the Pacific States of North America.
California. Vol. IV. By Hubert Howe Bancroft.
San Francisco : A. L. Bancroft & Co. Pp. 786. $5.

Essays on Educational Reformers. By Robert
Herbert Quick. Syracuse, N. Y. : C. W. Bardeen.
Pp. 330. $1.50.

What is Theosophy ? By a Fellow of the Theo-
eophical Society. Boston : Cupples, Upham, & Co.
Pp. 23. 50 cents.

California, from the Conquest in 1846 to the Sec-
ond Vigilance Committee in San Francisco. By
Josiah Rovce. Boston and New York : Houghton,
Mifliin, & Co. Pp. 513. $1.25.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

How the Oyster makes his Shell. Pro-
fessor Samuel Lockwood, in a recent lecture
before the New York Microscopic Society,
answered the question which is asked by
the fool in " King Lear " " Canst thou tell
how an oyster makes his shell ? " He starts
with the hinge-end, at the spot known to
conchologists as the umbo. " A small plate,
or single scale, now represents each valve,
and that is the first season's growth. The
next season a new growth, or plate, shoots
out from underneath the first one, just as
shingles do. The oystermen call these laps,
or plates, ' shoots,' and they claim that the
number of shoots indicates the years of the
oyster. They certainly do contain a record
of the seasons, showing the slow-growing
and the fast-growing seasons. ... I have
likened these shoots to shingles. Now, at
the gable of a house the shingles may be
seen edgewise. So on the side of an oyster-
shell is a series of lines. This is the edge-
wise view of the shoots, or season-growths.

Another factor is the purple spot, or scar,
in the interior of the shell. It is the place
of attachment of the adductor muscle. Its
first place of attachment was close up to
the hinge. Had it stayed there until the
shell had become adult, how difficult would
be the task of pulling the valves together !
the leverage to be overcome would be so
great ; for we must bear in mind the fact
that at the hinge-end the valves are held by
this black ligament, which is, in life, elastic,
swelling when the shell opens, and being
compressed when the animal draws the
valves together. So, with every year's
growth, or elongation of the shell, the mol-
lusk moves the place of attachment of the
muscle onward, that is, in advance farther
from the hinge. As it does so, it covers up
with white nacre all the scars that are back
of the one in actual use as the point of at-
tachment of the muscle." To make the
similitude of the oyster's shoots, or season-
growths, with the shingles on a roof com-
plete, "it would be necessary for the bottom
shingle on the roof to underlie the whole
series, and reach even to the roof-tree, or
ridge-pole. Then the second shingle from
the gutter must in like manner underlie all
the rest of the series ; so of the third, and
so on with the rest. In this way lie the
shoots, or laps, of the oyster's shell. The
last one deposited underlies them all, and
every one terminates at the channel in the
bill so that this groove in the bill contains
a series of transverse lines, each one mark-
ing a season, or a year. Thus we get really
four factors for the solution of the ques-
tion, ' How old is the oyster ? ' all of which
are the outcome of the method or way of
making the shell."

The Trap-Dike of Southeastern Penn-
sylvania. Professor H. D. Rogers, in his
report for 1858 on the geology of Pennsyl-
vania, refers to two trap-dikes in the south-
eastern part of the State. In the map
published in connection with Professor J.
P. Lesley's survey, Mr. C. F. Hall connects
the two dikes so as to make a single dike
about eight miles long. Professor H. Car-
vill Lewis, after two years of observations,
has found that this dike is only a small part
of a long, narrow dike, which passes almost
entirely across the southeastern part of

28o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Pennsylvania, from near Doylestown to
Maryland, and which, taken together with
some parallel dikes of similar nature and
composition, northeast of Doylestown, forms
a series of nearly continuous dikes some
ninety miles in length. In the paper he
has published on the subject he shows that,
although frequently represented only by a
line of loose weathered bowlders, it is prac-
tically continuous along a course seventy
miles in length. In Bucks County the dike
abuts against the south side of a great fault
of several thousand feet upthrow, and up-
ward of twenty miles in length, while, at a
distance laterally of five miles, another long
dike of identical composition and structure
abuts against the north side of the fault,
and continues thence to the Delaware River.
If not the same dike laterally displaced,
the two portions clearly belong to the same
system, and were produced by a single cause.
It is said that this dike was used during the
war of the rebellion by the negro slaves as
a guide in their flight northward. Several
of the stations of the underground railroad
are said to have been on or near its line ;
and the negroes were directed to follow
these black rocks across fields and through
woods "until they were led into the hos-
pitable regions of Chester and Bucks Coun-
ties."

The Magnitude of Dr. Gould's Astronom-
ical Work. At the complimentary dinner
given to Dr. B. A. Gould in Boston, in May,
1885, Professor W. A. Rogers, of Harvard
Observatory, made a suggestive comparison
of the work which Dr. Gould has done at
Cordoba, in the Argentine Republic, with
similar work done previous to 1S72. There
are, he said, in the northern heavens about
4,500 stars visible to the naked eye ; while
within the same limits there are about
95,000 stars as bright as, or brighter than,
the ninth magnitude, which are usually ob-
served in narrow belts or zones, and are
referred to as zone-stars. The bright stars
are common to nearly all general cata-
logues, but the positions of the fainter
stars depend, for the most part, on two or
three separate observations. Dr. Gould has
formed two catalogues since 1872 a gen-
eral catalogue of stars extending to the
south pole, containing 34,000 stars, and a

catalogue of zone-stars, numbering 73,000.
The two catalogues represent about 250,000
separate observations. It is stated in one
of the printed .volumes that the chrono-
graphic register of the transits, the point-
ing of the telescope for declination, have
all been done by Dr. Gould personally.
The number of distinct and separate ob-
servations involved in this work must cer-
tainly exceed a million. The whole num-
ber of stars in the two Cordoba catalogues
is nearly three times as great as in any
single catalogue thus far constructed ; and
it must be remembered in this connection,
that the great catalogues of Lalande, of
Bessel, of Argelander, and of Schjellerup,
represent the labors of a lifetime. The
total number of stars in all catalogues
formed previous to 1870 is about 260,000,
as against the 105,000 stars in the Cordoba
catalogues. Since 1869, a confederation of
fourteen observatories, situated in different
parts of the world, has been engaged in the
accurate determinations of the positions of
the 100,000 stars to the ninth magnitude
in the northern heavens. Up to 1882, a
total of about 346,000 observations had
been made. Considerable progress had
been made in this work before Dr. Gould
left this country for South America. His
work, involving two thirds as many observa-
tions as all others combined, is completed,
and is all in the hands of the printer, while
the actual formation of the catalogue to be
issued under the direction of the Astro7io-
mische Gesellschaft can hardly be said to
have been begun.

Japanese Camphor. Camphor is very
largely exported from the Japanese island
of Kiu Shiu, where the tree grows abun-
dantly in all situations. Many of the trees
reach a great size, some near Nagasaki be-
ing said to be ten or twelve feet in diame-
ter, while at other places are trees measur-
ing twenty feet across ; after forming a
trunk twenty or thirty feet high without
limbs, the tree branches out in all direc-
tions, forming a well-proportioned and beau-
tiful evergreen mass. The leaf is small,
elliptical, slightly serrated, and of a vivid
dark green. The berry grows in clusters,
and resembles a black currant. The wood
is valuable for cabinet-work and for pur-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

281

poses of ship-building. The tree is neces-
sarily destroyed in the manufacture of cam-
phor, but the law requires a new one' to be
planted in the place of every one taken
away. The gum is extracted by distillation
from the chips, the whole tree being cut up
for the purpose, and steamed in a tight ves-
sel or box. The steam, camphor, and oil,
the immediate products of the process, are
conducted through a bamboo tube to a sec-
ond tub, and from this to a third, which is
divided into an upper and a lower compart-
ment. The partition between the two di-
visions is perforated with small holes to
allow the oil and water to pass to the lower
compartment. The upper compartment is
supplied with a layer of straw, which catch-
es and holds the camphor in crystals. The
camphor is then separated from the straw
and packed in wooden tubs containing a
picul, or one hundred and thirty-three and
one third pounds, each, for the market.
The oil is used for illuminating and other
purposes. The exports of camphor from
Nagasaki in 1882 were valued at $290,000.

Protect the Birds. The Committee on
Protection of Birds of the American Or-
nithologists' Union has begun the issue of
circulars, calling attention to the threatened
danger of the destruction of our native
birds by the greed of specimen-collectors,
milliners, egg -hunters, and Vandal sports-
men. A paper by Mr. J. A. Allen, in the
first "Bulletin," gives an estimate of the
alarming extent to which this destruction
is going on. The conditions of modern life
are in themselves furnishing what we might
now call natural agencies that is, sponta-
neous and of constant operation which
contribute more, perhaps, than all pre-
viously operating natural agencies com-
bined to limit the increase, or, perhaps,
diminish the numbers, of birds. To these
may be added the growth of a passion for
hunting birds for various purposes and
sometimes under mistaken views, which has
become so violent that it is almost a won-
der that any birds are left. Collectors ap-
pear to be charged with a larger share of
responsibility in this matter than notwith-
standing there is vastly too much reckless
collecting they deserve. Mr. Allen calcu-
lates that the number of birds killed for

their purposes since collecting began does
not exceed 500,000 ; while, to gratify the
vanity of the "dead-bird-wearing gender"
of the human race, not less than 5,000,000
are sacrificed every year ! Mr. George B.
Sennett, in a paper in which he tells how
the pelicans were exterminated from an
island off the coast of Texas in an experi-
ment at making an oil from them which
proved to be worthless, says that "if a
tithe of the truth were known throughout
the country at large concerning the sacrifice
of bird-life in the names of l business,' ' en-
terprise,' ' food,' ' sport,' and what not,
from Maine to Mexico, and from California
to Alaska, there would be such a cry of
remonstrance as would make the bird-de-
stroyers hang their heads for shame " that
is, if there is any shame left in persons capa-
ble of engaging in such business. By far
the largest numbers of birds are slaughtered
to supply ladies' hats; and it is for the
ladies themselves to apply the remedy for
the evil, by refusing to wear such barbaric
ornaments. Noble women in this and other
countries are organizing to put down the
iniquitous fashion. The object deserves
universal support.

Professor Pickering's Telephone. In

a paper read by him before the Ameri-
can Academy of Arts and Sciences, on
his "Early Experiments in telegraphing
Sound," Professor Edward C. Pickering
showed that in 1870, several years before
the telephones now in use were invented,
a receiver was devised, constructed, and
tried, which consisted of a flexible iron
diaphragm, supported at the edges and re-
placing the armature of an electro-magnet.
Musical sounds were telegraphed success-
fully, and the apparatus was described at
a scientific meeting, of which a report was
published in the "Troy Press" of August
24, 1870. In 1872 and later, the experi-
ment was repeated under various condi-
tions. In 1879 it was shown that the in-
strument was capable of serving as a tele-
phone, and of rendering articulate speech
audible at a distance. It appeared to differ
in no way in principle from the receiver
now used. Professor Pickering explains,
however, that all his experiments were
made, or were intended to be made, with

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a discontinuous current, and, although the
instrument is capable of showing the vari-
ations of a continuous current, the author
did not have this application in mind when
he constructed it. No patent was taken out
for the device, for the inventor believed
that " a scientific man should place no re-
strictions upon his work which would tend
to prevent the repetition of an experiment
of scientific interest. A full description
should have been published. This was at
first delayed, from the pressure of other
work, and lack of appreciation of the im-
portance of the results. Afterward I was
unwilling to enter into a controversy, or to
obstruct my friends, who were struggling to
obtain proper recognition of the great re-
sults they had obtained in the same field."

What Ice can do# The important part
in producing or modifying topography that
has hitherto been conceded to moving mass-
es of ice has recently been disputed by some
American geologists, who have denied that
ice possesses any eroding or excavating pow-
er. Professor J. S. Newberry has published
an article sustaining the old theory against
these contradictions by evidences drawn from
the visible action of living glaciers, as in the
Alps, and also in the mountains of Oregon,
where a remarkable monotony of surface
has been produced by ice-action. The crest
of the Cascades, crowned by the volcanic
peaks, Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, etc.,
has sides sloping east and west, like the roof
of a house. These slopes are planed down,
and their asperities removed, everywhere
showing the effects of a powerful grinding
agent. In the Laurentian belt north of the
lakes, where were formerly high mountains,
are now only low hills and rolling surfaces,
and the strata are " standing at high angles
but planed down, scratched and ground by
glaciers, until their cut edges are like boards
in a floor." Similar work has been performed
between the Hudson and the Connecticut.
The action of running water on topography
is not only different from that of ice, but
antagonistic to it. Water deepens the
lines of drainage and increases the asperi-
ties. The canons of the Colorado are typi-
cal and characteristic illustrations of water-
action on continental surfaces. Great ice-
sheets, on the contrary, tend to reduce all

asperities, fill depressions, and render the
topography monotonous. If ice is compe-
tent to do the work of shaving and smooth-
ing the landscape, which the author aims to
prove by his citations that it has done, much
more may it have excavated lake -basins.
" The power which has done the greater is
certainly equal to the less." Probably, Pro-
fessor Newberry adds, some misapprehen-
sion arises from an inadequate conception
of the composition and action of a glacier.
" It is, perhaps, regarded as a mass of pure
ice, which by itself would have little grind-
ing power ; but a glacier is a great moving
mass which by its weight and motion crush-
es and removes all but the most solid rock
prominences over which it passes. Where
it impinges against cliffs, these are some-
times lifted, and huge blocks are carried
away. In many localities we find stones
hundreds of tons in weight, which have
been torn from their beds and carried many
miles. Pure ice, then, in sufficient volume
is a potent and almost irresistible agent of
erosion, quite independent of its grinding
action ; but, as a matter of fact, all glaciers
are studded below with rock - fragments,
great or small, which they have torn up in
their course ; so that sand, gravel, and
bowlders constitute a coating to the under
surface of a glacier which may be compared
with the emery on a copper wheel."

Have we gone too far in draining
Swamps ? In one of a series of papers on
" The Proper Value and Management of
Government Timber-Lands," read at the De-
partment of Agriculture, in May last, Mr.
M. C. Read showed that harm rather than
good has been done by the draining of the
swamps which has been so vigorously pros-
ecuted during the last twenty-five years.
The swamps were constant store-beds and
sources of moisture, and tended to keep the
streams that drew upon them at an even
level. In draining them, they being generally
found on the same level as the surface of
adjacent lakes, the outlets of the lakes were
deepened so that they could be drained
more speedily and completely. To accom-
modate the more rapid outflow that accrued,
the streams below were often straightened
and cleared out, and the rapid concentration
of the water into the larger streams was

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

283

made as easy as possible. " All three
agencies combined are making the surface-
drainage almost a3 perfect as if a series of
impervious roofs covered the land, and all
the flow from them were conducted by pipes
into one common channel." Consequently,
" springs once copious have disappeared ;
streams formerly perennial alternately over-
flow their banks and run dry. The natural
regulators of the streams having been de-
stroyed, whenever there is an excessive rain
it is rapidly carried into the streams, which,
gradually uniting their waters, often con-
stitute floods in larger channels which no
human appliances can control." Dike3 and
levees will check the evil for a time, only to
make it greater in the future. The only
possible remedy for all these evils is " to
hasten as quickly as possible to undo our
work and recreate the natural reservoirs we
have destroyed. By reforesting the swamps
and the higher land which surrounds them
and the lakes, " we shall restore them to
their proper place in the economy of Na-
ture." The lakes should be restored to their
former dimensions, and enlarged wherever
practicable. A scheme kindred to this is
that of creating artificial reservoirs at the
sources of rivers, as at the sources of the
Ohio in the Alleghany Mountains, by dam-
ming up the ravines of the smaller streams.

Earth-Contraction and Mountains. Mr.
William B. Taylor lately read a paper before
the Philosophical Society of Washington
before which he suggested that the crumpling
of the earth's crust, with the formation of
mountain-ranges, was a result of modifica-
tion in the spheroidity of the globe pro-
duced by a change in the length of the
day, which change is an effect of the re-
tarding action of the tides. It is established,
in the author's mind, as beyond a reason-
able doubt, that our present day is consider-
ably longer than the day of early geological
times. Supposing the equatorial radius of
the earth to have been once one tenth
greater and the polar radius one tenth less
than they are now, it is evident that, from
the very slow but never-ceasing contraction
of the equatorial shell, due to diminution of
rotatory motion, " this crust would be sub-
ject to an unremitting stress of lateral com-
pression as relentless as that from the old

hypothetic shrinkage of volume by reduc-
tion of temperature. Is it not precisely this
morphologic contraction whose effects and
records are everywhere apparent in the
crumpling of the earth's crust ? " On this
view the facts may be explained that the
circumpolar regions, where the crust has,
by the theory, been stretched, are relatively
free from mountains or plications, while the
intertropical region contains the highest ele-
vations. So strongly impressed is Mr. Taylor
11 with the inevitable operation and potency
of this unquestioned retardation of rotation
that, were all traces of any differential action
masked and obliterated, he would still hold
to it as the one efficient cause to account
for the prominent constriction of the crust
displayed in every land. But the differen-
tial traces of oblateness have not been ob-
literated masked though they may be, to
some extent, by other perturbations." From
various conditions, he adds, " we may infer
that in all geological ages the progress of
elevation has been in excess of that of
degradation by erosion; that in all ages
mountain-building has been at a maximum ;
that is, that the uplifted heights have been
the greatest which the average thickness of
the crust at the time was capable of sup-
porting ; so that the former has been a
constant function of the latter, the ratio
being probably not far from one fifth."
The increasing maximum of elevation has
probably now reached its limit, for both
the processes of equatorial contraction and
of internal temperature reduction are going
on with extreme and lengthening slowness ;
" and the whole remaining subsidence of the
intertropical oblateness can not exceed five
miles, during the vast ages in which the
earth's rotation shall be entirely arrested."

Snake-Poisoning. Dr. G. C. Roy, con-
trasting the physiological action of snake-
poison and the symptoms of rabies, has
made the suggestion that the venom of the
cobra might be tried to counteract the mor-
bid phenomena of rabies. An interesting
compendium of facts respecting snake-poi-
sons has been published in Calcutta by Mr.
Vincent Richards, from which we learn,
among other things, that we have no anti-
dote to the poison when it has once fully
entered into the system. If the venom can

284

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be confined to a part, by means of a liga-
ture, then permanganate of potash, in a five
per cent solution, is an efficient destroyer
of its power. Ammonia is not a remedy.
Some seeming cures may be accounted for
by the fact that, if an insufficient dose of
the venom be administered, the bitten ani-
mal will live, whether stimulants alcohol
or ammonia be given or not. The intel-
lect does not appear to be affected by snake-
poisoning, but remains unclouded to the
last.

Turquoises. The turquoise, in the mid-
dle ages, was accredited with even more
supernatural virtues than were ascribed to
other precious stones. The wearer of it
had his sight strengthened and his spirits
cheered ; if he fell, the gem would break
instead of his bones, and save them ; and, if
he became sick, it turned pale. When its
possessor died, it lost its color, to recover it
again on passing into the hands of another.
In some mysterious way, when suspended
by a string, it was capable of correctly
striking the hours on the inside of a glass
vessel. Turquoise a hydrated phosphate
of alumina colored by traces of com-
pounds of copper and iron may be of va-
rious colors of blue and green, but only the
fast sky-blue specimens are prized as pre-
cious stones. The other shades may be
imitated in inferior stones, this one not.
The material of some fossil teeth is capable
of being colored with phosphate of iron so
as to resemble real turquoise, when it is
called odontolite or Occidental turquoise, but
it is softer than the genuine Oriental stone,
and thereby easily distinguishable from it.
Jewelers' turquoises come from the mount-
ains of Khorassan in Persia. A very sat-
isfactory report upon the mines has been
furnished the British Foreign Office by Mr.
A. H. Schindler, who was for a short time
director of them. The veins occur in the
met amorphic strata, with which the num-
mulitic limestone of the mountains is mot-
tled, and are very ancient and extensive,
bearing frequent evidences of the old work-
ings. The mines are quite deep, one of
them reaching down to one hundred and
sixty feet. The works are carried on by the
people of the villages, who are careless
in management, and improvident. At the

mines, the turquoises are roughly divided
into three classes, of first, second, and third
qualities. All the stones of good and fast
color and favorable shape belong to the
first class. But they vary most curiously
in value, for Mr. Schindler says, " it is im-
possible to fix any price, or classify them
according to different qualities. I have not
yet seen two stones alike. A stone two
thirds of an inch in length, two fifths of an
inch in width, and about half an inch in
thickness, cut peikani (conical) shape, was
valued at Meshed at three hundred pounds ;
another, of about the same size, shape, and
cut, was valued at only eighty pounds. The
color most prized is the deep blue of the
sky. A small speck of lighter color, which
only connoisseurs can distinguish, or an
almost unappreciable tinge of green, de-
creases the value considerably. Then there
is that undefinable property of a good tur-
quoise, the zdt, something like the ' water '
of a diamond or the luster of a pearl ; a fine
colored turquoise without the zdt is not
worth much." The stones are cut in three
ways the flat or slightly convex form, the
truncated cone, and the tallow-drop or en
cabochon. The higher the conical and con-
vex surfaces in the two latter, the more the
turquoises are prized. None but a fine,
deep-colored stone can be advantageously
cut into a conical shape, since one of a pale
color would appear almost white at the
apex. Some mines contain stones which
look well at first, but soon change their
color and fade. These, of course, are
worthless.

Poisons formed from Food. The subject
of "Poisons formed from Food, and their
Relation to Biliousness and Diarrhoea," has
been considered by Dr. T. Lauder Brunton
in articles in " The Practitioner." There
are persons, he says, or even, perhaps,
11 classes of people," to whom even articles
of food, usually salutary, are poisonous.
Many articles of food, also, have a property
of splitting themselves up so as to yield
poisons. The melon and cucumber tribe of
vegetables exhibits a tendency to the for-
mation of purgative substances. In animal
foods poisonous properties are apt to appear
either from particular modes of cooking, or
from beginning decomposition. The decom-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

285

position may be effected by microbic organ-
isms, or by the digestive ferments of the
healthy body ; and they are various accord-
ing to the particular organism or ferment
that sets them up, and according to the tem-
perature at which they occur, and the length
of time that they continue. Some of the
products of decomposition are poisonous in
various degrees of activity, while others are
innocuous. When kept separate, the poison-
ous products remain unchanged for a long
time, but when mixed together they are apt
to undergo further decomposition and be-
come inert. Besides temperature, the de-
gree of moisture in the subject of decom-
position or in the atmosphere, and electrical
conditions as when milk is " soured by
thunder "exercise modifying influences,
which have not yet been definitely ascer-
tained. The difference between the prod-
ucts of decomposition in hot and cold weath-
er is illustrated by the alkaloids obtained
from decomposing maize in summer and
winter. The winter alkaloid has a narcotic
and paralyzing action ; but in summer an-
other alkaloid is also yielded, which has a
tetanizing action something like strychnine.
On account of the greater rapidity of the
putrefactive process, albuminous substances
become poisonous much sooner in summer
than in winter, and again lose their poison-
ous properties more quickly by further de-
composition. As putrefaction may go on to
a certain extent after the introduction of
food into the intestinal canal, poisons may
be formed from the part eaten, and pro-
duce dangerous symptoms, while no poison
can be found in the remaining parts of the
same food.

The Hypothetical Planet Neith. Seven
times since the invention of the telescope a
lesser body has been observed near Venus
in such a situation as to suggest that it
might be a satellite of that planet. The ob-
servations can hardly have been illusive,
though they were only fleeting ones, for
they were made by skilled astronomers. The
last one was in 1764. M. J. C. Houzeau,
of the Brussels Observatory, has examined
the data of them in an endeavor to deter-
mine the nature of the body. They do not
agree with the supposition that it is a satel-
lite, or that it is an intra-Mercurial planet.

They are consistent, however, with the sup-
position that it moves in an orbit about
equal to or a little larger than that of Venus,
with which it comes in conjunction at in-
tervals which are multiples of a little less
than three years ; for the intervals between
the observations all represented such mul-
tiples. Supposing the observations to be
correct and to indicate the real existence of
such a body, M. Houzeau proposes for it the
name of Neith. The search for this planet
would furnish good occupation for amateur
astronomers.

Causes of Financial Stringency. The

" Edinburgh Review " ascribes the present
general monetary scarcity to the vast expan-
sion of trade since the middle of the centu-
ry, which was in great part an effect as well
as an accompaniment of the new supply of
gold that came in at that time ; the decline
which has taken place in the yield of the
gold-mines ; and the large augmentation in
the demand for gold which has been occa-
sioned by the extensive demonetization of
silver. The influence which the large addi-
tion to the world's stock of specie since 1848
has exerted upon the value of money, though
important, has been by no means so great
as was expected. " The doctrine that changes
in the amount of the circulating medium are
really of no consequence, inasmuch as such
an increase is pari passu attended by a pro-
portionate change in the value of money, so
that the effective power of the currency re-
mains unaltered, is now all but extinct, and
can survive only in minds which are imper-
vious to the remarkable lessons of the last
thirty years," which have "demonstrated
afresh the correctness of the old and com-
mon-sense view of the matter namely,
that if there is an increase of business
operations, or other effective requirements
for money, a proportionate addition to the
currency will only serve to keep the value of
money at its previous level ; and, if trade or
these monetary requirements increase faster
than the amount of currency, prices will fall
(or the value of money will rise), however
large the annual additions to the currency
may be. More remarkably, and on a far
grander scale, the same truth or principle
was illustrated in the history of the three
centuries which followed the discovery of

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the New World." In 1850 sixteen millions
sterling of specie annually did less for the
wants of the world than ten millions had
done in 1810, and much less than two mill-
ions had done nearly three centuries pre-
viously, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
" Whenever the supply of money becomes
stationary in the civilized world, or in a
progressive community, prices begin to fall,
owing to the steady increase of population
and monetary requirements. Thus, . . .
during the silver age, although the annual
production of the precious metals increased
continuously throughout three hundred
years well-nigh doubling in each succes-
sive century the monetary wants of the
world increased quite as fast, and ere long
began to outstrip the growth of the mone-
tary supply." A careful analysis of the
statistics of coinage and other uses, and of
the supply of the precious metals, based
upon the reports of the Director of the
United States Mint, shows that " the cur-
rent requirements for coinage of themselves
exceed the total annual supply of the pre-
cious metals by four millions sterling, while
the consumption in the arts amounts to nine-
teen millions indicating a reduction, or at
least an inadequate supply, of metallic mon-
ey to the extent of twenty - three millions
annually." The disastrous effects of a mon-
etary dearth are extensive. It affects not
only current trade, but real property, or
fixed wealth of all kinds. The value of
money is rising, and consequently the sale
value of all other commodities is falling.
Even the moneyed class lose also, owing to
the low rate of interest and the lack of re-
munerative kinds of investment ; but agri-
culture is most affected by a change in the
value of the circulating medium, because
such a change comes upon it with di-
rect and unbroken force. Thus, the mis-
chief works round the whole community,
or indeed the civilized world. No human
power can prevent the embarrassment aris-
ing from an inadequate production of the
precious metals. "But, fortunately, the
source of our present difficulties is no longer
the mystery that it was, even to statesmen
in former times. The fact that nowadays
it can be traced to its fundamental causes
constitutes the best hope amid our present
difficulties."

Is Tea-drinking salntary ? The Dean
of Bangor has charged tea-drinking with
destroying the calmness of the nerves, mak-
ing people uneasy and irritable, and acting
as a dangerous revolutionary force. Some
medical men, including American doctors

and Dr. Richardson,

agree with him ;

but

Dr. Gordon Stables has pronounced tea " the
drink of pleasure and health," and has ex-
pressed the opinion that it ought to be the
national drink of England. The general
current of public opinion and practice ap-
pears to be favorable to the latter view.
In the British army, says the " Pall Mall
Gazette," the use of tea is slowly but surely
supplanting the use of grog. The soldiers
who captured Tel-el-Kebir dr ank nothing but
tea. It was served out to them three times
a day, and they found it most pleasant and
invigorating on the march. Its use among
athletes and others who perform physical
feats is becoming more general. The use
of alcohol and tobacco is universally con-
demned in the various hand-books on train-
ing, but the use of tea is always recom-
mended. To the charge that tea-drinking
stimulates revolutionary tendencies may be
answered that the greatest tea-drinking na-
tion in Asia, the Chinese, is the most con-
servative, and that the Russians, the great-
est tea-drinkers in Europe, are the most
stolid of Western peoples. Of great men,
Dr. Johnson described himself as " a hard-
ened and shameless tea-drinker." Kant
used to breakfast on a cup of tea and a
pipe of tobacco, and to work on them for
eight hours. De Quincey usually drank tea
from eight o'clock at night till four o'clock
in the morning. Buckle was a most fas-
tidious tea-drinker. William Howitt regu-
larly took tea and coffee, and found the
greatest refreshment in both ; and Mr. Glad-
stone is one of the greatest tea-drinkers of
the century.

Variation in Earthquake-Vibrations.

Professor Milne, of Tokio, Japan, making
a seismic survey of the ground near bis
house, placed similarly constructed and test-
ed seismographs at different places, but in
similar positions. The result of observing
many earthquakes was that all the instru-
ments, the positions of which would be in-
cluded within a triangle, the sides of which

NOTES.

287

were eight hundred or nine hundred feet in
length, gave different indications as to di-
rection, amplitude, maximum velocity, and
intensity ; so that, had these instruments
been in the hands of different observers,
each observer would have given a different
account of the same earthquake. Thus,
comparing the average maximum velocities
at a station, C, on hard ground, with that
at a station, E, on soft ground, they were
found to be 1 : 5. The maximum accelera-
tions at these two stations were 1 : 2*4. It
might therefore be concluded that a build-
ing at C would withstand a disturbance
which would be sufficient to shatter a simi-
lar building placed at E.

NOTES.

A committee of the American Society for
Psychical Research, of which Josiah Royce,
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is chairman,
wishes to collect accounts from trustworthy
sources, respecting supposed cases of appa-
ritions of absent or deceased persons, and
the communication by them of facts un-
known to the person visited by them, or
belonging to the future, which are after-
ward verified. It would also like to receive
accounts of other similar personal experi-
ences which may have been striking enough
for the persons concerned to remember, or
perhaps record. The committee's purpose
is to collate and examine the evidence pre-
sented, with a view to drawing such conclu-
sions from it as may seem proper and war-
ranted. The committee's circular, which
may be obtained on application to the
chairman, contains a full statement respect-
ing the kind of information it seeks, with a
schedule of questions which may be useful
as a guide in making up the accounts.

The summer courses in chemistry, to be
given at Harvard University this year, will
open July 5th and close August 14th. In-
struction will be given under the direction
of Dr. A. M. Comey in general chemistry,
qualitative analysis, organic chemistry, and
mineralogy. The fee for any of these courses
is twenty-five dollars, and material and ap-
paratus usually cost from five to six dollars
additional. It is desired that applications
for desks in the laboratory be made before
June 15th. These courses are taken each
year by teachers, both male and female,
who are preparing to teach chemistry, by
persons who intend to use their knowledge
in the arts, and by general students.

Wood-oil is now made on a large scale
in Sweden from the refuse of timber-cut-

tings and forest-clearings, and from stumps
and roots. Although it can not well be
burned in common lamps, on account of the
heavy proportions of carbon it contains, it
furnishes a satisfactory light in lamps espe-
cially made for it, and in its natural state
is the cheapest of all illuminating oils.
Thirty factories produce about 40,000 litres
of the oil daily. Turpentine, creosote, acetic
acid, charcoal, coal-tar oils, and other use-
ful substances, are also obtained from the
same materials as is the wocd-oil.

M. H. Fatol reports that a number of
oaken piles which have seen nine years of
service at Mieres, Spain, have taken on the
appearance of stone-coal. The structure
resembles that of a fibrous coal composed
of bright particles separated by dull ones ;
it also feels like stone-coal. M. Renault
states, after a microscopic examination, that
the wood of fibers and parenchyma have
preserved their characters, and the dottings
of the vessels are perfectly clear. Chemical
analysis gives a composition analogous to
that of lignite. The very black color is
ascribed to the presence of tannate of iron.

M. Chevreul gave joy to the members

1 of the French Academy of Sciences by re-

, suming his seat among them on the 5th of

j April, after a few weeks' absence on ac-

! count of illness. He seemed only slightly

weakened, but was otherwise in his usual

vigor. The President of the Academy gave

him a suitable welcome, and he replied,

speaking till he was checked by Dr. Vul-

pian, his titular physician.

Dr. Charles Osten records, in "The
Practitioner," the case of a woman patient
who was made sick by eating eggs. She
appears to be affected with a family idio-
syncrasy against eggs, for she said that
they never agreed with her when well ; and
neither her mother nor grandmother could
eat them.

According to Professor Yirchow, the
German Colonial Society has had circulars
sent to all European colonies situated in
the tropics, requesting observations to be
made regarding the question of the accli-
matization of Europeans in the tropics, in
order that the answers may be ready to be
communicated to the German Naturalists'
Association at its meeting in September
next. An exhibition of objects required in
fitting out scientific travelers for their jour-
neys will also be held at the same time with
the meeting of the Naturalists.

Herr L. Rutenberg, of Bremen, has pre-
sented the Natural History Society of that
city with the sum of 2,500 for a Rutenberg
fund, in commemoration of the services ren-
dered to science by his son, the traveler,
who was murdered in Madagascar.

288

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A committee of the Paris Academy of
Sciences has matured a plan for the foun-
dation of an Institat Pasteur for the treat-
ment of rabies, to be open to Frenchmen
and to foreigners bitten by dogs or other
rabid animals. A public subscription is to
be instituted in France and abroad for the
foundation of the establishment. The man-
agement and application of the subscription
will be under the direction of a committee,
of which Admiral Jurien de la Graviere,
President of the Academy, is chief.

Dr. Dubois, of Paris, has been making
experiments on the properties of vaseline
as food. Two dogs were fed on soup in
which the usual fat was entirely replaced
with vaseline. With this diet, the animals
even slightly increased in weight ; their gen-
eral state was good, with no loss of appetite,
vomiting, or diarrhoea. Whence the experi-
menter infers that the carburets of hydrogen
forming vaseline, though they favor neither
oxidation nor saponification like fats, are
readily tolerated in the alimentary canal of
dogs.

The Marquis de Nadaillac gives man's
range of endurance of temperature as
equivalent to at least 132 C., or 236
Fahr. His estimate is based on the re-
corded facts of -65 C., or-85 o Fahr.,
observed in the Kara Sea, and 67 '7 C, or
151-8 Fahr., in the country of the Tua-
ricks, in Central Africa.

Dr. Andries, having calculated that ac-
cidents from lightning have increased by
from three to five fold during the last fifty
years, finds that the causes which have been
assigned for the phenomena do not account
for all. He regards the main cause as lying
in the enormous increase in manufactories,
locomotives, etc., which fill the air with
smoke, steam, and particles of dust of all
kinds, while the increased populations con-
tribute their share to the impurity of the
atmosphere. His own experiments and those
of others have shown that all the electrical
phenomena of the air increase in intensity
with the increase of dust in it.

The London Sanitary Protection Asso-
ciation registers more than 1,000 members,
and reports 1,264 inspections during the
year. The general character of the houses
inspected was found to be as insanitary as
ever, only 5 per cent being found in perfect
order, and 95 per cent in fairly good order ;
while in 60 per cent foul air was escaping
directly into the house, and in 24 per cent
sewage was partly retained under -ground
by leakage or choking of pipes.

A periodical descriptive of the contents
and additions to the collection has been
started by the administration of the Ethno-
logical Section of the Royal Museum at
Berlin. The first number contains an ac-

count of Dr. Nachtigal's ethnological col-
lections, and other papers of similar interest.

OBITUARY NOTES.

The death is announced of Dr. Moser
von Moosbruch, agricultural chemist, of Vi-
enna.

M. Felix Leblanc, Professor of Chem-
istry in the JScole Cenirale des Arts et Manu-
factures, Paris, is dead. He was for a long
time a collaborator with Dumas ; and has left
his mark in chemical science, particularly in
the matter of studies of carbonic oxide,
ne also gave much attention to electrical
investigations, and was a member of the
committee on experiments of the Inter-
national Electrical Exposition of 1881. He
w r as chief inspector of gas in the city of
Paris, and Vice-President of the Society for
the Encouragement of National Industries.

Johann Jacob von Tschudi, an emi-
nent observer of South American phenom-
ena, died in St. Gall, Switzerland, on the
24th of January last. He was born at
Glarus, in 1818, and went from school to
Peru, where he lived five years. He gave
the public the best account of Peru, and
also published books on the fauna of that
country, and the ancient Quichua language,
a travel-sketch of the Andes, an account of
the Brazilian province of Minas-Geraes, the
" System of the Batrachians," and finally, a
comprehensive book of travels in South
America, in five volumes. He was a
brother of Friedrich von Tschudi, author of
the " Thierleben der Alpenwelt."

Mr. Richard Edmunds, a student of
extraordinary agitations of the sea and
earthquake-shocks, and of antiquities, died
recently at Plymouth, England, in his
eighty-fifth year. The results of his seis-
mological investigations are published in
the " Edinburgh New Philosophical Jour-
nal," the British Association Reports, and
the " Transactions of the Royal Society of
Cornwall." He also published, in 1862, a
book on the " Antiquities, Natural History,
Natural Phenomena, and Scenery of the
Land's End District."

Dr. T. Spencer Cobbold, Fellow of the
Roval and Linnaean Societies, has recently
died. He was born in 1 828, and received a
medical education in practice and at the
University of Edinburgh. He was an emi-
nent physician and medical professor. He
devoted much attention to the study of
morphology and the investigation of the
life-history of animal parasites. He pre-
pared the article on " Ruminantia " for the
" Cvclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology."
In 1868 he was appointed, by the Trustees
of the British Museum, Swiney Professor of
Geology.

GERARD MERCATOR.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JULY, 1886.
AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO.

By Hon. DAVID A. WELLS.
IV.

TAXATION. Of all the economic features of Mexico there is no
one more novel, interesting, and instructive, and withal more
antagonistic in its influence to the development of the country, than
the system by which the Government Federal, State, and municipal
raises the revenue essential to defray its necessary expenditures.

The general characteristics of the Mexican tariff, or system of tax-
ing imports, have been already noticed. But one altogether anoma-
lous and absurd feature of it remains to be pointed out. In all truly
civilized countries, when foreign articles or merchandise have once
satisfied all customs requirements at a port, or place of entry, and
have been permitted to pass the frontier, they are exempted from any
further taxation as imports, or so long as they retain such a distinctive
character.* But, in Mexico, each State of the republic has practically
its own custom-house system ; and levies taxes on all goods domes-
tic and foreign passing its borders ; and then, in turn, the several
towns of the States again assess all goods entering their respective
precincts. The rate of State taxation, being determined by the several
State Legislatures, varies, and varies continually with each State. In
the Federal District i. e., the city of Mexico the rate was recently
two per cent of the national tariff ; but, in the adjoining State of Hi-
dalgo, it was twelve and a half per cent, and in others it is as high as
twenty-five per cent. The rate levied by the towns is said to be about
nine per cent of what the State has exacted ; but in this there is no

* The right to import is held to carry with it a right to sell on the part of the importer,
without further restrictions, i. e., in the original packages. Thus, the United States Su-
preme Court has decided that a license-tax imposed by a State of the Federal Union, as a
prerequisite to the right to sell an imported article, is equivalent to a duty on imports,
and in violation of the provision of the Federal Constitution, which prohibits the States
from imposing import duties ; and the decision has been carefully recognized by the
authorities of the several States in dealing with imported liquors under local license or
other restrictive laws.

vol. xxix. 19

290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

common rule. Thus, under date of April 9, 1886, an official of the
Mexican National Railroad writes : " Goods destined for San Luis
(i. e., via railway) pay a local tax in Laredo, Mexico, but on arrival at
San Luis pay a municipal tax. These taxes are eternally changing,
and are sometimes prohibitory. Take lumber, for example. Three
months ago there was a municipal tax of thirty dollars per one thou-
sand feet. This has now been reduced to one dollar per one thousand
feet ; but there is no certainty that the old tax will not be restored."
Nor is this all. For the transit of every territorial boundary necessi-
tates inspection, assessment, the preparation of bills of charges, and
permits for entry ; and all these transactions and papers involve the
payment of fees, or the purchase and affixing of stamps. Thus, by
section 377 of the tariff law of December, 1884, it is ordained "that
the custom-house shall give to every individual who makes any im-
portation, upon the payment of duties, a certificate of the sum paid,
which certificate, on being presented to the administrator of the stamp-
office in the place of importation, shall be changed for an equal amount
in custom-house stamps. For this operation the interested party shall
pay, to the administrator of whom he receives the stamps, two per cent
in money (coin) of the total value of the stamps." All imports into
Mexico at the present time are liable, therefore, to these multiple as-
sessments ; and the extent to which they act as a prohibition on trade
may be best illustrated by a few practical examples.

In 1885, an American gentleman, residing in the city of Mexico as
the representative of certain New England business interests, with a
view of increasing his personal comfort, induced the landlady of the
hotel where he resided (who, although by birth a Mexican, was of
Scotch parentage) to order from St. Louis an American cooking-stove,
with its customary adjuncts of pipes, kettles, pans, etc. In due time
the stove arrived ; and the following is an exact transcript of the bills
contingent, which were rendered and paid upon its delivery :

Original Invoice:

1 stove weight 282 pounds.

1 box pipe " 69 "

1 box stove-furniture " 86 "

Total 43V pounds, or 1993 kilos.

Cost in St. Louis, United States currency $26 60

Exchange at 20 per cent 5 30

Total $31 80

Freight from St. Louis to city of Mexico (rail), at $3.16 per 100

pounds $15 75

Mexican consular fee at El Paso 4 85

Stamps at El Paso 45

Cartage and labor on boxes examined by custom-house at El Paso. 50

Forwarding commission, El Paso 2 00

Exchange 16| per cent on $7.64 freight advanced by Mexican Cen-
tral Railroad 1 25

$56 60

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 291

Import Duties :

1 box, 128 kilos (stove), iron, without brass or copper ornaments,

at 19 cents per kilo $24 42

1 box, 31*3 kilos, iron pipe, at 24 cents per kilo 7 51

1 box iron pots, with brass handles, at 24 cents per kilo 9 48

$41 41
Add 4 per cent as per tariff 1 65

$43 06
Package duty, 50 cents per 100 kilos 1 00

$44 06
Add 5 per cent as per tariff 2 20

$46 26
Add 2 per cent municipal duty 93

$47 19
Add 5 per cent consumption duty 2 36

$49 55
Dispatch of goods at Buena Vista station, city of Mexico 38

Stamps for permit.. . . 50

$50 43

$107 03
Cartage in city of Mexico 75

Total $107 78

Resume:

Original cost of stove, with exchange $31 80

Freight, consular fees, and forwarding 24 80

Import duties 50 43

Cartage 75

Total $107 78

[Note. This stove was shipped from El Paso in a lot of goods for Messrs. &

Co., the largest importing house in Mexico, thereby saving an expense of two thirds the
consular fee $14.56 which, if paid on the invoice alone, would have added $9.71 to
charges, and raised the total to $117.49.]

In 1878 Hon. John W. Foster, then United States minister to
Mexico, in a communication to the Manufacturers' Association of the
Northwest (Chicago), thus analyzed the items of the cost, in the city of
Mexico, of a tierce, weighing gross 328 pounds, containing 300 pounds
(net) of sugar-cured hams :

New York cost, 300 pounds at 11 cents $33 00

New York expenses, such as cartage, consular invoice ($4 gold), manifest,

etc., average 5 per cent on large shipments 1 65

Freight from New York to Vera Cruz at 1 cent per pound, payable in New

York 3 25

Exchange on New York, $37.90 at 18 per cent 6 82

Import duties in Vera Cruz, 138 kilos at 24 cents per kilo 33 12

Municipal duties in Vera Cruz, $1.03 for every 400 pounds 84

Lighterage and handling from steamer to warehouse ($1 to $1.50 per every

200 pounds) 1 63

Maritime brokerage, 2 per cent on freight ($3.25) 07

292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Opening and closing barrel 50

Additional charges in Vera Cruz for stamps and cartage to railroad-station,

etc 1 50

Commission in Vera Cruz, 2 per cent on $70.66 1 41

Exchange on Vera Cruz, 1 per cent on $39.06 39

Railroad freight from Vera Cruz to Mexico, 140 kilos, at $54.32 a ton 7 60

Local duties in city of Mexico, 2 per cent on Federal duty, $33.12 66

Local expenses in city of Mexico, cartage from depot, expenses in custom-
house, etc . . 75

Total $93 19

The net cost of one pound of imported American ham in the city
of Mexico in 1878 was therefore 31 cents, or $1 in hams in New York
was equal to $2.82 in Mexico !

A similar analysis showed an invoice of ten kegs of cut nails, cost-
ing two and a half cents per pound in New York, or $22.50, to have
cost 14-5^- cents per pound, or $141.64, when imported, in the city of
Mexico ; or $1 value in nails in New York was equal to $0.29 in Mexi-
co. In the case of salt, costing $2 per barrel in New York, the cost
of importation was 820.40 ; or $1 of salt in New York was equal to
$10.20 in Mexico ! And in the case of (Milwaukee) beer, a barrel cost-
ing, on board steamer in New Orleans, $13, cost $35.61 in the city of
Mexico. It is clear, therefore, as Mr. Foster points out in connection
with the above exhibits, " that articles of the most common use in the
United States must be luxuries in Mexico, on account of their high
price " ; and that while " this would be the case, with such charges, in
almost any country, however rich it might be, it is especially so in
Mexico, where there is so much poverty."

Again, the Mexican tariff provides that the effects of immigrants
shall be admitted free. "But this," writes an officer of the Mexican
National Railroad Company, " is practically a dead letter, from the
fact that interior duties are levied on everything the immigrant has,
before he gets settled : and these are so great that no one goes. I've
never known but one case go through Laredo. ... A carpenter, or
other mechanic, who desires to get employment in Mexico, has such
heavy duties levied on his tools on passing the national or State front-
iers, that few are willing or able to pay them. Hence few American
mechanics find their way into the country, unless in accordance with
special contract."

This practice of locally taxing interstate commerce is in direct
contravention of an article in the Mexican Constitution of 1857, and
it is said also of express decisions of the national Supreme Court.
Several of the leading States of Mexico have at different times tried
the experiment of prohibiting it by legislative enactments ; but the
States and municipalities of the country are always hard pressed to
raise money for their current expenditures, and find the taxing of
merchandise in transit so easy a method of partially solving their dif-

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 293

Acuities, that the Federal authorities have not yet been able, or, speak-
ing more correctly, willing to prevent it.* It is important, however,
to note here that, in the draft of the proposed reciprocity treaty be-
tween the United States and Mexico, it is provided that imports from
the United States into Mexico, admitted free under the treaty, shall
not be liable to any Mexican State duties.

The Mexican tariff system also provides for the taxation of exports,
notably on the following products : gold bullion, one fourth of one
per cent ; silver bullion, one half of one per cent ; coined gold and sil-
ver, having already paid at the mint, exempt ; orchil, $10 per ton ;
wood for cabinet-work and construction, $2.50 per 31 *3 American cubic
feet. Small export duties are also imposed on coffee and heniquen.
A revision of the Mexican tariff, with a view of modifying certain of
its exorbitant duties, more especially those levied on the importation
of wines and liquors and certain articles of food, has been recently
recommended (1885) to the Government by a committee of delegates
of prominent men of business from different parts of the republic.

The existence in a state of the New World of a system of taxation
so antagonistic to all modern ideas, and so destructive of all commer-
cial freedom, is certainly very curious, and prompts to the following re-
flections : First, how great was the wisdom and foresight of the framers
of the Constitution of the United States in providing, at the very com-
mencement of the Federal Union, that no power to tax in this manner,
and for their own use or benefit, should ever be permitted to the States
that might compose it (Article I, section 10). Second, how did such
a system come to be ingrafted on Mexico, for it is not a modern con-
trivance ? All are agreed that it is an old-time practice and a legacy
of Spanish domination. But, further than this, may it not be another
one of these numerous relics of European medievalism which, having
utterly disappeared in the countries of their origin, seem to have be-
come embalmed, as it were, in what were the old Spanish provinces of

* In October, 1883, in response to a call of the President of the Republic, the Govern-
ors of the several States of Mexico appointed each two delegates, who assembled in con-
vention at the capital, and after some deliberation published a report which exhibited
the incompatibilities, disadvantages, and abuses of the system in the most convincing
manner ; but acknowledging, at the same time, that as all the State governments were
more or less dependent upon it for their revenues, they could not recommend its present
abolition. The report also concluded with a recommendation " that Congress should at
once legalize a practice which a constitutional prohibition had failed to prevent, and
which, under existing circumstances, it would be impolitic to suppress entirely." And, in
deference to the suggestions of this conference, the Mexican Congress subsequently passed
a law, with a view of modifying and limiting the authority of the State and municipal
custom-house officers, so as to lessen in a degree the interruptions and vexations incident
to the system. But as the Federal Government and some of the States have since then
authorized public improvements to an extent that the state of their finances did not jus-
tify, and have in consequence increased taxes in all possible forms throughout the repub-
lic, the prospect for the complete suppression, or even of any essential modification, of
this oppressive system of taxation is not flattering.

294 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

America a system filtered down through Spanish traditions from the
times when the imposition of taxes and the regulation of local trade
was regarded by cities and communities in the light of an affirmation
of their right to self-government, and as a barrier against feudal inter-
ference and tyranny ; and when the idea of protecting industry through
like devices was also not limited as now to international commerce,
but was made applicable to the commercial intercourse of cities and
communities of the same country, and even to separate trades or
" guilds " of the same city ? Whether such speculations have any war-
rant in fact or not, it is at least certain that we have in the Mexico of
to-day a perfect example of what was common in Europe in the middle
ages ; namely, of protection to separate interests (through taxation)
carried out to its fullest and logical extent, and also of its commercial
and industrial consequences.

So much for the tariff system of Mexico. The " excise " or " internal
revenue " system of the country is no less extraordinary. It is essen-
tially a tax on sales, collected in great part through the agency of
stamps a repetition of the old " alcavala " tax of Spain,* which Adam
Smith, in his " Wealth of Nations," describes as one of the worst forms
of taxation that could be inflicted upon a country, and as largely re-
sponsible for the decay of Spanish manufactures and agriculture. Thus
the Mexican law, re-enacted January, 1885, imposes a tax of " one half
of one per cent upon the value in excess of $20 of transactions of buy-
ing or selling of every kind of merchandise, whether at wholesale or
retail, in whatever place throughout the whole republic." Also, one
half of one per cent " on all sales and resales of country or city prop-
erty ; upon all exchanges of movable or immovable property ; on mort-
gages, transfers, or gifts, collateral or bequeathed inheritances ; on
bonds, rents of farms, when the rent exceeds $2,000 annually ; and
on all contracts with the Federal, State, or municipal governments."
Every inhabitant of the republic who sells goods to the value of over
$20 must give to the buyer " an invoice, note, or other document ac-
crediting the purchase," and affix to the same, and cancel, a stamp
corresponding to the value of the sale. Sales at retail are exempt from
this tax ; and retail sales are defined to be " sales made with a single
buyer, whose value does not exceed $20. The reunion, in a single in-
voice, of various parcels, every one of which does not amount to $20,
but which in the aggregate exceed that quantity," remains subject to
the tax. Retail sales in the public markets, or by ambulatory sellers,
or licensed establishments, whose capital does not exceed $300, are also
exempt. Tickets of all descriptions railroad, theatre, etc. must have
a stamp, as must each page of the reports of meetings ; each leaf of
a merchant's ledger, day or cash book, and every cigar sold singly,
which must be delivered to the buyer in a stamped wrapper. Sales

* The very name is yet essentially kept up in Mexico, where the tax is sometimes
designated as the " alcabala."

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 295

of spirits at wholesale pay three per cent ; gross receipts of city rail-
roads, four per cent ; public amusements, two per cent upon the amount
paid for entrance ; playing-cards, fifty per cent paid in stamps on
the retail price ; and manufactured tobacco a variety of taxes, propor-
tioned to quality and value. Mercantile drafts are taxed at $10 per
$1,000, which means a dollar on every hundred.

Farms, haciendas, and town estates are required to be taxed at the
rate of $3 per each $1,000 of the valuation, but such is the influence of
the land-owners that the valuation is almost nominal. Land and build-
ings not actually producing income are exempt from taxation, not-
withstanding they may be continually enhancing in value.*

In the towns, this system of infinitesimal taxation is indefinitely
repeated ; the towns acting as collectors of revenue for the Federal
and State governments, as well as for their own municipal require-
ments. All industries pay a monthly fee : as' tanneries, 50 cents ;
soap-factories, $1. So also all shops for the sale of goods pay accord-
ing to their class, from a few dollars down to a few cents per month.
Each beef animal, on leaving a town, pays 50 cents ; each fat pig, 25
cents ; each sheep, 12 cents ; each load of corn, fruit, or vegetables, 6
cents, and so on ; and, on entering another town, all these exactions are
repeated. A miller, in Mexico, it is said, is obliged to pay thirty-two
separate taxes on his wheat, before he can get it from the field and
offer it, in the form of flour, on the market, for consumption. As a
matter of necessity, furthermore, every center of population small
and big, city, town, or hamlet swarms with petty officials, who are
paid to see that not an item of agricultural produce, of manufactured
goods, or an operation of trade or commerce or even a social event, like
a fandango, a christening, a marriage, or a funeral, escapes the payment
of tribute.

In fact, trade is so hampered by this system of taxation, that one
can readily understand and accept the assertion that has been made,
that people with capital in Mexico really dread to enter into business,
and prefer to hoard their wealth, or restrict their investments to land
(which, as before pointed out, is practically exempt from taxation),
rather than subject themselves to the never-ending inquisitions and
annoyances which are attendant upon almost every active employment
of persons and capital, even were all other conditions favorable. Mexi-
co, from the influence of this system of taxation alone, must, therefore,
remain poor and undeveloped ; and no evidence or argument to the
contrary can in any degree weaken this assertion. Doubtless there are
many intelligent people in Mexico who recognize the gravity of the
situation, and are most anxious that something should be done in the
way of reform. But what can be done? If autocratic powers were

* This practice of exempting unoccupied realty from taxation also prevails in Portu-
gal. The theory there in justification of the practice is, that the use of a thing de-
fines its measure of value, and that to tax unused property is a.process of .confiscation^

2 g6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to be given to a trained financier, thoroughly versed in all the principles
of taxation and of economic sciences, and conversant with the results
of actual experiences, the problem of making things speedily and
radically better in this department of the Mexican state is so difficult
that he might well shrink from grappling with it.

In the first place, the great mass of the Mexican people have little
or no visible, tangible property which is capable of direct assessment.

Again, in any permanent system of taxation, taxes in every country
or community, in common with all the elements of the cost of produc-
tion and subsistence wages, profits, interest, depreciation, and mate-
rials must be substantially drawn from each year's product. Now,
the annual product of Mexico is comparatively very small. Thus, for
example, Mr. Sutton, United States consul-general at Matamoros, as
before noticed, has shown that the annual product of the single State
of South Carolina is absolutely two and a half times or, proportion-
ally to area, twenty-five times as valuable as the annual product of
the entire northern half of Mexico ; and the Argentine Republic of
South America, with only one third of the population of Mexico, has
a revenue twenty per cent greater, and double the amount of foreign
commerce. Product being small, consumption must of necessity be
also small. Ex-Consul Strother (report to State Department, United
States, 1885) says : " The average cost of living (food and drink) to a
laboring-man in the city of Mexico is about twenty-five cents per day ;
in the country from twelve and a half to eighteen cents. The average
annual cost of a man's dress is probably not over five dollars ; that of
a woman double that sum, with an undetermined margin for gewgaws
and cheap jewelry." Mr. Lambert, United States consul at San Bias,
reports under date of May, 1884 : " The average laborer and mechanic
of this country may be fortunate enough, if luck be not too unchari-
table toward him, to get a suit of tanned goat-skin, costing about six
dollars, which will last him as many years."

The food of the masses consists mainly of agricultural products
corn {tortillas)^ beans (frijoles), and fruits, which are for the most
part the direct results of the labor of the consumer, and not obtained
through any mechanism of purchase or exchange.

Persons conversant with the foreign commerce of Mexico are also
of the opinion that not more than five per cent of its population buy
at the present time any imported article whatever ; or that, for all
purposes of trade in American or European manufactures, the popu-
lation is much in excess of half a million. Revenue in Mexico from
any tariff on imports must, therefore, be also limited ; and this limita-
tion is rendered much greater than it need be by absurdly high duties;
which (as notably is the case of cheap cotton fabrics) enrich the smug-
gler and a few mill-proprietors, to the great detriment of the national
exchequer.

It is clear, therefore, that the basis available to the Government

AJST ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. . 297

for obtaining revenue through the taxation of articles of domestic
consumption, either in the processes of production, or through the ma-
chinery of distribution, is of necessity very narrow ; and that if the
state is to get anything, either directly or indirectly, from this source,
there would really seem to be hardly any method open to it, other
than that of an infinitesimal, inquisitorial system of assessment and
obstruction, akin to what is already in existence.*

Note. This curious tax experience of Mexico, although especially striking and inter-
esting, is not exceptional, but finds a parallel, in a greater or less degree, in all countries
of low civilization, small accumulation of wealth, and sluggish society movement. Thus,
in the British island and colony of Jamaica, populated mainly by emancipated blacks and
their descendants (554,132 out of a total of 580,804 in 1881), who own little or no land,
and through favorable climatic conditions require the minimum of clothing and shelter,
and little of food other than what is produced spontaneously, or by very little labor, the
problem of how to raise revenue by any form of taxation, for defraying the necessary
expenses of government, has been not a little embarrassing. For the year 1884, the reve-
nue raised from taxation on this island represented an average assessment of about $3.40
per head of the entire population ; but of this amount an average of about fifty cents
only per head could be obtained from any excise or internal taxation ; and this mainly
through the indirect agency of licenses and stamps, and not by any direct assessment.
The balance of receipts was derived from import and export duties, and from special
duties on rum, which last furnished nearly one fourth of the entire revenue. During
the same year the average taxation of the people of the United States Federal, State,
and municipal was in excess of fourteen dollars per capita. A condition of things in
British India, analogous to that existing in Jamaica, has for many years necessitated the
imposition of very high taxes upon salt, as almost the only method by which the mass
of the native population could be compelled to contribute anything whatever toward the
support of their government ; the consumption of salt being necessary to all, and its pro-
duction and distribution being capable of control, and so of comparatively easy assess-
ment. In short, if a man can avoid paying rent, make no accumulations, and will live ex-
clusively on what he can himself gather from the bounty of Nature, he can not be taxed,
except by a capitation or poll-tax ; and it would be difficult to see how in such a case
even such a tax could be collected. But, the moment he enters into society and recognizes
the advantages of the division of labor and exchange, he begins to pay taxes, and the
higher the civilization he enjoys the greater will be the taxes.

But the greatest obstacle in the way of tax reform in Mexico is to
be found in the fact that a comparatively few people not ten thou-
sand out of a possible ten million own all the land, and constitute, in
the main, the governing class of the country ; and the influence of
this class has thus far been sufficiently potent to practically exempt
land from taxation. So long as this condition of things prevails, it is
difficult to see how there is ever going to be a middle class (as there
is none now worthy of mention), occupying a position intermediate
between the rich and a vast ignorant lower class, that take no interest
in public affairs, and are only kept from turbulence through military
restraint. Such a class, in every truly civilized and progressive coun-

* The experience of Mexico in respect to taxation ought to be especially instructive
to all that large class of statesmen and law-makers in the United States who believe that
the only equitable system of taxation is to provide for an obligatory return and assess-
ment of all property, and that to exempt anything is both unjust and impolitic.

298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

try, is numerically the greatest, and comprises the great producers ;
and because the great producers, the great consumers and tax-pay-
ers for all taxes ultimately fall upon consumption and so are the
ones most interested in the promotion and maintenance of good gov-
ernment. A tax policy, however, which would compel the land-owners
to cut up and sell their immense holdings, especially if they are un-
willing to develop them, would be the first step toward the creation
of such a middle class. But it is not unlikely that Mexico would have
to go through one more revolution, and that the worst one she has yet
experienced, before any such result could be accomplished. At pres-
ent, furthermore, there is no evidence that the mass of the Mexican
people, who would be most benefited by any wise scheme for the parti-
tion of the great estates and for tax reform, feel any interest whatever
in the matter, or would vigorously support any leader of the upper
class that might desire to take the initiative in promoting such changes.
And herein is the greatest discouragement to every one who wishes
well for the country.

The Federal budget, in respect to expenditures for the fiscal year
1886-'87, as reported by President Diaz to the Mexican Chamber of
Deputies, was as follows :

Congress $1 ,052,144

Executive Department 49,251

Judiciary 434,892

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 419,828

Ministry of Interior 3,539,364

Ministry of Justice 1,333,696

Ministry of Public Works 4,71 1,771

Ministry of Finance 12,004,270

Ministry of "War and Navy 12,464,500

Total $36,009,716

The estimates of receipts were uncertain. It was hoped, if busi-
ness recovered, that they would reach 833,000,000 ; and the Govern-
ment promised to try and restrict the national expenditures to this
amount.

As for the sources of national revenue, the customs are understood
to yield about one half ; taxes on sales and stamps, some 85,000,000 ;
post-oifices and telegraph lines, 8650,000 ; lotteries, 8800,000 ; while
the receipts from taxes levied by the States (mainly on sales also)
amount to from 88,000,000 to 810,000,000, or about one half the
receipts from customs.

In respect to the foreign commerce of Mexico, a report on the
" Commercial Relations of the United States," issued by the United
States Department of State in 1883, says : " Owing to the system, or,
rather, to the lack of system, in regard to the collection and publica-
tion of customs returns by the national Government, it is impossible
for our consuls in Mexico to supply any trustworthy statistics concern-

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 299

ing the foreign commerce of the republic." An approximative esti-
mate of the results for 1680 was as follows :

Exports $32,663,554

Imports 24,003,372

Total $56,666,926

The precious metals coin, bullion, and ores always constitute the
great bulk of what Mexico exports ; and the proportion of agricultural
products or other merchandise exported is surprisingly small. Thus,
out of the total value of exports for 1884, estimated by Consul-Gen-
eral Sutton at $39,716,000, nearly three fourths, or $28,452,000, were
credited to the precious metals, and only $11,264,000 to all other com-
modities ; and, of these last, the largest proportion always consists of
articles produced near the seaboard, or near the line of the City of
Mexico and Vera Cruz Railroad. During recent years, and since the
construction of the so-called American railroads, the increase in the
exports from Mexico, of products other than the precious metals, has,
however, been very notable, and is apparently progressive. But the
fact that the exports of Mexico always largely exceed her imports,
that the great bulk of the exports are always the precious metals, and
that the excess of imports does not represent payment for interest to
any extent on any national foreign indebtedness, naturally creates a
suspicion that the whole (export) transaction is something abnormal ;
which may find an explanation in the existence of a class of wealthy
absentee landlords, or proprietors, who, living permanently in Paris or
Spain, draw rents, tolls, and profits from their Mexican properties,
and invest or expend the same in other, or foreign countries. The
bulk of the coinage of Mexico both of silver and of gold is export-
ed almost as soon as it leaves the mints. Thus, although the average
annual coinage of the Mexican mints from 1876 to 1880 was $22,524,694,
and since then has been larger ($25,610,000 in 1881-82), the amount
of coin in actual circulation in the country is believed to hav3 never
been in excess of $15,000,000 or $20,000,000. Much of the Mexican
coined silver has, as is well known, been heretofore in large demand
to meet the world's requirements for trade with China ; but what has
come back to Mexico for it in exchange is somewhat of a commercial
puzzle.

In a report to the State Department (May, 1884), ex-Consul-Gen-
eral Strother thus briefly sums up the obstacles (heretofore noticed
more in detail in this series of papers) which stand in the way of the
future development of the commerce of Mexico. He says : " Topo-
graphically considered, Mexico labors under many serious disadvan-
tages to commerce, whether external or internal. Her coasts on both
oceans are broad belts of intolerable heat, disease, and aridity, and, ex-
cept a few small seaport towns, are nearly uninhabited. On the whole
extent of her coast-line there are but two natural harbors available

3 oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for first-class modern merchant-vessels those of Anton Lizado on the
Gulf, and Acapulco on the Pacific. All the other so-called seaports
now used by commerce are open roadsteads, dangerous in rough
weather, and only approachable in lighters, or are located on rivers,
the entrances to which are closed to ocean traders by shallows or
sand-bars. The natural obstructions and difficulties in the way of in-
land traffic are scarcely less observable. Mexico is entirely wanting
in navigable rivers and lakes. Her fertile districts, capital cities, and
centers of population are separated from each other by long distances,
arid districts, immense chains of mountains, and vast barrancas
washed out by her rapidly descending water-courses. These difficul-
ties were partially overcome by the Spaniards, who constructed a noble
system of highways and bridges extending between the principal cities
of the viceroyalty, but from the nature of the soil they were immense-
ly expensive to construct and difficult to maintain. During the long
and ruinous wars for independence, and the civil wars which followed,
these highways went rapidly to destruction ; and, notwithstanding
recent repairs and reconstructions, the general condition of Mexican
highways is not encouraging to either commerce or travel. But all
these natural and accidental disadvantages combined may be regarded
as nothing in comparison with the crushing and suffocating influences
brought to bear on Mexican commerce, foreign and domestic, by the
exclusive policy imposed by the mother-country during the three cent-
uries of Mexico's colonial vassalage ; and, secondly, by the system of
internal and interstate duties and custom-houses, inherited from Old
Spain, which still practically vexes the internal commerce of the re-
public."

Relation of the Sanitary Condition of Mexico to its Com-
mercial Development. The sanitary condition of every country
constitutes an important element in determining its commercial devel-
opment, and Mexico especially illustrates the truth of this proposition.
The coast-lands of the republic are hot and unhealthy. The more
elevated portions, where nine tenths of the people live, are claimed to
be unsurpassed in salubrity. Strangers from northern latitudes, and
accustomed to the ordinary levels of human residence, are liable, on
coming to the Mexican plateau, to a process of acclimation, which,
although often very trying, is rarely attended with any very serious
consequences. Horse-dealers from Texas state that they lose from
twelve to twenty per cent of the horses brought to the city of Mexico
for sale, solely from the climatic influences contingent on its great
altitude ; and the common house-cat, it is said, does not thrive, and is
scarce on the highlands of Mexico for like reasons. The sanitary con-
ditions of the two chief commercial centers of the republic, namely,
the city of Mexico and of Vera Cruz, are, however, so extraordinary
and so obstructive to national progress that any review of the country
would be imperfect that neglected to notice them. The evil in the

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 301

case of the former is local and not climatic, and is due to the circum-
stance that the site of the city is " a bowl in the mountains," so that
drainage from it is now, and always has been, very difficult. And, as
years have passed, and the population living within the bowl has
multiplied, the evil has continually increased, until Lake Tezcoco,
which borders the city, and on which Cortes built and floated war-
galleys, has been nearly filled up with drainage deposits which have
been carried into it through an elaborate system of city sewers. If
these sewers ever had fall enough to drain them, they have, as the
result of the filling up of this lake, little or none now, and the result
is that they have become in effect an immense system of cess-pools ;
while the soil, on which from 250,000 to 300,000 people live, has be-
come permeated throughout with stagnant water and filth inexpressible.
And were it not for the extreme dryness and rarefaction of the air,
which, as before pointed out, prevent the putrefaction of animal sub-
stances, and seem to hinder the propagation of the germs of disease,
the city must long ago have been visited with plague, and perhaps
have been rendered absolutely uninhabitable. And, even under exist-
ing circumstances, the average duration of life in the city of Mexico
is estimated to be but 26*4 years. Typhoid fever prevails all the year
round, and is especially virulent at the end of the dry season, when
the heat is the greatest. And, surprising as it may seem, with a cli-
mate of perpetual spring and an elevation of 7,500 above the sea-level,
lung and malarial diseases hold a prominent place among the causes of
death. According to the reports of the Board of Health of the Mexi-
can capital for April and May of the present year (1886), thirty-three
per cent of the weekly mortality at that season was to be referred to
typhoid and other forms of gastric fever, and twenty per cent to con-
sumption and pneumonia. In the year 1877, when a typhus epidemic
prevailed, the city's mortality was reported to have been as high as
53-2 per thousand as compared with an average death-rate of 24*6 in
Paris for the same year. " A distinguished member of the medical
faculty of Mexico has lately published a report, in which he demon-
strates, by comparative statistical tables, that the annual mortality
of the city is increasing to such an extent as already to counterbalance
the natural movement of the population, and, if not checked in time,
as threatening the race."* "United States Consular Reports," No. 3,
1881, p. 18.

This condition of affairs is not due, as some might infer, to any
improvidence or want of enterprise on the part of the Mexicans, for

* Under the title of the " Great Necropolis," one of the prominent Mexican newspapers,
the " Correo del Lunes," recently said : " Undisguised terror is caused by these proces-
sions of the dead which daily defile through the streets of Mexico. To be alive here is
getting to be a startling phenomenon. It may be a very short time, unless energetic
remedial measures are adopted, before the capital will have to be moved to another
location."

3 02 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the evil has long been recognized, and at present especially interests
the Government. But the difficulties in the way of applying an effica-
cious remedy are very great, and engineers are not fully agreed as to
the best method for attaining the desired result. " For such is the
nature of the plain upon which Mexico is built, such the conformation
of the land and the contour of the mountains about it, that a vast sys-
tem of tunneling and canalization would be necessary to create a fall
sufficient to drain the valley ; and, before the city can be drained, the
valley must be." It is said that one celebrated American engineer,
whose advice was recently asked by the Government, reported that, if
a thorough drainage could be effected, the city, through a consequent
shrinkage of soil, would probably tumble down. And, finally, the ex-
isting condition of the national and municipal finances is such, that it
is not easy for the authorities to determine how the money neces-
sary to meet the contingent great expenditures estimated at about
$9,000,000, or a sum equivalent to more than one third of the entire
annual revenue of the General Government is to be provided.

It ought not to be inferred that there is special danger to travelers,
or tourists, visiting the Mexican capital, and residing there during the
winter months or early spring ; for experience shows that, with ordi-
nary precautions in respect to location, diet, exercise, and exposure,
health can be maintained there as easily as in most of the cities of
Italy at the same seasons.

At Vera Cruz, the local name of which is " El Yomito " (a term
doubtless originating from the continued prevalence in the town of
yellow fever), the sanitary conditions are much worse than in the city
of Mexico ; and the causes of the evil, being mainly climatic, are prob-
ably not removable. The statistics of mortality at this place, gath-
ered and published by the United States Department of State, are
simply appalling. Thus, the population of Vera Cruz in 1869 was re-
turned at 13,492. The number of deaths occurring during the ten
years ending September, 1880, was 12,219. The average duration of
life in Vera Cruz for this period was, therefore, about eleven years !
Other calculations indicate the average annual death-rate of this place
to be about ninety per thousand, as compared with the annual aver-
age for all the leading cities of the United States for the year 1880,
of 22*28 per thousand.

The writer feels that he would be guilty of a grave omission, in
this connection, if he failed to quote and also to indorse the words
with which the United States consul, who gathered and communi-
cated these facts, thus concludes his official report, October, 1880 :
" With these awful facts before me, I leave it to the common judgment
and high ideas that our law-makers have of justice to say whether or
not the salary of the consul who, for eleven years, has lived in such
an atmosphere, ought or ought not to be placed at least back to where
it was when he was sent here."

AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 303

[Note. No more striking illustration of the popular " craze " for public office can be
found than in the circumstance that, although an appointment to the United States con-
sulate at Vera Cruz (salary in 1884, $3,000) is equivalent to investing in a lottery of
death, in which the chances to an unacclimated person for drawing a capital prize are
probably as great as one to seven or eight, no lack of applicants for the place is ever ex-
perienced. Thus, the consul whose appeal for an increase of salary is above noticed, was
appointed from Illinois, and resigned in 1881. His successor, appointed from Nebraska,
died of yellow fever a fortnight after arrival at his post ; and since then there have been
two appointments, one from Nebraska and one from New Jersey.]

This, then, is what the writer has to report respecting the economic
condition and prospects of Mexico. His conclusions have not come to
him, as perhaps may be inferred or charged, mainly from a somewhat
extended but brief tour of observation ; for no one can be more con-
scious than he of how little one can know of a country who, ignorant
of the language, the customs, the political and social condition and
pursuits of its people, sees it simply and hurriedly as a traveler. But
the journey in question was, nevertheless, sufficiently extensive and
instructive to thoroughly satisfy at least as to two points : First, that
here was a country, bordering on the United States for a distance of
more than two thousand miles, which was almost as foreign to the
latter, in respect to race, climate, government, manners, and laws, as
though it belonged to another planet ; and, secondly, that the people
of the United States generally knew about as much of the domestic
concerns of this one of their nearest neighbors as they did about
those of the empire of China. The temptation to enter upon a field
of economic investigation so fresh and so little worked was too at-
tractive to be resisted ; and, accordingly, with the sole purpose of
desiring to know the truth about Mexico, and to form an opinion as
to what should be the future political and commercial relations be-
tween that country and the United States, the writer has made a
careful study of a large amount of information that he has found acces-
sible, both from public and private sources. And it is on the basis of
this study, and with the kindliest feeling for and the deepest interest
in Mexico, that he has written. In so doing, however, he claims
nothing of infallibility. He frankly confesses that in respect to some
things he may be mistaken ; and that others might draw entirely dif-
ferent conclusions from the same data.* But for the entire accuracy

* One curious illustration of this point is to be found in the following extract from a
letter recently addressed to the Mexican " Financier " by a Mexican gentleman, in contra-
vention of the writer's opinions respecting the present industrial condition and prospective
development of Mexico. He says: "If you pass through the Academy of San Carlos, you
will see pictures executed by native Mexican artists in the highest style of art, comparing
most favorably with any production of the academies of design of Paris, Rome, Munich,
or elsewhere. Go with me, if you please, to a narrow lane in the small but picturesque
city of Cucrnavaca, and there in a small room, working with implements of his own make,
you will observe a native, whom you would perhaps class among the peons, carving a
crucifix in wood, so highly artistic, with the expression of suffering on our Saviour's face
so realistic, that any foreign sculptor of the highest renown would be proud to call it a

304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of most statements and deductions, he believes he finds ample warrant
in the published diplomatic and consular correspondence of the United
States during the last decade, and in an extensive personal correspond-
ence with railroad and commercial men, who, from continuous resi-
dence, have become well acquainted with Mexico.* Making every
allowance, however, for differences of opinion respecting minor details,
the main facts and deductions that have been presented (which can
not well be questioned or disputed) are all that are essential for an
intelligent discussion of the possible or desirable relations of the
United States to Mexico in the future ; and it is to a consideration of
this matter that the attention of the reader is next invited.

creation of his own. Again, visit with me the village of Amatlan de los Reyes, near Cor-
doba, and observe the exquisitely embroidered huipilla of some native woman, surpassing
in many respects the designs of the art-needlework societies of New York or Boston ; not
to mention the fine filigree-work, figures in clay and wax as executed by the natives in
or near the city of Mexico, the art pottery of Guadalajara, the gourds, calabashes, and
wooden trays highly embellished by native artists, whose sense or acceptation of art is
not acquired by tedious study at some academy of design, but is inborn and spontaneously
expressed in such creations. Only yesterday in my walks about town I entered the Na-
tional Monte de Piedad, where I heard the sweetest and most melodious strains from a
grand piano of American make, and beheld, to my astonishment, that the artist was a
native, a cargador, or public porter, clad in cheap sombrero, blouse, white cotton trousers,
and sandals, with his brass plate and rope across his shoulders, ready to carry this very
instrument on his back to the residence of some better-favored brother from a foreign
land. If this is not innate genius, I know not what else to call it." To this it may be
replied that the facts as above stated are probably not in the least exaggerated. There
is undoubtedly in the Mexican people, inherited from their Spanish ancestry, much of
aesthetic taste and an " innate genius " for music, painting, sculpture, embroidery, dress,
decoration, and the fine arts generally. But this very fact, in view of the hard, rough
work that Mexico has got to do to overcome the natural obstacles in the way of her ma-
terial development, is not a matter of encouragement. For it is not genius to carve cruci-
fixes, embroider huipillas, or compose and execute music that her people need ; but rather
the ability to make and maintain good roads, invent and use machinery, and reform a
system of laws that would neutralize all her natural advantages, even though they were
many times greater than the most patriotic citizen of the country could claim for it.

* From one of these latter the following warning against publishing anything in
the way of observations or conclusions was received by the writer:

" City of Mbxico, April 13, 18S6.
" The papers are filled with the letters of travelers about Mexico. If you do not con-
form to what many people here want you to say, you are put down as having taken a
hasty or dyspeptic observation of the country, and had no opportunity to know anything.
If you pass one week in an hotel, and should write conformably to what various interests
would have you, you are at once quoted as a ' most intelligent and experienced traveler.'
A thorough investigation scrapes off all the varnish, and will often expose the motives of
not a few people in Mexico, who would have American capital plant itself there under
conditions which afford no protection by their Government or ours."

EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER SEISMIC MOVEMENTS. 305

EAKTHQUAKES AND OTHER SEISMIC MOVEMENTS.*

WE are accustomed to think of the land of the earth as something
solid and fixed ; and, as a testimonial of this impression, the
Latin phrase terra firma, firm land or solid ground, has been natural-
ized in the languages of nearly all civilized peoples. On the other
hand, we speak of water as unstable. But the geological history of
the earth and the more careful observations of modern times have
taught us that these ideas do not correctly represent the qualities of
the land-masses and water-masses of the globe as compared with one
another. The ancient shore-marks on the continents and the phenom-
ena of elevation and subsidence that have been observed in historic
times, confirming their evidence, show that the land and the ocean are
continually changing their level as to one another ; and it has further
been made evident, by experiment, as well as by a priori reasoning,
that it is not the ocean that changes, but the land which undergoes
alternate movements of elevation and depression. An earthquake-
shock is a phenomenon well adapted to destroy the faith of any person
who feels one in the fixedness of the earth ; and such, by the evidence,
is the effect for the time on all who experience these shocks. Even the
light pulsations which sometimes pass over parts of the United States
occasion panic and excite a momentary impression that everything is
falling over or sinking away ; while the more violent shocks that are
felt in earthquake-infested countries produce indescribable terror ;
and such catastrophes as those historical earthquakes of Lisbon and
Caracas, and the more recent ones of Ischia and the Strait of Sunda
amount to a demonstration that the reason for such terrors is real, and
that the continents also can not escape the general law of change and
perishability.

Earth-movements the name by which these phenomena may be
most conveniently described are various, and comprise, so far as they
are now considered, earthquakes, or sudden violent movements of the
ground ; earth-tremors, or minute movements which usually escape
attention by the smallness of their amplitude ; earth pulsations, or
movements which are overlooked on account of the length of their
period ; and earth oscillations or movements of long period and large
amplitude like the shifting of levels of land-masses which attract
attention from their geological importance. Some of these movements
have only recently begun to attract attention. They are all intimate-
ly associated in their occurrence and their origin.

The study of earthquakes is of interest to the geologist in many

* Earthquakes and other Earth Movements. By John Milne, Professor of Mining
and Geology in the Imperial College of Tokio, Japan. International Scientific Series.
No. LV. New York : D. Appleton & Co., pp. 348.
VOL. xxix. 20

306

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ways. As they seem to be connected with volcanic action, the study
of them may help to throw light on that, and vice versa. As an
earthquake-wave travels along from strata to strata, the study of its
reflections and changes in transit may lead to the discovery of pecul-
iarities in rocky structure, of which we should otherwise have no accu-
rate knowledge. It may teach us something about the transmission
of disturbances in elastic media, about the earth's magnetism, the elec-
tric currents of the earth, and other kindred problems. It is of in-
terest to the meteorologist to know the connections which probably
exist between earthquakes and the fluctuations of the barometer, the
changes of the thermometer, and the quantity of rainfall. In a prac-
tical point, we may ask ourselves what are the effects of earthquakes
upon buildings, and how, in earthquake-shaken countries, the build-
ings are to be made to withstand them.

A typical earthquake consists of a series of small tremors succeeded
by a shock, or of a series of shocks separated by more or less irregular
both in period and in amplitude vibrations of the ground. Man
can take but little account of these movements, for they come upon
him by surprise, and, by the time he is ready to begin to observe, they
are over. Hence we must have recourse to instruments. It is easy
enough to construct an instrument that shall move at the time of an

earthquake, and leave a record
of its motion a seismoscope ;
but an instrument that shall
record the period, extent, and
direction of each of the vibra-
tions constituting the earth-
quake a seismometer or seis-
mograph is a more compli-
cated affair.

The earliest seismoscope of
which we find any historical
record is that of the Chinese
Choko, which was invented in
a. d. 136. According to the
historical account given of it,
it consisted of a spherically
formed copper vessel (Fig. 1),
eight feet in diameter. " Its
outer part," the account says,
"is ornamented by the figures of different kinds of birds and ani-
mals, and old, peculiar -looking letters. In the inner part of this
instrument is a column so suspended that it can move in eight di-
rections. Also, in the inside of the bottle, there is an arrangement
by which some record of an earthquake is made according to the
movement of the pillar. On the outside of the bottle there are eight

Fig. 1.

EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER SEISMIC MOVEMENTS. 307

dragon-heads, each of which holds a ball in its mouth. Underneath
these heads there are eight frogs so placed that they appear to watch
the dragon's face, so that they are ready to receive the ball if it should
be dropped. All the arrangements which cause the pillar to knock
the ball out of the dragon's mouth are well hidden in the bottle.
When an earthquake occurs, and the bottle is shaken, the dragon in-
stantly drops the ball and the frog which receives it vibrates vigor-
ously. Any one watching this instrument can easily observe earth-
quakes. With this arrangement, although one dragon may drop a
ball, it is not necessary for the other seven dragons to drop their balls
unless the movement has been in all directions : thus we can easily
tell the direction of an earthquake. Once upon a time a dragon
dropped its ball without any earthquake being observed, and the peo-
ple therefore thought the instrument of no use, but after two or three
days a notice came, saying that an earthquake' had taken place at
Rdsei. Hearing of this, those who doubted the use of this instrument
began to believe in it again. After this ingenious instrument had
been invented by Choko, the Chinese Government wisely appointed a
secretary to make observations on earthquakes." This, the most an-
cient of the whole class, is closely resembled by some of the instru-
ments of modern times.

The Japanese have an instrument consisting of a magnet holding
up a nail, which, when shaken off, starts the train of an alarum, but this
does not seem to have ever acted with success. Other seismoscopes
depend upon the overthrow of a round column of wood or metal, the
projection of balls which are connected with electric circuits, or the
disturbance of liquids. Some seismographs depend upon the motions
of a pendulum, which may be made to show whether the direction of
the shock has been constant or variable, and the maximum extent of
its motion in various directions. Other instruments are formed by
various adjustments of movable bodies, or with springs and adapta-
tions of clock-work. For a complete seismograph we require three
distinct sets of apparatus an apparatus to record horizontal motion,
one to record vertical motion, and one to record time. These princi-
ples are all embodied in the Gray and Milne seismograph, which is now
in use in Japan. In this apparatus (Fig. 2) two mutually rectangular
components of the horizontal motion of the earth are recorded on a
sheet of smoked paper wound round a drum, D, kept continuously in.
motion by clock-work, W, by means of two conical pendulum seismo-
graphs, C. The vertical motion is recorded on the same sheet of
paper by means of a compensated-spring seismograph, S. L. M. B.
The time of occurrence of an earthquake is determined by causing the
circuit of two electro-magnets to be closed by the shaking. One of
these magnets relieves a mechanism, forming part of a time-keeper,
which causes the dial of the time-piece to come suddenly forward on
the hands and then move back to its original position. The hands are.

3 o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

provided with ink-pads, which mark their positions on the dial, thus
indicating the hour, minute, and second when the circuit was closed.
The second electro-magnet causes a pointer to make a mark on the
paper receiving the record of the motion. This mark indicates the
part of the earthquake at which the circuit was closed. The duration

Fig. 2.

of the earthquake is estimated from the length of the record on the
smoked paper and the rate of motion of the drum. The nature and
period of the different movements are obtained from the curves drawn
on the paper.

It may be said, as the result of experiences and observations, that
an ordinary earthquake consists of a number of backward-and-forward
motions of the ground following each other in quick succession. Some-
times these commence and die out so gradually that those who have
endeavored to time the duration of an earthquake have found it diffi-
cult to say when the shock began and when it ended. Sometimes the
motions gradually increase to a maximum and then die out as gradu-
ally ; sometimes the maximum comes suddenly ; and at other times

EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER SEISMIC MOVEMENTS. 309

during an earthquake the observer's feelings distinctly tell him that
there are several maxima. The chief results which investigators have
aimed at have been the measurement of the amplitude, period, direc-
tion, and duration of the motions ; and attention has been given to the
velocity with which the disturbance is propagated.

If we were to ask the inhabitants of a town which had been shaken
by an earthquake the direction of the motion they had experienced, it
is not unlikely that their replies would include all the points of the
compass. Many, in consequence of their alarm, have not been able to
make accurate observations. Others have been deceived by the mo-
tion of the building in which they were situated. Some tell us that the
motion was north and south, while others say that it was east and west.
A certain number have recognized several motions, and among the rest
there will be a few who have felt a wriggling or twisting. Leaving
out exceptional cases, the general result obtained from personal obser-
vation as to the direction of an earthquake of moderate intensity is
extremely indefinite, and the only satisfactory information to be got is
that derived from instruments or from the effects of the earthquake as
exhibited in shattered buildings and bodies which had been overturned
or projected. By the use of seismographs it has been shown that dur-
ing an earthquake the ground may move in one, two, or several direc-
tions, and it is only when a decided shock is exj>erienced that we can
determine with any confidence the direction in which the motion has
been propagated. The apparently twisting or wriggling motions are
supposed to be the result of combinations of linear movements in
different directions. It is often difficult, when reading accounts of
earthquakes, to determine the length of time a shaking was continu-
ous. Disturbances which succeed one another with sufficient rapidity
to cause an almost continual trembling of the ground may be regarded
as collectively forming one great seismic effort, which may last a min-
ute, an hour, a day, a week, or even several years. Strictly speaking,
they are a series of separate earthquakes, the vibrations of which more
or less overlap. Whenever a large earthquake occurs, it is generally
succeeded by a considerable number of smaller shocks. Disturbances
of this character are compared by Mallet to " an occasional cannonade
during a continuous but irregular rattle of musketry." Continuous
motions perceptible to our senses without the aid of instruments usual-
ly last from thirty seconds to about two or three minutes. The princi-
pal vibrations or shocks of the disturbance occur at unequal intervals ;
and in the periods of vibration there are irregularities in any given
earthquake, and different earthquakes differ from one another. The
extent of the movement is much less than the feelings of one experi-
encing a shock would lead him to estimate it. It is usually within the
fraction of an inch in either direction. According to Dr. Wagener,
the earth's horizontal motion at the time of a small earthquake is usu-
ally only the fraction of a millimetre, and it seldom exceeds three or

3 io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

four millimetres. Mallet believes that the displacement may in some
instances be equal to a foot ; and M. Abella records a rough observa-
tion, in the Philippine Islands, of a motion of the earth to a distance
of two metres, when fissures were formed, and seen to open and
shut. The velocity of propagation of the wave may vary, even in
the same country, between several hundreds and several thousands
of feet per second. The same earthquake travels faster across dis-
tricts near to its origin than it does across districts which are far re-
moved ; and, the greater the intensity of the shock, the greater is
the velocity.

If we were suddenly placed among the ruins of a large city which
had been shattered by an earthquake, it is doubtful whether we should
at once recognize any law as to the relative position of the masses of
rubbish and the general destruction around. The results of observa-
tion have, however, shown that, among the apparently chaotic ruin
produced by earthquakes there runs more or less of law governing
the position of bodies which have fallen, the direction and position of
cracks in walls, and the other effects. Usually, walls of buildings at
right angles to the shock will be more likely to be overthrown than
those which are parallel to it. It is said that in Caracas every house
has its lado securo, or safe side, where the inhabitants place their fra-
gile property. It is the north side, and has been chosen because about
two out of three destructive shocks traverse the city from west to
east, so that the walls in those sides of the building take them broad-
side on. This appears to be the rule in destructive earthquakes. But,
when a building is subjected to a slight movement, it is assumed that
the walls at right angles to the direction of the shock move backward
and forward as a whole, and there is little or no tendency for them to
be fractured at their weaker parts. The walls, however, which are
parallel to the direction of the movement are extended and contracted
along their length, and may consequently be expected to give way
over the door- and window-openings. The results of the examination
of more than three hundred foreign-built brick houses in Tokio, Japan,
all similar in their construction, are typically illustrated in Fig. 3.
They show that in the upper windows nearly all the cracks ran from
the springing of the arches, which formed an angle with the abutment.
In the lower arches, which curved into the abutments, not a single
crack was observed at the spring-way. The cracks in those arches
were near the crown, where beams projected to carry the balcony ;
and in many instances they proceeded from such beams, even if there
were no arches beneath. The houses which were most cracked were
in the streets running parallel to the direction in which the greater
number and most powerful set of shocks cross the city. From the
fact that cracks once made in a building did not appear to extend
under the repetition of shocks similar to the one that produced them,
it has been inferred that buildings thus cracked acquire a degree of

EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER SEISMIC MOVEMENTS. 311

flexibility, and that, by providing cracks or joints between the parts of
buildings which have different periods of vibration, some of the strain
might be taken off from them, and they might be made more stable.
In stone-work, the cracks have been observed generally to run through
the mortar-joints ; in brick-work, through either bricks or mortar,
often preferring the bricks.

As fractures in walls seem most likely to take place above open-
ings like doors or windows, it follows that where architecture demands
that openings should be placed one above another in heavy walls,
there will be lines of weakness running through the openings. As
arches are only intended to resist vertical thrusts, special construction
must be adopted to make them strong enough to resist horizontal pulls.
This might be given by inserting iron girders or wooden lintels in the
arches. Mr. Perry, of Tokio, has suggested a plan of building so that
the openings of each tier would occupy alternate positions. Such a
line is shown in Fig. 4, where the dotted lines run through openings

\

D ,'
ti ,ti D

o;Bo
pf n H

/

*'a ^

D D

D D

43-0 &

D D

n ft n

% \

a

b c\

d*

\

/

Fig. 3. Brick Buildings in Tokio, showing

Fractures.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

representing the direction of the lines of weakness. If we compare this
with Fig. 5, we shall see that in the case of a horizontal movement,
a b, or a vertical movement, c d, fractures would more probably occur
in a house built like Fig. 5 than in one built like Fig. 4. If, how-
ever, these two buildings were shaken by a shock which had an angle
of emergence of about 45, in the direction of ef y the effects might be
reversed. Fractures following a vertical line of weakness are shown
in the accompanying drawing (Fig. 6) of the church of St. Augustin,
at Manila, shattered by the earthquake of 1880.

When an earthquake shock enters and proceeds along a line of
buildings, the last building in the row will, of course, suffer the most,
and will exhibit the greatest tendency to fly away from its neigh-
bors. If the house stands on the edge of a canal, or cliff, this tend-
ency is increased by the similar motion of the escarpment. The fate
of an end-building thus stricken is shown in Fig. 7, which is taken
from the photograph of a house that was shattered in 1868 at San
Francisco. Houses may also be rocked on their foundations, or even

312

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

quite overturned, as appears to have happened to the stud-mill at Hay-
ward, California (Fig. 8).

In any building which may be affected by an earthquake, we have
to consider the vibration of a number of parts, the periods of which,
if they were independent of each other, would be different. On ac-
count of this difference in period, while one portion of a building is

Fig. 6. Chtjbch of St. Aitgustin, Manila. Earthquakes op July 18-20, 1880.

endeavoring to move toward the right, another is pulling toward the
left, and either the bonds which join them or the parts themselves will
be strained or broken. This was illustrated by many of the chimneys
in the houses at Yokohama, which, in the earthquake of February 20,
1880, were shorn off just above the roof. Since then, builders have
learned to let chimneys pass freely through the roof without coming
in contact with any of the main timbers.

In trying to make structures earthquake-proof, we may build our
house weak and flexible, so that the shock shall pass over it as the
wind over a reed, or we may attempt to make it stronger than the
shock. The native Japanese houses, with their flexible framing, are
built on the former plan ; some of the European houses essay the

EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER SEISMIC MOVEMENTS. 313

latter. In Italy the houses are left to take their chances. In South
America, where much exposed to earthquakes, they are built of only
one story, or of bamboo and ropes, similarly to the Japanese plan. One
of the safest houses for an earthquake country would probably be a
one-storied, strongly framed timber house, with a light, flattish roof,

Fig- 7. Webber House, San Francisco, Octoeer 21, 1868.

made of shingles or sheet-iron, the whole resting on a quantity of
small cast-iron balls carried on flat plates bedded in the foundations.
The chimneys might be made of sheet-iron, carried through holes free
of the roof. The ornamentation ought to be of light materials. The
nature of the ground on which the house is built does not always

Fig. 8. Stud Mill at Hatwards, California, October 21, 1868.

appear to be in itself a matter of prime moment. Its relations with
other foundations are more important. In some places solid strata,
in others soft strata, appear to afford the more favorable situations ;
and the superiority of either probably depends on a variety of local
circumstances. Places near the junction of the two kinds of forma-

3 H THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions are the worst. The progress of the wave may be interrupted by
the interposition of a mountain-range or a hill, in which case we have
behind the barrier the phenomenon called an earthquake-shadow ; it
may be cut off by a deep ditch, as a canal ; and in certain parts of
South America there appear to exist tracts of ground which are prac-
tically exempt from the shocks, while the whole country around is vio-
lently shaken. It would seem as if the shock passed beneath such a
district as water passes beneath a bridge ; and for this reason such
tracts have been christened " bridges." In the Syrian earthquake of
1837, neighboring villages, and even neighboring houses, suffered dif-
ferently. In one case a house was entirely destroyed, while in the
next house nothing was felt. In Japan, at a place called Choshi,
about fifty-five miles east of the capital, earthquakes are seldom felt,
although the surrounding districts may be severely shaken. At this
place a large basaltic boss rises in the midst of alluvial strata. The
immunity of the district from earthquakes has probably given rise to
the myth of the Kanam rock, which is a stone supposed to rest upon
the head of a monstrous cat-fish, whose writhings cause the shakings
so often felt.

Possibly something may be done in arranging the surroundings
of buildings to ward off the destructive effects of earthquakes. The
Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was built on the edge of a marsh for this
object. Pliny says that the Capitol of Rome was saved by the Cata-
combs. Elisee Reclus says that the Romans and Hellenes found out
that caverns, wells, and quarries retarded the disturbance of the earth,
and protected edifices in their neighborhood. The Tower of Capua
was saved by its numerous wells. Vivenzis asserts that in building
the Capitol the Romans sank wells to weaken the effects of terres-
trial oscillations ; and Humboldt relates the same of the inhabitants of
San Domingo. Quito is said to receive protection from the numerous
canons in the neighborhood, while Lactacunga, fifteen miles distant,
has often been destroyed. Similarly, it is extremely probable that
many portions of Tokio have from time to time been protected more
or less from the severe shocks of earthquakes by the numerous moats
and deep canals which intersect the city.

Various causes have been assigned for the production of earth-
quakes, and, although they may all singly or in combination contribute
to the effect, we must conclude, after considering the whole subject,
that the primary cause is endogenous to our earth, and that exogenous
causes, like the attraction of the sun and moon, and barometric fluc-
tuations, play but a small part in the actual production of the phe-
nomena, their greatest effect being to cause a slight preponderance in
the number of earthquakes at particular seasons. The majority of
earthquakes are due to explosive efforts at volcanic foci. The greater
number of these explosions take place beneath the sea, and are proba-
bly due to the admission of water through fissures to the heated rocks

EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER SEISMIC MOVEMENTS. 315

beneath. A smaller number of earthquakes originate at actual volca-
noes. Some earthquakes are produced by the sudden fracture of rocky-
strata or the production of faults. This may be attributable to stresses
brought about by elevatory pressure. Lastly, we have earthquakes
due to the collapse of underground excavations ; and these may have
been produced by evisceration caused by volcanic eruptions, by the
washing away or solution of the earth by chemically charged waters
or hot springs, or by other causes.

Considerable attention has been drawn lately toward the study of
small vibratory motions of the ground which, to the unaided senses,
are usually passed by without recognition. They are called earth-
tremors, and were only discovered when difficulties caused by them
were encountered in the adjustment of extremely delicate astronomi-
cal and other instruments. These movements have been most carefully
studied in Italy by Father Bertelli,
of Florence ; le Conte Malvasia, at
Bologna ; M. di Rossi, at Rome ; and
le Baron Puet, at Nice. Delicate in-
struments have been devised for de-
tecting and recording them, the most
important of which is the normal
tromometer of Bertelli and Rossi. It
consists of a pendulum (Fig. 9) one
and a half metre long, carrying, by
means of a very fine wire, a weight
of one hundred grammes. To the
base of the bob a vertical stile is at-
tached, and the whole is inclosed in
a tube, terminated at its base by a
glass prism of such a form that, when
looked through horizontally, the mo-
tion of the stile can be seen in all
azimuths. In front of this prism a
microscope is placed. Inside the
microscope is a micromatic scale, so
arranged that it can be turned to co-
incide with the apparent direction of
oscillation of the point of the stile.
In this way not only can the amplitude of the motion of the stile be
measured, but also its azimuth. The extent of vertical motion is
measured by the up-and-down motion of the stile due to the elasticity
of the supporting wire.

Another instrument, the microseismograph of Professor Rossi, gives
automatic records of slight motions. It consists of four pendulums,
each about three feet long, suspended so that they form the corners of
a square platform. In the center of this platform a fifth but rather

Yia. 9. Nofmai, Tromometer. B. bob of
pendulum; P, prism; M, microscope ; S t
rim of scale.

3 i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

longer pendulum is suspended. The four pendulums are each con-
nected just above their bobs to the central pendulum with loose silk
threads. Fixed to the center of each of these threads, and held verti-
cally by a light spring, is a needle, so adjusted that each thread is de-
pressed to form an obtuse angle of about 155. These needles form
the terminals of an electric circuit, the other termination of which is
a small cup of mercury placed just below the lower end of the needle.
By a horizontal swing of one of the pendulums this arrangement causes
the needle to move vertically, but with a slightly multiplied amplitude.
By this motion the needle comes in contact with the mercury, and an
electro-magnet with a lever and pencil is caused to make a mark on a
band moved by clock-work. The five pendulums being of different
lengths, the apparatus is adapted to respond to seismic waves of differ-
ent velocities.

Professor Rossi's microphone consists of a metallic swing arranged
like the beam of a balance. By means of a movable weight at one
end of the beam, this is so adjusted that it falls down until it comes
in contact with a metallic stop. The beam and the stop form two
poles of an electric circuit, in which is a telephone. The slightest
motion in a vertical direction causes a fluctuation in the current
passing between the stop and the beam, and announces itself in the
telephone.

By observations made with instruments like these, it has been shown
that the soil of Italy is in incessant movement, with periods of exces-
sive activity, called seismic storms, that usually last about ten days.
The storms are separated by periods of relative calm. They are more
regular in winter, and exhibit sharp maximums in spring and autumn.
In the midst of such a period or at its end there is usually an earth-
quake. They have been observed to be generally related to baromet-
ric depressions.

Earth-pulsations are slow but large undulations that appear to
travel over or disturb the surface of the globe. They are made mani-
fest through variations in the movement of pendulums, changes in the
position of the bubbles of levels, eccentricities in the behavior of
clocks, the swinging of chandeliers in churches, unusual disturbances
in bodies of water, and even of water in tubs, irregularities in the
flow of springs, and other phenomena, the occurrence of which, or
the peculiar manner of it, while it is consistent with the hypothesis
of such movement, can not be accounted for on any other probable
supposition.

AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE. 317

AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE.

By MAEGAEETTE W. BEOOKS.

IN an article on silk-culture, published in " Harper's Magazine "
more than a quarter of a century ago, the following passage oc-
curs : " We shall soon be ready to begin that which the next century
will find us doing with all our might commanding the silk as we now
do the cotton markets of the world." When we consider how little
has been accomplished since that time, it is to be feared that this
prophecy will not be realized unless greater advances are made in the
next twenty-five years than were made in the last. Repeated trials
seem only to show that silk-raising in the United States is not as prof-
itable an industry as it was formerly thought to be.'

The culture of silk is so old that we can not tell when it was
begun, or by whom it was first discovered. The Chinese claim that it
was known to them as early as 2600 b. c. Almost all Roman and
Greek authors mention it, but it was probably unknown in Europe
until the sixth century after Christ, and not until the sixteenth cent-
ury was it successfully started in France.

In the year 1714 the manufacture of silk was begun in England.
James I tried to establish it in Virginia ; and in Georgia in 1732 lands
were granted on condition that on every ten acres of cleared land one
hundred white mulberry-trees should be planted, and, on the seal of
that State, silk-worms in various stages of their growth were repre-
sented. Two or three years later the first export, consisting of eight
pounds of raw silk, was sent to England, and the silk manufactured
from it was presented to the Queen. In the year 1759 ten thousand
pounds were exported, but after the introduction of cotton the culture
of silk declined, and the last exportation from Georgia was made in
1790.

In the year 1771 Pennsylvania and New Jersey began the culture
of silk, and experiments were also tried in New York and other
States. In an old newspaper, under the date of 1786, we read, "Late
Philadelphia papers mention, as an extraordinary circumstance, that
a family in Maryland have upward of two thousand silk-worms at
work."

The Revolution put an end to silk-raising for a time, but in the
early part of this century the culture of silk was again started in a
number of States, among others in Louisiana and South Carolina, and
even before this one of our New England States Connecticut began
the culture of silk. In the year 1790 it was said that fifty families in
New Haven were raising silk, and in a newspaper for the year 1787
we read that " a young miss in New Haven will soon wear a silk gown
of her own make." In the same paragraph the hope is expressed that

3 i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

soon it may be " esteemed disreputable, by both ladies and gentlemen,
to wear any thick silk but of our own manufacture."

In 1819 five tons of raw silk were raised at Mansfield, Connecticut,
and the manufacture of silk is still carried on there. In the year 1835
we read of a company formed in Rhode Island having a large planta-
tion of about thirty thousand mulberry-trees, and the State Legislature
of that year offers a premium of fifty cents on every pound of silk
raised and reeled in that State within two years from the passage of
the act. "Rhode Island is likely," so the paper says, "to take the
lead in the manufacture of silk as she did in cotton.

That the interest in the culture of silk must have been kept up, for
a time at least, is shown by the fact that in 1840 the United States
exported 61,552 pounds of raw silk, and in 1844 396,790 pounds, but
in 1850 only 14,763 pounds were exported, while in 1870 the census
gives no statistics of silk raised in this country.

About 1860 the culture of silk was started in California, where the
conditions of climate seemed specially favorable for its success, and
for some years it was carried on ; but by 1878 it had greatly declined,
owing possibly to commercial and industrial depression. Whether the
industry continues to any extent we have not ascertained.

In the year 1882 the Department of Agriculture received many
letters from persons interested in the culture of silk, and distributed a
few silk-worm eggs, but there was no general distribution.

In 1884 the department appropriated fifteen thousand dollars for
the encouragement of the industry, and a special agent was appointed
to attend to the work, the department offering to send eggs to any
one who would try the experiment of raising them. I should judge,
however, that no very favorable reports were received, as, at a meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1885,
as reported in " Science," Professor Riley stated that the culture of
silk had been tried in the United States for fifty years, and all that
the experiments had shown so far was that silk could be raised over
three fourths of the United States if there was a market for the
cocoons. He considers the industry best conducted on a small scale,
and adapted for women and children who have no other way of earn-
ing money. The profit for three persons he estimates at fifteen to
twenty-five dollars for the season, provided the cocoons bring one
dollar a pound a price, by-the-way, which only the best cocoons bring.

The care of silk-worms is decidedly wearisome, interesting though
it may be ; and certainly any woman enterprising enough to start in
the experiment of raising silk, and strong enough to do the necessary
work, might find some more profitable way of utilizing her time.

Mr. Edward Atkinson, at the same meeting of the Association
above mentioned, maintained that the culture of silk in the United
States was not desirable, since there was no lack of employment, as
the high rate of wages shows, and we can not afford to do for our-

AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE. 319

selves what foreign laborers will do cheaper ; and, moreover, the rais-
ing of silk has always been carried on by the poorest and most ineffi-
cient peoples, who, as they rise in the social scale, abandon it, as is
now coming to be the case in Southern France France being unable
to compete with the cheap labor of China and Japan. It may be
added that another reason for the decline of silk-culture in France is
said to be due to climatic changes.

One spring my attention was called to an article on silk-culture in
which it was stated that silk could be successfully and profitably
raised in the United States. The article then went on to quote from
a manual written by a young girl, who had tried silk-raising and had
been very successf ul. By a strange coincidence, in a few days a friend
offered me an ounce of silk-worm eggs which she had just received
from the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Not having the
time, and possibly the inclination, to raise the worms herself, she kind-
ly gave them to me, and I determined to try the experiment of raising
silk-worms in one of the New England States.

During three or four months of cold weather the eggs were kept
in a cool place in a cellar, at as even a temperature as was practicable,
the thermometer rarely, if ever, going below freezing-point, and never
rising above forty degrees.

The mulberry-tree, upon which the worm feeds, is one of the last
trees to leave out in the spring ; but soon after the 1st of June the
leaves began to show themselves, and on the 11th of June the eggs
were placed in a warm room, where, on the 13th, they had begun to
hatch. Only a few worms appeared that day ; the two following days
there were more, and on the 16th and 17th great numbers appeared.
It is estimated that there are forty thousand eggs in an ounce, but only
between two and three thousand of my lot hatched. However, a
number of the eggs had been given away, and probably some were
unfertilized, or had been killed.

Then began the task of keeping the worms supplied with food ;
and, fortunately, I had found a friend willing to undertake the experi-
ment with me, for a task it indeed proved. The white mulberry is
not common in Salem, and the nearest tree was nearly one quarter of
a mile from the house, and often we went a greater distance for the
leaves. At first a small number of leaves were sufficient, but in a
week or two my friend and myself had all we could do to keep the
worms, which were growing rapidly, supplied with fresh leaves ; then,
too, the lower branches of the tree, which was a large one, were soon
stripped, and some one had to climb the tree for us. Fresh leaves had
to be picked every day, sometimes twice and even three times a day.
This in itself took some time, and, if the leaves were at all damp, they
had to be wiped or dried in some way before filling the trays.

The trays in which the worms were kept had to be very carefully
cleaned, and all the refuse removed every day. As the worms grew

3 20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

larger they, of course, needed more space, and our room was gradu-
ally filling with extemporized tables and shelves covered with trays.
The cleaning of one tray seems a small matter, but when there are
over fifty trays to clean and fill with fresh leaves it takes a good while,
and often we did not get to bed until midnight. As early as possible
in the morning we were again at work feeding the worms, and for
thirty days we were kept incessantly employed, oftentimes feeling dis-
couraged, as the leaves were hard to get and the weather hot and de-
bilitating. Still, we were determined to do the best we could, and so
persevered in our self-imposed task.

Thirty days from the time of hatching, having lost no worms by
disease, the spinning of the first cocoon was begun, and a relief it was
to see a large worm crawling restlessly around the edge of the box
leaving traces of silk in the corners. Two days later the worms were
spinning in earnest, and we found our work of feeding and cleaning
somewhat lessened. We tied together twigs and straw, upon which
the worms made their cocoons. Following a friend's suggestion, we
begged from a grocer some of the straw coverings of wine-bottles, and
these the worms seemed to like very much. The room now presented
a very different appearance from that which it had a week or two
before. Instead of the rows of boxes, the tables were covered with
straw tent-like arrangements upon which were the yellow cocoons.

Before all had finished spinning, we thought it time to steam a part
of the cocoons, and here we met with our first difficulty. None of the
books on the subject, which we had at our disposal, gave any very
definite ideas as to the method by which this part of the work might
be accomplished.

Finally, after considerable perplexity, we made arrangements to
have the steaming done at a boiler-room. We laid about eight hun-
dred of the cocoons on a layer of cloth netting in a large box, at one
end of which a hole had been made and a round gas-tube inserted.
To this tube was attached a pipe from the boiler, and for twenty min-
utes, the time specified in a report published by the Department of
Agriculture, the steam was allowed to enter the box. At the end of
that time we found to our dismay that many of the cocoons had been
blown to one end of the box, forming a sticky mass. If we had been
almost discouraged before, we certainly were discouraged now. How-
ever, we dried them in the sun, and a few were sent to the Woman's
Silk-Culture Association in Philadelphia, with a letter, asking whether
we had steamed them too much, and for information in regard to
steaming the rest, of which we also inclosed a sample. In answer to
our request, a printed circular containing general directions was sent
to us, but no special directions as to steaming the others ; but we were
informed that our worms had been insufficiently fed ; the cocoons were
small, and steamed too much ; and the fresh cocoons could not be
reeled.

AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE. 321

As there is but little market for cocoons in this country, all at-
tempts to reel the silk here having been unsuccessful, we had not ex-
pected to realize much from the sale of the cocoons, still to be told
that they were absolutely worthless was rather disappointing after our
six weeks of hard work. We decided, however, to have the rest of
the cocoons steamed, and these we did ourselves in a common steamer,
and very much nicer they looked than our first lot.

But what was meant by our worms being insufficiently fed was not
understood, and again we applied to the Woman's Silk-Culture Asso-
ciation for information, and this time we received a more satisfactory
answer, though it seemed that our worms, instead of being underfed,
may have been overfed, for the letter said they must not be fed while
molting, and our worms had been fed at these periods. The " Report "
gave the same information, but we understood the reason to be simply
that time might be saved if worms of the same age could be made to
molt together. But we found it difficult and well-nigh impossible to
make them all molt at the same time, so finally were compelled to give
them leaves as usual, supposing that those worms molting would not
eat unless they needed food. In everything else we followed the
directions given in the " Report " as nearly as possible. The worms
certainly had plenty of room, fresh air, a uniform temperature, and as
to the last requisite mentioned in the book namely, cleanliness we
are sure that that condition at least was rigidly complied with, the
trays being cleaned every day, and sometimes even oftener if it seemed
necessary.

The room in which the worms were kept was on the northern side
of the house, and had one northern and one eastern window, and a
fireplace in which a fire was made whenever the weather was a little
cool or damp, so it was comparatively easy to regulate the temperature.

In the second letter received from the Woman's Silk-Culture Asso-
ciation we were told that no one could expect to make anything from
silk-raising until after two or three years' experience, and yet many
papers speak of silk-raising as an employment, perhaps not very profit-
able, still a light employment for children and old people who can
earn money in no other way. For farmers' wives this industry is also
recommended, though where the ordinary farmer's wife is going to
find the time for the business, coming as it does in the middle of the
summer, when her work is heaviest, is not explained. One would
think that any woman who could take care of silk-worms might earn
more money in the same time raising chickens, selling eggs, or in light
gardening, than by the sale of cocoons. Of course, like everything
else, it requires skill and more especially experience, but there are few
light employments that would not bring in a little money even the
first year. To be sure, the outlay in the beginning is small ; but had
our cocoons been the ordinary size, and suitable for reeling, we could
not, at the price cocoons are now bringing, have received more than

VOL. XXIX. 21

322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

five dollars to pay us for the time . spent in taking care of the worms
during six weeks of intensely hot weather. Our expenses, not counting
the cost of the fuel burned, amounted to over one dollar and fifty cents.

That others have had somewhat similar experiences is shown by the
following extracts from recent newspapers. From Springfield, Massa-
chusetts, a lady writes that, although she had but about eight hundred
silk-worms, they kept her very busy during the last molt picking
leaves, and she should not advise any one to engage in the business
unless one is willing to work, for it is not an employment for lazy
people. In return for her cocoons, which she sent to the New York
Silk Exchange, she received a silk handkerchief and some embroidery
floss made from her own cocoons, valued at about one dollar and twen-
ty-five cents, which she thought " poor pay for six weeks' work." Her
expenses, not counting time and labor, amounted to one dollar and six-
ty-three cents.

A widow in Ohio thought that the culture of silk might prove a
pleasant and profitable way of supporting herself and two children ;
but after some expense and " six weeks of hard work, Sundays and all,
found that she had not made a dollar by the operation."

From the " Massachusetts Plowman " the following extract is
quoted : " Silk-culture requires a very close, unremitting attention on
the part of those engaged in it, and if the work is not laborious it is
so constant as to prevent the following of any other occupation at the
same time. Those who desire to engage in sericulture will do well to
consider thoroughly the matter."

One thing I can say in regard to the experiment, it is interesting
work, though, whether it would be so to a person not interested at the
outset in such matters I can not say ; and, besides, it keeps one so
busy that the interesting points are often overlooked. Yet I am sure
that numerous friends who saw the worms in their different stages
thoroughly enjoyed them, and it was of some account certainly to
have interested so many people in a subject of so much importance.
How many children, and I may say older people as well, never knew
before that a moth came from a caterpillar, or that a worm formed the
cocoon from which all our silk is made !

+++-

THE INFLUENCE OF EXEECISE UPON HEALTH.

Br Peofescok EUGENE L. EICHAEDS,

OF YALE COLLEGE.

MANY old theories of education are being mercilessly discussed.
Many new theories claim the places of the old. The classical
scholar still claims for the ancient languages the greatest educational
power. The advocate of modern languages says life is too short to

THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE UPON HEALTH. 323

study dead things, and that modern languages furnish enough disci-
pline, and are, besides, useful. To the scientist, science is god of all,
even of education. To him no man is properly educated unless his
mind is stored with scientific ideas and trained by the scientific meth-
ods of the nineteenth century. Languages, ancient and modern,
mathematics, science, philosophy, all advance their claims to be the
best educators of the coming man. Meanwhile the coming man is
nothing but a child, and must submit himself to his elders to be
experimented upon according to the theories of teachers or parents.

For men, women, and children alike, I wish to enter a plea for a
part of them much neglected in most discussions on education, and
too much left out of sight in most theories of education the body. In
fact, for centuries past, many educators have seemed to regard the
body as a rival of the brain, if not an enemy of it. They have appar-
ently been filled with the idea that strength and time given to the
body are strength and time taken from the mind. Unfortunately for
the cause of good education, this erroneous idea is not held by teachers
alone, but is a very prevalent one generally, the current dictum being
that, representing by unity a person's force, whatever part of this unit
is taken for the body leaves necessarily just that much less for the mind.

To combat this idea, and to replace it by a much more reasonable
idea, I had almost said by the very opposite idea, shall be the chief
though not the only aim of these pages.

To all races which have shown power in any direction the main
source of that power has been physical. This is acknowledged to be
true with regard to the conquering races of the past. With regard to
the present we are too apt to think that the progress of civilization
has changed the conditions of power, so that races physically weak, if
they are only wise, can successfully compete with and finally over-
come the strong races.

Take the Greeks. For a long time they were a conquering race
masters of the world of their time. But their influence has extended
far beyond their day and beyond the limits of their little world.
" It is no disgrace to a nineteenth-century American to go to school
to the Greeks. They are still, in their own lines, the leaders of man-
kind. They are the masters." " Attica was about as large as Rhode
Island. Rhode Island is a noble little Commonwealth. Yet it has en-
joyed political liberty longer than the democracy of Athens lasted,
and in the midst of the blazing light of this much-lauded century.
What now is or will be the influence of Rhode Island on the world's
history compared with the unmeasured and imperishable influence of
Athens ? Whence the difference ? " * The causes of the difference
were manifold. One cause was their physical education. Hand in
hand with their mental discipline, which was simple but thorough,
went gymnastic exercise. " Until the time of Alexander, the main

* Professor George P. Fisher, "Princeton Review," March, 1S84.

324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

subjects of education among the Greeks were music and gymnastics,
bodily training and mental culture. . . . The first duty of a Greek boy
was to learn his letters, a feat which was also coincident with learning
to swim. , . . By the fourteenth year the Greek boy would have begun
to devote himself seriously to athletics."* Could such a careful and
continuous training of the body fail to have its effects upon the mind ?
It gave the body power. It gave the brain force. Had this force not
been converted all the while into intellect and aesthetic sense, the
Greeks would have formed a race of fine animals only. But their
mental discipline saved them. Unfortunately for the permanence of
the Greek power, that power was not built upon a moral basis.
When, by means of their conquests, wealth and luxury came to them,
the Greeks met the usual fate of nations weak in the moral sense.
Their discipline was relaxed, and they succumbed to the strong.

The training of the Romans was largely physical. They were
trained for war. But they, too, were overcome by stronger races
when they relaxed their own discipline and gave up their martial
games and athletic exercises hiring gladiators for their sport and
mercenaries for their battles.

What are the conquering races of to-day ? Are they not the nations
strong in body strong by inheritance and keeping their strength by
exercise ? Germany keeps her men strong in the army by compulsory