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THE

POPULAK scie:kce

MONTHLY.

CONDUCTED BY E. L, AND W. J. Y0U3fANS.

VOL. XIX.

MAY TO OCTOBER, 1881.

NEW YOEK :
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.

1881.

COPYEIGHT BY

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1881.

/o ^^o

EDWARD DRINKER COPE.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

MAY, 1881.

STOEY OF A SALMON".

By Peofessor DAVID S. JOEDAN.

IN the realm of the Northwest Wind, on the boundary-line between
the dark fir-forests and the sunny plains, there stands a mountain,
a great white cone two miles and a half in perpendicular height. On
its lower mile, the dense fir- woods cover it with never-changing green ;
on its next half-mile, a lighter green of grass and bushes gives place in
winter to white ; and, on its uppermost mile, the snows of the great Ice
age still linger in unspotted purity. The people of Washington Ter-
ritory say that this mountain is the great " King-pin of the Universe,"
which shows that, even in its own country. Mount Rainier is not with-
out honor.

Flowing down from the southwest slope of Mount Rainier is a
cold, clear river fed by the melting snows of the mountain. Madly it
hastens down over white cascades and beds of shining sands, through
birch-woods and belts of dark firs to mingle its waters at last with
those of the great Columbia.

This river is the Cowlitz, and on its bottom, not many years ago,
there lay half-buried in the sand a number of little orange-colored
globules, each about as large as a pea. These were not much in them-
selves, but, like the philosopher's monads, each one had in it the prom-
ise and potency of an active life. In the water above them, little
suckers and chubs and prickly sculpins were straining their mouths to
draw these globules from the sand, and vicious-looking crawfishes
picked them up with their blundering hands and examined them with
their telescopic eyes. But one, at least, of the globules escaped their
scientific curiosity, else this story would not be worth telling.

The sun shone down on it through the clear water, and the ripples
of the Cowlitz said over it their incantations, and in it at last awoke a

VOL. XIX. 1

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

living being. It was a fish, a curious little fellow, only half an inch
long, with great, staring eyes which made almost half his length, and a
body so transparent that he could not cast a shadow. He was a little
salmon, a very little salmon, but the water was good, and there were
flies, and worms, and little living creatures in abundance for him to
eat, and he soon became a larger salmon. And there were many more
little salmon with him, some larger and some smaller, and they all had
a merry time. Those who had been born soonest and had grown
largest used to chase the others around and bite off their tails, or, still
better, take them by the heads and swallow them whole, for, said they,
" Even young salmon are good eating." " Heads I win, tails you lose "
was their motto. Thus, what was once two small salmon became
united into one larger one, and the process of " addition, division, and
silence," still went on.

By-and-by, when all the salmon were too small to swallow the
others, and too large to be swallowed, they began to grow restless and
to sigh for a change. They saw that the water rushing by seemed to
be in a great hurry to get somewhere, and one of them suggested that
its hurry was caused by something good to eat at the other end of its
course. Then they all started down the stream, salmon-fashion, which
fashion is to get into the current, head up-stream, and so to drift
backward as the river sweeps along.

Down the- Cowlitz River they went for a day and a night, finding
much to interest them which we need not know. At last, they began
to grow hungry, and, coming near the shore, they saw an angle-worm
of rare size and beauty floating in an eddy of the stream. Quick as
thought one of the boys opened his mouth, which was well filled with
teeth of different sizes, and put it around that angle- worm. Quicker
still he felt a sharp pain in his gills, followed by a smothering sensa-
tion, and in an instant his comrades saw him rise straight into the air.
This was nothing new to them, for they often leaped out of the water
in their games of hide-and-seek, but only to come down again with a
loud splash not far from where they went out. But this one never
came back, and the others went on their course wondering.

At last they came to where the Cowlitz and the Columbia join,
and they were almost lost for a time, for they could find no shores,
and the bottom and the top of the water were so far apart. Here they
saw other and far larger salmon in the deepest part of the current,
turning neither to the right nor left, but swimming straight on up just
as rapidly as they could. And these great salmon would not stop for
them, and would not lie and float with the current. They had no
time to talk, even in the simple sign-language by which fishes express
their ideas, and no time to eat. They had an important work before
them, and the time was short. So they went on up the river, keeping
their great purposes to themselves, and our little salmon and his
friends from the Cowlitz drifted down the stream.

STORY OF A SALMON, 3

By-and-by the water began to change. It grew denser, and no
longer flowed rapidly along, and twice a day it used to turn about and
flow the other way. And the shores disappeared, and the water began
to have a different and peculiar flavor a flavor which seemed to the
salmon much richer and more inspiring than the glacier-water of
their native Cowlitz. And there were many curious things to see ;
crabs with hard shells and savage faces, but so good when crushed and
swallowed ! Then there were luscious squid swimming about, and, to
a salmon, squid are like ripe peaches and cream for dinner. There
were great companies of delicate sardines and herring, green and
silvery, and it was such fun to chase them and to capture them !

Those who eat only sardines, packed in oil by greasy fingers, and
herrings dried in the smoke, can have little idea how satisfying it is
to have one's stomach full of them, plump and sleek, and silvery, fresh
from the sea.

Thus they chased the herrings about and had a merry time. Then
they were chased about in turn by great sea-lions, swimming mon-
sters with huge half -human faces, long thin whiskers, and blundering
ways. The sea-lions liked to bite out the throats of the salmon, with
their precious stomachs full of luscious sardines, and then to leave the
rest of the fish to shift for itself.

And the seals and the herrings scattered the salmon about, and at
last the hero of our story found himself quite alone, with none of his
own kind near him. But that did not trouble him much, and he went
on his own way, getting his dinner when he was hungry, which was
all the time, and then eating a little between-meals for his stomach's
sake.

So it went on for three long years ; and at the end of this time our
little fish had grown to be a great, fine salmon, of forty pounds' weight,
shining and silvery as a new tin pan, and with rows of the loveliest
round black spots on his head, and back, and tail. One day, as he was
swimming about, idly chasing a big sculpin, with a head so thorny
that he never was swallowed by anybody, all of a sudden the salmon
noticed a change in the water around him.

Spring had come again, and the south-lying snow-drifts on the Cas-
cade Mountains once more felt that the " earth was wheeling sunward,"
and the cold snow-waters ran down from the mountains and into the
Columbia River, and made a freshet on the river, and the high water
went far out into the sea, and out in the sea our salmon felt it on his
gills ; and he remembered how the cold water used to feel in the
Cowlitz when he was a little fish, and in a blundering, fishy fashion
he thought about it, and wondered whether the little eddy looked as
it used to, and whether caddice-worms and young mosqjiitoes were
really as sweet and tender as he used to think they were ; and he
thought some other things, but, as a salmon's mind is located in the
optic lobes of his brain, and ours in a different place, we can not be

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

certain, after all, what bis thoughts really were. What he did we know.
He did what every grown salmon in the ocean does when he feels the
glacier-water once more upon his gills. He became a changed being.
He spurned the blandishments of soft- shelled crabs. The pleasures of
the table and of the chase, heretofore his only delights, lost their
charms for him. He turned his course straight toward the direction
whence the cold fresh water came, and for the rest of his life he never
tasted a mouthful of food. He moved on toward the river-mouth, at
first playfully, as though he were not really certain whether he meant
anything, after all. Afterward, when he struck the full current of the
Columbia, he plunged straight fortvard with an unflinching determi-
nation that had in it something of the heroic. When he had passed
the rough water at the bar, he found that he was not alone ; his old
neighbors of the Cowlitz and many more, a great army of salmon,
were with him. In front were thousands ; pressing on, and behind
them, were thousands iiiore, all moved by a common impulse, which
urged them up the Columbia.

They were swimming bravely along where the current was deep-
est, when suddenly the foremost felt something tickling like a cobweb
about their noses and under their chins. They changed their course
a little to brush it off, and it touched their fins as well. Then they
tried to slip down with the current, and thus to leave it behind. But
ho the thing, whatever it was, although its touch was soft, refused to
let go, and held them like a fetter ; and, the more they struggled, the
tighter became its grasp. And the whole foremost rank of the salmon
felt it together, for it was a great gill-net, a quarter of a mile long,
and stretched squarely across the mouth of the river. By-and-by men
came in boats and hauled up the gill-net and threw the helpless salmon
into a pile on the bottom of the boat, and the others saw them no more.
We that live outside the water know better what befalls them, and we
can tell the story which the salmon could not.

All along the banks of the Columbia River, from its mouth to
nearly thirty miles away, there is a succession of large buildings,
looking like great barns or warehouses, built on piles in the river,
and high enough to be out of the reach of floods. There are thirty
of these buildings, and they are called canneries. Each cannery has
about forty boats, and with each boat are two men and a long gill-
net, and these nets fill the whole river as with a nest of cobwebs from
April to July ; and to each cannery nearly a thousand great salmon
are brought in every day. These salmon are thrown in a pile on the
floor ; and Wing Hop, the big Chinaman, takes them one after another
on the table, and with a great knife dexterously cuts off the head, the
tail, and the fins ; then with a sudden thrust removes the intestines
and the eggs. The body goes into a tank of water, and the head goes
down the river to be made into salmon-oil. Next, the body is brought
on another table, and Qiiong Sang, with a machine like a feed-cutter,

STORY OF A SALMON, c

cuts it into pieces just as long as a one-pound can. Then Ah Sam, with
a butcher-knife, cuts these pieces into strips just as wide as the can.
Then Wan Lee, the China boy, brings down from the loft, where the
tinners are making them, a hundred cans, and into each can puts a
spoonful of salt. It takes just six salmon to fill a hundred cans. Then
twenty Chinamen put the pieces of meat into the cans, fitting in little
strips to make them exactly full. Then ten more solder up the cans,
and ten more put the cans in boiling water till the meat is thoroughly
cooked, and five more punch a little hole in the head of each can to let
out the air. Then they solder them up again, and. little girls paste on
them bright-colored labels showing merry little Cupids riding the happy
salmon up to the cannery-door, with Mount Rainier and Cape Disap-
pointment in the background ; and a legend underneath says that this
is " Booth's " or " Badollet's Best," or " Hume's" or " Clark's," or " Kin-
ney's Superfine Salt-water Salmon." Then the cans are placed in cases,
forty-eight in a case, and five hundred thousand cases are put up every
year. Great ships come to Astoria and are loaded with them, and
they carry them away to London, and San Francisco, and Liverpool,
and New York, and Sydney, and Valparaiso, and Skowhegan, Maine ;
and the man at the corner grocery sells them at twenty cents a can.

All this time our salmon is going up the river, escaping one net as
by a miracle, and soon having need of more miracles to escape the
rest ; passing by Astoria on a fortunate day, which was Sunday, the
day on which no man may fish if he expects to sell what he catches,
till finally he came to where nets were few, and, at last, to where they
ceased altogether. But here he found that scarcely any of his many
companions were with him, for the nets cease when there are no more
salmon to be caught in them. So he went on day and night where the
water was deepest, stopping not to feed or loiter on the way, till at
last he came to a wild gorge, where the great river became an angry
torrent rushing wildly over a huge staircase of rocks. But our he'ro
did not falter, and, summoning all his forces, he plunged into the Cas-
cades. The current caught him and dashed him against the rocks.
A whole row of silvery scales came off and glistened in the water like
sparks of fire, and a place on his side became black and red, which, for
a salmon, is the same as being black and blue for other people. His
comrades tried to go up with him ; and one lost his eye, one his tail,
and one had his lower jaw pushed back into his head like the joints of
a telescope. Again he tried to surmount the Cascades, and at last he
succeeded, and an Indian on the rocks above was waiting to receive
him. But the Indian with his spear was less skillful than he was wont
to be, and our hero escaped, losing only a part of one of his fins, and
with him came one other, and henceforth these two pursued their jour-
ney together.

Now a gradual change took place in the looks of our salmon. In
the sea he was plump and round and silvery, with delicate teeth, and

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as handsome and symmetrical a mouth as any one need wish to kiss.
Now his silvery color disappeared, his skin grew slimy, and the scales
sank into it ; his back grew black and his sides turned red not a
healthy red, but a sort of hectic flush. He grew poor, and his back,
formerly as straight as need be, now developed an unpleasant hump at
the shoulders. His eyes like those of all enthusiasts who forsake eat-
ing and sleeping for some loftier aim became dark and sunken. His
symmetrical jaws grew longer and longer, and, meeting each other, as
the nose of an old man meets his chin, each had to turn aside to let
the other pass. And his beautiful teeth grew longer and longer, and
projected from his mouth, giving him a savage and wolfish apjDearance,
quite unlike his real disposition. For all the desires and ambitions of
his nature had become centered into one. We do not know what this
one Avas, but we know that it was a strong one, for it had led him on
and on, past the nets and horrors of Astoria, past the dangerous Cas-
cades, past the spears of the Indians, through the terrible flume of the
Dalles, where the mighty river is compressed between huge rocks into
a channel narrower than a village street ; on past the meadows of
Umatilla and the wheat-fields of Walla Walla ; on to where the great
Snake River and the Columbia join ; on up the Snake River and its
eastern branch, till at last he reached the foot of the Bitter-Root Moun-
tains in the Territory of Idaho, nearly a thousand miles from the ocean,
which he had left in April. With him still was the other salmon
which had come with him through the Cascades, handsomer and smaller
than he, and, like him, growing poor and ragged and tired. At last,
one October afternoon, they came together to a little clear brook, with a
bottom of fine gravel, over which the water was but a few inches deep.
Our fish painfully worked his way to it, for his tail was all frayed out,
his muscles were sore, and his skin covered with unsightly blotches.
But his sunken eyes saw a ripple in the stream^ and under it a bed of
little pebbles and sand. So there in the sand he scooped out Avith his
tail a smooth, round place, and his companion came and filled it with
orange-colored eggs. Then our salmon came back again, and, softly
covering the eggs, the work of their lives was done, and, in the old
salmon-fashion, they drifted tail foremost down the stream.

Next morning, a settler in the Bitter-Root region, passing by the
brook near his house, noticed that a " dog-salmon " had run in there
and seemed "mighty nigh tuckered out." So he took a hoe, and, wad-
ing into the brook, rapped the fish on the head with it, and can-ying it
ashore threw it to the hogs. But the hogs had a surfeit of salmon-
meat, and they ate only the soft parts, leaving the head untouched.
And a wandering naturalist found it there, and sent it to the United
States Fish Commission to be identified, and thus it came to me.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

PHYSICAL EDUCATIOI^.

By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D.
GYMNASTICS.

" Force begets Fortitude and conquers Fortune." Helvetius.

PHYSICAL vigor is the basis of all moral and bodily welfare, and
a chief condition of permanent health. Like manly strength
and female purity, gymnastics and temperance should go hand in
hand. An effeminate man is half sick ; without the stimulus of phys-
ical exercise, the complex organism of the human body is liable to
disorders which abstinence and chastity can only partly counteract.
By increasing the action of the circulatory system, athletic sports pro-
mote the elimination of effete matter and quicken all the vital pro-
cesses till languor and dyspepsia disappear like rust from a busy
plowshare. " When I reflect on the immunity of hard-working peo-
ple from the effects of wrong and overfeeding," says Dr. Boer-
haave, " I can not help thinking that most of our fashionable diseases
might be cured mechanically instead of chemically, by climbing a
bitterwood-tree or chopping it down, if you like, rather than swallow-
ing a decoction of its disgusting leaves." The medical philosopher,
Asclepiades, Pliny tells us, had found that health could be preserved,
and if lost, restored, by physical exercise alone, and not only discarded
the use of internal remedies, but made a public declaration that he
would forfeit all claim to the title of a physician if he should ever fall
sick or die but by violence or extreme old age. Asclepiades kept his
word, for he lived upward of a century, and died from the effects of
an accident. He used to prescribe a course of gymnastics for every
form of bodily ailment, and the same physic might be successfully
applied to certain moral disorders, incontinence, for instance, and the
incipient stages of the alcohol-habit. It would be a remedy ad ^9?'^/^-
cipiiim, curing the symptoms by removing the cause, for some of the
besetting vices of youth can with certainty be ascribed to an excess of
that potential energy which finds no outlet in the functions of our
sedentary mode of life. In large cities parents owe their children a
provision for a frequent opportunity of active exercise, as they owe
them an antiseptic diet in a malarious climate.

ISTor can this obligation be evaded by depreciating the importance
of physical culture as distinct from that of the mental faculties. For
the term of their earthly pilgrimage the human body and the most im-
mortal soul are more inseparable and more interdependent than the
horse and its rider : a Centaur would hardly have promoted his higher
interests by neglecting the equine part of his person. " I have sinned
against my brother, the Ass," said St. Francis, when the abuse of his

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

body had brought on a mortal disease. For the idea that the suprem-
acy of the mind could be enforced by debilitating penances is a fatal
mistake ; an enervated body, instead of ministering to the needs of the
mind, becomes its tyrant, a querulous, capricious, and exorbitant mas-
ter. Every hospital attendant knows that, with the rarest exceptions,
the sufferers from exhausting diseases have no more self-control than
a fretful child. Neither can the progress of our mechanical industries
be made a pretext for undervaluing the advantages of an athletic edu-
cation. It has been prophesied that the time will come when the auto-
crat of the breakfast-table shall break his e^g with a dynamite w^afer ;
but, unless we invent a labor-saving contrivance for every muscle of
the human organism, there is not a day in the year nor an hour in the
day when the practical business of life can not be performed more
easily and more pleasantly with the aid of a vigorous body, not to re-
mention the moral disadvantages which never fail to attend the loss of
manly self-reliance. Active exercises also confer beauty of form and ^
natural grace of deportment. " By their system of jihysical culture,"
says a Scotch author, " the Greeks realized that beautiful symmetry
of shape which for us exists only in the ideal, or in the forms of di-
vinity which they sculptured from figures of such' perfect proportions."
That a man's welfare in every sense of the word depends upon the
normal development, of his body might, therefore, seem an axiom
whose self -evidence could be questioned only in a fit of insane infatu-
ation ; yet an Oriental fanatic has succeeded in tainting countless mill-
ions of his fellow-men with this very insanity. About six hundred
years before the beginning of our chronological era, a speculative
philosopher of northern Hindostan set about to investigate the origin
of the sufferino's which so often make human life a burden instead of
a blessing, and, failing to trace these afflictions to any avoidable cause,
he took it into his head that terrestrial existence itself must be an
evil, and conceived the unhappy idea of preaching a crusade against
the love of earth and the rights of the human body, as distinct from
a supposed preternatural part of our being. His success has been,
beyond all compare, the greatest calamity that ever befell the human
race since the days of the traditional deluge ; not only that the doc-
trines of Gautama bore their fruit in the utter physical degeneration
of his native country, and the populous empires of Eastern Asia, but,
seven centuries after, the essential doctrines of Buddhism, intensified
by an admixture of Gnostic demonism and Hebrew mythology, were
preached upon the shores of the Mediterranean and invaded the para-
dise of the Aryan nations. A mania of self-torture and miracle-wor-
ship broke out like a mental epidemic, and, at the very time when the
influence of Grecian civilization began to wane, the new creed spread
into Italy, and the friends of science and freedom were confronted
with the fearful danger of an anti-natural religion. What that dan-
ger meant, our liberated age can hardly realize unless we review the

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. g

fate of those nations to whom salvation came too late ; on whose des-
tiny the curse of that superstition has been wrought out to the bitter
end. The attempt to carry the theories of the Hebrew fanatics into
practice led to a state of affairs against which tl^e unpossessed part
of mankind had to combine in sheer self-defense ; the maniacs were
overpowered, but only after a struggle which has trampled the chief
battle-fields into dust, and not before they had turned the Mediterra-
nean God-garden into such a pandemonium of madness, tyranny, and
wretchedness, that the lot of the African savages appeared heaven in
comparison. The annals of pagan despotism furnish no parallel to
the pages stained with blood and tears that record the horrors of the
inquisitorial butcheries and man-hunts of the middle ages. The his-
tory of science is the history of a day with a bright morning and a
sunny evening, but interrupted at the noontide hour by a total eclipse
of common sense and reason. The men that inculcated a belief in the
possibility of witchcraft and demoniac possession are responsible for
the agonies of the three million human beings that perished in the
flames of the stake ; the dogma of total natural depravity guided the
arm that aimed its poisoned daggers at the heart of every social, politi-
cal, or scientific reformer. But the direst of all the evils which made
the rule of the miracle-mongers the unhappiest period in the history
of this earth was, after all, their total neglect of physical education
the logical outQome of their Nature-hating insanity. Their disciples
were assured, in the name of an infallible revelator, that all earthly
concernments are vain ; that we can not please God without mortifying
our bodies ; that our natural instincts must be suppressed, in order to
qualify our souls for the Kew Jerusalem. The joys of Nature were
to be shunned as man-traps of the arch-fiend. Sickness was to be
cured by prayer and certain ecclesiastic ceremonies. " Bodily exer-
cise," we are informed, "profited but little." The Olympic games
were suppressed by order of a Christian emperor.* The health-code
of the Mosaic dispensation was repealed as unessential, and indeed
superfluous, in a community of miracle-workers who could defy the
laws of Nature with the aid of supernal spirits. Gluttony and be-
sottedness were encouraged by the example of the ministers of that
creed. Manly exercises, the festivals of the seasons, mirth, pastimes,
and health-giving sports were discouraged as unworthy of a true saint ;
the sons of the thaumaturgic church were taught that our natural de-
sires and natural dispositions are wholly evil ; that the study of world-
ly sciences is vain, and solicitude for the welfare of the body a proof
of an unreo-enerate heart.

To these doctrines we owe the consequences of our countless sins
against the physical laws of God ; the many irretrievable losses by
the ruin of a former civilization ; the terrible night of the long cen-
turies when science was paralyzed, when industrial progress was lim-

* " A. D." 394.

lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ited to the invention of new instruments of torture, when the neglect
of husbandry changed so many Elysian fields into hoj^eless deserts.
To these doctrines the Latin peoples owe the sickliness and effeminacy
which contrast their present generation with the hero-race of antiquity.
It is a faA^orite subterfuge of the Jesuitical apologists to ascribe that
degeneracy to climatic influences. A cold climate has not saved the
North-China votaries of Buddhism, and would not have saved the
North-Europeans against a prolonged influence of Hebrew Buddhism.
"We must not forget that in Northern Europe the rule of the anti-natu-
ralists did not begin before the end of the seventh century, and never
overcame the latent protestantism of the Teuton races. In a warmer
country than Italy the votaries of the manlier prophet of El Medina
have always preserved their physical vigor, and the representative
North-African of the present day is the physical superior of his South-
European contemporary, while the forefathers of the same African
were mere children in the hands of the palaestra-trained Roman war-
rior.

The physical corruption of the non-Mohammedan inhabitants of
Southern Europe and Southern Asia has reached the incurable stage of
complacent effeminacy : their indifference to the vices of indolence
precludes the possibility of reform. Indifference to physical degra-
dation is, indeed, a symptom of a deep-seated disease. Mental inert-
ness is often but a dormant state of the intellect, a state from which
the sleeper may be roused at any moment by the din of war, by the
light of a great discovery, by the voice of an inspired poet. Physical
indolence is the torpor which precedes the sleep that knows no waking.
The civilization of Greece, Dutch art, the science of Bagdad and Cor-
dova, sprang up, like water from the rock of Moses. Can historians
point out a single instance of an unmanned people regaining their
manhood ? The bodily degeneracy of a whole nation dooms it to a
hoi:)eless retrogression in prosperity and political power.

The first use we should make of our regained liberty is, therefore,
the reestablishment of those institutions to whose influence the hap-
piest nations of antiquity owed their energy and their physical prow-
ess, their martial and moral heroism, their fortitude in adversity. The
physical constitution of man was never intended for the sluggish inac-
tivity of our sedentary and Sabbatarian mode of life. In a state of
nature, the faculty of voluntary motion distinguishes animals from
plants, and our next relatives in the great family of the animal king-
dom are the most restlessly active of all warm-blooded creatures. The
children of Nature ^hunters, shepherds, and nomads pass their days
in out-door labor and out-door sports ; physical exercise affords them
at once the necessaries of life and the means of recreation, and secures
them against all physical ills but wounds and the infirmities of extreme
old age. Civilization, i. e., life on the cooperative plan, exempts many
individuals from the necessity of supplying their daily wants by daily

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. u

physical labor ; wealth removes the objective necessity of physical
exercise, but the subjective necessity remains ; millions of city-dwell-
ers, in their pursuit of artificial luxuries, stint their bodies in the nat-
ural means of happiness ; they increase their stock of creature-comforts
and decrease their capacity for enjoying them ; religious and social
dogmas pervert their natural instincts ; their children are crammed
with metaphysics till they forget the physical laws of God.

These evils the inventors of gymnastics managed to counteract,
and, before we can hope to recover the Grecian earth-paradise, our sys-
tem of public education needs an essential and thorough reform. On
earth, at least, moral and physical culture should be as inseparable as
mind and body ; every town school should have an in-door and out-door
gymnasium ; the same village carpenter who takes a contract for a
dozen rustic school- benches should get an order for a horizontal bar
and a couple of jumping-boards ; every school district should appoint
a superintendent of gymnastics ; every town a committee of public
arenas : cities that can afford to devote h. hundred tax-free tabernacles
to Hebrew mythology might well spare an acre of ground for Grecian
athletics. Plato's Acaderaia and Aristotle's Lyceum were both gym-
nastic institutions, where the patricians of Athens spent their leisure
houi*s, and often joined in the exercises of the athletes. Our best citi-
zens should emulate their example, and help to eradicate the lingering
prejudice against the culture of the manly powers. A field-day, con-
secrated to Olympic games and the competitive gymnastics of the
Turner-hall, should be the grandest yearly festival of a free nation.

In the mean time we must help our children the best way we can
by giving them plenty of time for out-door exercise, and providing
them, according to our means, with some domestic substitutes for the
gymnastic aj^paratus which, I trust, the next generation will find in
every village hall and every town school.*

Children have a natural penchant for active exercises. Sloth is
one of the vices we should drop from our catalogue of original sins.
If a child were banished from the haunts of men, and left to grow up
as a wild thing of the woods, he would turn out a self-made gymnast,
though perhaps also in the original sense of the term, for gymnasium
and gymnastics were derived from a word which means naked. Na-
ture seems to deem the development of our limbs a matter of greater
importance than their envelopment, and clothes are gften, indeed, the
first impediment to the free exercise of our motive organs. The regu-

* In 1825 Professor Beck opened in Northampton, Massachusetts, the first American
school where gymnastics formed a branch of the regular curriculum. He has found fol-
lowers, but, considering our progress in other directions, his wheat can not be said to
have fallen on a fertile soil. Taking Massachusetts, Ohio, and North Carolina as repre-
sentative States of their respective sections, it seems that at present (1881) an average
of three in every thousand North American schools pays any attention to physical edu-
cation.

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lation dress of the Swedish turners is, in this respect, also the best
dress for children a light jacket, wide trousers and shirts, and broad,
low-heeled shoes ; in-doors, and in summer-time, shoes and stockings
should often be altogether dispensed with. Stephens, the celebrated
English trainer, remarked that only men who have their toes perfectly
straight will make first-rate runners and wrestlers, and this qualifica-
tion is nowadays a privilege of country lads who are permitted (or
obliged) to run around barefoot all summer. Considering the way
we treat our feet, it must often puzzle us what our toes were made
for, anyhow ; but the antics of a baby in the cradle prove that the hu-
man foot is by nature semi-prehensile, and might be developed into a
sort of under-hand. Hindoo pickpockets " crib " with their toes, while
they stand with folded arms in a crowd, and the Languedoc cork-
gatherers ply their trade without a ladder, trusting their lives to the
grasping power of their feet. The structural proportions of a new-
born child also show a comparatively unimportant difference in the
size of the lower and upper extremities ; but, in the course of the first
twelve years, this difference increases from 2 : 5 to 1 : 3, and often as
much as 1 : 4 ; in other words, while an infant's two arms weigh nearly
as much as one of its legs, the arm-weight of a schoolboy is often
only one fourth of his leg-weight. The reason is that, of all the active
exercise a child gets, nine tenths fall generally to the share of its lower
extremities. A little child can not stand erect ; the task of supporting
the weight of the whole body on two feet exceeds its untried strength.
But in local progression we do more : taking a step means to support
and propel, or even lift, the whole body by means of the foot remain-
ing on the ground. In running up and down stairs, to school and
back, and here and there about the house, the legs of the laziest
schoolboy perform that feat about eight thousand times a day. What
have his arms done in the mean while ? Carried a chair across the
room, perhaps, or elevated so and so many spoonfuls of hash from the
plate to a place six inches farther up, besides supporting the weight of
three or four ounces of clothing. To equalize this difference should
therefore be the primary object of physical culture, for the harmo-
nious structure of all its parts is an essential condition of a perfectly
developed body. No malformation is more common in city recruits
than a narrow chest. Besides spear -throwing, of which I shall speak
further on, any e^cercise promoting the development of the shoulder-
muscles will tend to expand the chest, and thus remove the chief pre-
disposing cause of consumption. In a climate where the first four
years of a child's life have to be passed mostly in-doors, a special room
of a spacious house or a corner reservation of a small nursery should
be set apart for arm-exercises hurling, swinging, and lifting. The
arrangements for the propulsive part of the good work need not go
beyond an old bolster and a cushion-target, but the grapple-swing
should be both safe and handy a pair of swinging-rings suspended

PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 13

at a height of about four feet from the floor above a stratum of old
quilts and carpets. In London, and in some of our Northeastern cities,
health-lifts for children can now be got very cheap ; weighted buck-
ets, however, or sand-bags with strap-handles, will serve nearly the
same purpose ; and smaller bags of that kind may be used for various
dumb-bell exercises. A plurality of young gymnasts can vary the
programme by throwing such bags to each other and catching them
with outstretched arms. In a suitable locality I would add a knotted
rope, fastened to the ceiling by means of a screw-hook, and hanging
down in a single or double chain, which children soon learn to climb
by the hand -over-hand process, thus strengthening the triceps and
flexor muscles, to whose development the quadrumana owe their pecul-
iar arm-power. A full-grown man who has passed his life behind the
counter will find it rather difiicult to raise his body by the contraction
of his arm-muscles, but, unless Darwin is right, Heaven must have in-
tended us to pursue the culture of our higher virtues in the tree-tops,
after the manner of the gymnosophists, for a young child acquires all
climbing tricks with a quite amazing facility ^much readier, in fact,
than the art of biped progression, whose chief difficulty consists, per-
haps, in the necessity of preserving the equilibrium. The knots should
be far enough apart to tempt an enterprising climber to dispense with
their use now and then and rely on the power of his grasp by seizing
the rope at the interspaces ; and this exercise should be especially en-
couraged, for the strength and suppleness of the wrist-joint will con-
siderably facilitate the attainment of " polytechnic skill," as modern
Jacks-of-all-trades begin to call their versatile handiness. Nay, the
Rev. Salzmann holds that the ancient practice of hand-shaking was
originally suggested by the wish to ascertain the wrist-power and con-
sequent wrestling capacity of a stranger. As to the rest, negative
precautions will generally suffice for the first three or four years.
Diminish the danger of a fall by padding the floor of your nursery-
gymnasium, and the restless mobility of your pupils will generally
save you the trouble of initiating them in the rudiments of hopping
and tumbling. But make it a rule with all hired or amateur nursery-
maids that the children must not be carried more than is absolutely
necessary.

In long winters it can do no harm, now and then, to let the young-
sters turn the hall into a race-course ; but, with the firet warm weather,
the arena should be removed to the next playground a garden-lane,
or a vacant lot without rubbish-heaps, if the Park Commissioners are
too proscriptive. In its general invigorating effect on the organic sys-
tem, running surpasses every other kind of exercise. Among the con-
tests of the palaestra it ranked above wrestling and boxing ; for more
than two hundred years the Olympic games consisted, indeed, exclu-
sively of foot-races, and the chronological era of Greece dated from
the year when the Elean Coroebus defeated his Peloponnesian competi-

14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tors in the lonor-distance match. The swift-footedness of Achilles is
mentioned as often as his name occurs in the " Iliad " ; and, according
to the Scandinavian Saga, the champions of Jutunheim distanced even
the henchman of Thor in a foot-race. Next to a smooth and perfectly
level lawn, a lirm beach is the best race-course, and, after a warm day,
it is a luxury to the martyred feet of a city boy to tread the cool sand
with his naked soles. Fast running is, on the whole, a more valuable
accomplishment than long walking, for no one knows when he may
owe his life, and more than his life, to the ability of outrunning a pur-
suer or a fugitive scoundrel ; but walking and trotting matches against
time will help to cure our children of that miserable snail-pace w^hich
has come to be the fashion of every public promenade. Reduced to a
funeral-march, the " regulation walk " loses half its value the hygienic
value of the only kind of out-door exercise which the children of the
upper ten or twenty can count upon. Who could wish a prettier sight
than a bevy of schoolgirls, flitting by with fluttering flounces, like
dancers keeping step to a merry tune ? If mothers knew all the charms
of animated beauty, they would not think it " more becoming " to turn
their children into tortoises. Nor would they fear that they would
*' run themselves into a consumption," if they knew what real running
means, and what the motive organs of a human being are capable of.
Mexico has ceased to be a terra incognita to Yankee tourists, and
most visitors to the upland cities will remember the army of huck-
sters and poulterers who every forenoon turn the main plaza into
an agricultural fair. If you will take a morning walk on one of the
sand-roads that diverge from the south gate of Puebla, you may see
those hucksters coming in at a trot, girls in their teens many of them,
and loaded with sacks and baskets ; and upon inquiry you will learn
that most of them come from the valley of Tehuacan, from a distance
of ten or twelve English miles. The zagal, or post-boy of a Spanish
mail-coach, carries nothing but a light whip, but he has not only to
keep pace with a team of galloping horses for hour after hour, but has
to run zigzag, adjusting a strap here, picking up a handkerchief there,
and frequently entertains the travelers with a series of hand-springs,
in order to earn an extra medio or two not to mention the Grecian
hemerodromes, who could distance a horse on the long run, and had
often to cross rivers and lakes on their bee-line routes.

An excellent system of training was that of the old Turkish Je-
nidji-begs, or drill-masters of the Janizary cadets, who made young-
boys practice lance-throwing with a spear that exceeded the common
javelin both in size and weight "because, after they had become
proficient in the use of such a heavy implement, the army-spear would
be a mere feather in their hands." On the same principle the knee-
muscles may be strengthened by a simple manceuvre without the use
of any apparatus. Bend the left leg in a right angle, extending the
right leg horizontally, and lower the body till your right heel nearly

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 15

touches the ground. Now rise by straightening the left leg, with the
right still extended horizontally, and without letting your hands or
your right heel touch the ground. Then squat down as before, extend
the left leg this time and rise on the right, and so on until the weight
of the body has been raised twenty or thirty times by the effort of
either knee-joint without the aid of the other. A moderate proficiency
in this exercise will enable girls and city boys to walk up-hill for hours
with the ease of a Tyrolese goat-herd.

In classifying gymnastics after the degree of their usefulness, a
prominent place should be assigned to leaping, especially high leaping,
an exercise which imparts a powerful stimulus to the digestive organs,
and, combined with the shock of the descent, exerts an invigorating
influence on the nervous system in general. The leajDing-gauge of the
Turner-hall consists of two upright posts with pegs and a cord stretched
from post to post. Every peg is marked with a figure indicating the
number of inches from the ground, and by raising or lowering the
cord each gymnast can measure his jumping capacity and keep tally
of his score in a certain number of leaps. Competition imparts to
this sport an incentive which may be put to as good account in gym-
nastics as in mental exercises, and is certainly j^referable to the only
other method of stimulating the zeal of young pupils. Personal am-
bition, according to the ethics of a certain class of pedagogues, is
inconsistent with the spirit of true Christian humility, and should be
quelled rather than fomented ; in dealing with unruly youngsters
they have consequently to resort to the only alternative, slavish fear,
enforced by punishments and espionage. For the nonce, that system
answers its purpose quite as well as the emulation-method ; as to fu-
ture results, your choice must depend upon the main question of mod-
ern education, Are we to form men or canting sneaks ?

A quadruped has an evident advantage over a biped jumper, but
practice will do wonders. Leonardo da Yinci often astounded his
visitors by jumping to the ceiling and knocking his feet against the
bells of a glass chandelier, and a private soldier of Vandamme's cui-
rassiers even leaped over the tutelar deity of a brass fountain on the
Frankfort market-square. But the champion jumper of modern times
was Joe Ireland, a native of Beverley in Yorkshire. In his eigh-
teenth year, " without any assistance, trick, or deception," he leaped
over nine horses standing side by side and a man seated on the middle
horse. He could clear a string held fourteen feet high, and once kicked
a bladder hanging sixteen feet from the ground.* In horizontal leaps
our turners can not beat the record of antiquity : a Spartan once
cleared fifty-two feet, and a native of Crotona even fifty-five. Kor
would any modern filibusters be likely to emulate the trick of the
Teuton freebooters who crossed the Alps during the consulate of Cai-
us Marius : Finding the Roman battle-front inexpugnable, they at-

* Strutt's " Plays and Pastimes," p. 176.

i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tempted to force the fight by vaulting with the aid of their framce or
leaping-poles over a triple row of mail-clad spearmen.

Hurling is the gymnastic specific for pulmonary complaints ; and
the best possible exercise for so many hectic and narrow-chested boys
of our larger cities would be the game of Ger-werfen^ as the turners
call it spear-throwing at a fixed or movable mark. It is a most di-
verting sport after a week's practice has hardened the flexor muscles
against the shock of propelling the larger spears. The missile is a
lance of some tough wood (ash and hickory preferred), about ten feet
long and one and a half inch in diameter, terminating in a blunt
ii'ou knob to steady the throw and keep the wood from splintering.
A heavy post with a movable top-piece (the " Ger-block ") forms the
target, the head-shaped top being secured by means of a stout cramp-
hinge that permits it to turn over, but not to fall down distance, all
the way from ten to forty paces. Grasp the spear near the middle,
raise it to the height of your ear, plant the left foot firmly on the
ground, the right knee slightly bent, fix your eye on the target, lean
back and let drive. If you hit the log squarely in the center or a
trifle higher uj), it will topple over, but, still hanging by the cramp-
hinge, can be quickly adjusted for the next thrower. A feeble hit will
not stir the ponderous Ger-block ; the spear has to impinge with the
force of a sixty-pound blow, so that a successful throw is also an ath-
letic triumph. The German Ger-throwers are generally lads after the
heart of Charles Reade ambidexterous boys, whose either-handed
strength and skill illustrate the fact that the antiquity of a prejudice
proves nothing in its favor. As the least vacillation in the act of
throwing would derange the aim, this exercise imparts a perfect com-
mand over the balance of the body, besides improving the faculty of
measuring distances by the eye. It is, indeed, surprising how soon
gymnastics of this sort will impart an easy deportment and graceful
manners even to boys in their lubber-years ^^ Nur cms vollendeter
Kraft strahlet die Anmuth hervor,'^'' as Goethe explains it : " The high-
est grace is the outcome of consummate strength."

Climbing, too, calls into action nearly every muscle of the human
body, and should be encouraged, though at the expense of a pair of
summer pants or summer birds, as the possibility of accidents is more
than outweighed by the sure gain in physical self-reliance. There is
a deep truth in the apparent paradox that it is the best plan 72ot to
avoid dangers and difiiculties that can be mastered. In the voluntary
risks of the gymnasium the athlete pays an insurance policy against
future dangers. In a man's life there will always come moments
when the woe and weal of years depend on firm nerves and a strong
hand, and such moments prove the value of a system of training
which teaches children to treat danger as a mechanical problem. The
operation of the same cause may be traced in the realistic influence
which the culture of the manly powers generally exerts on the human

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 17

mind. Having learned to rely on their personal strength and judg-
ment under circumstances where shams are peculiarly unavailing,
gymnasts will generally be men of self-help ; practical, rather apt to
believe in the competence of human reason and human virtue and to
question the utility of a pious fraud.

On rainy days an in-door gymnasium is as useful as a private libra-
ry. ^Yhere wood is cheap, the aggregate cost of the following appa-
ratus need not exceed fifty dollars : 1. A spring-board and leaping-
gauge ; 2. An inclined ladder ; 3. A horizontal bar ; 4. Swinging-
rings ; 5. A vaulting-horse (rough hewed) ; 6. A chest-expander
(elastic band with handles) ; and, 7. A pair of Indian clubs. Buckets
filled with shot or pig-iron will do for a health-lift. With this simple
apparatus an infinite variety of health-giving exercises may be per-
formed without much risk ; on the horizontal bar alone Jahn and
Salzmann enumerate not less than one hundred and twenty different
movements, most of which have proved very useful in correcting spe-
cial malformations. For general hygienic purposes a much smaller
number will be sufficient, especially where the neighborhood affords
an opportunity for occasional out-door sports ; for an in-door gymnasium
is, after all, only a preparatory school, or at best a substitute for the
palaestra of Xature the woods, the seashore, and the cliffs of a rocky
mountain-range. But in large cities even the poorest ought to procure
a few gymnastic implements ; no dyspeptic should be without a spring-
board and some sort of health-lift.

The victims of asthma would throw a considerable quantity of
physic to the dogs if they knew the value of a mechanical specific
a few minutes' exercise with the halance-stick, an apparatus which any
man can manufacture in half an hour, and at an expense representing
the value of an old broom-stick and a yard of copper wire. Take a
straight stick, about six feet long and one inch in diameter, and marl-
it from end to end with deep notches at regular intervals, say twc
inches apart, with smaller subdivisions, as on the beam of a lever-bal-
ance. Then get a ten-pound lump of pig-iron, or a large stone, and
gird it with a piece of stout wire, so as to let one end of the wire pro-
ject in the form of a hook. The exercise consists in grasping the stick
at one end, stretching out arm and stick horizontally like a rapier at a
home-thrust ; then draw your arm back, still keeping the stick rigidly
horizontal, make your hand touch your chin, thrust it out again, draw
back, and so on, till the forearm moves rapidly on a steady fulcrum.
Next load the stick i. e., hook the stone to one of the notches ; every
inch farther out will increase the weight by several pounds. Hook it to
one of the middle notches, and try to move your arm as before. It will
be hard work now to keep the stick horizontal ; even a strong man will
find that the effort reacts powerfully on his lungs : he will puff as if the
respiratory engine were working under high pressure. On the same
principle, the lungs of a half -drowned man may be set awork by mov-

YOL. XIX. 2

i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing the arms up and down like pump-handles. But the weighted stick,
bearinir airainst the sinews of the forearm, still increases this effect, and
overcomes the stricture of the asthmatic spasm, as the movement of
the loose arms relieves the torpor of the drowning-asphyxia. With the
aid of this mechanical ^)///a^eve (for death is the only radical asthma-
cure) the distress of the spasm can be relieved before the actual dysp-
noea or breathlessness has begun, and, after ten or twelve resolute
efforts, the feeling of oppression will generally subside and the lungs
resume their work as if nothing had happened. Daily exercise with
the balance-stick is sure to diminish the frequency of the attacks, and,
if begun in time, would probably cure children from an hereditary ten-
dency of this sort. Two years ago I sent this receipt to an asthma-
martyr whom the narcotic-vapor cure did not save from a weekly repe-
tition of all the horrors of strangulation. He has now lengthened the
period of his complaint from a week to an average of forty days, and
assured me that even a few minutes' exercise with a six-pound weight
has saved him many a sleepless night.

Lifting and carrying weights was a favorite exercise with the an-
cient athletes, and our modern rustics are still very apt to estimate a
man's strength by his lifting capacity. The " best man " of a York-
shire parish is generally he who can shoulder the heaviest bag and
carry it farthest and with the firmest step. Feats of this sort require
certainly a sound constitution in every way ; weak lungs, especially,
are sure to tell, but the main strain bears upon the thighs and the small
of the back : a good lifter has to be a strong-boned man, and will gen-
erally make a good wrestler and rider. Weak-backed children will,
therefore, derive much benefit from the various exercises with hand-
weights and lifting-straps, and, indeed, from any labor involving the
addition of an extra burden to the natural weight of the body. Heavy
lifts require some i^recaution against strains a waist-belt, and unflinch-
ing steadiness in rising from a stooping position ; but it should be
remembered that rupture (hernia) generally ascribed to the effects
of overlifts results more frequently from the shock of a fall, and a
predisposing defect of the abdominal teguments. The history of the
lifting-cure records not a single instance of a rupture having origi-
nated from the often enormous feats of professional gymnasts, or the
more dangerous efforts of enthusiastic beginners. As a general rule, it
may be relied upon that a perfectly sound child can not overlift him-
self before his strength gives way I mean, before the yielding of his
muscles and sinews simply compels him to drop the burden. Here,
too, the achievements of ancient and modern Samsons illustrate the
tenacity of the human frame and its marvelous capacity for develop-
ment. The credibility of the Gaza story depends somewhat upon the
size of those city gates ; but there is no doubt that Thomas Topham, of
Surrey, once shouldered a sentry-box containing a stove, a bench, and
a sleeping watchman, and carried his burden to a suburban cemetery.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 19

Dr. Winship, of Boston, lifted twenty-nine hundred pounds with the
aid of shoulder-straps ; and, unless the historians of Magna Groecia
were afflicted with an abnormal development of the myth-making
faculty, it would seem that their countryman Milo carried a bull-calf
around the arena, and thus carried it every day till he could tote a full-
grown steer. If the story is even half true, we need not wonder that
Milo's powers as a wrestler put a temporary stop to that sport as a
branch of the Olympian games, since " no man or god durst accept his
challenore."

Wrestling is still the chief accomplishment of the Swiss village
champions, and would be the favorite pastime of our rural districts if
it had not been kept down by our sickly prejudice against all rough-
and-ready sports. Fifteen centuries ago the Olympic games were
abolished by the decree of a Christian emperor ; the moralists of Old
England have tabooed pugilism ; our Sabbatarians now include even
wrestling among the " blackguard sports " ; and Frederick Gerstaecker
jDredicts that the American Inquisition of a future century will sup-
press skating and ball-playing " as giving an undue ascendancy to the
animal energies over the moral part of our nature." For such a cen-
tury's sake we should hope that the Patagonian savages will prove un-
conquerable, for a year's life among healthy beasts would be a blessed
relief from a long sojourn in the land of an unmanned nation.

But I trust that the propaganda of the Turnbund will save us from
such a fate. What a stimulus it would give to manly sjDorts and manly
virtues, nay, to the physical regeneration of the human race, if we
could made their yearly assembly a national festival ! The river-mead-
ows of Chattanooga, or the mountain amphitheatre near Huntsville,
Alabama, would make a first-class Olympia, and our Indian summer
would be a ready-made " weather-truce," without an expensive burnt-
offering to the sun. Olives, it is true, do not flourish on our soil ; our
mercenary souls need other inducements ; but the rent of reserved
seats and camp-tents would enable us to gild the crowns of the seve-
ral victors. Imagine the athletes of every village training for those
prizes thousands of boy-topers turning gymnasts, ward delegates
running for something besides office, and the members of a Young
Men's Association seeking paradise on this side of the grave !

With the decadence of athletic sports, games of skill come gener-
ally into favor ; hence, perhaps, the revival of archery in the United
States, and the pandemic spread of certain amusements which are
properly ladies' plays. Riding has gone almost out of fashion, though
few sportsmen will gainsay me if I assert that a day in the saddle is
worth a week of other sederitary pursuits. A Mexican boy would part
as soon with an arm as with his horse, and I never saw a finer picture
of exultant health than a cavalcade of muchachos dashins^ out into the
prairie at full speed, whooping and cheering, though perhaps on their
way to school or to 2ifuncion of some national saint. The deportment

20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of such little equestrians is distinguished by a certain chivalrous frank-
ness, and the word chivalry itself, as well as the German Hitter ("ca-
ballero "), were originally derived from horse-riding. The rider's man-
agement of his nag may tend to develop the domineering, the princely
traits of human nature, though probably at the expense of a humbler
virtue or two ; in Sj^anish America, at least, the experience of Indian
agents and Indian school-teachers has shown that the pedestrian red-
skins are generally more manageable than their mounted compadres.

The lovers of aquatic sports may combine a useful accomplishment
with the best relief from the midsummer martyrdom of our large cities.
The art of swimming adds as much to the pleasure of bathing as it does
to its healthfulness ; but it has often puzzled me that with the human
animal that should be an art which is a natural faculty of all other
mammals. Dr. Andersson's theory is probably the right solution of the
riddle. He noticed that to the young negroes of Sierra Leone swim-
ming comes almost as natural as walking (in which attainment they
are also rather precocious), and he concludes that the disability of a
white man's child arises chiefly from a general want of vigor. Our
mobile arms and paddle-like hands are better swimming implements
than the drumstick legs of a dog ; but our muscular debility more than
counteracts these advantages. The limbs of a child are swathed, con-
fined in tight clothes, kept year after year in compulsive inactivity,
till, in proportion to its size, the nursling of civilization is the weakliest
of living creatures. After exercise has developed the defective mus-
cles, a swimmer can hardly understand how he could ever be in dread
of deep water, swimming seems so easy ; the faculty of floating, as it
appears to him, is an inalienable attribute of a human creature, requir-
ing neither art nor anything like a great effort except in swimming
against the stream ; he would undertake to study, read, or dream in a
calm sea, and let the body take care of itself. The Marquesas-Island-
ers witnessed the struggles of a sinking English sailor with mute
astonishment, and neglected to helj) him, utterly incapable of realizing
the fact that a full-grown man could be in danger of drowning.

In the sixteen provinces of the Roman Empire every larger town
had a free bath or two, and our entire neglect of this branch of public
hygiene is certainly the ugliest feature of our boasted civilization ; but
our children at least might make shift with the natural bathing facili-
ties which can be reached by a short excursion beyond the precincts of
all but the unluckiest cities. A cool bath at the end of a sweltering
day can be delightful enough to reconcile a poor city slave to his
misery ; the sensation of floating along with the rhythm of a dancing
current admits no comparison with any terra jirma pleasure, and awa-
kens instincts of the human soul which may date from the life of our
marine ancestors in the days of the Devonian fore-world. But such
enjoyments are the privilege of the aquatic gymnast, and no swimmer
should deem it below his dignity to imitate the example of the elder

PHYSICAL education: 21

Cato, who taught his sons to dive and traverse rapid rivers. I know
that a swimming-school is not always a favorite resort of a young
child ; weakly youngsters are apt to prefer a sponge-bath ; but I agree
with the Baptists, that immersion alone will save us. The way of the
beginner is hard, but the reward is worth the price. No boy who has
learned to " tread water " or to " take a header " from a high bank
would exchange the wild joy of his sjDort for all the taffy of a tame
Sunday-school picnic. And it is a great mistake to suppose that hardy
habits would harden the character ; on the contrary, the bravest lad of a
parish can generally be known by his cheerfulness and his frank good-
nature, and in after-years will be apt to meet the billows of life with a
joyous zeal rather than with a shivering "resignation." I am often
tempted to quote the remark of a French training-ship surgeon, of
blunt speech, but with a sharp eye for the character-traits of his young
countrymen : " If I had my own way," said he, " every boy in the marine
should serve an apprenticeship in the rigging, and learn to rough it,
before he gets a soft berth. The lads that have grown up before the
mast make the best men in every sense of the word, brave, honest fel-
lows most of them ; while the cabin-boys, who have been pampered
with titbits and soft jobs generally, turn out " (I won't risk a literal
translation) " prevaricating puppies," or words to that effect.

Per aspera ad astra, and a very important branch of gymnastic
education might be included under the head of hard work or volun-
tary labor. Labor with a practical purpose is not only more visibly
useful but more agreeable than mere crank- work at the horizontal bar,
and it is sometimes advisable to beguile ourselves into a strenuous and
long-continued physical effort. For what we call vice or evil propen-
sities is often nothing but misdirected energy, vital force exploding in
the wrong direction for want of a better outlet. The sensible remedy
is not to anathematize such energies, but to let our muscular system
absorb them by engaging in some entertaining out-door business re-
quiring a good deal of heavy work. In summer-time there will be no
lack of such jobs : interest your enfant terrible in horticulture ; make
him transplant shade-trees and dig ditches ; send him to the gravel-pit,
and let him fill his wheelbarrow with sand and his pockets with geo-
logical specimens. Or enlist his constructiveness : set him to build a
garden- wall, and quarry his own building-material in the next ravine.
During the progress of the good work the hours will vanish magically,
and so will the evil propensities. Novel-reading girls can generally be
cured with a butterfly-catcher ; entomology and sentimentalism are
not concomitant manias.

It has often been observed as a curious phenomenon that the vilest
young hoodlums are found in the middle-sized towns. I believe I could
suggest an explanation : In very large cities, as well as in the woods
and mountains, they find something else to do. A New York street
Arab is often addicted to sharp practice, but not often to degrading

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vices. He can't afford to be vicious : sensuality weakens ; physical
vigor is a stock-in-trade ; the fierceness of competition compels him to
use every advantage. For the same reason a training oarsman is gen-
erally an exemplar of all manly virtues ; to him experience has demon-
strated the temporal disadvantages of vice, an argument whose cogency
somehow conquers objections that resist the most eloquent arguinenta
adjidem. Moreover, such virtues with a business purpose are liable
to become habits. If we could keep a record of the longevity of our
university crews, we would probably find that the victors outlive the
often vanquished ; the champions of Olympia (with the exception of
the cestus-fighters) generally attained to a good old age.

It is, indeed, a pity that oar-contests should be confined to our lake-
shore cities and a few college towns ; as an athletic exercise roAving is
out and out superior to ball-playing and skating, and a sovereign rem-
edy for many disorders of the respiratory organs. Venice has all the
topographical characteristics of a consumption town stagnant lagoons,
damp buildings, dark and narrow streets and yet the lower classes of
her population are remarkably free from pulmonary affections they
have a gondolier in nearly every family. The watermen of the
Thames, too, are generally long-lived, in spite of being so much ex-
posed to wet and cold. If I had to limit a child to two kinds of out-
door exercises, I would choose running and rowing : the one does for
the legs and the stomach what the other does for the arms and the
lungs.

It is said that Cyrus advised his countrymen ''never to eat but
after labor," and, as a general rule, the best time for out-door exercise
is certainly rather before than after meals ; but gymnastics of the
heroic kind may induce a degree of fatigue which decreases the- appe-
tite instead of stimulating it, and in summer it is by far the best plan
to take the last meal in the afternoon, and postpone athletic sports to
the cooler hours of the evening. In moonlit nights, out-door games
may be continued for several hours after sunset. A nearly infallible
receipt for pleasant dreams is a light supper, followed by competitive
gymnastics in the presence of (somebody's) sisters and cousins. In stress
of circumstances, though, the fair witnesses can be dispensed with.
Even an in-door gymnasium will answer the main purpose ; it is the re-
laxation of the strained sinews which makes rest sweet ; the soul seems
to revel in a conscious sense of health to come. It is a fact that a man
may be " too tired to sleep " ; but that sort of insomnia is always a
sign of general debility. Our latter-day sports are not likely to hurt
a healthy boy through excess of exercise. We hear of people having
" killed themselves with hard work " ; but, if their habits were other-
wise correct and their diet not altogether insufficient, they must have
worked hard indeed, and with suicidal intent^ I am tempted to say, as
we have no single word iov LehensmUde the reckless contempt of life
which can make men deaf to the voice of their physical conscience.

PHYSICAL education: 23

The Manitoba lumbermen ply their hard trade cheerfully for ten
hours a day for months together, and the pastoral nomads of the Cas-
pian steppes often keej) their boys in the saddle for two days and two
nights.

It can do no harm to let girls join in the athletic sports of their
brothers ; though in their case an harmonious structural development is
of more importance than the attainment of muscular strength. Their
natural vocation exempts them from the necessity of engaging in vio-
lent exercises, and the experience of every nation has confirmed the
somewhat obscure biological fact that a child's bodily constitution de-
pends chiefly on that of his paternal relatives. A weakling can never
become the father of robust children ; while a delicate but otherwise
healthy woman may give birth to an infant Hercules. But, for boys,
the most thorough physical education is the best ; a child can never
be too weakly to profit by gymnastic exercises. If the culture of the
bodily faculties wxre made a regular branch of public education, ro-
bust strength would be the rule and debility the rare exception. The
puniness and sickliness of the vast plurality of our city boys are indeed
something altogether abnormal. If our primogenitor (as we have no
reason to doubt) surpassed the other primates of the animal kingdom
in strength as much as he still exceeds them in size, he must have been
fully able to hold his own against any beast of prey. Dr. Clarke Abel's
undoubtedly authentic description of an orang-outang hunt near Ran-
goon, on the northwest coast of Sumatra, reads like an episode from
the " Lay of the Nibelungen," rather than like the account of a con-
scientious and scientific observer. With five bullets in his body, the
hairy half -man still leaped from tree to tree with the agility of a pan-
ther, survived the fall of the last tree, and, though crippled by a shower
of blows, snatched a spear from the hands of his chief assailant and
broke it like a rotten stick. On his campaign against a horde of north-
ern barbarians, one of Trajan's generals attempted to scare, or at least
to astonish, the natives by shipping a troop of lions across the Danube.
But the children of Nature declined to marvel : " They mistook them
for dogs," says the historian, " and knocked their brains out." Even
after the middle of the fourteenth century the levy of a small German
burgh could turn out more athletes than the combined armies of the
present empire ; the Margrave of Nuremberg could at any time muster
ten thousand men, every one of whom was able to wear and use accou-
trements that would crush a so-called strong man of the present day.
In the armories of Vienna, Brunswick, and Strasburg there are coats
of mail which a modern porter would hesitate to shoulder without the
assistance of a comrade.

And yet these mediaeval Samsons were the exclusive product of the
drill-ground ; physical vigor was not valued as the foundation of health
and happiness, but rather as a means of military efiiciency ; the guar-
dians of public education merely connived at such things ; and, when

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the invention of gunpowder diminished the importance of personal
prowess, our anti-natural dogmas accomplished their tendency in the
rapid physical corruption of their devotees. The dull and gloomy
slavery of the monasteries was transferred to the management of all
educational institutions ; for several centuries the bodily rights of the
poor convent-pupils were not only disregarded but willfully depreci-
ated. Educational influences became the chief cause of physical de-
generacy, and the superficialness of our reformatory measures proves
that we have not yet recognized the root of the evil.

But the voice of Nature has repeated its protest in the yearnings
of every new generation. Our children still long for out-door life, for
active exercise, for the free development of every bodily faculty ; and,
if we cease to suppress those instincts, the regenerative tendency of
Nature will soon assert itself, and the time may come when man will
be once more the physical as well as mental superior of his fellow-
creatures.

--

THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF SARATOGA.*

bt chaeles f. fish.

ASIDE from the rich field for scientific research that the mineral
springs of Saratoga present to the student of natural phenomena,
the majority of the members of this Association are undoubtedly in-
terested to a greater or less extent in a product that forms, with many,
a large, important, and increasing item of trade, there being probably
no one class of mineral w^aters of domestic production, or from any
one locality, that are used to so great an extent as those from Saratoga
Springs. On this account, as w^ell as for the reason that our Associa-
tion holds its twenty-eighth annual meeting in this village, w^here an
opportunity is afforded of personally inspecting the source of supply
of these w^aters, it will, perhaps, not prove uninteresting to present
some facts regarding an article that has contributed so largely to the
prosperity of Saratoga in the past, and upon which its future interests
to a great degree depend.

Saratoga Springs is an incorporated village, having a resident popu-
lation of about ten thousand, which is largely augmented during the
summer season. It has an altitude of three hundred and five feet
above tide-water, is one hundred and eighty-eight miles north of New
York City, on the line of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, and is
situated in and on either side of a valley extending from northeast to
southwest. Prior to 1767 little or nothing was known by the whites
regarding the waters of this section. In August of that year Sir

* Read at the Saratoga meeting of the American Pliarmaceutical Association, Septem-
ber 16, 1880.

THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF SARATOGA.

25

William Johnson was conveyed from Schenectady to this locality on
a litter, by some of the Indian braves of the Mohawk tribe, by whom
he was evidently much loved and esteemed. It is highly probable
that the High Rock was the only spring known to the Indians, and
that Sir "William was the first white man that ever visited it. In the
long interval that has elapsed since the location of the High Rock
was revealed, the number of springs developed has been very largely
increased. With regard to the origin of these springs there are two
theories advanced, both of which have able and zealous advocates ;
but, before presenting the claims of either of them to your considera-
tion, it will be necessary to describe the geology of this vicinity, in
order that they may be more fully comprehended. All of the rocks of
this county are members of the oldest systems of geological formation,
and are both metamorphic and sedimentary in their character ; the
granitic or Laurentian is of archsean origin, the remaining strata hav-
ing been deposited during the Lower Silurian age. The accompany-
ing map represents a transverse section of these formations, extending
from the eastern portion to the higher altitudes located in a north-
westerly direction from this village. The underlying rocks comprise
first, the Laurentian ; second, the Potsdam sandstone ; third, the cal-
ciferous sand-rock ; fourth, the Trenton limestone ; and, fifth, the
Utica, or black slate. At a very remote period of the past, the rocks
comprising these various strata were subjected to some powerful natu-
ral force, which resulted in their fracture, dislocation, and the gradual
upheaval of a large portion of them, producing at the point of disrup-
tion what is known to geologists as a fault. The position occupied by

Fig. 1.

OGA
PRING5

the various strata is shown in Fijr. 1 : Xo. 1 indicates the Laurentian,
the oldest of those belonging to the metamorphic system ; No. 2, the
Potsdam sandstone ; Xo. 3, the calciferous sand-rock ; Xo. 4, the

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Trenton limestone ; and, No. 5, the Utica or black slate ; the fault, or
break-off, is indicated by the heavy black vertical line, in immediate
proximity to which the village of Saratoga Springs is situated. For
the reason that the black slate has been entirely eroded from that por-
tion of the village immediately west of the fault, and the Trenton
limestone nearlv so, none of the former and but a thin stratum of the
latter formation is represented on the accompanying chart. You will
observe that both the dislocation and upheaval of these various strata
are strongly marked at the fault, for, while that portion lying to the
east remains i)i situ, that to the west is tilted up to such an extent
that the dip of some of the strata is as great as twenty degrees. You
will also notice that the Laurentian rock on the west side of the fault,
occupying the position designated as No. 1 on the cut, as well as the
superimposed strata, viz., Nos. 2, 3, and 4, are not in perfect opposition
with formations of like character on the east side, the Potsdam sand-
stone lying opposite to the Trenton limestone, the calciferous sand-rock
lying in conjunction with the black slate, while the Trenton limestone
on the west occuj^ies a position above the black^slate on the east. The
consideration of this phenomenon naturally suggests an explanation,
but so far as is known there is but one theory relative to the subject,
it being universally conceded that the force that produced this disrup-
tion was due to volcanic agency.

At distances varying from two to twelve miles in a westerly direc-
tion ranges of hills and mountains are encountered, presenting alti-
tudes several hundred feet above this village. In addition to the
enormous area of water-shed that these elevated regions afford, they
possess many ponds and lakes, some of which are of no insignificant
size. The surface-streams that drain this section flow toward the east,
and, as the various strata dip in the same direction, the tendency of
the subterranean drainage must be tOAvard the same point of the com-
pass.

The advocates of the first of the theories regarding the origin of
the mineral springs of Saratoga, recognizing the disintegrating and
solvent action of the water under its various forms of rain, snow, and
ice, claim that they are produced by the process of displacement or
percolation, holding that, when water falls upon the elevated re-
gions just described, a portion of it gradually permeates the soil and
the various strata of tlie underlying rocks, dissolving and carrying
with it in its downward flow the various constituents of Avhich the
rocks are composed, and that these are decomposed by their reaction
on each other, and new compounds are formed with the evolution of
carbonic-acid gas, that this is dissoh^ed by the water, which becomes
highly impregnated with it, increasing its solvent properties to a great
extent, enabling it to accumulate basic matter in its flow, which con-
tinues downward and eastward, until the fault is reached, where an
opportunity is afforded for it to escape from the rocks and rise to the

THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF SARATOGA. 27

surface tbrougli the various crevices with which the fault is environed,
or make its escape through subterranean channels to unknown outlets ;
in either event the result is due to the simple law of gravitation and
hydrostatic pressure, the bodies of water stored in the lakes, ponds,
and rocks of the higher altitudes furnishing the necessary causes to
produce this result.

To substantiate this theory, attention is called to the close resem-
blance existing between the leading chemical constituents of these
waters and sea-water ; it being claimed that the mineral matter of the
rocks, through which the waters percolate, was deposited from very
ancient oceans, the existence of which was contemporaneous with the
period that embraces the deposit of the geological formations to which
the various strata of this region belong. Those that advocate the
second theory with regard to their origin agree with the adherents of
the theory that has just been presented, in recognizing the elevated
section situated west of the villasje and the fresh water that flows
from it through the various strata as being the prime source from
which these mineral springs are derived, but decline to accept the the-
ory that their constituents are obtained by the percolation of the fresh
water through the rocks, maintaining that the water remains virtually
unimj^regnated until the fault is reached, and that it is at this point
that it becomes charged with both its mineral and gaseous constitu-
ents ; claiming that, inasmuch as the fault extends downward to an
unknown depth, and to the internal fires of the earth, and that the
substances with which these springs are impregnated closely resemble
those evolved in a gaseous state from volcanoes, that the mineral con-
stituents of these waters are obtained from the heated interior by the
process of sublimation and subsequent absorption, while the gases are
also derived from the same source in a free state. About the year
1827 the late Dr. Steele, of this village, formed a stock company to
bore for salt, maintaining that the chloride of sodium contained in
these springs was derived from underlying beds or reservoirs, and that
it could be obtained by boring, and made a source of profit to those
that would engage in the enterprise. Accordingly, operations were
commenced several hundred feet west of the fault, and an artesian
well, three inches in diameter and one hundred and eighteen feet in
depth, was sunk in the underlying rock ; but, inasmuch as none but
fresh water was obtained, the scheme was abandoned ; other wells
bearing about the same relative position to the fault as this one have
been secured at various times, but always with the same result. From
the fact that the temperature of these wells and that of the mineral
springs just east of them is said to be identical, and that they are,
like the latter, never affected by surface-drainage, it is claimed that
both have a common origin, and those that advocate the theory of
sublimation claim that, if the Avaters are fresh at the site of these
fresh-water wells, it is impossible for them to become mineral in their

28

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 2.

*;.'* "''
!!%>''^-;,

I-

ii

character by the short passage through the rocks that intervene be-
tween them and the fault ; and hence they insist that the theory of
percolation is untenable. There are two methods of securing the
mineral springs of this locality : the first is shown at Fig. 2, and con-
sists in excavating to an extent of
twenty or thirty feet square surround-
ing the sjDOt where indications of min-
eral water are observed, and extending
downward through the various drift-
formations until the underlying rock
is reached. As the work j)rogresses,
a shaft or crib is sunk in order to pre-
vent the sides from caving in ; and, to
obviate the collection of water and
carbonic-acid gas at the bottom of the
shaft, powerful steam-pumps are kept
in constant operation, which effectual-
ly drain the excavation. After reach-
ing the fissured crevices in the rock
that environ the fault, and through
which the water issues, a pyramidal
wooden hopper, about one foot square
at the apex, and two or three feet at
the base, is placed on the rock directly
over that portion of the crevice from
which the water issues most abun-
dantly, its position being firmly secured by packing clay tightly around
its exterior. As rapidly as the work of filling in the shaft progresses,
a wooden tube, about one foot square, is accurately adjusted to the
hopper, from which the water gradually rises until it reaches the out-
let at or near the toj:). The depth at which the rock is located from
the surface varies from fifteen to fifty-seven feet. The flow of water
from springs secured in this manner averages from thirty to one hun-
dred and twenty gallons an hour.

The second method (see Fig. 3) consists in drilling into the rock,
in close proximity to the fault, until mineral water is obtained, the
drill in the mean time being followed by an iron pipe, which effectu-
ally secures the flow, prevents the access of fresh water, and protects
the rock through which the drill passes from the combined disintegrat-

incT action of both the water and carbonic-acid

gas.

Most of the

springs secured in this manner are spouting in character ; their flow is
not, however, continuous, but spasmodic or intermittent. This pecul-
iarity is undoubtedly due to a pocket or cavity in the rock, as repre-
sented in Fig. 3. A is the tube leading from the pocket to the sur-
face. As the water flows into the pocket from the surrounding inlets,
it gradually rises above the outlet, which results in the compression of

THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF SARATOGA.

29

the gas between the roof of the cavity and the surface of the accumu-
lating water ; when the force of the compression reaches its maxi-
mum, it drives the water from the chamber up through the tube, from
which it escapes in some instances to a distance of thirty feet in a ver-

Fig. 3.

'Miji^'^mm^m

'tl^i^:^''mf:0i^^

tical direction. After the pent-up water and gas have escaped, the
spouting ceases for a short time until the conditions are favorable for
its repetition, when the process is continued. The springs secured by
this method are the Yichy, Geyser, Champion, Kissingen, and the so-
called magnetic. In depth they vary from fifty to three hundred feet.
So far as the temperature of the springs is concerned they are practi-
cally isothermal, the maximum being 52 and the minimum 40 Fahr. ;
and in no instance are they affected by external causes, both their flow
and temperature being uniform throughout the year. From the fact
that the perpendicular iron tubes, through which the waters flow from
certain wells, are capable of communicating magnetic properties to
steel, the term magnetic springs has been applied to them in various
sections of the country. Notwithstanding assertions to the contrary,
the water from such springs has been pronounced totally devoid of
any properties of a magnetic character by those who have investigated
this phenomenon. All of the magnetic properties connected with such
springs reside in the iron tubing, which becomes magnetic when placed
in the ground in a vertical position in localities where the conditions
are favorable ; this result is said to be more likely to be attained if
the tube is inclined a few degrees to the north.

30

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

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THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF SARATOGA.

31

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32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

With the exception of the High Rock, nothing of especial interest
has attended the efforts to secure any of these waters. This spring
takes its name from the pyramidal formation, which is composed of
tufa, formed by the gradual deposition of the calcareous and other
mineral matter that has been precipitated from the water as it flowed
from its outlet. Up to 1865 there had never been any attempt made
to secure the flow by artificial means, but in that year the proprietors
conceived the idea of removing the tufaceous rock, and by excavating
to a sufticient depth obtain water of better quality and in greater
abundance. In accordance with this design, the rocky which measured
four feet in height and about eight in diameter at the base, was care-
fully removed from its original position, and the work was commenced.
After having penetrated the superficial deposits, a layer of seven feet
of commingled muck and tufa, suj^erimposed uj^on two feet of tufa,
was encountered. Immediately below this the workmen found the
trunk of a Pinus alha, w^hich measured about a foot in diameter, and
which was in a fair state of preservation. The next stratum was tufa,
three feet in thickness, below which was two feet of drift. Lying
immediately below this, a glacial clay bed, eighteen inches in thick-
ness, was found, upon the surface of which an ancient hearth was dis-
covered, composed of a semicircular row of stones, partially surround-
ing a quantity of charcoal, over which an incrustation of tufa was
deposited. This circumstance was one of particular interest to stu-
dents of archaeology, as it involved the solution of a vexed question
regarding the time at which the fire was kindled, as well as the char-
acter of the race, and the manners and customs of those by whom it
was lighted. Inasmuch as the relic was discovered below the drift for-
mation, its builders might have lived at a period anterior to that of
the mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley. After having pene-
trated to the calciferous sand-rock, the tube was adjusted and the High
Rock replaced, from the apex of which the water has continued to flow.

At the present time there are probably forty mineral springs within
the limits of this town. Thirty of this number have received names,
and twenty-two have been analyzed. The table appended * shows the
proportions of the various constituents contained in a United States
gallon of two hundred and thirty-one cubic inches.

To a certain extent the classification of mineral waters is an arbi-
trary one, different authorities following their own inclinations in
their arrangement. By many they are divided into four classes, as
follows :

1. Gaseous or acidulous : those in which carbonic-acid gas is a pre-
dominating constituent.

2. Saline, or those in which various salts are held in solution, in
addition to the gas.

* At the top of each column the name of the spring, the year when discovered or
tubed, and the name of the analyst, arc given.

ACTION OF RADIANT HEAT. 33

3. Chalybeate or ferruginous : those in which iron is a leading con-
stituent ; and

4. Sulphurous : those that contain sulphureted hydrogen.
Of the latter class there are two instances.

Almost without exception the rest of the waters of this locality
possess some of the properties of those belonging to the first three
classes, being a combination of gaseous, saline, and ferruginous princi-
ples, their difference, as you will observe, being more one of quantity
than of quality. As a matter of convenience they are designated as
cathartic, alkaline, iron, and sulphur waters, according to the degree
in which these characteristics present themselves.

Mineral waters were known at an early day, their use being held
in high repute by the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as by their
less illustrious successors. Their physiological action and therapy are
not, however, perfectly understood. With the exception of the chalyb-
eate, the persistent use of the cathartic, alkaline, and sulphur waters fa-
vors retrograde metamorphic action, the ferruginous alone producing an
opposite effect and increasing the number of the red blood-corpuscles.

From the diversified character of their constituents their applica-
tion as therapeutic agents must necessarily have a wide range. Prob-
ably the best results from their use are obtained in those functional
diseases that are connected with derangement of the portal circulation,
and in certain rheumatic and arthritic affections. In some fonns of
indigestion their use is attended by very gratifying results, as well as
in certain types of renal difficulties. In anaemia, uncomplicated with
organic lesions, the iron waters are of decided benefit. That many
persons injure themselves from the injudicious use of the waters is a
matter of common observation. They are medicinal, and should be so
regarded and used accordingly. The late Dr. Steele, in referring to
this subject, remarked that " there are numerous persons who flock
about the Springs during the drinking-season, without any knowledge
of the composition of the waters, and little or none of their effects,
who continue to dispose of their directions to the ignorant and unwa-
ry, with no other effect than to injure the reputation of the water and
destroy the prospects of the diseased."

-*-**-

ACTION OF RADIAXT HEAT OX GASEOUS MATTER.

By Professor JOHN TYXDALL, F. E. S.

r I IHE Royal Society has already done me the honor of publishing a
-*- long series of memoirs on the interaction of radiant heat and gas-
eous matter. These memoirs did not escape criticism. Distinguished
men, among whom the late Professor Magnus and the late Professor

VOL. XIX. 3

34 THE 'POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Buff may be more specially mentioned, examined my experiments, and
arrived at results different from mine. Living workers of merit have
also taken up the question : the latest of whom,* while justly rec-
ognizing the extreme difficulty of the subject, and while verifying,
so far as their experiments reach, what I had published regarding
dry gases, find me to have fallen into what they consider grave
errors in my treatment of vapors.

None of these investigators appear to me to have realized the true
strength of my position in its relation to the objects I had in view.
Occupied for the most part with details, they have failed to recognize
the stringency of my work as a whole, and have not taken into ac-
count the independent support rendered by the various parts of the
investigation to each other. They thus ignore verifications, both
general and special, which are to me of conclusive force. Never-
theless, thinking it due to them and me to submit the questions at
issue to a fresh examination, I resumed, some time ago, the threads of
the inquiry. The results shall, in due time, be communicated to the
Royal Society ; but, meanwhile, I would ask permission to bring to
the notice of the Fellows a novel mode of testing the relations of ra-
diant heat to gaseous matter, whereby singularly instructive effects
have been obtained.

After working for some time with the thermopile and galvanome-
ter, it occurred to me several weeks ago that the results thus obtained
might be checked by a more direct and simple form of experiment.
Placing the gases and vapors in diathermanous bulbs, and exposing
the bulbs to the action of radiant heat, the heat absorbed by differ-
ent gases and vapors ought, I considered, to be rendered evident by
ordinary expansion. I devised an apparatus with a view of testing
this idea. But, at this point, and before my proposed gas-thermom-
eter was constructed, I became acquainted with the ingenious and
original experiments of Mr. Graham Bell, wherein musical sounds are
obtained through the action of an intermittent beam of light upon
solid bodies.

From the first, I entertained the opinion that these singular sounds
were caused by rapid changes of temperature, producing correspond-
ing changes of shape and volume in the bodies impinged upon by the
beam. But if this be the case, and if gases and vapors really absorb
radiant heat, they ought to produce sounds more intense than those
obtainable from solids. I pictured every stroke of the beam respond-
ed to by a sudden expansion of the absorbent gas, and concluded that,
when the pulses thus excited followed each other with sufficient rapid-
ity, a musical note must be the result. It seemed plain, moreover,
that by this new method many of my previous results might be
brought to an independent test. Highly diathermanous bodies, I

* MM. Lecher and Pernter, "Philosophical Magazine," January, 1881 ; "Sitzb. der k.
Akad. der Wissench. in Wien," July, 1880.

ACTION OF RADIANT HEAT. 35

reasoned, would produce faint sounds, while highly atherraanous
bodies would produce loud sounds ; the strength of the sound being,
in a sense, a measure of the absorption. The first experiment made,
with a view of testing this idea, was executed in the presence of Mr.
Graham Bell ; * and the result was in exact accordance Avith. what I had
foreseen.

The inquiry has been recently extended so as to embrace most of
the gases and vapors employed in my former researches. My first
source of rays was a Siemens lamp connected with a dynamo-machine,
worked by a gas-engine. A glass lens was used to concentrate the
rays, and afterward two lenses. By the first the rays were rendered
parallel, while the second caused them to converge to a point about
seven inches distant from the lens. A circle of sheet-zinc provided first
with radial slits and afterward with teeth and interspaces, cut through
it, was mounted vertically on a whirling table, and caused to rotate
rapidly across the beam near the focus. The passage of the slits pro-
duced the desired intermittence, f while a flask containing the gas or
vapor to be examined received the shocks of the beam immediately
behind the rotating disk. From the flask a tube of India-rubber, end-
ing in a tapering one of ivory or boxwood, led to the ear, which was
thus rendered keenly sensitive to any sound generated within the flask.
Compared with the beautiful apparatus of Mr. Graham Bell, the ar-
rangement here described is rude ; it is, however, very effective.

With this arrangement the nu^nber of sounding gases and vapors
was rapidly increased. But I was soon made aware that the glass
lenses withdrew from the beam its most effectual rays. The silvered
mirrors employed in my previous researches were therefore invoked ;
and with them, acting sometimes singly and sometimes as conjugate
mirrors, the curious and striking results which I have now the honor
to submit to the Society were obtained.

Sulphuric ether, formic ether, and acetic ether, being placed in
bulbous flasks,J; their vapors were soon diffused in the air above the
liquid. On placing these flasks, whose bottoms only were covered by
the liquid, behind the rotating disk, so that the intermittent beam

* On the 29th Noveniber : see " Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers,"
December 8, 1880.

f When the disk rotates, the individual slits disappear, forming a hazy zone through
which objects are visible. Throwing by the clean hand, or better still by white paper,
the beam back upon the disk, it appears to stand still, the slits forming so many dark
rectangles. The reason is obvious, but the experiment is a very beautiful one.

I may add that when I stand with open eyes in the flashing beam, at a definite ve-
locity of recurrence, subjective colors of extraordinary gorgeousness are produced. "With
slower or quicker rates of rotation the colors disappear. The flashes also produce a
giddiness sometimes intense enough to cause me to grasp the table to keep myself erect.

X I have employed flasks measuring from eight inches to three-fourths of an inch in
diameter. The smallest flask, which had a stem with a bore of about one eighth of an inch
in diameter, yielded better effects than the largest. Flasks from two to three inches in
diameter yield good results. Ordinary test-tubes also answer well.

36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

passed through the vapor, loud musical tones were in each case ob-
tained. These are known to be the most highly absorbent vapors
which my experiments revealed. Chloroform and bisulphide of carbon,
on the other hand, are known to be the least absorbent, the latter
standing near the head of diathermanous vapors. The sounds ex-
tracted from these two substances were usually weak and sometimes
barely audible, being more feeble with the bisulphide than with the
chloroform. With regard to the vapors of amylene, iodide of ethyl,
iodide of methyl and benzol, other things beings equal, their power to
produce musical tones appeared to be accurately expressed by their
ability to absorb radiant heat.

It is the vapor, and not the liquid, that is effective in producing
the sounds. Taking, for example, the bottles in which my volatile
substances are habitually kejDt, I permitted the intermittent beam to
impinge upon the liquid in each of them. No sound was in any case pro-
duced, while, the moment the vapor-laden space above an active liquid
was traversed by the beam, musical tones made themselves audible.

A rock-salt cell filled entirely with a volatile liquid, and subjected
to the intermittent beam, produced no sound. This cell was circular
and closed at the top. Once, while operating with a highly atherma-
nous substance, a distinct musical note was heard. On examining the
cell, however, a small bubble was found at its top. The bubble was
less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, but still sufficient to pro-
duce audible sounds. When the cell was completely filled, the sounds
disappeared.

It is hardly necessary to state that the pitch of the note obtained in
each case is determined by the velocity of rotation.' It is the same as
that produced by blowing against the rotating disk and allowing its
slits to act like the perforations of a siren.

Thus, as regards vapors, prevision has been justified by experi-
ment. I now turn to gases. A small flask, after having been heated
in the spirit-lamp so as to detach all moisture from its sides, was care-
fully filled with dried air. Placed in the intermittent beam it yielded
a musical note, but so feeble as to be heard only with attention. Dry
oxygen and hydrogen behaved like dry air. This agrees with my
former experiments, which assigned a hardly sensible absorption to
these gases. When the dry air was displaced by carbonic acid, the
sound was far louder than that obtained from any of the elementary
gases. When the carbonic acid was displaced by nitrous oxide, the
sound was much more forcible still, and, when the nitrous oxide was
displaced by olefiant gas, it gave birth to a musical note which, when
the beam was in good condition and the bulb well chosen, seemed as
loud as that of an ordinary organ -pipe.* We have here the exact order

* With conjugate mirrors, the sounds with olefiant gas are readily obtained at a dis-
tance of twenty yards from the lamp. I hope to be able to make a candle-flame effective
in these experiments.

ACTION OF RADIANT HEAT. 37

in which my former experiments proved these gases to stand as ab-
sorbers of radiant heat. The amount of the absorption and the inten-
sity of the sound go hand in hand.

A soap-bubble blown with nitrous oxide, or olefiant gas, and exposed
to the intermittent beam, produced no sound, no matter how its size
might be varied. The pulses obviously expended themselves upon
the flexible envelope, which transferred them to the air outside.

But a film thus impressionable to impulses on its interior surface
must prove at least equally sensible to sonorous waves impinging on
it from without. Hence, I inferred, the eminent suitability of soap-
bubbles for sound-lenses. Placing a "sensitive flame" some feet dis-
tant from a small sounding reed, the pressure was so arranged that the
flame burned tranquilly. A bubble of nitrous oxide (specific gravity
1-527) was then blown, and placed in front of the reed. The flame
immediately fell and roared, and continued agitated as long as the lens
remained in position. A pendulous motion could be imparted to the
bubble, so as to cause it to pass to and fro in front of the reed. The
flame responded, by alternately roaring and becoming tranquil, to
every swing of the bubble. Nitrous oxide is far better for this experi-
ment than carbonic acid, which speedily ruins its envelope.

The pressure was altered so as to throw the flame, when the reed
sounded, into violent agitation. A bubble blown with hydrogen
(specific gravity 0-069) being placed in front of the reed, the flame
was immediately stilled. The ear answers instead of the flame.

In 1859 I proved gaseous ammonia to be extremely impervious to
radiant heat. My interest in its deportment when subjected to this
novel test was therefore great. Placing a small quantity of liquid
ammonia in one of the flasks, and warming the liquid slightly, the
intermittent beam was sent through the space above the liquid. A
loud musical note was immediately produced. By the proper applica-
tion of heat to a liquid the sounds may be always intensified. The
ordinary temperature, however, suffices in all the cases thus far re-
ferred to. In this relation the vapor of water was that which inter-
ested me most, and, as I could not hope that at ordinary temperatures
it existed in sufficient amount to produce audible tones, I heated a
small quantity of water in a flask almost up to its boiling-point.
Placed in the intermittent beam, I heard I avow with delight a
powerful musical sound produced by the aqueous vapor.

Small wreaths of haze, produced by the partial condensation of the
vapor in the upper and cooler air of the flask, were, however, visible
in this experiment ; and it was necessary to prove that this haze was
not the cause of the sound. The flask was, therefore, heated by a
spirit-flame beyond the temperature of boiling water. The closest
scrutiny by a condensed beam of light then revealed no trace of cloudi-
ness above the liquid. From the perfectly invisible vapor, however,
the musical sound issued, if anything, more forcible than before. I

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

placed the flask in cold water until its temperature was reduced from
about 90 to 10 C, fully expecting that the sound would vanish at
this temperature ; but, notwithstanding the tenuity of the vapor, the
.sound extracted from it was not only distinct but loud.

Three empty flasks, filled with ordinary air, were placed in a freez-
ing mixture for a quarter of an hour. On being rapidly transferred
to the intermittent beam, sounds much louder than those obtainable
from dry air were produced. Warming these flasks in the flame of a
spirit-lamp until all visible humidity had been removed, and afterward
urging dried air through them, on being placed in the intermittent
beam the sound in each case was found to have fallen almost to silence.
Sending, by means of a glass tube, a puff of breath from the lungs
into a dried flask, the power of emitting sound was immediately re-
stored. When, instead of breathing into a dry flask, the common air
of the laboratory was urged through it, the sounds became immediately
intensified. I was by no means prepared for the extraordinary deli-
cacy of this new method of testing the athermancy and diathermancy
of gases and vapors, and it can not be otherwise than satisfactory to
me to find that particular vapor, whose alleged deportment toward
radiant heat has been so strenuously denied, afiirming thus audibly its
true character.

After what has been stated regarding aqueous vapor, we are pre-
pared for the fact that an exceedingly small percentage of any highly
athermanous gas diffused in air sufiices to exalt the sounds. An acci-
dental observation will illustrate this point. A flask was filled with
coal-gas, and held bottom upward in the intermittent beam. The
sounds produced were of a force corresponding to the known absorp-
tive energy of coal-gas. The flask was then placed upright, with its
mouth open upon a table, and permitted to remain there for nearly an
hour. On being restored to the beam, the sounds produced were far
louder than those which could be obtained from common air.*

Transferring a small flask or a test-tube from a cold place to the
intermittent beam, it is sometimes found to be practically silent for a
moment, after which the sounds become distinctly audible. This I
take to be due to the vaporization by the calorific beam of the thin
film of moisture adherent to the glass.

My previous experiments having satisfied me of the generality of
the rule that volatile liquids and their vapors absorb the same rays, I
thought it probable that the introduction of a thin layer of its liquid,
even in the case of a most energetic vapor, would detach the effective
rays, and thus quench the sounds. The experiment was made, and
the conclusion verified. A layer of water, formic ether, sulphuric
ether, or acetic ether, one eighth of an inch in thickness, rendered the
transmitted beam powerless to produce any musical sound. These

* The method here described is, I doubt not, applicable to the detection of extremely
small quantities of fire-damp in mines.

ACTION OF RADIANT HEAT,

39

liquids being transparent to liglit, the efficient rays which they inter-
cepted must have been those of obscure heat.

A layer of bisulphide of carbon, about ten times the thickness of
the transparent layers just referred to, and rendered opaque to light by
dissolved iodine, was interposed in the path of the intermittent beam.
It produced hardly any diminution of the sounds of the more active
vapors a further proof that it is the invisible heat-rays, to which the
solution of iodine is so eminently transparent, that are here effectual.

Converting one of the small flasks used in the foregoing experi-
ments into a thermometer-bulb, and filling it with various gases in
succession, it was found that with those gases which yielded a feeble
sound the displacement of a thermometric column associated with the
bulb was slow and feeble, while with those gases which yielded loud
sounds the displacement was prompt and forcible.

Since the handing in of the foregoing note, on the 3d of January,
the experiments have been pushed forward, augmented acquaintance
with the subject serving only to confirm my estimate of its interest
and importance. All the results described in my first note have been
obtained in a very energetic form with a battery of sixty Grove's
cells.

On the 4th of January I chose for my source of rays a powerful
lime-light, which, when sufficient care is taken to prevent the pitting
of the cylinder, works with admirable steadiness and without any
noise. I also changed my mirror for one of shorter focus, which per-
mitted a nearer approach to the source of rays. Tested with this new
reflector the stronger vapors rose remarkably in sounding power.

Improved manipulation was, I considered, sure to extract sounds
from rays of much more moderate intensity than those of the lime-
light. For this light, therefore, a common candle flame was substi-
tuted. Received and thrown back by the mirror, the radiant heat of
the candle produced audible tones in all the stronger vapors. Aban-
doning the mirror and bringing the candle close to the rotating disk,
its direct rays produced audible sounds. A red-hot coal, taken from
the fire and held close to the rotating disk, produced forcible sounds
in a flask at the other side. A red-hot poker, placed in the position
previously occupied by the coal, produced strong sounds. Maintain-
ing the flask in position behind the rotating disk, amusing alternations
of sound and silence accompanied the alternate introduction and re-
moval of the poker. The temperature of the iron was then lowered
till its heat just ceased to be visible. The intermittent invisible rays
produced audible sounds. The temperature was. gradually lowered,
being accompanied by a gradual and continuous diminution of the
sound. When it ceased to be audible the temperature of the poker
was found to be below that of boilinor water.

As might be expected from the foregoing experiments, an incandes-

40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cent platinum spiral, with or without the mirror, produced musical
sounds. AVhen the battery power was reduced from ten cells to three,
the sounds, though enfeebled, were still distinct.

My neglect of aqueous vapor had led me for a time astray in 1859,
but before publishing my results I had discovered my error. On the
present occasion this omnipresent substance had also to be reckoned
with. Fourteen flasks of various sizes, with their bottoms covered
with a little sulphuric acid, were closed with ordinary corks and per-
mitted to remain in the laboratory from the 23d of December to the
4th of January. Tested on the latter day with the intermittent beam,
half of them emitted feeble sounds, but half were silent. The sounds
were undoubtedly due, not to dry air, but to traces of aqueous vapor.

An ordinary bottle, containing sulphuric acid for laboratory pur-
poses, being connected with the ear and placed in the intermittent
beam, emitted a faint but distinct musical sound. This bottle had
been opened two or three times during the day, its dryness being thus
vitiated by the mixture of a small quantity of common air. A second
similar bottle, in which sulphuric acid had stood undisturbed for some
days, was placed in the beam : the dry air above the liquid j)roved
absolutely silent.

On the evenin gr of Januarv 7th Professor Dewar handed me four
flasks treated in the following manner : Into one was poured a small
quantity of strong sulphuric acid ; into another a small quantity of
Nordhausen sulphuric acid ; in a third were placed some fragments
of fused chloride of calcium ; while the fourth contained a small
quantity of phosphoric anhydride. They were closed with well-fitting
India-rubber stoppers, and permitted to remain undisturbed through-
out the night. Tested after twelve hours, each of them emitted a
feeble sound, the flask last mentioned being the strongest. Tested
again six hours later, the sound had disappeared from three of the
flasks, that containing the phosphoric anhydride alone remaining
musical.

Breathing into a flask partially filled with sulphuric acid instantly
restores the sounding power, which continues for a considerable time.
The wetting of the interior surface of the flask with the sulphuric
acid always enfeebles and sometimes destroys the sound.

A bulb, less than a cubic inch in volume, and containing a little
water, lowered to the temperature of melting ice, produces very dis-
tinct sounds. Warming the water in the flame of a spirit-lamp, the
sound becomes greatly augmented in strength. At the boiling tem-
perature the sound emitted by this small bulb * is of extraordinary
intensity.

These results are in accord with those obtained by me nearly nine-
teen years ago, both in reference to air and to aqueous vapor. They

* In such bulb3 even bisulphidc-of -carbon vapor may be so nursed as to produce
sounds of considerable strength.

ACTION OF RADIANT HEAT 41

are in utter disaccord with those obtained by other experimenters,
who have ascribed a high absorption to air and none to aqueous vapor.
The action of aqueous vapor being thus revealed, the necessity of
thorouo-hly drying the flasks, when testing other substances, becomes
obvious. The following plan has been found effective : Each flask is
first heated in the flame of a spirit-lamp until every visible trace of
internal moisture has disappeared, and it is afterward raised to a tem-
perature of about 400 0. While the flask is still hot, a glass tube is
introduced into it, and air, freed from carbonic acid by caustic potash
and from aqueous vapor by sulphuric acid, is urged through the flask
until it is cool. Connected with the ear-tube, and exposed immediately
to the intermittent beam, the attention of the ear, if I may use the
term, is converged upon the flask. When the experiment is carefully
made, dry air proves as incompetent to produce sound as to absorb
radiant heat.

In 1868 I determined the absorptions of a great number of liquids
w^hose vapors I did not examine. My experiments having amply
proved the parallelism of liquid and vaporous absorption, I held un-
doubtingly twelve years ago that the vapor of cyanide of ethyl and
of acetic acid would prove powerfully absorbent. This conclusion is
now easily tested. A small quantity of either of these substances,
placed in a bulb a cubic inch in volume, warmed and exposed to the
intermittent beam, emits a sound of extraordinary power.

I also tried to extract sounds from perfumes, which I had proved
in 1861 to be absorbers of radiant heat. I limit myself here to the
vapors of patchouly and cassia, the former exercising a measured ab-
sorption of 30, and the latter an absorption of 109. Placed in dried
flasks, and slightly warmed, sounds were obtained from both these
substances, but the sound of cassia was much louder than that of
patchouly.

Many years ago I had proved tetrachloride of carbon to be highly
diathermanous. Its sounding power is as feeble as its absorbent
power.

In relation to colliery explosions, the deportment of marsh-gas was
of special interest. Professor Dewar was good enough to furnish me
with a pure sample of this gas. The sounds produced by it, when
exposed to the intermittent beam, were very powerful. Chloride of
methyl, a liquid which boils at the ordinary temperature of the air, was
poured into a small flask, and permitted to displace the air within it.
Exposed to the intermittent beam, its sound was similar in power to
that of marsh-gas. The specific gravity of marsh-gas being about
half that of air, it might be expected that the flask containing it, when
left open and erect, would soon get rid of its contents. This, however,
is not the case. After a considerable interval, the film of this gas
clinging to the interior surface of the flask was able to produce sounds
of great power.

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A small quantity of liquid bromine being poured into a well-dried
flask, the brown vapor rapidly difused itself in the air above the
liquid. Placed in the intermittent beam, a somewhat forcible sound
was produced. This might seem to militate against my former experi-
ments, which assigned a very low absorptive power to bromine vapor.
But my former experiments on this vapor were conducted with ob-
scure heat ; whereas, in the present instance, I had to deal with the
radiation from incandescent lime, whose heat is, in part, luminous.
Now, the color of the bromine vapor proves it to be an energetic ab-
sorber of the luminous rays ; and to them, when suddenly converted
into thermometric heat in the body of the vapor, I thought the sounds
mi2:ht be due.

Between the flasks containing the bromine and the rotating disk, I
therefore placed an empty glass cell : the sounds continued. I then
filled the cell with transparant bisulphide of carbon : the sounds still
continued. For the transparent bisulphide I then substituted the same
liquid saturated with dissolved iodine. This solution cut off the light
while allowing the rays of heat free transmission : the sounds were
immediately stilled.

Iodine, vaporized by heat in a small flask, yielded a forcible sound,
which was not sensibly affected by the interposition of transparant
bisulphide of carbon, but which was completely quelled by the iodine
solution. It might indeed have been foreseen that the rays trans-
mitted by the iodine as a liquid would also be transmitted by its
vaj^or, and thus fail to be converted into sound.*

To complete the argument : While the flask containing the bro.-
mine vapor was sounding in the intermittent beam, a strong solution
of alum was interposed between it and the rotating disk. There was
no sensible abatement of the sounds with either bromine or iodine
vapor.

In these experiments the rays from the lime-light were converged
to a point a little beyond the rotating disk. In the next experiment
they were rendered parallel by the mirror, and afterward rendered
convergent by a lens of ice. At the focus of the ice-lens the sounds
were extracted from both bromine and iodine vapor. Sounds were
also produced after the beam had been sent through the alum solution
and the ice-lens conjointly.

^Vith a very rude arrangement I have been able to hear the sounds
of the more active vapors at a distance of one hundred feet from the
source of rays.

Several vapors other than those mentioned in this abstract have
been examined, and sounds obtained from all of them. The vapors
of all compound liquors will, I doubt not, be found sonorous in the
intermittent beam. And, as I question whether there is an absolutely

* I intentionally use this phraseology.

ANOTHER WORLD DOWN HERE. 43

diathermanous substance in nature, I think it probable that even the
vapors of elementary bodies, including the elementary gases, when
more strictly examined, will be found capable of producing sounds.

ANOTHER WORLD DOWX HERE.

By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS.

WHAT a horrible place must this world appear when regarded ac-
cording to our ideas from an insect's point of view ! The air
infested with huge flying hungry dragons, whose gaping and snapping
mouths are ever intent upon swallowing the innocent creatures for
whom, according to the insect, if he were like us, a properly con-
structed world ought to be exclusively adapted. The solid earth con-
tinually shaken by the approaching tread of hideous giants moving
mountains that crush out precious lives at every footstep, an occa-
sional draught of the blood of these monsters, stolen at life-risk, afford-
ing but poor compensation for such fatal persecution.

Let us hope that the little victims are less like ourselves than the
doings of ants and bees might lead us to suppose ; that their mental
anxieties are not proportionate to the optical vigilance indicated by
the four thousand eye-lenses of the common house-fly, the seventeen
thousand of the cabbage-butterfly and the wide-awake dragon-fly, or
the twenty-five thousand possessed by certain species of still more
vigilant beetles.

Each of these little eyes has its own cornea, its lens, and a curious
six-sided, transparent prism, at the back of which is a special retina
spreading out from a branch of the main optic nerve, which, in the
cockchafer and some other creatures, is half as large as the brain. If
each of these lenses forms a separate picture of each object rather than
a single mosaic picture, as some anatomists suppose, what an awful
army of cruel giants must the cockchafer behold when he is captured
by a schoolboy !

The insect must see a whole world of wonders of which we know
little or nothing. True, we have microscopes, with which we can see
one thing at a time if carefully laid upon the stage ; but what is the
finest instrument that Ross can produce compared to that with twenty-
five thousand object-glasses, all of them probably achromatic, and
each one a living instrument with its own nerve-branch supplying a
separate sensation ? To creatures thus endowed with microscopic vi-
sion, a cloud of sandy dust must appear like an avalanche of massive
rock-fragments, and everything else proportionally monstrous.

One of the many delusions engendered by our human self-conceit
and habit of considering the world as only such as we know it from

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

our human point of view is that of supposing human intelligence to
be the only kind of intelligence in existence. The fact is, that what
we call the lower animals have special intelligence of their own as far
transcending our intelligence as our peculiar reasoning intelligence ex-
ceeds theirs. We are as incapable of following the track of a friend
by the smell of his footsteps as a dog is of writing a metaphysical
treatise.

So with insects. They are probably acquainted with a Avhole world
of physical facts of which we are utterly ignorant. Our auditory ap-
paratus supplies us with a knowledge of sounds. What are these
sounds? They are vibrations of matter which are capable of produc-
ing corresponding or sympathetic vibrations of the drums of our ears
or the bones of our skull. When we carefully examine the subject,
and count the number of vibrations that produce our world of sounds
of varying pitch, we find that the human ear can only respond to a
limited range of such vibrations. If they exceed three thousand per
second, the sound becomes too shrill for average people to hear it,
though some exceptional ears can take up pulsations, or waves, that
succeed each other more rapidly than this.

Reasoning from the analogy of stretched strings and membranes,
and of air vibrating in tubes, etc., we are justified in concluding that
the smaller the drum or tube the higher will be the note it produces
when agitated, and the smaller and the more rapid the aerial wave to
which it will respond. The drums of insect-ears, and the tubes, etc.,
connected with them, are so minute that their world of sounds prob-
ably begins where ours ceases ; that what appears to us as a continuous
sound is to them a series of separated blows, just as vibrations of ten
or twelve per second appear separated to us. We begin to hear such
vibrations as continuous sounds when they amount to about thirty per
second. The insect's continuous sound probably begins beyond three
thousand. The blue-bottle may thus enjoy a whole world of exquisite
music of which we know nothing.

There is another very suggestive peculiarity in the auditory appa-
ratus of insects. Its structure and position are something between
those of an ear and of an eye. Careful examination of the head of
one of our domestic companions the common cockroach or black-
beetle will reveal two round white points, somewhat higher than the
base of the long outer antennae, and a little nearer to the middle line
of the head. These white projecting spots are formed by the outer
transparent membrane of a bag or ball filled with fluid, which ball or
bag rests inside another cavity in the head. It resembles our own eye
in having this external transparent tough membrane which corresponds
to the cornea ; which, like the cornea, is backed by the fluid in the
ear-ball corresponding to our eyeball, and the back of this ear-ball
appears to receive the outspreadings of a nerve, just as the back of
our eye is lined with the outspread of the optic nerve forming the

ANOTHER WORLD DOWN HERE. 45

retina. There does not appear to be in this or other insects a tightly
stretched membrane which, like the membrane of our ear-di'um, is
fitted to take up bodily air-waves and vibrate responsively to them.
But it is evidently adapted to receive and concentrate some kind of
vibration or motion or tremor.

What kind of motion can this be ? What kind of perception does
this curious organ suj^ply ? To answer these questions we must travel
beyond the strict limits of scientific induction and enter the fairy-land
of scientific imagination. We may wander here in safety, provided
we always remember where we are, and keep a true course guided by
the compass-needle of demonstrable facts.

I have said that the cornea-like membrane of the insect's ear-bag
does not appear capable of responding to bodily air-waves. This ad-
jective is important, because there are vibratory movements of matter
that are not bodily but molecular. An analogy may help to render
this distinction intelligible. I may take a long string of beads and
shake it into wave-like movements, the waves being formed by the
movements of the whole string. We may now conceive another kind
of movement or vibration by supposing one bead to receive a blow
pushing it forward, this push to be communicated to the next, then to
the third, and so on, producing a minute running tremor passing from
end to end. This kind of action may be rendered visible by laying a
number of billiard-balls or marbles in line and bowling an outside ball
against the end one of the row. The impulse will be rapidly and in-
visibly transmitted all along the line, and the outer ball will respond
by starting forward.

Heat, light, and electricity, are mysterious internal movements of
what we call matter (some say " ether," which is but a name for im-
aginary matter). These internal movements are as invisible as those
of the intermediate billiard-balls ; but if there be a line of molecules
actino; thus, and the terminal one strikes an oro;an of sense fitted to
receive its motion, some sort of perception may follow. When such
movements of certain frequency and amplitude strike our organs of
vision, the sensation of light is j^roduced. When others of greater
amplitude and smaller frequency strike the terminal outspread of our
common sensory nerves, the sensation of heat results. The difference
between the frequency and amplitude of the heat-waves and the light-
waves is but small, or, strictly speaking, there is no actual line of sep-
aration lying between them ; they run directly into each other. When
a piece of metal is gradually heated, it is first " black-hot " ; this is
while the waves or molecular tremblings are of a certain amplitude
and frequency ; as the frequency increases, and amplitude diminishes
(or, to borrow from musical teiTQS, as the pitch rises), the metal be-
comes dull red-hot ; greater rapidity, cherry-red ; greater still, bright-
red ; then yellow-hot and white-hot : the luminosity growing as the
rapidity of molecular vibration increases.

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

There is no such gradation between the most rapid undulations or
tremblings that produce our sensation of sound and the slowest of
those which give rise to our sensations of gentlest warmth. There is
a huge gap between them, wide enough to include another world or
several other worlds of motion, all lying between our world of sounds
and our world of heat and light, and there is no good reason w^hatever
for supposing that matter is incapable of such intermediate activity,
or that such activity may not give rise to intermediate sensations, pro-
vided there are organs for taking up and sensifying (if I may coin a
desirable word) these movements.

As already stated, the limit of audible tremors is three to four
thousand per second, but the smallest number of tremors that w^e can
perceive as heat is between three and four millions of millions per
second. The number of waves producing red light is estimated at
four hundred and seventy -four millions of millions per second ; and
for the production of violet light, six hundred and ninety-nine millions
of millions. These are the received conclusions of our best mathe-
maticians, which I repeat on their authority. Allowing, however, a
very large margin of possible error, the world of possible sensations
lying between those produced by a few thousands of waves and any
number of millions is of enormous width.

In such a world of intermediate activities the insect probably lives,
with a sense of vision revealing to him more than our microscopes
show to us, and with his minute eye-like ear-bag sensifying material
movements that lie between our world of sounds and our other far-
distant worlds of heat and light.

There is yet another indication of some sort of intermediate sen-
sation possessed by insects. Many of them are not only endowed with
the thousands of lenses of their compound eyes, but have in addition
several curious organs that have been designated "ocelli " and "stem-
mata." These are generally placed at the top of the head, the thou-
sand-fold eyes being at the sides. They are very much like the audi-
tory organs above described so much so, that in consulting different
authorities for special information on the subject I have fallen into
some confusion, from which I can only escape by supposing that the
organ which one anatomist describes as the' ocelli of certain insects is
regarded as the auditory apparatus when- examined in another insect
by another anatomist. All this indicates a sort of continuity of sen-
sation connecting the sounds of the insect world -with the objects of
their vision.

But these ocular ears or auditory eyes of the insect are not his
only advantages over us. He has another sensory organ to which,
with all our boasted intellect, we can claim nothing that is comparable,
unless it be our olfactory nerve. The possibility of this I will pres-
ently discuss.

I refer to the antennm, which are the most characteristic of insect

ANOTHER WORLD DOWN HERE. 47

organs, and wonderfully developed in some, as may be seen by exam-
ining the plumes of the crested gnat. Everybody who has carefully
watched the doings of insects must have observed the curiously investi-
gative movements of the antennae, which are ever on the alert peering
and prying to right and left and upward and downward. Huber, who
devoted his life to the study of bees and ants, concluded that these
insects converse with each other by movements of the antenna?, and
he has given to the signs thus produced the name of " antennal lan-
guage." They certainly do communicate information or give orders
by some means ; and, when they stop for that purpose, they face each
other and execute peculiar wavings of these organs that are highly
sugestive of the movements of the old semaphore-telegraph arms.

The most generally received opinion is, that these antennae are very
delicate organs of touch, but some recent experiments made by Gustav
Hansen indicate that they are organs of smelling or of some similar
power of distinguishing objects at a distance. Flies de^^rived of their
antennae ceased to display any interest in tainted meat that had pre-
viously proved very attractive. Other insects similarly treated appear
to become indifferent to odors generally. He shows that the develop-
ment of the antennae in different species corresponds to the power of
smelling which they seem to possess.

I am sorely tempted to add another argument to those brought
forward by Hansen, viz., that our own olfactory nerves, and those of
all our near mammalian relations, are curiously like a pair of antennae.

There are two elements in a nervous structure the gray and the
white ; the gray or ganglionic portion is supposed to be the center or
seat of nervous power, and the white medullary or fibrous portion
merely the conductor of nervous energy.

The nerves of the other senses have their ganglia seated internally,
and the bundles of tubular white threads spread outward therefrom,
but not so with the olfactory nervous apparatus. There are two horn-
like projections thrust forward from the base of the brain, with white
or medullary stems that terminate outwardly or anteriorly in gan-
glionic bulbs resting upon what I may call the roof of the nose, and
throwing out fibers that are composed, rather paradoxically, of more
gray matter than white. In some quadrupeds with great power of
smell, these two nerves extend so far forward as to protrude beyond
the front of the hemispheres of the brain, with bulbous terminations
relatively very much larger than those of man.

They thus appear like veritable antennae. In some of our best
works on anatomy of the brain (Solly, for example) a series of com-
parative pictures of the brains of different animals is shown, extend-
ing from man to the codfish. As we proceed downward, the horn-
like projection of the olfactory nerves beyond the central hemispheres
goes on extending more and more, and the relative magnitude of the
terminal ganglia or olfactory lobes increases in similar order.

48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

AVe bave only to omit the nasal bones and nostrils, to continue
this forward extrusion of the olfactory nerves and tbeir bulbs and
branches, to coat them with suitable sheaths provided with muscles
for mobility, and w^e have the antennae of insects. I submit this view
of the comparative anatomy of these organs as my own speculation, to
be taken for w^hat it is worth.

There is no doubt that the antennae of these creatures are connected
by nerve-stalks w4th the anterior part of their supra-oesophageal gan-
glia i. e., the nervous centers corresponding to our brain.

But what kind and degree of power must such olfactory organs
possess ? The dog has, relatively to the rest of his brain, a much
greater development of the olfactory nerves and ganglia than man has.
His powers of smell are so much greater than ours that we find it dif-
ficult to conceive the possibility of what we actually see him do. As
an example, I may describe an experiment I made upon a blood-hound
of the famous Cuban breed. He belonged to a friend whose house is
situated on an eminence commanding an extensive view. I started
from the garden and wandered about a mile away, crossed several fields
by sinuous courses, climbing over stiles and jumping ditches, always
keeping the house in view ; I then returned by quite a different track.
The blood-hound was set upon the beginning of my track. I watched
him from a window galloping rapidly, and following all its windings
without the least halting or hesitation. It was as clear to his nose as
a graveled path or a luminous streak w^ould be to our eyes. On his
return I went down to him, and without approaching nearer than five
or six yards he recognized me as the object of his search, proving this
by circling round me, baying deeply and savagely though harmlessly,
as he always kept at about the same distance.

If the difference of development between the human and canine
internal antennae produces all this difference of function, what a gulf
may there be between our powers of perceiving material emanations
and those possessed by insects ! If my anatomical hyj^othesis is cor-
rect, some insects have protruding nasal organs or out-thrust olfactory
nerves as long as all the rest of their bodies. The power of movement
of these in all directions affords the means of sensory communication
over a corresponding range, instead of being limited merely to the
direction of the nostril-openings. In some insects, such as the plumed
gnat, the antennae do not appear to be thus movable, but this want of
mobility is more than compensated by the multitude of branchings of
these wonderful organs whereby they are simultaneously exposed in
every direction. This structure is analogous to the fixed but multi-
plied eyes of insects, which, by seeing all round at once, compensate
for the want of that mobility possessed by others that have but a single
eyeball mounted on a flexible and mobile stalk ; that of the spider, for
example.

Such an extension of such a sensory function is equivalent to liv-

ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF VOLCANIC CONES. 49

ing in another world of whicli we have no knowledge and can form no
definite conception. We, by our senses of touch and vision, know the
shapes and colors of objects, and by our very rudimentary olfactory
organs form crude ideas of their chemistry or composition, through the
medium of their material emanations ; but the huge exaggeration of
this power in the insect should supply him with instinctive perceptive
powers of chemical analysis, a direct acquaintance with the inner mo-
lecular constitution of matter far clearer and deeper than we are able
to obtain by all the refinements of laboratory analyses or the hypo-
thetical formulating of molecular mathematicians. Add this to the
other world of sensations producible by the vibratory movements of
matter lying between those perceptible by our organs of hearing and
vision, then strain your imagination to its cracking-point, and you will
still fail to picture the wonder-land in which the smallest of our fellow-
creatures may be living, moving, and having their being. Belgravia.

--

THE ORIGIN AKD STRUCTURE OF YOLCANIC

GO^^ES.

By H. J. JOHNSTON-LAVIS, F. G. S.

11.

IT is observable in certain volcanoes that the lava frequently strewed
around after an eruption contains more or less perfect spheres,
consisting of a hard external coat and more scoriaceous contents, and
these from their resemblance are known as volcanic bombs. Their
contents may be divided into two classes :

1. Scoriaceous vesicular lava, identical in composition with the ex-
ternal shell.

2. Miscellaneous, such as altered masses of lapilli, loose blocks of
foreign materials caught up in the current of lava. These balls are
generally considered to be formed by the masses being ejected to
great heights, and cooling as they whirl through the atmosphere.

This seems improbable, as on falling they would inevitably smash
into a thousand fragments. It would appear more likely that they
are simply concretionary in structure around a nucleus of low tempera-
ture, solidifying on the surface a layer forming a crust of lava. Let
us now direct our attention to the minor particulars, such as the
changes of the crater, and metamorphism, or alteration of the already
ejected materials. If the volcano has already reached some consider-
able dimensions, effected by one or many eruptions, we shall find that
certain definite changes have taken place in the chimney. The erup-
tion is reduced in force, there are spasmodic puff -like ejections of la-

TOL. XIX. 4

5

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

pilli, and occasionally small streams of lava emitted. Before entering
further into our subject, we must return a step or two. It has been
mentioned that the inclination of the outer slope of the cone is that of
the " angle of repose " of the rock-fragments. We should, therefore.

N

PONTA NflSONE

fVOMTE SONOMA
PREHIST.TOA.D. 79

Fig. 1. a. Cone of Eruption built up in the Crater of 1878: B. Vesuvius proper, this cone
composed of alterrDate lava-streams 6, and lapilli a, built up since a. d. 79. It occupies the
crater of Somma ; C. This is composed like the latter, of alternate heds of lava c' and lapilli c ;
B, C. Deposits of pumice and trachytic fragments, etc., capping all exposed parts of Somma
derived from the eruption of a. d. 79 ; D. Beds of late Tertiary period containing shells exist-
ing at present in the Mediterranean; E. Basis, consisting of denuded surface of Apennine
limestone (cretaceous ?) ; F. Chimney or vent.

conclude that the inner or chimney side would be much the same.
This, however, is not generally the case, the inner retaining a greater
slope than the outer. It is due chiefly to the fusion, or cementing to-
gether, of the fragments by the intense heat and the presence of lava,
which, so to speak, solders each mass to its neighbor. Each is re-
tained in position by the fluid column occupying the internal cavity,
and when this has disappeared the temperature is necessarily lowered,
and thus there is formed a lining to the tube by the semifusion of its
superficial components. Nevertheless, the upper edges crumble away,
falling into the vents, thence to be again ejected. This process con-
tinually repeated will result in the majority of the lapilli falling on
the outer slope, leaving the chimney of the form of a true funnel, that
' is to say, a cavity whose sides descend for a certain distance at a mod-
erate angle, say roughly 45, and then suddenly increasing to nearly
a perpendicular. The consequence of this is, a basin-like cavity of
sloping walls, with the volcanic vent situated at its center. The ma-
terials now ejected by the volcano, supposing it to be in a compara-
tively quiescent state, will tend to build up a fresh cone occupying
this basin. It is not a thing unknown for such a concentric arrange-
ment of cones and craters to be extended to many repetitions. Let us
take for example the crater of Somma (Fig. 1) occupied by the cone
of Vesuvius, and this again inclosing w^ithin its own walls the little
cone of eruption, A. We may perhaps represent it thus : A : B : : B: C.

ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF VOLCANIC CONES. 51

Such a repetition is recorded as being quadruple, thus giving to the
mountain, near its apex, a step-like appearance.

From various irregularities and accidents, the vent may shift its
position and become eccentric, and thus produce an overlapping of the
newer cone upon the older. This is well illustrated by the Island of
Vulcano at this moment. In fact, the little hill of scoria surrounding
the active bocca or mouth of Vesuvius is situated right away to the
east-northeast of the crater, and consequently the lava-streams are
more abundant on that side of the mountain (Fig. 2),

The escape of the lava and vapor is the next thing to require our
attention. Little more, however, has to be said. The lava rarely
mounts the edge of the cone of eruption, generally escaping near its
foot, by forcing itself a passage through the loose materials or some
preexisting fissure according to hydrostatical laws. The vapor is the
real agent in keeping a vent clear, as the vast bubbles rise through the
viscid mass, bursting at its surface, thus keeping up the temperature
of the lava-column which it has traversed by the heat brought up
from below, and at the same time preventing any permanent stag-
nation therein. The vapor is generally to be seen carried away by
the wind in beautiful white clouds. When, however,' the eruption is
of a more intense kind, these vast volumes mount into the air at great
heightsj appearing like a column of fire by night, carrying with them
lapilli and ash often thousands of feet above the mouth of the volcano ;

Fig. 2. View of the CrIter of Vesttvius, as seen from the Highest Point of Monte Somma,
ON July 1, 1889: A. Crater ; B. Cone of eruption ; C. Slopes of cone. 1. Spire-like fumarole ;
2. Irregular fumaroles aiona: a fissure ; 3. Bocca-Grande. or vent ; 4. Edges and walls of crater
(full) f 5. Aeh-beds composing cone : 6. Cooled lava-streams all thrown out since November,
1879.

then, suddenly spreading out, these vast clouds give rise to the well-
known appearance of the Italian pine-tree. At the same time, from
every available fissure are seen to issue little columns of vapor, adding
their small share to the grandest visible display of force that Nature
has provided for our amusement or peril.

This brings us to the next point of interest, the formation of fu-
maroles, which may be considered as the effect of these two agents

52

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

last spoken of acting together. In Fig. 2 are seen two varieties, one
assuming a spire-like form. These may make their appearance any-
where on the volcano, but are usually situated in close proximity to
the vent. Their size varies from twelve inches in height upward ;
generally from three to thirty feet. They are commenced in the major
number of cases in the jBssured crust recently formed over still-flowing
lava. Here the .vapor escapes in spasmodic puffs, and by its force a
small quantity of lava is forced up and spread out around the aper-
ture, which rapidly cools. It is followed by another puff and another
oozing of lava above and around the aperture of the first. In this
manner layer by layer is built up, thus giving an irregular, imbricated,
roll-like appearance to the exterior. The surface is rapidly covered by
brilliantly-colored sublimates, and the fumarole then presents a very
pretty spectacle. The author lately was able to thoroughly watch the
formation of such a fumarole some twenty feet high, its decadence
and disintegration extending over a period of eight months. On pass-
ing the arm down the central tube. (i. e., the fumarole was extinct), it
could be felt very regular and smooth, and having a pretty uniform
bore of about nine inches.

After one slight eruption, the fumarole in question presented a
very curious phenomenon. Immediately (about two or three seconds)
after the explosion from the main vent, there came three terrific bangs,
with a spout of vapor from its apex, the last one shooting out small
fragments of still liquid lava.

This continued without variation for six hours that the author re-
mained in the crater. The spire-like form may be varied according to

Fig. 3. Crater of Deposition.

surrounding circumstances. If the escape take place along a fissure, it
will assume on occasions a miter-like form. There are many other
varieties in form, depending on the variability of surrounding circum-
stances.

It is now necessary to draw attention to the great difference of
opinion which has been expressed upon a point for which we have
very little data to support either of two views of the question.

Vuleanologists were for a long time divided into two schools,
which often waged war against each other with considerable fierceness.
The so-called upheavalists were led by such eminent men as Von
Buch, Elie de Beaumont, and Humboldt ; whereas those who held the

ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF VOLCANIC CONES.

^

opposite view, whicli will be immediately explained, claimed as their
adherents Sir Charles Lyell, Poulett Scrope, and others.

In Figs. 3 and 4 are diagrammatic representations of the two the-
ories.

The upheaval] sts believed that the earth-crust actually surrounding
the vent was bodily lifted up by the subterranean igneous forces into
a dome-shaped or bubble-like mass, thus forming the main mass of the

Fig. 4. Crateb of Upheaval.

cone, of which the center was the point of fracture, and therefore the
vent. The ejecta were therefore considered to form only a thin super-
ficial crust covering this. The subjacent rock which had been elevated
would thus have a quaquaversal or periclinal dip away on all sides
from the chimney (Fig. 4).

The opponents to this view attribute the entire bulk of the moun-
tain to the ejecta, as seen in Fig. 3, the only change in the basement
beds being those produced by pressure and excavation, both of which
tend to make them dip toward the vent, thus producing quite a con-
verse effect to the former.

This latter view certainly seems the most feasible, and, after a care-
ful examination of many of the old craters broiiQ:ht forward bv the
upheavalists as evidence, one becomes satisfied that they have wroDgly
interpreted facts, which the more advanced state of knowledge at the
present day and the collected experience of subsequent observers make
easy to our perception. On the other hand, it would be undoubtedly
rash to conclude that all craters were foimed entirely on one or the
other model. JoruUo, in Mexico, for instance, has many points about
it to support the upheaval theory. David Forbes, that clear observer,
mentions many facts about South American volcanoes that should
deter us from admitting the formation of cones and craters by the de-
position of ejecta only.

The rapidity with which a volcanic cone may be raised is a point
of great interest. We hear every now and then of some small island
appearing and again disappearing below the sea almost as rapidly as
it rose. Probably, however, the best illustration is that of Monte
Xuovo, four hundred and fifty-six feet high, situated in the Campi
Phlegraci, about eight miles west of Naples. This was raised from a

54- TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

marshy plain almost level with the sea in about four days, commenc-
ing on September 30, 1538.

The whole hill is, therefore, the product of one eruption. It is an
interesting fact that no stream of lava was developed. It would seem
that the explosions were so intense that the fluid rock was entirely
broken up and ejected in a fragmentary condition, of which there are
great quantities forming the slopes.

The cone of Vesuvius proper, fifteen hundred feet high above the
lowest edge of the crater of Somma, has entirely been built up of the
ejecta thrown out at the time of and since the memorable eruption of
A. D. 79, in which Ilerculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia, etc., were destroyed.
Besides the bulk of the mountain now seen, we must not forget the
vast quantity that has been required to fill up the crater of Somma,
much enlarged by the eruption spoken of. It is said that no lava ran
from Vesuvius till the tenth century ; this probably would be explained
by the fact that all the earlier streams were occupied in filling up the
great crater. Science- Gossijx

--

EYES AND SCHOOL-BOOKS.

By Peofessor HEEMANN COIIN.

t

IT was formerly considered, and some recent text-books have re-
j^eated the error, that the qualities of near-sighted and long-sighted
eyes were opposed. The investigations of Professor Donders, of
Utrecht, Lave, however, shown that not only is long-sightedness not
the opposite of near-sightedness, but that the two defects may be
associated in the same individual. The real opposite of short-sighted-
ness, according to Professor Donders, is over-sightedness. He dis-
tinguishes three kinds of eyes : 1. Those whose axis is of the proper
length from front to rear, normal-sighted or emmetropic {ev fi^rpo) (hxp,
seeing at the right distance) ; 2. Those whose axis is too long, short-
sighted, or myopic (from (iveLV, to Wmk, from the habit common to
near-sighted persons of partly closing the eyelids in looking at distant
objects) ; and, 3. Those whose axis is too short, over-sighted, or hyper-
metropic, seeing heyond the measure. To see at a distance, the em-
metrope needs no glass, the myope a concave glass, the hyperope a
convex glass.

All three kinds of eyes may become far-sighted or old-sighted as
their near vision becomes weaker in old age. This kind of far-sight-
edness is no more a disease than the turning gray of the hair ; it
depends upon the diminished force of the muscle that curves the
crystalline lens for near vision.

EYES AND SCHOOL-BOOKS. 55

Myopy is seldom congenital. All experts remark that it is rarely
found in children of less than five years of age. All agree likewise
that it arises from a too steady application of the eyes to close objects,
especially during the school age. The attention of the authorities in
Baden was directed to this fact forty years ago, by the number of
students in the gymnasia who wore spectacles. Their inquiries were
followed up by Dr. Szokalsky in Paris. Professor C von Jager, of
Vienna, in 1861, was the first person who made a systematic examina-
tion of the eyes of children in reference to this point. Out of two
hundred children, he found fifty-five per cent, of those in an orphan
house, and eighty per cent, of the pupils in a private school, to be
short-sighted. He did not, however, consider his investigation ex-
tended enough to justify his drawing a general conclusion.

I began in 1865 to examine the school-children of my native city,
and believed, after I had gone through thirty-three schools of all
grades, up to the gymnasium, containing 10,060 children, that I was
justified in announcing the three following laws : 1. Short-sightedness
hardly exists in the village schools the number of cases increases
steadily with the increasing demands which the schools make upon the
eyes, and reaches the highest point in the gymnasia ; 2. The number
of short-sighted scholars rises regularly from the lowest to the highest
classes in all institutions ; 3. The average degree of myopy increases
from class to class that is, the short-sighted become more so.

My investigations have been repeated in many cities of Europe
and America, and my conclusions have been everywhere confirmed.
I may cite the examinations of Dr. Thilenius at Rostock in 1868 ; of
Dr. Schultz at Upsala in 1870 ; of Dr. Crismann at St. Petersburg, and
Dr. Maklakoff at Moscow, in 1871 ; of Dr. Kriiger at Frankfort, and
Herr von Hoffmann at Wiesbaden, in 1873 ; of Dr. A. von Reuss in
Vienna, Dr. Ott and Dr. Ritzmann in Shaffhausen, Dr. Burgl in Mu-
nich, and Professor Dor in Bern, in 1874 ; of Dr. Conrad in Konigs-
berg in 1875, of Dr. Scheiding in Erlangen, Dr. Koppe in Dorpat,
Professor Pfltiger in Lucerne, and Drs. Loring and Derby in K^ew
York, in 1876 ; of Dr. Emmert in Bern, Drs. Kotelmann and Classen
in Hamburg, Professor Becker in Heidelberg, Drs. William, Agnew,
and Derby, in Cincinnati, New York, and Boston, in 1877 ; Dr. Nie-
mann in Magdeburg, Dr. Seggle in Munich, Professor Dor in Lyons,
Dr. Haenel in Dresden, and Dr. Reich in Tiflis, in 1878 ; Dr. Just in
Zittau, and Dr. Florschutz in Coburg, in 1879. We have in all more
than thirty accurate reports of competent oculists, giving the results
of the most careful investigations among more than forty thousand
scholars.

The final results of all these observations, when combined, show ,
that in the village schools hardly one per cent., in the elementary
schools five to eleven per cent., in the girls' schools ten to twenty-four
per cent., in the real schools twenty to forty per cent., and in the

56, THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gymnasia between thirty and fifty-five per cent, of the pupils are
myopic.

University students have so far been examined only in Breslau
and Tubingen. I found in 1867 fifty-three per cent, among the Cath-
olic theologues, fifty-five per cent, of the law students, fifty-six per
cent, of the medical students, sixty-seven per cent, of the evangelical
theologues, and sixty-eight per cent, of the students of philosophy, to
be short-sighted. In July, 1880, I again examined our medical stu-
dents, and found that fifty-two per cent, of those who had not passed
the examen physicimi, and sixty-four per cent, of the candidates who
had already stood the examination, were myopic ; and I am convinced
that the work of preparing for the examination in this as well as in
the other departments contributes to the increase of near-sightedness.
Dr. Gartner, between 1861 and 1879, examined six hundred and thirty-
four students of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Tubingen,
and found that seventy -nine per cent, of them were myopic.

If we inquire into the bearing of nationality on the development
of the affection, w^e find that in the gymnasia at Upsala thirty-seven
per cent., at St. Petersburg thirty-one per cent., at Dorpat fifty-five
per cent., at Lyons twenty-two per cent., at Tiflis thirty-seven per cent.,
at New York twenty-seven per cent., at Boston twenty-eight per cent.,
of the students are myopic. In the gymnasia of St. Petersburg thirty-
four per cent, of the Russian, and only twenty-four per cent, of the
German scholars ; at Tiflis, thirty per cent, of the Russians, thirty-
eight per cent, of the Armenians, and forty-five per cent, of the Geor-
gians, w^ere short-sighted. Of five hundred and twenty-nine teachers
in Lucerne, fourteen per cent, of the Latin Swiss, twenty-four per
cent, of the German Swiss, were affected. Loring and Derby ob-
served in New York, in 1876, that fourteen per cent, of the children
of Irish, twenty per cent, of American, and tw^enty-four per cent, of
German parents, w^ere near-sighted. At the International Congress
of Physicians, held in Paris in 1867, 1 confidently addressed every one
who wore spectacles in German, and was sure to receive a German
answer. It is possible that the Germans have become more than
ordinarily predisjDosed to short-sightedness, by the operation of com-
pulsory education through several generations ; but this can not yet
be taken for granted, for relatively only a small proportion of non-
German school children have been examined. The statements of all
the authorities establish, however, that everywhere, and in all institu-
tions, the number of myopes increases from class to class, and becomes
really formidable in the secunda and prima of the gymnasia and real
schools, and the corresponding classes of other schools. It ranges at
between thirty-five and sixty per cent, of the whole number of schol-
ars ; but the proportion has been found to exceed sixty per cent, in
the prima of several German gymnasia, and to rise to eighty per cent,
at Erlangen, and one hundred per cent, at Heidelberg. Taking the

EYES AND SCHOOL-BOOKS. 57

average of the results of tlie examinations in twenty-five German and
Swiss gymnasia with 9,096 scholars, the percentage of short-sighted
pupils rose from the sexta to the prima as follows : 22, 27, 33, 46,
52, 53.

These numbers speak plainly enough. Still there are persons who
doubt that children become short-sighted at school. In order to make
this more clear, I examined the pupils of the Friedrichs Gymnasium
at Breslau in 1871, and repeated the examinations upon the same per-
sons three semesters afterward. Seventeen pupils who had been
found normal-sighted at the first examination had become short-
sighted, and more than half of those who had appeared near-sighted
at first had become more so. Similar results have been obtained
by Dr. A. von Reuss in the Leopold Stadt Gymnasium at Vienna,
by Dr. Seggle in the Cadet Corps at Munich, and by Dr. Derby at
Boston.

It is evident that we are threatened with a great national affliction,
w^hich is likely not only to be detrimental to all peaceful occupations,
but to impair the military efficiency of our people. It is important to
seek out the causes of this ever-growing evil and contest them with
energy. We can not discuss here all the causes that tend to produce
myopy. All protracted looking at close objects may contribute to it.
Among the more active causes may be mentioned badly-constructed
school-benches, imperfect lighting, too much reading, bad writing, and
bad type. The matter of the style of typography which is most com-
patible with the preservation of the eyesight deserves especial con-
sideration. The most important point is the size of the letters. We
can not determine this by the measurement of the em, as the printers
do, for that regards the shank of the type, of which readers know noth-
ing ; but it must be judged by a special measurement of the visible
letter. I have adopted as the standard of measurement the letter n,
that being the most regular and symmetrical in shape in both the
Roman and German alphabets. I have found that the n in pearl
type is about 0*75 millimetre (or about y|^ of an inch) high, in
nonpareil 1 millimetre (or about -^^ of an inch), in brevier (petitschrift)
1^ millimetre (or about -f-^ of an inch), in long primer (corpusschrift)
IJ millimetre (Jy inch), and in pica (Ciceroschrift) If millimetre
(tV inch).

We have hitherto had no definite rules concerning the smallest size
of letters which should be permitted for the sake of the eyes. The
distance at which a letter of any particular size can be seen does not
afford a guide to it, for it does not correspond at all with the distance
at which matter printed in the same type can be read steadily, at the
usual distance in reading. I believe that letters which are less than a
millimetre and a half (Jy inch) high, will finally prove injurious to the
eye. How little attention has hitherto been paid to this important
subject is exemplified in the fact that even oculistic journals and books

58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

frequently contain nonpareil, or letters only a millimetre (o*^ inch)
high.

Many of the text-books required by the school authorities are bad-
ly printed. The officers should go through every school-book with a
millimetre-rule in their hands, and throw out all in which the letters
are less than a millimetre and a half high, and should give the prefer-
ence to those establishments which do not use letters of less than two
millimetres {-^^ inch).

The distance between the lines is an important factor in respect to
ease in reading. As is well known, the compositors often insert thin
leads between the lines so that the letters which project above the
average height and those that fall below the line shall not touch.
Every one knows that legibility is improved by contrast ; the darker
the print and the clearer the paper, so much easier is the reading.
When the lines are close together, or the matter is printed " solid," the
eyes become tired sooner, because the contrast is lessened. The lines
tend to run together, and the effort to separate them strains the eyes.
In fine editions the lines are widely separated. I consider a book well
leaded in which the interlinear space, measured by the shorter letters,
amounts to three millimetres (^ inch). The lines will really seem to
be closer, for the projections of the longer letters will encroach upon
the interlinear space ; and cases may occur, when those letters pre-
dominate, in which the space may seem to be only one millimetre.
The narrowest interval that should be permitted is, in my opinion, two
and a half millimetres {-^-^ inch).

The thickness of the strokes should also be regarded, for it is ob-
vious that the form of the letter is more readily and more clearly im-
pressed on the retina when the stroke is broad and distinct than when
it is fine. Letters having a stroke of less than one fourth of a milli-
metre (yj-y of an inch), in thickness should not be admitted into school-
books. Ample space should be allowed between the letters. Labou-
laye recommended that every two lettei^ should be separated by a
clear space at least as broad as the distance between the two strokes
of the n.

Javal believes that the extension of the lines beyond a certain limit
of length contributes to myopy, by forcing the eye to endeavor to
adjust itself to the varying distances from the eye of the ends and the
middle of the line. This has not been demonstrated, but it is not
improbable. Every near-sighted person is aware of the pain it occa-
sions him to read a number of long lines without spectacles. The
shorter the lines, the more easily they are read, because the eye does
not have to make wide excursions. The most suitable length of lines
for school-books appears to be about ninety millimetres, or three and
a half inches.

Javal has observed that the rectangular Roman letters are liable to
be reduced in apparent size, and have their corners seem rounded by

DEEP-SEA INVESTIGATION. 59

irradiation from the white paper, and recommends a thickening of the
cross-strokes at the ends to obviate this defect. This observation is
less applicable to the Geiman letters, for they already have broken
lines and knobbed expansions at the ends of the strokes. Many
physicians, particularly those who are not Germans, believe that the
shape of the German letters is more tiresome to the eyes than that of
the Roman letters, I have never been able to perceive this, nor any
reason why it should be so, provided the German print is large and
thick enough, and the lines are far enough apart. Use has doubtless
much to do with the matter. For myself, it is always pleasant, after
a long reading of the monotonous Roman print, to return to " our
beloved German."

Even the thickest and largest letters, the shortest and best sepa-
rated lines, and the most excellent printing, may speed the progress of
myopy if the light is bad. At home, every one can find a light place
to read by the window on dark days, by a bright lamp at night. It
is different in schools and ofiices. Fifteen years ago, after measuring
the ratio of the window-space to the floor-space in the schoolhouses of
Breslau, I declared that there could never be too much light in a
schoolroom, and estimated that unless the house could be furnished
with a glass roof, at least thirty square inches of window-space should
be provided for each square foot of floor-space. In many schoolrooms
as at present arranged, the pupils nearest the windows may be sitting
in a glare of light, while those farthest away are not able to study for
the obscurity. Notwithstanding all that has been written and all that
has been done in the last fifteen years for the improvement of school-
rooms, enough is still left to be clone in nearly every town. Deutsche
Hundschau.

--^

DEEP-SEA IXYESTIGATIOK*

By J. G. BUCHANAN, F. E. S. E,,

OF THE CHALLENGER EXPEDITION.

T

IHE first problem of deep-sea investigation is to determine the
extent of the ocean, its size, its volume. The superficial extent
and limits are determined by the surveyor. In order to map out the
bottom of the sea, there is only one method, namely, the direct de-
termination of the depth at as many places as possible. When a ship
is "in soundings," the depth is ascertained by the ordinary hand lead-
line, which is from twenty to twenty-five fathoms long, and is con-
ventionally marked at stated intervals with bits of leather, white,

* Abridged and condensed from an address delivered before the Society of Arts, Feb-
ruary 24, 1881.

6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

red, and blue bunting, and knots. The lead is a long, finely-tempered
block, generally weighing fourteen pounds, which has a recess at the
thick end, and is perforated at the other end for the reception of the
line. This instrument is chiefly used while the vessel is in motion.
The leadsman swings the lead vigorously, so as to give it momentum
enough to carry it well in advance of the ship before it touches the
water. It sinks rapidly while the leadsman's position is advancing to
the spot where it touched the water. The depth is ascertained by
looking at the marks on the line. This method is effective and cor-
rect enough for ordinary purposes, in depths of not more than twelve
or fifteen fathoms. Accurate soundings may be obtained by reducing
the speed of the vessel as much as possible, in depths which do not
much exceed thirty or forty fathoms. In ocean-water, where depths
of two or three thousand fathoms are met, the vessel must be kept
stationary, and heavier weights than are found sufiicient for shallow
soundings must be employed.

Deep-sea soundings have received much attention during the last
thirty years. The first attempt at them appears to have been made
by Captain Constantine John Phipps, during his Arctic Expedition in
1773. He sounded a depth of six hundred and eighty-three fathoms
with a lead weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, which appears
to have sunk about ten feet into the mud. Determinations of the
temperature of the sea water and of its density were made at the same
time. Captain John Ross employed, during his Arctic voyage of 1818,
one of the earliest satisfactory instruments for bringing up a consider-
able quantity of the bottom mud in deep water, with which he was
able to ascertain the temperature at any depth.

A contemporary of Ross, the younger Scoresby, observed that,
when in sounding at great depths the ordinary deep-sea line and lead
are used, the increasing weight of line, in proportion as more of it is
required, renders less certain the determination of the moment when
bottom is reached. He has also left the record of the first observa-
tion of the effects of the enormous pressure which is acting under the
deep waters. The Americans have introduced the method of using
fine twine and a heavy weight, both of which may be sacrificed at
every sounding, to obviate the inconveniences arising from overweight
of rope. The practice of observing the rate at which successive equal
lengths of line pass out has been found useful in cases where ordinary
observation or feeling does not sufiice to indicate when the shot has
reached the bottom. Iron wire was first used instead of twine about
1850, by Lieutenant Walsh, of the United States schooner Taney.

When the surveys for telegraphic cables were begun, it became
important to ascertain the nature of the ground at the bottom. The
apparatus invented by Midshipman Burke, of the United States Navy,
in 1854, answered this purpose. It consisted of a cannon-ball with a
hole drilled through it. Through this hole passed a straight rod.

DEEP-SEA INVESTIGATION. 61

fitted at its upper end with peculiar disengaging hooks. The weight
was slung to these hooks by means of a wire which passed from a ring
slipped over the rod under the weight, up on each side of th cannon-
ball to the hooks. The sounding-line was attached to eyes in these
hooks, and, as long as the lower end of the rod was not resting on
anything, the weight was kept securely in its place, and was available
for taking out the sounding-line. As soon, however, ias bottom was
reached, and the rod came to be supported on its lower end, the hooks
at the upper end fell forward, and allowed the wire to disengage itself.
The weight was thus released, and, on the line being pulled up, the
rod came away through the perforation of the shot, and brought with
it specimens of the mud in small quill tubes fitted in a recess in the.
lower end of the rod. This apparatus has been improved by substi-
tuting a tube for the rod, and so arranging the attachment of the
weight that it shall continue till the hauling in is begun, whereby its
mass and momentum are available for forcing the tube as deep into
' the ground as possible. Captain Shortland devised another modifica-
tion of the apparatus in 1868, for the soundings between Bombay and
Aden. The essential part was the insertion of two butterfly valves
in the lower end, and two conical valves opening upward in the middle
of the tube, between which a sample of the bottom water is secured,
while a specimen of the mud is brought up in the lower segment of
the tube. It was used with general satisfaction during the first year
of the cruise of the Challenger. The chief objection to it was founded
on the smallness of the samples of bottom which it brought up. This
machine, the " Hydra," was replaced after the first year by the " Bai-
ley," an apparatus having a larger tube fitted to bring up more consid-
erable samples of mud.

An apparatus which the author has devised for sounding the Scot-
tish lakes, and found to act well, consists of a straight brass tube an
inch in diameter, carrying a shoulder about one foot from the lower
end. A cylindrical leaden sinker of suitable weight is slipped over
the upper end, and rests on the shoulder. The line is made fast to
an eye at the top of the tube, and the part of the tube below the
shoulder can be unscrewed, and the mud which it has brought up
squeezed out. The tubes bury themselves readily in soft mud and
clay, and bring up considerable samples.

It is necessary, in making a sounding in deep water, to load the
end of the line with such a weight that in the deepest water that may
be reasonably expected the velocity of descent shall not be dimin-
ished to an excessive extent by the friction of the increasing length
of line in passing through the water. Wire has been largely employed
for the line, and has great advantages in this respect over hemp. For
example, in water of fifteen hundred fathoms a sinker weighing three
hundred-weight is twenty minutes in reaching the bottom, with the
best hempen sounding-line ; while with wire and a sinker of thirty

6z

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pounds the sounding may be completed in from twenty-five to thirty
minutes. Wire, however, is less flexible than hemp, and breaks under
the influence of kinks and twists, which do not affect the strength of
hemp in any degree. The balance of advantages is in favor of wire,
but it is well to have ropes of both kinds.

The anchor used by the author for holding his vessel in place, dur-
ing his explorations on the west coast of Scotland during the summer
of 1878, brought up so many fine specimens from the mud in w^hich it

Fig. 1.

sank before taking hold on the bottom, that he determined to provide
himself with one which should retain the mud. For this purpose he
had an anchor made with an open frame, instead of a solid bar con-
necting the two palms, to which was laced a stout canvas bag, into
which any mud sticking to the palm at the moment of its breaking
out of the ground would fall (Fig. 1). The instrument proved a use-
ful one for exploring the bottom, particularly when the object was
to collect the mud itself rather than the things living on its surface,
and was, moreover, efiicient as an ordinary kedge-anchor.

Doubts have sometimes been thrown on the trustworthiness of
deep soundings with the line and heavy sinker. First, it was asserted
that under some great pressure the density of water would become

DEEP-SEA INVESTIGATION. 63

equal to that of lead, and the sinkers would float instead of sinking.
This might be the case were water as compressible as air, and if the
lead could escape compression ; but the amount of pressure that will
double the density of air will increase that of water by only one-
twenty-thousan.dth part, and it would require the pressure of more
than two hundred thousand atmospheres to squeeze water to the den-
sity of lead. The deepest water, five thousand fathoms, is not subject
to a pressure that can raise its density as much as one-twentieth part.
Moreover, the weight of lead is increased by pressure much faster
than that of water, so that, however dense the water may be, it would
have to encounter a still denser lead. This objection, however, falla-
cious as it has been shown to be, has been admitted by persons of high
authority, of course without sufiicient thought.

A more real but exaggerated objection to the trustworthiness of
deep soundings is founded on the existence of currents likely to cause
deviations in the direction of the line, and to change the position of
the ship. There is no doubt concerning surface-currents ; they are
observed and measured every day, and form an important factor in
the navigator's daily reckoning. It has been inferred that they may
be complemented by return under-currents which will be harder to
deal with because they can not be so easily detected and nieasured.
Soundings taken in the presence of such currents are, it must be ad-
mitted, less to be relied upon than those taken in manifestly quiet
waters ; but the extent of under-currents has been very much exag-
gerated. By far the greater part of the ocean is, for sounding pur-
poses, practically still water. The surface-currents of any importance
are easily recognized, and so also are the under-currents. Just as a
physician can, by bringing his experience to bear on the sounds trans-
mitted to him by the stethoscope, divine what is taking place inside
the body of his patient, so the experienced seaman can, by observing
the behavior of his sounding-line, form a fair diagnosis, of what is
taking place in the depths of the sea. When the sinker passes into a
belt of under-current, the fact is very soon apparent ; but, even with
the greatest care, soundings taken under such circumstances are of
doubtful value, unless bottom is brought up. In the latter case, we
know the depth is not greater than the length of line used, and a cor-
rection, suggested by observation and experience, may be apj)lied,
which will bring our estimate of the depth very near the truth. It is
evident that this can not be satisfactorily done by the sounding-line
alone, and it early occurred to those who thought on the subject that
the method which promised most success was that which should give
the depth in terms of the height of the column of water ; in other
words, the barometrical measurement of altitudes was extended from
the land to the sea. * The instruments which have been suggested for
this purpose are constructed with a view to record the amount of
compression produced on a given mass of a certain elastic substance.

64

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Fig. 2.

Pi

A

y

B

From the known law regulating the variation in volume of the sub-
stance with variation in the pressure, the maximum pressure to which
the instrument has been exposed can be deduced, and from the known
density of the water the height of the column of it which would pro-
duce that amount of pressure can be calculated ; this height represents
the depth to which the instrument has been sunk. Perkins, about
1812, constructed a piezometer, or instrument for measuring pressure,
consisting of a glass tube sealed at one end, filled with water, and in-
verted in a, cup of mercury. A steel index placed within the tube
rose with the mercury, and was retained by a spring at the highest
point reached. Instruments made on this principle were used by him,
by Aime in the Mediterranean, in 1848, and by the United States
Coast Survey a few years later. Essentially the same instrument,
with certain convenient practical modifications, was used by the author
in the Challenger Expedition.

Another method of measuring the pressure, and through
it the depth, of the sea, is by means of an instrument (Fig. 2)
much resembling in principle the aneroid barometer. Its
simplest form is that usually given to a naercurial thermo-
meter. When the pressure on the outside of the instrument
is increased, the bulb tends to collapse, and, flattening, to
force the mercury into the stem. The amount of com-
pression may be shown as before by an index on the col-
umn of mercury. The use of mercury in this instrument
is, however, unsatisfactory, because its contraction under
the diminished temperature of the lower depths tends to
counteract the effect of pressure in pushing it forward. It
is, nevertheless, adapted to waters of a uniform tempera-
ture, as in the polar regions.

Soundings from vessels in motion may be taken with
Massey's machine, in which the friction of the passing wa-
ter as it sinks causes a screw-fan to make rotations which
are registered by an index. Sir William Thomson has pro-
posed the use of a glass tube, sealed at one end, and coated
internally with a chemical preparation, the color of which is changed
by the action of sea- water. The sea- water forces itself in as the tube
sinks, changing the color of the coating to an extent from which the
depth may be calculated. Each of these instruments is good for only
one sounding.

The author has patented a device by which the depth of com-
pression to which an inclosed mass of air has been subjected is mea-
sured by the water which has gained admittance to the instrument.
It is represented in Fig. 3. It consists of a glass tube open at both
ends, but capable of being closed by a stopper 6r other means. At
some part of the tube a spout is introduced, and the tube is bent
over through two right angles immediately above it. When the

B

oio

DEEP-SEA INVESTIGATION.

65

Fig. 3.

eo

30

70

SO

50

25

\c

20

/

Fig. 4.

17

instrument is to be used, the end is closed, and the line let go ;
when bottom has been reached it is brought up again, and we find
that a certain amount of water has lodged in the
lower part of the tube. It is evident that, as the
instrument descends and the air in it is compressed,
the water forces its way in through an orifice, and
past the spout. This spout is so formed that it de-
livers the water against the walls of the tube, down
which it runs, and collects at the bottom. When
the motion of ascent begins, the air, by its elastici-
ty, tends to recover its original volume, and ex-
pands in the direction of greatest freedom. ISTow,
all the water which has entered has collected below
the spout ; consequently, in reexpanding, this water
will be left undisturbed.

Assuming that the volume of the mass of air in
the instrument varies inversely with the pressure
to which it is subjected, we require, in order to be
able to construct a scale for our instrument, and so
to interpret its results, to know the total volume of
the tube, the volume of the part which I call the
vestibule, the dimensions and volume of the narrow
tube, and of the wide one.

Fig. 4 represents an instrument modified so that
it can be used either for great or small depths, ac-
cording as either end is closed. Mr. Hunt, of the
United States Coast Survey, has invented an ap-
paratus consisting of an air-tight bag, made of
flexible material, with a long, flexible tube attached
to it. The bag, being filled with air, is sunk to the
bottom (in a moderate depth of water), while the
other end of the flexible tube is connected with a
Bourdon's pressure-gauge in the ship or boat, the
observation of which gives an exact profile of the
bottom as the bag is towed over it.

Bottom temperatures may be measured by com-
mon thermometers protected so as to be uninflu-
enced in coming up through the warmer upper
strata of water, by bringing the water to the sur-
face and taking its temperature, or by self -register-
ing thermometers, such as Cavendish's and Six's.
A great amount of ingenuity has been displayed in
the invention of machines for registering the ac-
tual temperature of the water at any given depth, independently of
that of the water above it, all of which require some assistance from

VOL. XIX. 5

66

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 5.

irrx.

I

P

the observer in bringing about a catastrophe whicli shall leave its
mark on the condition of the instrument.

All the self-resfisterinfj thermometers are liable to error from the
effects of pressure, which may amount to five or six hundred atmos-
pheres on the outside of tlie instrument, v/hile inside it -is never
greater than was that of the atmosphere Avhen the tube was sealed up.
Attempts to obviate them have been made by placing the thermome-
ters or their bulbs in protecting inclosures, and by the device of leav-
ing the instrument open at one end. This was adopted by Aime in
some of his experiments, when the effect of pressure on the apparent
volume of the liquid was determined independently, and a correction
applied accordingly. The author has devised and construct-
ed a mercurial thermometer, or piezometer (Fig. 5) on the
same principle, but his object in admitting the water-press-
ure to the inside of the instrument was to utilize it in shift-
ing the scale of the thermometer as the depths changed.
The thing registered in such instruments is always the ap-
parent volume of the liquid, and this varies with the tem-
perature and the pressure. Hence the indications will rep-
resent the sum of the effects of the change of temperature
and of pressure. If from any independent source we know
either of these, we can determine the other. In a sea of
uniform temperature throughout its depth, the apparent
volume of the liquid would diminish as the pressure in-
creased, and, if the temperature increased with the depth,
the apparent volume of the liquid would diminish at a slower
rate ; but it would be always possible to determine the true
temperature as long as it did not increase at so great a rate
as to dilate the liquid more than it was compressed by the increasing
pressure. For the investigation of seas such as the Mediterranean,
this form of instrument is most valuable. Ko one instrument, how-
ever, fulfills all the conditions required of a perfect deep-sea ther-
mometer, and the investigator must use his judgment in selecting the
one or more best suited to his particular purpose.

The water from the bottom is usually collected in the so-called
" slip " water-bottle. Water from intermediate depths is obtained
in an instrument represented in section in Fig. 6. It consists of a
cylinder, A, terminated at both ends by similar stopcocks, B, B, which
are connected by the rod C. This rod carries, near its upper extrem-
ity, a piece of stout sheet-brass, D, ten centimetres long by fifteen broad,
soldered to the casting E, which is movable about the axis e.

When intermediate water is to be obtained, the water-bottle is
firmly attached to the sounding-line, which carries at its end usually
a fifty-six pound or one hundred-weight lead ; the stopcocks are then
opened, giving them, with the rod C, the position represented in
the figure. During the passage of the bottle downward, the water

THE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE. 6j

Fig. 6.

K

courses freely througli it, being considerably assisted by the conical
end-pieces K K. When the requisite depth is reached, the line is
checked and is finally hauled in. Under the pressure
of the hauling, the flap D falls down into an horizontal
position,' when it is caught by the movable piece of
brass F, which moves round an axis, /, and is sup-
ported on the side opposite to E by the rod G, which
rests on the spiral spring H. The water rushing past
D, when thus in an horizontal position, exercises a suffi-
cient pressure uj^on the rod to close the stopcocks B, B.
When the speed with which the bottle is hauled through
the water is increased, the pressure on D becomes so
great that it overcomes the tension of the spring H,
and E passes the catch F, when the rest of the journey
upward is performed with the flap D hanging down,
and therefore offering the least possible resistance to
the water. When the water-bottle has been brought
up, it is only necessary to substitute for the lower funnel
a small nozzle, bv which the water mav be drawn off,
and the instrument be made ready for immediate use
without having: to detach it. It has been ascertained
by experiment that the water obtained by this instru-
ment is an average of the last two fathoms through
which it has passed.

M

--

THE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AXD ITS FOLK-LOEE.

By T. F. THISELTON DYEE.

AMOI^G the many sources of superstition in this and other coun-
tries, the phenomenon well known as the Will-o'-the-Wisp has
from time immemorial held a prominent place. Indeed, it would be
no easy task to enumerate the various shapes in which the imagination
has pictured this mysterious appearance, not to mention the manifold
legends that have clustered round it. In days gone by, when our
credulous forefathers believed in the intervention of fairies in human
affairs, the Will-o'the-Wisp entered largely into their notions respect-
ing the agency of these little beings in their dealings with mankind ;
and, as will be seen in the course of the present paper, numerous
stories were often related in which some fairy disguised as Will-o'-
the-Wisp was the chief character. It is worthy, too, of note that,
although in these enlightened days every relic of primitive culture is
gradually fading from our gaze, the old superstitious fancies associated
with this nocturnal visitor still survive with more or less vigor, retain-
ing that hold on the vulgar mind which they formerly possessed.

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Thus, in remote villages and secluded country nooks the peasant,
while not forgetting the traditions handed down to him, continues to
believe with implicit faith in those quaint and weird fancies which
have invested the Will-o'-the-Wisp with such a peculiar dread. This
terror, as we shall point out, in a great measure originated in the many
tales and legends that were in past centuries framed to explain and
account for this deceptive phenomenon.

Referring, then, in the first place, to the various names assigned to
it many of these are extremely curious, differing according to the
country and locality. Its most popular appellation, Will-o'-the-Wisp,
was probably derived from its customary appearance ; this wandering
meteor having been personified because it looked to the spectators like
a person carrying a lighted straw torch in his hand. Hence it has
been termed Jack, Gill, Joan, Will, or Robin, indifferently, in accord-
ance with the fancy of the rustic mind ; the supposed spirit of the
lamp being thought to resemble either a male or female apparition.
Hentzner, for instance, in his " Travels in England " (1598), relates how,
returning from Canterbury to Dover, " there were a great many Jack-
a-lanthorns, so that we were quite seized with horror and amazement."

In Worcestershire, the phenomenon is termed by the several names
of '' Hob-and-his-Lanthorn," "Hobany's Lanthom," and "Hoberdy's
Lanthorn " the word Hob in each case being the same name as occurs
in connection with the phrase hobgoblin. It appears that, in days
gone by. Hob was a frequent name among common people, and, curi-
ously enough, Coriolanus (Act ii, sc. 3) speaks of it as used by the
citizens of Rome :

*' Why in this wolvish gown should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear
Their needless vouches? "

Subsequently, Hob seems to have been used as a substitute for Hob-
goblin, as in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Monsieur Thomas" (Act iv,

sc. 6) :

"From elves, hobs, and fairies,

From fire- drakes or fiends.
And such as the devil sends,
Defend us, good Heaven ! "

A Northamptonshire name is Jinny Buntail, which is evidently a
corruption of Jinn with the burnt tail, or " Jild burnt tail," an allusion
to which occurs in Gayton's "Notes on Don Quixote" (1654, 97),
where we read of " Will with the Wispe, or Gyl burnt tayle," and,
again (2G8), of " An ignis fatuiis, or exhalation, and Gillon a burnt
tayle, or Will with the Wispe." The Somersetshire peasant talks of
" Joan-in-the-Wad," and " Jack-a-Wad," Wad and Wisp being synony-
mous. In Suffolk it was knoAvn as " A Gylham lamp," in reference to
which we are told in Gough's " Camden " (ii, 90) how, " in the low

THE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE. 6g

grounds at Syiham, just by AVingfield, are the i(/nes fatui, commonly
called Syiham lamps, the terror and destruction of travelers, and even
of the inhabitants, who are frequently misled by them."

Another of its poj^ular nicknames in former years was " Kit of the
Canstick " i. e., candlestick ; and, in " Poor Robin's Almanack " for
1777, it is styled " Peg-a-lantern " :

" I should indeed as soon expect
That Peg-a-lantern would direct
Me straightway home on misty night ;
As wand'ring stars, quite out of sight,
Pegg's dancing light does oft betray,
And lead her followers astray."

The expression ignis fatuus, or foolish fire, originated in its leading
men astray, as in the "Tempest" (Act iv, sc. 1), where Stephanio
says, "Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless fairy, has
done little better than played the jack with us " a passage which is
explained by Johnson thus : " He has played Jack-with-a-lantern ; he
has led us about like an ignis fatuus, by which travelers are decoyed
into the mire." Thus Gray describes it :

" How Will-a'-Wisp misleads night-gazing clowns
O'er hills, and sinking bogs, and pathless downs."

In Scotland, one of the names for this appearance is " Dank Will,"
and in Ireland it is known as " Miscann Many," an allusion to which
occurs in Croker's " Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland " in the
story of the " Spirit Horse," where Morty Sullivan is so sadly deluded
by it.

Again, the term " Fire-drake," * which is jocularly used in " Henry
VIII " (Act V, sc. 4) for a man with a red face, was one of the popu-
lar names for the Will-o'-the-Wisp ; in allusion to which Burton, in
his " Anatomic of Melancholy," says, " Fiery spirits or devils are such
as commonly work by fire-drakes or ignes fatui, which lead men often
m flumina et prcecipitia.'''^ It appears, also, that in Shakespeare's day
" a walking fire " was another common name for the Will-o'-the-Wisp,
to which he probably refers in " King Lear " (Act iv, sc. 3), where,
Gloster's torch being seen in the distance, the fool says, " Look, here
comes a walking fire " ; whereupon Edgar replies : " This is the foul
fiend Flibbertigibet ; he begins at Curfew and walks till the first
cock." Hence Mr. Hunter f considers that Flibbertigibet was a name
for the Will-o'-the-Wisp. That, however, this phenomenon was known

* A " Fire-drake " appears to have been also an artificial firework, as in Middleton's
" Five Gallants " :

"... But, like firedrakes,
Mounted a little, gave a crack, and fell."

f " New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare," ii, 272.

JO THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as the " Walking Fire " is evident from the old story " How Robin
Goodf ellow led a company of Fellowes out of their way " : * "A com-
pany of yoimg men having been making merry with their sweethearts,
were, at their coming home, to come over a heath. Robin Good fel-
low, knowing of it, met them, and, to make some pastime, he led them
up and down the heath a whole night, so that they could not get out
of it ; for he went before them in the shape of ' a walking fire,' which
they all saw and followed till the day did appear ; then Robin left
them, and at his departure spake these words :

' Get home, you merry lads,
Tell your mammies and your dads,
And all those that newes desire
How you saw a walking fire ;
"Wenches that doe smile and lispe
Use to call me Willy Wispe.' "

The Will-o'-the-Wisp is not, it would seem, confined to land, sailors
often meeting with it at sea, an elegant description of which is given
by Ariel in " The Tempest " (Act i, sc. 2) :

"... Sometimes I'd divide
And burn in many places ; on the topmast,
The yards and bowspit ; would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join."

It is called, by the French and Spaniards inhabiting the coasts of
the Mediterranean, St. Helene's or St. Telme's fires ; by the Italians,
the fire of St. Peter and St. Nicholas, f It is also known as the fire of
St. Helen, St. Herm, and St. Clare. Whenever it appeared as a single
flame it was supposed by the ancients to be Helena, the sister of Castor
and Pollux, and to bring ill luck, from the calamities which this lady
is known to have caused in the Trojan war. When it came as a
double flame, it was called Castor and Pollux, and accounted a good
omen. It has also been described as a little blaze of fire, sometimes
appearing by night on the tops of soldiers' lances, or at sea on masts
and sail-yards, whirling and leaping in the twinkling of an eye from
one place to another. According to some, it never appears but after
a tempest, and is supposed to lead people to suicide by drowning.
Douce,]; commenting on the passage in " The Tempest " quoted above,
thinks that Shakespeare consulted Batman's *' Golden Books of the
Leaden Goddes," who, speaking of Castor and Pollux, says, " They
were figured like two lamps or crescent lights, one on the top of a
mast, the other on the stem or foreship." He adds that, if the first
light appears on the foreship and ascends upward, it is a sign of good
luck ; if either light begins at the topmast and descends toward the

* nazlitt's "Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare," 1875, 186.
f Brand's "Popular Antiquities," 1849, iii, 400, 401.
X Deuce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," 1839, 3.

TEE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE. 71

sea, it is a sign of a tempest. In taking, therefore, the latter position,
Ariel had fulfilled the commands of Prospero to raise a storm. This,
then, coincides with the following lines : *

" Last night I saw Saint Elmo's stars,

With their glittering lanterns all at play
On the tops of the masts and tips of the spars,

And I knew we should have foul weather that day."

A curious illustration of this phenomenon is recorded in " Hakluyt's
Voyages " (1598, iii, 450) : "I do remember that in the great and bois-
terous storm of this foul weather, in the night there came upon the top
of our mainyard and mainmast a certain little light, much like unto
the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards call the Cuerpo Santo.
This light continued aboord our ship about three houres, flying from
mast to mast, and from top to top ; and sometimes it would be in two
or three places at once." This meteor was by some supposed to be a
spirit, and by others an exhalation of moist vapors, thought to be en-
gendered by foul and tempestuous weather.

Referring, in the next place, to the legends associated with the
Will-o'-the-Wisp, we may mention that these, although differing in
many respects, generally invest this strange mimicry in nature with
the supernatural element, which is said to be generally exercised for
the purpose of deluding, in some way or other, the benighted traveler.
Indeed, it would seem that in past centuries whatever phenomena were
of an apparently illusive or hostile character were regarded by primi-
tive science as specially designed to work pain or evil, even although,
by way of treacherous bait, they might possess, the most attractive
qualities. Thus, as Mr. Conway has pointed out in his excellent work
on "Demonology and Devil Lore" (1880, ii, 212), because many a pil-
grim " perished through a confidence in the lake-pictures of the mirage
which led to carelessness about economizing his skin of water, the
mirage gained its present name Bahr Sheitan, or Devil's Water."
Thus, oftentimes, the harmless and beautiful phenomena in nature
have been invested with an evil name, simply because our ancestors,
living in the childhood of the world, were unable to comprehend their
meaning, and so, in all the freshness of their creative fancy, regarded
them as demoniacal agencies to thwart and hinder man's progress in
moral culture. Strange, therefore, as it may seem, we in our nine-
teenth century have in many of the legends that survive in this and
other countries relics of Aryan science, which, although meaningless
to the casual observer, yet embody the teaching of primitive man.

In this country the AYill-o'-the-Wisp has been connected with the
fairy race from early times, a fact proved by its old name of Elf -fire.
The same notion, too, existed in Germany ; for Grimm informs us that
it was there formerly known as Elglicht, and in Denmark as Vaettylis.

*

Swainson's "Weather Lore," 193.

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

On this point Mr. Brand * has rightly remarked that the naturalists of
the dark ages " owed many obligations to our fairies, for, whatever
they found wonderful and could not account for, they easily got rid of
by charging to their account. Thus they called those which have
since been supposed to have been the heads of arrows or spears, before
the use of iron Avas known, JEIf shots.'''' In the same way Shakespeare
uses the expression " Elfish-marked " ; \ and also speaks of Elf-locks in
*' Romeo and Juliet " J :

"... This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,
"Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes."

A disease, too, consisting of a hardness of the side w^as in days gone
by termed Elf-cake. Just, then, as the fairies were supposed to be
guilty of committing various pranks as seen in the sundry mishaps
that befall humanity, so the Will-o'-the-Wisp with its treacherous
light was reckoned among them. Thus Shakespeare represents Puck
as transforming himself into a fire, by which he clearly alluded to the
Will-o'-the-Wisp ; and it may be remembered how the fairy asks

him

"... Are you not he
That fright the maidens of the villagery,
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? "

We have already noticed, too, Shakespeare's allusion to Ariel's as-
suming this form, who, like Puck, is a fairy. The term Puck, w^hich is
evidently the same as the old word " Pouke," a devil or evil spirit,
still survives, although its spelling in lapse of years has become some-
what altered. The following passage from a modern writer || proves,
too, that in some places the idea of Puck as a delusive fairy haunting
the woods and fields is not yet extinct : " The peasants in certain dis-
tricts of Worcestershire say that they are sometimes what they call
* Poake-ledden,' that is, they are occasionally waylaid in the night by a
mischievous sprite whom they call Poake, who leads them into ditches,
bogs, pools, and other such scrapes, often sets up a loud laugh, and
leaves them, quite bewildered, in the lurch." This corresponds w^ith
w^hat in Devon is called being Pixy-led ; and various stories are told
how the frolicsome pixies deceive travelers with the AYill-o'-the-Wisp,
and chuckle over their dismay when they are lost for a time on the moor.
By moonlight the Pixy-Monarch was supposed to hold his court, where,
like Titania, he gave his subjects their several charges. Some were
sent to the mines, where they either good-naturedly led the miner to
the richest lode, or maliciously, by noises imitating the stroke of the

* " Popular Antiquities," 1849, ii, 490. f " Richard III," Act'i, sc. 3.
% " Romeo and Juliet," Act i, sc. 4. " Midsummer-Xighfs Dream," Act i, sc. 1.

I " Mr. J. Allies's " On the Ignis Fatuus."

THE WILL-O'-THE^WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE. 73

hammer, and by " false fires," drew Mm on to the worst ore in the
mine. Countless are the stories told in Devonshire of thesQ Pixy illu-
sions ; and a popular means of counteracting them was to turn one's
coat inside out a remedy which appears to have been in use in other
parts of England, b3ing mentioned by Bishop Corbet in his "Iter Bo-

reale " :

"... William found

A mean for our deliverance. Turne your cloakes,

Quoth hee, for Puck is busy in these oakes ;

If ever wee at Bosworth Hill be found,

Then turne your cloakes, for this is fairy ground."

In Cornwall, a strong belief prevails about the mischievous pranks
of the piskies, and they are the subject of numerous superstitions.
They are said to control the mist, and to have the power, when so
disposed, of casting a thick veil over the traveler as he returns home
after sunset. Hence the peasant may occasionally be heard uttering
the following petition with a certain degree of faith :

"Jack o' the Lantern, Joan the wad,
Who tickled the maid and made her mad,
Light me home, the weather's bad."

By the Dorsetshire folk, this mysterious fairy is called a Pexy and
Colpexy ; and in Hampshire the Colt-pixy was the supposed sprite
who led horses into bogs and other outlandish places. Once more,
as a further proof of the connection of the elfin or fairy-face with the
ignis fatuus, it may be noted that " Mab4ed," pronounced Mob-led,
signified led astray by a Will-o'-the-Wisp. Why, however, the fairy
Queen Mab should be thus introduced originated, no doubt, in her
fondness for playing jokes, as alluded to by Shakespeare in the pas-
sage already quoted above from " A Midsummer-Night's Dream."

According to Sir Walter Scott, the Will-o'-the-Wisp is a strolling
demon or specter, bent upon doing mischief, who once upon a time
gained admittance into a monastery as a scullion and played the
monks all kinds of pranks. The followers of Marmion attributed the
mysterious disasters that befell them at Gifford Castle to the guidance
of the assumed ecclesiastic "The Cursed Palmer" and expressed
the belief that it had been better for them had they been lantern-led
by Friar Rush :

"What else but evil could betide,
With that cursed Palmer for our guide?
Better we had through mire and bush
Been lantern-led by Friar Eush."

The wandering demon, it seems, was known in many parts of
Scotland by the familiar name of " SjDunkie," whose freaks and mis-
chievous character form the subject-matter of numerous lengthened
tales. Mr. Guthrie, in his "Scenes and Legends of the Yale of

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Strathmore " (1875, page 100), tells us how "many a poor benighted
wight hath this iincannie warlock driven to his wits'-end by his un-
couth gambols and deceptive light, and many a bold and valiant
knight hath he laid Jiors de combat on the marshy plain." Milton in
his " Paradise Lost " (book ix, page 634), while explaining the phi-
losophy of this superstitious appearance, alludes to the notion which
associates it with an evil spirit in the well-known lines :

"... A wandering fire,
Compact of unctuous vapor, which the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,
Kindled through agitation to a flame,
Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light.
Misleads th' ainazed night-wand'rer from his way
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool,
There swallowed up and lost from succor far."

In Kormandy, the peasant believes that the Will-o'-the-Wisp is a
cruel and malicious spirit whom it is highly dangerous to encounter.
Mademoiselle Bosquet, in her "Normandie Romanesque et Merveil-
leuse," says that it follows and persecutes any unfortunate person who
runs away from it ; his only chance of escape, when sore-pressed, be-
ing to throw^ himself on his face and to invoke the Divine assistance.
Hence the Feux Follet, as it is called, is a source of terror, and its
weird appearance is much dreaded by old and young ; many stories
being told of the injury done to unwary travelers by its wicked
knavery.

Again, a Danish tradition affirms that Jack-o'-lanterns are the
spirits of unrighteous men, w^ho by a false glimmer seek to mislead
the wayfarer and to decoy him into bogs and moors. The best safe-
guard against them, when they appear, is to turn one's cap inside
out. One should never point at them, as they will come if pointed
at. It is also said that, if any one calls them, they will come and
light the person who called.* A popular belief in Sweden says that
" Jack-with-the-Lantern " was formerly a mover of landmarks, and
for his unjust acts is doomed to wander backward and forward with a
light in his hand, as if he were in search of something. Thus he who
in his lifetime has been guilty of such a crime is believed to have no
peace or rest in his grave after death, but to rise every midnight, and,
with a lantern in his hand, to proceed to the spot where in days gone
by the landmark had stood which he had fraudulently removed. On
reaching the place, however, he is seized, says Mr. Thorpe, with the
same desire which instigated him in his lifetime when he went forth
to remove his neighbor's landmark, and he says as he goes, in a harsh,
hoarse voice : " It is right ! it is right ! it is right ! " But, on his return-
ing, qualms of conscience and anguish seize him, and he then exclaims :

* Thorpe's "North-German Mythology," 1851, ii, 211.

THE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE. 75

" It is wrong ! it is wrong ! it is wrong ! " There is also a Danish
tradition which informs us that near Skovby, on the Isle of Falster,
there are many Jack-o'-Lanterns. They are believed to be the souls
of land-measurers, who, having in their lifetime perpetrated injustice
in their measurements, are doomed to run up Skovby bakke at mid-
night, which they measure with red-hot irons, exclaiming, "Here is
the clear and right boundary ! from here to there." By another cu-
rious notion the Will-o'-the- Wisps are represented to be the souls of
unbaptized children. On one occasion,* a Dutch parson, happening to
go home to his village late one evening, fell in with no less than three
of these fiery phenomena. Remembering them to be the souls of un-
baptized children, he solemnly stretched out his hand and pronounced
the words of baptism over them. Much, however, to his consternation
and surprise, in the twinkling of an eye a thousand or more of these
apparitions suddenly made their appearance no doubt all earnestly
wanting to be baptized. The good man, runs the story, was so terribly
frightened, that, forgetting all his kind intentions, he took to his heels
and ran home as fast as his legs could take him. In Lusatia, where
the same superstition prevails, these fires are supposed to be quite harm-
less, and the souls of the unbaptized children to be relieved from their
destined wanderings so soon as any pious hand throws a handful of
consecrated ground after them.f A Brittany piece of folk-lore is that
the " Porte-brandon " appears in the form of a child bearing a torch,
which he turns round like a burning wheel occasionally setting fire to
the villages which from some inexj^licable cause are suddenly wi'apped
in flames. According to a Netherlandish tradition,^ because the souls
of these wretched children can not enter heaven, they, under the form
of "Jack-o'-Lanterns," take their abode in forests, and in dark and
desert places, where they mourn over their bitter lot. Whenever they
are fortunate enough to see any one, they run up and hasten before
him, in order to show the way to some water, that they may get bap-
tized. Should no one take compassion on them, it is said that they
must for ever remain without the gates of paradise.

Among other legends connected with this subject, we may mention
one current on the Continent, thus recorded by Carl Engel : On the
ridge of the high Rhon, near Bischofsheim, there are two morasses
known as the red and black morass where two villages are reported
to have stood which sunk into the earth on account of the dissolute
life of the inhabitants.] On these two morasses there appear at night
maidens in the shape of dazzling apparitions of light. They float and
flutter over the light of their former home, but are now less frequently
seen than in the olden time. A good many years ago, two or three of

* Engel's "Musical Myths and Facts," 1876, i, 407.

f Thoms's "Notelets on Shakespeare," I860, 63.

X Thorpe's "North-German Mythology," iii, 220. " Musical Myths and Facts," i, 208.

I Cf . similar tale in Hunt's " Popular Romances of the West of England."

-](> 'THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

these fiery maidens came occasionally to the village of Wtistersachsen
and mingled with the dancers at wakes. They sang with inexpressible
sweetness ; but they never remained beyond midnight. When their
allowed time had elapsed there always came flying a white dove, which
they followed. Then they went to the mountain singing, and soon
vanished out of the sight of the people who followed, watching them
with curiosity. A Normandy tradition says that the ignis fatuits is
the spirit of some unhappy woman, * who, as a punishment, is destined
to run la fouroUe to expiate her intrigues with a minister of the church ;
and on this account it is designated La Fourolle. A somewhat simi-
lar belief once prevailed in this country, for we are toldf that the
lights which are usually seen in churchyards and moorish places were
represented by the popish clergy to be " souls come out of purgatory
all in flame, to move the people to pray for their entire deliverance ;
by which they gulled them of much money to say mass for them, every
one thinking it might be the soul of his or her deceased relations."
This superstition is alluded to in the " Comical Pilgrim's Pilgrimage
into Ireland " (1723, page 92): "An ignis fatuiis the silly people deem
to be a soul broken out of purgatory." It is also said that the Will-
o'-the-Wisp is the soul of a priest J who has been condemned to ex-
piate his vows of perpetual chastity by wandering about ; and Mr.
Thoms says it is very probable that it is to some similar belief exist-
ing in this country at the time when he wrote that Milton alludes in
*' L' Allegro," when he says :

"She was pinched and pulled, she said.
And he bv Friar's lanthorn led."

Once more, in Altmark, Will-o'-the-Wisps are supposed to be souls
of lunatics unable to rest in their graves, and are known as " Light-
men." Although they may sometimes mislead, they often guide right-
ly, especially if a small coin be thrown them.

Such, then, are some of the principal legends and superstitions
that have been connected with this strange phenomenon, the majority
of which, while investing it with a supernatural origin, regard it as an
object of terror ; and, on this account, in our own and other countries,
the peasantry still look upon it as a thing to be avoided. It was for-
merly thought to have something ominous in its nature, and to presage
death and other misfortune. Thus, in Buckingham shire, a species of
this phenomenon, locally known as "the wat," was said to haunt pris-
ons. Oftentimes before the arrival of the judges at the assizes it has,
we are told, been known to make its appearance like a little flame, be-
ing considered fatal to every prisoner to whom it became visible. The

* See Mademoiselle Bosquet's "Normandie Romanesque ct Merveillcuse."
f "A Wonderful History of all the Storms, etc., and Lights that lead People out of
their Way in the Night," 1*704, 75, quoted by Brand, "Pop. Antiq." iii, 390.

X Thoms's " Notelets on Shakespeare," 65. Brand's " Pop. Antiq.," iii, 402.

THE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE, yj

same dread is attached to it in Sussex, and Mrs. Latham, in her " \Yest
Sussex Superstitions," * tells us that in a village where she once resided
the direction of its rapid, undulating movement was always carefully-
observed, from an anxiety to ascertain where it would disappear, as it
was believed to be

" The hateful messenger of heavy things,
Of death and dolor telling "

to the inhabitants of the house nearest that spot. Considerable alarm
was on one occasion created by a pale light being observed to move
over the bed of a sick person, and, after flickering for some time in
different parts of the room, to vanish through the window. It hap-
pened, however, that the mystery was soon afterward cleared up, for,
as Mrs. Latham tells us, " when reading in her room after midnight,
all at once something fell upon the open page and appeared to have
ignited it. She soon perceived that the light proceeded from a lumi-
nous insect, which proved to be the male glowworm." In the same
way the " corpse-candle " in Wales, also called the " fetch-light," or
" dead-man's candle," is regarded as an ominous sign, and believed to
be a forerunner of death. Sometimes it appears in the form of a plain
tallow-candle in the hand of a ghost, and at other times it looks like a
" stately flambeau, stalking along unsupported, burning with a ghast-
ly blue flame." f It is considered dangerous to interfere with this fatal
portent ; and persons who have attempted to check its course are re-
ported to have come severely to grief, many actually being struck
down where they stood, as a punishment for their audacity. A Car-
marthenshire tradition, recorded by Mr. Wirt Sikes, relates that one
day, when the coach which runs between Llandilo and Carmarthen was
passing by Golden Grove, three corpse-candles were observed on the
surface of the water gliding down the stream which runs near the road.
All the passengers saw them. A few days after, some men were about
to cross the river near there, when one of them expressed his fear at
venturing, as the river was flooded, and he remained behind. Thus
the fatal number crossed the river three three corpse-candles hav-
ing foretold their fate ; and all were drowned. In conclusion, we
would only add that Will-o'-the- Wisps have long ago happily disap-
peared from all marshes and lowlands as soon as drained and brought
under cultivation these "wild-flres," as they have been called, pre-
ferring some supposed haunted and desolate bog for their habitation.
GentlemavbS 3Iagazine.

* "Folk-Lore Record," i, 52. \ Wirt Sikes, " British Goblins," 139.

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTHLY,

CYXICISM OPPOSED TO PEOGEESS.

By WILLIAM A. EDDY.

WHEX examining a question of possible corruption, or any form
of crime, we tind that nearly all men take a somewhat cynical
view. So common is this that we may safely say that it applies to all
who know the world. Yet a careful examination of facts, though
giving us a vague idea of the real proportion of crime, must finally
convince us that cynicism is simi^ly the sentinel on guard to Tvarn us
against possible injury from exceptional qualities in others. It is clear
that cynicism is due to the fact that there still remain traces of a mutu-
ally devouring condition of development. But this destructive posi-
tion in thought ought not to remain extreme long after the advancing
light has modified the conditions that partly justified it. In truth,
there is in the nature of things a check to the cynical tendency in the
fact that the realization of severity in thought is impeded by consid-
erations that involve some deliberation. Thought and imagination
easily lead to extreme conclusions never carried to a practical result,
because it is often so much easier to think, and requires so much less
time than to act. In other words, the thought may be cynical, but the
every-day action is generally in accordance with the assumption that
men are trustworthy.

As the advances are made directly through the influence of practi-
cal and talented men, and indirectly through the deepest thinkers, it
follows that a low opinion of the general intelligence and morality
tends to discourage all but men of genius, to decrease the number
and extent of higher influences, and to retard material advancement.
One of the striking characteristics of the age is the promptness with
which money is invested and speculative enterprises are carried for-
ward. The prevailing tendency is to assume the inevitable success of
a project, and overlook the chances of failure. In fact, the liberality
with which our country is supplied with improvements in steam tran-
sit, newspapers, ocean-cables, telephones, etc., denotes that the modern
spirit is far from cynical. The transaction of business, except in a
limited and ineflacient way, would be impossible if the majority of
men were swindlers.

It is with much satisfaction that we observe a general conspiracy
in the drift of affairs whereby a negative way of viewing things fails
to become general. Affirmative and cheerful people have positive
force that dispels the shadows of needless anxiety with excess of light.
The friends with whom we are the most unreserved, and who exert
the most social power generally, are not severe in their judgments.
The cheerful man is a center of attractive force, while the cynic at
times dissipates important and beneficial influences. In truth, the

CYXICISM OPPOSED TO PROGRESS. 79

ideas of the cynic are like blasts of cold air, out of which people are
glad to escape with the utmost promptness. Cynicism does not repre-
sent as much intelligence as the constructive tendency, because cyni-
cal ideas are allied to feeling and held without reference to any
wide generalization of facts. Events take place or combine in a
purely intellectual way, or in accordance with laws of necessity and
causation. But in opposition to this principle we often find the vague
expectation that events can be modified by emotional action, or feel-
ing, or by theories not adapted to experience. The seeming obduracy
of inanimate objects, when we try to disentangle their complications
by means of anger, shows that emotional action mqy be quite absurd
when applied to affairs of the intellect. A like suggestion of mania
is observable in the cynicism which sees in human nature only differ-
ent grades of rascality. It is a subjective conclusion deduced from
exceptional instances.

In addition to the want of effect due to emotional conclusions
reached regardless of objective causes, we find further source of error
in the very common cynical belief that there is ultimate strength in
deception. Bonaparte claimed that much of his success resulted from
his ingenious lying, but his power really lay in his reasoning, his
knowledge of human nature, his wonderful constructive force, and his
grasp of details. These qualities are intellectual, powerful, positive.
The success of his lying depended upon intellectual weakness or de-
ficient knowledge in others, and not upon superior power exerted in
spite of their relative intelligence. Strategy, like stimulants in sick-
ness, may bridge over a chasm, but, when subjected to the test of time
or innumerable repetitions, it is inevitably exposed by unexpected and
incalculable events. In fact, dece^Dtive action often has an air of ab-
surdity, humorous as well as geometrical, as seen in Dickens's judge,
who, at the Bard ell trial, tried to conceal the fact that he had been
aroused from sleep when Buzfuz ceased speaking for a moment
by apparently writing with a dry pen, and then looking as if he
thought most profoundly with his eyes shut.

Spinoza was right in his conclusion that destruction and violence
are negative. The highest form of conceivable existence, the most
real, must be in accordance with principles of reason and harmony.
This implies the elimination of discord or destruction, which in its
effects upon our consciousness is always negative that is, tends
toward indefiniteness and a vanishing-point. Consciousness is re-
duced almost to zero during intense pain, because there is simply one
sensation, and no sustained or connected line of thought including:
many ideas.

Reasonable mental actions are usually present, but if we select
negative mental actions hate, fear, envy, anger we are at once con-
scious of their exceptional nature as compared with the total amount
of time consumed by more rational forms of thought. It is observ-

8o THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

able that persons noted for manifestations of motiveless malice are
often reputed to be incipiently insane.

All forms of envy are magnified by the instant prominence which
they occupy in thought. In an orchestra of ten instruments the har-
mony of nine may be overpowered by one that persists in playing out
of tune. The presence of envy and malice in one person may cause
us to lose sight of its absence in ninety-nine. We may therefore con-
clude that cynicism, which is the perception of the dark side of every-
thing, can never become a great destructive force, because it can not
accumulate power. It must ever remain a standing threat, a stimulus
to right thinking. The higher forms of power in men are positive
and not passive. Superstition and the darkness of cynicism must be
swept away by the evolution of intelligence.

--

SOME PEEHISTOEIC VESSELS.

A VERY remarkable archaeological discovery has recently attracted
the attention of the scientific world in Scandinavia, and has be-
come a matter of popular concern in Norway, where every one is in-
terested in the ancient and glorious national traditions. The baths of
Sandefiord are situated in the southwestern part of the fiord of Chris-
tiania. The road from that place to the ancient city of Tansberg
passes near the village of Gogstad, not far from which is a tumulus
or funeral-mound, which has been long known in the local traditions
under the name of Kangshaug, or the Mound of the King. This heap,
which is nearly fifty metres, or more than one hundred and sixty feet,
in diameter, rises in a gentle slope from the level of the plains and
meadows which extend from the fiord to the foot of the mountains,
and is covered with a verdant sod. According to the legend, a pow-
erful king had chosen the spot as the place where he should finally
rest, surrounded by his horses and his hunting-dogs ; and his most
precious treasures had been buried near his body. Superstition and
the fear of avenging spirits had for centuries prevented every kind of
examination of the tomb, but the investigating zeal of our age vent-
ured to penetrate the mystery. Excavations were made, and brought
forth the discovery of an entire viking's war-vessel, and the grave of
the unknown chief by its side.

The sons of the peasant on whose land the tumulus was situated
began to dig into it in January and February, 1880 ; they turned
away a spring which they found in digging, and soon afterward met
with building-timbers. AVisely, they suspended their labors to bring
them to the attention of the society at Christiania for the preservation
of ancient monuments. This society took charge of the subsequent

SOME PREHISTORIC VESSELS. 81

excavations, and sent Mr. Nicolaysen, a learned and skillful antiquary,
to superintend them. They were continued under his direction during
April and May, and finally brought the viking's vessel into view.
The ship was twenty-two and a half metres (or about seventy-two
feet) long, five metres (or seventeen feet) wide in the middle, would
draw a metre and a half (or five feet) of water, and had twenty ribs
or benches for rowers. It is considerably the largest vessel of an-
tiquity that has yet been discovered.

The Danish Professor Engelhardt, in 1863, unearthed from the
turf -pits of Nydam, in Schleswig, a vessel fourteen metres (or forty-
five and a half feet) long ; and another vessel was found in 186T, at
Tune, thirteen metres (or forty-two feet) long. Neither of these ves-
sels could be compared, however, as to its state of preservation or its
dimensions, with the one found at Gogstad.

The tumulus is now nearly a mile from the sea, but the nature of
the alluvial soil makes it evident that the waves formerly washed its
base. The vessel had, it then appears, been drawn immediately out
of the fiord, and placed upon a bed of fascines or hurdles and moss.
The walls had then been covered with clay, the hold filled with earth
and sand, and the whole covered over so as to form a tumulus. The
prow of the vessel was turned toward the sea, for at that period it
was believed that, when God should call the chief, he would come out
of his grave and launch his ship all equipped upon the waves of the
ocean.

Some interesting objects were found on the prow of the vessel,
which at first escaped attention. A piece of a beam showed the hole
in which the shaft of an anchor had been inserted, but only bits of
iron were found. The remains of two or three small oaken canoes of
very fine form were unearthed, and by their side were found a num-
ber of oars, some of which were intended for the canoes, and some
for the vessel itself. They were eighteen or twenty feet long, and of
a shape much like that of the oars which are used in England in re-
gattas. The blocks were worked very thin, and some of them were
ornamented with carvings. The floor of the ship was as well pre-
served as if it had been built yesterday, and was adorned with curved
lines. Some pieces of wood seemed to have formed parts of drag-nets.
Certain beams and planks are supposed to have formed partitions
separating the benches of rowers from one another, leaving a passage
in the middle. A neatly shaped hatchet, several inches long and
of the form common to hatchets of the iron age, was found on a pile
of oaken chips. Some beams had dragons' heads at their ends, rudely
carved and painted in the same colors as the walls of the vessel that
is, in black and yellow. The colors are still bright enough to show
that water has not greatly affected them. As olive and other vege-
table oils were then unknown, we must suppose that the colors were
prepared with some kind of fat, perhaps with whale-oil.

TOL. XIX. 6

82

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The excavations were continued till the whole length of the vessel
was exposed. All along the outside of the walls, from the prow to
the poop, extended a series of circular bucklers lapping one over
another like the scales of a fish, of which nearly a hundred, partly

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painted yellow and black, remain. In many places the wood of the
bucklers has been destroyed, and only the central plate of iron is left.
The famous tapestry of Bayeux shows quite plainly how the vessels
of the vikings were furnished with rows of bucklers (Fig. 2), but it

SOME PREHISTORIC VESSELS.

83

has been supposed that they were the shields which the soldiers used
in action, and which were hung there for the sake of convenience. It
is now evident that they had no purpose but ornament, as they were
of wood, not much thicker than pasteboard, and could not resist a
sword-thrust that was given with any force.

A large block of oak, solidly fixed in the bottom at the middle of
the vessel, had a square hole for the mast ; and some circumstances
indicated that the mast could be laid down. A few pieces of rope,
and some rags of a woolen stuff, probably the sail, were also found.

The funeral-chamber was built on one side of the tumulus, with
strong planks and beams set obliquely one against another, the whole
occupying a space of two or three square metres. This was opened,
with the expectation of finding arms or precious objects, but the ex-
plorers were disappointed. The tomb had probably been violated at
some previous epoch. A few threads of a kind of brocade, a few parts
of bridles and saddles, some articles in bronze, silver, and lead, and
metallic buttons, on one of which was artistically represented a knight
letting down his lance, were all that could be found here. The bones
of a horse and of two or three huntinsc-dosrs were discovered in the
sides of the chamber.

A large copper vessel, supposed to be the kettle of the ship, was
found in the forward part of the boat. It had been hammered out
of a single sheet of copper, and afforded satisfactory evidence of the
industrial skill of those remote times. Another vessel, of iron, with
ears and a bail, was found, with some wooden bowls near it. It was
at first intended to remove the whole of the ship to the Museum of
Christiania, and JVIr. Treshan, a large proprietor of the neighborhood,

Fia. 2. Attempted Restoration op an Ancient Scandinavian Vessel.

offered to pay the expense of the removal. The persons having the
matter in charge, however, decided, after a careful examination and
consideration of the subject by an expert, that it would be impracti-

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

cable to carry the vessel away, and that it would be better to cover it
from the weather and leave it where it was found. Only the smaller
objects were taken to Christiania.

Antiquaries have agreed in ascribing the epoch of the erection of
the tumulus to the most ancient iron age, or to the ninth or tenth
century of our era most probably to the age of Harold the Fair-
haired, founder of the Norwegian state.

Dr. Y. Gross, of Neuveville, Switzerland, has furnished a descrip-
tion of an ancient canoe which was found in April, 1880, buried in
the ground near the shores of the Lake of Bienne, and which has
been placed in the museum at Neuveville. It is of oak, and differs
somewhat in shape from similar canoes that have been found hereto-
fore. The stern has the square form of modern boats, and the prow

Fig. 3. Lacustrine Canoe found in the Lake of Bienne.

is adorned with a spur-shaped prolongation (Fig. 3). The boat is
9 '55 metres (or a little more than thirty feet) long, from two and a
half to three feet broad, and about nineteen inches deep. Rounded
notches at intervals along the sides seem to have been intended as
rests for oars. A piece of about j&ve feet by nine inches appears to
have been broken or taken out of one of the sides near the stern, the
place of which may have been supplied by a plank. In order to pre-
serve the form of the vessel against warping and shrinkage, it was
soaked in boiled linseed-oil to which colophene was afterward added.
The application, after a sufficient number of repetitions, was attended
by such satisfactory results that Dr. Gross has no hesitation in recom-
mending it for all objects that are too bulky to be put in glycerine.
La Nature,

--

. THE HORACE MANN SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF.

By MAEY GEAY MOEEISON.

THERE is a schoolhouse in a convenient little by-street in Boston,
which is visited w^eekly by scholars and scientists, specialists of
renown and commonplace fathers and mothers, philanthropists and
seekers after the curious, and from its doors not one turns away with-
out being surprised and touched.

The Horace Mann School for the Deaf, in Warrenton Street, is one
of the latest developments of that great humanitarian movement
which rose like a miracle in the last half of the eisihteenth centurv,
one of the few sunbeams which have come to us from those dark and

THE HORACE MANN SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF. 85

faithless days. It was opened under tlie name of " Boston School for
Deaf Mutes," in November, 1869, with twenty-five pupils. Two re-
movals have been made since that time, but the eighty members com-
prising the school are now pleasantly located in the present building,
which contains eight class-rooms, a reception-room, and play-room.

The name of the school was changed in 1877, because the pupils
who were learning to speak objected to being called " mutes " ; a preju-
dice which the city very wisely considered. As early as 1843 ]Mr.
Horace Mann, then Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Educa-
tion, described in one of his reports the German method of teaching
articulation, and urged its adoption here. It was a suggestion which,
as Dr. Howe said, " took twenty years to bear fruit," but it was grace-
fully remembered in changing the name of the school which now
teaches that method with marked success. It is both a city and a
State institution, and in that way has some advantages over an ordi-
nary public school ; a longer recess, for example, and but one session
instead of two.

And in this cheerful place, in an atmosphere of encouragement and
affection, the children gladly stay during five hours of the day ; while
the teachers, who are enthusiasts in their work, patiently try to fit them
to take their places more equally in the struggle of life.

The work is very slow. When we remember that most of these
pupils have never heard a sound, and do not know what it is, that
they have no communication with the world except by pantomime,
and then remember that the end aimed at is to make them speak the
English language, so that any one can understand them, and that they
must learn to read from the movements of his lips whatever a hear-
ing person chooses to say to them, the tremendous toil will be faintly
realized.

From the time in the last century when the first government insti-
tutions for the deaf and dumb were founded simultaneously in Ger-
many and France, the methods of instruction have been different in
those usually antagonistic countries.

The Abbe de I'Epee contented himself with the sign-language, and
his idea is still the ruling one in the French school, for its defenders
hold that the thinking and reasoning qualities are better brought out
with a language which, when once learned with comparative ease, allows
the mind free play, than with a system where the whole powers of the
pupil must be given for years to expression.

On the other hand, Heinicke, of Eppendorf, believed that the dumb
could be taught to speak, and this has been the principle of the German
school from the beginning. There is no doubt but the latter method
would place its pupils upon a better footing with their fellow-men,
from whom the sign-language must separate them to a great extent,
but to become general it is necessary that in a majority of cases it
should be a pronounced success. In the instances which have come

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

under the writer's notice, it has not appeared that the ideas of the
pupils are dwarfed by the process ; rather does it seem as if, with the
first spoken word, a spell were broken and they were free.

Professor Bell's system of visible speech has been used in the Hor-
ace Mann School from the beginning ; but an attempt is being made,
with apparent success, to do away with even this artificial method, and,
keeping it as an occasional aid, to teach the English language directly.

The teacher in beginning her work writes a word on the black-
board, pointing to the object in the room for which it stands ; and the
child is made to understand by constant repetition that that written
word and that object are always meant for each other. A number of
such nouns are written and rehearsed until the pupil will point readily
to the object when the written characters .corresponding to it are
shown him, or will write the word when the object is placed before
him. These children often learn to point to the nouns wholly by the
looks of the written words before the little fingers can use the pencil,
though they naturally write quickly and well earlier than children
who hear.

Perhaps the child's first vocal attempt is to close his lips, and make
the humming sound produced by an effort to speak the letter m ; and
he does so by feeling the curious vibrating sensation in his teacher's
lips and chin, and trying to imitate it. In nine cases out of ten he
does this the second time he tries, no one knows why. The instant he
succeeds, the letter m is written triumphantly for him on the black-
board, and he feels that his oral education has begun. After this, very
probably the long sound of e is attempted, the mouth open, the tip of
the tongue pressed against the lower teeth, and the vibrations again
felt. The pupils are early shown, however, that the mass of vibratory
tone must come from the base of the chest by the action of the dia-
phragm, for otherwise the register of sound is apt to be unpleasantly
placed either in the throat or head.

The vowels are usually taught first, and each of these elements
sometimes requires weeks of patient work to get perfectly. Having
succeeded, the consonants are added, fe^ re, he, sa, ta, no, so ; and
words naturally follow.

There are always two classes of children in schools of this kind,
the congenital mutes who have never heard, and a large number who
were not born deaf but became so in different stages of their age and
development, either by disease or accident. Scarlet fever alone is
computed to cause one third of the deafness in America. These two
classes are separated as far as possible, for the semi-mutes usually re-
tain a few words or sentences upon which to build, while the congeni-
tals must begin far behind them, everything being artificial.

As all the teaching must be objective, the class-rooms present an
animated appearance, gay with pictures upon the walls and colored
crayon drawings upon the blackboards.

THE HORACE MANN SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF. 87

When the child enters the school he is usually provided with a lan-
guage of natural pantomime which is practical and very entertaining.
The sign of " mother " is putting the hand to the back of the head, as
if a coil of hair were there, while for " father " the hand is drawn over
the face in the manner in which he wears his beard. A cow is repre-
sented with the thumbs at the ears and the fingers extended ; a don-
key the same, with the fingers together and hands slowly opening and
closing.

Some of the gestures are very pretty. A child tells his teacher
that his father was asleep when he came to school, by making the sign
for father and inclining his head to one side with closed eyes upon
his open palm, and shows his anticipation of some pleasure he is to
have, by making the gesture for to-morrow, over and over again ; with
one forefinger he closes his eye, and, lifting it quickly, makes it a fig-
ure one (opening his eyes, of course, at the same time), meaning that
he will sleep once before the time comes.

It is strange that all children, coming from whatever place or con-
dition, have these natural gestures alike when they enter the school.
The quick motions of the little fingers, as they tell a long story in this
way, remind one of humming-birds.

The children are as different from one another as hearingr children
are. Some are so pretty that artists might covet them, little ones who
have not yet learned to speak, but who look up at you silently, statues
in which the soul is to awake ; others, dwarfed and distorted in figure,
have a look of dull despair, too old for childhood. The heart is sad
and tender for them all.

Every gesture is vigilantly suppressed as soon as the written or
spoken word can be used in its place, but in the youngest class these
signs are naturally most used. An animated group the eleven pupils
make, several of them mere babies of four and five years. They ask
very personal questions about the visitor, which the teacher readily in-
terprets if she sees fit. There are some inquiries concerning the age
of the stranger, for instance, or innocent comments on the size of his
feet, or the shape of his hat, which she may think best to ignore. In
this class is Charley, whose teacher spelled his name in the more com-
mon way until he intimated to her that he objected to having a lie on
the end of his name ! Constant association with one of the girls in the
class, who had a prejudice against the unvarnished truth, had early
familiarized the eleven with the word. This girl has a lively imagina-
tion and a strong vein of romance, which cause her, perhaps, to seem
unreliable to slower intellects. She never, for example, sees a com-
panion with a new necklace or dress, but she carelessly signs to her that
she herself possesses such articles by the barrel and bale ; while her
own home, which she describes to open-eyed listeners, as built of gold
with a diamond door and silver steps, has long been known by reputa-
tion throughout the school. This pupil, in her one interview with the

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

writer, asked if she had a hat with a long white feather, if she had a
gold bracelet, if she played on the piano, and had a door-jDlate on her
door; and the latter, as she sorrowfully shook her head, felt the degra-
dation involved in the admission.

Once in a while one of these little ones is stubborn, and, refusing
to be taught, closes his eyes. This, of course, throws the teacher upon
his mercy ; there is nothing more effective he can do.

In cases of great rage, one child indicates, by practical illustration,
that its opponent has a father who drinks and a mother who is fat. In-
sult among them can go no further than this, and the teacher is sum-
moned by the wail of the accused.

Their misfortune keeps them, in a large measure, from understand-
ing the distinctions of rich and 2)oor, differences it is so sad to see,
made sometimes by childi-en as soon as they can stand alone. The
little dainty daughter of a house whose one great cross is this child's
deprivation, admires with loving touch the golden hair of her school-
friend whose shoes are worn at the toes, and whose dress tells its own
story of the mother's poverty and overwork.

We must not turn from this interesting youngest class, without
mentioning the pretty, sensitive little girl of four years, who described
a ride which a gentleman had given her ; standing as she did upon a
chair with her audience around her, she made quick gestures with her
fingers, her eyes turned brightly upon each face before her, but, as she
proceeded, her remembrances went beyond her power in signs, and
with intent, serious face she traced, with her forefinger in the air,
sketches of the rest she had seen. We did not understand what she
meant to tell us, but almost a feeling of awe fell upon us as we looked
on at this dumb intelligence which was being led by the mind that is
greater than ours.

Nor should the boy a little older be forgotten, a pale, sickly child,
who goes regularly to church on Sundays, and seems to enjoy it. One
day, when a copy of the " Madonna and Child " was shown, and one
of the other children was puzzled by the subject, this boy told his com-
panion the story of the Saviour from his babyhood to his cross in
these natural signs, not dreaming that his teacher had seen it all.

For a long time after children enter the school they think their
fathers and mothers and teachers are all like themselves, and have
learned to speak in the same way as they are being taught. This de-
lusion lasts for some time, but generally fades out gradually. Once
in a while, however, it comes as a shock. One of the younger puj^ils
who still had this idea, as she sat watching her teacher and a visitor,
noticed apparently that the teacher sometimes spoke to the new-comer
without looking at her, and that she answered in the same way. It
struck her for the first time, evidently, that these were not dependent
upon the movements of the lips. As the visitor departed, the child
went up to her teacher, and, pointing after her, laid her finger on her

THE HORACE MANN SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF. 89

teacher's lips, and, looking up at her, shook her head. " She did not
watch my lips ? " asked the teacher. " No, she hears." And she point-
ed to her ear. The child, then pointing to her teacher's ear, looked up
in question. " Yes," answered the latter, " I hear too." She stood a
moment trying to understand it ; then she laid her finger on her own
ear, pointed to herself and slowly shook her head. The knowledge of
her difference from the common order of things had come to her.

As one passes from the youngest to the oldest class, the progress
is very marked. In some of the rooms the pupils only say separate
words, in others a few sentences ; but in the last a surprise awaits
every one. . There sits a class of nine pupils from about thirteen to
sixteen years old, who, at the low-toned request of their teacher, rise,
come forward to nearer seats, and recite the answers clearly and cor-
rectly to the questions of an ordinary geography lesson. Five or six
of them spoke with especial ease, and the teacher assured the visitor
that, not only could a prolonged conversation be kept up with them
upon any subject, but that, in fact, the class had probably understood
all the visitor had been saying since she came in. Their faces lighted
up when one of them hesitated a moment for the answer, and each one
showed an anxiety to be questioned ; they whispered to one another,
and were reproved for it just like the restless little creatures impris-
oned for five hours daily in any other school in the city. One girl, in
particular, spoke with such a pleasant inflection and so much anima-
tion, that the visitor said, " She must be a semi-mute, surely ? " *' No,"
the teacher answered ; " all of my pupils were born deaf." Of two
who seemed a little backward, she said : " They are not strong chil-
dren, and their articulation is not so good as the others ; but it is a
great advantage to them to be able to understand what is said to them,
even if they never speak very well." She further stated that all the
usual studies of the upper grammar-school classes were pursued by her
own. It seems to all who see it a marvelous thing ; but the ignorance
still prevailing in regard to the system and its results is incredible.
The teachers say they are asked the strangest questions every day :
Why they do not teach the children to sing ; whether they use raised
letters ; whether their work is not easy, as it must certainly require
but little education to teach such benighted minds. But everything
was outdone by the prominent member of a board of education who,
after expressing his amazement as he passed from grade to grade of
the school, asked, " How long is it before they begin to hear ? " A
wonderful system, indeed, he must have thought it ; and he could not
plead the possession of a depth of general ignorance such as a chance
glimpse discovered in the mind of that woman who came in to visit the
school, and, after taking a large part of the teacher's time to explain
the method, looked over the young faces before her once again, and
asked, " Now, air thim sinsible f "

One of the most beautiful things about the school is the affection

90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

existing between the teachers and pupils, and among the children
themselves. Many of the' little ones are poor, and are clothed mainly
by the teachers and friends of the school, and when one of them ap-
pears in a new dress all of her fellow-pupils rejoice with her.

After they leave the school, which many do to engage in some em-
ployment, they are proud to keep up their proficiency, and encouraging
and curious things are heard of them. One is a teacher in a Sunday-
school ; one is vigorously pursuing her studies in a branch of the So-
ciety for Home Culture ; another practices her piano-lesson an hour
a day ; one boy is a promising student of wood-engraving ; and the
other day a lady recognized in the young girls who were talking hap-
pily together beside her in a horse-car two past members of the Horace
Mann School.

All this is fair fruit from the labors of that Eppendorf scholar who
sowed his seed a hundred years ago, and it would gladden the hearts
of the many men who have longed to see this result from the dark-
ness of the middle ages until now. Separate instances have been
known in all time, where devoted men and women have given a life-
time to this work, and counted it well spent. We do not know the
impulse which led the Si:)anish monk, Pedro de Ponce, in Leon, to the
wonderful toil and patience which must have been required before
his four deaf-mutes talked with men in the sixteenth century, but we
hardly doubt that it began in the affliction of some one dear to him ;
for, almost always, until the feeling of duty which we owe to these
sufferers became so general as it is now, in the isolated cases that stand
out from the pages of all history we read between the lines the record
of a devoted love.

Even if some of the pupils of the Horace Man School, and the simi-
lar institution in Northampton, should never be able to hold protracted
conversations ujoon all subjects, there are many sentences with which
they will always be able to gladden the hearts of their jDarents and
friends.

As some one has wisely said, it would be well worth sustaining the
system if the child only learned to say " Father, mother, I love you."
For the parents feel the happiness of hearing one word pronounced by
the lips of their children ; and the father who said to the teacher that
he would give his ten-thousand-dollar farm if that little girl of his
could speak to him, echoed the greatest wish of many other hearts
than his.

But the children learn more lessons than are mentioned in the school
reports neatness, obedience, gentleness, kindness ; and thus are the
teachers in many ways setting these captives free.

COL OR-BLINDNESS. g i

COLOK-BLmDNESS.

Bt s. e. koehlek.

"T'TT'E have become so accustomed to color in all the objects about
VV us, that we may almost be said to take no notice of it. Day-
after day we look upon the wealth of color in the landscape by which
we are surrounded, without hardly ever giving it a thought. Some of
us never awake to the perception of the beauty of color in nature ; to
others the knowledge of this beauty is only opened through the me-
dium of art. A person who has taken little interest in paintings, but
who, by some circumstance or other, is at last led to a more attentive
study, especially of landscape-painting, will frequently be surprised by
the enhanced interest which Nature ever after awakens in him. He
finds charms where he never sought them before, and sees beauties to
which he had been totally blind. The mystery of color has been un-
folded to him, or rather he has been made conscious of his own faculty
of perceiving color a faculty which had, indeed, been always in him,
but which had lain dormant.

Even to those, however, who are fully alive to the charm of color,
the latter is so much a matter of fact that they take its presence for
granted, and accept as a foregone conclusion that it can never be
otherwise. The question. How would the world look without color ?
has never troubled their minds, and, if it were really proposed to them,
they would probably meet it with the reply that there was no need of
speculating about impossibilities. Yet that which appears to be so
impossible is really possible ; for there are not only people in existence
who do not see, never saw, and never will see color, but we may even
create something approximating such a colorless world for ourselves,
at least as far as the artificial sphere is concerned in which we move
within our houses.

Before me, as I write this, hangs a Chinese painting, executed in
all the brilliancy of Oriental coloring rich vermilion, fine blues of
various shades, greens, and other full colors. I light an alcohol-lamp,
into the wick of which I have rubbed some common table-salt. I turn
down the gas, and. as I now look at the Chinese painting in the dim
light of my 'magic lamp, all its color has disappeared. I hnoio the
vermilion, the blues, and the greens are all there, but I can not see
them. And yet I see the picture itself quite plainly, with its outlines
and its delicate gradations ; but it is all black and gray, with only a
faint trace of yellow here and there, where a yellow pigment has been
employed by the artist. Beside me on my writing-table lies a sample-
chart of water-colors ; but, however intently I look at it, I can see
nothing but spots that seem to have been produced by India-ink in
various gradations. I travel round my room, and all the objects ap-

92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pear to me of the same somber hue. The embroidered cushion on the
lounge, the carpet on the floor, even the flowers in the vase they are
all black and white, or at the best yellow. The little world that sur-
rounds me is colorless.

Imagine, then, for a moment the whole world deprived of color.
How would it look ? An enamored poet singing to his adored in the
world as we at present know it might, perhaps, prelude his ditty thus :

" Thou rosy maiden with rich, ruby lips,

And hair as golden as the sun's bright rajs ! "

Translated into the language of a poet of the colorless world, this
strain would run about as follows :

" Thou grayish maiden with dark, jetty lips,
And hair as white as freshly fallen snow ! "

We, who are accustomed to the charm of color, turn away shudder-
ingly from such a world, in which we would all look like the figures
in a steel-engraving, printed in the blackest of ink on the whitest of
paper.

And yet, as I have said before, there are people who live in such a
world continually, and must continue to live in it to their days' end.
Fortunately, however, the instances of people who are totally color-
blind that is to say, who are absolutely incapable of experiencing the
sensation of color are extremely rare ; and, to the few people so
afflicted, the deprivation is not so great as it would seem to be to us,
since, having never known the poetry of color, they do not feel the
want of it.

But, although there are only very few people indeed who are total-
ly color-blind, there are, on the other hand, a very large number of
persons, especially among the male sex, who are at least partially so ;
and it is even more difficult to picture to ourselves the world as it is
presented to their eyes than to imagine a world entirely destitute of
color. Defective color-vision of this kind is most frequently manifest-
ed in the inability to see the difference between red and green. A
person thus afflicted can detect no difference between the ripe cherry
on the tree and the leaves by which it is surrounded, or between the
strawberry and the stems and leaves of the plant on which it grows.
Even the bright red of some flowers may only present itself to such
persons as a lighter shade of the color of the leaves, while yellow and
blue are perceived by them quite as distinctly as by persons of normal
vision. To them, therefore, the world must bear a resemblance in
color to some of the old pottery wliich is decorated in blue, yellow,
and black, on a whitish ground. There are other varieties of de-
fective color-vision, all of which may be generally described as an in-
ability to perceive certain colors, while the perception of certain other
colors is normal. The simplest method of picturing to ourselves the

COLOR-BLINDNESS. 93

world as it is seen by some color-blind persons is to hold up before the
eyes a glass vessel with flat, parallel sides, filled with a solution of sul-
phate of copper. We shall then be pretty much in the same condition
as a red-blind person.

The inconveniences which color-blind people must frequently be
exposed to are manifest. Numerous stories are told of the most ludi-
crous mistakes made, especially by red-blind persons : of a tailor, for
instance, who mended a black coat with a piece of red cloth ; of a
hunter who bought red cloth to have made what he supposed would
be a green hunting-jacket. The story of the tailor shows how this
malady, or, rather, constitutional defect, may do injury to men in their
professional capacity. But the consequences that may possibly arise
from it are of a far more serious nature when the safety of a large
number of human beings is dependent on the color-vision of a single
individual. This is the case with railroad operatives, who must be
able without fail to tell one signal from another ; and, as of late
years the conviction has gained ground that color-blindness is far
more common than it was formerly supposed to be, the railroad com-
panies are warned more emphatically from year to year by scientific
men to see to the eyes of their employees. Some of the European
Governments are beginning to turn their attention to this important
matter (all the more important because railroad-signals are usually red
and green, and red-blindness is the most common form of the failing),
and the Swedish Government has lately directed the physicians at-
tached to its state roads to examine all the operatives on these roads,
with a view to the detection of the presence of color-blindness. The
first fruit of this order is a report by Professor Holmgren, who re-
cently examined the employees of the Upsala-Gefle road, showing
that, out of two hundred and sixty-six individuals, eighteen were af-
flicted with the malady to a degree sufficiently high to incapacitate
them entirely for service on the road. The prevalence of the disease
varies in different countries, the highest percentage being found in
England, where, according to a statement made by Professor von
Bezold, in his " Theory of Color," republished in this country in an
English translation, one out of every eighteen persons is said to be
afflicted with it. Among men, as before remarked, the disease is more
common than among women.

The cause of total or partial color-blindness may easily be under-
stood if we accept the hypothesis first brought forward by the English
physicist Young, and now subscribed to by the leading scientific ob-
servers of all countries. According to Young, all the phenomena of
color-vision are due to the (hypothetical) presence of three different
kinds of nerve-fibers in the retina that is to say, in that part of the
eye on which the reflected images of the objects of the outer world
are projected as upon a screen, and through the agency of which the
sensations produced by the impressions so received are transmitted to

94 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY,

the brain. One of these sets of nerve-fibers is supposed to respond
most readily to red, the other to green, the third to violet, or to a blue
which verges closely upon violet. When all these nerve-fibers are ab-
solutely at rest, we see nothing. Improj^erly speaking, we might say
that we then experience the sensation of black, for absolute black real-
ly produces no sensation, but is rather the result of the absence of all
sensation. On the contrary, when all the nerve-fibers are excited
simultaneously and to an equal degree, we experience the sensation of
white, provided that the amount of excitation is tolerably great. If
the excitation is only feeble, we see what we call gray gray being
simply white of a low degree of luminosity. All other color-sensa-
tions are produced by the excitation of groups of nerves variously
combined. Thus, whenever the fibers which respond to red and those
which respond to green are excited simultaneously, we experience the
sensation of yellow ; when the two groups which respond respectively
to green and to violet are simultaneously excited, we experience the
sensation of blue, and so on through the whole scale of colors. Again,
when all the nerve-fibers are excited at once, but to an uneaual deofree,
we perceive the result of the mixture of one predominating color with
the others. If we suppose the nerves resjDonding to red to be the most
violently excited, we shall experience the sensation of red mixed with
white, or, in other words, of light red.

It will readily be seen that this hypothesis exj^lains the curious con-
dition of color-blind persons very satisfactorily. In the case of total
color-blindness, we need only to assume that the nerve-fibers are in an
abnormal condition, so that each set, instead of responding to only one
sensation, responds equally to all. The result miist necessarily be a
total absence of color in the impressions received through the eye. In
the case of a red-blind person, the nerves which ought to respond to
red may either be paralyzed or they may be wanting altogether, and all
other defects in color- vision may be explained upon the same jmnciple.

To a limited extent the inability to tell the difference between cer-
tain colors, which is due to j^artial color-blindness, may be overcome
by the use of variously colored glasses ; but, after all, no artificial
palliative will compensate for the want of a naturally perfect eye.

--

THE EUCALYPTUS I^ THE EOMAK CAMPAG^A.

By H. N. DEAPEK, F. C. S.

SO much has already been written by way of contribution to our
knowledge of the different species of the eucalyptus-tree, that,
interesting as the subject is, it may well be considered to have re-
ceived already a fair share of attention. There is one aspect of it,

THE EUCALYPTUS IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA. 95

however, which can not perhaps be dwelt upon too much, and that is
the value of this genus of plants as drainers of the soil and purifiers
of the atmosphere. This is probably the true reason why so many
attempts, more or less successful, have been made to acclimatize the
eucalyptus in Southern Europe and even in Great Britain. No doubt,
experiments have been stimulated by other causes. The foliage of
these trees is, for example, unlike that of any other in our islands. It
is pendulous, quivering, and evergreen ; and the peculiar whitish ap-
pearance of one side of the leaves due to a fatty or resinous secretion
is very characteristic. Till the tree is from three to five years old,
the leaves grow horizontally ; but afterward they generally assume
a pendent position. Instead of having one of their surfaces toward
the sky, and the other toward the earth, they are often placed with
their edges in these directions, so that each side is equally exposed
to the light. This arrangement may have something to do with the
extraordinary quantity of moisture these trees exhale into the at-
mosphere.

The eucalyptus belongs to the natural order 3fyrtacece, and is in-
digenous to the temperate parts of Australia (where it goes by the
name of stringy-bark, or gum-tree) and Tasmania that is, where the
mean temperature does not exceed a range of from 52 to 72"^ Fahr.
The foliage is leathery, and almost always characterized by a certain
metallic aspect. The leaves are as a rule narrow, and have either a
very short and twisted petiole or foot-stalk, or none at all. In Aus-
tralia they commonly attain a height of two hundred feet, and in-
stances are given in which a height of three hundred and fifty feet
has been attained. The flowers are usually pinkish or white, and in
the latter case superficially resemble those of the myrtle. Unlike
these, however, they are devoid of petals. The fruit contains the
seeds seeds so minute, it is said, that from one poimd of those of
the variety Globulus more than one hundred and sixty thousand plants
could be raised.

I have always taken a great interest in the eucalyptus, and have
grown it near Dublin for several years with considerable success. I
have had at one time as many as twenty fine healthy saplings of the
species Globulus, of from ten to sixteen feet high, and one which
reached to twenty-five feet, and had a stem of twenty-two inches cir-
cumference. These were all five years old. But cold is the deadly
enemy of the gum-tree ; and, though I had kept mine during four or-
dinary Irish winters, I lost them all during the almost Arctic winter
of 18T8-'79, I may say, in passing, that I have not been quite dis-
couraged, and that I have again several healthy plants making good
progress. My interest in the subject has received a new stimulus from
a recent experience of eucalypt-culture in the wild plain known as the
Campagna of Rome.

One lovely morning in last October we left our hotel hard by the

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Pantheon, and in a few minutes came to the Tiber. If we except the
quaint and bright costumes of many classes of the people, and the
ever-changing street scenes of Rome, there is nothing in the drive of
very much interest until we reach the river. Here, looking back, we
see the noble structure which crowns the Capitoline Hill. The fine
building on the farther bank of the river is the Hospital of St.
Michele. On this side we are passing the small harbor of the steam-
boats which ply to Ostia. Presently, the Marmorata, or landing-place
of the beautiful marble of Carrara, is reached. From here a drive of
a few minutes brings us to the cypress-covered slope of the Protestant
Cemetery, where, in the shadow of the pyramid of Cestius, lie the
graves of Shelley and Keats. Apart from the interest attached to
these two lowly tombs and the memories aroused by their touching
epitaphs, no Englishman can visit this secluded spot and look without
deep feeling upon the last resting-places of his countrymen, who have
died so many hundred miles from home and friends. The cemetery is
kept in order and neatness, and flowers grow upon nearly all the
graves.

Our route next lay along the base of that remarkable enigma the
Monte Testaccio, a hill as high as the London Monument or the Yen-
dome Column kt Paris, made entirely of broken Roman pots and tiles,
as old perhaps as the time of Nero ! Leaving behind this singular
heap of earthenware, we thread long avenues of locust-trees, and
presently, passing through the gate of St. Paul, reach the magnificent
basilica of that name. Nor can I pause here to dwell upon the mar-
vels of this noble temple, or to tell of its glorious aisles and column-
supported galleries ; of its lake-like marble floor, or of the wealth of
malachite, of lapis lazuli, of verde antique, of alabaster, and of gold,
that has been lavished upon the decoration of its shrine. I must
stop, however, to note that nowhere has the presence of the dread
tnalaria made itself so obvious to myself. We had scarcely entered
the church, when we became conscious of an odor which recalled at
once the retort-house of a gas-works, the bilge-water on board ship,
and the atmosphere of a dissecting-room ; and we were obliged to
make a hasty retreat. There could be little doubt that the gaseous
emanations which produced this intolerable odor were equally present
in the Campagna outside, but that in the church they were pent up
and concentrated.

Even did space admit, this is not the place to enter into any pro-
longed dissertation on the history or causes of this terrible scourge of
the Roman Campagna, the fever-producing malaria. The name ex-
presses the unquestionable truth, that it is a gaseous emanation from
the soil ; and all that is certainly known about it may be summed up
in a very few lines. The vast undulating plain known as the Cam-
pagna was ages ago overflowed by the sea, and owes it present aspect
to volcanic agency. Of this the whole soil affords ample evidence.

THE EUCALYPTUS IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA. 97

Not only are lava, peperino, and the volcanic puzzuolana abundant,
but in many places as at Bracciano and Baccano are to be seen the
remains of ancient craters. When the Campagna was in the earliest
phase of its history, it was one fertile garden, interspersed with thriv-
ing towns and villages. It was also the theatre of events which ter-
minated in making Rome the mistress of the world. This very su-
premacy was the final cause of its ruin and of its present desolation.
While the land remained in the possession of small holders every acre
was assiduously tilled and di-ained ; but when it passed into the hands
of large landed proprietors, who held it from the mere lust of posses-
sion, it became uncared for and uncultivated.

Filtering into a soil loaded with easily decomposed sulphur com-
pounds, the decomposing vegetable matter finds no exit through the
underlying rock. The consequences may be imagined, but, to those
who have not experienced them, are not easily described. This once
fertile land is now a horrid waste, untouched, except at rare intervals,
by the hand of the farmer, and untenanted save by the herdsman.
Even he, during the months of summer, when the malaria is at its
worst, is compelled, if he will avoid the fever, to go with his flocks to
the mountains. It may be mentioned, in passing, that the malaria-
fever, or " Roman fever " as it has been called, has been the subject
of recent investigation by Professor Tommassi-Crudelli, of Rome,
who attributes it to the presence of an organism, to which the specific
name of Bacillus malar ioe has been given.

Leaving St. Paul's, we pursued for a short time the Ostian road ;
and at a poor osteria, where chestnuts, coarse bread, and wine, were
the only obtainable refreshments, our route turned to the left, along a
road powdered with the reddish dust of the pozzuolana the mineral
which forms the basis of the original " Roman cement " large masses
of which rock form the roadside fences. After a drive of perhaps
half an hour, we found ourselves at the Monastery of Tre Fontane
(three fountains). The Abbey of the Tre Fontane comprises within
its precincts three churches, of which the earliest dates from the ninth
century. One of these, San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, gives its name to
the monastery. A monk, wearing the brown robe and sandals of the
Trappist order, met us at the gate. The contrast now presented be-
tween the sterile semi- volcanic country around and the smiling oasis
which faces us, is striking. Here are fields which have borne good
grass ; some sloping hills covered with vines ; and, directly in the
foreground, almost a forest of eucalypt-trees.

We have come to learn about eucalypts ; and our guide takes
quite kindly to the role of informant. What follows is derived
from his viva voce teaching, from my own observation on the spot,
and from a very interesting pamphlet, printed at Rome in 1879,
and entitled " Culture de I'Eucalyptus aux Trois Fontanes," by M.
Auguste Yallee.

VOL. XIX. 7

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Before the year 1868, the abbey was entirely deserted. It is true
that a haggard-looking monk was to be found there, who acted as
cicerone to visitors to the churches ; but even he was obliged to sleep
each night in Rome. The place attained so evil a rej^utation that it
was locally known as " The Tomb." There are now twenty-nine
Brothers attached to the monastery, all of whom sleep there each
night. This remarkable result, though no doubt to a great extent due
to the drainage and alteration of the character of the soil by cultiva-
tion, is unquestionably mainly owing to the planting of the eucalyptus.
It would take long to tell of the heroic perseverance of these monks ;
of the frequent discouragements, of the labor interrupted by sickness,
of the gaps made in their number by the fatal malaria, and the un-
daunted courage in overcoming obstacles which has culminated in the
result now achieved. Let us pass to the consideration of the actual
means by which so happy a change in their immediate surroundings
has been brought about. At Tre Fontane are cultivated at least
eleven varieties of eucalyptus. Some of these, as E. viminalis and
JE. hotryo'ldes, flourish best where the ground is naturally humid ; PJ.
resinifera and PJ. meliodora love best a drier soil. The variety Globu-
lus (blue gum-tree) possesses a happy adaptability to nearly any pos-
sible condition of growth. At the monastery, as in most elevated
parts of the Campagna, the soil is of volcanic origin, and there is not
much even of that ; often only eight, and rarely more than sixteen
inches overlying the compact tufa. But, with the aid of very simple
machinery, the Trappists bore into the subsoil, blast it with dynamite,
and find, in the admixture of its debris with the arable earth, the most
suitable soil for the reception of the young plants.

The seeds are sown in autumn, in a mixture of ordinary garden-
earth, the soil of the country, and a little thoroughly decomposed ma-
nure. This is done in wooden boxes, which, with the object of keeping
the seeds damp, are lightly covered until germination has taken place.
When the young plants have attained to about two inches, they are
transferred to very small flower-pots, where they remain until the time
arrives for their final trai^splantation. The best time for this operation
is in spring, because the seedlings have then quite eight months in
which to gather strength against the winter cold. One precaution
taken in planting is worth notice. Each plant is placed in a hole of
like depth and diameter. In this way, no individual rootlet is more
favored than its fellow, and, as each absorbs its soil-nutriment equally,
the regularity of growth and of the final form of the tree is assured.
A space of three feet is left between each seedling ; but so rapid is the
growth, that in the following year it is found necessary to uproot
nearly one half of the plants, which finally find themselves at a dis-
tance from each other of about five feet. From this time, much care
is required in weeding and particularly in sheltering from the wind,
for the stem of the eucalyptus is particularly fragile, and violent storms

THE EUCALYPTUS IN THE ROMAN CAMP AG N A. 99

sometimes rage in the Campagna. The other great enemy of the tree
is cold, and this offers an almost insurmountable obstacle to its success-
ful culture in Great Britain. It seems to be well proved that most of
the species will survive a winter in which the temperature does not fall
lower than 23 Fahr. How fortunately circumstanced is the culture
of the tree at Rome, may be learned from the fact that the mean low-
est temperature registered at the observatory of the Roman College
during the years 1863-'74 was 23*48. Once only in those years a cold
of 20 was registered, and even that does not seem to have injured the
plants ; but when, in 1875, the minimum temperature fell to 16, the
result was the loss in a single night of nearly half the plantation of the
year.

But when, as at Tre Fontane, the conditions of growth are on the
whole favorable, the rapidity of that growth approaches the marvel-
ous. The mean height, for example, of three trees chosen for measure-
ment by M. Vallee in 1879, was twenty-six feet, and the mean circum-
ference twenty-eight inches. These trees had been planted in 1875, or
in other words were little more than four years old. Other trees of
eight years' growth were fifty feet high and nearly three feet in cir-
cumference at their largest part. These figures refer to Eucalyptus
globulus^ which certainly grows faster than the other species ; and it
must be remembered that in warmer climates the growth is even still
more rapid. I have seen, for example, trees of Eucalyptus resinifera
at Blidah in Algeria which at only five years old were already quite
sixty feet high.

The question of how and why the eucalypts exercise sanitary
changes so important as those which have been effected at this little
oasis in the Campagna, may be best answered when two remarkable
properties which characterize many of the species have been shortly
considered. The first of these is the enormous quantity of water
which the plant can absorb from the soil. It has been demonstrated
that a square metre which may roughly be taken as equal to a square
yard of the leaves of Eucalyptus globulus will exhale into the atmos-
phere, during twelve hours, four pints of water. Now, as this square
metre of leaves of course, the calculation includes both surfaces
weighs two and three quarter pounds, it will be easily seen that any
given weight of eucalyptus-leaves can transfer from the soil to the at-
mosphere nearly twice that weight of water. M. Vallee does not hesi-
tate to say that under the full breeze and sunshine which could
necessarily form no factor in such accurate experiments as those con-
ducted by him the evaporation of water would be equal to four or five
times the weight of the leaves. One ceases to wonder at these figures,
on learning that it has been found possible to count, on a square milli-
metre of the under surface of a single leaf of Eucalyptus globulus, no
less than three hundred and fifty stomata or breathing-pores. And it
now begins to be intelligible that, if such an enormous quantity of

loo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

water can be transferred from earth to air, it may be possible that an
atmosphere, which without such aid would be laden with malarious
exhalations, may be rendered pure by this process of leaf distillation :
the putrescible constituents of the stagnant water are absorbed by the
roots, and become i^art of the vegetable tissue of the tree.

But this is not all. Like those of the pine, the leaves of all species
of eucalyptus secrete large quantities of an aromatic essential oil. It
has recently been shown and the statement has been very impressively
put by Mr. Ivingzett that, under the combined action of air and
moisture, oils of the turpentine class are rapidly oxidized, and that, as
a result of this oxidation, large quantities of peroxide of hydrogen are
produced. Now, peroxide of hydrogen is being itself one of the
most potent oxidizers known a very active disinfectant ; and, as the
leaves of some species of eucalyptus contain in each hundred pounds
from three to six pounds of essential oil, we can hardly avoid the con-
clusion that the oxygen-carrying property of the oil is an important
element in the malaria-destroying power of the genus. Moreover, the
oxidation of the oil is attended by the formation of large quantities
of substances analogous in their properties to camphor, and the reputa-
tion of camphor as an hygienic agent seems sufficiently well founded to
allow us to admit at least the possibility of these bodies playing some
part in so beneficent a scheme.

Before closing this paper, it may be well to note that the Trappist
monks of the Tre Fontane attach much importance to the regular use
of an infusion of eucalyptus-leaves as a daily beverage. The tincture
of eucalyptus is said to be useful in intermittent fevers, though of
course inferior to quinine. As we threaded the coast-line via Civita
Vecchia to Leghorn, we could not help being struck by the fact that
the precincts of all the railway-stations were thickly planted with eu-
calypts. Since our return, I learn with much gratification that the
Italian Government have given a grant of land to the Trappists, and
have also afforded them the aid of convict-labor to a considerable ex-
tent for the establishment of a new plantation. And looking back
not only at what has been actually accomplished during the past
ten years, but to the important fund of information which has
been accumulated, one can only look forward hopefully and with en-
couragement to the future of the eucalyptus in the Roman Cam-
pagna. Chambers's Journal.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. loi

mFLUEN^CE OF THE POST AND TELEGEAPH O^
INTERN'ATIONAL RELATIONS.

By C. M. DUNBAE.

IT is a beautiful theory that man was made for society ; but it is
an eminently better one that society was made for man. Man
was necessarily in existence before society. He contains within him-
self all the virtues that are an ornament to society, all the elements
that strengthen government. And government, and even society
itself, however consequential they may appear to the view of the
haughty and superficial observer, are, notwithstanding, only means to
an end. That end is the betterment of the material, moral, and intel-
lectual conditions of the individuals composing that society and state ;
to confer upon them, as far as possible, the greatest amount of happi-
ness. For this society was formed, and for this it is maintained. To
protect the individual in his pursuit of happiness, governments were
instituted, and when they no longer subserve that chief end they be-
come obsolete.

The primitive and fundamental type of governmental organization
and authority is the family. Therein the natural affections cement
the compact between the different members of the household. Nature
also compels the observance of the different duties due from each mem-
ber. The duties are mutual. The natural obligation of the head of
the family is to provide for the maintenance of those whom he has
been instrumental in bringing into the world. And they, on their
part, are bound to yield to him the respect naturally due him, and
obedience in all matters in which his years of experience render him
more fit to judge. This might be said to be the condition. of a fam-
ily in a state of nature. Such is the primitive form of government
one established by nature itself. Individuals unite into families, fami-
lies into clans, clans into villages, villages into provinces, and these
into states. All formations subsequent to that of the family are ar-
tificial ; but the duties of the members of these corporations to each
other and to their rulers or public servants, and the latter to the
individual members, are analogous to those of members of a family.
It is not the writer's intention to enter here into an extensive view or
review of the theory of the social compact, or into a discussion of its
fallacy or plausibility ; suffice it to say that it illustrates the principle
that the people are the source of governmental authority a principle
that, at least, is recognized by all well-informed Americans.

The different forms of political institutions in existence are due to
the different phases of nature with which different peoples have been
surrounded. Even the various forms of religious worship, in most
cases, owe their origin to some cause produced by nature, whether of

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

climate, soil, or atmosphere peculiar to the locality of the people pro-
fessing and practicing those forms of religion. Consequently, the
diversity of customs and habits of different peoples should give rise to
rights and duties differing in nature and degree between the diverse
political divisions. Now, what is the duty of a people in such cases
in their relations with each other ? It is the duty of a good father
to love and protect the members of his family before other persons ;
his care and solicitude should begin with his own. Yet he owes a
duty to his kind that is, to help others when required, if he can do
so without injury to himself or those depending on him. We may
say that men in a state of nature would be compelled by force of cir-
cumstances to the observance of these rules. How is it with resrard
to states ? Their first duty is to look to the welfare of their own
citizens ; yet they should remember that individuals of whatever
nationality have natural and inherent rights that should be every-
where recognized, since the exercise of these rights is necessary to
existence. It is true that an individual, passing from one state into
another, can not carry with him rights not possessed by the citizens of
the state he enters, especially if their exercise would interfere with
the political or civil rights of the natives. Thus it is that rights
will always vary from one people to another. Sometimes the laws
and rights vary in the state itself ; there frequently arises a diversity
of laws and customs between the different provinces of the same
country : as in ancient France, which was formed out of a number
of feudal sovereignties, each having its particular law, and giving
rise to frequent conflicts between different customs. A like cause
produced a like effect in the German Empire : the law varied from
one city to another, and even from one street to another in the same
city. Another difficulty arises; How are we to determine between
these conflicting laws ? The law of nations is the same, theoretically
at least, for all humanity. Private international law, which is a
branch of the law of nations, has also a tendency to unity not that
it has for an ideal the uniformity of the law of all portions of the
human race ; such would be too dreamy an idea. But the rules which
serve to solve these conflicts can and should be the same the world
over, notwithstanding the diversity of legislation. It is this unity
that private international law has sought, and now seeks to establish.
How can it be realized ? It can not be formed, like the civil law
of each people, by legislation, or command of a superior authority,
since independent sovereign nations recognize no authority superior
to themselves. Each legislature can not make laws that will be
operative beyond the limits of the territory over which it has legisla-
tive power. Here, again, we see the analogy between private interna-
tional law and the law of nations. Nations, like individuals, have their
personality ; between individuals, the juridical disputes arise either
upon a contract, or on account of a wrong committed ; it is the same

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. 103

with nations : they can not be bound but by their own consent ; hence
the treaties which form the basis of the positive law of nations. It is
also by concurrence of wills that nations oblio^ate themselves to ob-
serve certain rules looking to the conflicts likely to arise in the appli-
cation of the particular laws of the different states. Agreements are
not necessarily expressed ; a tacit consent suffices to form an agree-
ment. It is the same in international conventions : the greater part
of those which form the basis of the law of nations are tacit agree-
ments ; the law of nations is principally a customary law, which is
founded on the tacit consent of the peoples. That which is true of
the law of nations is also true of the private international law : cer-
tain rules common to all nations can not be formed but by a concur-
rence of consent, express or implied. On this particular point the
treaties are very few ; and these, are particular agreements between
the two states, having no relation but to the interests of the con-
tracting parties. There remain only the customs which are estab-
lished by implied general consent. This is almost the sole source of
the private international law. There is, however, a vast difference
between the international customs and the customs which form one
of the sources of the civil law of each state. The latter have the force
of law, until abrogated by some particular statutory enactment ; they
are the implied expression of the sovereign will of the nation they
might be called tacit laws. Not so with the international customary
right. Since it is a question of sovereignties, they can not, correctly
speaking, be called laws ; hence the nations could not be bound to
recognize a legislative authority higher than their own. The interna-
tional customs do not hold the place of laws they hold the place of
agreements ; they are implied treaties. How are these implied trea-
ties formed ? This is a capital question, and as difficult as it is impor-
tant. Ordinarily international customs are considered as being of
the same nature as national customs. This is not the case : the for-
mer are tacit treaties, while the latter are tacit laws, and there is a
great difference between treaties and laws ; the treaties are formed
by a concourse of wills, and the laws are promulgated by way of
commandment ; the treaties differ in their essence from laws ; the
conditions, therefore, under which tacit treaties can be formed should
also differ from the conditions under which implied laws are formed.
The intimate lien which exists between the private international law
and the law of nations brings up a redoubtable problem. Is there a
law of nations ? Those who deny it have strong reasons for doubting.
Can there be a law without a legislature ; without a tribunal to apply
the law, and without any authority to execute the sentence of the
court ? And, in this matter of the law of nations, where are the leg-
islative, executive, and judicial powers ? It may be said that right is
necessarily anterior to the law, that it results from the nature of man
and civil societies : if the relations between individuals are necessarily

104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

regulated by right, it must or should be the same with international
relations. It is ever the case that the law of nations has not the cer-
tainty or authority of the civil or public law, which is almost every-
where codified, while the law of nations can not be, inasmuch as
huuraanity is not organized. The arguments which may be advanced
against the existence of the law of nations are, in a measure, appli-
cable to the private international law. If the latter is a branch of the
former, it may be said that what is true of the one is true of the
other. There is only this difference, that the law of nations regulates
public interests, while the private international law is virtually identi-
cal with the civil law of each state ; and only occupies itself with pri-
vate interests. This difference is considerable, and leads to important
consequences. The existence of a law, proj^erly so called, regulating
the relations of nations with each other is, at best, problematical ; as
yet it is force alone which decides their disputes. This is not the
case with the private international laws of different nations. It is
they, not the nations, which are on trial ; it is individuals, and the
courts, and not the sword, which must decide their differences.

In order that we have a private international law, man must en-
joy everywhere the same rights whatever be his nationality that is,
he must enjoy everywhere equally the same civil or private rights.
Now, what are civil or private rights ? Certain faculties, the exer-
cise of which is necessary to man for his physical, intellectual, and
moral existence. Can a man exercise these everywhere, or are they
limited to the state in which he was born ? Man is not an incorjDo-
real hereditament, attached to the soil on which he was born, but is a
citizen of the world ; he establishes himself where circumstances, or
his faculties, call him ; even without quitting his natal soil he can en-
ter into relation with the entire world. Why should his natural rights
stop at the frontiers of his country ? Is it because humanity is di-
vided into different nations, each having its separate organization
and particular laws ? It is true that the division of the human race
into distinct nations has this for an effect, that each man has a dis-
tinct country, in the bosom of which he exercises the political rights
that pertain to the citizen, but he can not enjoy these rights outside
of his own country ; the quality of citizen gives exclusive rights and
imposes exclusive duties.

But the political separation of states has nothing in common with
the enjoyment of private rights : if it is impossible for me to be an
elector or juror in any one state or country, that is no reason why I
should not become proprietor wherever it pleased me to purchase.
The exclusion from the enjoyment of political rights should not also
necessarily exclude the enjoyment of private rights. A person should
enjoy everywhere the same civil rights, since they are an accessory of
life. The diversity of states and their constitutions should be no
obstacle, for these rights are not due to the foreigner as a citizen ; they

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. 105

are due to him as a man, and he is a man everywhere. The first con-
dition necessary, in order that man may perfect himself, is that he en-
joy all the natural and legal faculties without which he could not live.
The rights of man, therefore, are independent of the diversity of states ;
they appertain to him simply as a man that is to say, they belong to
him everywhere.

The equality of the foreigner and the citizen is the basis of the
private international law : if the foreigner did not enjoy any civil
rights, it would not be a question by what law his rights were to be
determined ; in that case not only would the international law have
no reason of being, but it would be impossible. This is why the pri-
vate international law is of such recent date. In fact, scarcely any
two of the writers upon it agree as to its nature and scope. Some
authors, convinced of the inanity of theory, have believed that the
law should rest upon facts ; in presence of the extreme diversity of
national legislation, they have appealed to the comity that peoples
should observe in their relations with each other ; each in its legisla-
tion having an interest in looking to the welfare of the foreigner, in-
asmuch as its own citizens are taken into account by the foreign laws.
This is nothiniJ: less than the doctrine of interest a doctrine false in
philosophy and false in law ; interest is not a principle, it is a fact,
and a variable fact according to the circumstances and the passions.
The right, on the contrary, should rule the facts ; it is a contradiction
of terms to pretend that interest, always hostile, will put an end to the
eternal conflicts which it begets. On the contrary, it will be seen that
the facts are the great obstacle which this science has to contend with.
How will a union be established in the midst of this infinite diversity ?
It is the contrariety and diversity of laws that demand application of
the judge : is it the national law which the judge should apply, or
that of the parties to the suit ? And what will be done in case the
parties belong to different nationalities ? Shall we take into account
the law of the place where the subject of the dispute is situated ?
Shall we distinguish whether they are chattels or immovables ? If it
is a question arising upon contract, shall we have recourse to the law
of the place where the contract is made, or where it is to be executed ?
Shall we give a preference to the law of the debtor or to that of the
creditor ? If there is involved the validity of instruments in writing,
shall we follow the law of the place where the writings were made ?
By what principle shall a judge decide in this sea of doubts ? These
are the principles sought by the private international law.

Private international law, considered as a positive law, reposes on
the agreements expressed or implied, which are entered into between
sovereign nations. Treaties alone can put an end to the war of con-
flicting interests and diverse laws. There is but one means of con-
ciliating nations who recognize no superior authority, and that is by
way of concurrence of consent. Italy, under the inspiration of Man-

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cini, has inscribed in her code the principles of nationality and the con-
sequences that flow therefrom. Mancini says there must be treaties
in order that the interest of foreigners be maintained and full justice
done them on an equal footing with the citizens. If he has not com-
pletely succeeded in his mission, it is because the times are not ripe for
the realization of his ideas. This is not a new dream of perpetual
peace, for the true ideal is not peace, but the reign of right ; and cer-
tainly there is nothing Utopian in the hope that peoples will under-
stand the regulation of interests purely private, and having little or no
connection with these greater interests for which, it is to be feared, the
resort to arms will always be a painful necessity. If this attempt of
Mancini has been premature, it has not on that account been useless.
It has opened the only way to a solution of the difficulties which every
day increase as international relations multiply.

In our days, through the progress of the physical sciences, and
their cooperation Tvith modern diplomacy, international relations have
undergone a veritable transformation. Communications between the
most distant countries are now more sure- and easy than they were in
the last century between two provinces of the same state. A letter
from any part of the United States to Rome now costs less than a
letter from one town to another, ten miles distant, did sixty years ago.
The merchants of Kew York, Cincinnati, and Chicago, and even San
Francisco, negotiate as easily with the merchants of Paris, London, or
Liverpool as with those of Buffalo, Philadelphia, or New Orleans. We
employ each day, for the satisfaction of our wants, the i3roducts of
the most distant countries with as much facility as those of our own
soil. LTndoubtedly science has done a vast amount in this prodi-
gious development of international intercourse ; it is science which
has furnished us steam and electricity, for diminishing distances, and
bringing peoples into closer relations. Science, it is true, can not do
everything ; it should be seconded by the law to produce all the ad-
vantages of which it is capable. The means of communication fur-
nished by it the railroads, the steamboats, and the telegraiDh-lines
would have but a limited sphere of action, if the States were isolated
one from another. The legal barriers that formerly existed between
peoples should be removed at the same time as the natural barriers,
and this is really taking place, for, as science progresses and material
interests become more developed, the ancient restrictive rules on immi-
gration arc successively modified, as also are the regulations on the
legal condition of foreigners, on the necessity of passports, etc. But
this alone will not suffice : sometimes it is necessary that governments
mutually aid each other in the attainment of a result beneficial to all ;
such, for example, as the extradition of fugitives from justice. The
tendency is to create or regulate the relations between civilized coun-
tries in such a way that, while the sovereignty and independence of
each is guaranteed, the general interests, h ^ving a cosmopolitan char-

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. 107

acter, will be found as satisfactory as if they were those of a single
state. In later years the development and application of this general
idea, through the progress made by the physical sciences, have far ex-
ceeded the hopes of the most sanguine. Take, for example, the post
and the telegraph. A few years ago the wildest visionary would never
have dreamed of the cordiality which to-day exists between the dif-
ferent peoples in their international relations. The postal and tele-
graphic services have contributed largely to this result. The same
treaty unites Turkey and Russia, France and Germany, Montenegro
and the United States.

Down to 1830 the postal system was not very well developed even
between different parts of the same country ; and of course was much
less efficient between different countries, where greater obstacles to its
progress would naturally be encountered. It was only after this period
and in consequence of the new relations to which a long peace had
given rise, aided by the development of means of communication by
land and sea, that the different countries felt the necessity of regulat-
ing their international postal communications. Without studying those
treaties as such, let us take a view of their object and utility.

Two countries who wish to regulate their international postal ex-
changes in a secure way must come to an understanding on the means
of transportation they will use, whether it is by railroad, stage, steam-
ers, or sailing-vessels, and what contribution to the expense of carriage
will be made by the respective parties to the contract. The questions
to be considered are : What will be the expense of mails thus trans-
ported? Will the postage be paid by the sender or receiver? In
what proportion will the expenses be borne by the offices cooperating
in this transportation ? It is on these points also that naturally arise
the chief difficulties, in consequence of the conflicting interests of the
contracting parties, each viewing the matter from his particular stand-
point, and each seeking to obtain the greatest benefits from the regu-
lations adopted.

In general, two postal administrations do not content themselves
with exchanging mails directly between the two countries ; each of
them, generally, has existing arrangements with other states which
they use as an intermediary. For instance, France, on account of its
geographical situation, plays this role for a number of countries ; it
serves as an intermediary for communications between the countries
of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and Great Britain.
A letter may have to traverse many countries to arrive at its desti-
nation : thus, a letter addressed from Lisbon to the Hague passes
through Spain, France, and Belgium ; it has three intermediate coun-
tries to traverse. Therefore, regulations must be made between the
services of direct exchange and those of transit. By transit we mean
the countries traversed ; thus, the French transit is necessary to com-
municate between the IJnited States and Italy, under present regula-

io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE ^MONTHLY,

tions. Another matter to be considered is the distinction between
the maritime and terrestrial transits ; the former is ordinarilj^ more ex-
pensiv^e than the latter, in consequence of the subsidies granted by many
countries to steamers on their navigable rivers, and in some countries
the railroads transport mail-bags gratuitously. The treaties have
'therefore to regulate the transit, the manner in which it is to be effect-
ed, and the i-emuneration. It must also regulate a great many other
matters : for instance, what will be carried by the mails ? Formerly, at
great distances, letters only were exchanged ; now journals and pam-
phlets of every kind are carried, packages of merchandise, and even
monev and valuables.

The system of isolated postal treaties between different countries
has had its day, and what progress was possible under it has already
been attained. Certain countries, which until recently remained outside
of the international movement, have now entered into it with ardor.
Thus in the year 1872 Russia, besides her postal treaty with France,
signed postal agreements with Germany, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Den-
mark, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland. By an examination of the
numerous arrangements which at this period were formed for postal
relations, it is easy to ascertain a uniform tendency toward the devel-
opment of international exchanges by lowering the rates of postage and.
by the simplification of operations. In 1862 the postal administration*
of the United States called the attention of foreign postal departments
to this matter, and indicated the number of obstacles to foreign corre-
spondence resulting from the difference in the principles as well as in
the detail of postal arrangements obstacles that could not be remedied
but by an international concert of action. Consequently, it invited the
members of the postal departments of the different nations to an inter-
national conference. This conference took place at Paris in May, 1863,
and was composed of delegates from fifteen countries ; its object, as
declared by its president, was " not to discuss or to regulate certain
practical facts which pertain to a sphere of negotiation beyond our
powers, but to argue, or at least to consider and proclaim, certain general
principles, certain speculative doctrines, which hereafter we may be
forced to adopt in the interest of the public and of the Treasuries of
our respective Governments." The different problems of the postal
exchanges were discussed with considerable acumen, and the result of
the deliberations was the enunciation of the general principles, which
were " of a nature to facilitate the relations of people with each other
by way of the post, and to serve as a basis to international conventions
looking to a regulation of these relations." This conference of 1863,"*
although bringing about no immediate result, had nevertheless a con-
siderable influence : it showed the possibility of an understanding and
the advantages of discussion. Some of the ideas recommended soon
afterward passed into practice. With the progress of time their prac-
ticability became more apparent ; and a new conference was called,

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. 109

not only to exchange ideas, but to lay the foundation for an actual
treaty. Since 1865 there has been a TelegrajDhic Union. Why not
also have a Postal Union ? As a consequence of these negotiations,
which were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, and subsequently
resumed, Switzerland convoked at Berne the delegates of the European
Governments and of the United States on the 1st of September, 1873.
Different powers, principal among which were France and Russia,
having manifested an intention to abstain from the conference, it was
adjourned. It reconvened September 15, 1874 ; and included dele-
gates from all the European powders, from Egypt, and the United
States. Notwithstanding the numerous difficulties met with, among
which may be mentioned the differences resulting from the wide sepa-
ration of some of the countries, the enormous inequality of their terri-
tories, a great diversity of views on economic and financial points, and,
finally, the power, always strong, of existing arrangements, a Postal
Union was finally formed, after fifteen sessions of the convention.

The delegates were many of them general directors of the postal
departments of their respective countries. Those of Germany played a
preponderating role in the Congress, because it was from them came
the initiative of the reunion, and the discussion bore largely on their
project ; the Belgian delegates also took an active part. The delegates
of France and Great Britain were, on the contrary, not very active in
the formation of the Union. France, for divers reasons, could not view
the project with favor ; she was principally kept back by fear of the
consequences to her finances that would follow the signing of the
treaty, so terrible was the strain on her exchequer of the trying events
of 1870-'71. Her delegates took no part in the discussions, nor in the
voting on the different provisions of the treaty ; but the pressure of
public opinion compelled her to sign the treaty which was concluded
between the powers on the 9th of October, 1874.

Besides the treaty, the delegates also signed a detailed regulation
for the execution of the treaty. There is this difference between the
two acts : the first can not be modified or amended but by the action
of representatives fortified with the full powers of their Governments ;
while the other can be agreed upon between the administrators of the
various postal departments. The first is a diplomatic act, the second
an administrative arrangement. The same course was followed at St.
Petersburg, in 1875, in establishing the Telegraphic Union.

The Union is not limited to the countries signing the Berne treaty.
That treaty provided for the accession of new members ; and since
1874 other nations than the original contracting parties have joined it,
and in the near future we may see a universal postal association, em-
bracing the entire world.

Turkey, on account of its peculiar international situation, is distin-
guished in this treaty from the other contracting parties, inasmuch
as its foreign correspondence is made through foreign offices. Thus

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

at Constantinople there are bureaus established by France, Austria,
Russia, England, and Germany, who occupy themselves with the inter-
national postal service, in which Turkey takes no part. At Berne the Ot-
toman delegate protested against this state of things, declaring that his
Government wished to enter definitely into its rights, and that, besides,
it was ready to do all that was necessary to carry out the requirements
of the international postal service. The response to this was a demur-
rer, on the ground that the protest was a matter of which the con-
ference could not take cognizance, and one that should be regulated
between Turkey and the different states interested.

The general principle of the treaty is thus stated in its opening
article : " The countries between which the present treaty is concluded
will form, under the designation of General Postal Union, one single
postal territory for the reciprocal exchange of correspondences between
their postal departments."

--

SKETCH OF EDWAED D. COPE.

THOUGH still a young man, having just entered on his prime.
Professor Cope is widely known for his enthusiasm and industry
in scientific pursuits. Already he has accomplished an amount of
original work in his chosen field of investigation that would do credit
to an ordinary lifetime, and that justly entitles him to the place he
now holds among the foremost of American biologists.

Edward Deinker Cope was born in the city of Philadelphia, in
1840. He is of English and French descent, and his ancestry on both
sides is represented by names once prominent in the histories of their
respective countries. As a boy he was particularly interested in sci-
entific studies, and also showed an early aptitude in the use of lan-
guage, which has since developed into that remarkable power of lucid
and fluent expression, even on the most abstruse of topics, for which
he is now distinguished. He began to write on his favorite subjects
when only sixteen ; but, as he was then occupied with what others
had done, and presumably had nothing new to say, his writing at-
tracted little if any public attention before he was twenty-five. Af-
ter eighteen he studied with a private tutor ; subsequently graduated
from the University of Pennsylvania ; studied comparative anatomy
in the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, in the Smithsonian Insti-
tution in 1859, and in Europe in 1863-64 ; and became Professor of
Natural Science in Ilaverford College in 1866. The most important
part of his scientific work is comprised in his paleontological studies,
and the papers he has prepared concerning them. He began his ex-
plorations in field geology in the Cretaceous green-sand of New Jer-

SKETCH OF EDWARD D. COPE. in

sey in 1866, where he discovered fifty-eight species of vertebrates new
to science, inchiding the remarkable dinosaur, Loelaps aqitilungis.
Next he turned his attention to the Miocene strata of Maryland and
North Carolina, where he found many cetaceans, of which half the
species were new, and some were of great size. He also surveyed the
Trias of the Atlantic slope, and contributed, by the identification of
the genus Belodon, of Von Meyer, in North Carolina and Pennsylva-
nia, to fix the determination of its age. In 1868 he was engaged, in
connection with the geological survey of Ohio, in the examination of
the characters of the air-breathing vertebrates, of which he deter-
mined thirty-four species of fourteen genera, and defined the order
Stegocephali.

His Western explorations were begun in 1870, when he visited the
Cretaceous region of western Kansas, and found there some remarkable
forms of fish, and the Liodon and Elasmosaurus, the largest known
swimming saurians. His next excursion was for the exploration in
1872 of the Eocene Bad Lands of the tributaries of Green River, in
Wyoming Territory. Mr. J. King at one time made these beds Mio-
cene, but Professor Cope claims to be the first to determine that they
were Eocene. He found in them the remains of a huge mammal,
with three pairs of osseous horns, or processes, on the skull, to which
he gave the name of Loxolophodon cormitus. From this and other
material, obtained at the time, he was able to determine the true char-
acter of the Dinocerata, and to refer the groups to the Prohoscidm as
a sub-order. In the next year, as paleontologist of Dr. Hayden's Sur-
vey of the Territories, he conducted an expedition into northeast
Colorado for the exploration of the White River beds. Among his
discoveries here were five species of the new genus Symhorodon, creat-
ures of gigantic size, with long, horn-like processes on the front of the
skull, and another animal about as large as a squirrel. In 1874, as
paleontologist to Lieutenant Wheeler's geographical surveys, he took
part in studying the geology of northwestern and central New Mex-
ico. The geology of the Northwest region, which, in the estimation
of Professor Cope, had been previously misunderstood, was devel-
oped, and a great tract of Eocene sedimentary rocks identified. A
rich vertebrate fauna was found, in its main features identical with the
Suessonian of Western Europe. The primitive type of the carnivora
was first defined under the name Creadonta, and a gigantic bird also
discovered. The same expedition explored the red beds of the Rocky
Mountains and the Loup Fork bed of the Santa Fe. In 1875 Pro-
fessor Cope determined that the vertebrates of this formation were
reptiles and not mammals, as had been supposed, and their age was
therefore set down as cretaceous instead of tertiary. This expedition,
together with the previous one in the same horizon in Colorado,
yielded forty new species, many of which were dinosaurs of high or-
ganization. Some of the herbivorous forms were found to have an

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

exceedingly complex dentition, arranged in magazines, containing in
some instances as many as two thousand teeth. A new group of sau-
rians and several batracbians were also discovered. Explorations
were begun in the Jurassic beds of the upper Arkansas River, in
1877, which yielded some of the largest crocodilians known. Other
expeditions were sent out into the Permian regions of Texas and into
Montana and Nebraska. In the latter he discovered a new geological
horizon between White River (lower) and Loup Fork (upper) Mio-
cene, from which several species of peculiar character were obtained.
Two expeditions to explore the Loup Fork beds of Kansas obtained
numerous reptiles, and mammals, including horses, camels, a new mas-
todon, and two new rhinoceroses. Explorations in Oregon were begun
by parties sent out in 1877, and Professor Cope visited the field in
1879, partly to examine the material that had been collected, among
which he found many fine specimens, and partly to study the Pliocene
deposit of that region, which was found remarkable for the prodig-
ious number of the bones of birds it contained and for the occur-
rence of flint implements. In all of these expeditions six hundred and
thirty-five new species were discovered, including one hundred fishes,
one hundred and seventy-five reptiles, ten birds, and three hundred
and fifty mammals, from which have been constituted the extinct or-
ders Actinochiri (fishes), StegocepTiali (batrachians), Charistodera,
Pythonomorplia^ and TheromorpTia (reptiles), Toeniodonta, Credonta,
and Amhlypoda (mammals).

Professor Cope has also contributed to the definite determination
of the relative ages of the horizons of the interior of the continent as
named by American geologists, and to their reference to correspond-
ing horizons on the European scale, beginning with the Permian and
including the Niobrara and Laramie Cretaceous, the Wahsatch, Bridger,
White River, Truckee, Loup Fork, and Pliocene Tertiary formations.

The scientific writings of Professor Cope are quite voluminous, and
mainly technical in characterr. They relate to a variety of departments
of natural history. The full list of them includes nearly three hundred
titles of papers which have been published in the official reports of the
Government surveys, the proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of
Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society, the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, in the " American Journal of
Science and Arts," the "American Naturalist," the "Penn Monthly,"
and through other channels. By far the largest number of these papers
relate to the reptiles and fishes discovered in the different geological
formations, extending from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains,
in the surveys of which he has participated. Probably the next largest
number concern the cetaceans and mammalia of those formations.
About a dozen of them relate to the reptiles and fishes of tropical
Arnerica ; half as many embody studies of the fauna, living and
fossil, of caves. Many papers describe living reptiles and fishes. More

SKETCH OF EDWARD D. COPE. 113

than thirty papers, published separately in advance by Professor Cope
as " Paleontological Bulletins," were included in the official reports
of the Government geological surveys of the Territories as special re-
ports of the departments of the work which were assigned to him, in-
cluding general geology, and the identification, classification, and
descriptions of new fossils and species. Among papers which do not
fall exactly under any of these heads may be mentioned those " On the
Fresh- Water Origin of Certain Deposits in West New Jersey "; "The
Birds of Palestine and Panama compared"; " On some New and Little-
known Myriapoda from the Southern Alleghanies " ; "Intelligence in
Monkeys "; " The Significance of Paleontology"; " Biological Research
in the United States"; articles on "Osteology" and "Comparative
Anatomy " in Johnson's " Cyclopaedia "; " Excursions of the Geological
Society of France"; "The Fauna of the Lowest Tertiary of France";
" A New Deer from Indiana"; "The Modern Museum"; "Pliocene
Man," etc. His papers on evolution form a separate department. Pro-
fessor Cope has been a diligent student of this subject, and has opin-
ions of his own upon it. Among his principal contributions to its lit-
erature are : " On the Origin of Genera " (1868) ; " Method of Creation
of Organic Types" (1871); "Evolution and its Consequences " (1872);
"Homologies and Origin of the Molar Teeth of Mammalia Educa-
bilia" (1874); "Consciousness in Evolution" (1875); "Relation of
Man to Tertiary Mammalia " (1875) ; " On the Theory of Evolution "
(1876) ; "The Origin of the Will" (1877) ; "The Relation of Animal
Motion to Animal Evolution " (1878) ; and " A Review of the Modern
Doctrine of Evolution" (1879).

Professor Cope was for a long time Secretary and Curator of the
Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, and was chief of the
Department of Organic Material of the Permanent Exposition of that
city. He received the Bigsby gold medal of the Royal Geological So-
ciety of Great Britain in 1879 ; is a member of the Geological Society
of France, and of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science.

VOL. XIX. 8

114

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE PROTOPHONE IN RESEARCH.

THE elegant research of Professor
Tyndall, which we publish in the
present number,will well repay the care-
ful attention of our readers. It is of in-
terest, not only on account of the very
complete confirmation of results pre-
viously obtained bj this physicist, but
also on account of the novel method
employed, and the promise this gives
of wide utility. The photophone is
barely six months old, but these experi-
ments show that it already has a large
field of usefulness before it, and it is,
perhaps, not too much to expect that it
will prove to be one of the most deli-
cate instruments at the command of the
physicist. The experiments are further
interesting for the very conclusive dem-
onstration they afford of the causes to
which the action of the instrument is
due. From the first, Professor Tyndall
states, he was convinced that the sounds
given out by bodies upon which the in-
termittent beam of light impinged were
due to their expansion and contraction
tinder the influence of radiant heat, and
this opinion is most fully borne out bj
the results obtained. The experiments,
while showing the great delicacy of this
beautiful instrument of Professor Bell,
also incidentally show that some of the
expectations with regard to it are un-
founded. One of these is, that with it
sounds upon the sun may be heard.
The fallacy of this has been recently
pointed out, and the arrangement of the
apparatus adopted by Professor Tyndall
clearly exhibits it. It consists in as-
suming that the sound given out by the
absorptive body is the reproduction of
a previous sound, while in reality all
that is necessary is that the impinging
beam be intermittent its variations
may be produced in any manner what-
ever.

Of the results of previous experi-
ments confirmed by this later research,
the most important are those regarding
the behavior of dry air and the vapor of
water toward radiant heat. By a long
series of beautiful and refined experi-
ments. Professor Tyndall had shown that
the former was perfectly transparent to
such heat, while water-vapor was a
powerful absorbent of it. These results
have been disputed by other experiment-
ers, and it needed, to definitely settle the
controversy, some more delicate method
of testing these substances than that
furnished by the instruments heretofore
at command. This has been supplied
by this latest acquisition of science, and
the first use of it appears to fully sus-
tain Professor Tyndall's position.

BOOK PHYSIOLOGY ABROAD.

We often hear subdued expressions
of doubt as to the quality of the phys-
iological teaching prevalent in girls'
schools. It is intimated that the knowl-
edge the pupils get upon this subject is
generally of a very loose and vague
sort, so as to be but of little practical
use. It is objected to what girls learn
about in their physiological studies, that
it is not entitled to be called knowl-
edge at all that is, they do not really
IcnoiD what they are studying about, but
only remember certain statements as
well as they can, while the information
they get is not of a kind fit to be used.
Whatever may be the fact in regard to
our own schools, it is pretty certain
that the physiology taught to girls in
some of the English schools is marked
with all the bad qualities sometimes as-
cribed to our own.

The London " Globe " gives a ludi-
crous illustration of the results of phys-

EDITOR'S table:

115

iological teaching in tlie girls' schools
of the English metropolis. It seems
that the National Health Society, laud-
ably desirous of promoting the increase
of practical physiological intelligence,
offered prizes to be competed for by
the pupils of the girls' schools under
the coatrol of the London School Board.
The response, however, was not very
lively. Out of two hundred and thir-
ty-four schools only eleveA sent com-
petitors, it being presumed that in the
other schools physiology is either not
taught at all or so poorly taught that
there was no emulation. The eleven
schools which were represented in the
examination, we are to suppose, were
the best girls' schools under the juris-
diction of the board. Two hundred
and fifteen girls attended and competed
for the prizes, the examination being
conducted by Mr. Mc William, who re-
ported the result to the London School
Board.

The " Globe " says : "Many of the
children appear to have been utterly
unable to understand the terms of the
questions. 'Mention any occupations
which you consider to be injurious to
health, giving reasons for your answer.'
This question, Mr. McWilliam says, es-
pecially appears to have puzzled them.
One girl's complete answer to this
question is, ' When you have a illness
it makes your health bad, as well as
having a disease.' Another says, ' Oc-
cupations which are injurious to health
are carbolic acid gas which is impure
blood.' Another complete answer is,
' We ought to go in the country for a
few weeks to take plenty of fresh air
to make us healthy and strong every
year.' Another complete answer is,
' Why the heart, lungs, blood, which is
very dangerous.' The word ' function '
was also a great puzzle. Very many
answered that the skin discharges a
function called perspiration. One girl
says, ' The function of the heart is be-
tween the lungs.' Another says : ' What
is the function of the heart ? Thorax.'

Another girl, in answer to the sixth
question says, ' The process of digestion
is: We should never eat fat, because
the food does not digest.'

"Another class of errors is that of
exaggerated statements, one girl an-
swering, ' A stone-mason's work is in-
jurious, because when he is chipping
he breathes in all the little chips, and
then they are taken into the lungs.'
Another says, ' A bootmaker's trade is
very injurious, because the bootmakers
always press the boots against the tho-
rax, and therefore it presses the thorax
in and it touches the heart, and if they
do not die they are cripples for life.'
Several girls insist that every carpenter
or mason should wear a pad over the
mouth ; and one girl says that, if a
sawyer does not wear spectacles, he
will be sure to lose his eyesight. Fi-
nally, one girl declares that ' all me-
chanical work is injurious to health.'
Another child says that ' in impure air
there is not any oxygen, it is all car-
bonic acid gas.' Another says that if
we do not wash ourselves 'in one or
two days all the perspiration will turn
into sores.'

" One girl states that ' when food is
swallowed it passes through the wind-
pipe and stops at the right side, some
of it goes to make blood, and what is
not wanted passes into the alimentary
canal.' Another girl from the same
school says, ' Yenous blood is of a dark
black color, and when it reaches the
heart it is made by the heart a bright
red color.' Several girls from the same
school repeat this last error. Another
girl says, ' The chyle flows up the mid-
dle of the backbone and reaches the
heart, where it meets the oxygen and
is purified.' Another says, ' The work
of the heart is to repair the different
organs in about half a minute.' An-
other says : ' We have an upper and a
lower skin ; the lower skin moves at
its will, and the upper skin moves when
we do.' "

ii6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE TYNDALL TRUST FUND.

It may be recollected that, at the close
of his lectures in this country, 1872-73,
Professor Tyndall left all the money he
had received, except what was consumed
in expenses, as a trust, the income of
which was to be devoted to the assist-
ance of American students in physics
desirous of completing their studies in
Germany. The fund was intended, of
course, for those who were without suf-
ficient means of their own for the pur-
pose, and was to be only available for
such students as had shown an inclina-
tion for original studies, and some ap-
titude and capacity in pursuing them.
Trustees were appointed to take charge
of the fund, which was at first so small
that it was thought best to let it accu-
mulate until the income became suflB-
cient to give a moderate support to two
students. The ilicrease of the capital
has now reached a point at which the
income of the trust becomes apph cable
for its purpose.

The original trustees appointed by
Professor Tyndall were Professor Jo-
seph Henry, of Washington; General
Hector Tyndale, of Philadelphia ; and
E. L. Youmans, of New York. The two
former are dead, and President F. A. P.
Barnard, of Columbia College, New
York, and Professor Joseph Lovering,
of Harvard University, Cambridge, have
been appointed in their places. Appli-
cations for the benefit of the trust can
be made to either of the trustees.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Studies from the Biological Laboratory
OF Johns Hopkins University. Parts
I, H, and IV, and Scientific Results of
the Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory,
Session of 1 878, forming Part HI. Bal-
timore : John Murphy & Co. 1880.
Price, per Part, $1.00.

We can not too heartily congratulate
Johns Hopkins University in being able to
publish a work of such great value as the
one before us. Its fame abroad will rest

almost solely on these careful memoirs,
which have doubtless found their way into
the scientific libraries of the Old World,
and in return for which the university must
have gained many additions to its own
shelves. Through the liberal recognition of
the value of scientific work, the trustees of
the university can lay claim to a publication
having already reached four parts, number-
ing over five hundred pages, and illustrated
by forty admirable plates.

The first part contains an elaborate
paper on " The Normal Respiratory Move-
ments of the Frog, and the Influence upon
its Respiratory Center of Stimulation of the
Optic Lobes," by Dr. H. Newell Martin,
Professor of Biology in the University.
Among the many contradictory accounts in
regard to the mechanism of this process,
Professor Martin says that the first detailed
description by Townson in 1794 is essen-
tially correct in all respects. After giving
the conclusions of various authors, he de-
tails his own experiments, illustrated by
diagrams. These consisted in carefully re-
moving the central lobes and optic thalami,
and, after observing the diagram made by
the animal's respiratory movements, he stim-
ulated the anterior cut ends of the optic
lobes by a crystal of salt, and carefully
noted the results. He found that irritation
of the optic lobes diminished the irritability
of the inspiratory center, and increased that
of the expiratory center. In conclusion he
points out that the results of chemical stim- J
ulation of the corpora quadrigemina in the
mammal, as described by Ferrier, " corre-
spond with the results of chemical stimu-
lation of corresponding parts in the frog."

The next memoir, by Henry Sewell, B.
Sc, is on " The Development and Regenera-
tion of the Gastric Glandular Epithelium
during Foetal Life and after Birth." A pro-
longed study of the different cells in the
glands of the adult stomach having failed
to give the author such insight into their
various functions as he desired, recourse
was had to the stomachs of embryos ; his
material consisting mostly of embryo cats
and dogs. He shows in summing up that
" the stomach-glands are formed by ridge-
like outgrowths from the surface of the
mucous membrane. The hypoblastic cells,
at first in a single layer, become several

LITERARY NOTICES.

117

layers thick before the formation of the
ridges, and become single again over these.
... By the intersection of the ridges, pits
are left, which are the gland-pouches." The
" ovoid " cells are first specalized and later
the central cells, the latter alone being con-
cerned in the formation of pepsin.

The third article is by Professor Martin
and Dr. W. D. Booker. Its subject is " The
Influence of Stimulation of the Mid-Brain
upon the Respiratory Rhythm of the Mam-
mal." Having found that chemical stimu-
lation of the mid-brain of the frog caused
accelerated or tetanic inspiratory and im-
peded expiratory movements, experiments
were made on rabbits to see if the same
phenomena were exhibited by mammals.
By an ingenious arrangement the animal was
made to breathe into a jar, the aperture of
which was covered by an elastic membrane,
and throuo;h a connecting lever was made
to record, on a revolving cylinder, all the
respiratory movements. The stimulus ap-
plied was by means of electrodes, connected
with a secondary coil of a Du Bois induc-
tion apparatus. The current from a single
carbon-bichromate cell was sent through the
primary coil.

Reference must be made to this memoir
for further details regarding the experi-
mental methods employed. The general
results are summed up as follows : " There
lies deep in the mid-brain of the rabbit,
beneath the posterior corpora quadrigemina
and close to the iter^ a respiration regulat-
ing center, similar to that in the corpora bi-
gemina of the frog : electrical stimulation of
this center causes accelerated inspirations
finally passing into tetanic fixation of the
chest in an inspiratory condition, and cor-
respondingly diminishes or altogether in-
hibits expiration."

The paper of Dr. I. Edmondson Atkin-
son, on the botanical relations of Tricophy-
ton tonsurans, details some very careful
experiments in cell-culture made in order
to determine whether excessive polymor-
phism existed among these lower fungi.

Dr. W. K. Brooks closes Part I with
a memoir entitled "Preliminary Observa-
tions upon the Development of the Marine
Prosobranchiate Gasteropods." For material
the author studied two common marine snails
from the first segmentation of the egg to a

stage when it emerges with its full class
characters. Among other things he shows
that, while there is no stage that can be
considered as a specialized gastrula, there are
presented at different periods of its develop-
ment all the phases in the formation of a
gastrula ; and also that, while the gastrula
stage has disappeared, the gastrula form
persists.

Part II commences with a memoir by
Professor Martin and Edward M. Hartwell,
on the respiratory function of the internal
intercostal muscles. The authors show how
conflicting are the opinions regarding the
particular mechanical work done by these
muscles ; and how impracticable it is to
decide by a simple mechanical study as to
whether these muscles are rib-elevators or
rib-depressors. Dogs and cats were used in
their experiments, which show that the mus-
cles in question are expiratory in their func-
tion throughout their whole extent.

The next paper, by Isaac Ott, M. D., en-
titled " Observations on the Physiology of
the Spinal Cord," is an account of the au-
thor's investigations of the secretory func-
tions, vaso-dilator centers, rhythmical func-
tions, genito-urinary functions, and path of
secretory and inhibitory fibers of the cord.

On the " Effect of Two Succeeding Stim-
uli upon Muscular Contraction," by Henry
Sewell, Esq., is a paper which affords an ex-
cellent example of how minute and exact
experiments should be conducted. Among
other interesting facts it is shown that a
"given maximal stimulus stirs up the un-
tired muscle to a more powerful contraction
when it has been preceded by the excite-
ment ordinarily producing contraction."

In the "So-called Heat Dyspnoea," by
Christian Sihler, M. D., is an attempt to get
at the causes of the increased respirations
in a dog, when it is subjected to a tempera-
ture warmer than its own body. Finding
previous experiments inconclusive, the au-
thor not only repeats those of Goldstein,
but details a number of new ones. His
conclusions are : 1. That Goldstein's experi-
ment with the tube is inconclusive ; 2. The
increased respiration following exposure of
the animal is due to two causes, skin stim-
ulation and warmed blood ; 3. Of these,
skin stimulation is the more powerful ; 4.
Apnoea can be produced in heated animals,

ii8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

if skin stimuli be cut off ; 5. The direct
action on the respiratory centers of the
hotter blood of the heated animal is prob-
ably not, or not only, due to its temperature
but to its greater venosity.

Dr. W. K. Brooks has an exhaustive
paper entitled " Observations upon the Early
Siagcs in the Development of the Fresh-
Water Pulmonates," in which he discusses
the works of Lankester, Fol, Rabl, Jhering,
and others. The plates accompanying his
paper are models of clearness.

S. F. Clarke follows with an interesting
illustrated paper on " The Development of
Amblystoma," which closes the number.

Part III, devoted to the work of the
Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory during
the session of ISVS, begins with an account
by Professor W. K. Brooks of the organi-
zation of the school, its location at Fort
"Wool, and the methods of study adopted.
This is followed by lists of the plants and
animals observed at Fort Wool the former
by Mr. N. B. Webster and the latter by Mr.
P. R. Uhler. The next paper, by Dr. Brooks,
is on the development of Lingula and the
systematic position of the Brachiopoda. He
succeeded in getting the free-swimming larva
of Lingula at a stage similar to the one de-
scribed by Professor McCready many years
ago, and carried it through to the early
staure of the adult form. It is useless to
attempt to do justice to this valuable con-
tribution without the plates which accom-
pany it.

The other papers in this part are " On
the Larval Stage of iSquilla," by Dr. Brooks,
and the " Description of Lucifer Typus," by
Walter Faxon.

Part IV contains a paper of great sci-
entific and economic value, on the devel-
opment of the oyster, by Dr. Brooks. Ger-
man and French authorities had stated that
eggs of the oyster were fertilized within
the body of the parent, and were carried
by them until they had reached an advanced
stage of development, when, provided with
shells of their own, they were discharged,
and swam freely in the water until they be-
came attached. Misled by these statements,
Dr. Brooks had failed the season before in
securing any results. On the 15th of May
he commenced operations by opening oys-
ters every day throughout the breeding-sea-

son. Ilis success in artificially fecundating
the egg was remarkable. Millions of eggs
were fecundated with but little trouble. He
traced their developmental history from the
segmentation of the egg to those stages al-
ready described by European naturalists.
He found the female oyster in various con-
ditions : some in which the ovaries were
largely distended, and the eggs fairly oozing
from the oviducts ; others in which the
ovaries were half filled, and others still
wherein the ovaries were quite empty, and
in no case did he find a single fertilized egg
in the ovary. Dr. Brooks emphatically says
that, so far as the oyster of Chesapeake
Bay is concerned, " the eggs are fertilized
outside the body of the parent, and that,
during the period which the young Euro-
pean oyster passes inside the mantle cavity
of its parent, the young of our oyster swims
at large in the open ocean." A very clear
description is given of the anatomy of the
oyster, as well as some practical points in
regard to their artificial fecundation. A
careful estimate shows that an average-
sized female oyster contains about nine mill-
ion eggs; an unusually large oyster may
contain as many as sixty million eggs.

Dr. Brooks's investigations have a very
practical bearing on the question as to the
final exhaustion of the natural oyster-beds
on our coast by unlimited dredging.

One would naturally think that with
such remarkable fecundity the question of
extermination need be hardly entertained,
but the eggs after fertilization, if left un-
protected, meet at every moment of their
existence enemies who devour them, and,
when at a later stage they rise on the water
and form a film on the surface, fishes de-
vour them by millions. Dr. Brooks has
shown that if the egg is not immediately
fertilized it soon perishes, and of course in
its natural home the chances of its fertili- J
zation are infinitely less than in the artifi-
cial method actually tried.

In a recent paper by Dr. Mobius a long
table is given showing the number of oys-
ters taken yearly from the Bay of Cancale,
on the coast of Norway, during the last
hundred years. Dr. Brooks reproduces this
table, to show that unlimited dredging has
greatly reduced the production.

Without detailing the process here, Dr.

LITERARY NOTICES.

119

Mobius estimates that each oyster bom has
irriouTr of a chance of reaching maturity.
In the case of the American oyster, the
number of eggs being very much greater,
each one's chance of survival is very much
less.

He shows, too, how extremely circum-
scribed are the beds upon which the oyster
thrives, and that it is a mistake to suppose
that the oysters are promiscuously scattered
on the shores of the bay. They can only
flourish on certain grounds, though the
young are widely scattered through these
waters, as the partial development of in-
dividuals everywhere attests. This Part
closes with another article by the same au-
thor, on " The Acquisition and Loss of a
Food-Yolk in Molluscan Eggs."

Incomplete as our account of these pa-
pers must necessarily be, enough has been
said to show that they are the records of a
large amount of original thoroughgoing sci-
entific research, the results of which will
become increasingly valuable as they are
more generally known. But of the man-
ner in which these records have been brought
together we can not speak so favorably.
Several of the memoirs were first published
elsewhere, and in their collection the orisri-
nal paging and numbering of the plates
have been allowed to stand. The lack of
uniformity thus caused is very confusing,
and, as the high character of the work will
make it widely sought for purposes of ref-
erence, much future trouble may be ex-
pected from this defect in its make-up.

The Irish Land Questiox. By Henry
George. New York : D. Appleton & Co.
1881. Pp. 85. Price, 25 cents.

In this essay Mr. George applies to the
Irish land question the doctrine maintained
in his now well-known work " Progress and
Poverty," and appeals to the Land Leagues
to openly espouse the reform he advocates.
He insists that there is nothing special in
Irish distress ; that it is not due to English
oppression, but that it is the direct result of a
land system that prevails in every civilized
country. He points out that so far from Irish
land tenure being worse than that of other
countries, it is even more favorable to the ten-
ant, and that, as a matter of fact, the land of
Ireland is under-rented. He argues forcibly

against the various schemes for a greater
subdivision of the land, showing that these
can benefit the tenant but to a limited ex-
tent, while to agricultural laborers and arti-
sans they can bring no relief whatever. He
therefore urges the reform he advocates, as
a final solution, not only of the land question
in Ireland, but in every other country, and
feels confident that, if the Irish trouble could
be adjusted on this basis, the extension of
the system to other countries would be but
a matter of time. At the very outset of any
proposal for the state to resume the owner-
ship of the land, the question of compensa-
tion to landholders must be met. In his
previous work Mr. George has argued that
the landholders ought to receive no compen-
sation, an opinion for which he has been
somewhat sharply criticised. In the present
essay he again takes up the question and
argues it at greater length. He denies that
the case is one to which the statute of limita-
tion can be made to apply, and claims that
the landholder is not deprived of what is
rightfully his, but simply estopped from
further enjoying the fruits of the labor of
others.

The remainder of the essay is devoted to
an insistence upon the importance of the
right solution of the land question and the
benefits that would follow the one the author
proposes.

Medical Hints on the Production and
Management of the Singing Voice. By
Lennox Browne, F. R. C. S., Edinburgh.
Eighth edition, revised, enlarged, and
illustrated. New York : M. L. Holbrook
& Co. Paper. Pp. 77. Price, 25 cents.

This essay, which was first given in the
form of a paper before a Musical Associa-
tion, is intended to furnish the information
most necessary and desirable for singers to
possess, in a practical, untechnical shape.
It considers 1. The laws of musical sound
bearing on the question discussed ; 2. The
organs of the human voice regarded as parts
of a musical instrument, and their various
functions as such; 3. The management of
those parts under control of the vocalist
which may perfect the voice; 4. The de-
fects occasioned by mismanagement ; and,
5. Directions on the hygiene and medical
and dietetic management of the voice. The
last topic is treated in full.

120

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Report of the Commissioner of Educa-
tion FOR 1878. Washington: Govern-
ment Printing-office. 1880. Pp. 730.

The office of the Commissioner of Edu-
cation is a peculiar one. It has no author-
ity, but depends wholly upon voluntary as-
sistance for the collection of the informa-
tion which it undertakes to digest and dif-
fuse, and its recommendations, if it makes
any, can pass only for what they are intrinsi-
cally worth. Its function, as the Commis-
sioner well remarks, is that of '"a national
clearing-house ' of educational information,
where what has been done is carefully record-
ed, and that which indicates the good or bad
may be selected." That its work is more
appreciated every year is shown by the
steadily increasing number of its correspond-
ents at home, who numbered 7,135 in 1878,
and the extension of its connections abroad.
The present volume contains full informa-
tion, with all the details, on the condition of
public and private education in the United
States, arranged by States, and according to
the grade and character of the institutions,
and one of the most satisfactory accounts of
the condition of education in foreign coun-
tries that the Commissioner has yet been
able to present.

Photometric Researches. By William H.
Pickering. Extracted from the Pro-
ceedings of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts: University Press. 1881.

Vert little is known with accuracy of
any terrestrial high temperature, while esti-
mations of that of the sun vary between the
extreme limits of several million and two
thousand degrees. In the researches to
which this paper is devoted. Professor Pick-
ering has endeavored to determine some of
these temperatures by means of the amount
of violet rays given off, these being the rays
most abundant at the highest temperature.
The exact relation between these factors is
unknown, but, by assuming one which his
experiments led him to regard as probable,
Professor Pickering has been able to make
out a table which does not differ widely
from the most reliable determinations here-
tofore made. The lights of a candle, gas-
flame, lime, magnesium, the electric arc,
moonlight, and sunlight were each examined
by means of a spectroscope and photome-

ter, and the relative brilliancy of the red, yel-
low, green, and violet rays determined. The
standard used was an Argand gas-flame with
a small screen interposed, so that the light
yielded was just '67 candle-power, and a
candle was found to be wholly unsatisfac-
tory for the purpose. The relative inten-
sities of these portions of the spectrum were
in each of the lights as follows, that of the
yellow rays being taken at 100 : Candle, 73,
100, 104, 134; gas, 74, 100, 103, 125; lime,
59, 100, 113, 285 ; magnesium, 50, 100, 223,
1,129; electric light, 61, 100, 121, 735;
moonlight, 87, 100, 155, 363 ; sunlight, 45,
100, 250, 2,971. The great preponderance
of the violet rays in burning magnesium
over those of any other artificial light clearly
indicates a higher temperature, while by the
same test that of the sun is much greater.
The temperatures for all the lights measured
are : Candle and gas, 1,200 C. ; lime, 2,000
C, about that of melted platinum ; electric
arc, 3,500 C. ; magnesium, 4,900 C. ; sun,
22,000 C. This method of obtaining tem-
peratures gives promise of being of great
value, for, as pointed out by Professor Pick-
ering, if the relation between increase of
temperature and increase of violet rays were
accurately determined, we could very readily
determine the temperature of the heavenly
bodies.

Studies op the Food of Birds, Insects,
AND Fishes, made at the Illinois State
Laboratory of Natural History. Nor-
mal, 111. Paper. Pp. 160.

The State Legislature of Illinois recently
authorized an investigation of the food of
the birds of the State, with especial refer-
ence to agriculture and horticulture, and a
similar investigation of the food of fishes,
with especial reference to fish-culture. The
papers in this collection are the first results
of the work. As the investigation proceed-
ed it was found that, to be full, it must
include a consideration of parts of the gen-
eral subject of the reactions between groups
of organisms and their surroundings, organic
and inorganic. With this view the special
papers are preceded by a more general one
on *' Some Interactions of Organisms." Pa-
pers are also given on " Insectivorous Cole-
optera," and on " The Food of Predaceous
Beetles."

LITERARY NOTICES,

121

United States Commission of Fish and
Fisheries. Part VI. Report of the
Commissioner FOR 1878. A. Inquiry into
the Decrease of Food-Fishes. B. The
Propagation of Food-Fishes in the Wa-
ters of the United States. Washington :
Government Printing-Office. 1880. Pp.
988.

The present report brings down the his-
tory of the work of the commission to the
end of 1878, and a part of it, especially
that connected with the propagation of salm-
on, to the date of the actual planting and
disposition of the young fish in 1879. The
scale of operations was increased during
the yeai*, in correspondence with the in-
creased appropriations made by Congress,
without bringing any material addition to
the expense of the management. The his-
tory of the operations includes the record
of the progress of the planting of different
varieties of salmon, of which we may men-
tion the planting of California salmon in
the Southern rivers, and of the measures to
promote the increase of the white-fish, shad,
herring, carp, and cod. The attempt to in-
troduce the sole met with a second failure.
An experiment in the artificial propagation
of the sponge of commerce, by planting
cuttings of live sponges, was successful, and
gave much encouragement. The supple-
mental papers are of great interest, and
constitute of themselves a respectable li-
brary of ichthyological literature. They em-
brace numerous articles, by American, Scan-
dinavian, and German writers, on subjects
connected with fishery expositions, the sea-
fisheries, deep-sea research, the natural his-
tory of marine animals, and essays general,
special, and practical, on the propagation of
the different kinds of food-fishes.

Natural Theology. By John Bascom.
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1880.
Pp. 302. Price, $1.50.

Dr. Bascom, who is widely and favor-
ably known as one of the strongest thinkers
within theological lines, has here recast the
theistic argument, and has endeavored to
present it in a form which shall meet the
changed conditions and enlarged knowledge
of to-day. The argument is conducted in
excellent temper, and is in many respects a
strong and able presentation of what the
intuitive philosophy has to offer upon this

fundamental question. His attitude toward
current scientific doctrine and the spirit in
which he approaches his work are indicated
in the following quotation from the preface :
" The opposition has changed front, and so
renders a corresponding change necessary
on the part of the defense. This shifting
of the conflict has attended on a great in-
crease of knowledge, and new views of the
methods of development in the physical
world. We wish to recognize most fully
the value of these attainments, and to see
clearly their relation to theism. We are
quite prepared to accept evolution the
present intellectual solvent of physical
problems in all the facts it offers, while
we are still at liberty to give those facts
the interpretation which is most in keep-
ing with the two kingdoms, physical and
spiritual, which make up the universe in
its outer form and inner force. It is ex-
actly here that we hope to add something
to the work of our predecessors 1. In a
more complete recognition of all the results
of scientific inquiry ; and, 2. In pointing out
the relation of these facts to an intellectual
exposition of the universe." Dr. Bascom,
in his discussion of the nature of the Deity,
reaches the conclusion that a sufficient, posi-
tive, and consistent idea of his nature is ob-
tainable ; and he then, after stating the kind
of proof necessary, carries his search for it
through the organic world and into the " ra-
tional kingdom," closing his argument with
a consideration of the goodness of God and
the bearing the evidence of this has upon
his existence. The concluding chapter of
the work is devoted to a discussion of im-
mortality, its relation to natural theology,
and the proofs of it from the constitution
of man, and the character of the Deity.

Drainage for Health; or, Easy Lessons
IN Sanitary Science. By Joseph Wil-
son, M. D., Medical Director, United
States Navy. Philadelphia : Presley Blak-
iston. 1881. Pp. 68. Price, $1.

The author attempts, in this work, to
present the subject, briefly and correctly, so
far as he goes, in simple style and language,
and in so familiar a manner as to make easy
reading. He first discusses the subject of
land-drainage on farms and in country dis-
tricts ; next the drainage of cities and town-
houses, closets, and plumbing.

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Caue and Culture op Children. A
Practical Treatise for the Use of
Parents. By Thomas S. Sozinskey, M.
D., Ph. D., author of the "Culture of
Beauty,'' etc. Philadelphia : II. C. Watts
& Co. 1880. Pp. 484. Price, $2.50.

The author's object in this work is to
give such information and advice as will en-
able parents to perform intelligently their
duty to their children in matters of physical
and mental training, in health and sickness.
The first part relates to the care of children,
and includes chapters on the conditions of
health, diet, clothing, cleanliness, exercise,
etc., the prevention of disease, and treat-
ment in sickness of whatever character. In
the second part, physical and intellectual
culture is discussed, with faithful attention
to details and an evident desire to cover
the whole subject. The style is in many
places brief and pointed, in others diffuse.

Baldwin Locomotive Works. Illustrated
Catalogue. Second edition. Philadel-
pia: J. B. Lippincott. 1881. Pp. 152.
Price, $5.

This, while being a very elegant trade
catalogue, is also something more, by reason
of the summary of the progress of locomo-
tive construction in this country which it
contains. The account is in the form of a
history of the works, but, as Mr. Baldwin
was one of the first and most successful loco-
motive-builders, the history of his efforts is
largely that of the continuous improvements
which have transformed the locomotive of
1830 into that of to-day. In the catalogue
proper the various types of locomotives now
made at the works are illustrated by photo-
graphs and scale drawings.

"Change" as a Mental Restorative. By
Joseph Mortimer-Granville. London :
David Bogue. 1880. Pp. 32.

Change of place, surroundings, or oc-
cupation is, the author believes, too often
prescribed without sufficient discrimination,
so that sometimes the patient's situation is
not improved, or may even be made worse, by
the new exercise or in the new place. The
present essay is a study of the manner in
which change may opecatc beneficially, of
the kind of change that is good, and of the
principles by which the prescription of it
should be guided.

Pueblo Pottery. By F. W. Putnam. From
the " American Art Review " for Feb.
ruary, 1881. Pp. 4, with colored Plate.

In this paper are described a number of
specimens of pottery of the Pueblos of New
Mexico, with peculiar decorations, some of
which provoke comparisons with the or-
namentation of the Cyprian potteries. The
largest vessel, from Zuni, is marked with
considerable taste, and displays striking fig-
ures of deer in black, and a conventional-
ized shrub in red. A water-bottle from San
Ildefonso is rudely fashioned in the shape of
a bird, and is decorated, like some of the Cyp-
rian pottery, with figures of birds painted in
black upon a white ground. A third vessel
shows a more common ornamentation of
Pueblo pottery. A comparison of modern
specimens with ancient shows that the art
has deteriorated. The ornamentation in
both kinds is confined to figures expressed
in color. No specimen of incised work is
known. The representation of natural forms
appears to be of modern introduction.

Adam Smith. By J. A, Farrer. New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1881. Pp.
201. Price, $1.25.

This is the opening volume of a series
to be devoted to an exposition of the chief
contributions made to philosophy by English
thinkers. In explanation of the purpose of
the project, the editor. Professor Iwan Mill-
ler, says in the preface : " We seek to lay
before the reader what each English philos-
opher thought and wrote about the prob-
lems with which he dealt. . . . Criticism
will be suggested rather than indulged in,
and these volumes will be expositions rather
than reviews. ... It is hoped that the se-
ries, when complete, will supply a compre-
hensive history of English philosophy."
Professor H. Sidgwick will contribute a
volume under the title of " Introduction to
the Study of Philosophy," and arrangements
have already been made for the early ap-
pearance of volumes upon Bacon, Berkeley,
Hamilton, J. S. Mill, Mansel, Bentham, Aus-
tin, Shaftesbury and Ilutcheson, Ilobbes,
Hartley and James Mill. These will be
followed by others upon Locke, Hume, Pa-
ley, Reid, and later philosophic writers.
The design of the series is excellent, and,
if all the contributors do their work as well

LITERARY NOTICES.

123

as ilr. Farrer has done his, it will be a val-
uable one. The present volume is devoted
to an exposition of the "Theory of the
Moral Sentiments," in which the great ec'on-
omist endeavors to find for morals a secure
foundation in the sympathetic nature of
man. The work was in its time a notable
one, and remains one of the most valuable
contributions of English thought to the sub-
ject. Mr. Farrer writes clearly and appre-
ciatively, and has invested his subject with
an interest that will make the book attrac-
tive to a large number of readers. The ex-
position closes with an examination of some
of the objections urged by writers at the
time of the publication of the "Theory,"
and is preceded by a brief biographical
sketch of Smith.

The Devovian Insects of New Brunswick.
By Samuel H. Scudder. Boston : Bos-
ton Society of Natural History. 1880.
Pp. 41, with Plate.

Careful descriptions are given in this
essay of six specimens of broken wings which
were discovered in 1862 by Professor C. F.
Hartt, in the Devonian shales of Carleton,
near St. John, New Brunswick, and are now
preserved in the museums of the Natural Eis-
tory Society of St. John and of the Boston
Society of Natural History. The descriptions
and the author's conclusions are supplement-
ed by a review of the character and age of the
formation in which the remains were found,
by Principal Dawson, in which the evidence
that it is Devonian is carefully collated. The
wings are all of Neuroptera, and of species
to which are ascribed special relations with
the modern May-flies. From his detailed
examinations, Mr. Scudder reaches the con-
clusion that nothing appears to interfere
with the view he has formerly expressed,
that tlie general type of wing-structure has
remained unaltered from the earliest times ;
that the fossils are nearly all of synthetic
tvpes of a comparatively narrow range,
being about equally divided in structural
features betweea Neiiroptera proper and
T^%Q\x&o-]Sfeuroptera; that they bear marks of
affinity to the Carboniferous PalcBodidyop-
tera^ while they are often of more compli-
cated structure than most of them, but with
this exception bear little special relation to
Carboniferous forms ; that they were of great
size, had membranous wings, and were prob-

ably aquatic in early life ; that some of
them were plainly precursors of existing
forms, ^v'hile others seem to have left no
trace ; that they show a remarkable variety
of structure, indicating an abundance of
insect-life at that epoch ; that they differ
remarkably from all other known types, an-
cient or modern, and some of them appear
to be even more complicated than their near-
est living allies ; that we appear to be, so
far as either greater unity or simplicity of
structure is concerned, no nearer the begin-
ning of things in the Devonian epoch than
in the Carboniferous ; and that " while there
are some forms which, to some degree, bear
out expectations based on the general deriv-
ative hypothesis of structural development,
there are quite as many which are altogether
unexpected, and can not be explained on
that theory, without involving suppositions
for which no facts can at present be ad-
duced." We observe that some of the views
of the author are questioned by other natu-
ralists.

Orange Insects: A Treatise on the In-
jurious AND Beneficial Insects found
ON the Orange-Trees of Florida. By
"William H. Ashmead. Jacksonville,
Florida : Ashmead Brothers. Paper.
Pp. 78.

The author has been engaged in special
studies of the insects of the orange since
1876, and publishes this volume in answer
to numerous inquiries for information re-
specting them from cultivators. He gives
systematic descriptions of numerous species,
with illustrations of the most of them, and
notes on the character of their relations
whether beneficial or injurious to the trees.

Circulars of Information of the Bureau
of Education: No. 4, Rural School
Architecture. With Illustrations. Pp.
106. No. 5, English Rural Schools.
Pp.26. Washington: Government Print-
ing-Office. 1880.

The former work has been prepared by
Mr. T. M. Clark, an architect of Boston,
with the design of giving principles and di-
rections suggestive of the plans best to be
adopted under a variety of circumstances
rather than of laying down rules to be in-
considerately followed. It is intended to
cover the whole subject of school architect-
ure, with especial attention to the proper

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

heating and efficient ventilation of the build-
ings. It begins with the consideration of
the site and the digging of the feell, and
closes with the elevations and finishings of
the schoolhouses. An article on log school-
houses is added. Circular Xo. 6 is a state-
ment of the working of the English educa-
tion act of ISVO in districts outside of cities,
prepared for the department, by Mr. Henry
W. Hulbert.

Electric Lighting by Incandescence. By
W. E. Sawyer. New York: D. Van
Nostrand. 1881. Pp.189. Price, $2.50.

In these chapters Mr. Sawyer has given
a resume of the present condition of electric
lighting by incandescence, describing the
chief apparatus that has been so far de-
vised. He begins his exposition with a con-
sideration of the various electric generators,
as these necessarily are at the foundation of
any system of electric lighting. Of these
the two important classes are those of the
Gramme type, in which he includes those of
Maxim and Brush ; and those of the new
Siemens type, in which he places his own
and Edison's. The Wilde,. De Meritens,
and Lontin machines are also described,
the first being characterized as the " germ
of a perfect generator," in that in it the in-
tensity of the magnetic field is uninfluenced
by the resistance of the external circuit,
and a larger part of the entire current can
therefore be used than in accumulative ma-
chines. The review of incandescent lamps
includes those of Starr and King, Lody-
guine, Konn and Kosloff, Bouliguine, Fon-
taine, Farmer, Sawyer, Edison, and Maxim, in
which the carbon is protected from the at-
mosphere, and those of Reynicr and Wer.
dermann, in which it bums in the air. Of
the former, only the last three are regarded
as practicable lamps, and of these the Max-
im is considered as, in all essential particu-
lars, a duplication of that of Edison. With
regard to the duration of the carbon, Mr.
Sawyer holds that the hope of making it
permanent is chimerical, as no material will
stand the strain to which an incandescent
conductor is subjected, and that the part of
wisdom, therefore, is to provide for its re-
newal. In treating of the division of the
current, four systems are considered the
series, the multiple, the multiple-series, and
the series-multiple system. In the first, the

lamps are strung one after the other upon
one wire ; in the second, each lamp is hung
on a branch between two parallel wires ; in
the third, several lamps are placed upon a
branch ; and, in the last, groups or bunches
of lamps are strung upon one wire. For
a large number of lamps, Mr. Sawyer con-
siders the first arrangement impracticable,
and the last, which he has adopted, the
most desirable. Regarding the cost of in-
candescent lighting, the conclusion is reached
that it is not more than one seventh of that
of gas for equal light, while the cost of
plant, repairs, etc., will be much less. As to
the future of incandescent lighting, and its
relations to other forms of illumination,
Mr. Sawyer expresses himself as follows :
" The application of electricity to public and
private illumination is a realization of the
near future no longer to be questioned. It
is not probable, however, that electricity
will ever entirely supersede gas ; indeed, it
does not appear that illuminating gas has
materially affected the consumption of illu-
minating oils. There is room, and will doubt-
less continue to be room, for all methods
of artificial lighting, and it is not likely
that, for many years to come, we shall wit-
ness anything more than the extensive use
of electricity public buildings and private
residences, streets, and squares better illu-
minated than at present, and the new form
of light keeping pace with the progress of
older and well-tried institutions."

The Cause or Color among Races and the
Evolution of Physical Beauty. By
William Sharpe, D. D. New edition, re-
vised and enlarged. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. 1881. Pp. 36. Price,
75 cents.

The author's views are partly based on
observations made among the different races
of India. Ho supposes that lighter-colored
peoples are developed from darker colored
ones by a process of evolution which cor-r
responds with the advance of civilization,
and is promoted by the increasing habit of
wearing clothing. The qualities which give
a dark color to the skin are those which
are necessary to preserve it against the in-
clemency of the elements. As clothing be-
comes more general, fuller, and more regu-
larly worn, they become less important for
protection, and are finally nearly obliterated.

LITERARY NOTICES.

125

The Boy Engineers : What they did and
HOW THEY did IT. A Book for Boys.
By Reverend J. Lukin. New York :
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 344. Price,
$1.75.

This useful book is another result of
the author's intelligent interest in the me-
chanical education of boys. He has con-
tributed various volumes to this object,
dealing with the subject in different ways,
but all aiming at a practical familiarity
with mechanical operations, and successful-
ly to combine working and thinking. The
" Boy Engineers " begins with the construc-
tion of a plain and simple workshop which
a couple of boys extemporize, and then it
follows them through a course of self-cult-
ure in mechanics. They first get up a grind-
stone for their purposes and learn to sharp-
en tools. Then they make a lathe and go
on with the preparation of various work-
shop appliances. A wooden clock was next
constructed, and then they proceeded to
make an organ. Carpentry and the problem
of house-construction were next attacked,
and after that they devoted themselves to
all sorts of mechanical contrivances and
operations such as might constitute a fitting
preparation for the thorough study of en-
gineering. The book is well adapted to in-
terest enterprising boys, and is full of ii
formation that will be useful to many grown
men.

American Sanitary Engineering. By Ed-
ward S. Philbrick, C. E. New York :
*' The Sanitary Engineer." 1881. Pp.
129.

In the dozen lectures comprising this vol-
ume Mr. Philbrick has made a very excellent
statement of the main conditions to be ob-
served in sanitary construction, and present-
ed the chief considerations which show the
need and importance of such work. In his
introductory lecture he points out the great
progress that has been made toward a high-
er standard of cleanliness, and the need of
a continuance in the same direction to meet
the conditions of modern life. The first of
bis two lectures upon ventilation he devotes
to a very full statement of the conditions
which affect the purity of the air, the vitia-
tion of it produced by respiration, lights
and fires, the proper amounts of watery
vapor for different temperatures, the influ-

ence of the materials of walls in allowing
an air circulation, and the position of the
rooms with regard to exposure to the ex-
ternal air, the results of the most trust-
worthy experiments being given on these
points. In the second lecture on this
subject the various ways of moving air
are considered ; and in this connection the
different methods of heating are treated,
their several advantages as determined by
experience being indicated. In speaking of
gaslight he points out what has been fre-
quently pointed out before, but has been
very little heeded, that, by the simple device
of placing a duct above a chandelier, air
vitiation by gas can be entirely obviated.
This construction also secures excellent ven-
tilation. The chapters upon drainage and
sewage include a consideration of the dif-
ferent systems of sewage disposal, the
proper construction of sewers, the means of
ventilating them, and brief descriptions of
closets, traps, and the various appliances
connected with the water-carriage system,
which the author regards as the only prac-
ticable system for cities. The subject
throughout is considered with reference to
American climatic conditions.

The Food of Fishes. By S. A. Forbes.
Bulletins of the Illinois State Laboratory
of Natural History, November, 1880.
Pp. 62.

The author assumes that, by reason of
its isolation from the land and from other
water systems, a far more complete and in-
dependent equilibrium of organic life and
activity is found in a single body of water
than in any equal body of land. Hence
each form of life must be studied with ref-
erence to its relation to other forms and to
its whole environment, of which its food
relations are one of the most important
features. A number of definite general cor-
respondences between structure and food
are indicated by the study of certain struc-
tural conditions about the mouth, throat,
and gills of fish, of which it is hoped a full
enough knowledge may be reached to en-
able the character of the food of an un-
known species to be determined by a mere
inspection of the fish itself. The present
paper is a contribution to the study in these
relations of the Acantliopteri.

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Extracts from Chorda l's Letters, Xew
York : " American Machinist " Publish-
ing Co. Tp. y20. rrice, $1.50.

This is a collection of letters contributed
during the past two years to the " American
Machinist," and published under the above
title. They treat of all sorts of topics con-
nected with the >York and management of a
machine-shop in a bright, attractive style,
and are very interesting reading to others
than machinists. To the young mechanic
the book is of especial value for its constant
insistence upon the necessity of good work
if a man would rise, and its scorn of the
careless and shiftless workman. The author
does not stop to moralize, but this thesis is
presented at every turn in the many exam-
ples and illustrations of shop-work given,
and in a way to enable the dullest reader to
see its bearing.

Tide-Tables for the Atlantic Coast of
THE United States for the Year 1881.
The same for the Pacific Coast. "Wash-
ington: Government Printing-Office. Pp.
129 and 65. Price, 25 cents each.

The tables give for every day of the
year the approximate predicted times and
heights of the tides at the principal ports
on either coast, including fifteen ports on
the Atlantic and four ports on the Pacific
coast. For intermediate ports, tables of tidal
constants are appended, from which the
times and heights of the tides may be com-
puted for those places by applying the cor-
rections which are designated to the figures
assigned to the principal ports with which
they are grouped.

Report on the Marine Isopoda of New
England and Adjacent Waters. By
Oscar Harger. (From the Report of
the United States Commissioner of Fish
and Fisheries, IS'ZS.) Paper, pp. 168.

The report includes descriptions of the
species of hopoda which are at present known
to inhabit the coast of New England and
the adjacent regions, as far as New Jersey
on the south and Nova Scotia on the north.
Besides the special labors of the Fish Com-
mission, the collections of Professors Ver-
rill and Smith, of Yale College, and others,
have been used as aids in the study. The
descriptions are full, and nearly all the spe-
cies are figured in more or less of detail.

The family, named from all the legs being
thoracic and generally similar, is represent-
ed on land by the common " sow-bugs,"
" hill-bugs," and wood-lice.

A Syllabus of Anglo-Saxon Literature.
By J. M. Hart. Adapted from Bern-
hard Ten Brink's " Geschichte der eng-
lischen Litteratur." Cincinnati : Robert
Clarke & Co. 1881. Pp. 69.

This work furnishes a history and analy-
sis of Anglo-Saxon literature in its whole
field and in the view of its various relations,
wuth commentaries calling attention to its
leading characteristics, and pointing out the
peculiarities of particular authors and works.

Second Biennial Report of the Superin-
tendent OF Public Instruction of the
State of Colorado. Denver: Tribune
Publishing Company. 1879-1880. Pp.
134.

This pamphlet contains, in addition to
the Superintendent's review of his work for
two years, a synopsis of the public-school
system of Colorado, the reports of the coun-
ty superintendents and of the University of
Colorado, and the addresses delivered at the
annual meeting of the State Teachers' As-
sociation. Of 35,566 children of school-age
in the State, 22,119 were enrolled in the
schools, and the average attendance was
12,618. The expenditure ^:>cr capita of
school population was $11.07, and the ex-
penditure per capita of average attendance
was S31.38. The university was attended
by 121 students. The addresses before the
Teachers' Association include one on " In-
fluence," by the President ; a criticism of
classical education, by Mr. David Boyd ; and
a plea for the higher education of women,
by Mr. F. E. Smith.

Papilio: Devoted to Lepidoptera exclu-
sively. Organ of the New York Ento-
mological Club. New York : Henry
Edwards, 185 East 116th Street. Janu-
ary, February, and March numbers. Pp.
12, each. Price, $2.00 for ten numbers.

This magazine is published monthly, ex-
cept in the two *' summer vacation " months.
In connection with its special subject it will
embrace within the scope of its articles
notes on the transformations and diseases
of the Lepidoptera^ their use and detriment

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

127

to the human race, the parasites which prey
upon them and assist in keeping them in
check, descriptions of new species, etc. The
three numbers contain an article on the
" Importance of Entomological Studies," a
biographical sketch of M. Achille Guenee,
and numerous descriptions of species, with
a chromolith illustration of Edwardsia hril-
lians.

PUBLICATIONS RECER^ED.

How we feed the Baby. By C. E. Page, M. D.
New York: Fowler & Wells. 1881. Pp. 114.
Price, 75 cents.

Unscientific Materialism. By S. H. Wilder.
Reprint from "The International Review/'
New York. 1881. Pp.16.

Annual Address of the President of the Mid-
dletown Scientific Association. By Rev. Fred-
erick Gardiner, D. D. Middlttown, Connecticut.
1881. Pp. 19.

The Endowment of Scientific Research. By
Professor George Davidson, Ph. D. From an
Address before the California Academy of Sci-
ences. Pp. 8.

Our Trees in Winter. By John Robinson.
From the -'Bulletin'" of the Essex (Mas^sachu-
setts) Institute. Pp. 16.

Department of Science and Arts, Ohio Me-
chanics' Institute. Cincinnati. 1881. Pp.12.

"The CoSperator." A Monthly Journal de-
voted to the Promotion of Cooperative Action in
all its Forms. Vol. I, No. 1. New York: A. R.
Foote. 1881. Pp.16. Price, $1 a year.

Essay upon Ensilage. By J. M. Bailey. Pp. 10.

Report of the Director of the Detroit Ob-
servatory of the University 01 Michiiran, from
October 1, 1879, to January 1, 1881. Ann Arbor,
Michigan. 1881. Pp. 20.

Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration. By
Joseph D. Weeks, A. M. Boston : Rand &
Avery. 1881. Pp.73.

Preliminary List of the North American Spe-
cies of Asrotis. By A. R. Grote. Washington.
Ic81. Pp.' 16.

Climatology of Florida. Bv C. J. Kenworthy,
M, D. Savannah, Georgia. 1881. Pp. 70.

Railroads and Tele^aphs : Who shall control
them ? By F. H. Giddmgs. Springfield, Massa-
chusetts. 1881. Pp.12.

President's Inausural Address before the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. By
R. H. Thurston. Pp. 16.

The Gradual Dispersion of Certain MoUusks
in New England. By Edward S. Morse. Pp. 6.

Annual Report on the Surveys of Northern
and Northwestern Lakes, in Charge of C. B.
Comstock. Washington. 1880. Pp. 94.

Quarterly Report of the Chief of the Bureau
of Statistics, Treasury Department, for the Three
Months ended September 30, 1880. Washington :
Government Printing-Office. 1881. Pp. 133.

Annual Report of the Ontario Institution for
the Education of the Blind. Toronto : C. Blackett
Robinson. 1881. Pp. 28.

Simple Apparatus for determining Specific
Heats of Solids and Liquids with Small Quanti-
ties of Material. By J. W. Mallet, F. K. S. From
' The American Chemical Journal." Pp. 14.

Failure of Vaccination. By Carl Spinzig,
M. D. St. Louis. 1881. Pp. 15.

The Rocky Mountain Locust. By Charles V.
Riley, Ph. D. Pp. 50. With Maps.

A New Order of Extinct Jurassic Reptiles.
Discovery of a Fossil Bird in the Jurassic of
Wyoming; and Note on American Pterodactyls.
By O. C. Marsh. Reprint from "The American
Journal of Science," April, 1881.

Annual Report of the Board of Health of the
State of Louisiana for 1880. New Orleans: J. S.
Rivers. 1881. Pp. 3:^4.

Annual Report of the Superintendent of the
Yellowstone National Park for 1880. Washing-
ton : Government Printing-Office. 1881. Pp. 64.

On Quebracho-Bark. By Dr. Adolph Hansen.
Translated from the German. Pp. 13.

Meteorological Researches. By William Fer-
rell. On Cyclones, Tornadoes, and Waterspouts.
Being Part II of Appendix No. 10, of Report of
the Superintendent of the United States Coast
and Geodetic Survey. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Office. 1880. Pp.95. With Plates.

Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences
of hhiladelphia. Vol. viii, second series. Phila-
delphia. 1874-1881. Pp. 118. With Plates.

Practical Plionics. By E. V. De GraflT. A. M.
Pp. 108. Price, 75 cents. Regent Schools of the
State of New York. By C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 24.
Price, 25 cents. Suggestions for teaching Frac-
tions. By W. W. Davis. Pp. 43. Price, 25 cents.
New York Examination Questions. Pp. 111.
Price, 25 cents. Hints on Orthoepy. By C. T.
Pooler, A. M. Pp. 15. Price, 10 cents. Hand-
books for Young Teachers. No. 1, First Steps.
By Henry B. Buckham, A. M. Pp. 152. Price,
75 cents. Syracuse: C. W. Bardeen. 1881.

The Telescope. By Thomas Nolan. B. S.
New York: D. Van Nostraud. 1881. Pp. 75.
Price, 50 cents.

History of the Free-Trade Movement in Eng-
land. By Augustus Mongredieu. New York :
G.P. Putnam's Sous. 1881. Pp.184. Price, 50
cents.

Victor Hugo : His Life and Work. From the
French of Alfred Barbou. By Frances A. Shaw.
Chicago : S. C. Griggs & Co. 1881. Pp. 207.
Price, SI.

Our Native Fenis. By Lucien M. Underwood,
Ph. D. Bloomington, Illinois. 1881. Pp. 116.
Price, $1.

Sir William Hamilton By W. H. S. Monck.
M. A. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1>81.
Pp. 192. Price, $1.25.

The Science of Mind Bv John Bascom.
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1881. Pp.
456. Price, %2.

History of the Christian Religion to the Year
Two Hundred. By Charles B. Waite, A. M.
Second edition. Chicago : C, V. Waite & Co.
1881. Pp. 454. Price, $2.50.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Health and Material Prosperity. The

report of the Board of Health of New Ha-
ven contains, in a letter from Professor
Brewer, President of the Board, to the
Common Council of the city, a convincing
statement of the closeness of the relation
between a good sanitary condition and the
material prosperity and wealth of a city or
community. An individual, to prosper by
his labor, must be reasonably well ; the
sam.e is equally true of a community or
state. In the intense competition of mod-

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ern times, no sickly community can be
prosperous. It may be intelligent, and
moral, and industrious, but it must be
poor. Hence it is a duty, imposed not only
by the claim of the individual on the com-
munity, but also by the vital interest of the
community itself, to protect every person
in it against those diseases and dangers
whose power for evil has grown along
with our civilization. The wonderfully
rapid accumulation of wealth, far surpass-
ing anything ever witnessed in the past,
which is one of the characteristics of mod-
ern times, is not due to improvements in
machinery, to applications of science, to
the spread of education, the decrease of
wars, or the more extended production of
precious metals, though all these have con-
tributed their part, so much as to the better
average health of civilized countries and
the longer average term of life which is
now secured to workiugmen. Even now,
a single pestilence like those with which
Savannah and Memphis have recently been
afflicted, may set the most prosperous city
back many years. New Haven has had but
one visitation of yellow fever, but it took
the city eight or ten years to recover from
the visible effects of it, and a permanent
loss of " what might have been " was suf-
fered at a critical period in the commercial
development of the city, the value of which
can never be ascertained or guessed. The
sanitary work, which is of such importance
in this aspect of civic life, is often over-
looked, because of its unobtrusive charac-
ter ; and it is never more efficient than
when it is least obtrusive. In the ordina-
ry pursuits of business, the clang of ma-
chinery, brilliant scientific applications, the
bustle, etc., " are more conspicuously in the
eyes of the public than the quiet, persist-
ent, unroraantic, but heroic fight with un-
seen but unwholesome influences which lurk
in the air of our towns. These influences,
mostly growing out of our modes of life,
are ever present in all our cities, ever grow-
ing unless checked, always producing dis-
ease, and from time to time especially in-
viting pestilence." Few cities can afford
to allow a pestilence to invade them. " A
single epidemic, but one fourth as bad as
that of Memphis last year, would cost this
city," says Professor Brewer, speaking of

New Haven, "more, and leave us with
higher taxes, than the most expensive sys-
tem of sewers and of garbage collection
that was ever dreamed of here." More-
over, a pestilence is only an intensified
manifestation of disease, and most of its
disastrous effects may be produced by pro-
longed but general ill health ; and it is
perfectly safe to say that no Northern city
can be really prosperous and really sickly
at the same time.

The Mound-Builders. The report of re-
tiring President Pratt, of the Academy of
Sciences of Davenport, Iowa, gives especial
attention to the researches respecting the
mound-builders, in which this association is
much interested. One of the members of the
society, the Rev. Mr. Gass, explored seventy-
five mounds during 1880, about fifteen of
which afforded relics to be deposited in the
museum. According to the evidence of the
mounds in the vicinity of Davenport, copper
was a rare and highly valued article among
the people who built them, so rare as to indi-
cate that they did not work the copper-mines
of Lake Superior or any others, and were not
in communication with any people who did.
The amount of drift copper still found in
the region indicates that a sufficient supply
for all that the mound-builders seem to
have had could be accounted for from that
source. The copper was all hammered ; no
evidence exists of any of it ever having
been smelted or cast. The so-called copper
axes do not seem ever to have been used as
tools, and are supposed to have been kept
as badges of wealth and distinction. The
mound-builders smoked tobacco, but, as is
inferred from the form of the pipes,
ceremonially rather than for enjoyment.
Among the great variety of animal forma
represented on the pipes, two distinctly re-
semble the elephant, mammoth, or masto-
don. Mr. Pratt declares that the Davenport
Academy has evidence the only evidence
discovered so far that the mound-builders
had a written language. It exists in the
shape of two inscribed tablets found in the
mounds and deposited in the museum of the
society, which have attracted considerable
attention in this country and Europe, and
to which, provided their genuineness can be
maintained, much importance is naturally

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

129

attached by arch'ceologists. They were kept
at the Smithsonian Institution for two
months, and were carefully examined there
by members of the National Academy of
Sciences as well as by other persons ; heli-
otype plates were taken of them, and they
were exhibited at the meeting of the Ameri-
can Association at Boston last August. Mr.
Pratt believes that the evidence of their
genuineness is sufficient. The society's col-
lection of mound-relics is regarded as one
of the best in the world.

The Saliva and the Gastric Juice. Re-
cent researches reported by M. Defrcsne
throw new light on the relations of ptya-
linc, diastase, and the gastric juice. It
has been debated whether the saliva is de-
stroyed in the gastric juice or continues in
the stomach its action on starch. M. De-
fresne's experiments prove that the saliva
is paralyzed in pure gastric juice, but that
with a mixed gastric juice containing only
organic acids, saccharification proceeds as
well as in the mouth. Ptyaline, then, differs
from diastase in that it is only paralyzed
for an instant in pure gastric juice, but re-
covers its action in the mixed gastric juice
and in the duodenum, and is capable of
continuing the process of saccharification ;
while diastase is irrecoverably destroyed in
hydrochloric solutions or in pure gastric
juice, and is profoundly altered after pass-
ing into the mixed gastric juice, so that if it
still dissolves starch it no longer saccharifies
it. Ptyaline is recommended as an excel-
lent reagent for demonstrating the differ-
ence between mixed gastric juice, which
owes its acidity to organic acids, and pure
gastric juice, the strength of which is de-
rived from hydrochloric acid.

Cntting and Slave-making Ants. The
Rev. Henry C. McCook has contributed to
the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Phila-
delphia, papers on a Northern cutting ant,
and on the American slave-making ant, both
of which are of much interest. The cut-
ting ant was observed at Island Heights on
Tom's River, New Jersey. Entrance to the
nest was afforded by a narrow tubular gal-
lery about two inches long, which led to a
spherical chamber about an inch and a

VOL. XIX. 9

half in diameter. This chamber, or vesti-
bule, communicated with another chamber,
also generally spherical, but of more irreg-
ular outline, three and a half inches in
diameter, within which were several masses
of leaf-paper similar to that made by the
Texas leaf-cutting ant, but exceedingly fra-
gile and without the cellular arrangement of
the Texas paper. In pleasant weather the
insects worked in two columns, one going
each way to the pine-trees and returning
to the nest and moving very deliberately.
Those in the column returning homeward
were carrying little pieces of the pine-needle
or leaf, cut from seedling plants. They
bore the load on the head, with one end
held firmly by the mandibles, and the ef-
fect at a little distance was "to give them a
shoulder-arms appearance." In cutting the
leaf, the ant climbed out to a position near
the end and applied her mandibles, moving
around as she cut, till the piece was severed
and fell. The architecture of the caves was
a miniature copy of those of the Texas cut-
ing ant. All the colonies were compara-
tively small, and without visible connection
with each other. The slave-making ants
{Polyerguslucidus) were studied near Altoo-
na, Pennsylvania. They occupied a cham-
bered nest which was furnished with four
gates, and extended to the depth of at
least twenty-two inches underground ; but
the chambers were without orderly arrange-
ment, apparently on account of the grav-
elly nature of the soil in which they were
built. Mingled in large numbers with the
lucidus ants were working insects, of the
species Formica Schauffussi. Two days
after the nest was disturbed, the work-
ing ants were observed cleaning out the
galleries, with the apparent intention of
closing the openings. Others were engaged
in a migration, taking up the mistress ants
by interlocking mandibles with them, and
carrying them off up the perpendicular face
of the cutting for eighteen or twenty inches,
and then for the distance of six feet over the
ground and through the grass. *' More than
once a slight opposition was made to this
treatment. The slaves, or at least certain
individuals of them, . . . seemed at times
to have a prejudice against the presence of
lucidus ants above-ground, and would un-
ceremoniously seize them and carry them

130

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

below. I have seen a master, or more prop-
erly * mistress,' thus served several times,
each time returning in a dogged sort of
resistance to the will of her servitor.
These inert mistresses, too, apparently know
something of the bitterness of bondage to
a capricious domestic help ! " In the course
of the migration, one queen was seen to re-
sist carriage so vigorously that she was
finally dropped, and, refusing to give the
slave a hold on the mandibles, was seized
by the wing and dragged off. " The luci-
dtis ants seemed to have no volition in or
direction of this movement. I released a
number from their porters during various
stages of the transit, and they always wan-
dered about with a confused, aimless, and ir-
ritated manner until again seized and borne
off by slaves." Some of the ants were col-
onized in Philadelphia, and observed more
closely. The masters were never seen to
work. "The colony was changed several
times in order to incite to new work in min-
ing galleries and rooms ; clusters of lucidus
were placed by themselves ; they always re-
mained idle. The slaves wrought with the
greatest industry and energy as long as
there was any need: the masters would
crowd into the galleries, and move about in
an aimless way, but I never could trace any
attempt either at directing or aiding in the
work. So, also, I never saw one attempt to
eat. . . . Yet they are in good condition,
and evidently well fed. They are doubtless
fed by the workers, who must disgorge the
food." But Dr. McCook could not see this
going on. The lucidus ants and the workers
both seemed fond of the light, even of the
artificial warmth and light of the gas-light
globe, where they would *' congregate in the
comfortable glow." The association of the
two species in their singular relations has
resulted in developing the warlike faculties
of lucidus at the expense of its disposi-
tion to labor ; but has not operated to de-
generate the soldierly courage and faculty
of Formica Schauffussi^ the working ant,
for the individuals of this species will spring
to repel a hostile attack as freely and fierce-
ly as their masters, and will do it indepen-
dently, too ; and they are quite as able as
ready to wage sucessful warfare. The luci-
dus ant appears to be spread over the whole
continent, except perhaps in the far south.

Improved Electric Motor. A new form
of dynamo-machine has recently been de-
vised by Mr. C. F. Ileinrich, which the " Tel-
egraphic Journal " pronounces an important
advance upon previous constructions. The
main improvement is in the form of the
armature, which the inventor has been led
to adopt by a careful study of the Gramme
ring and the way in which currents are in-
duced in it. He finds that the inner side of
the ring (that farthest from the field mag-
net) produces on the coil a current opposed
to the one induced on the part of the coil
immediately in front of the poles of this
magnet, and to this extent weakens the cur-
rent and causes heat in the coil. When the
field magnet is powerful and the ring thin,
this effect is reduced, but the inductive ac-
tion of the farther side of the ring is not
wholly eliminated. He therefore makes the
ring channeled, or of horseshoe cross-sec-
tion, the coils of wire being wound on the
outside only. This removes the metal from
the inner portion, and at the same time
allows such a free circulation of air around
the wires of the coil where they cross the
base of the horseshoe that heating is effect-
ually prevented. The ring is mounted and
revolved between the poles of the field mag-
net in the same way as on the Gramme ma-
chine.

Geological Featnres of Behring Strait.

Some curious geological features are
noticed in Mr. W. H. Dall's report of his
last summer's work in the coast and geo-
detic survey of Alaska and the vicinity of
Behring Strait. The country is not wholly
without attractions, for when, on the 20th
of August, the surveying-vessel, the Yukon,
anchored behind Cape Lisburne, on the
American shore of the Arctic Ocean, nearly
two hundred miles north of Behring Strait,
the air was balmy, the sun was warm and
bright, no snow or ice was visible, and the
banks were covered with flowers, among
which daisies, monk's hoed, and forget-me-
nots were conspicuous. At Point Belcher,
too, the vegetation was quite dense. Beds
of good coal, belonging to the true Car-
boniferous period, are found at Cape Lis-
burne, from which the revenue cutter Cor-
win was satisfactorily coaled several times.
Large lumps of coal lay on the beach at

POPULAR MISCELLANY,

131

Point Belcher, which had been pushed up
by the ice from the bottom of the sea. The
peculiar geological feature of this region is a
great formation of ice which seems to have
the characteristics of a regularly stratified
rock. At Point Belcher, pure ice is met at
two feet below the surface, and is of un-
known depth. At Elephant Point, Kotzebue
Sound, the clay banks gradually rising along
the beach to the eastward show successively
two perpendicular faces of ice, " solid and
free from mixture of soil, except on the out-
side," one above the other. The ice-face
nearest the beach is covered with a coating
of soil which bears a luxuriant vegetation.
The whole formation, including the talus in
front of the ice, may be about thirty feet
high. Above this is a second talus, on a
larger scale, ascending to the foot of another
ice-face, which is also covered with hcrbage-
bearinir soil. The brow of the second bluff
is about eighty feet above the sea ; from it
the land rises gradually to a rounded ridge
three or four hundred feet high. At the
height of two hundred and fifty feet a
frozen stratum was found containing lumps
of clear ice, that indicated the existence of
solid ice, at no great depth below. Hence
it is inferred that the whole ridge, two miles
wide and two hundred and fifty feet high, is
chiefly composed of solid ice overlaid with
clay and vegetable mold. The ice gener-
ally has a serai-stratified appearance, is only
superficially soiled, is granular in structure
for the outer inch or two, and internally
solid and transparent or slightly tinged with
yellow ; but is never greenish or bluish, like
glacier-ice. Small pinnacles of ice run up
into the clay in places, while in other places
the ice itself is penetrated with deep holes in
which clay and vegetable matter have been
deposited. Holes were seen in the clay-
molds of spurs of ice that had been melted
away, and cylinders of muck and clay were
found on the ice-face, that had once filled
holes'from around which the ice had melted.
A strong, peculiar smell was often noticed,
apparently emanating from dark, pasty spots
in the clay. It was supposed to proceed from
the decomposition of the remains of soft
parts of mammoths and other animals.
Birches and alders seven or eight feet high,
^luxuriant herbage, and plants bearing deli-
cious berries, grew with their roots less than

a foot from perpetual solid ice. Observations
on the water in the strait showed that it is
warmest toward the American side, and be-
comes gradually cooler toward the Asiatic
side ; that the temperatures are nearly uni-
form from top to bottom, precluding the idea
of the existence of a sub-surface current
from the Arctic Ocean which carries cold
water to the south ; and that the northerly
current through the strait and along the
Arctic Ocean is probably chiefly dependent
on the tide for its force and direction, and
upon the warming of shallow waters for its
high temperature.

Qlinnesota Academy of Sciences. The

Minnesota Academy of Sciences was organ-
ized seven years ago, and is now free from
debt, and able to report its library and cab-
inet in creditable condition. Although it
has had to encounter a lack of S}Tnpathy
from part of the community, on account of
an apprehension that its tendency might be
toward infidelity, the retiring President, Dr.
F. L. Hatch, declared at the annual meeting
last Januar}', that in none of the papers
read and published under the sanction of
the Academy had any dogma of any one's
faith been touched, or a derogatory reflec-
tion been cast upon the Christian's sacred
record. Professor N. H. Winchell, the in-
coming President, made an address at the
annual meeting, maintaining the right and
duty of the State to estabUsh and support
institutions for the higher education. He en-
deavored to show that the denominational
colleges and universities had been backward
in responding to the demand for the pro-
vision of more liberal courses of scien-
tific instruction ; and that no general move-
ment was made by them in this direction
till a system of scientific schools had been
established by private enterprise and State
aid, indeperfdently of them, and in the face
of their indifference to the scheme.

Units of Electrical Measurement. The

International Congress of Electricians, to be
held in Paris during the summer, will doubt-
less be called upon to consider the subject
of a uniform standard for electrical measure-
ments. The system of standards at present
most used was adopted by the British Asso-
ciation after eight years of study and experi-

132

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

mcnt by a committee. In it all the units
of measurement arc referred to three funda-
mental units, the centimetre, the gramme,
and the secund, whence it is called the centi-
mctre-gramme-secund system of units (ex-
pressed by the symbol C. G. S.). The units
practically employed multiples or sub-mul-
tiples of the fundamental units are the
ohm^ or unit of resistance (symbol R.), the
volt^ or unit of electro-motive force (sjinbol
E.), and the %vehc7\ or unit of intensity (sym-
bol I.). Their relation to each other is ex-

E
pressed by the equation, I = -, whence, tlie

H

value of two of the elements being known,
that of the other can be determined. The
unit of resistance, or ohm, is determined by
a long and complicated formula, so that it is
easier to get it at once by comparison with
the material standard which is kept at Lon-
don. Graduated resistance-boxes containinjr
electric coils carefully adjusted to the resist-
ance-force they are intended to represent,
are sold by the instrument-makers. Some
idea of what the ohm is may be given by
saying that a wire of pure copper a metre
(or 39^ inches) long and a milimeter in di-
ameter (or about ^5- of an inch) represents a
resistance of one fiftieth of an ohm ; conse-
quently, fifty metres, or one hundred and
fifty and a half feet of such wire, will repre-
sent an ohm. Common copper wire offers
a stronger resistance, so that only thirty or
forty metres of it are required to represent
an ohm. The volt, or unit of electro-motive
force, is not represented by any actual exact
standard, but several constant piles exist,
the force of which has been exactly meas-
ured, which may be referred to. A Daniell
battery, having its copper immersed in a
saturated solution of sulphate of copper,
and its zinc in a saturated solution of sul-
phate of zinc, has a force of 1*079 volt. The
electro-motive force may be measured in
practice by using galvanometers which are
graduated in volts, the exactness of which is
proportioned to the amount of the resistance
they offer. One weber represents the in-
tensitv of a current having a force of a volt
and passing over a circuit which offers an
ohm of resistance. The intensities of cur-
rents in ordinary industrial use are repre-
sented by fractional units of the weber, the
millivicbcr^ or thousandth of a weber, for tel-

egraphic, domestic, and medical currents,
the microweber, or millionth of a weber, for
telephonic currents. Telegraphic currents
vary in intensity from five to twenty milli-
webcrs ; the currents of the Gramme ma-
chines that feed the Serrin regulators, of
from twenty to thirty webers. Some ma-
chines used in electrotyping afford still more
intense currents, often exceeding eighty we-
bers, although their electro-motive force is
very feeble. In France they sometimes
measure by the kilometre of resistance,
meaning by that the resistance which is
offered by a telegraphic wire four millime*
tres or about one sixth of an inch in di-
ameter, and a thousand metres or five fur-
longs long, which is equivalent to about ten
ohms. The unit of Siemens (U. S.), employed
in Germany, represents the elastic resist-
ance of a column of mercury having the
length of a metre and a section of a square
millimetre, and is equivalent to 0"9536 of an
ohm. Several units of intensity founded on
the chemical action of electric currents are
in use such, for example, as may be found-
ed on the quantity of gases disengaged in a
minute by a voltameter placed in a circuit,
or the amount of copper that may be de-
posited in an hour in an electrolytic bath
which is traversed by the current to be
measured. Standard apparatuses have also
been made, so graduated as to furnish on a
simple reading the intensities in webers and
microwebers.

German Anthropology. The German
anthropologists are making a study of
the relative distribution of blondes and
brunettes in aid of their investigation of
the origin and ethnological composition of
the German people. The reports on this
subject, presented by Professor Virchow to
the recent German Anthropological Con-
gress, seemed to indicate the existence of
centers of light-colored populations in
Schleswig-IIolstein, the country of the low-
er Elbe, Hanover, and Pomerania, and of
dark-colored stocks in Bavaria, along the
Rliine, in western Belgium, and in Switzer-
land. No superiority over the other is as-
cribed to either complexion, but the differ-
ence is one of original stocks. The blondes
appear to have come down from the north-
cast of Europe and pressed the native dark

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

133

race upon the mountain-spurs and the upper
valleys. Herr Eckert reported to the Con-
gress concerning the progress he had made
in determining the differences in the skulls
of the sexes. The feminine skull appears
to be marked by a smaller volume, greater
delicacy in the contours of the orbits and
the structure of the jaws, the absence or
inferior importance of the frontal sinus, a
more gradual passage from the forehead to
the root of the nose, and a flattening of the
parietal bone. A discussion took place re-
specting some Arabic silver ornaments and
filigrees of the tenth and eleventh centuries
which have been found in Northern and
Eastern Europe. Virchow has concluded,
from the occurrence of these articles, that
an extensive trade existed in the ninth and
tenth centuries between the regions of the
Volga, the Baltic ports, and the northern
countries, and the coasts of the Black Sea
and the East. These Arabic ornaments are
very abundant in the province of Posen,
in some parts of Russia, and in Gothland,
and Arabic coins are found in Xorway and
Iceland. A paper was presented by Pro-
fessor Ranke, based on the statistics of
recruits for the year, which appeared to
show that a relation exists between the
character of the country and the size of the
men who inhabit it. The higher mountain-
regions appear generally to produce the
larger men. M. Kollmann, of Switzerland,
read a paper showing that prognathism,
which is believed to be an exclusive mark
of inferior races, is of frequent occurrence
among civilized people. The prognathous
jaws which have hitherto been found in
Europe have been considered as abnormal
cases, or as examples of alveolar progna-
thism ; but it is impossible exactly to sepa-
rate alveolar from real prognathism. Some
skulls from the heart of Germany, by what-
ever rules or lines they are measured, show
a greater degree of prognathism than those
of the negroes of Australia ; and the con-
clusion can not be avoided that this feat-
ure is shared to a considerable extent by
civilized people. An interesting communi-
cation was made concerning the skull of
Emmanuel Kant, whose remains had been
exhumed in order to place them in the
tomb built for them by the city of Konigs-
berg. Two skeletons were found together,

but the remains of Kant were identified by
comparing the skull with the cast which was
preserved in the archives of Konigsberg,
with which it was found to correspond ex-
actly. The bones of the nose were turned
toward the right, and the superciliary arch
had a greater development on the same side.
The greatest cranial length was 182 milli-
metres, the height 132 millimetres, and the
breadth 161 millimetres, while the mean
breadth of Prussian skulls is only 144'6
millimetres. The forehead had none of the
majesty attributed to a thinker ; it was not
broad, and was a little retreating. The tem-
ples had a fullness that compensated for
this lack, and the left temple showed a pro-
tuberance in the region of the third frontal
circumvolution, the region in which the fac-
ulty of controlling articulate speech is sup-
posed to reside. The only extraordinary
feature of the face was the height of the
orbits.

Life and IVature in the Campos. Dr. D.

Christison's narrative of his journey to cen-
tral Uruguay, given before the Royal Geo-
graphical Society last fall, is full of curious
illustrations of the primitive character of
the life in a country which, although it has
great capacities for development, is as yet
hardly known abroad. The region to which
the description applies is the estancia of San
Jorge, on the south bank of the Rio Negro,
almost in the center of the republic, which
embraces an area of three hundred and
sixty-four square miles. The journey from
Montevideo was made in a diligencia, an open
omnibus in three compartments, holding
twelve passengers, and drawn by six half-
broken or unbroken horses, which are driven
in a manner peculiar to the Campos. In or-
der to prevent accidents from unperceived
faults in the roads, a cuartiador rides about
twenty yards ahead of the team and conducts
it by means of a rope which at one end is
fastened to the wagon-pole and loosely con-
nected with the bridles of the leaders, and
at the other end is attached to the saddle of
his own horse. The stages are short, but
the stops are very long, for the horses have
to be driven in from the plain, and much
talking has to be done before those which
are needed are lassoed and harnessed to the
wagon. " Sometimes an animal is selected,

134

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

which has never been harnessed or handled
before, and it is only after a long struggle,
requiring the utmost skill and strength of
the mayoral and his assistants, that it is sub-
dued, great roughness being used in lassoing
and throwing it, while it is approached and
handled gently in harnessing." The road,
like all the main routes in Uruguay, is
called the camino real, or royal road, but the
roads are all mere tracks over the Campos,
chosen so as to avoid the steepest hills
and seek the easiest places to ford the
rivers. As a rule, the country can be
crossed by ordinary stage-coaches on the
natural turf in either direction. The land-
scape is tame and monotonous, disposed for
the most part in low, gently sloping downs
or ridges, rising from sixty to two hundred
feet above the valleys, " covered with grass
and generally unbroken by tree, bush, or
rock." The ridges are not furrowed by
ravines, and show no traces of erosion.
Signs of human habitation are rare. In a
few instances the view was relieved by
two or three ombie-trees {Phytolacca dioica),
" large, handsome, shady trees, with soft,
pith-like stems." Near Florida were ob-
served groups of stones, like cairns, "con-
sisting of squarish blocks arranged in an
artificial-looking manner," a similar forma-
tion to which, fifty miles farther west,
called Serra, constitutes a true though min-
iature mountain-range, and has been com-
pared by Dr. Burmeister to the " Teufels-
mauern " and " Felsenmeere " of Germany.
The district of San Jorge, judging from the
rocks of the dividing ridges, rests on a for-
mation of volcanic origin, and is remarkably
well watered by the Rio Negro and its tribu-
taries, the Carpinteria and Chileno, with nu-
merous streams flowing through it. The
mass of the country is covered with grass
but destitute of timber, while the rivers are
fringed with monies, dense belts of trees and
shrubs. The grass is coarse and bunchy,
endures the droughts of ordinary summers,
and is profusely adorned with compositce,
yellow and purple oxalis, white, red, and
scarlet verbenas, many liliaceous plants, and
a fine Oenothera. The only native tree on the
Campos is a thorny tala ( Ccltis tala). The
monies are of comparatively insignificant
area, and are composed chiefly of willows,
coronillos, laurels, the fruit-bearing gua-

yavo, prickly climbers, and brush-wood,
comprising more than twenty species in all.
The larger animals the jaguar, puma, great
ant-bear, and large deer have nearly dis-
appeared, but the smaller animals and the
rodents are well represented. Birds are
numerous and extraordinarily tame. Eagles
would let the traveler throw clods at them
and almost touch them, and the rhea ostrich
would allow a man on foot to approach to
within seventy yards before walking or trot-
ting off. The most important insect is the
leaf-cutting ant, which has been often de-
scribed. It parcels out the Campos among
its communities, the nests of which are
generally about a hundred yards from each
other, with five or six paths radiating from
each till they approach the domains of
their neighbors. Along these paths double
streams of workers are constantly passing
to and from the country, each ant of the
returning stream holding aloft a piece of
grass, a leaf, or a flower. Gardens must
be protected against them by destroying the
nests with boiling water or poisonous solu-
tions a difficult task, which has to be care-
fully done. Another insect plague is the
bicho moro, a blistering beetle, which at-
tacks the potato-fields and eats regularly
forward with almost incredible rapidity.
The return -journey to Montevideo was made
in a bullock-wagon, a solidly built vehicle
with an arched roof of zinc, perched on
high, broad wheels made of pieces of wood
so skillfully wedged together that every
shock made them firmer, and drawn by
means of a shaft which is of one piece
with the body. The three or four yoke of
powerful oxen, which form the team, are
driven by a picador, who rides alongside,
and the whole train, of which a single one
of the wagons is only a member, is under
the command of a mounted carrctero, or
patron. The rate of traveling is estimated
at from twenty to twenty-four miles a day,
but is largely dependent on the weather.

Physiology of Arsenical Poisoning.

MM. H. Caillet de Poncy and C. Livron, of
the Medical School at Marseilles, have found
that, when poisoning by arsenic takes place,
the phosphorus which exists as phosphoric
acid in the brain is replaced by arsenic.
The substitution takes place in the Iccithine,

POPULAR MISCELLANY,

135

a very complex nitrogenized compound,
which thus becomes transformed into an
insoluble albuminoid substance. In acute
poisoning there is no time for the arseni-
a-ted lecithine to be subjected to physiologi-
cal reactions and be eliminated, and the
animal dies under the local influence of the
poison without sensible variation of the nor-
mal phosphorus of the nervous matter. In
slow and chronic poisoning the replacement
takes place slowly; arseniated lecithine is
formed, and acts as ordinary lecithine, pass-
ing gradually into the insoluble albuminoid
state, while the phosphorus is steadily di-
minished, giving place to the arsenic.

The Otto of Roses. The otto of roses
consists of an odoriferous liquid containing
oxygen combined with a solid hydrocarbon
called siearopiene^ which is destitute of per-
fume. The quality of the oil is determined
by the relative proportion of these sub-
stances, and that is dependent chiefly on
conditions of climate. The Bulgarian oils
contain about eighteen per cent., the oils
distilled in France and England as much as
thirty-five and even sixty-eight per cent, of
stearoptene. The difference in the propor-
tions is also shown in the higher tempera-
ture required to melt the oil which contains
a greater relative amount of stearoptene.
The Bulgarian oil melts at from 61" to 64,
French and English oils from 70 to 89^.
Even in Bulgarian oil a notable difference
is observed between that produced on the
hills and that from the lowlands. The most
important source of otto of roses is a small
district in Bulgaria or East Roumelia, stretch-
iag along the southern slopes of the central
Balkans, and approximately included be-
tween the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth de-
grees of east longitude and the forty-second
and forty-third degrees of north latitude.
A suitable soil for the growth of roses is
furnished, with need for but little manuring,
by the decomposition of the syenite, which
is the characteristic rock of the region.
The average summer temperatures of the
district are 86 at noon, and 68 in the
evening. The rose-bushes do best on sandy
slopes having a good exposure to the sun.
The flowers of bushes which grow on in-
clined ground are much richer in oil, and
that of a stronger quality, than those raised

on level land, and are therefore more es-
teemed and dearer. The flowers when fully
expanded are gathered before sunrise, often
with the calyx attached, and should be
treated the same day. In Bulgaria, roses
which have matured slowly in moderately
cold weather furnish the richest yields ; in
England, the contrary appears to be the
case. The flowers are distilled for an hour
and a half, with double their volume of
water, in a copper still from which a pipe
passes through a tub that is kept constantly
cool by inflowing spring-water. After the
distillate has been allowed to stand for a
day or two at a temperature exceeding 59^^
the oil is skimmed off from it. The residual
liquors are used instead of spring-water for
subsequent distillations. The rose-water
which comes over last is extremely fragrant,
and is much prized for medical and culinary
purposes. Pure otto, carefully distilled, is
at first colorless, but speedily becomes yel-
lowish ; has a specific gravity of about 0*87,
boils at 444, and solidifies at from 51 "8 to
60-8, or at higher temperatures in the case
of inferior oils, and is soluble in absolute
alcohol. It is tested by its odor, which can
be judged only after long experience; its
congealing-point (a good oil should congeal
in five minutes at a temperature of 54"5),
and by the crystallization of the stearoptene
with light, feathery, shining plates filling the
whole liquid. It is sometimes adulterated
with spermaceti, which may be detected by
its readiness to solidify, and by other essen-
tial oils, the effect of which is sometimes to
lower the congealing-point. Rose-water and
otto of roses are also produced in India ; in
Persia, where the trade, formerly important*
has nearly disappeared ; in the Mediterra-
nean countries of Africa, and in France.
The otto of the Provence rose has a char-
acteristic perfume, which arises, it is be-
lieved, from the pollen of orange-flowers,
which is brought by bees to the petals of
the roses.

Effects of Petting on Animals. Mr. A.

D. Bartlett, of the Zoological Gardens, Lon-
don, has remarked that while adult carniv-
orous animals lions, tigers, leopards, etc.
can seldom be tamed and then only at the
cost of danger, the young become very tame
and fond of those who feed and caress

136

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

them ; on the other hand, housed vegeta-
ble-feeding animals stags, antelopes, oxen,
sheep, and goats if reared by hand from
birth, become when adult the most danger-
ous animals to be met with ; while, if caught
after they have grown up, they are timid
and fly from man. His experience with all
animals of the latter class has been the
same as with the lamb, whose case he de-
scribes, that was brought up as " one of the
family." As it grew larger and stronger,
it became self-conscious and independent,
having " no fear and less gratitude," and
grew so saucy that it had to be consigned to
a larsje field, where it became a terror to
passers for, " with hop, skip, and ]ump, he
was behind any one in an instant ; with one
good spring, the unfortunate traveler was
on his hands and knees if not on his face "
and was finally sentenced to the butcher.
Such of these animals as have been bred
in captivity (not petted and handled) and
reared by the parent, become exceedingly
wild if an attempt is made to catch them,
pack them up, or move them from one place
to another. The reason for these curious
manifestations appears to be that the tamed
animals, having lost their fear of man and
become familiar with him, when the time
comes for them to manifest their belligerent
propensities, have no respect of persons,
and are ready to attack their former friend
as they would any other real or imaginary
antagonist ; but, when anything new is at-
tempted with them, it is as novel as it would
be in their natural state, and awakens all
their natural wildncss.

Fnnp;! as Insectkidcs. The possibility
of putting a limit to the depredations of nox-
ious insects by cultivating the fungi which
are destructive to them has been several
times suggested. Professor Le Conte recom-
mended the study of the epidemic diseases
of insects, particularly of the fungoid dis-
eases, with this view, in 18*74. Charles II.
Peck, State Botanist of New York, advanced
a similar idea with reference to the fungi
which infest plants, in ISVG, and in 1878
described a large destruction of scventeen-
year-locusts and of the larvae of insects feed-
ing upon the aldor by fungi. Dr. H. A. Ha-
gen, of Harvard University, in 1879, thinking
he had established the identity of the fungus

which destroys the house-fly with the yeast-
fungus, recommended the use of the latter
against noxious insects in general. Pro-
fessor A. N. Prentiss, of the Botanical Lab-
oratory, instituted a series of experiments
during the spring of 1880 with the plants
in the laboratory, upon the effects of the
yeast-fungus upon the aphides and other
insects preying upon them. The record
of his experiments is given in the form of
a journal in contributions to " The Ameri-
can Naturalist." The result of nine experi-
ments as a whole, as also of many others
not recorded, indicates that yeast can not
be regarded as a reliable remedy against
such insects as commonly affect plants cul-
tivated in greenhouses and dwellings. The
attempt to use it is liable to the further
objection, that it will be very likely to in-
jure many kinds of plants quite as badly as
it will the insects. The experiments of Mr.
Trelease, of Selma, Alabama, with the yeast
upon the cotton-worm, led him to a similar
conclusion with reference to its application
to that insect. On the other hand, accord-
ing to Dr. Hagen, Mr. J. H. Burns, of Shel-
ter Island, New York, has had some success
with yeast against the Colorado potato bee-
tle, and it has been used upon the aphides
in a greenhouse in Germany Avith great suc-
cess. Professor Prentiss does not consider
the question at issue decided by his experi-
ments, for the yeast-fungus may be opera-
tive on other insects and under other condi-
tions than those with which he performed
his experiments, and there may be other
forms of fungus which, applied with discrimi-
nation, would be effective.

Examination of Germs in tlie Air. Dr.

Ferdinand Cohn and Dr. Miflet, of Breslau,
have been investigating experimentally as
to the possibility of detecting the organisms
which are regarded as the germs of infec-
tion and fermentation in the air in which
they are supposed to float. Their experi-
ments were carried on from the middle of
March to the end of July, 1878, in the air
of laboratories, operating-rooms, and the
sick-rooms of hospitals ; in the free air of
the botanical gardens, and the air gathered
at the surface of the soil of the garden ; and
in the sewer-air of a court. They found
1. That numerous germs exist in the air in

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

137

a suitable condition to undergo develop-
ment ; 2. That these germs could be col-
lected by the methods they employed, could
be made to develop and multiply, and could
be systematically distinguished and de-
scribed ; 3. That the presence of some of
the germs which are commonly developed in
fermenting substances was not detected in
the air ; 4. That the presence of germs of
particular kinds was detected in air taken
from the surface of the soil; 5. That the
air of the sick-chamber of a typhus-hospital
appeared to be singularly free from germs
capable of development, a result which was
attributed to effective ventilation and dis-
infection ; 6, That the air rising from the
sewer was rich in living germs ; 7. That the
number of observations and experiments in
this their first systematic investigation is
not yet sufficient to enable them to deter-
mine whether the difference in the number
of germs collected from the air in different
places may be taken as indicating a differ-
ence in the healthiness of the several locali-
ties so far, they seem to give a negative
result.

Forestry in India. An address by Sir
William Temple, before the Society of Arts,
on *' Forest Conservancy in India," calls at-
tention to the vast destruction of forests
which that country has suffered in common
with other populous lands. Traditions show
that the country was once covered with syl-
van and other vegetation, but this dress has
been removed, as the demands of man upon
the surface have increased, and the most
important forest-growths are now found on
the mountain-ranges. The trees of India
may be divided into two classes ; those of
the Himalayas, and those of the other
mountain-ranges and the plains. The trees
of both classes are magnificent specimens
of growth. The Himalayan trees are allied
with those of Europe and other temperate
regions, and embrace, among the Coniferce,
the cedar, the Pinus longifolia, most valu-
able timber-trees ; the cypress, the fir, the
yew, and the juniper, the latter the only valu-
able tree that grows near Quettah. Of the
other orders are the ilex, oak, and walnut,
of Simla,the plane-tree of Cashmere, the ma-
ple, magnolia, laurel here a great tree
the rhododendron, and the tree-fern, most

graceful of plants. The other mountains
produce the teak, the iron-hearted sal, the
anjun, with its white, bright, and smooth
trunk like a great marble pillar ; the saj,
which often grows close by the anjun, and,
having a black and rough trunk, offers an
effective contrast with it ; the black-barked
bije sal ; and the white-barked, weird-look-
ing frankincense-tree. The plains furnish
the babul, or acacia, the one tree which is
universal in India ; the mango, the figs,
among which are the banyan ; and the
India-rubber tree, bamboos, and palms in
their varieties. The demands of the popu-
lation for wood are immense, with thirty-
seven million houses in British India, and
one fifth as many in the native states, to be
supplied, and all the implements of a people
with whom iron is in comparatively little
use. On account of the scarcity of wood,

' the people are obliged to burn manure for
fuel, and thus to rob the soil of what should

I be returned to it, adding another to the
agencies which are steadily impoverishing
it. The absence of woods can not affect the
total rainfall of the country, for the vapors
that rise from the sea must be condensed
somewhere, but it seriously affects its dispo-
sition. The clouds pass over the hot, dry
plains, and precipitate their moisture upon
the mountains, where they cause swift tor-
rents to rush down into the lower country
and create destruction there. The capacity
of the soil to retain moisture is destroyed,
and the water which would be stored in the
natural forest through the dry season is lost
in a sudden drought. A Forest Department
has been created by the Government within
the last tvvonty years, and gives special at-
tention to the preservation of the remaining
forests, of which the whole extent is about
seventy thousand square miles. These for-
ests are divided into the " reserves," or for-
ests which are carefully guarded, embracing
about twenty-five thousand acres, and the
" protected " forests, which are imperfectly
guarded and preserved. The forests of both
classes have been decided to be the prop-
erty of the Government. The reserves are
placed directly under the care of the Forest
Department. The protected forests are
managed by the ordinary civil officers, un-
der the supervision of the Forest Depart-
ment. The management is directed to the

138

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

regulation of the cutting of timber, to the
control of the practice called " rab," or of
cutting the new shoots and twigs of trees
to be burned for manure, to the prevention
of jungle-tires, and to the regulation of
pasturage by establishing blocks, or areas
of forest range, to which grazing may be
confined, while other blocks are held in re-
serve to be entered upon after the grass of
the former blocks has been consumed. The
restrictions are imposed only in those forests
which have belonged from time immemorial
to the Government, as well under native
dynasties as under British rule ; and, where
subordinate rights exist, they are recognized
and defined. Areas of jungle, of equal
probably of more than equal extent with
the forests, and ample for the general local
use of the natives, have been everywhere
marked off as belonging to the people, and
are accessible to them without restriction.
The " reserved " and " protected " forests
furnish first and second class timber and
excellent fuel. The management of the
Forest Department has so far been attended
with a considerable profit to the revenue of
the state.

A New Disinfectant. When warm air
is forced through a hot mixture of turpen-
tine and water, a disinfecting substance
known in commerce as sanitas is produced.
It is an aqueous solution, characterized by
the presence of peroxide of hydrogen and
certain camphoraceous substances. With it
is found another substance, called sanitas-
oil, also containing peroxide of hydrogen,
which possesses a high power of oxidation.
According to the account given of it by
Mr. C. T. Kingzett, the oil promises to be-
come very valuable for sanitary purposes.
As it has been found an efficient agent for
the decomi)osition of so stable a substance
as iodide of potassium, it can hardly be
doubted that it will also effect the oxida-
tion of any animal or vegetable substances,
particularly those which are in course of
putrefactive decomposition. It has also the
property of being capable, after having
once performed its measure of oxidation, of
forming a new amount of active peroxide
of hydrogen, which may be made available
for further work. Several experiments,
made by Mr. Kingzett, prove that this oil

is a powerful antiseptic. Beef put in wa-
ter containing it was kept sweet during pe-
riods of twenty-five and forty days ; flour
paste from thirty to fifty days ; the white
of eggs for fifty days ; wine for one hun-
dred days. The oil is not destined to su-
persede the sanitas, for it is too powerful
in its action to serve the purpose to which
the aqueous solution is applied, and is not
adapted to meet the same ends, but be
a valuable supplement to it. It may be
added to glycerine, oils, or ointments, when
they are applied to the body in cases of
infectious disease. It may be evaporated
for the fumigation of rooms which have
been occupied by persons suffering from
communicable diseases. Plane surfaces, as
floorings and walls, may be disinfected by
wiping them with a cloth or brush which
has been dipped in the oil ; and only a
small quantity of oil is necessary for this
purpose, for it spreads freely. It is slowly
volatile, and may be used as an aerial disin-
fectant. The emulsion in water may be
applied in a great many places; and sprin-
kled over sawdust it may be employed as
an effective deodorant.

The Color-Sense among Uneivilized Peoples.

Dr. Hugo Magnus, of Breslau, has just
published a work containing the results of
inquiries which he has made into the power
of uncivilized people to distinguish colors.
He sought to ascertain from direct evidence
the extent to which the color-sense already
exists among savages, and how great is its
capacity for development, and to collect the
terms by which they express their distinc-
tions of color. He prepared a set of ques-
tions relating to the most marked colors,
such as black, gray, white, red, orange, yel-
low, green, violet, and brown, omitting those
shades to distinguish which some degree of
education is obviously necessary, and sent
them to physicians, missionaries, merchants,
and other persons in different parts of the
world having intercourse with native races,
who seemed able to afford information on
the subject. As a whole, he has found that
the color-sense of the ruder nations is cir-
cumscribed by limits differing but little
from those which bound the same sense
among civilized people. In no race did he
find an entire absence of the faculty of

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

139

distinguishing between the principal colors.
Taliing red, yellow, green, and blue, as the
chief representatives of the colors of the
longer and shorter wave-lengths, there was
not one among the tribes coming within the
range of the inquiry which did not show
some knowledge of these four colors. This
knowledge must be considered as only rela-
tive, and not as existing in the same degree
among all tribes. Savages exhibit impor-
tant differences in the degree to which their
sense of color is capable of cultivation.
Some show considerable skill in distinguish-
ing between different mixed and transitional
colors, others are less keen to perceive tran-
sitional colors, while there are some who are
slow in marking the most distinct principal
colors without being wholly incapable of it.
This dullness is shown chiefly in reference
to the colors of the shorter wave-lengths,
as green, and more especially blue. There
are tribes which have surprisingly little
knowledge of these colors ; among them are
some of the aboriginal tribes of southern
India, whose color-sense is developed only
to the perception of red, while their knowl-
edge of yellow and green and blue is most
limited and rudimentary. The inhabitants
of the island of Nias have one name for
blue, violet, black, and green, another for
yellow and orange. Numerous observations
are cited to prove that the capacity to dis-
criminate between the colors of the lon^-er
wave-lengths is sharper than that relative
to those of shorter wave-lengths. An Ene;-
lish consul in the Loyalty Islands informs
Dr. Magnus that the inhabitants of that
group understand the differences between
colors very well, but confound them in nam-
ing them. The negro tribes of Sierra Leone,
distinguish between the several colors, and
have words to indicate them. Gray and
orange are least regarded, and are spoken
of as white and red. Blue and green are
frequently confounded, but are seldom men-
tioned as identical. The pastoral Ovahere-
ros, or Damaras, of South Africa, are keen
in their appreciation of the shades of color
that are marked on their cattle, and have
names for all of them, twenty-six terms in
all, but have no names for the colors that
are not cattle-colors, although they know
them apart quite clearly, and will use for-
eign words in speaking of them if it is

necessary. Sometimes, for lack of a better
word, they will use their own word for yel-
low, for blue, or green, but with a clear
sense that they are applying it inaccurately.
Most of the Damaras have come into some
contact with civilization, but no important
difference in the capacity to distinguish
colors can be found between the civilized
and the uncivilized members of the race.
The uncivilized, however, although they
know them well enough, can not give names
to blue and green, and think it strange that
these colors should need names. A tribe
on the Gold Coast are well acquainted with
the difference between red, yellow, green,
and blue, but are wholly destitute of terms
for the colors of the medium and shorter
wave-lengths, and seem to have names only
for white, black, and red. Virchow found
similar conditions to exist among the Nu-
bians, who were lately in Berlin, and a simi-
lar indifference to the colors of the middle
and shorter wave-lengths to prevail among
them. Most of them were accurate in per-
ceiving and naming the four higher colors
of the scale, and black, white, gray, and
red, but recognized the other colors with
some difficulty. Professor Delitzsch has re-
marked that the people of the ancient Se-
mitic races had little appreciation of blue.
This dullness in distinguishing the colors of
the shorter wave-length contrasts striking-
ly with the sharpness which people of all
races display in distinguishing and marking
red.

Slaughter of Food-Animals among the
Jews. According to the analysis of Dr.
Rabbinonicz, of Paris, the Jewish Talmud-
ic rules concerning the slaughter of food-
animals were framed with the special ob-
ject of providing for the infliction of the
least possible suffering upon the animal,
and of procuring the meat in the most
wholesome condition for food. They pro-
hibit the stunning of the animal by a blow
on the forehead, because it is far from cer-
tain that the blow immediately annuls pain,
and it is certain that it does not annul it if
inflicted by an awkward hand. The rules
require that the act of killing shall be per-
formed by the sweep of a long, sharp in-
strument, which shall at once sever, more
or less completely, the trachea and oesoph-

140

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

agus. They do not require the arteries to
be cut, for the nature of those vessels was
not known when the rules were made, but
the arteries and the important nerves around
their sheath are cut in practice, and the ani-
mal speedily faints into insensibility, and
dies of haemorrhage. The important points
of the code arc, that the steps in slaughter
shall be continuous, because any interrup-
tion, however minute, in the process, is like-
ly to prolong the sufferings of the animal
and make it unfit for food ; that the cut
shall be made by a to-and-f ro stroke, with-
out any pressure beyond what is required to
carry the knife down to the necessary depth ;
that the incision in the skin shall accurately
coincide in length with the deeper portion,
so as to leave no " tail " to the wound ; that
the wound shall not be made so high as to
risk contact of the knife with the bony
structures above the cartilaginous rings of
the trachea, for this would be likely to cause
preventable suffering to the animal, and com-
pel the rejection of its flesh as food ; and
that no tissue should be torn or jagged. The
candidate for a license to slaughter has to
go through a long course of preparation,
of which a kind of rough anatomy forms a
part, and afterward to prove his compe-
tency to the satisfaction of the appointed
authorities. The heart is also carefully ex-
amined, to ascertain whether it is fit for
food. The rules on this subject, although
made before anything was accurately known
of pathology, contribute, as a Avhole, to the
selection of that which is good and to the
rejection of that which is bad. The use
of the blood is forbidden, and it is in
the blood that science to-day tells us the
germs and the matters that are detrimental
are most likely to be found and to be most
active. The lung is the organ most dili-
gently searched and severely tested ; and it
is the lung which is most liable to disease,
and in which, when disease is present, it is
most obvious. Fewer directions are given
concerning search for morbid conditions in
the other organs, "for, as it was known
that animals were but rarely perfectly
sound in their entire system, a more rigid
search would have been nearly tantamount
to depriving the people altogether of animal
food. But, although a search for other
diseased organs is not enjoined, any morbid

condition observed by the practiced eye of
the slaughterer insures the rejection of the
animal as food."

The Origin and Progress of Piscicult-
nre. M. Ph. Gauckler, in a recent work
on fresh-water fishes, has reviewed the his-
tory of pisciculture from the earliest times
to the present. In modern times, Dom
Pinchon, a monk of the Abbey of Reome,
in the fourteenth century, hatched fish in
boxes through which a current of water
w^as kept slowly flowing. The Chinese
practice of placing limbs of trees or herbs
in the spawning-places to collect the eggs
has been in vogue from time immemo-
rial in Europe, chiefly in the ponds of Bo-
hemia. A Swedish magistrate named Lund,
of Linkoping, adopted it successfully in
1761, after having casually remarked that
eggs which clung to juniper-branches did
better than those which fell to the ground.
In 1834 Mauro Rusconi, an Italian, success-
fully propagated the tench, the bleak, and
the perch, in the lake of Como ; and MM.
Acrassiz and Vogt beccan at about the same
time their embi'yological experiments on the
Sahnonidce, with the view of multiplying
one of the species in the lake of Neufchatel.
Mr. John Shaw, of Drumlanrig, adopted ar-
tificial culture to increase the product of
the salmon-fisheries of the river Nith, in
Scotland. His example was followed by
Lord Gray, on the Tay, in 1838, and by
others in 1841. Joseph Remy, of La Bresse,
in the Vosges, made his first experiments
in artificial reproduction, having, by his
own investigations, discovered a process of
which Jacobi had given an account, but
which had not attained publicity eighty
years before. M. Coste, of the College of
France, perceived the importance of this
discovery and adopted it in 1850, while he
secured a suitable reward to Remy. The
attention of several persons in France was
directed to pisciculture by the enthusias-
tic publications of M. Coste, and the experi-
ments of M. de Quatrefages and other mem-
bers of the Society of Acclimation. They
were encouraged by the gratuitous distribu-
tion of eggs and fry, which were liberally
furnished to French and foreign customers
from the establishment of Huningue. Dur-
ing the later vears of the French adminis-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

141

tration, the quantity distributed amounted
to twenty millions a year for species of tlie
salmon family only. The business of prop-
agation has been extensively carried on in
England as a commercial speculation. Since
1854 the Messrs. Ashworth have put 260,-
000 salmon in Lough Corrib, Connaught,
Ireland. A special establishment has been
erected at Perth, and Cooper's fish-ladders
have been put in all the rivers frequented
by salmon. Important establishments for
the artificial propagation of salmon have
been created in Holland. The basins of
the Zoological Garden of Ghent and of the
Horticultural Society of Brussels have been
adopted for purposes of hatching. Several
lakes in Switzerland have been largely re-
stocked by artificial means. The most prac-
tical results, according to M. Gauckler, in the
perfection of processes, have been gained
in America, and acknowledgment is freely
made of the value of the labors of Baird,
Livingston, Stone, Ainsworth, Seth Green,
Collins, Mather, and others, in bringing
down the science from the domain of spec-
ulation to that of palpable facts and remu-
nerative results.

Sanitary Protection Associations. San-
itary protection associations have recently
been formed in Edinburgh and London, the
objects of which, as stated in the prospectus
of the London Association, are : 1. To pro-
vide their members, at moderate cost, with
such advice and supervision as shall insure
the proper sanitary condition of their own
dwellings ; and, 2. To enable members to
procure practical advice, on moderate terms,
as to the best mode of remedying defects in
houses of the poorer class in which they are
interested. The associations are not in-
tended as a substitute for a municipal in-
spection, or to conflict with the public au-
thorities, but to supplement their action.
The idea of the associations originated, ac-
cording to the statement of Professor Fleem-
ing Jenkin, the founder of the one at Edin-
burgh, in a paper read by him before the
Society of Arts, in his endeavoring to ex-
plain in a lecture the principles of sanitation,
so that they could be applied practically by
householders. He found that he could not
do it, but that, after all his efforts to make
the matter clear with general demonstrations

and diagrams, professional advice had to be
sought by each householder for his own
particular case. What advice could the
public obtain? The plumber and builder
were interested parties, and not always com-
petent ; engineers held their services at too
high a rate to be readily accessible to the
majority ; public ofiicers could not be called
upon unless there was probably some actual
serious defect to be remedied. The thought
occurred that an association of householders
might be formed, to employ an engineer, at
a fixed salary, who should make an inspec-
tion, draw plans, and propose improvements,
for each subscriber, at an expense to the
latter only of his annual subscription. The
subscription to the Edinburgh Association
was fixed at one guinea a year. The sum
has been found enough to answer the in-
tended purpose, and the work has been
conducted with entire satisfaction and suc-
cess in that city for three years. The Lon-
don Association requires an entrance-fee
of two guineas for houses of less than four
hundred pounds rental, and subsequent an-
nual fees of one guinea. A person joining
either association and paying the entrance-
fee obtains all the privileges of member-
ship for a year without committing himself
to any further payments. He has a right
to a thorough professional inspection of all
the water and drainage apparatus in his
house, including every pipe, tap, cistern, and
sanitary convenience, for efficiency, leak-
age, smells, and ventilation, and the main
drain between the house and the town sew-
er, the opening of which, however, is at his
expense. As soon after the inspection as
may be, he may receive a detailed report,
describing the condition of his house,
accompanied by a sketch diagram showing
every pipe and trap, in connection with
which recommendations for improvements
are made when necessary, with rough esti-
mates of the probable cost if they are de-
sired. The wishes of the occupier are taken
into account, the more important are dis-
tinguished from the less important alter-
ations, and the suggestions are specific
enough to enable the occupier to consult
intelligently with his plumber or builder on
the subject. The society has no interest in
recommending any expenditure, and the oc-
cupier has his option whether he will incur

142

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

any or not. If he concludes to have the
work done, he may have it inspected, when
it is completed, or nearly so, and obtain a
Certificate as to the sanitary condition of
his premises. The second year's inspection
is a simpler matter than the first year's, for
it is guided by the results of the previous
inspection, and has to be only comparative.
With respect to the efficiency of this sys-
tem. Professor Jenkin says that it has been
shown that the required services can be ren-
dered in a thorough and efficient manner by
one resident engineer, for four hundred and
fifty or even five hundred houses in one year.
Twelve hundred houses have been put in
order in Edinburgh, and there has not been
during three years one case of complaint
that the houses were not thoroughly exam-
ined, or that the reports were not sufficiently
detailed ; but, at the annual meetings of the
society, member after member has arisen to
express his satisfaction at the work.

Dust, the Nnelcns of Fog. According
to the researches of Mr. John Aitken, as
described in a paper read by him before the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, the formation
of fogs and clouds is dependent on the
presence of dust in the atmosphere. His
view was illustrated by an experiment in
which steam was mixed with air in two
large glass receivers, one of which was filled
with common air, the other with air that
had been filtered. Clouds appeared in the
former vessel, while the air in the other one
remained perfectly transparent. Similar
results attended an experiment with the
air-pump, in the receiver of which a little
water was placed to saturate the air. On
removing a part of the pressure, a fogginess
appeared, or nothing was visible, according
as the air in the receiver was unfiltered or
filtered. From these and other similar ex-
periments, Mr. Aitken has concluded that,
whenever water-vapor condenses in the at-
mosphere, it always does so on some solid
nucleus ; that dust-particles in the air form
such nuclei ; that if there were no dust,
there would be no fogs, no clouds, no
mists, and probably no rain ; that the super-
saturated air would convert every object on
the surface of the earth into a condenser
on which it would deposit ; and that our
breaths, when they became visible on a cold

morning, and every puff of steam as it es-
capes into the air, show the impure and
dusty condition of the atmosphere. Ex-
periments with other vapors than that of
water showed that their condensation is
governed by a similar rule. The condensa-
tion is not produced by any particles which
we can see, or even by those which are re-
vealed by the sunbeam, for these may be
driven off by heat and the fogs still be vis-
ible, but by vastly more numerous, infini-
tesimally small, and invisible particles which
heat will not drive away. These particles
may be furnished by the spray from the
ocean, by meteoric matter, by the operation
of almost every force. The products of
all kinds of combustion give rise to them.
The use of purer forms of coal, or even of
gas, does not avoid them, nor even appear
to diminish their number. Common salt is
one of the most active fog-producers, but
the products of burned sulphur exceeded
in this respect all the other substances ex-
perimented upon. The density of the fog
depends on the amount of fine dust in the
air. If only a few particles are present, only
a few fog-drops form, and they are heavy
and fall like rain ; if there are many, the
more dust the finer are the fog-particles,
and the longer they remain suspended in the
air. Though the use of more perfect forms
of combustion is not likely to prevent the
generation of fogs, it will, by preventing
the accumulation of smoke which now comes
down into fogs and mixes with them, re-
move the cause which makes them so dark
and extremely annoying.

Electric Lights for the French Coasts.

M. E. Allard, Director of the Central
Lighthouse Service, has submitted to the
French Minister of Public Works propo-
sitions for lighting the coasts of France
with the electric light. He would begin by
substituting the electric light for the pres-
ent oil-lights in forty-two of the principal
lighthouses, and adding sound-signals in
twenty of them. The mean range of visi-
bility of the present oil-lights is twenty-
two miles on the ocean-coast and twenty-
seven miles on the Mediterranean coast.
Within these radii they can be depended
upon as signals dnring one half of the
year ; during the other half of the year

NOTES,

143

they are liable to be interfered with by
unfavorable atmospheric conditions, so as
to greatly reduce their radii of visibility.
With electric lights having the powers that
M. Allard proposes to apply, the period
during which ,the penetrative power may
be deficient will be reduced to sixty days,
or one sixth of the year on the ocean, and to
twenty-four nights, or one fifth, on the Med-
iterranean coast. The cost of the proposed
changes is estimated at seven million francs,
or eight million francs if sound-signals are
also provided. It is believed that the cost
of keeping up the light after the change is
made will be several times less than that of
maintaining the oil-lamps.

NOTES.

A THERMOMETRic burcau has been es-
tablished, in connection with the Winches-
ter Observatory of Yale College, for the
more accurate graduation and verification
of thermometers. The thermometers in com-
mon use are, as a rule, not graduated with
any approach to scientific accuracy, and
the best of them, however exact they may
be when new, increase their readings rapid-
ly within a few months, so as to become
as much as 2" in error in the course of a
year. This is a matter of particular impor-
tance with clinical thermometers, of which
several thousand are bought every year ;
and to instruments of this class special at-
tention is paid.

The late Mr. Frank Buckland has be-
queathed his valuable museum of " Econom-
ic Fish Culture " to the British nation, with
the sum of 5,000 to go to the nation on the
death of Mrs. Buckland, to be applied to
the foundation of a professorship of eco-
nomic pisciculture in connection with the
Buckland Museum and the Science and Art
Department at South Kensington.

A SUGGESTION to employ artificial lights
for the capture and destruction of noxious
insects has found considerable favor. A
medal was awarded at the last exhibition of
agriculture and insectology in Paris for a
lamp especially adapted for catching insects.
The electric litrht has been found to be a
very effective insect-trap, and its eventual
coming into use for this purpose in bug-
infected gardens and orchards may be re-
garded as among the things that are pos-
sible.

Arteriography is the name which Dr.
Comte, a French army-surgeon, has given
to a novel application of tattooing as a help

in the saving of lives. Believing that a
large proportion of deaths by bleeding
from wounds received in battle might be
avoided if the men knew just where to apply
compression to the arteries till the surgeon
should come. Dr. Comte has marked the
most suitable points for the application by
tattooed designs on the skins of the men of
his regiment.

Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Philadelphia, has
observed that the Yucca gloriosa has the
property of collecting moisture on the outer
surface of its flowers to such an extent
that drops will fall to the ground. In the
plant in which this peculiarity was first
noticed, the whole outside of the flowers
was covered with moisture ; it accumulated
in drops at the tip of each leaf of the peri-
anth, and the under leaves showed by their
appearance that a dropping of water had
been going on for some time. Mr. Meehan
could not decide whether the liquid was an
exudation from the leaves, or had been con-
densed from the atmosphere through some
special property of the plant, like that
which is attributed to the rain-tree [Fithece-
lobium saman) of Peru.

Carl Weyprecht, one of the command-
ers of the Austro-Hungarian Polar Expedi-
tion in the Tegetthoff, which discovered
Franz-Josef Land in 1874, died in Vienna,
March 29th.

MM. F. FouQUE and A. Michel Levy have
produced an artificial basalt identical in all
respects with the natural basalts, and par-
ticularly so with that of the plateaux of Au-
vergne. The experiment is regarded as es-
tablishing the igneous origin of the basalts.

M. Lefranc has called attention in the
"Journal dePharmacie" to woolen mat-
tres:^es as a possibly fertile tndiis for dis-
ease. In a large city such mattresses may
represent millions of fleeces that have been
only partly cleared of grease, and have,
moreover, been affected by long use through
successive generations. They are rarely effi-
ciently purified, and might become an active
medium for the propagation of infection.

Sabino Berthelot, an eminent natural-
ist, died at Santa Cruz de Teneriffe in No-
vember last, in the eighty-seventh year of
his atre. He had made the Canarv Islands
his home for sixty years, and had done
much to increase the knowledge of their nat-
ural history. His principal work was the
preparation, in conjunction with Mr. Philip
Barker Webb, of a series of six quarto il-
lustrated volumes on that subject ("Nai-
tural History of the Canary Islands " ),
which was published in 1828. He was con-
sul of France, and a member of the princi-
pal scientific societies of the Canaries and of
Europe.

144

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Mr. Potts, of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of riiiladeljjhia, observes that the
order Spovr/nhe has many more representa-
tives in our fresh waters than has generally
been supposed. He recently described to
the Academy three species of Spongilla
which he found in a small stream near
Philadelphia. Since then he has found the
Spomi'iUa fragilis of Lcidy plentifully in the
Schuylkill below the dam, and a lacustrine
form above the dam, and has obtained
a very slender green species which appears
creeping along stems of Sphagnum^ etc., in
a swamp near Absecum, New Jersey; a
beautiful species from the Adirondack
lakes ; another lacustrine form from the lake
near the Catskill Jlountain House ; and four
species from an old cellar at Lehigh Gap,
Pennsylvania.

Mr. Edward Pi. Alston, a British work-
ing naturalist of growing reputation, died
in London, March 7th. He contributed ar-
ticles to " The Zoologist " and other jour-
nals, chiefly on mammals and birds, pub-
lished an account of a journey to Archangel
and of the birds he observed there, was en-
gaged in the compilation of the part of the
" Zoloogical Record " relating to mammals,
and of the new edition (18'74) of Bell's
" British Mammals," published a revision
of the genera of the Rodentio. (ISYG), and
" Slemoirs on the Mammals of Asia Minor "
(IS'?'? and 1880), and prepared the "Mam-
mals " of Salvin and Godman's " Biologia
Centrali-Americana " (1879 and 1880).

Honor to American Science. Professor,
John W. Draper has been elected one of the
twelve honorary members of the Physical
Society of London, under the presidency of
Sir William Thomson.

Professor S. Calvin, of the University
of Iowa, not R. S. Calvin, as it was errone-
ously printed, is the author of the article
entitled "A Piece of Coal," published in the
March number of the " Monthly."

Dr. James Leavis, a well-known Ameri-
can conchologist, died at his home in Mo-
hawk, New York, February 23d.

" Land and Water " has a curious ac-
count of a rat which, feeding upon the oys-
ters in an oyster-cellar in London, was
caught by one of the mollusks and held fast
by the tail. It adds: " We have seen sev-
eral instances of mice being caught by oys-
ters. In the collection of the late Frank
Buckland were several specimens, but in all
these instances the mice were caut/ht by
their heads. In one case, two mice had
fallen victims to an oyster."

Mr. John B. IIansler has made a study
of the source of the drift-ice which ac-
cumulates in the harbor of New York dur-
incc the severe weather of winter, and has

traced the principal part of it to the Tap-
pan Zee and Haverstraw Bay. In order to
prevent future obstruction of the harbor,
he proposes to confine the ice to the waters
in which it is formed, by stretching cable-
netting across the river at the narrows
below the Tappan Zee. The cost of the
structures needed to effect the object would
be, he believes, less than the amount of
damage now frequently suffered from ice in
a single season. The presumption that his
plan would be sufficient is strengthened by
the fact that the bridge of the Central Rail-
road of New Jersey over Newark Bay has
wholly stopped the drifting of ice from that
water through the Kill van Kull.

M. DE MoLON has obtained from the peats
of Brittany, by means of suitable reagents,
benzine, paraffine, fatty oils, phenols, resin-
ous matters, acetic acid, and seventeen or
eighteen per cent, of a waxy substance anal-
ogous to the resins, which in distillation fur-
nishes enough paraffine to make the prep-
aration profitable. The same peat affords
an illuminating gas superior to that ob-
tained from coal, and one third cheaper.

M. Bourdon has devised a system of
drainage by means of Avhich the under-
ground atmosphere of a whole vineyard
may be uniformly and effectively impreg-
nated with sulphuret of carbon for the pre-
vention of phylloxera. The expense of set-
ting the system in operation is great, but
after this a saving may be realized of four
fifths of the material it has hitherto been
necessary to use.

M. F. ZuRCHER has contributed a new
element to the discussion of the question of
the relation between the number of sun-
spots and the rainfall. He has made a
comparison of the maximum heights of the
inundation of the Nile and of the numbers
of sun-spots as indicated by Wolf, for
forty-five years, from 1825 to 1870. The
curves representing the two values show a
parallelism throughout that is remarkable,
if nothing more.

M. Gaston Bonnier has found, from in-
vestigations recently made in Austria and
Hungary, that the intensity in the color of
flowers of the same species increases with
the altitude, though in a less marked degree
than the deepening of color that corresponds
with a greater height of latitude. The fact
has been made clear to him in many cases
by the comparison of colors in two, three,
four, and sometimes five places of increasing
altitude, in which the hues showed a grada-
tion of intensity. A microscopical exami-
nation disclosed that the change was not
occasioned by a new disposition of the color-
ing matter, but by an increase in the number
of grains of pigment on a given surface.

JULIUS ADOLPH STOCKHARDT.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1881.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D.

CLOTHIIS^G.
" No better traveling habit than hardy hdbitsy Sir Samuel Bakee.

THE capacity of our ancestors to accommodate themselves to every
climate depended not only on their physiological faculty of adap-
tation, but also on their skill in protecting themselves by artificial means
from the inclemency of the higher latitudes. Houses and clothes are
a blessing if they answer this purpose by a close imitation of Nature's
own plan in sheltering her children from atmospheric vicissitudes ; but
in degree as they deviate from that plan their hygienic disadvantages
balance, or even outweigh, the gain in other respects. A swallow's
nest protects her brood from cold and rain without debarring them
from the fresh air ; a human domicile, too, should combine comfort
with the advantage of perfect ventilation ; and our clothes, like the fur
of a squirrel or the feather-mantle of a hawk, should keep us warm and
dry without interfering with the cutaneous excretions and the free
movement of our limbs.

Measured by these standards, the winter dress of an American
schoolboy is nearly the best, the summer dress of the average Ameri-
can, French, and German nursling about the worst that could possibly
be devised. At an age when the rapid development of the whole or-
ganism requires the utmost freedom of movement, our children are
kept in the fetters of garments that check the activity of the body in
every way : swaddling-clothes, undershirts, overshirts, neck-wrappers,
trailing gowns, garnitures, flounces, and shawls reduce the helpless
homunculus to a bundle of dry-goods, unable to move or turn, inca-
pable of relieving or intimating its uneasiness in any way save by the

VOL. XIX. 10

146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

use of its squealing apparatus, and consequently squealing violently
from morning till night. Out-doors, in the baby-carriage, "cold
draughts " have to be guarded against, and a load of extra wrappers
completely counteract the benefit of the fresh air ; faint with nausea
and suffocating heat the little mummy lies motionless on its back, re-
splendent in its white surplice, a fit candidate for the honors of a life
whose every movement of a natural impulse will be suppressed as a
revival of barbarism and an insurrection against the statutes of an or-
thodox community. Hence, in a great degree, the disproportionate
mortality, in all northern countries of Christendom, among infants
under two years. In Spanish America, where infantile diseases are as
rare as in Hindostan, babies of all classes and all sizes toddle about
?ia/i:ef?, nearly the year round ; and the Indians of Tamaulipas, between
Tampico and Matamoras, raise an astonishing number of brown ban-
tlings who are never troubled with clothes till they are big enough to
carry garden-stuff to a city where the police enforces the apron regula-
tion.

But Mrs. Grundy a person's pinafore and the carpet ? Well,
get a lot of short linen hose, rather loose about the hips and tied around
the waist or buttoned to the skirts of a short frock. Change them as
often as you like. Wholesale they could be made for a dollar and
washed for a quarter a dozen. Out-doors add a pair of stockings with
canvas soles, and perhaps little rubber boots on wet days, but no cap
or shawl before October, and under no circumstances any swaddles or
baby night-gowns. Let us get rid of the " draught " superstition ; ca-
tarrhs are not taken by any creature of the open air, not by the fisher-
man's boy, paddling around in the surf and sitting barefooted in a wet
canoe or bareheaded on the windward cliffs, but by the cachectic
cadets of the tenement-barracks, where the same air is breathed and
rebreathed by the diseased lungs of a regiment of voluntary prisoners.*

After the first frost, a cap with ear-flaps, double stockings, and
mittens out-doors can do no harm. A warm shirt and two quilt-blank-
ets will be enough in all but the coldest nights, and (if I had not seen
the thing done I should commit an outrage on common-sense by think-
ing it necessary to mention it) the face of a sleeping child should never
be covered with a shawl, nor when flies are very troublesome with
anything thicker than the lightest gauze handkerchief. "A great
store of clothes," says Lord Bacon, " either upon the bed or the back,
relaxes the body " ; and every observant parent must have noticed
that school-children complain a hundred times of being overdressed
for once that they ask for additional or warmer clothing. Indeed, only
dire habit can reconcile us to the mass of trappings and wrappings

* " I shall not attempt to explain why ' damp clothes ' occasion colds rather than wet
ones, because I doubt the fact. I imagine that neither the one nor the other contributes
to this effect, and that the causes of colds are totally independent of wet and even of
cold." (Ben Franklin's *' Essays," p. 216.)

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 147

which fashion and effeminacy load us with. Five hundred millions of
our fellow-men wear scarcely any clothing not in Africa and Southern
Asia only, but in cold Patagonia and the by no means genial latitudes
of the Norfolk Islands. The mantle of the Roman peasant was laid aside
in cold weather and generally at the beginning of the day's work.
The sculptures of Rome and Greece abound with the representations
of nude hunters, shepherds, and artisans. On the friezes of Pompey
and the countless vases and entablatures of the Museo Borbonico and
the Vatican collection, children, almost without any exception, appear
in naturcdibiis. The very word gymnashim was derived from yvfivoa,
naked ; and there is every reason to believe that the toga virilis, like
the toga prcjetexta^ was worn only on state occasions. Henry's " His-
tory of Great Britain" (vol. i, pp. 468, 469) leaves hardly any doubt that
the ancient Britons, Picts, and Scots were either wholly or almost
naked, " unless their custom of painting their bodies can be considered
as clothing." Nor did the south Britons and Romans go naked from
poverty, like Darwin's Firelanders. They had clothes, but they re-
served them for emergencies, and, though our advanced notions of
decency and cleanliness might not permit us to emulate their example,
I suspect that, from May to November, the lightest suit of clothes is,
from an hygienic standpoint, about the best. The body breathes through
the pores as well as through the lungs, and heavy garments obstruct
the cutaneous exhalations quite as much as the atmosphere of an over-
heated room impedes the process of respiration, and it has been found
by actual experiments that the weight of a mantle or heavy coat with
woolen shirts and other underwear diminishes the respiratory capacity
of the lungs from twenty to twenty-five per cent. (Coale's " Hints on
Health," p. 104.)

Besides, it seems that fresh air exercises on the human skin a cer-
tain tonic influence, of which the wearer of thick woolen garments
deprives his body. Benjamin Franklin proposed to prevent colds, and
even small-pox, by air-baths, and found that he could relieve insomnia
by simply removing the bedclothes for a couple of minutes. " I rise
early almost every morning," says he, " and sit in my chamber without
any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season,
either reading or writing. This practice is not the least painful but,
on the contrary, agreeable, and if I return to bed afterward, before I
dress myself, as it sometimes happens, I make a supplement to my
night's rest of one or two hours of the most pleasing sleep that can be
imagined." (" A New Mode of Bathing^' Franklin's " Essays," p.
215.)

Nor should we forget the incidental advantages of hardy habits,
their invigorating influence on the constitution in general and on the
digestive system in particular, nor the fact that effeminacy defeats its
own object and exposes its slaves to sufferings unknown to the sons of
the wilderness. He who restricts himself to a minimum of clothes in

148 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY,

summer-time will find an extra shirt or a plaid and a pair of mittens
a sufficient protection from almost any weather. The Indians of the
Tehuantepec highlands, who work the year round in a breech-clout and
a palmetto hat, ascend the icy summit regions of the Sierra Madre
with a threadbare blanket as their only cover from cold winds and
night frosts ; and our own red-skins j^refer an old-buffalo robe to the
best tisfht-fittinof srarments, and inyariably tear the seams of the store-
clothes they buy at the post-agencies to make them " lighter," yenti-
late them, as it were. Xay, the post-trader of Fort Richardson, on
the upper Brazos, assured me that his Kiowa customers neyer bought
a suit of clothes without cuttmg the seat out of the pantaloons and
slitting the coats from the armpits down to the skirts !

If an out-door laborer leayes a warm house on a cold morning, the
first contact with the open air is anything but agreeable, but after half
an hour's exercise the body warms up from within, and this animal
caloric can make a heayy suit of clothes as oppressive in winter as in
midsummer ; the gaseous excretions of the skin, after saturating the
confined air, are condensed and thus effectually checked the body
has to forego the benefits of cutaneous respiration. And herein con-
sists the difference between our artificial fleece and the haiiy coat of a
wild beast : fur and wool retain the animal warmth but emit the cuta-
neous vapors ; a close woven coat stops both. The process of tan-
ning, too, stops the pores of the fur-skin, and I have often wondered
why our dress-reformers have never tried to construct a fur coat on
the brush-maker's plan fastening the hair in little bunches on some
strong, net-like texture. By spreading outward, the hair would pre-
sent the even surface of the natural fur, and make such a porous brush
coat nearly as warm as a common pelisse. Thus far the same end has
been most nearly attained by the triple blouse of the Havre 'longshore-
men three linen jackets ; the first and third as smooth as a shirt, but
the middle one ruffled^ i. e., gathered up in a series of open plaits like
a mediaeval lace collar. This arrangement prevents a '' tight fit," and
leaves a considerable space on both sides of the middle blouse, and, air
being a bad conductor, the three blouses, weighing about three pounds
apiece, are actually warmer than a twelve-pound overcoat of thick
broadcloth, but fitting the back like the cover of a pin-cushion. On
going to work, the porte-faix removes one or two of his blouses, accord-
ing to the state of the weather, as the American schoolboy takes off his
comforter and unbuttons his jacket before going in for a snow-ball
fight. ^

A jacket or a short blouse is out and out more sensible than our
cumbersome overcoats or the unspeakable tangle-work of frippery and
flounces, cross-and-lengthwise wrappings, and intricate fastenings that
still form the winter dress of a fashionable lady. The women of
Scandinavia and New England (Jenny Lind, Mrs. Everett, Dr. Mary
Safford-Blake, etc.) can claim the honor of having initiated the oppo-

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 149

sition movement that bids fair to abate the grievance in the course of
another generation or two, having already exploded the chief outrages
on hygienic and artistic common-sense corsets and the crinoline.
Mrs. Abba G. Woolson's " Dress Reform" should be the sartorial text-
book of every girl's mother.

The Turks and Hollanders, though differing so widely in their
general mode of life, agree in preferring warm clothes to heated
rooms, and when the in-door atmosphere can be made tolerable only
by air-tight window-sashes and glowing stoves, it is a curious question
whether a warmer dress would not, on the whole, be the lesser evil.
It would save fuel, sick-headaches, and constipation, and by adding or
removing an extra blouse, d la Normandie, the several occupants of a
moderately warmed room might exactly adapt the temperature to
their individual feelings. A German author, who admits hardly any
excuse for excluding the fresh air from a sitting-room, proposes an
ingenious remedy for cold hands the only cogent objection to an
open study-window : a box writing-desk, namely, with a double lid,
the writing-board resting on top of a box full of hot sand, that can be
warmed in a common baking-pan and warranted to retain its heat
for five or six hours. A cold garret library was Goethe's favorite
refucre from sick-headaches ; and the Chevalier Edelkranz reminds his
fur-loving countrymen that, when the difference of temperature be-
tween the external air and that within-doors is inconsiderable, it
would be useful to " put on an extra coat on returning home, instead
of doing it when going out, since the exercise in the open air produces
the necessary degree of warmth, which, in the chamber, in a sedentary
state, can only be supplied by additional clothing."

In our climate, however, there are days when a child of the Cau-
casian race has urgent need of all the overcoats his shoulders can
support, and the natives of northern Michigan have taught their Saxon
neighbors some useful lessons in the art of surviving a Lake Superior
snow-storm. Experience has made them eschew our common head-
gear ; they wear "Mackinaw hoods," a sort of monk's cowl, buttoned
to the mantle-collar and covering every part of the face but the eyes
and a small space between the mouth and the nostrils ; double woolen
mittens, reaching half-way up to the elbow ; baggy trousers, fastened
around the ankle, and shoes that admit three or four pairs of worsted
stockings. Their particular care seems to be to protect the neck,
hands, and feet ; and it might, indeed, be accepted as a general rule
that the parts of the body farthest from the heart are most liable to
suffer from the effects of a low temperature. All extremities toes, fin-
gers, nose, and ears are especially apt to get frost-bitten, but march-
ing against a cold wind also produces a peculiarly uncomfortable sen-
sation about the neclc, and I can not help thinking that there is some-
thing wrong about our fashion of cropping our boys like criminals.
A good head of hair may be something more than an ornamental

150 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

appendage, and Nature seems to have taken especial care to protect
the nape of the neck in a great number of different animals. It is
certainly a suggestive circumstance that fomenting the space between
the shoulders exerts an assuaging effect on various affections of the
respiratory organs ; and, if I had the care of a boy with an hereditary
disposition to a pulmonary disease, I should feel strongly tempted to
defy fashion, and let him wear his hair d la Guido about a foot
long.

The canal-laborers of Sault Ste. Marie wear double hoods, and on
many days have to stuff them with wool to save their ears ; but, in the
more j^opulous part of America, such days are a rare exception, and
south of the lower lakes the average schoolboy will prefer to rough it
with a tippet shawl or a common cap with a pair of ear-flaps. In re-
gard to the utility of woolen underclothes, opinions are much divided :
Carl Bock recommends worsted jackets ; Dr. Coale flannel under-
shirts and drawers, with extra breast-pads in cold weather ; but the
hardy Scandinavians, Russians, and French Canadians, as well as the
great majority of our German population, still stick to coarse linen
next the skin, and use woolen pectorals only as counter-irritants in
rheumatic affections. Persons who can not bear woolen underclothes,
I would advise to try the Normandy plan of rufl[ied linen, which might
be applied even to hoisery and drawers. Chamois-leather, too, is as
warm as wool and less irritating to the skin, and has the advantage
of being more durable, and withal cleanlier, than the best flannel.
On stormy days, especially during the piercing northwest storms of
our prairie States, few children will object to a Scotch plaid, worn
like a burnoose, over head and shoulders, or a handful of wool stuffed
around the socks in a pair of wide brogans.

But at the beginning of the warm season all such things ought to
be thrown aside. A loose shirt, linen jacket, and short linen trowsers
are the right summer dress for a healthy boy a dalmatica and light
straw hat for a healthy girl in a country where the six warmest
months approach the isotherms of southern Spain. No wadded coats,
no drawers, and, in the name of reason, no flannels, nor shoes and
stockings, unless the mud is very deep, or the road to school recently
macadamized. The long-lived races of Eastern Europe w^ould laugh
at the idea that the constitution of a normal human being could be
endangered by an April shower, or that in the dog-days "health
and decency" require a woolen cuticle from neck to foot. Have
dogmas and hearsays entirely closed our senses to the language of
instinct, to the meaning of the discomfort, the distracting uneasiness
under the burden of a load of calorific covers and bandages, while
every pore of our skin cries out for relief, for the cooling influence of
the free open air ? Keep your children under lock and key, lest the
sun should spoil their complexion or their morals, let them pass their
days in an underground dungeon like Kaspar Hauser, but do not load

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 151

them with woolen trappings at a time when even a linen robe becomes
a Nessus-shirt. There is a story of a glutton being cured by a friend
who persuaded him to eat and drink nothing for twenty-four hours
without putting an equivalent in quantity and quality into an earthen
crock, and the next day made him inspect the collectanea ; and on the
same principle a person of common-sense might perhaps be redeemed
from the slavery of the dress-mania, by making him wrap up his com-
plete suit of traps and weigh the bundle : he would find that the sum-
mer dress of a fashionable gentleman outweighs the winter coat of the
most hirsute brute of the wilderness. A grizzly bear, shorn to the
skin, would yield about ten pounds of hair and wool ; but a dandy's
accoutrements flannel undershirt, drawers, shoes, stockings, starched
overshirt, waistcoat, cravat, black dress-coat, and pantaloons ^would
weigh at least fourteen pounds. Habit mitigates the evil, though
there are times when the martyrs of fashion suffer more in a single
hour than a ragged Comanche in the coldest winter week ; but, for
boys and young girls, calorific food and woolen clothes certainly make
the sunniest days the saddest in the year.

The vicissitudes of the weather ? It is worth a journey to Trieste
to see the youngsters of the suburbs enjoy their evenings on the Capo
Liddo, the sandy headland between the Pola pike-road and the harbor
fortifications : four or five hundred half-wild boys, splashing in the
surf, throwing stones, wrestling, or chasing each other along the shore,
all shouting and cheering, merry as carnivallers, though there is not
a pair of shoes or a dozen hats in the crowd. Swift-footed, lithe, and
indefatigable, they are the very picture of careless health ; you can
see them at play almost every evening, even in winter, when the Tra-
montane raises the snow-drifts of the Karst. They laugh at summer
showers ; their linen jackets will dry before they get home. Sunshine
makes them a holiday ; but let your well-dressed New York or Paris
schoolboy join in their sports, and examine his clothes after an hour
or two, and see if perspiration has not made his undershirts as wet as
any rain could make his jacket.

Decency? Are the gambols of a barefoot boy more unseemly
than the contortions of a sunstruck alderman in his holiday dress ?
Can ethics or aesthetics be promoted by the imprecations of a sleepless
victim of flannel night-shirts and closed bedroom windows ? If daily
misery can spoil the temper of a saint, the ladies of the American
Dress-Reform are working in the interest of charity and good-humor
by removing a chief incentive to the opposite sentiments, for the
aggravations of Tantalus must have been trifling compared with those
of an American schoolgirl d la mode, at the thought of a mountain
meadow to run on with naked feet or a shady brook to pick pebbles
from with bared arms. Pocahontas, indeed, had no need to envy the
" fair maids in the land of her lover," if the fair ones had to wear the
twenty-three distinct pieces of dry-goods which, according to a cor-

152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

respondent of Virchow's " Jahresberichte," constitute the summer
dress of the average girl of the period. The blind submission to such
demands of fashion can be explained only by a long subjection of
human reason to authority, together with that ridiculous dread of
nudity Avhich forms a characteristic feature of all anti-natural relig-
ions. According to the ethics of the Hebrew-Buddhistic moralists, all
naturcdla sunt turpia y the body is the arch-enemy of the soul, and
must be hidden, lest the children of the Church might be reminded of
their relationship to the despised children of Nature. Boys and girls
have no vote in such matters, or they would consent to turn night
into day for the sake of getting a little exercise without the dire alter-
native of sweating to death or awakening the anathemas of Mrs.
Grundy. The misery reaches its climax in June, when the warm
weather begins before the vacations ; and in midsummer a person
with humane instincts would rather make a wide detour than pass a
town school or a cotton-factory and witness the triumph of our pious
civilization the daily and intolerable torture of thousands of helpless
children to please an Old Hypocrites' Christian Association of priests
and prudes !

As houses have been called exterior garments, a heavy suit of
clothes might be called a portable house a protective barrier between
the skin and the cold air ; but in warm weather the most effectual
device for diminishing the benefit of out-door exercise. Between May
and October man has to wear clothes enough to keep the flies and
gnats from troubling him : a pair of linen trowsers, a shirt, and a light
neckerchief whatsoever is more than these is of evil. The best head-
dress for summer is our natural hair ; the next best a light straw hat,
with a perforated crown. Hats and caps, as a protection from the
vicissitudes of the atmosphere, are a comparatively recent invention.
The Syrians, Greeks, Romans, Normans, and Visigoths wore helmets
in war, but went uncovered in time of peace, in the coldest and most
stormy seasons ; the Gauls and Egyptians always went bareheaded,
even into battle, and, a hundred years after the conquest of Egypt by
Cambyses (b. c. 525), the sands of Pelusium still covered the well-
preserved skulls of the native warriors, while those of the turbaned
Persians had crumbled to the jawbones. The Emperor Hadrian trav-
eled bareheaded from the icy Alps to the borders of Mesopotamia ; the
founders of several monastic orders interdicted all coverings for the
head ; during the reign of Henry VIH, boys and young men generally
went with the head bare, and to the preservation of this old Saxon
custom Sir John Sinclair* ascribes the remarkable health of the orphans
of Queen's Hospital. The human skull is naturally better protected
than that of any other warm-blooded animal, so that there seems little
need of adding an artificial covering ; and, as Dr. Adair observes, the
most neglected children, street Arabs and young gypsies, are least

* " Code of Health and Longevity," p. 298.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 153

liable to diseases, chiefly because they are not guarded from the access
of fresh air by too many garments (Adair's " Medical Cautions," p.
389). It is also well known that baldness is the effect of effeminate
habits as often as of dissipation ; and yet there are parents who think
it highly dangerous to let a boy go out bareheaded even in May or
September. The trouble is, that so many of our latter-day health
codes are framed by men who mistake the exigencies of their own
decrepitude for the normal condition of mankind. Thousands of North
American mothers get their hygienic oracles from the household notes
of some orthodox weekly, where the Rev. Falstaff Tartuffe assures
them from personal experience that raw apples are indigestible, and
that rheumatism can be prevented only by nightcaps and woolen un-
dershirts.

Girls, it seems, have to pass through a millinery climacteric, as
their brothers through a wild-oats period ; but even during that inter-
regnum of reason the instinct of self-preservation would assert its
supremacy if the health laws of physiology and their antagonism to
certain fashions were more generally understood. Claude Bernard
speaks of a French philanthropist v/ho proposed to offer a prize for the
most tasteful female dress, manufactured from the cheapest materials ;
and, if the votaries of the Graces would consent to a reform in the
shape and stuff of their garments, we could well afford to indulge them
in chromatics and a flounce or two, for there is no reason to afflict
them with Quaker-drab, if more cheerful colors are as cheap. As
long as they avoid excesses in the quantity and form of their dress,
and restrict themselves to four dimes' worth of vanities per month, we
need not grudge them a display of their taste in the selection of pretty
patterns ; let them radiate in all the colors of the rainbow and all the
gems of the " Chicago Prize-Package Company." Veniunt a vests
sagittm the dress problem has always employed the leisure of gossips
and Doctors' Commons, especially in cities, and more especially in the
wealthy and indolent cities of the Old World. There is a legend of a
New England virgin fainting at the mention of " undressed lumber,"
but that tradition must be of Eastern origin. The dry-goods worship is
carried nowhere further than where children are treated like dolls and
women like children, unfit to be intrusted with any more important
business. The " organ of ornamentativeness," or fashion-mania, may,
after all, not be an innate instinct of the female mind. Madame de
Stael and Mrs. Lewes at least deny it, and, if they are right, an enlarged
sphere of activity will by-and-by help their sisters to outgrow that
bias. In the mean while, the best palliative is a liberal education,
besides a zealous propaganda of the two chief theses of the dress
reform : wider jackets and shorter under-garments ; no trailing dresses,
keeping the feet wet and impeding locomotion ; no stays, corsets, and
strait-jacket bodices.

Next to the regulation dress of the Turner hall, the present style

154 TH^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the United States infantry uniform is about the most sensible that
could be devised with regard to sanitary advantages, and nearly so in
respect to good taste, if Thorwaldsen's dictum holds good, that the
most becoming garments are those which adapt themselves to the
natural outlines of the human form. A jacket should be loose, with
wide but rather short sleeves, loose trousers, no waistcoat or drawers
in the summer season ; for small boys, short trousers without pockets,
but with broad leather braids along the seams. The comparative
advantages of waistbands or braces have been frequently controverted ;
at best it is only a question of choosing the lesser evil. A tight belt
is almost as injurious as a corset, while non-elastic suspenders may inter-
fere w^th the functions of the respiratory organs, and even occasion
stooping. For boys and slender-built men, with well-developed hips,
an elastic waistband is, on the whole, preferable ; corpulent persons can
not dispense with braces, for the plan of buttoning the breeches to the
jacket or waistband would amount to the same, by making the shoul-
ders support the weight of the lower garments. Tight breeches have,
fortunately, gone out of fashion ; likewise tight kid-gloves, which
were once de rigueur on every public promenade.

But we all sin against our feet ; not one white man in ten thousand
wears shoes that are not more or less of a hindrance in walking, and
often a source of wretched discomfort. In the United States, England,
and Central Europe, it is wholly impossible to find a ready-made pair of
shoes to fit a normal human foot ; they are all too tight in proportion
to their length, every pair of them, even the United States army shoes
and the English " fast-walking brogans." Heels are nonsense ; there
is no excrescence on the sole of a well-formed human being, A man
can walk faster, more easily, and more gracefully, with level shoes,
with soles shaped like those of a slipper or an Indian moccasin. An
easy shoe should be heelless ; the upper leather soft and pliable ;
the sole of a No. 9 shoe at least four inches wide. But you can not
persuade a shoemaker to commit such heresies against the tenets of his
craft. Dio Lewis recommends paper patterns, corresponding to the
exact shape of the natural sole, but it is all in vain ; a compromise
between reason and dogma is the best you can attain by such means.
The only practicable plan is to get one pair of shoes made under your
personal supervision, and then stipulate for the necessary number of
i^rechQ facsimiles. The disciple of St. Crispin shrinks from the guilt
of the original sin, but connives at a copy ; a precedent will reconcile,
his conscience.

For children there is a shorter expedient : let them go barefoot, at
least in-doors and all summer ; it will make them hardier and healthier.
Abernethy, Schrodt, Dr. Adair, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Claude
Bernard, agree on this point ; Dr. Cadogan thinks shoes and stockings
wholly useless, and John G. Whittier seems to share his opinion that a
barefoot boy is the happiest representative of the human species. " I

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 155

can see no reason why my pupil should always have a piece of ox-hide
under his foot," says the author of "Emile." . . . " Let him run bare-
foot wherever he pleases. . . . Far from growling about it, I shall
imitate his example." *

Refusing to buy tight shoes might bring easy ones into fashion ;
but boys are better off without them, especially in the years of rapid
growth, when their measure changes from month to month, for too
wide shoes are as uncomfortable as tight ones. Out-doors, children's
stockings are almost sure to get wet, and keep the feet clammy and cold ;
while a young gypsy or a Scotchman, inured to wind and weather, treads
with his bare feet the swampiest valleys and the roughest hill-roads
without the least discomfort. Nature produces a better sole-leather
than any shoemaker ; the tegument of a raccoon's foot or a monkey's
hind-hand can give us an idea of the marvels of her workmanship. The
sole of a plantigrade animal is not hard ; on the contrary, quite pliable
and soft to the touch, but withal tougher than any caoutchouc, imper-
vious alike to water, sand, and thorns. A camel, too, has a foot of that
sort pads that resist the burning gravel of the desert for years, where
a horse's hoof would wear out in a few weeks ; for the same reason
that a *' sand-blast " destroys tanned sole-leather and horn, but hardly
affects the elastic skin of the human hand. Millions of unshod Hin-
doos, negroes, and South American savages, brave the jungles of the
tropical virgin woods ; and in Nicaragua I saw two Indian mail-
carriers trot barefoot over the lava-beds of Amilpas, over fields of
obsidian and scoria, where a dandy in patent-leather gaiters would
have feared to tread. Three or four seasons of barefoot rambles over
the fields and hills will develop such soles natural shoe-leather that
improves from year to year, till it can be warranted to protect the
wearer against the roughest roads, and, as the experience of our half-
wild frontiersmen attests, also against colds and rheumatism. A mere
moccasin secures such hardy feet against frost-bites ; for here, too, the
rule holds good that those who keep themselves too warm in the sum-
mer season deprive themselves of the advantage to be derived from
additional clothing in cold weather and in old age.

Herr Teuf elsdrockh devoted a voluminous work to the " Philosophy
of Clothing," but the practical part of the science may be summed up
in a few words. Our dress ought to be adapted to the changes of
the seasons, and should be in quality durable, cleanly, and, above all,
easy ; in quantity, the least amount compatible with decency and
comfort.

* " Pourquoi faut-il que mon eleve soit force d'avoir toujours sous les pieds une peau
de boeuf ? Quel mal y aurait-il que la sienne propre put au besoin lui servir de semelle ?
II est clair qu'en cette partie la delicatesse de la peau ne peut jamais etre utile k rien et
peut souvent beaucoup nuire. Que Emile coure les matins a pieds nus, en toute saison,
par le chambre, par I'escalier, par le jardin ; loin de Ten grondir je I'imitirai." (Rous-
seau : " Emile, ou de L'education," p. 143.)

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ON FEUITS AND SEEDS.

By Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, F. R. S.

OUR eloquent countryman, Mr. Ruskin, commences his work on
" Flowers " by a somewhat severe criticism of his predecessors.
He reproduces a page from a valuable but somewhat antiquated work,
" Curtis's Magazine," which he alleges to be " characteristic of botani-
cal books and botanical science, not to say all science," and complains
bitterly that it is a string of names and technical terms. No doubt
that unfortunate page does contain a list of synonyms and long words.
But, in order to identify a plant, you must have synonyms and tech-
nical terms, just as to learn a language you must have a dictionary.
To complain of this would be to resemble the man who said that
Johnson's "Dictionary" was dry and disjointed reading. But no one
would attempt to judge the literature of a country by reading a dic-
tionary. So also we can not estimate the interest of a science by read-
ing technical descriptions. On the other hand, it is impossible to give
a satisfactory description of an animal or plant except in strict techni-
cal language. Let me reproduce a description which Mr. Ruskin has
given of the swallow, and which, indeed, he says in his lecture on that
bird, is the only true description that could be giv^en. His lecture was
delivered before the University of Oxford, and is, I need hardly say,
most interestinor.

Now, how does he describe a swallow ? " You can," he says, " only
rightly describe the bird by the resemblances and images of what it
seems to have changed from, then adding the fantastic and beautiful
contrast of the unimaginable change. It is, an owl that has been
trained by the Graces. It is a bat that loves the morning light. It
is the aerial reflection of a dolphin. It is the tender domestication of
a trout." That is, no doubt, very poetical, but it would be absolutely
useless as a scientific description, and, I must confess, would never
have suggested, to me at least, the idea of a swallow.

But, though technical terms are very necessary in science, I shall
endeavor, as far as I can, to avoid them here. As, however, it will be
impossible for me to do so altogether, I will do my best at the com-
mencement to make them as clear as possible, and I must therefore ask
those who have already looked into the subject to pardon me if, for a
few moments, I go into very elementary facts. In order to understand
the structure of the seed, we must commence with the flower, to which
the seed- owes its origin. Now, if you take such a flower as, say, a ge-
ranium, you will find that it consists of the following parts : firstly,
there is a whorl of green leaves, known as the sepals, and together
forming the calyx ; secondly, a whorl of colored leaves, or petals, gen-
erally forming the most conspicuous part of the flower, and called the

ON FRUITS AND SEEDS. 157

corolla ; thirdly,' a whorl of organs, more or less like pins, which are
called stamens ; and in the heads, or anthers, of which the pollen is
produced. These anthers are in reality, as Goethe showed, modified
leaves ; in the so-called double flowers, as, for instance, in our garden
roses, they are developed into colored leaves like those of the corolla,
and monstrous flowers are not unfrequently met with in which the
stamens are green leaves, more or less resembling the ordinary leaves
of the plant. Lastly, in the center of the flower is the pistil, which
also is theoretically to be considered as constituted of one or more
leaves, each of which is folded on itself and called a carpel. Some-
times there is only one carpel. Generally the carpels have so com-
pletely lost the appearance of leaves that this explanation of their true
nature requires a considerable amount of faith. The base of the pis-
til is the ovary, composed, as I have just mentioned, of one or more
carpels, in which the seeds are developed. I need hardly say that many
so-called seeds are really fruits ; that is to say, they are seeds with
more or less complex envelopes.

We all know that seeds and fruits differ greatly in different spe-
cies. Some are large, some small ; some are sweet, some bitter ; some
are brightly colored ; some are good to eat, some poisonous, some
spherical, some winged, some covered with bristles, some with hairs,
some are smooth, some very sticky.

We may be sure that there are good reasons for these differences.
In the case of flowers much light has been thrown on their various in-
teresting peculiarities by the researches of Sprengel, Darwin, Mtiller,
and other naturalists. As regards seeds also, besides Gartner's great
work, Hildebrand, Krause, Steinbrinck, Kerner, Grant Allen, Wallace,
Darwin, and others, have published valuable researches, especially with
reference to the hairs and hooks with which so many seeds are pro-
vided, and the other means of dispersion they possess. Nobbe also
has contributed an important work on seeds, principally from an agri-
cultural point of view, but the subject as a whole offers a most promis-
ing field for investigation. It is rather with a view of suggesting this
branch of science to you, than of attempting to supply the want my-
self, that I now propose to call your attention to it. In doing so I
must, in the first place, express my acknowledgments to Mr. Baker,
Mr. Carruthers, Mr. Hemsley, and especially to Mr. Thiselton Dyer
and Sir Joseph Hooker, for their kind and most valuable assistance.

It is said that one of our best botanists once observed to another
that he never could understand what was the use of the teeth on the
capsules of mosses. " Oh," replied his friend, " I see no difficulty in
that, because, if it were not for the teeth, how could we distinguish the
species ? "

We may, however, no doubt, safely consider that the peculiarities
of seeds have reference to the plant itself, and not to the convenience
of botanists.

1^8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In the first place, then, during growth, seeds in many cases require
protection. This is especially the case with those of an albuminous
character. It is curious that so many of those which are luscious when
ripe, as the peach, strawberry, cherry, apple, etc., are stringy and al-
most inedible till ripe. Moreover, in these cases, the fleshy portion is
not the seed itself, but only the envelope, so that even if the sweet
part is eaten the seed itself remains uninjured.

On the other hand, such seeds as the hazel, beech, Spanish chestnut,
and innumerable others, are protected by a thick, impervious shell,
which is especially developed in many Proteacece, the Brazil-nut, the
so-called monkey-pot, the cocoanut, and other palms.

In other cases the envelopes protect the seeds, not only by their
thickness and toughness, but also by their bitter taste, as, for instance,
in the walnut. The genus Mucicna, one of the Legumiiiosce, is re-
markable in having the pods covered with stinging hairs.

In many cases the calyx, which is closed when the flower is in bud,
opens when the flower expands, and then after the petals have fallen
closes again until the seeds are ripe, when it opens for the second time.
This is, for instance, the case with the common herb-robert ( Gerani-
um Mohertiamiin). In Atractylis cancellata, a South European plant,
allied to the thistles, the outer envelopes form an exquisite little cage.
Another case, perhaps, is that of Nigella, the " Devil-in-a-bu&h," or, as
it is sometimes more prettily called, " Love-in-a-mist," of old English
gardens.

Again, the protection of the seed is in many cases attained by curi-
ous movements of the plant itself. In fact, plants move much more
than is generally supposed. So far from being motionless, they may
almost be said to be in perpetual movement, though the changes of
position are generally so slow that they do not attract attention. This
is not, however, always the case. We are all familiar with the sensi-
tive-plant, which droops its leaves when touched. Another species
(Averrhoa hilbnhi) has leaves like those of an acacia, and all day the
leaflets go slowly up and down. Desmodium gyrans, a sort of pea
living in India, has trifoliate leaves, the lateral leaflets being small and
narrow ; and these leaflets, as was first observed by Lady Monson, are
perpetually moving round and round, whence the specific name gyrans.
In these two cases the object of the movement is quite unknown to us.
In Dionoea, on the other hand, the leaves form a regular fly-trap.
Directly an insect alights on them they shut up with a snap.

In a great many cases leaves are said to sleep ; that is to say, at
the approach of night they change their position, and sometimes fold
themselves up, thus presenting a smaller surface for radiation, and being
in consequence less exposed to cold. Mr. Darwin has proved experi-
mentally that leaves which were prevented from moving suffered more
from cold than those which were allowed to assume their natural posi-
tion. He has observed with reference to one plant, Maranta arundi-

ON FRUITS AND SEEDS. 159

nacea, the arrow-root, a West Indian species allied to Canna^ that if
the plant has had a severe shock it can not get to sleep for the next
two or three nights.

The sleep of flowers is also probably a case of the same kind,
though, as I have elsewhere attempted to show, it has now, I believe,
special reference to the visits of insects ; those flowers which are fer-
tilized by bees, butterflies, and other day insects, sleep by night, if at
all ; while those which are dependent on moths rouse themselves tow-
ard evening, as already mentioned, and sleep by day. These motions,
indeed, have but an indirect reference to our present subject. On the
other hand, in the dandelion {Leontodon), the flower-stalk is upright
while the flower is expanded, a period which lasts for three or four
days ; it then lowers itself and lies close to the ground for about
twelve days, while the fruits are ripening, and then rises again when
they are mature. In the Cyclamen the stalk curls itself up into a
beautiful spiral after the flower has faded.

The flower of the little Linaria of our walls (X. cymhalaria) pushes
out into the light and sunshine, but as soon as it is fertilized it turns
round and endeavors to find some hole or cranny in which it may
remain safely ensconced until the seed is ripe.

In some water-plants the flower expands at the surface, but after it
is faded retreats again to the bottom. This is the case, for instance,
with the water-lilies, some species of the Potainogeton {Trapa natans).
In Vcdisneria, again, the female flowers (Fig. 1, a) are borne on long
stalks, which reach to the surface of the water, on which the flowers
float. The male flowers (Fig. 1, b), on the contrary, have short, straight
stalks, from which, when mature, the pollen (Fig. 1, c) detaches itself,
rises to the surface, and, floating freely on it, is wafted about, so that
it comes in contact with the female flowers. After fertilization, how-
ever, the long stalk coils up spirally, and thus carries the ovary down
to the bottom, where the seeds can ripen in greater safety.

The next points to which I will direct your attention are the means
of dispersion possessed by many seeds. Farmers have found by expe-
rience that it is not desirable to grow the same crop in the same field
year after year, because the soil becomes more or less exhausted. In
this respect, therefore, the powers of dispersion possessed by many
seeds are a great advantage to the species. Moreover, they are also
advantageous in giving the seed a chance of germinating in new local-
ities suitable to the requirements of the species. Thus a common
European sxf ecies, JCanthium spinosum, has rapidly spread over the
whole of South Africa, the seeds being carried in the wool of sheep.
From various considerations, however, it seems probable that in most
cases the provision does not contemplate a dispersion for more than a
short distance.

There are a great many cases in which plants possess powers of
movement directed to the dissemination of the seed. Thus, in Geas-

i6o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tnmi hygroinetricum^ a kind of fungus which grows underground,
the outer envelope which is hard, tough, and hygrometric divides,
when mature, in strips from the crown to the base ; these strips spread
horizontally, raising the plant above its former position in the ground ;
on rain or damp weather supervening the strips return to their former

Fig. 1. Valisneria spiralis, a, female flower ; h, male flower ; c, floating pollen.

position ; on the return of the drought this process is repeated, until
the fungus reaches the surface and spreads out there ; then the mem-
brane of the conceptacle opens and emits the spores in the form of
dust.

I have already referred to the case of the common dandelion.
Here the flower-stalk stands more or less upright while the flower is
expanded, a period which generally lasts for three or four days. It
then lowers itself, and lies more or less horizontally and concealed
during the time the seeds are maturing, which in our summers occupies
about twelve days. It then again rises, and, becoming almost erect,
facilitates the dispersion of the seeds, or, speaking botanically, the
fruits, by the wind. Some plants, as we shall see, even sow their
seeds in the ground, but these cases will be referred to later on.

ON FRUITS AND SEEDS.

161

In other cases the plant throws its own seeds to some little dis-
tance. This is the case with the common Cardainine hi7'suta, a little
plant, I do not like to call ,^-^

it a weed, six or eight inches
high, which comes up of itself
abundantly on any vacant
spot in our kitchen-gardens
or shrubberies, and which
much resembles that repre-
sented in Fig. 17, but with-
out the subterranean pods d.
The seeds are contained in a
pod which consists of three
parts, a central membrane,
and two lateral walls. When
the pod is ripe the walls are
in a state of tension. The
seeds are loosely attached
to the central piece by short
stalks. Now, when the prop-
er moment has arrived, the
outer walls are kept in place
by a delicate membrane, only
just strong enough to resist
the tension. The least touch,
for instance a puff of wind

Pig. 2. Viola hirta. a, young bud ; 6, ripe seed-
capsule.

blowing the plant against a neighbor, detaches the outer wall, which
suddenly rolls itself up, generally with such force as to fly from the
plant, thus jerking the seeds to a distance of several feet.

In the common violets, besides the colored flowers, there are others
in which the corolla is either absent or imperfectly developed. The
stamens also are small, but contain pollen, though less than in the
colored flowers. In the autumn large numbers of these curious flowers
are produced. When very young they look like an ordinary flower-
bud (Figs. 2 and 3, a), the central part of the flower being entirely
covered by the sepals, and the whole having a triangular form. When
older (Figs. 2 and 3, h) they look at first sight like an ordinary seed-
capsule, so that the bud seems to pass into the capsule without the
flower-stage. The pansy violets do not possess these interesting flowers.
In the sweet-violet ( Viola odorata and Viola hirta. Fig. 2) they may
easily be found by searching among the leaves nestling close to the
ground. It is often said, for instance by Yaucher, that the plants act-
ually force these capsules into the ground, and thus sow their own
seeds. I have not, however, found this to be the case, though, as the
stalk elongates, and the point of the capsule turns downward, if the
earth be loose and uneven, it will no doubt sometimes so happen.

VOL. XIX. 11

l62

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When the seeds are fully ripe, the capsule opens by three valves and
allows them to escape.

In the dog-violet ( Viola canina, Fig. 3) the case is very different.
The capsules are less fleshy, and, though pendent when young, at

Fig. 3. Viola canina. a, bud ; ft, bud more advanced ; c, capsule open, some of the seeds are

already thrown.

maturity they erect themselves (Fig. 3, c), stand up boldly above the
rest of the plant, and open by the three equal valves (Fig. 4) resem-
bling an inverted tripod. Each valve contains a row of three, four, or
five brown, smooth, pear-shaped seeds, slightly flattened at the upper,

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5. Viola canina; seed-vessel
after ejecting the seeds.

wider end. Now the two walls of each valve, as they become drier^
contract, and thus approach one another, thus tending to squeeze out
the seeds. These resist some time, but at length the attachment of

ON FRUITS AND SEEDS.

163

tlie seed to its base gives way, and it is ejected several feet, this being
no doubt much facilitated by its form and smoothness. I have known
even a gathered specimen throw a seed nearly ten feet. Fig. 5 repre-
sents a capsule after the seeds have been ejected.

Now, we naturally ask ourselves what is the reason for this difference
between the species of violets ; why do Viola odoratu and Viola Tiirta
conceal their capsules among the moss and leaves on the ground, while
Yiola canina and others raise theirs boldly above their heads, and throw
the seeds to seek their fortune in the world ? If this arrangement be
best for Viola canina, why has not Viola odorata also adopted it ?
The reason is, I believe, to be found in the different mode of growth
of these two species. Viola canina is a plant with an elongated stalk,
and it is easy, therefore, for the capsule to raise itself above the grass
and other low herbage among which violets grow.

tJ^

Fig. 6. The Herb-robert {Geranium Bobertianum,') a, bud ; b, flower ; c, flower after the petals
nave fallen ; d, flower with seeds nearly ripe : e, flower with ripe seeds : /, flower after throw-
ing seeds. j f > , tr > ^

Viola odorata and Viola hirta, on the contrary, have, in ordinary
parlance, no stalk, and the leaves are radical, i. e., rising from the root.
This is at least the case in appearance, for, botanically speaking, they
rise at the end of a short stalk. Now, under these circumstances, if

164

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the sweet violet attempted to shoot its seeds, the capsules not being
sufficiently elevated, the seeds would merely strike against some neigh-
boring leaf, and immediately fall to the ground. Hence, I think, we
see that the arrangement of the capsule in each species is that most
suitable to the general habit of the plant.

In the true geraniums again, as for instance in the herb-robert
(Fig. 6), after the flower has faded, the central axis gradually elon-
gates (Fig. 6, c, d). The seeds, five in number, are situated at the
base of the column, each being inclosed in a capsule, which terminates
upward in a rod -like portion, which at first forms part of the central
axis, but gradually detaches itself. When the seeds are ripe the ovary
raises itself into an upright position (Fig. 6, e) ; the outer layers of
the rod-like termination of the seed-capsule come to be in a state of
great tension, and eventually detach the rod with a jerk, and thus
throw the seed some little distance. Fig. 6, /", represents the central
rod after the seeds have been thrown. In some species, as for instance
in Geranium dissectum, Fig. 7, the capsule-rod remains attached to
the central column, and the seed only is ejected.

It will, however, be remembered that the capsule is, as already
observed, a leaf folded on itself, with the edges inward, and in fact
in the geranium the seed-chamber opens on its inner side. You

Diagram. Fio. 7. Geranium dissectum. a, just before throwici? seed; b, just after throwing
seed ; c, the capsule still attached to the rod ; d, the seed.

will, therefore, naturally observe to me that, when the carpel bursts
outward, the only effect would be that the seed would be forced
against the outer wall of the carpel, and that it would not be ejected,
because the opening is not on the outer but on the inner side. Your
remark is perfectly just, but the difficulty has been foreseen by our

ON FRUITS AND SEEDS.

165

geraniums, and is overcome by them in different ways. In some species,
as for instance in Geranium, dissectiim, a short time before the dehis-
cence, the seed-chamber places itself at right angles to the pillar (Fig.
7, a). The edges then separate, but they are provided with a fringe
of hairs, just strong enough to retain the seed in its position, yet suffi-
ciently elastic to allow it to escape when the carpels burst away, re-
maining attached, however, to the central pillar by their upper ends
(Fig. 7, c).

In the common herb-robert (Fig. 8), and some other species, the
arrangement is somewhat different. In the first place, the whole
carpel springs away (Fig. 8, b and c). The seed-chamber (Fig. 8, c)
detaches itself from the rod of
the carpel (Fig. 8, 6), and when
the seed is flung away remains
attached to it. Under these
circumstances it is unnecessary
for the chamber to raise itself
from the central pillar, to which
accordingly it remains close un-
til the moment of disruption
(Fig. 6, e). The seed-chamber
is, moreover, held in place by
a short tongue which projects a
little way over its base ; while,
on the other hand, the lower
end of the rod passes for a
short distance between the
seed -capsule and the central
pillar. The seed -capsule has
also near its apex a curious tuft
of silky hair (Fig. 8, c), the use
of which I will not here stop to
discuss. As the result of all this complex mechanism, the seeds when
ripe are flung to a distance which is surprising when we consider how
small the spring is. In their natural habitat it is almost impossible
to find the seeds when once thrown. I, therefore, brought some into
the house and placed them on my billiard-table. They were thrown
from one end completely over the other, in some cases more than
twenty feet.

Some species of vetch, again, and the common broom, throw their
seeds, owing to the elasticity of the pods, which, when ripe, open sud*
denly with a jerk. Each valve of the pod contains a layer of woody
cells, which, however, do not pass straight up the pod, but are more or
less inclined to its axis (Fig. 9). Consequently, when the pod bursts
it does not, as in the case of Cardamine, roll up like a watch-spring,
but twists itself more or less like a corkscrew.

Diagram. Fig. 8. Geranium Robektianum. a, just
before throwing the seed ; 6, the red ; c, the seed
enclosed in the capsule.

i66

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I have mentioned these species because they are some of our com-
monest wild flowers, so that during the summer and autumn we may,
in almost any walk, observe for ourselves this innocent artillery.
There are, however, many other more or less similar cases. Thus the
squirting cucumber [.Momordica elaterium), a common plant in the
south of Europe, and one grown in some places for medicinal pur-
poses, effects the same object by a -totally different mechanism. The

Fig. 9. Vicia sepium. The line a b shows
the direction of the woody fibres.

Fig. 10. The Squirting Cucumber {Moniordica
elaterium.)

fruit is a small cucumber (Fig. 10), and when ripe it becomes so gorged
with fluid that it is in a state of great tension. In this condition a
very slight touch is sufficient to detach it from the stalk, w^hen the
pressure of the walls ejects the contents, throwing the seed some dis-
tance. In this case, of course, the contents are ejected at the end by
which the cucumber is attached to the stalk. If any one touches one
of these ripe fruits, they are often thrown with such force as to strike
him in the face. In this the action is said to be due to endosmosis.

In Cyclanthera, a plant allied to the cucumber, the fruit is un-
syrametrical, one side being round and hairy, the other nearly flat and
smooth. The true apex of the fruit, which bears the remains of the
flower, is also somewhat eccentric, and, when the seeds are ripe, if it
is touched even lightly, the fruit explodes and the seeds are thrown
to some distance. The mechanism by which this is effected has been
described by Ilildebrand. The interior of the fruit is occupied by
loose cellular structure. The central column, or placenta, to which
the seeds are attached, lies loosely in this tissue. Through the solution
of its earlier attachments, when the fruit is ripe, the column adheres
only at the apical end, under the withered remains of the flower, and
at the swollen side. When the fruit bursts, the placenta unrolls, and

ON FRUITS AND SEEDS.

167

thus hurls the seeds to some distance, being even itself sometimes also
torn away from its attachment.

Other cases of projected seeds are afforded by Sura, one of the
Euphorhim, Collomia, Oxalis, some species allied to Acanthus, and by
Arceuthohium, a plant allied to the mistletoe, and parasitic on juni-
pers, which ejects its seeds to a distance of several feet, throwing them
thus from one tree to another.

Even those species which do not eject their seeds often have them
so placed with reference to the capsule that they only
leave it if swung or jerked by a high wind. In the
case of trees, even seeds with no special adaptation
for dispersion must in this manner be often carried
to no little distance ; and to a certain, though less
extent, this must hold good even with herbaceous
plants. It throws light on the (at first sight) curious
fact that in so many plants with small, heavy seeds,
the capsules open not at the bottom, as one might
perhaps have been disposed to expect, but at the
top. A good illustration is afforded by the well-
known case of the common poppy (Fig. 11), in
which the upper part of the capsule presents a
series of little doors (Fig. 11, a), through which,
when the plant is swung by the wind, the seeds
come out one by one. The little doors are protected
from rain by overhanging eaves, and are even said
to shut of themselves in wet weather. The genus
Campanula is also interesting from this point of fig. 11. Seed-head op
view, because some species have the capsules pen- oppyc ajtaver.
dent, some upright, and those which are upright open at the top,
while those which are pendent do so at the base.

In other cases the dispersion is mainly the work of the seed itself.
In some of the lower plants, as, for instance, in many sea-weeds, and in
some allied fresh-water plants, such as Vaucheria, the spores * are cov-
ered by vibratile cilia, and actually swim about in the water, like in-
fusoria, till they have found a suitable spot on which to grow. Nay,
so much do the spores of some sea-weeds resemble animals, that they are
provided with a red " eye-spot " as it has been called, which, at any
rate, seems so far to deserve the name that it appears to be sensitive
to light. This mode of progression is, however, only suitable to water-
plants. One group of small, low-organized plants {Marchantia) develop
iamong the spores a number of cells with spirally thickened walls,
which, by their contractility, are supposed to disseminate the spores.
In the common horse-tails {Equisetum), again, the spores are pro-
vided with curious filaments, terminating in expansions, and known

* I need hardly observe that, botanically, these are not true seeds, but rather motile
buds.

i68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as " elaters." They move with great vigor, and probably serve the
same purpose.

In much more numerous cases, seeds are carried by the wind. For
this, of course, it is desirable that they should be light. Sometimes this
object is attained by the character of the tissues themselves, sometimes
by the presence of empty spaces. Thus, in Valerianella auricula, the
fruit contains three cells, each of which would naturally be expected
to contain a seed. One seed only, however, is developed, but, as may
be seen from the figure given in Mr. Bentham's excellent " Handbook
of the British Flora," the two cells which contain no seed actually be-
come larger than the one which alone might, at first sight, appear to be
normally developed. We may be sure from this that they must be of
some use, and, from their lightness, they probably enable the wind to
carry the seed to a greater distance than would otherwise be the case.

In other instances the plants themselves, or parts of them, are rolled
along the ground by the wind. An example of this is afforded, for
instance, by a kind of grass [Spinifex squarrosus), in which the mass
of inflorescence, forming a large round head, is thus driven for miles
over the dry sands of Australia until it comes to a damp place, when
it expands and soon strikes root.

So, again, the Anastatica hierochuntica, or "rose of Jericho," a
small annual with rounded pods, which frequents sandy places in
Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, when dry, curls itself up into a ball or round
cushion, and is thus driven about by the wind until it finds a damp
place, when it uncurls, the pods open, and sow the seeds.

These cases, however, in which the seeds are rolled by the wind
along the ground are comparatively rare. There are many more in
which seeds are wafted through the air. If you examine the fruit of
a sycamore you will find that it is provided with a wing-like expansion,
in consequence of which, if there is any wind when it falls, it is, though
rather heavy, blown to some distance from the parent tree. Several
cases are shown in Fig. 12 ; for instance, the maple, a, sycamore, 5,
hornbeam, d, elm, e, birch, /*, pine, g, fir, A, and ash, ^, while in the lime,
c, the whole bunch of fruits drops together, and the " bract," as it is
called, or leaf of the flower-stalk, serves the same purpose.

In a great many other plants the same result is obtained by flat-
tened and expanded edges. A beautiful example is afforded by the
genus TJiysanocarpus, a North American crucifer ; Th. lacmiatub has
a distinctly winged pod ; in T. ciirvipes the wings are considerably
larger ; lastly, in T. elegans and T. radians the pods are still further
developed in the same direction, T. radians having the wing very
broad, while in T. elegans it has become thinner and thinner in places,
until at length it shows a series of perforations. Among our common
wild plants we find winged fruits in the dock [Rumex) and in the
common parsnip (Pastinaca). But though in these cases the object
to be obtained namely, the dispersion of the seed is effected in a

ON FRUITS AND SEEDS.

169

similar manner, there are differences which might not at first be sus-
pected. Thus in some cases, as, for instance, the pine, it is the seed
itself which is winged ; in Thlaspi arvense it is the pod ; in Entada^
a leguminous plant, the pod breaks up into segments, each of which is

Fig. 12. a, maple; 6, sycamore ; c, lime ; <Z, hornbeam ; ^, elm ; /, birch ; g^ pine; A, fir ; i, ash.

winged ; in Nissolia the extremity of the pod is expanded into a flat-
tened wing ; lastly, in the lime, as already mentioned, the fruits drop
off in a bunch, and the leaf at the base of the common flower-stalk, or
" bract," as it is called, forms the wing.

In Gouania retinaria of Rodriguez the same object is effected in
another manner ; the cellular tissue of the fruit crumbles and breaks
away, leaving only the vascular tissue, which thus forms a net inclos-
ing the seed.

Another mode, which is frequently adopted, is the development of
long hairs. Sometimes, as in Clematis, Anemone, Dryas, these hairs
take the form of a long, feathery awn. In others the hairs form a tuft

I/O

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

or crown, which botanists term a pappus. Of this the dandelion and
John Go-to-bed-at-noon, so called from its habit of shutting its flowers
about mid-day, are well-known examples. Tufts of hairs, which are
themselves sometimes feathered, are developed in a great many Com-
posites, though some, as, for instance, the daisy and lapsana, are with-
out them : in some very interesting species, of which the common
Thrincia hirta of our lawns and meadows is one, there are two kinds
of fruits, as shown in Fig. 13, b, one with a pappus and one without.
The former are adapted to seek " fresh woods and pastures new," while
the latter stay and perpetuate the race at home.

A more or less similar pappus is found among various English
plants in the Epilobium (Fig. 13, a), Thrincia (Fig. 13, b), Tamarix

Fig. 13. a, willow herb {Epilohium) ; b, two forms of seed of Thrincia hirta ; c, Tamarix ; d, wil-
low {Salix) ; , cotton grass {Eriophorum) ;/, bulrush {Typha).

(Fig. 13, c), willow (Fig. 13, d), cotton-grass (Fig. 13, e), and bulrush
(Fig. 13,y) ; wliile in exotic species there are many other cases as, for
instance, the beautiful oleander. As in the wings, so also in that of
the pappus, it is by no means always the same part of the plant which
develops into the crown of hairs. Thus in the Valerians and Com-

SUNSTROKE AND SOME OF ITS SEQUELAE. 171

posites it is the calyx ; in the bulrush the perianth ; in Epilobium the
crown of the seed ; in the cotton-grass it is supposed to represent the
perianth ; while in some, as, for instance, in the cotton-plant, the
whole outer surface of the seed is clothed with long hairs. Some-
times, on the contrary, the hairs are very much reduced in number, as,
for instance, in some species of ^schynanthus, where there are only
three, one on one side and two on the other. In this case, moreover,
the hairs are very flexible, and wrap round the wool of any animal
with which they may come in contact, so that they form a double
means of dispersion.

In other cases seeds are wafted by water. Of this the cocoanut
is one of the most striking examples. The seeds retain their vitality
for a considerable time, and the loose texture of the husk protects
them and makes them float. Every one knows that the cocoanut is
one of the first plants to make its appearance on coral islands, and it
is, I believe, the only palm which is common to both hemispheres.

The seeds of the common duckweeds {Lemna) sink to the bottom
of the water in autumn, and remain there throughout the winter ; but
in the spring they rise up to the surface again, and begin to grow.
Fortnightly Remew.

[To he continued.^

-^*^^

SUJS'STEOKE AXD SOME OF ITS SEQUELS.

By Sir JOSEPH FAYREE, M. D., F. E. S.

"1 TNDER the designations of sunstroke, coiqxie-soleil, heat-apo-
vJ plexy, heat-asphyxia, thermic fever, ardent fever, insolation, and
others, are included certain pathological states which, though differing
from each other materially, are not unfrequently confounded.

1. There is simple syncope from exhaustion caused by heat.

2. A condition analogous to shock, due to the action of the direct
rays of a powerful sun on the brain and cord ; the nerve-centers, espe-
cially the respiratory, are affected ; respiration and circulation rapidly
fail, and death may result ; recovery is frequent, though not always
perfect.

3. Overheating of the whole body, blood, and nerve-centers, either
from direct exposure to the sun's rays, or, more frequently, to a high
temperature out of them ; causing vaso-motor paralysis and intense
pyrexia (fever) ; respiration and circulation fail, and asphyxia fol-
lows. Recovery frequently occurs, but is often incomplete, owing
to structural changes in the centers, giving origin to a variety of
symptoms indicative of lesions of a grave character.

The cases of simple exhaustion and syncope may occur during

172 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

great fatigue or over-exertion, or when there is depression of vital
power from any cause during exposure to a high temperature. There
is depression of nerve-force and of muscular power ; the skin is pale,
cold, and moist, the pulse feeble. Death may occur in this state from
failure of the heart ; but complete recovery more frequently occurs.
Asphyxia and apnoea (stoppage of the breath) may come on after pre-
monitory symptoms of depression and weakness, during exposure of
the head and spine to the direct rays of a powerful sun, when the
atmosphere is much heated, and the nervous energy is depressed by
over-fatigue, illness, or dissipation. The brain and respiratory nerve-
centers are overwhelmed by the sudden rise of their temperature, and
respiration and circulation fail.

Recovery, though frequently complete, is sometimes tedious and
occasionally imperfect, ending in serious impairment of health or in-
tellect.

The symptoms of this form of sunstroke are those of sudden and
violent derangement of the nerve-centers, unconsciousness, cold shivers,
feeble pulse ; all the signs of depression, terminating in death by shock ;
or fatal reaction may result with a variety of conditions pointing to
injury to the cerebro-spinal system. In another class of cases there is
ardent fever, the body generally, including the nerve-centers, is heated
intensely ; this may occur quite independently of the direct action of
the sun's rays. It comes on frequently at night, or in the shade, in a
building or tent, especially in persons who are depressed by fatigue,
bad air, overfeeding, alcoholic stimulants and the consequent depres-
sion, want of rest, illness, and notably when the air is impure from
overcrowding, or from insufficiency of cubic space.

The temperature of the body may rise to 108-110 ; respiration
and circulation fail ; there are hurried, gasping respiration, great rest-
lessness ; pungently hot skin, sometimes dry, occasionally moist. The
pulse varies ; in some it is full and laboring, in others quick and jerk-
ing ; the head, face, and neck are livid and congested ; the carotid
pulsation is very perceptible ; the pupils, at first contracted, dilate
widely before death. Coma, stertor, delirium, convulsions frequently
epileptiform in character, with relaxation of sphincter, and suppres-
sion of urine these are the precursors of death by asphyxia, and it
may be that there is cerebral haemorrhage.

Such are the cases to which the term heat-apoplexy is given ; and a
large proportion of the fatal attacks among Europeans in India are so
caused. Recovery may partially occur, to be followed by relapse and
death, or secondary consequences, the result of tissue-change, may
destroy life or impair health and intellect at a later period. The pre-
monitory symptoms of this form of the disease may appear some hours
or even days before the dangerous condition just described supervenes.
There may be general malaise, disordered secretions, profuse and fre-
quent micturition, restlessness, insomnia (sleeplessness), apprehension

SUNSTROKE AND SOME OF ITS SEQUELS. 173

of impending evil, hurried and shallow breathing, disturbance about
the heart, gasping, giddiness, headache, occasionally nausea or vom-
iting, thirst, anorexia (want of appetite), feverishness, which soon
amounts to fervent heat of skin ; the surface may be dry or moist,
the pulse varies ; and these conditions gradually become aggravated
and frequently are worse at night, when the patient passes into a state
of unconsciousness and dies.

The symptoms point to a profoundly disturbed state of the cerebro-
spinal nerve-centers, and to pathological changes in the organs whose
functions have been so greatly disturbed.

Death is caused by asphyxia and apnoea, and in some cases probably
by cerebral haemorrhage. Recovery is often incomplete, resulting in
permanent impairment of health, and generally in intolerance of heat
and of exposure to the sun. These morbid conditions being due to
heat alone, are liable to occur whenever there is exposure to a high
temperature, whether solar or artificial. Soldiers marching or fight-
ing, when oppressed by weight of clothing or accoutrements, are apt
to suffer either from simple heat-exhaustion or from that form of
insolation which results from direct action of a powerful sun on the
head and spine. Soldiers, laborers, artificers, and people in factories,
heated rooms, hospitals, barracks, tents, and even ships, may suffer
from heat-exhaustion, which may pass into the same dangerous
condition of heat-asphyxia. People in the hay-field, or otherwise
exposed to great heat, especially if they have indulged in excess of
alcoholic stimulants and food, may suffer. Weak persons with defec-
tive hearts may die in this state of syncope. Soldiers or others, when
exposed to great heat, may drop out of the ranks, fall in a state of
syncope and die on the spot, or pass into a state of coma and die later ;
or they may recover, after being in great danger, with damaged nerve-
centers, and are rendered quite unfit for further service, or even resi-
dence in a hot climate. These cases occur on exposure to the direct
action of the sun's rays when the atmospheric temperature is also high,
and especially when unusual exertion is made, or when the individual
is depressed by previous illness or the exhaustion due to dissipation,
intemperance, or even undue indulgence in stimulants.

But the most serious cases are those that come on under cover by
night as well as by day, and apart from the direct solar rays. Heat
alone, especially when the atmosphere is loaded with moisture so as to
prevent evaporation from the person, is the real cause of the disease.

Vigorous, healthy persons of moderately spare frame, with sound
viscera, and who are of temperate habits, if the atmosphere be pure
and moderately dry, can sustain a great amount of heat. Acclimatiza-
tion has also some influence in conferring toleration. Fresh arrivals
in the tropics are more prone to suffer than those who have become
accustomed to the climate, and have learned how to protect them-
selves. It is well known that a native can bear an amount of sun on

174 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his bare head and naked body with indifference, almost pleasure, that
would rapidly prostrate a European. But when the temperature rises
above a certain standard all succumb^ and natives of India suffer and
die like others in numbers every year from loo mama (hot-wind
stroke).

The extent and duration of the toleration of heat depend much on
the vigor of constitution and actual state of health. The refrigerat-
ing powers of the body, when in health, enable it to support a very
high temperature, considerably above that of the blood. Thus, in the
hot winds little inconvenience is felt so long as perspiration is free,
but, when that fails, suffering soon ensues, and the danger is great.

In the fourteenth annual report of the Sanitary Commissioner with
the Government of India, 1877, it is stated that two hundred and
thirty-five cases of heat-apoplexy and sunstroke occurred in the army
in India, of which seventy were fatal. Of those who recover, or rather
do not die, many are permanently injured, and remain invalids for the
rest of life, which is frequently shortened by the changes induced.

No remarkable morbid change is observed in cases where death
has occurred suddenly. The heart may be firmly contracted, and the
lungs and brain and its membranes .congested, but not invariably, for
sometimes the reverse conditions exist ; and the blood is dark and
clotted, its coagulability is impaired, and it is deficient in oxygen. In
death from ordinary cases of thermic fever or insolation, the pulmo-
nary system is often deeply congested ; the heart is firmly contracted
with coagulation of myosin ; the venous system is engorged ; the body
may be marked with livid patches ; the blood shows a tendency to a
separation of its fluid and solid constituents, and may be acid in reac-
tion ; and the body retains a high temperature for some time after
death. The brain and membranes may be congested, but the disease
is essentially asphyxia, not apoplexy.

In cases of simple exhaustion, remove the person to a cooler place,
if possible. Give a douche, but not too prolonged, or it may over-
depress. A stimulant may be useful ; rouse, and gently stimulate ;
remove tight and oppressive clothing. Treat as in ordinary fainting
apply ammonia to nostrils, etc. Let the patient rest, and avoid expos-
ure to over-fatigue or to great heat. In the form of sunstroke where
the person is struck down suddenly by a hot sun, remove him into the
shade, and allow a douche of cold water to fall from a height on his
head and body. This should be freely resorted to, the object being
twofold to reduce the temperature of the over-heated centers, and to
rouse by reflex action. During the assault on the " White-House
picket," at the capture of Rangoon in 1853, numbers of men were
struck down by the fierce April sun. They were brought to me, and
laid out in rows, perfectly unconscious, in their red coats and black
leather stocks. They nearly all recovered for the time, at all events
under the influence of the douche, freely applied over the head and

SUNSTROKE AND SOME OF ITS SEQUELyE. 175

body. In some cases rousing by flagellation with the sweeper's broom
was added with great effect, especially in the case of Brigadier-Gen-
eral W , who I thought must have died. All, or nearly all, recov-
ered, except two, both of whom had been bled on the spot before I
saw them.

In addition to the douche, stimulants, such as mustard-plasters, to
various parts of the body, legs, abdomen, etc., and stimulating injec-
tions, which relieve the loaded bowels and at the same time rouse, may
be useful.

When I say such cases recovered, I refer to the reaction at the
time. In some there were consecutive symptoms of fever, headache,
etc. ; and, were we able to trace their subsequent history, we should
probably find that complete recovery never occurred. If recovery is
incomplete, and followed by indications of disordered nerve-centers or
of meningitis, other treatment of a more active character will be need-
ed, according to the conditions.

Future exposure to the sun should be carefully guarded against,
dnd, unless recovery has been rapid and complete, the sufferer, if in
India or the tropics, should be removed to a cooler climate, where he
should be protected from all excitement of mind or body, and the
greatest care be taken not only to avoid all errors or excesses of diet,
but also of stimulants.

In the graver cases of thermic fever, or heat-asphyxia, heat being
the primary cause of the disease, the object is to reduce temperature
as speedily as possible and before tissue-changes have been caused.
Remedies adapted to fevers may be used sometimes with advantage.
Bleeding has now happily been abandoned except in rare and peculiar
cases. The treatment, generally, consists in the judicious application
of cold by affusion, or by ice, taking care not to reduce temperature
too low. Great care should be taken not to prolong the cold applica-
tion too far, as danger would attend continued depression of the tem-
perature below the normal standard of blood-heat. The bowels should
be relieved, and blisters may be applied to the scalp and neck, though
I can not but say I have not much faith in their eflicacy. In the
epileptiform convulsions that so frequently occur, the inhalation of
chloroform may be useful, but its administration must be carefully
watched. The earliest and most severe symptoms having subsided,
the febrile condition that follows is to be treated on ordinary princi-
ples ; the diet must be carefully regulated. As improvement pro-
gresses, symptoms of intra-cranial mischief may begin to supervene ;
where the indications are of meningitis, iodide of potash and counter-
irritation may be of service ; removal to a cooler climate is essential.

The sequelse of sunstroke are often very distressing, and render
the patient a source of anxiety and suffering to himself and to his
friends.

Among them are, in various degrees of intensity, irritability, im-

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

paired memory, epilepsy or epileptiform attacks, headache, mania, par-
tial or complete paraplegia (paralysis of the lower half of the body),
partial or complete blindness, extreme intolerance of heat, especially
of the sun's rays, rendering a person otherwise fairly healthy quite
incapable of living in hot climates or of enduring any exposure to the
sun ; or, the attack may gradually end in complete fatuity, dementia,
or epilepsy, perchance both ; chronic meningitis, with thickening of
the calvarium, accounting for the intense pains in the head ; or, in a
lesser degree, in disordered nervous condition and general functional
derangement.

The less severe symptoms those probably of the slighter forms
of meningitis, or of cerebral change occasionally pass away after
protracted residence in a cold climate ; they are, however, not unfre-
quently the cause of suffering, and of danger to and shortening of
life, pointing to permanently disturbed if not structurally altered
cerebro-spinal centers. Abridged from Brain.

--

THE YALUE OF OUE FOEESTS.

By N. E. EGLESTON.

IT may be considered as now established, by the most careful and
intelligent investigation of the subject, that the highest welfare of
almost any country demands that from one fifth to one fourth of its
surface shall be covered with trees, and that these shall be, to a good
degree, in masses. England will at once be adduced, perhaps, as a
country not well wooded, and yet one which compares favorably with
others in regard to the conditions of living and her competency to
secure the welfare of all classes of her people. But England is spe-
cially favored in other respects. She has a moist and equable climate
secured to her by her surrounding seas and high latitude, while the
general shape of her surface and her geological constitution exempt
her from the alternations of flood and drought which in so many other
countries result from the absence of forests.

Whether the forests insure a greater rainfall in their vicinity than
is received upon an equal area of open land has been disputed among
scientific men, though the preponderance of opinion now seems to
favor the conclusion that the rainfall is most abundant in wooded re-
gions. This corresponds also with the prevalent belief of the common
people, the unscientific but practical observers.

A special committee of the Royal Academy of Vienna, reporting
in 1874 upon a " Memoir of Mr. Hofrath Wex upon the Diminution of
the Water of Rivers and Streams," used the following language upon
this particular point : " The question of the influence of forests upon

THE VALUE OF OUR FORESTS. ijj

the amount of precipitation has for some time engaged the attention of
naturalists. Such an influence has been asserted, partly from theoretic
considerations and partly on account of the entire change presented by
the climatic relations of the countries in which the forests have disap-
peared. ... It is probable that such influence exists ; but while on
the one hand its consequences may be over-estimated, on the other hand
there is want of direct proof, inasmuch as the rain measurements have
been continued for too short a time, both at stations situated within
the woods and outside of them in the open fields. . . .

" The commission consequently concluded that an influence of the
woods upon the amount of rain deposited, and especially upon the yearly
contribution, is probable, although direct observation does not give suffi-
cient evidence to determine its extent, or positively its existence."

Dr. Rogers, of Mauritius, gives this testimony : "So late as 1864
the island was resorted to by invalids from India, as the * pearl ' of the
Indian Ocean it being then one mass of verdure. But, when the for-
ests were cleared to gain space for sugar-cultivation, the rainfall
diminished, tl^e rivers dwindled down to muddy streams, the water
became stagnant in cracks, crevices, and natural hollows, while the
equable temperature of the island entirely changed, drought was expe-
rienced in the midst of the ocean, and thunder-showers were rarely
any longer witnessed. . . . The hills were subsequently planted with
trees, and the rivers and streams resumed their former dimensions."

The Island of Ascension was formerly almost a barren rock. The
supply of water was very scanty, derived solely from a few springs,
and water was often brought from the Cape of Good Hope, and even
from England, for the needs of the garrison. About twenty-five years
ago the planting of trees and shrubs and the cultivation of the soil
were undertaken vigorously. The water-supply has increased with the
progress of this work, until now it is excellent, and the garrison and
ships visiting the island are supplied with abundance of water and
vegetables of various kinds.

Observations in France by M. Fautrat, reported to the Academy
of Sciences, showed that, in a dense wood of five hundred hectares, a
rain-gauge fixed on a tall poplar received much more water than one
of similar height three hundred metres beyond the borders of the
woods. Experiments continued during two years confirmed the first
results, and an instrument placed over a forest of Pimis sylvestris, at
twelve metres' elevation, received ten per cent, more water than one at
the same height in the open fields.

But, however the case may be as to the effect of forests upon the
amount of rainfall, there can be no doubt that they secure a more
equable distribution of the rains than is usual in the open country.
They are also great storehouses of moisture. By their myriad leaves
they intercept the moisture of the passing clouds or the damp winds,
and convey it to the ground, or hold it within their embrace ready to

TOL. XIX. 12

1-8 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

be given out again to a drier atmosphere and to surrounding objects-
It is well known, also, that the leaves of the trees, as they fall from
year to year and decay, form a spongy soil, which absorbs the rains
that fall upon it, and retains them, when otherwise, where there is any
declivity, the water would run off almost immediately. The roots of
the trees, likewise, penetrating deeply into the ground, conduct a con-
siderable portion of the moisture falling from the clouds far below the
spongy surface-soil.* Shaded by the leaves and branches of the trees,
the moisture thus stored up is not soon evaporated, as it would be
from the open ground, but passes off slowly into the surrounding air,
and imparts its benefits in the largest measure to the adjacent lands.

While thus sending out their moisture upon the cultivated fields
around them, and thereby favoring the growing crops, the forests aid
the work of husbandry in another way. By their very mass they
serve as a mechanical barrier against the winds, which are often so
injurious to crops. Every one who has visited the forest with any
frequency knows that he is obliged to go but a short distance within
its borders to escape the influence of even a violent wind. So it is
also well known that the woodmen engaged in felling trees in the
forest, which they usually do in the winter, find no inconvenience
from cold winds, as these penetrate the wood but a short distance,
even when the trees are stripped of their leaves. And as the woods
shelter those within them from the winds, so do they protect the
adjacent fields from the blasts which would otherwise sweep over
them, and, by their cold, their mechanical force, and their desiccating
influence, prove very injurious to crops. The presence of a forest is
often, on this account, in its effect upon adjacent lands, equivalent to
a change of latitude of several degrees. This is sufiicient to make
the cultivation of certain crops successful which otherwise could
not be undertaken. There are districts of France and Italy where
the olive and the orange once flourished, but where now, on account
of the change of climate resulting from the extensive removal of the
forests which formerly abounded, they can no longer be grown with
success. It is not going too far to say that, if one fourth of the land
now under cultivation were converted into forests and groves so dis-
posed as to form barriers against the coldest and strongest or most
prevalent winds, the remaining three fourths would have more value
for agricultural purposes than the whole has at present. This would
result from the greater variety of crops which could be raised, their
earlier maturity, the greater certainty of growth, and the larger ag-
gregate yield, while there would be, in addition, the large product of
the forest itself, to be used, as occasion might demand, for fuel and
lumber.

The effect of trees in preventing or diminishing the evaporation
from the ground caused by the passage of drying winds is far from
being j^roperly appreciated. We often speak of the effect of wind in

THE VALUE OF OUR FORESTS. 179

drying muddy roads as being greater than that of sunshine, while we
fail to recognize the fact that the desiccating effect is the same upon
the fields as upon the roads.

Forests have a very obvious influence also in preventing the occur-
rence of floods and droughts. When the rains fall upon the open,
un wooded country, unless it is of a quite level character, they flow
off at once into the beds of the neighboring streams, and pour their
united flood into the larger rivers, swelling their volume rapidly to
such an extent that their waters can not be confined within their
banks, but break out and overspread the adjacent lands, carrying de-
struction oftentimes to the growing crops, covering fertile fields with
masses of gravel and rubbish of various sorts, interfering with manu-
facturing interests, and often destroying life itself. These floods are
succeeded by periods of drought. The flow of water in the streams
shrinks away, often leaving their beds almost dry. As a consequence,
crops and herds suffer, the mill-wheels are stopped or turn but slowly
and feebly, the transportation of merchandise is impeded, and the va-
rious industries of life suffer. The forests prevent such a deplorable
condition of things. The spongy soil formed by their fallen leaves,
accumulated for years, retains the rain which falls upon it as in a great
reservoir, and obliges it to flow off gradually instead of with a sudden
flood. The difference in the operation in the two cases may be likened
to that between the flow of the rain from a smoothly shingled house-
roof and from one covered with thatch. In the one case the water
runs at once to the ground without any impediment. In the other it
sinks into the straw to a considerable depth and trickles thence for
days perhaps after the rain has ceased to fall. So, our hillsides and
mountain-slopes, where the forests are most usually found, are the
world's great roofs or water-sheds, from which, if they are thatched
with trees, the water flows off slowly and in the most desirable man-
ner into the streams and upon the lands of the regions below, but,
if stripped of this protecting covering, then with sudden and disastrous
flood which no art of man can withstand.

This is well illustrated by the report of the effect of a storm in
two neighboring ravines in the valley of the Durance in southeastern
France, the Ravine de St. Phalez and the Ravine de la Combe d'Yeuse.
St. Phalez runs north and south, has a basin of reception fifty hectares
(one hundred and twenty-five acres) in extent, is well cultivated and
has an argillaceous soil. Combe d'Yeuse is much more steep, has a
basin of reception of two hundred and fifty hectares (seven hundred
and twenty-five acres), and is covered with pines and oaks. In other
respects the two ravines are alike.

In September, 1864, an abundant rainfall took place. On the
morning after the rain the ravine of St. Phalez was flowing with a
small stream. The Combe d'Yeuse was dry. During the day a water-
spout struck the mountain and prevailed for not more than forty min-

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

utes ; hardly bad it begun wben tbe torrent of St. Pbalez became
awful ; it filled the ravine from bank to bank, seizing and carrying
off rocks which had been used to form a road, which was considered
safe against all contingencies. At the same time, that of Combe
d'Yeuse and all those traversing wooded lands remained dry or car-
ried a comparatively insignificant quantity of water.

The forest conservator describes a second scene on the same spot
in the following October. In a few minutes after the rain began, the
torrent of St. Phalez gushed forth with the same destructive effect as
before. But after an entire day of rain a small stream appeared com-
ing down the Ravine d'Yeuse, which increased for three days and then
for two declined. The only damage done was to a little footpath.
" Thus we have," says the reporter. " two torrents very near to each
other, and exposed to the same conditions, except that the basin
drained by the one comprises fifty hectares of cultivated lands, that
of the other two hundred and fifty hectares of woodlands. The first
receives and allows to flow away the waters of the greater part of a
storm in a few hours at most, causing thereby considerable damage ;
the second, which has received a greater quantity of rain, stores it
keeps it for two days evidently retaining a portion of it, and takes
three or four days to yield up the surplus, which it does in the form
of a limpid and inoffensive stream."

So also in the colder latitudes, where during the wintry months
the moisture of the atmosphere is precipitated in the form of snow
and accumulates often to a great depth, the conservative influence of
the forest is very obvious. The temperature of the woods is warmer
in winter, as it is cooler in summer, than that of the open ground.
Sheltered from the winds and, to a considerable degree, from the cold,
the snows themselves forming a protecting covering, the earth seldom
freezes in the forest, and the warmth from the ground below gradu-
ally melts the snow and so feeds the springs and streams as to main-
tain in them an equable flow. As the warmer sun and wind of ad-
vancing spring-time begin to heat the surface of the ground, the
screen of the trees prevents their influence from being so sensibly felt
in the woods as in the open fields. The result is, that the snows dis-
solve gradually, and the resultant water, sinking in the first place and
for the most part into the spongy, leafy soil, flows away gently, as do
the rains of summer-time, into the valleys and fields below. But, when
the forests have been removed, the case is very different. The snows,
no longer screened from the sun's rays and the warm winds by the
interposed foliage or even the naked trunks of the trees, are rapidly
dissolved, often before the earth beneath or the ground over which the
waters must flow has been unlocked from the wintry frosts. As a
necessary result, thousands of rivulets are formed almost at once,
which are precipitated into the adjacent streams, whose rapidly in-
creased volumes are hurried to the larger streams below, and thus we

THE VALUE OF OUR FORESTS. 181

have our spring floods, often so destructive to property as well as
life.

There is another aspect in which the forests are to be regarded,
but in which we have hardly begun to consider them properly, and
that is the economical one, as the continuous producers of fuel, and
of lumber for use in the mechanic arts. With our boundless area of
cheap lands, covered originally with forests to such an extent that
the trees have been regarded as an obstruction to agriculture, and so
to be swept away often by fire rather than to await the slower proc-
ess of the axe, we have thought little of the forest as anything of
permanent value. Added to this the practically unlimited area of our
coal-fields has served to prevent any apprehension of loss from the
destruction of the forests. That there is ever to come a time when
we may suffer from a scarcity of wood for fuel or for the arts, hardly
seems to have entered many minds.

Very different is the settled feeling in other countries in respect
to the value of the forests. When in some portions of Europe the
peasant has to travel miles on foot to bring home, as the result of a
whole day's labor, an armful of wood to burn, and can afford to bake
bread but once in six months because fuel is so scarce and dear ; and
when England, with only four or five per cent, of woodland, is gravely
and anxiously figuring out the time when her coal-fields will be ex-
hausted, and her vast manufacturing interest will be at the expense
of purchasing its fuel from other countries or suffer inevitable decline
or extinction the importance of the forest, in an economical as well as
in a political point of view, becomes at once apparent. The coal-fields
are not growing, and never can be made to grow again. They were
deposited ages since, once for all, and, so far as we can see, are to
have no successors or substitutes but the living trees, following each
other from generation to generation.

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the European nations,
having learned its value by its loss in greater or less measure, see
the forest to be an important factor in all that constitutes national
life and comfort, and have given it a place in their thoughts and
in their practical arrangements which we have not in ours. It is not
surprising that they should establish schools for the special purpose
of teaching all that relates to the growth and preservation of the
forest, that they should make it a matter of national and political con-
cern, and that the literature of the subject should be so extensive that
it is estimated that from the German press alone as many as a hundred
volumes and pamphlets on forestry, in some of its aspects, are issued
annually.

Germany has given much attention to her forests ever since the
days of Charlemagne, who is said to have afforested the Ardennes and
established the forest of Osnabrtick. The sovereigns of Germany
have treated the woodlands not merely as preserves for game and

i82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

places for royal enjoyment in its pursuit, but have encouraged their
cultivation for the production of fuel and timber, as well as for their
value in other respects. It will indicate the careful attention given
to the forests in Germany, when we find it officially reported that the
net returns of the forests are from two to twelve thalers per hectare
(two and a half acres), and the value of the land together with its
crop is estimated at fifty-two and a half thalers per hectare.

England, now having a smaller percentage of forest than any coun-
try of Europe, with the exception of Spain and Portugal, was well
wooded at the remotest historical period ; but as early as the thirteenth
century, in the time of Henry III, she found it necessary to import pine-
lumber, and apprehension began to be felt of the failure of the forests.

Hardly anything has been done in England compared with what
has been done in Germany, France, and other Continental countries,
to establish and protect the forests. Individuals have done some-
thing, as for instance the Duke of Athol, who, in the early part of the
present century, planted several thousand acres of the barren hillsides
of Scotland with the larch. His successors in the dukedom have fol-
lowed his worthy example and extended the woodland area, and de-
monstrated that the work of forestry, rightly prosecuted, is pecuni-
arily profitable as well as desirable in other respects. It is only
within the last few years that the English Government has shown any
considerable interest in this subject. Some action has been taken for
the purpose of protecting the forests in her colonies from destruction,
and quite recently a few thousand acres in England itself have been
planted with oaks for the purpose of meeting the future demands of
the navy.

The subject of the preservation of the woods is one of the highest
practical importance. Man has often acted very unwisely in the exer-
cise of his lordship of the forest, and has suffered greatly, and con-
tinues to suffer, in consequence. Great districts once populous, and
powerful as populous, have been almost converted into deserts, some'
of them quite into deserts, and their people diminished in numbers
and in power, as the result of a wanton destruction of their forests.
France and other European countries have been swept by disastrous
floods, or rent by torrents rushing down their mountain-slopes, and
carrying masses of rock and gravel into the valleys and plains below,
because the forests which Avould have held the floods in check have
been recklessly consumed ; and now forest schools are established,
and all the power and wealth of governments are put forth for the
purpose of staying these evil effects, if possible, by replanting the
mountain-sides with trees, and thus restoring the protection which
Nature had originally provided. Climates have been changed for the
worse, the agricultural productiveness of countries has been lessened,
provinces have been depopulated, the health and happiness of nations
have been diminished, by the destruction of the forests ; and now sci-

THE VALUE OF OUR FORESTS. 183

ence and art and governmental authority are invoked to unite their
powers for the purpose of remedying the evil results.

We are treadins^ the same course that other nations have trod.
Says Humboldt, " Men, in all climates, seem to bring upon future gen-
erations two calamities at once a want of fuel and a scarcity of water."
With our comparatively sparse population and our continental stretch
of forest, it has hardly entered our minds that we could be improvi-
dent in the use of our woodlands. It has seemed to us that we had
enough, and that for ever ; and so we have consumed the forests with
a recklessness which has perhaps never been surpassed. We have even
sacrificed them by carelessness, or in the wantonness of a temporary
greed, utterly regardless of the future. Forests which have been the
growth of centuries have been swept off in a day. The lumberman
cuts the few noblest trees, or takes only the choicest portions of them
for the purposes of the arts, and burns the rest to ashes, thereby pre-
cluding another growth upon the spot. The miner does the same, cut-
ting off the already sparse forests, and taking no pains to replace them.
And so it is happening that our forest area, particularly in the more
recently settled portions of the country, is rapidly diminishing. The
opening of the great agricultural regions of the Ohio and the Missis-
sippi Valleys, with their superior attractiveness, has lessened the value
of much of the Eastern lands for the purpose of tillage, and, in some
portions of New England particularly, what were once corn-fields and
pastures, have been abandoned by the cultivator and a growth of trees
has come in. But as a whole our forest area has been diminishing for
a long time, and never more rapidly than within the last decade. Se-
rious evils have already come from this wasting of the woods, but
they have been spread over so wide a stretch of territory that atten-
tion has not been called to them in a way to arouse general attention
or lead to their remedy. Our streams have a diminished flow of water,
while they are marked by alternations of floods and droughts, much
greater than formerly prevailed. They are not navigable for so long
distances, nor for so large a class of boats, as they once were, nor do
they furnish so large or so uniform a supply for the mill-wheels as they
did in earlier times. Changes of climate have also resulted, affecting
the health of the people and the productiveness of the fields. These
effects have been noticed in a multitude of cases. But, in most in-
stances, they have been regarded as isolated and local occurrences,
and have not been attributed to tlieir true cause.

In some of our Western States which are almost treeless, the bene-
ficial influence of forests has been forced upon the attention of the
people. It has been found that life may not be worth living, though
on the richest soil, if that be all. A writer of acknowledged authority,
in a lecture before the Illinois Industrial University, speaking of the
importance of trees as a shelter of crops from injurious winds, says, "I
think it maybe safely estimated that an average of one twelfth part of

i84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

all our crops of grain and large fruits is destroyed by violent windSy
which such a system of protection, or its equivalent in groves, would
so far check as to prevent the destruction." Another, whose words are
quoted in the " Iowa Horticultural Report " for 1875, speaking of the
wintry storms of the Northwest, sometimes known as " blizzards," says,
" More people have been frozen within the last year in north^vestlowa
and west Minnesota than were ever murdered by the Indians in those
counties since their settlement." And he says, in regard to a remedy :
'* I see none that would do but timber-planting. It alone would stop
these terrible winds, modify the climate, and furnish landmarks for
the traveler." So Professor Lacy, of the State University, in an ad-
dress to the Minnesota State Forestry Association, says : " The Minne-
sota State Forestry Association was organized to meet and deal with
the stern realities of facts. It was organized to meet the fact that over
more than one third of the great State of Minnesota the winds rush with
a howling fury and with a bitter cold that neither beast nor fruit-tree
can resist or withstand, and for miles not a single forest-tree rears its
head in protest. It was organized to meet the fact that, in a climate
which affords six months of winter, much of it fearfully severe, there
are thousands of farms on which there does not grow one particle of
fuel, and on which it can not be obtained without the expenditure of
both money and labor by a people often destitute of means. It was
organized to meet the fact that for miles and miles there is not a sin-
gle landmark to guide the benumbed and benighted traveler. It was
organized to meet the fact that to induce human beings to make their
houses on such farms is downright inhumanity. . . . The force of the
winds on our Western prairies can not be conceived of by you who have
always lived within the area of forests. They are simply terrible to
endure and appalling to contemplate. They carry death alike to the
unprotected beast and the more tender forms of arboreal life."

It is not surprising that people living amid such exposures of life
and property, and seeing so manifestly as they do that these are
attributable to the absence of trees, should bestir themselves in seek-
ing the appropriate remedy, that they should organize, as they have
done, forestry associations, appoint arbor-days, and engage the aid of
the State itself in offering bounties for tree-planting, and in exempt-
ing forest plantations for a time from taxation. The latter has been
done in several of the Western States, and already the work of tree-
planting has wrought a perceptible change on many a farm, as to
appearance, comfort of living, and productiveness. But the work
that is needed is a great one, a work not to be accomplished by plant-
ing in a few States or portions of States lines of quick-growing, soft-
wooded trees, which may make tolerable wind-breaks in five or six
years. This is hardly more than a makeshift at the best. The work
is broader and more comprehensive than that, and one which for its
due accomplishment needs an intelligent comprehension of the facts

THE VALUE OF OUR FORESTS. 185

involved in the case, and their far-reaching relations. It is a matter
not of present or local exigency merely, but of general and abiding
importance. The future of the whole country is involved in it.

Champollion is reported as saying in reference to the great desert
of Northern Africa : " And so the astonishing truth dawns upon us
that this desert may once have been a region of groves and fountains,
and the abode of happy millions. Is there any crime against Nature
which draws down a more terrible curse than that of stripping Mother
Earth of her sylvan covering ? The hand of man has produced this
desert, and, I verily believe, every other desert upon the surface of this
earth. Earth was Eden once, and our misery is the punishment of
our sins against the world of plants. The burning sun of the desert
is the angel with the flaming sword who stands between us and para-
dise."

An awakening of general interest on this subject is needed. To this
end the most important step is to get before the people as widely as
possible the facts showing the importance of the forests in their rela-
tions to climate, to water-supply, to floods and droughts, to commerce
and manufactures, to agriculture and to health ; the rapidity wdth
which we are destroying our forests and bringing upon ourselves the
natural and inevitable results of that course. The history of other
nations, as related to their treatment of the forests, should be made
widely known, and the danger that this land, or portions of it, by the
reckless destruction of its forests, may be converted into a desert, as
other lands have been. Thus may we hope to arouse a general inter-
est in the trees, and a disposition to cherish them as our best friends.
Meanwhile, let tree-planting be encouraged. Let it be shown, as it
has been again and again, that much of our poor and what is com-
monly regarded as waste land can be made to yield a handsome profit
by being devoted to the growth of trees ; and that our rough hills and
mountain-sides can thus be made of direct pecuniary value, while at
the same time they are rendered objects of beauty and the means of
protecting our springs, maintaining the flow of our streams, and pro-
moting health and prosperity. With this awakened interest in the
forests, sylviculture will come to be one of our arts. We want an
intelligent and scientific observation of the facts in regard to trees -as
related to our various soils and situations. The adaptation of trees to
one climate or another, their comparative value for one purpose or
another, the obstacles to successful planting these, and many other
things, need to be known as they are not yet known. Some things we
can learn from the experiments which have been made and the knowl-
edge which has been gained in Europe. But so different are the trees
there and here, and so different the conditions of soil and climate,
that the problem set before us is virtually a new one, which must be
worked out carefully and patiently on our own ground. The most
important advance in this direction yet made here, so far as we know.

i86 THE POPULAR SCIEKCE MONTHLY.

has been by the Bussey Institute, in connection with the Arnold
Arboretum, at Brookline, Massachusetts. Under the able and judi-
cious management of Professor Sargent, it has already fine plantations
of forest-trees, has diffused much valuable information in regard to the
growth and importance of trees, and has secured the planting of a
large number in various parts of the country. On the foundation of
such institutions will naturally be built up in due time schools of
instruction in forestry like those of Europe, which will have a recog-
nized and permanent place among us. The European schools of for-
estry will form the subject of another article.

PEODUCTION OF SOUND BY EADIANT ENEEGY.*

By ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.

IN a paper read before the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, last August, I described certain experiments made
by Mr. Sumner Tainter and myself which had resulted in the construc-
tion of a " Photophoney^ or apparatus for the production of sound by
light ; f and it will be my object to-day to describe the progress we
have made in the investigation of photophonic phenomena since the
date of this communication.

In my Boston paper the discovery was announced that thin disks
of very many different substances emitted sounds when exposed to the
action of a rapidly-interrupted beam of sunlight. The great variety
of material used in these experiments led me to believe that sonorous-
ness under such circumstances would be found to be a general property
of all matter.

At that time we had failed to obtain audible effects from masses of
the various substances which became sonorous in the condition of thin
diaphragms, but this failure was explained upon the suj^position that-
the molecular disturbance produced by the light was chiefly a surface
action, and that under the circumstances of the experiments the vibra-
tion had to be transmitted through the mass of the substance in order
to affect the ear. It was therefore supposed that, if we could lead to
the ear air that was directly in contact with the illuminated surface,
louder sounds might be obtained, and solid masses be found to be as
sonorous as thin diaphragms. The first experiments made to verify

*A paper read before the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, April 21, 1881.
(From author's advance-sheets.)

f "Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of Science," August 27,
1880 ; see, also, "American Journal of Science," vol. xx, p. 305 ; " Journal of the American
Electrical Society," vol. iii, j). 3; "Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and
Electricians," vol. ix, p. 40 1 ; " Annales de Chimie et de Physique," vol. xxi.

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 187

this hypothesis pointed toward success. A beam of sunlight was
focused into one end of an open tube, the ear being placed at the
other end. Upon interrupting the beam, a clear, musical tone was
heard, the pitch of which depended upon the frequency of the interrup-
tion of the light and the loudness upon the material composing the tube.

At this stage our experiments were interrupted, as circumstances
called me to Europe.

While in Paris a new form of the experiment occurred to my mind,
which would not only enable us to investigate the sounds produced by
masses, but would also permit us to test the more general proposition
that sonoroitsness, under the iiijlue7ice of internniUent light, is a prop-
erty commo7i to all matter.

The substance to be tested was to be placed in the interior of a
transparent vessel, made of some material which (like glass) is trans-
parent to light, but practically opaque to sound.

Under such circumstances the light could get in, but the sound
produced by the vibration of the substance could not get out. The
audible effects could be studied by placing the ear in communication
with the interior of the vessel by means of a hearing-tube.

Some preliminary experiments were made in Paris to test this idea,
and the results were so promising that they were communicated to the
French Academy on October 11, 1880, in a note read for me by M.
Antoine Breguet.* Shortly afterward I wrote to Mr. Tainter, sug-
gesting that he should carry on the investigation in America, as cir-
cumstances prevented me from doing so myself in Europe. As these
experiments seem to have formed the common starting-point for a
series of independent researches of the most important character, car-
ried on simultaneously, in America by Mr. Tainter, and in Europe by
M. Mercadier,f Professor Tyndall,J: W. E. Rontgen,* and W. H.
Preece,|| I may be permitted to quote from my letter to Mr. Tainter
the passage describing the experiments referred to :

Metropolitan Hotel, Eue Cambon, Paris, November 2, 1880.

Dear Me. Tainter : . . . I have devised a method of producing sounds by
the action of an intermittent beam of light from substances that can not be ob-
tained in the shape of thin diaphragms or in the tubular form ; indeed, the meth-
od is specially adapted to testing the generality of the phenomenon we have dis-
covered, as it can be adapted to solids, liquids, and gases.

Place the substance to be experimented with in a glass test-tube, connect a

* " Comptes Rendus," vol. cxl, p. 595.

f "Notes on Kadiophony " (" Comptes Rendus," December 6 and 13, 1880 ; February
21 and 28, 1881). See, also, " Journal de Physique," vol. x, p. 53.

X "Action of an Intermittent Beam of Radiant Heat upon Gaseous Matter" ("Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society," January 13, 1881, vol. xxxi, p. 307).

^ " On the Tones which arise from the Intermittent Illumination of a Gas." (See
" Annalen der Physik und Chemie," January, 1881, No. 1, p. 155.)

II "On the Conversion of Radiant Energy into Sonorous Vibration "(" Proceedings
of the Royal Society," March 10, 1S81, vol. xxxi, p. 506).

i88

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rubber tube with the mouth of the test-tube, placing the other end of the pipe
to the ear. Then focus the intermittent beam upon the substance in the tube. I
have tried a large number of substances in this way with great success, althougli
it is extremely difficult to get a glimpse of the sun here, and when it does shine
the intensity of the light is not to be compared with that to be obtained in Wash-
ington. 1 got splendid effects from crystals of bichromate of potash, crystals of
sulphate of copper, and from tobacco-smoke. A whole cigar placed in the test-
tube produced a very loud sound. I could not hear anything from plain water,
but when the water was discolored with ink a feeble sound was heard. I would
suggest that you might repeat these experiments and extend the results. . . .

Upon my return to Washington in the early part of January,* Mr.
Tainter communicated to me the results of the experiments he had
made in my laboratory during my absence in Europe.

lie had commenced by examining the sonorous properties of a vast
number of substances inclosed in test-tubes in a simple empirical search
for loud effects. He was thus led gradually to the discovery that cot-
ton-wool, worsted, silk, and fibrous materials generally, produced much
louder sounds than hard, rigid bodies like crystals, or diaphragms such
as we had hitherto used.

In order to study the effects under better circumstances, he inclosed
his materials in a conical cavity in a piece of brass closed by a flat
plate of glass. A brass tube leading into the cavity served for con-
nection with the hearing-tube. When this conical cavity was stuffed
with worsted or other fibrous materials the sounds produced were much
louder than when a test-tube was employed. This form of receiver is
shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Mr. Tainter next collected silks and worsteds of different colors,
and speedily found that the darkest shades produced the best effects.
Black worsted especially gave an extremely loud sound.

As white cotton-wool had proved itself equal, if not superior, to
any other white fibrous material before tried, he was anxious to obtain
colored specimens for comparison. Not having any at hand, however,
he tried the effect of darkening some cotton-wool with lampblack.

* On the '7th of January.

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 189

Such a marked reenforcement of the soudcI resulted that he was in-
duced to try lampblack alone.

About a teaspoonf ul of lampblack was placed in a test-tube and
exposed to an intermittent beam of sunlight. The sound produced
was much louder than any heard before.

Upon smoking a piece of plate-glass, and holding it in the inter-
mittent beam with the lampblack surface toward the sun, the sound
produced was loud enough to be heard, with attention, in any part of
the room. With the lampblack surface turned from the sun, the sound
was much feebler.

Mr. Tainter repeated these experiments for me immediately upon
my return to Washington, so that I might verify his results.

Upon smoking the interior of the conical cavity shown in Fig. 1,
and then exposing it to the intermittent beam, with the glass lid in
position as shown, the effect was perfectly startling. The sound was
so loud as to be actually painful to an ear placed closely against the
end of the hearing-tube.

The sounds, however, were sensibly louder when we placed some
smoked wire-gauze in the receiver, as illustrated in the drawing (Fig. 1).

When the beam was thrown into a resonator, the interior of which
had been smoked over a lamp, most curious alternations of sound and
silence were observed. The interrupting disk was set rotating at a
high rate of speed, and was then allowed to come gradually to rest.
An extremely feeble musical tone was at first heard, which gradually
fell in pitch as the rate of interruption grew less. The loudness of the
sound produced varied in the most interesting manner. Minor reen-
forcements were constantly occurring, which became more and more
marked as the true pitch of the resonator was neared. When at last
the frequency of interruption corresponded to the frequency of the
fundamental of the resonator, the sound produced was so loud that it
might have been heard by an audience of hundreds of people.

The effects produced by lampblack seemed to me to be very ex-
traordinary, especially as I had a distinct recollection of experiments
made in the summer of 1880 with smoked diaphragms, in which no such
reenforcement was noticed.

Upon examining the records of our past photophonic experiments
we found in vol. vii, p. 57, the following note :

Experiment V. Mica diaphragm covered with lampblack on side exposed to
light.

Result : distinct sound about same as without lampblack. A. G. B., July
18, 1880.

Verified the above, but think it somewhat louder than when used without
lampblack. S. T., July 18, 1880.

Upon repeating this old experiment we arrived at the same result
as that noted. Little if any augmentation of sound resulted from

190

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

'c^-VVsSl

smoking the mica. In this experiment the effect was observed by-
placing the .mica diaphragm against the ear, and also by listening
through a hearing-tube, one end of Avhich was closed by the dia-
phragm. The sound was found
to be more audible throuo^h the
free air when the ear was placed
as near to the lampblack sur-
face as it could be brought
without shading it.

At the time of my commu-
nication to the American Asso-
ciation I had been unable to
satisfy myself that the sub-
stances which had become so-
norous under the direct influ-
ence of intermittent sunlight
were capable of reproducing
the sounds of articulate speech
under the action of an undu-
latory beam from our photo-
phonic transmitter. The dif-
ficulty in ascertaining this will
be understood by considering
that the sounds emitted by
/ thin diaphragms and tubes
were so feeble that it was im-
practicable to produce audible
effects from substances in these
conditions at any considerable
distance away from the trans-
mitter ; but it was equally im-
possible to judge of the effects
produced by our articulate
transmitter at a short distance
away, because the speaker's
voice was directly audible
through the air. The extreme-
ly loud sounds produced from
lampblack have enabled us to
demonstrate the feasibility of
using this substance in an ar-
ticulating photophone in place
of the electrical receiver for-
merly employed.

The drawing (Fig. 2) illus-
trates the mode in which the ex-

d

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 191

periment was conducted. The diaphragm of the transmitter (A) was
only five centimetres in diameter, the diameter of the receiver (B) was

CO

6

also five centimetres, and the dis-
tance between the two was forty
metres, or eight hundred times the
diameter of the transmitting dia-
phragm. We were unable to ex-
periment at greater distances with-
out a heliostat, on account of the
difficulty of keeping the light
steadily directed on the receiver.
Words and sentences spoken into
the transmitter in a low tone of
voice were audibly reproduced by
the lampblack receiver.

In Fig. 3 is shown a mode of in-
terrupting a beam of sunlight for
producing distant effects without
the use of lenses. Two similarly-
perforated disks are employed, one
of which is set in rapid rotation,
while the other remains stationary.
This form of interrupter is also
admirably adapted for work with
artificial light. The receiver illus-
trated in the drawing: consists of a
parabolic reflector, in the focus of
which is placed a glass vessel (A)
containing lampblack or other sen-
sitive substance, and connected with

192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a hearing-tube. The beam of light is interrupted by its passage through
the two slotted disks shown at B, and in operating the instrument mu-
sical signals like the dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet are pro-
duced from the sensitive receiver (A) by slight motions of the mirror
(C) about its axis (D).

In place of the parabolic reflector shown in the figure a conical
reflector like that recommended by Professor Sylvanus Thompson * can
be used, in which case a cylindrical glass vessel would be preferable to
the flask (A) shown in the figure.

In regard to the sensitive materials that can be employed, our
experiments indicate that in the case of solids the physical condition
and the color are two conditions that markedly influence the intensity
of the sonorous effects. The loudest sou7ids are produced from sub-
stances in a loose, i^orous, spongy condition, and from those that have
the darkest or most ahsorhent colors.

The materials from which the best effects have been produced are
cotton-wool, worsted, fibrous materials generally, cork, sponge, plati-
num, and other metals in a spongy condition, and lampblack.

The loud sounds produced from such substances may perhaps be
explained in the following manner : Let us consider, for example, the
case of lampblack a substance which becomes heated by exposure
to rays of all refrangibility. I look upon a mass of this substance as
a sort of sponge, with its pores filled with air instead of water. When-
a beam of sunlight falls upon this mass, the particles of lampblack
are heated, and consequently expand, causing a contraction of the air-
sj^aces or pores among them.

Under these circumstances a pulse of air should be expelled, just
as we would squeeze out water from a sponge.

The force with which the air is expelled must be greatly increased
by the expansion of the air itself, due to contact with the heated par-
ticles of lampblack. When the light is cut off, the converse process
takes place. The lampblack particles cool and contract, thus enlarg-
ing the air spaces among them, and the inclosed air also becomes cool.
Under these circumstances a partial vacuum should be formed among
the particles, and the outside air would then be absorbed, as water is
by a sponge when the pressure of the hand is removed.

I imagine that in some such manner as this a wave of condensation
is started in the atmosphere each time a beam of sunlight falls upon
lampblack, and a wave of rarefaction is originated when the light is
cut off. We can thus understand how it is that a substance like lamp-
black p>roduces intense -sonorous vibrations in the surrounding air,
while at the same time it communicates a very feeble vibration to the
diaphragm or solid bed upon ivhich it rests.

This curious fact was independently observed in England by Mr.
Preece, and it led him to question whether, in our experiments with

* "Philosophical Magazine," April, 1881, vol. xi, p. 286.

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 193

thin diaphragms, the sound heard was due to the vibration of the disk
or (as Professor Hughes had suggested) to the expansion and contrac-
tion of the air in contact with the disk confined in the cavity behind the
diaphragm. In his paper read before the Royal Society on the 10th
of March, Mr. Preece describes experiments from which he claims to
have proved that the effects are wholly due to the vibrations of the
confined air, and that the disks do not vibrate at all.

I shall briefly state my reasons for disagreeing with him in this
conclusion :

^ TVhen an intermittent beam of sunlight is focused upon a sheet of hard
rubber or other material, a musical tone can be heard, not only by placing the
ear immediately behind the part receiving the beam, but by placing it against
any portion of the sheet, even though this may be a foot or more from the place
acted upon by the light.

2. When the beam is thrown upon the diaphragm of a " Blake transmitter,"
a loud musical tone is produced by a telephone connected in the same galvanic
circuit with the carbon button (A), Fig. 4. Good effects are also produced when
the carbon button (A) forms, with the battery (B), a portion of the primary cir-
cuit of an induction-coil, the telephone (C) being placed in the secondary circuit.

In these cases the wooden box and mouth-piece of the transmitter should be
removed, so that no air-cavities may be left on either side of the diaphragm.

It is evide7itj therefore, that in the case of thin disks a real vibra-
tion of the diaphragm is caused by the action of the intermittent beam,
independently of any expansion and contraction of the air confined in
the cavity behind the diaphragm.

Lord Rayleigh has shown mathematically that a to-and-fro vibra-
tion, of sufiicient amplitude to produce an audible sound, would result
from a periodical communication and abstraction of heat, and he says :
"We may conclude, I think, that there is at present no reason for dis-
carding the obvious explanation that the sounds in question are due to
the bending of the plates under unequal heating " (" Nature," vol. xxiii,
p. 274). Mr. Preece, however, seeks to prove that the sonorous effects
can not be explained upon this supposition ; but his experimental proof
is inadequate to support his conclusion. Mr. Preece expected that, if
Lord Ray leigh's explanation was correct, the expansion and contraction
of a thin strip under the influence of an intermittent beam could be
caused to open and close a galvanic circuit so as to produce a musical
tone from a telephone in the circuit. But this was an inadequate way
to test the point at issue, for Lord Rayleigh has shown (" Proceedings
of the Royal Society," 1877) that an audible sound can be produced
by a vibration whose amplitude is less than a ten-millionth of a centi-
metre, and certainly such a vibration as that would not have sufliced to
operate a " make-and-break contact" like that used by Mr. Preece.
The negative results obtained by him can not, therefore, be considered
conclusive.

The following experiments (devised by Mr. Tainter) have given re-

VOL. XIX. 13

194

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

rs

m- :\, "^r';>...,^,''''^--'''

-,=r r

suits cleciflodly more favorable to the theory of Lord Rayleigh than to
that of Mr. Preece :

1. A strip (A) similar to that used in Mr. Preece's experiment was attached
firmly to the center of an iron diapliragm (B), as shown in Fig. 5, and was

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 195

then pulled taut at right angles to the plane of the diaphragm. When the inter-
mittent beam was focused upon the strip (A), a clear musical tone could he heard
by applying the ear to the hearing-tube (C).

Fig. 5.

This seemed to indicate a rapid expansion and contraction of the substance
under trial.

But a vibration of the diaphragm (B) would also have resulted if the thin
strip (A) had acquired a to-and-fro motion, due either to the direct impact of
the beam or to the sudden expansion of the air in contact with the strip.

2. To test whether this had been the case, an additional strip (D) was attached
by its central point only to the strip under trial, and was then submitted to the
action of the beam, as shown in Fig. 6.

It was presumed that, if the vibration of the diaphragm (B) had been due to
Si pushing force acting on the strip (A), the addition of the strip (D) would not
interfere with the effect ; but, if, on the other hand, it had been due to the lougi-

Fig. 6.

tudinal expansion and contraction of the strip (A), the sound would cease, or at
least be reduced. The beam of light falling upon the strip (D) was now inter-
rupted as before by the rapid rotation of a perforated disk, which was allowed
to come gradually to rest.

l\o sound was heard excepting at a certain speed of rotation, when a feeble
musical tone became audible.

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This result is confirmatory of the first.

The audibility of the effect at a particular rate of interruption sug-
gests the explanation that the strip D had a normal rate of vibration
of its own.

AVhen the frequency of the interruption of the light corresponded
to this, the strip was probably thrown into vibration after the manner
of a tuning-fork, in which case a to-and-fro vibration would be propa-
gated down its stem or central support to the strip (A).

This indirectly proves the value of the experiment.

The list of solid substances that have been submitted to experiment
in my laboratory is too long to be quoted here, and I shall merely say
that we have not yet found one solid body that has failed to become
sonorous under proper conditions of exj^eriment.*

Experiments with Liquids. The sounds produced by liquids are
much more difiicult to observe than those produced by solids. The
high absorptive power possessed by most liquids would lead one to
expect intense vibrations from the action of intermittent light ; but
the number of sonorous liquids that have so far been found is ex-
tremely limited, and the sounds produced are so feeble as to be heard
only by the greatest attention and under the best circumstances of
experiment. In the experiments made in my laboratory, a very long
test-tube was filled wath the liquid under examination, and a flexible
rubber tube was slipped over the mouth far enough down to prevent the
possibility of any light reaching the vapor above the surface. Pre-
cautions were also taken to prevent reflection from the bottom of the
test-tube. An intermittent beam of sunlight was then focused upon
the liquid in the middle portion of the test-tube by means of a lens of
large diameter.

EESULTS.

Clear water No sound audible.

Water discolored by ink Feeble sound.

Mercury No sound heard.

Sulphuric ether* Feeble but distinct sound.

Ammonia '^ " " "

Ammonio-sulphate of copper " "

Writing-ink ' "

Indigo in sulphuric acid " "

CLloride of copper * " "

The liquids distinguished by an asterisk gave the best sounds.

Acoustic vibrations are always much enfeebled in passing from
liquids to gases, and it is probable that a form of experiment may be
devised which will yield better results by communicating the vibra-
tions of the liquid to the ear through the medium of a solid rod.

* Carbon and thia microscope-glass are mentioned in ray Boston paper as non-
responsive, and powdered chlorate of potash in the communication to the French Acad-
emy (" Comptes Rendus," vol. cxl, p. 595). All these substances have since yielded
sounds under more careful conditions of experiment.

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 197

Experiments with Gaseous Matter. On the 29th of November,
1880, 1 had the pleasure of showing to Professor Tyndall, in the labora-
tory of the Royal Institution, the experiments described in the letter
to Mr. Tainter from which I have quoted above ; and Professor Tyn-
dall at once expressed the opinion that the sounds were due to rapid
changes of temperature in the body submitted to the action of the
beam. Finding that no experiments had been made at that time to
test the sonorous properties of different gases, he suggested filling one
test-tube with the vapor of sulphuric ether (a good absorbent of heat),
and another with the vapor of bisulphide of carbon (a poor absorbent),
and he predicted that if any sound were heard it would be louder in the
former case than in the latter.

The experiment was immediately made, and the result verified the
prediction.

Since the publication of the memoirs of Rontgen * and Tyndall f
we have repeated these experiments, and have extended the inquiry
to a number of other gaseous bodies, obtaining in every case similar
results to those noted in the memoirs referred to.

The vapors of the following substances were found to be highly
sonorous in the intermittent beam : Water-vapor, coal-gas, sulphuric
ether, alcohol, ammonia, amylene, ethyl bromide, diethylamene, mer-
cury, iodine, and peroxide of nitrogen. The loudest sounds were ob-
tained from iodine and peroxide of nitrogen.

I have now shown that sounds are produced by the direct action
of intermittent sunlight from substances in every physical condition
(solid, liquid, and gaseous), and the probability is, therefore, very
greatly increased that sonorousness under 'such circumstances will be
found to be a universal property of matter.

\To te continued. '\

THE DEYELOPMEXT OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

By HERBERT SPENCER.
YII. COMPOUXD POLITICAL HEADS.

IN the preceding chapter on chiefs and kings, we traced the develop-
ment of the first element in that triune political structure which
everywhere shows itself at the outset. We pass now to the develop-
ment of the second element the group of leading men among whom
the chief is, at first, merely the most conspicuous. Under what con-
ditions this so evolves as to subordinate the other two, what causes

* " Annalen der Physik und Cbemie," 1881, No. 1, p. 155.
f " Proceedings of the Royal Society," vol. xxxi, p. 307.

198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

make it narrower, and what causes widen it until it passes into the
third, Ave have here to observe.

If the innate feelings and ajDtitudes of a race have large shares in
determining the size and cohesions of the social groups it forms, still
more must they have large shares in determining the relations which
arise among the members of such groups. While the mode of life
followed tends to generate this or that political structure, its effects
are always complicated by the effects of inherited character. Whether
or not the primitive state, in which governing power is equally dis-
tributed among all warriors or all elders, passes into the state in which
governing power is monopolized by one, depends, in part, on the life of
the group as predatory or peaceful, and in part on the natures of its
members as prompting them to oppose dictation more or less doggedly.
A few facts will make this clear.

The Araf uras (PajDuan-Islanders) who " live in peace and brotherly
love," have no other " authority among them than the decisions of
their elders." Among the harmless Todas "all disputes and questions
of right and wrong are settled either by arbitration or by a Puncha-
yet i. e., a council of five." Of the Bodo and Dhimals, described as
averse to military service, and " totally free from arrogance, revenge,
cruelty, audi fiertej''' we read that though each of their small communi-
ties has a nominal head who pays the tribute on its behalf, yet he is
without j3ower, and " disputes are settled among themselves by juries
of elders." In these cases, besides absence of the causes which bring
about chiefly supremacy, may be noted the presence of causes which
directly hinder it. The Papuans generally, typified by the Arafuras
above named, while they are described by Modera, Ross, and Kolff, as
"good-natured," "of a mild disposition," kind and peaceful to stran-
gers, are said by Earl to be unfit for military action ; " their imj)atience
of control . . . utterly precludes that organization which would en-
able "the Papuans "to stand their ground against encroachments."
The Bodo and Dhimals while " they are void of all violence toward
their own people or toward their neighbors," also " resist injunctions,
injudiciously urged, with dogged obstinacy." And of a kindred "very
fascinating people," the Lepchas, amiable, peaceful, kind, as travelers
unite in describing them, and who will not take service as soldiers,
we are told that they will " undergo great privation rather than sub-
mit to oppression or injustice."

Where the innate tendency to resist coercion is strong, we find
this uncentralized political organization maintained, notwithstanding
the warlike activities which tend to initiate settled chieftainship. The
Nagas " acknowledge no king among themselves, and deride the idea
of such a personage among others " ; their " villages are continually
at feud " ; " every man being his own master, his passions and inclina-
tions are ruled by his share of brute force." And then we further
find that " petty disputes and disagreements about property are settled

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 199

by a council of elders, the litigants voluntarily submitting to their
arbitration. But, correctly speaking, there is not the shadow of a con-
stituted authority in the Naga community, and, wonderful as it may
seem, this want of government does not lead to any marked degree of
anarchy and confusion." Similarly among such peoples, remote in type,
as many of the warlike tribes of North America. Speaking of these
Indians in general, Schoolcraft says that "they all wish to govern,
and not to be governed. Every Indian thinks he has a right to do as
he pleases, and that no one is better than himself ; and he will fight
before he will give up what he thinks right." Of the Comanches, as
an example, he remarks that " the democratic principle is strongly im-
planted in them"; and that for governmental purposes "public coun-
cils are held at regular intervals during the year." Further, we read
that in districts of ancient Central America there existed somewhat
more advanced societies which, though warlike, were impelled by a
kindred jealousy to provide against monopoly of power. The govern-
ment was by an elective council of old men who appointed a war-
chief ; and this war-chief, " if suspected of plotting against the safety
of the commonwealth, or for the purpose of securing supreme power
in his own hands, was rigorously put to death by the council."

Though the specialities of character which thus lead certain kinds
of men in early siages to originate compound political headships, and
to resist, even under the stress of war, the rise of single political head-
ships, are innate, we are not without clews to the circumstances which
have made them innate ; and, with a view to interpretations presently
to be made, it will be useful to glance at these. The Comanches and
kindred tribes, roaming about in small bands, active and skillful horse-
men, have, through long-past periods, been so conditioned as to make
coercion of one man by another difficult. So, too, has it been, though
in another way, with the Nagas. " They inhabit a rough and intri-
cate mountain-range"; and their villages are perched "on the crests
of ridges." Again, very significant evidence is furnished by an inci-
dental remark of Captain Burton to the effect that in Africa, as in Asia,
there are three distinctly marked forms of government military des-
potisms, feudal monarchies, and rude republics ; the rude republics
being those formed by " the Bedouin tribes, the hill people, and the
jungle races." Clearly, the names of these last show that they inhabit
regions which, hindering by their physical characters a centralized
form of government, favor a more diffused form of government, and
the less decided political subordination which is its concomitant.

These facts are obviously related to certain other facts with which
they must be joined. Already evidence has been given that it is rela-
tively easy to form a large society if the country is one within which
all parts are readily accessible, while it has barriers through which
exit is difiicult ; and that, conversely, formation of a large society is
prevented, or greatly delayed, by difficulties of communication within

200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the occupied area, and by facilities of escape from it. But, as we
now see, not only is political integration under its primary aspect of
increasing mass hindered by these last-named physical conditions, but
there is hindrance to the development of a more integrated form of
government. That which impedes social consolidation also impedes
the concentration of political power.

The truth here chiefly concerning us, however, is that the contin-
ued j^resence of the one or the other set of conditions fosters a char-
acter to which either the centralized or the diffused kind of political
organization is appropriate. Existence, generation after generation,
in a region where despotic control has arisen, produces an adapted
type of nature ; partly by daily habit and partly by survival of those
most fit for living under such control. Contrariwise, in a region
favoring maintenance of their independence by small groups, there is
a strengthening, through successive ages, of sentiments averse to re-
straint ; since not only are these sentiments exercised in all by resist-
ing the efforts from time to time made to subordinate them, but, on
the average, those who most pertinaciously resist are those who, re-
maining unsubdued, and transmitting their characters to posterity,
determine the tribal character.

Having thus glanced at the effects of the factors, external and in-
ternal, as displayed in simple tribes, we shall understand how they
cooperate when, by migration or otherwise, such tribes fall into cir-
cumstances which favor the growth of large societies.

The case of an uncivilized people of the nature described, who
have in recent times shown what occurs when union of small groups
into great ones is prompted, will best initiate the interpretation.

The Iroquois nations, each made up of many tribes previously
hostile, had to defend themselves against European invaders. Com-
bination for this purpose among these five (and finally six) nations
necessitated a recognition of equality of power among them ; since
agreement to join would not have been arrived at had it been required
that some divisions should be subject to others. The groups had to
cooperate on the understanding that their " rights, privileges, and
obligations " should be the same. Though the numbers of permanent
and hereditary sachems appointed by the respective nations to form
the Great Council, differed, yet the voices of the several nations were
equal. Omitting details of the organization, we have to note first,
tliat for many generations, notwithstanding the wars which this
league carried on, its constitution remained stable no supreme indi-
vidual arose ; and, second, that this equality of power among the
groups coexisted with inequality within each group : the people had
no share in its government.

A clew is thus furnished to the genesis of those compound head-
ships with which ancient history familiarizes us. We are enabled to

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS, 201

see how there came to coexist, in the same societies, some institutions
of a despotic kind, with other institutions of a kind appearing to be
based on the principle of equality, and often confounded with free
institutions. Let us recall the antecedents of those early European
peoples who developed governments of this form.

During the wandering pastoral life, subordination to a single head,
growing naturally out of fatherhood, was fostered. A recalcitrant
member of any group had either to submit to the authority under
which he had grown up, or, throwing ofl: its yoke, had to leave the
group and face those risks which unprotected life in the desert threat-
ened. The establishment of this subordination was furthered by the
more frequent survival of groups in which it was greatest ; since, in
the conflicts between groups, those of which the members were in-
subordinate, ordinarily being both smaller and less able to cooperate
effectually, were the more likely to disappear. But now, to the fact
that in such families and clans circumstances fostered obedience to
the father and to the patriarch, has to be added the fact above em-
phasized, that circumstances also fostered the sentiment of liberty in
the relations between clans. The exercise of power by one of them
over another was made diflicult by wide scattering and by great mo-
bility ; and with successful opposition to external coercion, or evasion
of it, carried on through numberless generations, the tendency to re-
sent and resist all strange authority was likely to become strong.

Whether, when groups thus disciplined aggregate, they assume
this or that form of political organization, depends partly, as already
implied, on the conditions into which they fall. Even could we omit
those differences between Mongols, Semites, and Aryans, established
in prehistoric times by causes unknown to us even had complete
likeness of nature been produced in them by long continuance of pas-
toral life yet large societies, formed by combinations of these small
ones, could be similar in type only under similar circumstances.
Hence, probably, the reason why Mongols and Semites, where they
have settled and multiplied, have failed to maintain the autonomies of
their hordes after combination of them, and to evolve the resulting
institutions. Even the Aryans, among whom chiefly the less concen-
trated forms of political rule have arisen, yield an illustration. Origi-
nally inheriting in common the mental traits generated during their
life in the Hindoo-Koosh and its neighborhood, the different divisions
of the race have developed different institutions and accompanying
characters. Those of them who spread into the plains of India, where
great fertility made possible a large population, to the control of which
there were small physical impediments, lost their independence of
nature, and did not evolve political systems like those which grew up
among their Western kindred, under conditions favorable for main-
taining the original character.

The implication is, then, that where groups of the patriarchal type

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fall into regions permitting considerable growth of population, but
having physical structures which impede the centralization of power,
compound political headships will arise, and for a time sustain them-
selves, through cooperation of the two factors independence of local
groups and need for union in war. Let us consider some examples.

The island of Crete has numerous his^h mountain-valleys containingr
good pasturage, and provides many seats for strongholds seats which
ruins prove that the ancient inhabitants utilized. Similarly with the
mainland of Greece. A complicated mountain system cuts off its parts
from one another and renders each difficult of access. Especially is
this so in the Peloponnesus ; and, above all, in the part occupied by
the Spartans. It has been remarked that the state which possesses
both sides of Taygetus has it in its power to be master of the penin-
sula : " It is the Acropolis of the Peloponnese, as that country is of
the rest of Greece."

When, over the earlier inhabitants, there came the successive waves
of Hellenic conquerors, these brought with them the type of nature
and organization common to the Aryans, displaying the united traits
above described. Such a people, taking possession of such a land,
inevitably fell in course of time " into as many independent clans as
the country itself was divided by its mountain-chains into valleys and
districts." From separation there resulted alienation ; so that those
remote from one another, becoming strangers, became enemies. In
early Greek times the clans, occupying mountain villages, were so
liable to incursions from one another that the planting of fruit-trees
was a waste of labor. There existed a state like that seen at present
among such Indian hill tribes as the Kagas.

Though preserving the tradition of a common descent, and owning
allegiance to the oldest male representative of the patriarch, a people
spreading over a region which thus cut off from one another even
adjacent small groups, and still more those remoter clusters of groups
arising in course of generations, would inevitably become disunited in
government : subjection to a general head would be more and more
difficult to maintain, and subjection to local heads would alone con-
tinue practicable. Moreover, there must arise, under such conditions,
increasing causes of insubordination, as well as great difficulties in
maintaining subordination. When the various branches of a common
family spread into localities so shut off from one another as to prevent
intercourse, their respective histories, and the lines of descent of their
respective heads, must become unknown, or but partially known, to
one another ; and claims to supremacy made now by this local head
and now by that are certain to be disputed. AVhen we remember
how, even in settled societies having records, there have been perpetual
conflicts about rights of succession, and how, down to our own day,
there are frequent lawsuits to decide on heirships to titles and proper-

COMPOUXD POLITICAL HEADS. 203

ties, we can not but infer that, in a state like that of the early Greeks,
the difficulty of establishing the legitimacy of general headships, con-
spiring with the desire to assert independence and the ability to main-
tain it, inevitably entailed lapse into numerous local headships. Of
course, under conditions varying in each locality, splittings-up of
wider governments into narrower went to different extents ; and,
naturally, too, reestablishments of wider governments or extensions
of narrower ones in some cases took place. But, generally, the ten-
dency under such conditions must have been to form small indepen-
dent groups, severally having the patriarchal type of organization.
Hence, then, the decay of such kingships as are implied in the "Iliad."
As Grote writes, " When we approach historical Greece, we find that
(with the exception of Sparta) the primitive, hereditary, unresponsible
monarch, uniting in himself all the functions of government, has
ceased to reign." *

But now what will happen when a cluster of clans of common de-
scent, which have become independent and hostile, are simultaneously
endangrered bv enemies to whom thev are not at all akin, or but re-
motely akin ? Habitually, they will sink their differences and cooper-
ate for defense. But on what terms will they cooperate ? Even
among friendly groups joint action would be hindered if some claimed
supremacy ; and, among groups having outstanding feuds, there could
be no joint action save on a footing of equality. The common defense
would, therefore, be directed by a body formed of the heads of the
cooperating small societies ; and, if the cooperation for defense were
prolonged, or became changed by success into cooperation for offense,
this temporary controlling body would tend to become a permanent
one holding the small societies together. The sj^ecial characters of
this compound head would, of course, vary with the circumstances.
Where the traditions of the united clans agreed in identifvingr some
one chief as the lineal representative of the original patriarch or hero,
from whom all descended, precedence and some extra authority would

* While I am writing, the just-issued third volume of Mr. Skene's " Celtic Scotland "
supplies me with an instructive illustration of the process above indicated. From his
account it appears that the original Celtic tribes which formed the earldoms of Moray,
Buchan, Athol, Angus, Menteith. became broken up into clans ; and hon- influential was
the physical character of the countiy in producing this result, we are shown by the fact
that this change took place in the parts of them which fell within the Highland country.
Describing the smaller groups which resulted, Mr. Skene says : " While the clan, viewed
as a single community, thus consisted of the chief, with his kinsmen to a certain limited
degree of relationship ; the commonalty who were of the same blood, who all bore the
same name, and his dependents, consisting of subordinate septs of native men, who did
not claim to be of the blood of the chief, but were either probably descended from the
more ancient occupiers of the soil, or were broken men from other clans, who had taken
protection with him. . . . Those kinsmen of the chief who acquired the property of their
land founded families. . . . The most influential of these was that of the oldest cadet in
the family which had been longest separated from the main stem, and usually presented
the appearance of a rival house little less powerful than that of the chief."

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be permitted to him. AVhore claims derived from descent were disputed,
personal superiority or election would determine which member of the
compound head should take the lead. If within each of the compo-
nent groups the power of its chief was unqualified, there would result
from union of such chiefs a close oligarchy ; while the closeness of
the oligarchy would become less in proportion as recognition of the
authority of each chief, given by nearness in blood to the divine or
semi-divine ancestor, diminished. And in cases where there came to
be incorporated numerous aliens, owing allegiance to the heads of
none of the component groups, there would come into play influences
tending still more to widen the oligarchy.

Such, we may conclude, were the origins of those compound head-
ships of the Greek states which existed at the beginning of the his-
toric period. In Crete, where there survived the tradition of primitive
kingship, but where dispersion and subdivision of clans had brought
about a condition in which "different towns carried on oj)en feuds,"
there were " patrician houses, deriving their rights from the early ages
of roval government," who continued "to retain possession of the
administration." In Corinth, the line of Herakleid kings " subsides
gradually, through a series of empty names, into the oligarchy de-
nominated Bacchiadoe. . . . The persons so named were all accounted
descendants of Herakles, and formed the governing caste in the city."
So was it with Megara. According to tradition, this arose by com-
bination of several villages inhabited by kindred tribes, which, origi-
nally in antagonism with Corinth, had probably, in the course of this
antagonism, become consolidated into an independent state. And at
the opening of the historic period the like had happened in Sikyon
and other places. Though in Sparta kingship had survived under an
anomalous form, yet the joint representatives of the primitive king,
still reverenced because the tradition of their divine descent was jDre-
served, had become little more than members of the governing oligar-
chy, retaining certain prerogatives. And, though it is true that in
its earliest historically-known stage, the Spartan oligarchy did not
present the form which would spontaneously arise from the union of
the lieads of clans for cooperation in war though it had become
elective within a limited class of persons yet the fact that an age of
not less than sixty was a qualification, harmonizes with the belief
that it at first consisted of the heads of the respective groups, who
were always tlie eldest sons of the eldest ; and that these groups with
their heads, described as having been in in pre-Lykurgean times " the
most lawless of all the Greeks," became united by that continuous
militant life which distinguished them.*

* As bearing on historical interpretations at large, and especially on interpretations
to be made in this work, let me point out further reasons than those given by Grote and
others for rejecting the tradition that the Spartan constitution was the work of Lykurgus.
The universal tendency to ascribe an effect to the most conspicuous proximate cause is

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 205

The Romans exemplify the rise of a compound headship under con-
ditions which, though partially different from those the Greeks were
subject to, were allied fundamentally. In its earliest-known state,
Latium was occupied by village-communities, which were united into
cantons ; while these cantons formed a league headed by Alba a can-
ton regarded as the oldest and most eminent. This combination was
for joint defense ; as is shown by the fact that each group of clan-vil-
lages composing a canton had an elevated stronghold in common, and
also by the fact that the league of cantons had for its center and place
of refuge Alba, the most strongly placed as well as the oldest. The
component cantons of the league were so far independent that there
were wars between them ; whence we may infer that when they co-
operated for joint defense it was on substantially equal terms. Thus,
before Rome existed, the people who formed it had been habituated to
a kind of life such that, with great subordination in each family and
clan, and partial subordination within each canton (which was gov-
erned by a prince, council of elders, and assembly of warriors), there
went a union of heads of cantons, who were in no degree subordinate
one to another. When the inhabitants of three of these cantons, the
Ramnians, Titles, and Luceres, began to occupy the tract on which
Rome stands, they brought with them their political organization.
The oldest Roman patricians bore the names of rural clans belonging
to these cantons. Whether, when seating themselves on the Palatine
Hills and on the Quirinal, they preserved their cantonal divisions, is
not clear, though it seems probable ajyinori. But, however this may
be, there is proof that they fortified themselves against one another, as

especially strong where the eflFect is one of which the causation is involved. Our own
time has furnished an illustration in the ascription of Corn-law Repeal to Sir Robert
Peel, and after him to Messrs. Cobden and Bright, leaving Colonel Thompson unnamed.
In the next generation the man who for a time carried on the fight single-handed, and
forged sundry of the weapons used by the victors, will be unheard of in connection with
it. It is not enough, however, to suspect that Lykurgus was simply the finisher of other
men's work. We may reasonably suspect that the work was that of no man, but simply
that of the needs and conditions. This may be seen in the institution of the public mess.
If we ask what will happen with a small people who, for generations spreading as conquer-
ors, have a contempt for all industry, and who, when not at war, pass their time in exer-
cises fitting them for war, it becomes manifest that at first the daily assembling to carry
on these exercises will entail the daily bringing of provisions by each. As happens in
those picnics in which all who join contribute to the common repast, a certain obligation
respecting qualities and quantities will naturally arise an obligation which, repeated
daily, will pass from custom into law ; ending in a specification of the kinds and amounts
of food. Further, it is to be expected that as the law thus arises in an age when food is
coarse and unvaried, the simplicity of the diet, originally unavoidable, will eventually be
considered as intended as an ascetic regimen deliberately devised. (When writing this
I was not aware that,.as pointed out by Professor Paley in " Eraser's Magazine," for Feb-
ruary, 1881, that among the Greeks of later times it was common to have dinners to
which each guest brought his share of provisions, and that those who contributed little
and consumed much were objects of satire. This fact greatly increases the probability
that the Spartan mess originated as suggested.)

2o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

well as against outer enemies. The "mount-men" of the Palatine
and the " hill-men " of the Quirinal were habitually at feud ; and, even
among tlie minor divisions of those who occupied the Palatine, there
were dissensions. As Mommsen says, primitive Rome was "rather
an aggregate of urban settlements than a single city." And that the
clans who formed these settlements brought with them their enmities
is to be inferred from the fact that not only did they fortify the hills
on which they fixed themselves, but even '* the houses of the old and
powerful families were constructed somewhat after the manner of for-

tresses."

So that again, in the case of Rome, we a see a cluster of small in-
dependent communities allied in blood but partially antagonistic, which
had to cooperate against enemies on such terms as all would agree to.
In early Greece the means of defense were, as Grote remarks, greater
than the means of attack ; and it was the same in early Rome. Hence,
while coercive rule within each family and small group was easy, there
was difficulty in extending coercion over many groups fortified as
they were against one another. Moreover, the stringency of govern-
ment within each settlement constituting the primitive city was
diminished by facility of escape from one and admission into another.
As we have seen among simple tribes, desertions take place when the
rule is unduly harsh ; and we may infer that, within each of these clus-
tered settlements, there was a check on exercise of force by the heads
of the more powerful families over those of the less powerful, caused
by the fear that migration might weaken the settlement and strength-
en an adjacent one. Thus the circumstances were such that when, for
defense of the primitive city, cooperation became needful, the heads
of the clans included in the several settlements came to have substan-
tially equal powers. The original senate was the collective body of
clan-elders ; and " this assembly of elders was the ultimate holder of
the ruling power ": it was " an assembly of kings." At the same time,
the heads of families in each clan, forming the body of burgesses,
stood, for like reasons, on equal footing. Primarily for command in
war, there was an elected head, who was also chief magistrate. Though
not liaving the authority given by alleged divine descent, he had the
authority given by supposed divine approval ; and, himself bearing
the insignia of a god, he retained till death the absoluteness appropri-
ate to one. But, besides the fact that the choice, originally made by
the senate, had to be again practically made by it in case of sudden
vacancy, and besides the fact that each king, nominated by his
predecessor, had to be approved by the assembled burgesses, there
is the fact that his power was exclusively executive. The assembly
of burgesses " was in law superior to, rather than coordinate with,
the king." Further, in the last resort was exercised the still supe-
rior power of the senate, which was the guardian of the law, and
could veto the joint decision of king and burgesses. Thus the con-

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 207

stitution was in essence an oligarchy of heads of clans, included in
an oligarchy of heads of houses a compound oligarchy which became
unqualified when kingship was suppressed. And here should be em-
phasized the truth, sufficiently obvious and yet continually ignored,
that the Roman Republic, which remained when the regal power ended,
was quite alien in nature to those popular governments with which it
has been commonly classed. The heads of clans, of which the nar-
rower governing body was formed, as well as the heads of families
which formed the wider governing body, were, indeed, jealous of one
another's powers ; and in so far simulated the citizens of a free state
who individually maintain their equal rights. But these heads sever-
ally exercised unlimited powers over the members of their households
and over their clusters of dependents. A community of which the com-
ponent groups severally retained their internal autonomies, with the
result that the rule within each remained absolute, was nothing but an
aggregate of small despotisms. Institutions under which the head of
each group, besides owning slaves, had such supremacy that his wife
and children, including even married sons, had no more legal rights
than cattle, and were at his mercy in life and limb, or could be sold
into slavery, can be called free institutions only by those who confound
similarity of external outline with similarity of internal structure.*

The formation of compound political heads in later times repeats
this process in essentials, if not in details. In one way or other the
result arises when a common need for defense compels cooperation,
while there exists no means of securing cooperation save voluntary
agreement.

Beginning with the example of Venice, we notice first that the
region occupied by the ancient Yeneti included the extensive marshy
tract formed of the deposits brought down by several rivers to the
Adriatic a tract which, in Strabo's day, was "intersected in every
quarter by rivers, streams, and morasses " ; so that " Aquileia and
Ravenna were then cities in the marshes." Having for their strong-
hold this region full of spots accessible only to inhabitants who knew
the intricate ways to them, the Yeneti maintained their indepen-
dence, spite of the efforts of the Romans to subdue them, until the
days of Caesar. In later days kindred results were more markedly dis-
played in that part of this region specially characterized by inaccessi-
bility. From the earliest times the islets, or rather mud-banks, on
which Yenice stands, were inhabited by a maritime people. Each
islet, secure in the midst of its tortuous lagunes, had a popular gov-

* I should have thought it needless to insist on so obvious a truth, had it not been
that even still there continues this identification of things so utterly different, "Within
these few years has been published a magazine-article by an historian, describing the
corruptions of the Roman Republic during its latter days, with the appended moral that
such were, and are, likely to be the results of democratic government.

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

eminent of annually elected tribunes. And these original govern-
ments, existing at the time when there came several thousands of
fugitives, driven from the mainland by the invading Huns, survived
under the form of a rude confederation. As we have seen happen in
other cases, the union into which these independent little communities
were forced for purposes of joint defense was disturbed by feuds ;
and it was only under the stress of opposition to aggressing Lombards
on the one side and Slavonic pirates on the other that a general as-
sembly of nobles, clergy, and citizens appointed a duke or doge to
direct the combined forces, and to restrain internal factions ; being
superior to the tribunes of the united islets and subject only to this
body which appointed him. What changes subsequently took plaCB
how, beyond the restraints imposed by the general assembly, the
doge was presently put under the check of two elected councilors,
and on important occasions had to summon the principal citizens ;
how there came afterward a representative council, which underwent
from time to time changes does not now concern us. Here we have
simply to note that, as in preceding cases, the component groups be-
ing favorably circumstanced for severally maintaining their indepen-
dence of one another, the imperative need for union against enemies
initiated a rude compound headship, which, notwithstanding the cen-
tralizing effects of war, tended to maintain itself in one or other
form.

On finding allied results among men of a different race but occu-
pying a similar region, doubts respecting the process of causation
must be dissipated. On the area half land, half sea formed of the
sediment brought down by the Rhine and adjacent rivers, there early
existed scattered families. Living on isolated sand-hills, or in huts
raised on piles, they were so secure amid their creeks and mud-banks
and marshes, that they remained unsubdued by the Romans. Sub-
sisting at first by fishing, with here and there such small agriculture
as was possible, and eventually becoming maritime and commercial,
these people, in course of time, rendered their land more habitable by
damming out the sea ; and they long enjoyed a partial if not complete
independence. In the third century " the Low Countries contained the
only free people of the German race." Especially the Frisians, more
remote than the rest from invaders, " associated themselves with the
tribes settled on the limits of the German Ocean, and formed with
them a connection celebrated under the title of the * Saxon League.' "
Though, at a later time, the inhabitants of the Low Countries fell under
the power of France, yet the nature of their habitat continued to give
them such advantages in resisting foreign control that they organized
themselves after their own fashion, notwithstanding interdicts. " From
the time of Charlemagne the people of the ancient Menapia, now be-
come a prosperous commonwealth, formed political associations to
raise a barrier against the despotic violence of the Franks." Mean-

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 209

while the Frisians, who, after centuries of resistance to the Franks,
were obliged to yield and render small tributary services, retained
their internal autonomy. They formed " a confederation of rude but
self -governed maritime provinces," each of these seven provinces be-
ing divided into districts severally governed by elective heads with
their councils, and the whole being under a general elective head and
a general council.

Of illustrations which modern times have furnished, must be named
those which again show us the effects of a mountainous region. The
most notable is, of course, that of Switzerland. Surrounded by for-
ests, " among marshes and rocks and glaciers, tribes of scattered shep-
herds had, from the early times of, the Roman conquest, found a land
of refuge from the successive invaders of the rest of Helvetia." In
the labyrinths of the Alps, accessible to those only who knew the ways
to them, their cattle fed unseen ; and against straggling bands of
marauders who might discover their retreats they had great facilities
for defense. These districts which eventually became the cantons
of Schwytz, Uri, and Unterwalden, originally having but one common
center of meeting, but eventually, as population increased, getting
three, and forming separate j^olitical organizations long preserved
complete independence. With the spread of feudal subordination
throughout Europe, they became nominally subject to the Emperor ;
but, refusing obedience to the superiors set over them, they entered
into a solemn alliance, renewed from time to time, to resist outer ene-
mies. Details of their history need not detain us. The fact of mo-
ment is, that in these three cantons, which physically favored in so
great a degree the maintenance of independence by individuals and
by groups, the people, while framing for themselves free governments,
united on equal terms for joint defense. And it was these typical
" Swiss," as they were the first to be called, whose union formed the
nucleus of the larger unions which, through varied fortunes, eventually
grew up. Severally independent as were the cantons composing these
larger unions, there at first existed feuds among them, which were
suspended during the needs for joint defense. Only gradually did
the leagues pass from temporary and unsettled forms to a permanent
and settled form. Two facts of significance should be added. One
is that, at a later date, a like process of resistance, federation, and
emancipation from feudal tyranny, among separate communities occu-
pying small mountain-valleys, took place in the Orisons and in the
Valais regions which, though mountainous, were more accessible
than those of the Oberland and its vicinity. The other is that the
more level cantons neither so early nor so comj^letely gained their
independence ; and, further, that their internal constitutions were less
free in form. A marked contrast existed between the aristocratic re-
publics of Berne, Lucerne, Fribourg, and Soleure and the pure democ-
racies of the forest cantons and the Orisons ; in the last of which

VOL. XIX. 14

210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a every little hamlet resting in an Alpine valley, or perched on moun-
tain-crag, was an independent community, of which all the members
were absolutely equal entitled to vote in every assembly, and quali-
fied for every public function. . . . Each hamlet had its own laws,
jurisdiction, and privileges," the hamlets being federated into com-
munes, the communes into districts, and the districts into a league.

Lastly, with the case of Switzerland may be associated that of San
Marino a little republic which, seated in the Apennines, and having
its center on a cliff a thousand feet high, has retained its independence
for fifteen centuries. Here eight thousand people are governed by a
senate of sixty, and by captains elected every half year, assemblies of
the whole people being called on important occasions. There is a
standing army of eighteen, " taxation is reduced to a mere nothing,"
and oflicials are j^aid by the honor of serving.

One noteworthy difference between the compound heads arising
under physical conditions of the kinds exemplified, must not be over-
looked the difference between the oligarchic form and the more or
less popular form. As shown at the outset of this section, if each of
the groups united by militant cooperation is despotically ruled if the
groups are severally framed on the patriarchal type, or are severally
governed by men of supposed divine descent then the compound
head becomes one in which the people at large have no share. But
if, as in these modern cases, patriarchal authority has decayed ; or if
belief in divine descent has been undermined by a creed at variance
w^th it ; or if peaceful habits have weakened that coercive authority
which w^ar ever strengthens then the compound head is no longer an
assembly of petty despots. With the progress of these changes it be-
comes more and more a head formed of those wdio exercise power not
by right of position but by right of appointment.

There are other conditions which favor the rise of compound heads,
temporary if not permanent : those, namely, which occur at the disso-
lutions of preceding organizations. Among people habituated through
countless generations to personal rule, having sentiments appropriate
to it, and no conception of anything else, the fall of one despot is at
once followed by the rise of another ; or, if a large personally-governed
empire collapses, its parts severally generate governments for them-
selves of like kind. But, among less servile peoples, the breaking up
of political systems having single heads is apt to be followed by the
establishment of others having compound heads ; especially w^here
there is a simultaneous separation into parts which have not local
governments of stable kinds. Under such circumstances there is a
return to the primitive state. The preexisting regulative system hav-
ing fallen, the members of the community are left without any con-
trolling power save the aggregate will ; and, political organization
having to commence afresh, the form first assumed is akin to that

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 211

which we see in the assembly of the savage horde, or in the modern
public meeting. Whence there presently results the rule of a select
few subject to the approval of the many.

In illustration may first be taken the rise of the Italian republics.
When, during the ninth and tenth centuries, the German emperors,
who had long been losing their power to restrain local antagonisms in
Italy and the outrages of wandering robber bands, failed more than
ever to protect their subject communities, and, as a simultaneous re-
sult, exercised diminished control over them, it became at once neces-
sary and practicable for the Italian towns to develop political organi-
zations of their own. Though in these towns there were remnants of
the old Roman organization, this had obviously become effete ; for, in
time of danger, there was an assembling of " citizens at the sound of a
great bell, to concert together the means for their common defense."
Doubtless on such occasions were marked out the rudiments of those
republican constitutions which afterward arose. Though it is alleged
that the German emperors allowed the towns to form these constitu-
tions, yet we may reasonably conclude, rather, that, having no care
further than to get their tribute, they made no efforts to prevent the
towns from forming them. And though Sismondi says of the towns-
people, "ils chercherent a se constituer sur le modele de la republique
roraaine," yet we may question whether, in those dark days, the people
knew enough of Roman institutions to be influenced by their knowl-
edge. With more probability may we infer that " this meeting of all
the men of the state capable of bearing arms ... in the great square,"
originally called to take measures for repelling aggressors a meeting
which must, at the very beginning, have been swayed by a group of
dominant citizens, and must have chosen leaders was itself the repub-
lican government in its incipient form. Meetings of this kind, first
occurring on occasions of emergency, would gradually come into use
for deciding on all important public questions. Repetition would
bring greater regularity in the modes of procedure, and greater defi-
niteness in the divisions formed, ending in compound political heads,
presided over by elected chiefs. And that this was the case in those
early stages of which there remain but vague accounts, is shown by
the fact that a similar, though somewhat more definite, process after-
ward occurred at Florence, when the usurping nobles were overthrown.
Definite records tell us that in 1250 " the citizens assembled at the
same moment in the square of Santa Croce ; they divided themselves
into fifty groups, of which each group chose a captain, and thus formed
companies of militia ; a council of these officers was the first-born au-
thority of this newly revived republic." Clearly that sovereignty of
the people which, for a time, characterized these small governments,
would inevitably arise if the political form grew out of the original
public meeting ; while it would be unlikely to have arisen had the
political form been artificially devised by a limited class.

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

That this interpretation harmonizes with the facts which modern
times have furnished, scarcely needs jDointing out. On an immensely
larger scale and in ways variously modified, here by the slow collapse
of an old regime and there by combination for war, the rise of the
first French Republic and that of the American Republic have similarly
shown us this tendency toward resumption of the primitive form of
political organization, when a decayed or otherwise incapable govern-
ment is broken up. Greatly obscured by complicating circumstances
and special incidents as these transformations were, we may recognize
in them the play of the same general causes.

In the last chapter we saw that, as conditions determine, the first
element of the triune political structure may be differentiated from
the second in various degrees beginning with the warrior chief
slightly predominant over other warriors, and endiag with the divine
and absolute king, widely distinguished from the select few next to
him. By the foregoing examples we are showm that the second ele-
ment is, as conditions determine, variously differentiated from the
third : being at the one extreme qualitatively distinguished in a high
degree and divided from it by an impassable barrier, and at the other
extreme almost merged into it. /

Here we are introduced to the truth next to be dealt with : that
not only do conditions determine the various forms which compound
heads assume, but that conditions determine the various changes they
undergo. There are two leading kinds of such changes those through
which the compound head passes toward a less popular form, and those
through which it passes toward a more popular form. We will glance
at them in this order.

Progressive narrowing of the compound head is one of the con-
comitants of continued military activity. Beginning with the case of
Sparta, the constitution of which in its* early form differed but little
from that which the " Iliad " shows us existed among the Homeric
Greeks, we see, in the first place, the tendency toward concentration
of power in the regulation, made a century after Lykurgus, that, " in
case the people decided crookedly, the senate with the kings should
reverse their decisions " ; and then we see that later, in consequence of
the gravitation of property into fewer hands, "the number of quali-
fied citizens went on continually diminishing " : the implication being
not only a relatively-increased power of the oligarchy, but, probably,
a growing supremacy of the wealthier members within the oligarchy
itself. Turning to the case of Rome, ever militant, we find that in
course of time inequalities increased to the extent that the senate be-
came " an order of lords, filling up its ranks by hereditary succession,
and exercising collegiate misrule " ; and then " out of the evil of oli-
garchy there emerged the still worse evil of usurpation of power by
particular families." In the Italian republics, again, perpetually at

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 213

war one with another, there resulted a kindred narrowing of the gov-
erning body. The nobility, deserting their castles, began to direct
" the municipal government of the cities, which consequently, during
this period of the republics, fell chiefly into the hands of the superior
families." Then at a later stage, when industrial progress had gener-
ated wealthy commercial classes, these, competing with the nobles for
power, and finally displacing them, rejDcated within their respective
bodies this same process. The richer guilds deprived the poorer of
their shares in the choice of the ruling agencies ; the privileged class
was continually narrowed by disqualifying regulations ; and newly
risen families were excluded by those of long standing. So that, as
Sismondi points out, such of the numerous Italian republics as re-
mained nominally such at the close of the fifteenth century were, like
" Sienna and Lucca, each governed by a single caste of citizens : . . .
had no longer popular governments." A kindred result occurred
among the Dutch. During the wars of the Flemish cities with the
nobles and with one another, the relatively popular governments of
the towns became narrowed. The greater guilds excluded the lesser
from the ruling body, and their members " clothed in the municipal
purple . . . ruled with the power of an aristocracy ; . . . the local
government was often an oligarchy, while the spirit of the burghers
was peculiarly democratic." And with these illustrations may be
joined that furnished by those Swiss cantons which, physically char-
acterized in ways less favorable to individual independence, were at
the same time given to wars, offensive as well as defensive. Berne,
Lucerne, Fribourg, Soleure, acquired political constitutions in large
measure oligarchic ; and in " Berne, where the nobles had always
been in the ascendant, the entire administration had fallen into the
hands of a few families, with whom it had become hereditary."

We have next to note as a cause of progressive modification in
compound heads, that, like sim^^le heads, they are apt to be subordi-
nated by their administrative agents. The first case to be named is
one in which this effect is exemplified along with the last the case
of Sparta. Originally appointed by the kings to perform prescribed
duties, the ephors first made the kings subordinate, and eventually
subordinated the senate ; so that they became substantially the rulers.
From this we may pass to the instance supplied by Venice, Avhere
power, once exercised by the people, gradually lapsed into the hands
of an executive body, the members of which, habituallyreelected, and
at death replaced by their children, became an aristocracy, whence
there eventually grew the Council of Ten, who were, like the Spartan
ephors, "charged to guard the security of the state with a power
higher than the law " ; and who thus, *' restrained by no rule," con-
stituted the actual government. Through its many revolutions and
changes of constitution, Florence exhibited like tendencies. The ap-
pointed administrators, now signoria, now priors, became able, during

2 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

their terms of office, to carry out their ends even to the extent of sus-
pending the constitution getting the forced assent of the assembled
people, who were surrounded by armed men. And then, eventually,
the head executive agent, nominally reelected from time to time but
practically permanent, became, in the person of Cosmo de' Medici, the
founder of an inherited headship.

But the liability of the compound political head to become subject
to its civil agents, is far less than its liability to become subject to its
military agents. From the earliest times this liability has been exem-
plified and commented upon ; and, familiar as it is, I must here illus-
trate and emphasize it, because it directly bears on one of the cardinal
truths of political theory. Setting out with the Greeks we observe, in
the first place, that the tyrants, by whom oligarchies were so often
overthrown, had armed forces at their disposal. Either the tyrant
was "the executive magistrate, upon whom the oligarchy themselves
had devolved important administrative powers," or he was a dema-
gogue, who pleaded the alleged interests of the community, " in or-
der to surround" himself "with armed defenders" soldiers beino: in
either case the agents of his usurpation. And then, in the second
place, we see the like done by the successful general. As Macchiavelli
remarks of the Romans : " For the further abroad they [the generals]
carried their arms, the more necessary such prolongations [of their
commissions] appeared, and the more common they became ; hence it
arose, in the first place, that but a few of their citizens could be em-
ployed in the command of armies, and consequently few were capable
of acquiring any considerable degree of experience or reputation ; and
in the next, that when a commander in chief was continued for a long
time in that post, he had an oj^portunity of corrupting his army to
such a degree that the soldiers entirely threw off their obedience to
the senate, and acknowledged no authority but his. To this it was
owing that Sylla and Marius found means to debauch their armies and
make them fight against their country ; and that Julius Caesar was en-
abled to make himself absolute in Rome."

The Italian republics, again, furnish many illustrations. By the
beginning of the fourteenth century, those of Lombardy " all submit-
ted themselves to the military power of some nobles to whom they
had intrusted the command of their militias, and thus all lost their
liberty." Later times and nearer regions yield instances. At home
Cromwell showed how the successful general tends to become auto-
crat. In the Netherlands the same thing was exemplified by the Van
Arteveldes, father and son, and again by Maurice of Nassau ; and, but
for form's sake, it would be needless to name the case of Napoleon.
It should be added that not only by command of armed forces is the
military chief enabled to seize on supreme power, but acquired popu-
larity, especially in a militant nation, places him in a position which
makes it relatively easy to do this. Neither their own experience, nor

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 215

the experiences of other nations throughout the past, prevented the
French from lately making Marshal MacMahon executive head ; and
even the Americans, in more than once choosing General Grant for
President, proved that, predominantly industrial though their society
is, militant activity promptly caused an incipient change toward the
militant type, of which an essential trait is the union of civil headship
with military headship.

From the influences which tend to narrow compound political
headships, or change them into single ones, let us pass to the influences
which tend to widen them. The case of Athens is, of course, the first
to be considered. To understand this we must remember that, up to
the time of Solon, democratic government did not exist in Greece.
The only known forms were the oligarchic and the despotic ; and in
those early days, before political speculation began, it is certain that
there was not recognized in theory a social form wholly unknown in
practice. We have, therefore, to exclude the notion that popular gov-
ernment arose in Athens under the guidance of any preconceived idea.
As having the same implication should be added the fact that Athens
being governed by an oligarchy at the time the Solonian legislation
served but to qualify and broaden the oligarchy and remove crying
injustices. In seeking the causes which worked through Solon, and
also made practicable the reorganization he initiated, we shall find
them to lie in the direct and indirect influences of trade. Grote com-
ments on " the anxiety, both of Solon and of Drako, to enforce among
their fellow-citizens industrious and self-maintaining habits " a proof
that, even before Solon's time, there was in Attica little or no reproba-
tion of " sedentary industry, which in most other parts of Greece was
regarded as comparatively dishonorable." Moreover, Solon was him-
self in early life a trader; and his legislation "provided for traders
and artisans a new home at Athens, giving the first encouragement to
that numerous town-population, both in the city and in the Peiraeus,
which we find actually residing there in the succeeding century." The
immigrants who flocked into Attica because of its greater security,
Solon was anxious to turn rather to manufacturing industry than to
cultivation of a soil naturally poor ; and one result was " a departure
from the primitive temper of Atticism, which tended both to cantonal
residence and rural occupation " ; while another result was to increase
the. number of people who stood outside those gentile and phratric
divisions, which were concomitants of the patriarchal type and of per-
sonal rule. And then the constitutional changes made by Solon were
in leading respects toward industrial organization. The introduction
of a property-qualification for classes, instead of a birth-qualification,
diminished the rigidity of the political form, since acquirement of
wealth by industry, or otherwise, made possible an admission into the
oligarchy, or among others of the privileged. By forbidding self-
enslavement of the debtor, and by emancipating those who had been

2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

self-cnsliivcd, his laws added largely to tlie enfranchised class as dis-
tinguished from the slave-class. In another aspect this change, leav-
ing equitable contracts untouched, prevented those inequitable contracts
under which, by a lien on himself, a man gave more than an equivalent
for the sum he borrowed. And, with a decreasing number of cases in
which there existed the relation of master and slave, went an increas-
ing number of cases in which benefits w^ere exchanged by agreement*
The odium attaching to that lending at interest which ended in slavery
of the debtor having disappeared, legitimate lending became general
and unopposed, the rate of interest w^as free, and accumulated capi-
tal was made available. Then, as cooperating cause, and as ever-
increasing consequence, came the growth of a population favorably
circumstanced for acting in concert. Urban people, who, daily in con-
tact, can gather one another's ideas and feelings, and who, by quickly-
diffused intelligence, can be rapidly assembled, can cooperate far more
readily than those who are scattered through rural districts. With all
which direct and indirect results of industrial development must be
joined the ultimate result upon character, produced by daily fulfilling
and enforcing contracts a discipline which, while requiring each man
to recognize the claims of others, also requires him to maintain his
own. In Solon himself this attitude which joins assertion of personal
rights with respect for the rights of others was well exemplified ;
since, when his influence was great he refused to become a despot,
though pressed to do so, and in his latter days he resisted at the risk
of death the establishment of a despotism. In various ways, then,
increasing industrial activity tended to w^den the original oligarchic
form, and initiate a more popular form. And though these effects of
industrialism, joined with subsequently-accumulated effects, were for
a long time held in check by the usurping Peisistratidse, yet, being
ready to show themselves when, some time after the expulsion of these
tyrants, there came the Kleisthenian revolution, they were doubtless
instrumental in then initiating the popular form of government.

Though not in so great a degree, yet in some degree, the same
causes operated in liberalizing and widening the Roman oligarchy.
Rome "was indebted for the commencement of its importance to inter-
national commerce " ; and, as Mommsen points out, " the distinction
between Rome and the mass of the other Latin towns must certainly
be traced back to its commercial position, and to the type of character
produced by that position. . . . Rome was the emporium of the Latin
districts." Moreover, as in Athens, though doubtless to a smaller
extent, trade brought an increasing settlement of strangers, to whom
rights were given, and who, joined w^ith emancipated slaves and with
clients, less bound to their patrons, formed an industrial population,
the eventual inclusion of which in tlie burgess-body caused that widen-
ing of the constitution effected by Servius Tullius.

The Italian republics of later days again show us, in numerous

COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 217

cases, this connection between trading activities and a freer form of
rule. The Italian towns were industrial centers. " The merchants of
Genoa, Pisa, Florence, and Venice supplied Europe with the products
of the Mediterranean and of the East ; the bankers of Lombardy in-
structed the world in the mysteries of finance and foreign exchanges ;
Italian artificers taught the workmen of other countries the highest
skill in the manufactures of steel, iron, bronze, silk, glass, porcelain,
and jewelry. Italian shops, with their dazzling array of luxuries, ex-
cited the admiration and envy of foreigners from less favored lands."
Then, on looking into their histories, we find that industrial guilds were
the bases of their political organizations ; that the upper mercantile
classes became the rulers, in some cases excluding the nobles ; and
that, while external wars and internal feuds tended continually to
revive narrower, or more personal, forms of rule, rebellions of the
industrial citizens, from time to time occurring, tended to reestablish
popular rule.

When we join with these the like general connections that arose
in the IsTetherlands and in the Hanse towns ; when we remember the
Iiberali2>ation of our own political institutions which has gone along
with growing industrialism ; when we observe that the towns more
than the country, and the great industrial centers more than the small
ones, have given the impulses to these changes it becomes unques-
tionable that, while by increase of militant activities compound head-
ships are narrowed, they are widened in proportion as industrial
activities become predominant.

In common with the results reached in preceding chapters, the
results above reached show that types of political organization are
not matters of deliberate choice. It is common to speak of a society
as though it had, once upon a time, decided on the form of govern-
ment which thereafter existed in it. Even Mr. Grote, in his compari-
son between the institutions of ancient Greece and those of mediaeval
Europe (vol. iii, pages 10-12) tacitly implies that conceptions of the
advantages or disadvantages of this or that arrangement furnished
motives for establishing or maintaining it. But, as gathered together
in the foregoing sections, the facts show us that, as with the genesis of
simple political headships, so with the genesis of compound political
headships, conditions and not intentions determine.

Recognizing the fact that mdependence of character is a factor,
but ascribing this independence of character to the continued exist-
ence of a race in a habitat which facilitates evasion of control, we saw
that, with such a nature so conditioned, cooperation in war causes the
union on equal terms of groups whose heads are joined to form a di-
rective council. And according as the component groups are governed
more or less autocratically, the directive council is more or less oli-
garchic. We have seen that in localities differing so widely as do moun-

21 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tain-regions, marshes or mud-islands, and jungles, men of different
races have developed political heads of this compound kind. And, on
observing that the localities, otherwise so unlike, are alike as being
severally made up of parts difficult of access, we can not question that
to this is mainly due the governmental form under which their in-
habitants unite.

Besides the compound headships which are thus indigenous in
places favoring them, there are other compound headships \vhich arise
after the break-up of preceding political organizations. Especially
apt are they so to arise where the people, not scattered through a wdde
district but concentrated in a town, can assemble bodily. Control of
every kind having disappeared, it happens in such cases that the aggre-
gate will has free play, and there establishes itself for a time that
relatively popular form with which all government begins ; but, regu-
larly or ii'regularly, a superior few become differentiated from the
many, and of predominant men some one is made, directly or indi-
rectly, most predominant.

Compound headships habitually become, in course of time, either
narrower or wider. They are narrowed by militancy, which tends
ever to concentrate directive power in fewer hands, and, if continued,
almost certainly changes them into simple headships. Conversely,
they are widened by industrialism. This, by gathering together aliens
detached from the restraints imposed by patriarchal, feudal, or other
such organizations, by increasing the number of those to be coerced
in comparison with the number of those who have to coerce them, by
placing this larger number in conditions favoring concerted action,
by s^ibstituting for daily enforced obedience the daily fulfillment of
voluntary obligations and daily maintenance of claims, tends ever
toward equalization of citizenship.

*

DEGENEEATION.

By Dr. ANDKEW WILSON.

IT can not be gainsaid that a survey of the fields of life around us
imi)resses one with the idea that the general tendencies of living
nature gravitate toward progression and improvement, and are mod-
eled on lines which, as Von Baer long ago remarked, lead from the
general or simple toward the definite special and complex. This much
is admitted on all hands, and the ordinary courses of life substantiate
the aphorism that progress from low grades and humble ways is the
law of the organic universe that hems us in on every side, and of which,
indeed, we ourselves form part. The growth of plant-life, which runs
concurrently with the changing seasons of the year, impresses this

DEGENERATION. 219

fact upon us, and the history of animal development but repeats the
tale. From seed to seed-leaf, from seed-leaf to stem and leaves, from
simple leaves to flower, and from flower to fruit, there is exhibited a
natural progress in plant-existence, which testifies eloquently enough,
by analogy at least, to the existence of like tendencies in all other
forms of life. Similarly, in the animal host, progressive change is
seen to convert that which is literally at first " without form and void "
into the definite structure of the organism. A minute speck of pro-
toplasm on the surface of the o.^^^ a speck that is indistinguishable,
in so far as its matter is concerned, from the materies of the animal-
cule of the pool is the germ of the bird of the future. Day by day
the forces and powers of development weave the protoplasm into cells,
and the cells into bone and muscle, sinew and nerve, heart and brain.
In due season the form of the higher vertebrate is evolved, and pro-
gressive change is once more illustrated before the waiting eyes of
life-science. But the full meaning of most problems which life-science
presents to view is hardly gained by a merely cursory insj^ection of
what may be called the normal side of things. The by-paths of de-
velopment more frequently, perhaps, than its beaten tracks reveal
guiding clews and traces of the manner in which the progress in ques-
tion has come to pass. So, also, the side-avenues of biology open up
new phases of, it may be, the main question at issue, and may reveal,
as in the present instance, an interesting reverse to the aspects we at
first deem of sole and paramount importance. For example, a casual
study of the facts of animal development is well calculated to show
that life is not all progress, and that it includes retrogression as well
as advance. Physiological history can readily be proved to tend in
many cases toward backsliding, instead of reaching forward and up-
ward to higher levels. This latter tendency, beginning now to be bet-
ter recognized in biology than of late years, can readily be shown to
exercise no unimportant influence on the fortunes of animals and
plants. In truth, life at large must now be regarded as existing be-
tween two great tendencies the one progressive and advancing, the
other retrogressive and degenerating. Such a view of matters may
serve to explain many things in living histories which have hitherto
been regarded as somewhat occult and diflicult of solution ; while we
may likewise discover that the coexistence of progress and retrogres-
sion is a fact perfectly compatible with the lucid opinions and teach-
ings concerning the origin of living things which we owe to the genius
of Darwin and his disciples.

A fundamental axiom of modern biology declares that in the de-
velopment of a living being we may discern a panoramic unfolding,
more or less complete, of its descent. " Development repeats descent "
is an aphorism which cultured biology has everywhere writ large over
its portals. Rejecting this view of what development teaches, the
phases through which animals and plants pass in the course of their

220

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY,

progress from the germ to the adult stage present themselves to view
as simply meaningless facts and useless freaks and vagaries of Nature.
Accepting the idea favored, one may add, by every circumstance of
life-science much that was before wholly inexplicable becomes plain
and readily understood. And the view that a living beiiig's develop-
ment is really a quick and often abbreviated summary of its evolution
and descent both receives support from and gives countenance to the
general conclusion that life's forces tend as a rule toward progress, but
likewise exhibit retrogression and degeneration. If a living being is
found to begin its history, as all animals and j^lants commence their
existence, as a si:)eck of living jelly, comparable to the animalcule of
the pool, it is a fair and logical inference that the organisms in ques-
tion have descended from lowly beings, whose simplicity of structure
is repeated in the j^rimitive nature of the germ. If, to quote another
illustration, the placid frog of to-day, after passing through its merely
protoplasmic stage, appears before us in the likeness of a gill-breath-
ing fish (Fig. 1), the assumption is plain and warrantable that the frog

Fig. 1. Develoi'ment of Frog.

race has descended from some primitive fish stock, whose likeness is
reproduced with greater or less exactness in the tadpoles of the ditches.
Or if, to cite yet another example, man and his neighbor quadrupeds
(Fig. 2), birds, and reptiles, which never breathe by gills at any period
of their existence, are found in an early stage of development to pos-
sess *' gill-arches" (//), such as we naturally expect to see, and such as
we find in the fishes themselves, the deduction that these higher ani-
mals are descended from gill-bearing or aquatic ancestors admits of

DEGENERA TION,

221

no denial. On any other theory, the existence of gill-arches in the
young of an animal which never possesses gills is to be viewed as an
inexplicable freak of Nature a dictum which, it is needless to remark,
belongs to an era one might well term prescientific, in comparison with
the " sweetness and light " of these latter days.

Hanging very closely on the aphorism respecting development and
its meaning, is another biological axiom, wellnigh as important as the
former. If development teaches that life has been and still is pro-
gressive in its ways, and that the simpler stages in an animal's history
represent the conditions of its earliest ancestors, it is a no less stable
proposition that at all stages of their growth living beings are subject
to the action of outward and inward forces. Every living organism
lives under the sway and dominance of forces acting upon it from
without, and which it is enabled to modify and to utilize by its own
inherent capabilities of action. It is, in fact, the old problem of the
living being and its surroundings applied to the newer conceptions
of life and nature which modern biology has revealed. The living
thing is not a stable unit in its universe, however wide or narrow
that sphere may be. On the contrary, it exists in a condition of con-
tinual war, if one may so put it, between its own innate powers of life
and action, of living and being, and the physical powers and condi-
tions outside. This much is now accepted by all scientists. Differ-
ences of opinion certainly exist as to the share which the internal con-
stitution of the living being plays in the drama of life and progress.
It seems, however, most reasonable to conclude that two parties exist
to this, as to every other bargain ; and, regarding the animal or plant
as plastic in its nature, we may assume such plasticity to be modified
on the one hand by outside forces, and on the other by internal actions
proper to the organism as a living thing. Examples of such tenden-
cies of life are freely scattered everywhere in Nature's domain. For
instance, we know of many organisms which have continued from the
remotest ages to the present time, without manifest change of form or
life, and which appear before us to-day the living counterparts of
their fossilized representatives of the chalk, or it may be of Silurian
or Cambrian times. The lamp-shells {Terehratida) of the chalk exist
in our own seas with wellnigh inajopreciable differences. TheLingula

222

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

or Lingulella (Fig. 3, ), another genus of these animals, has persisted
from the Cambrian age (A, c) to our own times, presenting little or no
change for the attention of the geological chronicler. The curious
king-crabs, or LimuU (Fig. 4), of the West Indies are likewise pre-

FlG. 3. LiNGULA.

Fig. 4. King Crab.

sented to our view, with little or no variation, from very early ages of
cosmical history ; and of the pearly nautilus (Fig. 8) now remaining
as the only existing four-gilled and externally shelled cuttle-fish the
same remark holds good. The fishes, likewise, are not without their
parallel instances of lack of change and alteration throughout long
ages of time. The well-known case of the genus Beryx presents us

w4th a fish of high organi-
zation, found living in the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans,
and which possesses fossil
representatives and fac -
similes in the chalk (Fig.
5.) From the latter period
to the present day, the
genus Beryx has therefore
undergone little modifica-
tion or change. The same
remark certainly holds good of many of those huge " dragons of the
prime " (Figs. G and 7), which reveled in the seas of the Trias, Oolite,
and Chalk epochs developed in immense numbers in these eras of
earth's history, but disappearing for ever from the lists of living

Fio. 5. Bektx.

DE GENERA TION.

223

things at the close of the Cretaceous age, and exhibiting little or no
change during their relatively brief history.

Such cases of stability amid conditions which might well have fa-
vored change, and which saw^ copious modification and progression in
other groups of animals, might at first sight be regarded as presenting
a serious obstacle to the doctrine of progressive development on which
the whole theory of evolution depends. As such an obstacle, the se-
ries of facts in question was long regarded ; as such, these facts are
sometimes even now advanced, but only by those who imperfectly ap-
preciate and only partially understand what the doctrine of evolution
teaches and what its leading idea includes. Even Cuvier himself, when
advancing the case of the apparently unchanged mummies of Egyptian
animals against Lamarck's doctrine of descent, failed possibly through
the imperfectly discussed stage in which the whole question rested in
his day to understand that the very facts of preservation revealed in
the monuments of Egypt testified to the absence of those physical
changes which could alone have affected the animals of the Nile land.
But the fuller consideration of that theory of nature which credits pro-
gressive change as the usual way of life, shows us that it is no part of
evolution to maintain either that living beings must needs undergo
continual change, or that they must change and modify at the same
rate. On the contrary, Mr. Darwin, in his classic work, maintains ex-
actly the opposite proposition. There are, in fact, two great factors
at work in living nature a tendency to vary and change, and the in-
fluence of environments or surroundings. Given the first tendency,
which is not at all a matter of dispute, the influence of the second is
plainly enough discernible in bringing to the front either the original.

Figs. 6 axd 7. Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus.

primitive, or, as it might be named, the parent form, or the varying
forms which are produced by modification of the parent. As it has
well been put : " Granting the existence of the tendency to the pro-
duction of variations, then, whether the variations which are produced

224

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shall survive and supplant the parent, or whether the parent form shall
survive and supplant the variations, is a matter which dej^ends entirely
on those conditions which give rise to the struggle for existence. If
the surrounding conditions are such that the parent form is more com-
petent to deal with them and flourish in them than the derived forms,
then in the struggle for existence the parent form will maintain itself,
and the derived forms will be exterminated. But, if, on the contrary,
the conditions are such as to be more favorable to a derived than to
the parent form, the parent form will be extirpated, and the derived
form will take its place. In the first case, there will be no progression,
no change of structure, through any imaginable series of ages ; in the
second place, there will be modification and change of form." To
the same end Darwin himself leads us. In one or two very pregnant
passages, the author of the " Theory of Natural Selection " very plainly
indicates why progression should not be universal, and why certain
beings remain lowly organized while others attain to the summit and
pinnacle of their respective organizations. " How is it," says Darwin,
" that throughout the world a multitude of the lowest forms still exist ?
and how is it that in each great class some forms are far more highly
developed than 'others ? Why have not the more highly develoj^ed
forms everywhere supplanted and exterminated the lower ? " An-
swering his own queries, Darwin says that natural selection by no

Fig. 8. Pearly Nautilus.

means includes " progressive development it only takes advantage,"
he remarks, "of such variations as arise and are beneficial to each
creature under its complex relations of life. And it may be asked,
what advantage, as far as we can see, would it be to an infusorian
animalcule to an intestinal worm or even to an earthworm, to be
highly organized ? If it were no advantage, these forms would be

I) E GENERA TION.

225

left, by natural selection, unimproved or but little improved, and
might remain for ages in their present lowly condition. And geology
tells us that some of the lowest forms, as the foraminifera (Fig. 9), in-
fusoria, and rhizopods, have remained for an enormous period in nearly
their present state. But," adds Darwin, wdth a characteristically im-
partial view of matters, " to suppose that most of the many now ex-
istino- low forms have not in the least advanced since the first dawn
of life w^ould be extremely rash ; for every naturalist who has dissected
some of the beings now ranked as very low in the scale must have been
struck with their really wondrous and beautiful organization."

Thus one of the plainest facts
of natural history, namely, that in
even one group or class of animals
we find forms of exceedingly low
structure included along with ani-
mals of high organization the
apparently diverse bodies being
really modeled on the one and the
same type is explained by the
consideration that with different
conditions, or with various condi- '
tions acting differently upon un-
like constitutions, we expect to
find extreme differences in the rank
to which the members of a class
may attain. In the class of fishes
we find the worm-like, clear-bodied
lancelet of an inch lono; associated
with the ferocious shark, the active
dogfish, or the agile food-fishes of
our table. But, as Darwin re-
marks, the shark would not tend
to supplant the lancelet, their

spheres and their conditions of existence being of diverse nature.
The same remark applies to many other classes of living beings. So
that lowly beings still live as such among us, and preserve the primi-
tive simplicity of their race, firstly, because the conditions of life and
their limited numbers may not have induced any great competition or
struggle for existence. On the " let-well-alone " principle we may un-
derstand why some animals, such as the lancelet itself, have lagged be-
hind in the race after progress. Then, secondly, as Darwin remarks,
favorable variations, by way of beginning the work of progress, may
never have appeared a result due, probably, as much to hidden causes
within the living being as to outside conditions. AVe may not fail to
note, lastly, that the simpler and more uniform these latter conditions
are as rejoresented in the abysses of the ocean, for example the less

VOL. XIX. 15

Fig. 9. Globigeeina, etc.

226

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

incentive is there for the progress and evolution of the races which
dwell in their midst.

This somewhat lengthy introduction to the subject of degeneration
and its results is in its way necessary for the full appreciation of the
fashion in which degeneration relates itself to the other conditions of
life. From the preceding reflections it becomes clear that three pos-
sibilities of life await each living being. Either it remains primitive
and unchanged, or it progresses toward a higher type, or, last of all, it
backslides and retrogresses. As the first condition, that of stability,
is, as already noted, perfectly consistent with the doctrine of descent,
so are the two latter conditions part and parcel of that theory. The
stable state forces the animal to remain as it now is, or as it has been
in all times past ; the progressive tendency will make it a more elabo-
rate animal : and the progress of degeneration will, on the other hand,
tend to simplify its structure. It requires no thought to perceive that
progress is a great fact of nature. The development of every animal
and plant shows the possibilities of nature in this direction. But the
bearings of degeneration and physiological backsliding are not, per-
chance, so clearly seen ; hence, to this latter aspect of biology we may
now specially direct our attention.

That certain animals degenerate or retrogress in their development
before our eyes to-day, is a statement susceptible of ready and familiar
illustration. No better illustrations of this statement can be found
than those derived from the domain of parasitic existence. When an

animal or plant attaches itself partly or
wholly to another living being, and be-
comes more or less dependent upon the
latter for support and nourishment, it ex-
hibits, as a rule, retrogression and degen-
eration. The parasitic " guest " dependent
on its "host" for lodging alone, or it may
be for both board and lodging, is in a fair
way to become degraded in structure, and,
as a rule, exhibits degradation of a marked
kind, where the association has persisted
sufficiently long. Parasitism and servile
dependence act very much in structural
S lower life as analogous instances of men-
Fio. lo.-CoMMox Tapewohm ( 7Vemz tal dependence on others act in our-

*sohi/m}. 1. TliohoafI extremity, mas:- . ^ . .

nifled, pho\vin<; hooks (a), and suck- selves. The destruction of characteristic

erp (6, c); d, neck, with immature ,..-,,. , , . . j,

joints. 2. A jointjartrelymairnifled, individuality and the extmctlOll 01 pcr-
showinK the branchint,' ' ovary," in ,. , i- j? .i - j*

. which the numerous eggs of each sonality are natural results 01 tnat lorm

joint are matured. <. . , . , . /. -,

01 association wherein one lorm becomes
absolutely dependent on another for all the conditions of life. A
life of attachment exhibits similar results, and organs of movement
disappear by the law of disuse. A digestive system is a superfluity

D EG EN ERA TION.

227

to an animal which, like a tapeworm (Fig. 10), obtains its food ready-
made in the very kitchen, so to speak, of its host. Hence the lack
of a digestive apparatus follows the finding of a free commissariat
by the parasite. Organs of sense are not necessary for an attached
and rooted animal ; these latter, therefore, go by the board, and the
nervous system itself becomes modified and altered. Degradation,
wholesale and complete, is the penalty the parasite has to pay for
its free board and lodging ; and in this fashion Nature may be said
to revenge the host for the pains and troubles wherewith, like the
just of old, he may be tormented. Numerous life-histories testify
clearly enough to the correctness of the foregoing observations. Take,
as an example, the history of Sacculma (Fig. 11, a), which exists as a
bag-like growth attached to the bodies of hermit-crabs, and sends
root-like processes into the liver of its host. No sign of life exists in a

Fig. 11. Sacculina and Young.

sacculina beyond mere pulsation of the sac-like body, into and from
which water flows by an aperture. Lay open this sac, and we shall
find the animal to be a bag of eggs and nothing more. But trace the
development of a single egg, and one may derive therefrom lessons
concerning living beings at large, and open out issues which spread
and extend far afield from sacculina and its kin. ^ach egg of the
sac-like organism develops into a little active creature, possessing three
pairs of legs, generally a single eye, but exhibiting no mouth or
digestive system parasitism having affected the larva as well as the
adult. Sooner or later, this larva known as the naupUus (b) will
develop a kind of bivalve shell ; the two hinder pairs of limbs are cast
off and replaced by six pairs of short swimming-feet ; while the front
pair of limbs develops to form two elongated organs whereby the
young sacculina will shortly attach itself to a crab "host." When
the latter event happens, the six pairs of swimming-feet are cast off,
the body assumes its sac-like appearance, and the sacculina sinks into
its adult stage a pure example of degradation by habit, use, and
wont. So also with certain near neighbors of these crab-parasites,,
such as the Lerneans, which adhere to the gills of fishes. Beginning
life as a three-legged "nauplius," the lernean retrogresses and de-

228

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

generates to become a mere elongated worm, devoted to the produc-
tion of eggs, and exhibiting but little advance on the sacculina.
There are dozens of low crustaceans which, like sacculina, afford ex-
amples of animals which are free and locomotive in the days of their
youth, but which, losing eyes, legs, digestive system, and all the
ordinary belongings of animal life, "go to the bad," as a natural result
of participating in what has been well named "the vicious cycle of
parasitism."

Plainly marked as are the foregoing cases, there are yet other
familiar crustaceans which, although not parasites, as a rule, neverthe-
less illustrate animal retrogression in an excellent manner. Such are
the sea-acorns (Halani), which stud the rocks by thousands at low-
water mark, and such are the barna-
cles (Fig. 12), that adhere to floating
timber and the sides of ships. In the
development of sea-acorns and bar-
nacles, the first stage is essentially
like that of the sacculina. The young
barnacle is a " nauplius," three-legged,
free-swimming, single-eyed, and pos-
sessing a mouth and digestive appa-
ratus. In the next stage we again
meet with the six pairs of swimming-
feet seen in sacculina, with the enor-
mously developed front pair of legs
serving as "feelers," and with two
" magnificent compound eyes," as Dar-
win describes the organs of vision.
^ The mouth in this second stage, how-

nSsy ^^mil n ever, is closed, and feeding is there-

m^ ^-^-mUJ ^j,g impossible. As Darwin remarks.

Fig. 12. Barnacles. ^^ function of the young barnacles

"at this stage is to search out by
their well-developed organs of sense and to reach by their active
powers of swimming a proper place on which to become attached,
and to undergo their final metamorphosis. When this is com-
pleted," adds Darwin, " they are fixed for life ; their legs are now
converted into prehensile organs ; they again obtain a well-constructed
mouth, but they have no antennae, and their two eyes are now
reconverted into a minute, single, simple eye-spot." A barnacle is
thus simply a highly modified crab-like animal which fixes itself by its
head to the floating log, and which " kicks its food into its mouth
with its feet," to use the simile and description of biological authority.
The development of its "shell" and stalk are matters which do not in
the least concern its place in the animal series. These latter are local
and personal features of the barnacle tribe. For in the " sea-acorns,"

^f>///.

THE PRIMEVAL AMERICAN CONTINENT. 229

which pass througli an essentially similar develojDment, there is no
stalk ; and the animal, after its free-swimming stage, simply glues its
head, by a kind of marine cement of its own manufacture, to the rock,
develops its conical shell, and like the barnacle uses its modified feet
as means for exercising the commissariat and nutritive function. It is
true that in some respects the adult barnacle may be regarded as lower
than the young, and therefore as a degenerate being. Thus, it is
lower when eyes, feelers, and movements are taken into account. In
other respects the adult may be considered of higher organization than
the larva. These higher traits we may logically enough supj^ose rep-
resent the special advances which adult barnacle-life has made on its
own account. But, on the w^hole, degradation and retrogression, if not so
fully exemplified as in the sacculina, is still plainly enough illustrated
in barnacle historv. When we further reflect that even such hisch
crustaceans as prawns and allied forms begin life each as a " nauplius "
or under an allied guise, we not only merely discover the common
origin of all crustaceans in some form represented by the " nauplius "
of to-day, but we also witness the possibilities of development which
have placed shrimps, prawns, etc., in the foremost rank of the class, and
which, conversely, have left the barnacles and sacculinas, through the
action of degenerative changes, among the groundlings of the grouj).

The assumption of a sedentary life, whether parasitic in nature
like that of sacculina, or whether it is represented by mere attachment
and fixation to some inorganic thing, as in the case of the barnacles, is
therefore seen to operate in the direction of producing degeneration
of the animal's constitution. The tendency of such habit is toward
simplification of structure and not toward that progressive advance
and evolution which, in the case of the higher crustacean races, have
evolved from the relatively simple " nauplius " of the past the crabs,
lobsters, shrimps, and prawns of to-day. Gentleman^ s Magazine,

[To he continued. '\

T

THE PKBIEYAL AMEKICAIS' COXTmENT.

By L. p. GEATACAP, A. M.

HE reader may recall standing, when a child, by the side of a
-L toy-dam in the course of some little stream, and, were a breach
made in the mimic masonry, remember the mute interest with which
he watched the slow emergence of fairy islands as points of rock and
shoals of mud slowly appeared above the water's surface how the
detached summits, at first round spots, assumed varied outlines in-
dented with cones or bristling with promontories; how they multi-
plied as the ebbing water exposed newer and lower levels, until the

230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tiny sea was dotted with an archipelago of islands, whose nearing
shores, gradually joining, formed chains of islets ; how the inclosed
area of water contracted, and, in the union of all their separate figures,
vanished. The wet surfaces, broken by depressions, were marked by
pits of water from whose sides stole along intermediate creases, thread-
like lines of water, the river system of the miniature continent, its
sinuous shores impressed by the ripples of a mimic sea. The recollec-
tion of boyish pleasures becomes touched with a deeper interest when
one is taught to recognize in this the picture of what in a larger way,
and under cosmic conditions, has happened in the life-history of our
own sphere, and to realize that his childish hand may have repro-
duced at will a somewhat exact coj^y of the stages of the world's
growth.

Suppose this little Avorld so briefly made had been left till the
bright sunshine had dried its surface, in some places parched and
cracked it, in others evoked a luxuriant growth of grass and flowers,
filled its shores with gliding snails and its level mead with teeming
ant-hills. Once more the running stream is stopped, and slowly the
muddy tide rises higher and higher, obliterates the lowlands and
creeps slowly up the sides of the high ground, around the skirts of
its pygmy mountain-chains, and rolls restored amid groups of remade
islets. Under the guidance of this retrospective knowledge let the
current be arrested to permit some portions of that first-made land
to remain uncovered. With favorable conditions, as a stream car-
rying abundance of fine silt, the water moA^ng sluggishly over the
inundated surfaces will drop its earthy burden upon them in thin,
loose layers, evenly at first, but, as shallows are formed, irregularly
modified, or as sudden freshets produce stronger currents, eddies and
ripple-bars gather or disturb the sediment. New lands in wet banks
and knobs will begin to appear over the highest ridges. Break away
again the barrier, and cause the water to recede, exposing in a simi-
lar succession of phases the bared surface. The expectant eye now
notices certain changes : old landmarks are removed from sight, val-
leys have been converted into plains, new hills have arisen, lakes
are seen here and there where before was dry land, new contour lines
surround the structural ridges which yet remain, modified indeed, but
distinctly recognizable, while the low verdure of grass and the numer-
ous pinnacles of ant-hills have together disappeared beneath a uni-
versal blanket of mud. Only upon the very highest points do the
scattered remnants of the first surface appear unchanged, because they
alone were exempted from general flood. Again the sun shines upon
it, new seeds sprout, other insects flourish, and fresh showers fall. In
spots the old land is exposed ; the new having been washed away
from it ; it may be easily recognized by its fauna and flora, the
drowned ants, and the hidden grass.

Again and again, under varying conditions, may our experimental

THE PRIMEVAL AMERICAN CONTINENT. 231

world be sunk and raised, preserving, possibly, througb all tlie changes
the rudimentary outlines of hills and valleys by which it was first
characterized and marked. And imagining that every new stratum
was ingeniously varied in the color and to some extent in the nat-
ure of its mineral constituents, and that, upon each reappearance of
this diminutive continent, the skillful experimentalist spread a new
form of life, what at last might be, after some exposure to weather-
ing and change, the character of its surface ? Evidently something
like this : in the first place, since, in consequence partly of denudation
and partly of only partial submergence, certain tracts will aj^pear
cleared of the later deposits, we will find numbers of the whole series
laid bare in spots from the highest point, where, as presupposed, only
the primitive layer is seen, to the outskirts of the island where the lat-
est layer forms the surface ; or to interior depressions, where lake-like
centers existed alternately filled and emptied with each recurring del-
uge. Endless diversity might be introduced into such a scheme, so far
as local detail is concerned, but under the conditions given the island
would exhibit lines of stratification, each distinguished by color or
fossils, and following each' other in the order instituted by the youth-
ful world-makers. Along the crevices and tiny gullies we might
detect the minute succession of various strata, and at intervals frag-
ments of the buried life would be revealed. Enlarge this minute
illustration till it assumes continental dimensions, reverse the periodic
inundations from the water rising to periodic inundations from the
land sinking, and in a rude way, subject to important modifications,
the reader will be prepared to realize the formative system developed
in the construction of our northern hemisphere.

Through a sequence of phases, somewhat distinctively bounded by
periods of depression and consequent submergence, and periods of ele-
vation and consequent drainage, land was added to an initial nucleus by
enormous marine accumulations, the debris of animal organisms, and
the detritus from terrestrial abrasion. Chemical action, heat, and
molecular transference hardened these layers into stone, and thus the
new-made land, though undergoing change from recurring submer-
gence, and through subaerial denudation, yet, to a great extent, re-
sisted removal while it contributed to the growth of the incipient
continent, and formed the ground upon which new-laid strata were
heaped.

In the American Museum of N'atural History, seven maps, the work
of Professor R. P. Whitfield, have recently been added to the Geologi-
cal Cabinet, intended to exhibit the growth of the eastern half of the
North American Continent from 95 west lonsfitude eastward to its
shores. The scheme of their arrangement is the exhibition, by con-
trasted colors, of the superficial areas where to-day the rocks of the
various geological epochs are exposed, beginning with the oldest and
rising to the youngest, whereby we seem to seize at critical points the

232 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

stages of the continent's enlargement, and follow with the eye the
stupendous changes which shaped it.

The lirst chart presents in its colored parts the primeval territory,
which geologists regard as the first-made land of our continent, the
archaic regions, around whose rocky framework were gathered the ac-
cretions of succeeding ages. It is the azoic terrain^ that composite
foundation of gneiss, granite, schists, crystalline limestones, sandstones,
serpentine, and iron-ore masses, which defined the geological archi-
tecture of America. In its isolated ridges, cleared of the later and
adjacent strata, we have before our eyes the principal portions of a
continent upon which the ancient oceans played

" . . . their priest-like task
" Of pure ablution round earth's lifeless shores."

Its sterile stretches iinalleviated by a mantle of waving woods, unani-
raated by moving figures, reflected the harsh sunshine from rugged
terraces or monotonous lowlands, a cheerless waste bathed by pre-
adamite seas.

Starting from a point near Montgomery, in Alabama, the arch^ean
country stretches northeasterly along the Appalachian axis and, rap-
idly widening, incloses large districts in Georgia, western South and
North Carolina, of which latter State it defines the western boundary,
and reaches eastward nearly to Raleigh. Passing on both sides of a
lenticular area lying in North Carolina and Virginia, it narrows to a
strip west of Richmond, where it is deeply bitten by a round gulf, and
pressed to the seaboard, forms a thin isthmus west of Washington, then
expands at Baltimore, and, lobed out into a pennant-shaped appendage,
reaches down toward Newcastle, Delaware. From a little w^est of
Burlington, nearly to Easton, a white patch shows an area where the
archean rock is no longer seen, but at the latter point a thin strip
follows the Appalachian uplift and, including the highlands of West
Point, appears as an attenuated finger or arm of a great area, which
pushes south as far as Manhattan Island, whose gneissoid rocks com-
pose it, and eastward over the western half of Connecticut. In Mas-
sachusetts the archaean rocks bifurcate ; a finger reaches to the northern
boundary of the State, where a thin connection exists w4th the great
eastern region, and a shrunken area extends northward through the
Berkshire Hills. The western limit of this latter strip lies some ten
or fifteen miles from the eastern boundary of New York, and, entering
Vermont at its southeastern border, Avidens out till, at Montpelier, al-
most half the State is covered. Slowly broadening thence, we follaw
its outlines into Canada, approach the St. Lawrence, and then, with an
abrupt eastward deflection, trace it in a sinuous tongue until it touches
the river at Mount Camille. The large eastern seaboard area of ar-
chaean rocks commences at Saybrook, on Long Island Sound, whence
northward, limited by a sweeping curve, it covers the eastern part of

THE PRIMEVAL AMERICAN COXTIXENT. 233

Connecticut, almost all of Rhode Island, and eastern Massachusetts,
with some slight exceptions, where islands of later rock occur, as
southwest from Boston and about Lowell. Nearly all New Hamp-
shire is covered by it, and in Canada it forms another strip parallel
to the first, while eastward it constitutes the surface rock of much
of Maine, wherein, at last, it breaks up into scattered patches, lying
like Titanic stepping-stones, from Augusta northward to the desolate
horn of Newfoundland. One of these districts surrounds Mount Ka-
tahdin ; another, in a long, easterly-deflected strip of land, runs from
Mount Desert northward to Chaleur Bay, New Brunswick ; while from
Machias Bay a third streams northward in a narrow ribbon.

Separated areas are found along the southern shore of Newfound-
land and upon Cape Breton Island.

In the United States four other extensive archcean territories exist
east of 95 west longitude ; one in the Adirondack region, embracing
the immense northern park of New York as far north as Malone, and
stretching southward almost to Saratoga Springs, bordered by the
State line, and, linking, through a narrow aperture between surfaces of
subsequent strata, with the enormous reaches of azoic land which form
Quebec and Ontario Provinces, it merges into two lateral expansions,
on one side into the limitless highlands of Labrador, on the other into
the ridges, valleys, and plateaus of the lake country northward to the
Arctic Circle.

The second area is in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, embracing
the Marquette region, famous for its ores. The third is a neighboring
and related province in eastern Minnesota, from the South Bend on
the Minnesota River, widening northward and uniting with the Cana-
dian area about the Rainy Lake region. The fourth, a diminutive
outlier, comprises the Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob country in south-
east Missouri.

These large spaces of arch^ean rock represent the floor-layers, as
now exposed in the eastern United States, of the continent's super-
structure. In these parts of our country they form the surface-rock,
and whether they have been always raised beyond the reach of sedi-
mentary deposit or have been scoured and relieved by frost and flood
of superincumbent strata, whether their present extent is conterminous
with their limits, as once revealed above the level of primeval seas, or
whether shrunken bj subsidence and partially obliterated by later
formations, they are at any rate outcrops of the vast bedding on which
ocean and continent alike repose. But when we examine these aged
stones we find that they themselves appear as the cemented residues
and stratified deposits formed from some yet preexistent firmament of
land. In serial bands, conforming to each other, as book lies against
book, we find limestone, slates, sandstones, quartzites, schists, and
gneiss, and we know now that these regular layers, hard, distinct, and
characterized by color, constituents, and adventitious minerals, were

234 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

once water-drifted beds metamorphosed, transfigured, as it were, by-
heat and pressure into this adamantine pavement ; and, further, we
find that they must have been so formed in the attrition and decay
of yet oUier continents. The dim perspective opens backward to the
very verge of chaos.

After deposition, and in a somewhat consolidated state, they were
slowly raised, their emergence above the water accompanied a contrac-
tion of the earth's crust, and the flexible series, from top to bottom,
folded up in deep and multiplied plications. Mountain-chains arose,
their strata tilted up, contorted and complicated in related groups of
synclinal and anticlinal axes, and, by the effective agency of heat and
aqueous distillation through the myriad pores of the rock, a minera-
logical change ensued. The argillaceous muds were hardened into
slates and schists, the calcareous shoals became crystalline limestones,
marbles, and dolomites, the siliceous bands became quartzites and sand-
stones, the iron slime crystallized into colossal sheets of iron-ore, mag-
nesian sediments became serpentine, and through all there developed
beautiful minerals under various associations and marking different
horizons in this complex pile of natural masonry. Feldspars, pyrox-
ene, mica, apatite, chondrodite, epidote, and garnet are a few of many
which, in crevice and seam, and scattered through the matrix rock,
remain as token, and possibly revelation, of the changes here enacted.
From this archtean country come the magnetic oxide of the Adiron-
dacks, the hematite of Marquette, the soft lead of Ticonderoga, the
dolomite of Westchester County, the mica of North Carolina, the sye-
nites and granites of Maine, the marbles of Vermont, the tinstone of
New Hampshire, and the phosphates of Canada. Over thirty thousand
feet in vertical thickness is the estimated depth of this gigantic mass
fitting foundation for the arches of the world.

Recent study, notably that of Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, separates this
wonderful epoch into four secondary ones of unequal duration and
varying character. First, the Laurentian, a name given by the Geo-
logical Survey of Canada and applied originally to the rocks of the
Laurentian highlands, those abraded swells of land which overlook the
St. Lawrence and rise in rugged grandeur four thousand feet high
above the shadowed waters of the Saguenay. This primitive tract of
archa3an territory embraces the Adirondacks of New York, the region
about Ottawa, portions of Newfoundland, and probably includes the
rock assigned to this age in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode
Island, and the long back which makes up the Highlands of the Hud-
son, the South Mountain of New Jersey, and the ridges about Rich-
mond and Mount Roan in North Carolina. The rock is " a strong,
massive gneiss, reddish or grayish in color."

Following this is the Norian, unconformable with the Laurentian,
viz., not fitting into it, as though the latter, first made under water,
solidified and raised, had again been depressed and received these sec-

THE PRIMEVAL AMERICAN CONTINENT. 235

ondary deposits. The Norian rock is distinguished by the abundance
of labradorite, a feldspar possessing iridescent tints, and is found in
Essex County, New York, Labrador, extensively along the St. Law-
rence, upon Lake Huron, while " bowlders of it are occasionally found
along the eastern shores of Maine and Massachusetts, and also in north-
ern New Jersey."

The Huronian era succeeds, and is a name applied to the upper
layers of the Huron Mountains, Lake Superior, to the Green Mountain
series, and to detached areas along the coast of Newfoundland, east-
ern New England, and southward upon the flanks of the Blue Ridge.
The Mont Alban series marks the fourth period, so named after the
White Mountain layers in New Hampshire, where the aggregated dis-
play of crystalline schist is assigned to this province. New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington occupy this terrain, and
these rocks occur throughout the Blue Ridge, as far as Georgia, of
more than passing significance, as they form the gold-bearing strata
ia Virginia, North and South Carolina. Li these rocks the garnet,
staurolite, cyanite, and chiastolite, favorites of the mineralogist, are
almost exclusively found.

Instinctively we ask: Did no living thing exist through all these
ages ; did the mechanical wear and tear of rock-masses and their rede-
position by mechanical means solely occupy the desolate centuries?
The proofs of organic activity, involving the functions of life, are nu-
merous, but the exact character of that life and the special conditions
under which it flourished are greatly if not entirely wanting. In the
first place, we find in Canada important, indeed inexhaustible deposits
of carbon under the form of graphite, and graphite occurs in our coal-
measures as the direct product of alteration from coal. These huge
masses, distributed in pockets, sheets, and nodules through the archsean
rock, indicate the presence of vegetative forces, doubtless exhibited in
plants of a low order, but on a scale of troj^ical exuberance.

These carbon pockets occupy the shrunken areas of what were once
vast, waving, and deeply matted beds of algae, sea-weeds, building up,
through innumerable generations amid the gathered detritus of shore
and cliff, dense piles of carbonaceous remains. Or else they are attrib-
utable to a fertile growth of lichens which spread, possibly with an
almost arborescent vigor, over plain and mountain. These organisms
are low in the vegetable hierarchy, and along with them may have
lived allied families : the microscopic Desmids and Diatoms, whose
siliceous tests showered down through the still oceans ; beside them
the Corallines and Nullipores, forming calcareous fringes and coral-like
thickets ; the minute Protophytes and the delicate Charae. Doubtless
this age marked the climax of these plants, and, through multiplied
species and in vast numbers, they represented one phase of the ever-
restless evolution of vital forces.

The great deposits of iron-ore, though affording no direct evidence

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in their remains of j^lant-life, are no less trust-svorthy proofs of its
existence. They are themselves largely the result of vegetation in
some form. Dr. Hunt originally explained this connection, illustrating
it by identical processes in the world about us. If the reader visits a
bog-land in summer, where slowly-running or stagnant water collects
in pools, or if he stands upon the edge of a morass or marsh, he will
notice angular, iridescent films floating upon the surface. They are
thin pellicles of iron oxide, which will soon break up and sink, to be
succeeded by fresh "skins," which in turn disappear, building up a
growing layer of bog-iron ore beneath the water. The theory is simple.
Iron exists under two forms, a soluble or monoxide, and an insoluble or
sesquioxide. The latter is widely disseminated through the rocks and
soils. The insoluble modification is reduced to the monoxide or sol-
uble state in the presence of finely divided and rotting vegetable
matter, or in water charged with vegetable infusions, as emacerated
leaves and tissues. Rains and streams carry it away to lowlands and
depressions, where it becomes, through contact with the air, again oxi-
dized or rendered insoluble, and is redeposited in streaks and bands.
The widespread action of vegetable acids is here concerned. Humic,
crenic, apocrenic, and related acids, in conjunction with the reducing
power of carbonaceous residues, removed iron oxide from the original
rocks, and through the agency of water gathered it useless as long as
it remained scattered in minute particles through vast terrains into
enormous masses, the source and maintenance of our industries, thus
garnered through these gentle and silent methods. Such has been the
growth of the large deposits in the Marquette region, in the Adiron-
dacks, and at Pilot Knob deposits which under the influence of heat
have become changed into the specular ores, the magnetites, and hema-
tites. They point unmistakably to the existence of plants, and no less
to their duration over immense periods of years.

The proofs of animal life are less satisfactory, and have been dis-
credited in high scientific writings, or, more accurately, the morpho-
logical types of that life have been rejected, leaving the general pre-
sumption unquestioned that animal life of some kind prevailed. In
the first place, the phosphatic minerals found in the archgean rocks are
considered derivative from organic remains, as to-day phosphorus as a
phosphate results from animal secretions, though phosphorus is omni-
present in the plant-world, and the ashes of various vegetables yield
from eight per cent, to fifty-three per cent, of ^^hosphoric acid, while
the annual shipment of flour and wheat from our shores represents
thousands of tons of this element. In this respect the evidence does
not seem altogether controlling that these archgean phosphates neces-
sarily resulted from animal debris. But the argument rests upon surer
grounds. In 18G5, Logan, Dawson, Carpenter, and Hunt, ^^repared a
paper of great merit u])on an archa^an fossil, which they named Eozoon^
and whicl] they considered representative of the zoological sub-king-

THE PRIMEVAL AMERICAN CONTINENT, 237

dom of the Protozoa and allied to Foraminifera. They represent it as
an organism attaching itself by a gelatinous body to sea-floors, en-
veloping itself with a crust of carbonate of lime in which very small
tubes penetrated to the surface through which the sarcodous material
within projected in tapering fingers, to be withdrawn at the will of the
animal ; upon this another layer of protoplastic matter, formed in the
growth of the creature, connected with the first, but separated through-
out most of its extent by an interlamination of limestone, in which
radiating canals are discerned, and which succeeds the earlier porifer-
ous shell. Upon this new calcareous crusts arise, and thus a cellular
and tuberiferous mound is formed, compacted and regular, along the
base of attachment, but loose, granulated, and divergent at its summit.

In our present seas closely related organisms appear, the Rhizopods,
minute bodies, structureless, mere pellets of protoplasm, yet possessed
of a secretive function which incases them in exquisitely symmetrical
houses of lime. They are naturally low in the animal scale, indeed
primary, and the Eozoon seems to have been a Titan progenitor of these
hosts of later protozoans whose numberless fragments form the chalk-
beds of England and France.

The Eozoon Ccmadense is found in the Laurentian rocks of Canada,
other species in the Huronian of Bavaria, and specimens have been
described from the Adirondacks and from Massachusetts. Forms
strikingly resembling Eozoon may be found in the serpentine ledge in
Fifty-ninth Street, near Tenth Avenue, New York. The soft parts in
the calcareous skeleton of this Rhizopod have been replaced by min-
erals, and on the resemblance, amounting almost to identity, between
the Eozoon and certain mineral pseudomorphs are based the objec-
tions made to its acceptance as of organic origin. King and Rowney,
of Dublin, and Mobius, of Germany, have very vigorously attacked it,
and lately Roemer rejects it from the list of palaeozoic fossils. But it
seems impossible to doubt the reality of its animal an-angement. Pro-
fessor Hitchcock thoughtfully observes in this connection as regards its
resemblance to mineral replacements, " Inasmuch as these structures
represent the higher efforts of the mineral kingdom in crystallization
and the nearest approach to the inorganic world allowed by animal
forms, it is not strange that the two extremes should resemble each
other sufficiently to deceive practical observers."

This was, in a few words, the archaean Continent. Its greatest area
was in the north, with scattered islands and thin prolongations south-
ward along the present axes of elevation. Subsequent j^eriods built
out from this and filled in the shadowy but prophetic sketch of Korth
America not an azoic or lifeless country, as once thought, yet a terri-
tory where silence reigned, broken only by the roar of the surf along
its bleak margins, the whistle of the gale through its defiles, and the
thunder of tempests upon its plains. " Lonely, silent, and impassive,
heedless of man, season, or time, the weight of the Infinite seemed to
brood over it."

238

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

NATUExVL PEODUCTION OF ALCOHOL*

By GASTON TISSANDIEK.

MA. MUNTZ, of the French National Agronomical Listitute, an-
n ounces that he has discovered traces of alcohol as a natural
product in cultivated soil, rain-water, sea- and river- water, and the
atmosphere. He has detected the product, it is true, only in the most

Fig. 1.

infinitesimal quantities, but he has established the fact of its existence
by analyses which are at once simple, clear, and convincing.

* Translated from " La Nature."

NATURAL PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL.

239

He has submitted to distillation some fifteen or twenty litres, or
quarts, of snow-, rain-, or sea-water in the apparatus which is repre-
sented in Fig. 1. This apparatus consists of a milk-can, B, which is
made to serve as a boiler, in which the liquid to be distilled is put.
The vapors disengaged by the heat pass through a worm about thirty
feet long, in which they are resolved ; thence through a tube incased
in a refrigerating envelope, T, which is kept constantly cool by a cur-
rent of cold water ; and are then condensed in the glass receiver, R.
The operation is arrested as soon as one hundred or one hundred and
fifty cubic centimetres of liquid which will contain all the alcohol
have been condensed. The resultant liquid is again distilled in an

Fig. 2. Cktstals op Iodoform obtained by Synthesis (greatly magnified).

apparatus similar to the former one, but smaller. The latter opera-
tion is arrested when some five or six cubic centimetres of liquid have
been condensed in a closed receiving-tube, which takes the place of
the receiver R in the former apparatus. The tube is then taken away,
and to its contents are added a little iodine and carbonate of soda ; on
heating it slightly, small crystals are precipitated of iodoform, a sub-
stance which could not be produced unless alcohol were present. M.
Miintz has verified the results of this process by other test experi-
ments. When distilled water, chemically pure, was heated in the same
apparatus, the addition of iodine and carbonate of soda was not fol-
lowed by any reaction. A second verification was obtained by dis-
tilling fifteen litres of pure water, to which one millionth part of alco-
hol had been added ; the addition of iodine and carbonate of soda
caused a precipitation of iodoform precisely like that which was ob-

240

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tained in treating tlie natural waters. One or two hundred grammes
(three and a half to seven ounces) of tilled earth mixed with a pint of

Fig. 3. Crystals of Iodoform obtained with Rain-water.

water gave a similar precipitate of iodoform when distilled and ex-
posed to the reactions employed in the other experiments. The pre-

FiG. 4. Crystals op Iodoform obtained with Snow-water.

cipitation of iodoform by the addition of iodine and carbonate of
soda is a very evident test of the presence of alcohol. Iodoform

NATURAL PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL. 241

has marked characteristics which permit it to be distinguished very
readily : the form of its crystals, particularly, is typical ; it is of a
light yellowish color, and appears under the microscope in the form
of six-rayed stars derived from an hexagonal prism, of precisely the
form of snow-crystals. The accompanying figures give photographic
representations of the crystals as they appear under the microscope.
Fig. 2 represents the crystals from pure water to which alcohol has
been added in the proportion of one millionth ; Fig. 3, those ob-
tained from rain-water ; Fig. 4, crystals from snow-water ; and Fig.
5, those procured from cultivated soil. M. Miintz's first experi-
ments were made about four years ago. He has since examined a

Fig. 5. Crystals of loDoroRM obtained with Cui.tivated Soil.

considerable number of samples of rain- and snow-water from Paris
and the country. After each distillation the apparatus has been care-
fully cleansed by exposing it for some time to currents of vapor, and
the analysis has been tested by repeating it in blank. More than
eighty essays have given identical results. The quantity of alcohol
contained in rain-, snow-, and sea-water may be estimated at from one
to several millionths of the whole. Cold water and snow-water seem
to contain a little larger proportion of it than warm water. Appreci-
able quantities of it are found in the water of the Seine ; and the pro-
portion is very sensibly increased in sewer- water. Vegetable mold
appears to be rich in it ; and it is probable that the natural alcohol
originates in the soil from the fermentation of the organic matters
contained in it, and is thence diffused as a vapor in the atmo-

YOL. XIX. 16

242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sphere. Meteoric waters absorb it at the moment of their condensa-
tion. These results are absokitely new, to our knowledge, and are the
fruits of an entirely original labor.

--

THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF FARADAY'S CON-
CEPTION OF ELECTRICITY.*

By Professor H. HELMHOLTZ.

THE majority of Faraday's own researches were connected, directly
or indirectly, with questions regarding the nature of electricity,
and his most important and most renowned discoveries lay in this field.
The facts Vhich he has found are universally known. Nevertheless,
the fundamental conceptions by which Faraday has been led to these
much-admired discoveries have not been received with much consid-
eration. His principal aim was to express, in his new conceptions,
only facts, with the least possible use of hypothetical substances
and forces. This was really a progress in general scientific method,
destined to purify science from the last remnants of metaphysics.
Now that the mathematical interpretation of Faraday's conceptions
regarding the nature of electric and magnetic force has been given by
Clerk Maxwell, we see how great a degree of exactness and precision
was really hidden behind his words, which to his contemporaries ap-
peared so vague or obscure ; and it is astonishing in the highest de-
gree to see what a large number of general theories, the methodical
deduction of which requires the highest powers of mathematical analy-
sis, he has found, by a kind of intuition, with the security of instinct,
without the help of a single mathematical formula.

The electrical researches of Faraday, although embracing a great
number of apparently minute and disconnected questions, all of which
he has treated with the same careful attention and conscientiousness, are
really always aiming at two fundamental problems of natural philoso-
phy : the one more regarding the nature of physical forces, or of forces
working at a distance ; the other, in the same way, regarding chemical
forces, or those which act from molecule to molecule, and the relation
between these and the first.

The great fundamental problem which Faraday called up anew for
discussion was the existence of forces working directly at a distance
without any intervening medium. During the last and the beginning
of the present century the model after the likeness of which nearly all
physical theories had been formed was the force of gravitation acting

* The Faraday Lecture, delivered before the Fellows of the Chemical Society in the
Theatre of the Royal Institution, London, on Tuesday, April 5, 1881, by Professor Helm-
holtz. Abstract revised by the author.

FARADAY'S CONCEPTION OF ELECTRICITY. 243

between the sun, the planets, and then- satellites. It is known how,
with much caution and even reluctance. Sir Isaac Newton himself pro-
posed his grand hypothesis, which was destined to become the first
great and imposing example, illustrating the power of true scientific
method.

But then came Oerstedt's discovery of the motions of magnets
under the influence of electric currents. The force acting in these
phenomena had a new and very singular character. It seemed as if it
would drive a single isolated pole of a magnet in a circle around the
wire conducting the current, on and on without end, never coming to
rest. Faraday saw that a motion of this kind could not be produced
by any force of attraction or repulsion, working from point to point.
If the current is able to increase the velocity of the magnet, the mag-
net must react on the current. So he made the experiment, and dis-
covered induced currents ; he traced them out through all the various
conditions under which they ought to appear. He concluded that
somewhere in a part of the space traversed by magnetic force there
exists a peculiar state of tension, and that every change of this tension
produces electro-motive force. This unknown hypothetical state he
called provisionally the electrotonic state, and he was occupied for
years and years in finding out what was this electrotonic state. He
discovered at first, in 1838, the dielectric polarization of electric insu-
lators, subject to electric forces. Such bodies show, under the influ-
ence of electric forces, phenomena perfectly analogous to those ex-
hibited by soft iron under the influence of the magnetic force. Eleven
years later, in 1849, he was able to demonstrate that all ponderable
matter is magnetized under the influence of sufliciently intense mag-
netic force, and at the same time he discovered the phenomena of dia-
magnetism, which indicated that even space, devoid of all ponderable
matter, is magnetizable ; and now, with quite a wonderful sagacity
and intellectual precision, Faraday performed in his brain the work of
a great mathematician without using a single mathematical formula.
He saw with his mind's eye that, by these systems of tensions and
pressures produced by the dielectric and magnetic polarization of space
which surrounds electrified bodies, magnets or Avires conducting elec-
tric currents, all the phenomena of electro-static, magnetic, electro-
magnetic attraction, repulsion, and induction could be explained, with-
out recurring at all to forces acting directly at a distance. This was
the part of his path where so few could follow him ; perhaps a Clerk
Maxwell, a second man of the same power and independence of intel-
lect, was necessary to reconstruct in the normal methods of science
the great building, the plan of which Faraday had conceived in his
mind and attempted to make visible to his contemporaries.

Nevertheless, the adherents of direct action at a distance have not
yet ceased to search for solutions of the electro-magnetic problem.
The present development of science, however, shows, as I think, a

244 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

state of things very favorable to the hope that Faraday's fundamental
conceptions may in the immediate future receive general assent. His
theory, indeed, is the only existing one which is at the same time in
perfect harmony with the facts observed, and which at least does not
lead into any contradiction against the general axioms of dynamics.

It is not at all necessary to accept any definite opinion about the
ultimate nature of the agent which we call electricity.

Faraday himself avoided as much as he could giving any afiirma-
tive assertion regarding this problem, although he did not conceal his
disinclination to believe in the existence of two opposite electric fluids.

For our own discussion of the electro-chemical phenomena, to
which we shall turn now, I beg permission to use the language of the
old dualistic theory, because we shall have to speak principally on re-
lations of quantity.

I now turn to the second fundamental problem aimed at by Fara-
day, the connection between electric and chemical force. Already,
before Faraday went to work, an elaborate electro-chemical theory
had been established by the renowned Swedish chemist, Berzelius,
which formed the connecting link of the great work of his life, the
systematization of the chemical knowledge of his time. His starting-
point was the series into which Volta had arranged the metals accord-
ing to the electric tension which they exhibit after contact with each
other. A fundamental point w^hich Faraday's experiment contradicted
wats the supposition that the quantity of electricity collected in each
atom was dependent on their mutual electro-chemical differences,
which he considered as the cause of their apparently greater chemical
affinity. But, although the fundamental conceptions of Berzelius's
theory have been forsaken, chemists have not ceased to speak of posi-
tive and negative constituents of a compound body. Nobody can
overlook that such a contrast of qualities, as was expressed in Berze-
lius's theory, really exists, well developed at the extremities, less evi-
dent in the middle terms of the series, playing an important part in all
chemical actions, although often subordinated to other influences.

When Faraday began to study the phenomena of decomposition by
the galvanic current, which of course were considered by Berzelius as
one of the firmest supports of his theory, he put a very simple ques-
tion ; the first question, indeed, which every chemist speculating about
electrolysis ought to have answered. He asked. What is the quantity
of electrolytic decomposition if the same quantity of electricity is
sent through several electrolytic cells ? By this investigation he dis-
covered that most important law, generally known under his name,
but called by him the law of definite electrolytic action.

Faraday concluded from his experiments that a definite quantity
of electricity can not pass a voltametric cell containing acidulated
water between electrodes of platinum without setting free at the nega-
tive electrode a corresponding definite amount of hydrogen, and at the

FABABAY'S CONCEPTION OF ELECTRICITY. 245

positive electrode the equivalent quantity of oxygen, one atom of
oxygen for every pair of atoms of hydrogen. If, instead of hydrogen,
any other element capable of substituting hydrogen is separated from
the electrolyte, this is done also in a quantity exactly equivalent to
the quantity of hydrogen which would have been evolved by the
same electric current.

Since that time our experimental methods and our knowledge of
the laws of electrical phenomena have made enormous progress, and a
great many obstacles have now been removed which entangled every
one of Faraday's steps, and obliged him to fight with the confused
ideas and ill-applied theoretical conceptions of some of his contempo-
raries. We need not hesitate to say that, the more experimental
methods were refined, the more the exactness and generality of Fara-
day's law was confirmed.

In the beginning, Berzelius and the adherents of Volta's original
theory of galvanism, based on the effects of metallic contact, raised
many objections against Faraday's law. By the combination of No-
bili's astatic pairs of magnetic needles with Schweigger's multiplicator,
a coil of copper wire with numerous circumvolutions, galvanometers
became so delicate that the electro-chemical equivalent of the smaller
currents they indicated was imperceptible for all chemical methods.
With the newest galvanometers you can very well observe currents
which would want to last a century before decomposing one milligramme
of water, the smallest quantity which is usually weighed on chemical
balances. You see that, if such a current lasts only some seconds or
some minutes, there is not the slightest hope to discover its products
of decomposition by chemical analysis. And, even if it should last a
long time, the feeble quantities of hydrogen collected at the negative
electrode can vanish, because they combine with the traces of atmos-
pheric oxygen absorbed by the liquid. Under such conditions a feeble
current may continue as long as you like without producing any visible
trace of electrolysis, even not of galvanic polarization, the appearance
of which can be used as an indication of previous electrolysis. Gal-
vanic polarization, as you know, is an altered state of the metallic
plates which have been used as electrodes during the decomposition of
an electrolyte. Polarized electrodes, when connected by a galvanom-
eter, give a current which they did not give before being polarized.
By this current the plates are discharged again and returned to their
original state of equality.

This depolarizing current is indeed a most delicate means of dis-
covering previous decomposition. I have really ascertained that un-
der favorable conditions one can observe the polarization produced
during some seconds by a current which decomposes one milligramme
of water in a century.

Products of decomposition can not appear at the electrodes without
motions of the constituent molecules of the electrolyte throughout the

246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Avhole length of tlac liquid. This subject has been studied very care-
fully, and for a great number of liquids, by Professor HittorflF, of
Munster, and Professor G. Wiedemann, of Leipsic.

Professor F. Kohlrausch, of Wiirzburg, has brought to light the
very important fact that, in diluted solutions of salts, including hy-
drates of acids and hydrates of caustic alkalies, every atom under the
influence of currents of the same density moves on with its own pecul-
iar velocity, independently of other atoms moving at the same time
in the same or in opposite directions. The total amount of chemical
motion in every section of the fluid is represented by the sum of the
equivalents of the cation gone forward and of the anion gone back-
ward, in the same way as in the dualistic theory of electricity, and the
total amount of electricity flowing through a section of the conductor
corresponds to the sum of positive electricity going forward and nega-
tive electricity going backward.

This established, Faraday's law tells us that, through each section
of an electrolytic conductor, we have always equivalent electrical and
chemical motion. The same definite quantity of either positive or
negative electricity moves always with each univalent ion, or with
every unit of affinity of a multivalent ion, and accompanies it during
all its motions through the interior of the electrolytic fluid. This we
may call the electric charge of the atom.

Now, the most startling result, perhaps, of Faraday's law is this :
If we accept the hypothesis that the elementary substances are com-
posed of atoms, we can not avoid concluding that electricity also, posi-
tive as well as negative, is divided into definite elementary portions,
which behave like atoms of electricity. As long as it moves about
on the electrolytic liquid, each atom remains united with its electric
equivalent or equivalents. At the surface of the electrodes decompo-
sition can take place if there is sufficient electro-motive power, and
then the atoms give off their electric charges and become electrically
neutral.

Now arises the question, Are all these relations between electricity
and chemical combination limited to that class of bodies which we
know as electrolytes ? In order to produce a current of sufficient
strength to collect enough of the products of decomposition without
producing too much heat in the electrolyte, the substance which we
try to decompose ought not to have too much resistance against the
current. But this resistance may be very great, and the motion of the
ions may be very slow so slow indeed that we should need to allow
it to go on for hundreds of years before we should be able to collect
even traces of the products of decomposition ; nevertheless, all the
essential attributes of the process of electrolysis could subsist. If you
connect an electrified conductor with one of the electrodes of a cell
filled with oil of turpentine, the other with the earth, you will find
that the electricity of the conductor is discharged unmistakably more

FAEADAY'S CONCEPTION OF ELECTRICITY. 247

rapidly through the oil of turpentine than if you take it away and fill
the cell only with air.

Also in this case we may observe polarization of the electrodes as a
symptom of previous electrolysis. Another sign of electrolytic con-
duction is, that liquids brought between two different metals produce
an electro-motive force. This is never done by metals of equal tem-
perature, or other conductors which, like metals, let electricity pass
without being decomposed.

The same effect is also observed even with a great many rigid
bodies, although we have very few solid bodies which allow us to
observe this electrolytic conduction with the galvanometer, and even
these only at temperatures near to their melting-point. It is nearly
impossible to shelter the quadrants of a delicate electrometer against
being charged by the insulating bodies by which they are supported.

In all the cases which I have quoted one might suspect that traces
of humidity absorbed by the substances or adhering to their surface
were the electrolytes. I show you, therefore, this little Daniell's cell,
in which the porous septum has been substituted by a thin stratum of
glass. Externally, all is symmetrical at both poles ; there is nothing
in contact with the air but a closed surface of glass, through which
two wires of platinum penetrate. The whole charges the electrometer
exactly like a Daniell's cell of very great resistance, and this it would
not do if the septum of glass did not behave like an electrolyte. All
these facts show that electrolytic conduction is not at all limited to
solutions of acids or salts.

Hitherto we have studied the motions of ponderable matter, as
well as of electricity, going on in an electrolyte. Let us study now
the forces which are able to produce these motions. It has always
appeared somewhat startling to everybody who knows the mighty
power of chemical forces, the enormous quantity of heat and of me-
chanical work which they are able to produce, and who compares with
it the exceedingly small electric attraction which the poles of a battery
of two Daniell's cells show. Nevertheless, this little apparatus is able
to decompose water.

The quantity of electricity which can be conveyed by a very small
quantity of hydrogen, when measured by its electrostatic forces, is ex-
ceedingly great. Faraday saw this, and has endeavored in various ways
to give at least an approximate determination. The most powerful
batteries of Leyden-jars, discharged through a voltameter, give scarcely
any visible traces of gases. At present we can give definite numbers.
The result is, that the electricity of one milligramme of water, sepa-
rated and communicated to two balls one kilometre distant, would
produce an attraction between them equal to the weight of twenty-
five thousand kilos.

The total force exerted by the attraction of an electrified body
upon another charged with opposite electricity is always proportional

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to the quantity of electricity contained in the attracting as on the at-
tracted body, and therefore even the feeble electric tension of two
Daniell's elements, acting through an electrolytic cell upon the enor-
mous quantities of electricity with which the constituent ions of water
are charged, is mighty enough to separate these elements and to keep
them separated.

We now turn to investigate what motions of the ponderable mole-
cules require the action of these forces. Let us begin with the, case
where the conducting liquid is surrounded everywhere by insulating
bodies. Then no electricity can enter, none can go out through its
surface, but ^^ositive electricity can be driven to one side, negative to
the other, by the attracting and repelling forces of external electrified
bodies. This process, going on as well in every metallic conductor,
is called " electrostatic induction." Liquid conductors behave quite like
metals under these conditions. Professor Wiillner has proved that
even our best insulators, exposed to electric forces for a long time, are
charged at last quite in the same way as metals would be charged in
an instant. There can be no doubt that even electro-motive forces
going down to less than yi^ I^aniell produce perfect electrical equilib-
rium in the interior of an electrolytic liquid.

Another somewhat modified instance of the same effects is afforded
by a voltametric cell containing two electrodes of platinum, which are
connected with a Daniell's cell, the electro-motive force of which is
insufticient to decompose the electrolyte. Under this condition the
ions carried to the electrodes can not give off their electric charges.
The whole apparatus behaves, as was first accentuated by Sir W. Thom-
son, like a condenser of enormous capacity.

Observing the polarizing and depolarizing currents in a cell con-
taining two electrodes of platinum, hermetically sealed and freed of all
air, Ave can observe these phenomena with the most feeble electro-mo-
tive forces of yoVo L^aniell, and I found that down to this limit the
capacity of the platinum surfaces proved to be constant. By taking
greater surfaces of platinum I suppose it will be possible to reach a
limit much lower than that. If any chemical force existed besides
that of the electrical charges, which could bind all the pairs of oppo-
site ions together, and require any amount of work to be vanquished,
an inferior limit to the electro-motive forces ought to exist, which forces
are able to attract the atoms to the electrodes and to charge these as
condensers. No phenomenon indicating such a limit -has as yet been
discovered, and we must conclude, therefore, that no other force re-
sists the motions of the ions through the interior of the liquid than the
mutual attractions of their electric charges.

On the contrary, as soon as an ion is to be separated from its elec-
trical charge we find that the electrical forces of the battery meet with
a powerful resistance, the overpowering of which requires a good deal
of work to be done. Usually the ions, losing their electric charges,

FARADAY'S CONCEPTION OF ELECTRICITY. 249

are separated at the same tircie from the liquid ; some of them are
evolved as gases, others are deposited as rigid strata on the surface of
the electrodes, like galvanoplastic copper. But the union of two con-
stituents having powerful affinity to form a chemical compound, as
you know very well, produces always a great amount of heat, and heat
is equivalent to work. On the contrary, decomposition of the com-
pound substances requires work, because it restores the energy of the
chemical forces which has been spent by the act of combination.

Metals uniting with oxygen or halogens produce heat in the same
way, some of them, like potassium, sodium, zinc, even more heat than
an equivalent quantity of hydrogen ; less oxidizable metals, like copper,
silver, platinum, less. We find, therefore, that heat is generated when
zinc drives copper out of its combination with the compound halogen
of sulphuric acid, as is the case in a Daniell's cell.

If a galvanic current passes through any conductor, a metallic wire,
or an electrolytic fluid, it evolves heat. Mr. Prescott Joule was the
first who proved experimentally that, if no other work is done by the
current, the total amount of heat evolved in a galvanic circuit during
a certain time is exactly equal to that which ought to have been gen-
erated by the chemical actions which have been performed during that
time. But this heat is not evolved at the surface of the electrodes,
where these chemical actions take place, but is evolved in all the parts
of the circuit, proportionally to the galvanic resistance of every part.
From this it is evident that the heat evolved is an immediate effect,
not of the chemical action, but of the galvanic current, and that the
chemical work of the battery has been spent in producing only the
electric action.

If we apply Faraday's law, a definite amount of electricity passing
through the circuit corresponds to a definite amount of chemical de-
composition going on in every electrolytic cell of the same circuit.
According to the theory of electricity, the work done by such a defi-
nite quantity of electricity which passes, producing a current, is pro-
portionate to the electro-motive force acting between both ends of the
conductor. You see, therefore, that the electro-motive force of a gal-
vanic circuit must be, and is, indeed, proportionate to the heat gener-
ated by the sum of all the chemical actions going on in all the electro-
lytic cells during the passage of the same quantity of electricity. In
cells of the galvanic battery chemical forces are brought into action
able to produce work ; in cells in which decomposition is occurring
work must be done against opposing chemical forces ; the rest of the
work done appears as heat evolved by the current, as far as it is
not used up to produce motions of magnets or other equivalents of
work.

Hitherto we have supposed that the ion with its electric charge is
separated from the fluid. But the ponderable atoms can give off their
electricity to the electrode and remain in the liquid, being now elec-

2 50 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

trically neutral. This makes almost no difference in the value of the
electro-motive force. For instance, if chlorine is separated at the anode
it Avill remain at first absorbed by the liquid ; if the solution becomes
saturated, or if we make a vacuum over the liquid, the gas will rise in
bubbles. The electro-motive force remains unaltered. The same may
be observed with all the other gases. You see in this case that the
change of electrically negative chlorine into neutral chlorine is the
process which requires so great an amount of work, even if the pon-
derable matter of the atoms remains where it was.

The more the surface of the positive electrode is covered with neg-
ative atoms of the anion and the negative with the positive ones of the
cation, the more the attracting force of the electrodes exerted upon
the ions of the liquid is diminished by this second stratum of opposite
electricity covering them. On the contrary, the force with which the
positive electricity of an atom of hydrogen is attracted toward the
negatively charged metal increases in proportion as more negative
electricity collects before it on the metal and the more negative elec-
tricity collects behind it in the fluid.

Such is the mechanism by which electric force is concentrated and
increased in its intensity to such a degree that it becomes able to over-
power the mightiest chemical affinities we know of. If this can be
done by a polarized surface, acting like a condenser, charged by a very
moderate electro-motive force, can the attractions between the enor-
mous electric charges of anions and cations play an unimportant and
indifferent part in chemical affinity ?

You see, therefore, if we use the language of the dualistic theory
and treat positive and negative electricities as two substances, the phe-
nomena are the same as if equivalents of positive and negative electric-
ity were attracted by different atoms, and perhaps also by the differ-
ent values of affinity belonging to the same atom, with different force.
Potassium, sodium, zinc, must have strong attraction to a positive
charge ; oxygen, chlorine, bromine, to a negative charge.

Faraday very often recurs to this to express his conviction that the
forces termed chemical affinity and electricity are one and the same.
I have endeavored to give you a survey of the facts in their mutual
connection, avoiding, as far as possible, introducing other hypotheses,
except the atomic theory of modern chemistry. I think the facts leave
no doubt that the very mightiest among the chemical forces are of
electric origin. The atoms cling to their electric charges and the op-
posite electric charges cling to the atoms. But I don't suppose that
other molecular forces are excluded, working directly from atom to
atom. Several of our leading chemists have begun lately to distinguish
two classes of compounds, molecular aggregates and typical compounds.
The latter are united by atomic affinities, the former not. Electrolytes
belong to the latter class.

If we conclude from the facts that every unit of affinity of every

GLUCOSE AND GRAPE-SUGAR.

2^1

atom is charged always with one equivalent, either of positive or of neg-
ative electricity, they can form compounds, being electrically neutral,
only if every unit charged positively unites under the influence of a
mighty electric attraction with another unit charged negatively. You
see that this ought to produce compounds in which every unit of affin-
ity of every atom is connected with one and only with one other unit
of another atom. This is, as you will see immediately, indeed, the
modern chemical theory of quantivalence, comprising all the saturated
compounds. The fact that even elementary substances, with few ex-
ceptions, have molecules composed of two atoms, makes it probable
that even in these cases electric neutralization is produced by the com-
bination of two atoms, each charged with its electric equivalent, not
by neutralization of every single unit of affinity.

But I abstain from entering into mere specialties, as, for instance,
the question of unsaturated compounds ; perhaps I have gone already
too far. I would not have dared to do it if I did not feel myself shel-
tered by the authority of that great man who was guided by a never-
erring instinct of truth. I thought that the best I could do for his
memory was to recall to the minds of the men, by the energy and in-
telligence of whom chemistry has undergone its modern astonishing
development, what important treasures of knowledge lie still hidden
in the works of that wonderful genius. I am not sufficiently acquainted
with chemistry to be confident that I have given the right interpreta-
tion that interpretation which Faraday himself would have given,
perhaps, if he had known the law of chemical quantivalence, if he had
had the experimental means of ascertaining how large the extent, how
unexceptional the accuracy of his law really is ; and if he had known
the precise formulation of the law of energy applied to chemical work,
and of the laws which determine the distribution of electric forces in
space as well as in ponderable bodies, transmitting electric current or
forming condensers. I shall consider my work of to-day well rewarded
if I have succeeded in kindling anew the interest of chemists for the
electro-chemical part of their science.

----

GLUCOSE AXD GEAPE-SUGAE.

By Professob HAEVEY W. WILEY.

rriHE manufacture of sirup and sugar from corn-starch is an indus-
-L try which, in this country, is scarcely a dozen years old, and yet
it is one of no inconsiderable magnitude. On August 1, 1880, ten
glucose-factories were in operation in the United States, consuming
daily about twenty thousand bushels of corn. These, with their sev-
eral capacities, are as follows :

252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Firmcnich's, Buffalo '. 4,000 bushels.

Buffalo, Buff'alo 5,000 "

American, Buffalo 3,000 "

Higher, St. Louis 1,000 "

Peoria Eefiner j, Peoria 2,500 "

Peoria Grape-sugar, Peoria 850 "

Davenport, Davenport, Iowa 1,500 "

Freeport, Freeport, Illinois 1,500 "

Duryea, Brooklyn 1,500 "

Sagetown, Sagetown, Illinois 250 "

At that time, also, there were in process of construction nine fac-
tories, with a total capacity of twenty-two thousand bushels daily.

At the same time additional machinery was in process of erection
in the two Peoria factories, which increased their capacity two thou-
sand and twenty-five hundred bushels, respectively.

The new factories were buildino- in

Detroit capacity, 3,000 bushels.

Chicago " 10,000 "

Geneva, Illinois " 1,000 "

Iowa City " 1,500 "

Danville, Illinois " 1,500 "

Tippecanoe, Ohio " 500 "

Ptockford, Illinois " 1,000 "

Pekin, Illinois " 500 "

Marshalltown, Iowa " 8,000 " *

We may safely assume that at the present time one half of these
new factories are in running order. The total daily consumption of
corn, therefore, for sugar- and sirup-making, is not far from thirty-five
thousand bushels.

Eleven million bushels of corn during the present year will be
used for this purpose, and every indication leads us to believe that the
amount will be doubled in 1882.

The capital invested in this sugar industry is likewise no incon-
siderable one. Taking the large and small establishments together,
each thousand bushels of daily capacity represents sixty thousand
dollars of capital. Over two million dollars are therefore actively
employed in the glucose-works. The number of men employed
amounts to about sixty for each thousand bushels capacity, making a
total of twenty-one hundred. On account of the nature of the process
of manufacture, the mills are run night and day, and work is not
entirely suspended on Sunday.

To avoid confusion of ideas, the following statements seem neces-
sary : The word glucose, in this country, is employed among dealers
to designate exclusively the thick sirup which is made from corn-
starch. On the other hand, grape-sugar is applied to the solid product
obtained from the same source. The glucose and grape-sugar of the

GLUCOSE AND GRAPE-SUGAR. 253

trade have optical and chemical properties quite different from many
other substances bearing the same name. 1 shall use the words in the
signification explained above.

Properties of Glucose. Glucose is a thick, tenacious sirup,
almost colorless, or of a yellowish tint. It has an average specific
gravity, at 20 C, of 1-412. That which is made for summer con-
sumption is a little denser than that manufactured for winter use.
This sirup is so thick that, in the winter, it is quite difficult to pour it
from one vessel to another.

The sweetness of glucose i. e., the intensity of the impression it
makes on the nerves of taste varies greatly with different specimens.
Some kinds approach in intensity the sweetness of cane-sugar, while
others seem to act slowly and feebly. It has been shown that the
degree of sweetness depends on the extent of the chemical changes
which go on in the conversion of starch into sugar. When the process
of conversion is stopped as soon as the starch has disappeared, the
resulting glucose has a maximum sweetness.* The color of glucose
depends on the thorough washing of the substance, during the process
of manufacture, through animal charcoal, and lowness of temperature
at which it is evaporated, and rapidity of evaporation. The methods
of securing these conditions will be described further on.

There is one variety of glucose which is made for confectioners'
use, which is much thicker and denser than that just described. Its
specific gravity may reach 1-440, but it has no tendency to become
hard and solid, like the so-called grape-sugar.

The grape-sugar made from corn-starch, when well made, is pure
white in color when first made, but has a tendency to assume a yellow-
ish tint when old. It is hard and brittle, does not usually take on a
visible crystalline structure, and is less soluble in water than cane-sugar.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it dissolves more slowly,
since both cane- and grape-sugar dissolve in all proportions in hot water.
I have found its specific gravity to be as high as 1 -6. It is much less
sweet to the taste than glucose, and a faint bitter after-taste is to be
perceived.

Uses of Glucose and Gkape-Sugae. Glucose is used chiefly for
the manufacture of table-sirups, candies, as food for bees, for brewing,
and for artificial hone^y.

It is impossible at present to get any reliable statistics concerning
the amount of glucose used in beer-making. The brewers themselves
try to keep its use a secret, since it is quite common to proclaim that
beer is made from barley and hops alone, although this is rarely the
case. Dealers and manufacturers are likewise reticent when approached
on this subject, since it is but natural for them to wish to protect the
interests of their patrons. We shall not go far wrong, however, when

* See paper read by the author at the Boston meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.

254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

we say that the amount of gUicose used by brewers is by no means
small, and that the quantity is constantly increasing. I do not know
any reason why its moderate use should injure the quality of the beer.

Bees eat glucose with the greatest avidity, or, rather, they act as
funnels by which the glucose is poured into the comb. For it is quite
true that honey made by bees which have free access to glucose differs
scarcely at all from the glucose itself. But the quantity of honey
which a bee will store away when fed on glucose is truly wonderful.
This gluttony, however, rapidly undermines the apiarian constitution,
and the bee rarely lives to enjoy the fruits of its apparent good for-
tune. In commercial honey, which is entirely free from bee mediation,
the comb is made of paraffine, and filled with pure glucose by appro-
priate machinery. This honey, for whiteness and beauty, rivals the
celebrated real white-clover honey of Vermont, but can be sold at an
immense profit at one half the price.

All soft candies, waxes, and taffies, and a large proportion of stick-
candies and caramels, are made of glucose. Very often a little cane-
sugar is mixed with the glucose, in order to give a sweeter taste to the
candies, but the amount of this is made as small as possible. As
has been stated above, the glucose which is used in confections is
evaporated nearer to dryness than that which is used for sirups. In
such glucoses I have found the percentage of water to be as low as
6*37. Such a product is almost thick enough for " taffy " without any
further concentration.

A very large percentage of all the glucose made is used for the
manufacture of table-sirups. The process of manufacture is a very
simple one :

The glucose is mixed with some kind of cane-sugar sirup until the
tint reaches a certain standard. The amount of cane-sugar sirup re-
quired varies from three to ten per cent., according to circumstances.
These sirups are graded A, B, 0, etc., the tint growing deeper with
each succeeding letter.

When these sirups are sent into the shops, they are sold to con-
sumers under such altisonant names as " Maple Drip," " Bon Ton,"
" Upper Ten," " Magnolia," " Extra Choice," " Golden Drip," " White-
Loaf Drip," etc. Dealers tell me that these sirups, by their cheapness
and excellence, have driven all the others out of the market. So much
is this the case that it is no longer proper to call glucose the " coming
sirup." It is the sirup which has already come.

In addition to the uses above mentioned, small quantities of glu-
cose are used by vinegar-makers, tobacconists, wine-makers, distillers,
mucilage-makers, and perhaps for some other purposes.

Grape-sugar is also used for many of the purposes enumerated above,
but chiefly for the adulteration of other sugars. When it is reduced
to fine powder, it can be mixed with cane-sugar in any proportions,
without altering its appearance. Since the grape-sugar costs less than

GLUCOSE AND GRAPE-SUGAR. 255

half the price of cane-sugar, this adulteration proves immensely profit-
able. The presence of grape-sugar in table-sugars can be approxi-
mately determined by several simple tests. When placed on the
tongue, the bitter after-taste, already spoken of, may be detected. If
spread in a thin layer on a piece of glass, and treated with a little
water, the cane-sugar granules dissolve first, and the grape-sugar is
left as a flocculent mass. With the microscope, its particles can be
detected by the absence of all crystalline structure. Its exact quan-
tity can only be determined by the polariscope. This is hardly a
proper place to describe how this is done.

From the best information I can obtain, it appears that the cost of
manufacture of glucose and grape-sugar is about one cent a pound.
From twenty-six to thirty-two pounds are made from a bushel of
corn. It is sold by the manufactories at three to four cents per
pound. In the West the price of corn during the last year has
averaged a little over thirty cents per bushel. It thus appears that
the manufacture of glucose is a profitable industry.

I shall attempt here no detailed statement of the method of
manufacture, but give only such an outline as may interest those
who like to know how the things on their tables are prepared. The
corn is first soaked for two or three days in warm water, and is then
ground on specially prepared stones with a stream of water. The
meal is next passed into a trough, the bottom of which is made of
fine . bolting-cloth. Here the starch is washed through, and led to
large tanks, where it is allowed to settle. It is next beaten up with
caustic soda to separate the gluten, and the starch is again allowed
to settle in long, shallow troughs. The starch, washed from all ad-
hering alkali, is next beaten up with water into a cream, and con-
ducted into the converting-tubs. These tubs are supplied with coils
of copper steam-piping and are made of wood. Here the starch-
cream is treated with dilute sulphuric acid, and steam is allowed to
bubble up through the mixture from small holes in the copper pipes.
This process of conversion, which is called " open conversion," is com-
pleted in about two hours.

Another method is called " close conversion." The substances are
inclosed in stout copper cylinders, and subjected to the action of super-
heated steam. This process occupies about fifteen minutes.

The conversion is also accomplished sometimes by fermentation.
This requires a much longer time. The greater part of it, however,
is carried on by the method first named.

After conversion the acid is neutralized by marble-dust and animal
charcoal. Since the sulphate of calcium, which is formed in this oper-
ation, is slightly soluble in water, carbonate of barium has been used
instead of marble-dust. Its use, however, has not become general.

After neutralization the liquid is filtered through cloth and animal
charcoal, and is then conveyed to the vacuum-pan. Here it is evapo-

256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

rated, at as low a temperature as possible, to the required concentra-
tion. If grape-sugar is to be made, the process of conversion is not
stopped as soon as the starch has disappeared, but is carried on still
further to a point which can only be determined by trial. After con-
centration it is conveyed into tanks, where the j^rocess of solidification
begins and continues for several days.

Glucose, on the other hand, will not harden, whatever the degree
of concentration may be, or, at least, if it do so, only partially and
after many months.

The habit of bleaching both glucose and grape-sugar by means of
sulphurous acid is sometimes practiced, but is reprehensible. By the
oxidation of the sulphurous acid, free sulphuric acid is likely to occur
in the finished product.

Glucose and grape-sugar are mixtures of several chemical sub-
stances. Starch, which is composed of six atoms of carbon, ten of
hydrogen, and five of oxygen, when subjected to the action of dilute
sulphuric acid, appears to undergo a molecular condensation and hy-
dration. Among the substances formed may be reckoned dextrine,
glucose, and a substance isomeric with cane-sugar. This latter sub-
stance appears to be one of the early products of conversion, and this
is the reason that the poorly converted glucoses are sweeter than the
well converted. It is only after prolonged boiling with dilute acid
that the product becomes chemically homogeneous, with a constitution
which is probably represented by the symbol CgHj^OgH^O.

Glucose presents several anomalies when examined with polarized
light. Its highest rotatory power is found when it is made with the
least possible amount of conversion i. e., when the process of con-
version is stopped as soon as the starch has disappeared. Continued
boiling with dilute acid causes a gradual decrease of rotatory power.
It is only after six to eight hours* heating to a temperature of 104 C.
that a constant rotatory power is reached. This power is only about
half that exhibited by the glucose as a maximum. This minimum
rotatory power, however, is greater than that possessed by cane-sugar.

Glucose, like many other bodies, has the property of reducing a hot
alkaline copper solution and separating the metal as a red sub-oxide.
This power in glucose is always inversely as the rotating power. I
have shown this fully and conclusively in the paper already referred
to. The relation between reducing power and rotating power is a con-
stant one, and hence the percentage of reducing power can be calcu-
lated from the polarimetric observations. This, however, is of more
interest to the practical chemist than to the general reader, and I there-
fore pass it by.

The question of most practical importance is, " Is glucose a whole-
some article of food ? " I do not hesitate to answer this question
in the affirmative, I mean by this, however, a glucose which is
properly made. Such a glucose contains only a very little sulphuric

THE MENTAL EFFECT OF EARTHQUAKES. 257

acid and lime, not mucli more than good spring-water, and perhaps
an almost infinitesimal trace of copper, so slight as only to be de-
tected in a large quantity of the substance. I do not doubt but
that glucoses have been sold which contain large quantities of free
sulphuric acid and likewise other injurious ingredients. But these are
due to carelessness in manufacture, and are not constituents of the
genuine article. I have never found a glucose of this kind. Many of
the impurities which have been imputed to glucose, really belong to
the cane-sirups with which they have been mixed. These largely
adulterated glucoses should always be looked upon with suspicion.
The cane-sirups, which are used for this purpose, yield from three to
five per cent, of ash, while the ash from a genuine glucose is so little
as to be almost unweighable.

There is no reason to believe that a glucose or grape-sugar prop-
erly manufactured is any less wholesome than cane- or maple-sugar.
Corn, the new American king, now supplies us with bread, meat, and
sugar, which we need, as well as with the whisky which we could do
without.

THE MEXTAL EFFECT OF EAETHQUAKES.

THE outbreak of new earthquakes, first at Agram, then in Ischia,
and now in Chios, the last the most destructive of all, and cost-
ing thousands of lives, within a few weeks of each other, seems to
show that a period of earthquake-shock may have begun which may
affect, to an extent by no means inconsiderable, the history and life of
our century. No one can doubt that the earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions which visited the same general region, but more especially
Asia Minor and Italy, during the first and second centuries of our era,
produced great effects, not only on the minds and characters of that
generation, but even on the distribution of population ; nor that the
earthquake at Lisbon, in the last century, produced almost as great a
shock on the thoughts of men as it produced physically on the im-
mense region over which its effects were felt a region which included
almost all Europe, part of Africa, and part of the American Continent.
A spell of earthquake of any violence or duration, which should ex-
tend over such a field as that, would, in a time like our own, when
every influence is intensified by the simultaneous transmission of the
impressions it produces to all parts of the globe, produce the most
powerful effects, not simply on the countries which might suffer from
it, but on all the world. No physical phenomena, however dreadful,
seem to produce the same sense of paralysis as earthquakes. A corre-
spondent of Captain Basil Hall, who was in the earthquake of Copiapo,

VOL. XIX. 1*7

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in 1822, describes the effect on the mind as something which begins
before any other sign of the earthquake has manifested itself at all
an anticipatory horror, which is even more marked in the case of the
lower animals. " Before we hear the sound, or at least are fully con-
scious of hearing it, we are made sensible, I do not know how, that
something uncommon is going to happen ; everything seems to change
color ; our thoughts are chained immovably down ; the whole world
appears to be in disorder : all nature looks different to what it is wont
to do ; and we feel quite subdued and overwhelmed by some invisible
power, beyond human control or apprehension." In the Neapolitan
earthquake of 1805, these anticipatory signs were most remarkable in
relation to the life of the animal world. An Italian writer, quoted in
Mr. ^yittich's " Curiosities of Physical Geography," says : " I must
not omit in this place to mention those prognostics which were derived
from animals. They were observed in every place where the shocks
were such as to be generally perceptible. Some minutes before they
were felt, the oxen and cows began to bellow, the sheep and goats
bleated, and, rushing ii? confusion one on the other, tried to break the
wicker-work of the folds ; the dogs howled terribly, the geese and
fowls were alarmed and made much noise ; the horses which Avere fast-
ened in their stalls were greatly agitated, leaped up, and tried to
break the halters with which they were attached to the mangers ;
those which were proceeding on the roads suddenly stopped, and
snorted in a very strange way. The cats were frightened, and tried
to conceal themselves, or their hair bristled up wildly. Rabbits and
moles were seen to leave their holes ; birds rose, as if scared, from the
places on which they had alighted ; and fish left the bottom of the
sea and approached the shores, where at some places great numbers
of them were taken. Even ants and reptiles abandoned, in clear day-
light, their subterranean holes in great disorder, many hours before
the shocks were felt. Large flights of locusts were seen creeping
through the streets of Naples toward the sea the night before the
earthquake. Winged ants took refuge during the darkness in the
rooms of the houses. Some dogs, a few minutes before the first shock
took place, awoke their sleeping masters, by barking and pulling them,
as if they wished to warn them of the impending danger, and several
persons were thus, enabled to save themselves." AYhat it is, before
the sound or shock of earthquake is felt, which warns both animals
and human beings of the approach of some dreadful catastroj^he threat-
ening the very basis of their existence, no one, of course, can say, since
the impression made upon the nervous system is, at least as regards
our own species, evidently one of general disturbance, and not one to
which experience attaches any explicit significance. It may be, of
course, that some very great change in the magnetic conditions of a
spot threatened with earthquake leads to that extreme excitement of
mind exhibited by all living creatures previous to the onset of the

THE MENTAL EFFECT OF EARTHQUAKES. 259

earthquake. That, however, is pure conjecture. What is interesting
is, that a certain blank consternation seems always to be the charac-
teristic herald of an earthquake, as well as the characteristic result.
That it should be the characteristic result is, of course, no wonder.
The very condition of human life is the solidity of the not very thick
earth-crust on which we live, and when that solidity is exchanged for
positive fluidity, as it is in the worst earthquakes, it is natural enough
that stupefaction should be the result. In one of the Calabrian earth-
quakes, it was discovered that large pieces of ground had so changed
places that a plantation of mulberry -trees had been carried into the
middle of a corn-field and there left, and a field sown with lupines had
been carried out into the middle of a vineyard. The Italian lawsuits
which resulted from this liquefaction of " real " property may be easily
imagined. Still stranger^ in the earthquake in Riobamba in 1797,
Alexander von Humboldt found that the whole furniture of one house
had been buried beneath the ruins of the next house. " The upper
layer of the soil, formed of matter not possessing a great degree of
coherency, had moved like water in running streams, and we are com-
pelled to suppose that those streams flowed first downward, and at
last rose upward. The motion in the shocks which were experienced
in Jamaica (July 7, 1692) must have been not less complicated. Ac-
cording to the account of an eye-witness, the whole surface of the
ground had assumed the appearance of running water. The sea and
land appeared to rush on one another, and to mingle in the wildest
confusion. Some persons who, at the beginning of the calamity, had
escaped into the streets and to the squares of the town, to avoid the
danger of being crushed under the ruins of the falling houses, were so
violently tossed from one side to the other that many of them received
severe contusions, and some were maimed. Others were lifted up,
hurled through the air, and thrown down at a distance from the place
Avhere they were standing. A few who were in town were carried
away to the seashore, which was rather distant, and then thrown into
the sea, by which accident, however, their lives were saved." Such
a liquefaction of all that is most solid in our world seems a grim
enough realization of the prayer of the prophet : " O that thou
wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the
mountains might flow down at thy presence," for the mountains do
really flow down in earthquakes, but the effect of that flowing is a
consternation such as no other phenomenon of physical life, not even
the worst darkness of volcanic eruptions, ever produces. The loss of
everything stable at the basis of human life is the collapse of the ordi-
nary foundations even of the spiritual life itself, though, if that life
has got its roots firmly into the heart, the original foundations may
fall away without impairing the vitality of that which at first had
propped itself upon them. But, where this is not the case, nothing
tends more to that truest Nihilism which, so far from thinking it

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

worth while to destroy anything, finds both destruction and construc-
tion alike childish under the tottering of the very pillars of life than
the phenomena of an earthquake. Amid the moral shocks which the
collapse of the very earth itself produces, only a faith which has pro-
foundly convinced itself that the physical frame of things is a mere
scaffolding, by the lines of which the spiritual dwelling of man has
been fashioned, remains at all. Positivism itself, with its hierarchy
of the sciences, all of them resting on the material life as the substra-
tum of everything, would obviously disaj^pear in a moment along with
the menace to that physical foundation on which it bases its whole
system.

It is curious to think what such races as the Teutonic would be-
come under the influence of frequent earthquakes. Their " solidity " of
character, as it is called, largely consists in the confidence they feel in
the sameness of all Nature's ways ; and whether it would survive that
confidence, and outlive the constancy on which it was nourished, is
very doubtful. An English squire, for instance, whose timber and
crops had changed places with the timber and estates of his next
neighbor, would certainly not be recognizably an English squire much
longer. An English merchant, whose stock of satins or teas had van-
ished under the establishment of his rival, would find the world so
very much out of joint that he himself would probably become an
unmeaning phenomenon. It is, indeed, clear that even rare periodical
attacks of earthquake would render the existence of a great capital
impossible, and the character of an agricultural population quite dif-
ferent, and probably much more capricious than before. And not
unreasonably so. Spiritual faith, even if it remain, can not well rule
the actions of physical beings in a physical world which has lost all
aspects of constancy. Indeed, repeated shocks to the physical basis
of things, though they may well test the strength of faith, can not of
course be often repeated on this earth of ours without transferring all
the characteristic operativeness of faith to a world of another kind.
Faith is faith in divine constancy ; and the constancy which has ceased
to govern our bodies must be discoverable in some other region, not
that of our bodies, if faith is to be of use. Morally, then, the only
use of earthquakes must be to test the growth of a spiritual faith in a
world and life beyond the reach of earthquakes. Clearly it can not
strengthen or educate such a faith. It can only sift the false faith
from the true, and accord to the true its triumph. Spectator.

SKETCH OF JULIUS ADOLPH STOCKHARDT. 261

SKETCH OF JULIUS ADOLPH STOCKHAEDT.

By Professor W. 0. ATWATER.

A FEW miles from Dresden, iu one of the many picturesque re-
gions of Saxony, cozily stowed away at the confluence of three
lovely valleys, lies the little village of Tharandt, known to a few pleas-
ure-seekers as a charming summer resort, and to the world at large
as the seat of a famous school of forestry and agriculture. On an
eminence overlooking the village, and itself overlooked by the pictu-
resque ruin of what was once a hunting-castle of the princes of Sax-
ony, is the house ; in the village below are the school, the laboratory,
and the experiment station ; and hard by are the experimental garden
and fields where the subject of our sketch, Julius Adolph Stock-
HAKDT, lives and labors. For nearly forty years he has been engaged,
by researches, by lectures, by writing, and by the publishing of jour-
nals, in promoting and popularizing the science of chemistry, especially
in its applications to the culture of the soil. In carrying science to
the people, and in presenting it in such ways that the most learned
can not criticise nor the most ignorant fail to understand, that every
one who reads or listens shall wish to read or listen more, and that
the facts when comprehended may be successfully and profitably ap-
plied to practice, few living men are his peers. And, as an author
as well as interpreter of researches, Stockhardt ranks among the
ablest of the early leaders in this, the golden age of agricultural
chemistry.

He was born at Rohrsdorf, near Meissen, in Saxony, January 4,
1809. After receiving a classical education, he studied pharmacy and
the natural sciences for several years, and was graduated in 1833 as
an apothecary of the first class. In 1834 he traveled in Belgium, Eng-
land, and France, then devoted himself to pharmaceutical study and
research, and in 1838 received the degree of Ph. D. from the Univer-
sity of Leipsic. He then entered uj^on the teaching of natural science
in Dresden, and afterward in the technological school at Chemnitz, and
was also appointed inspector of apothecaries. His rare talent for
presenting scientific knowledge of matters usually obscure was soon
recognized by both students and citizens, and the remarkable power
of critical observation displayed in his writings (" Untersuchung der
Zwickauer Steinkohle," 1840; "Ueber Erkennung und Anwendung
der Giftfarbe," 1844, etc.) was the occasion of almost innumerable
applications for the investigation of commercial problems, and de-
mands for his opinion upon scientific and legal questions. In 1843
he traveled in Belgium and France to perfect himself in technologi-
cal science. In 1846 he published his " Schule der Chemie," which in

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

1861 had reached its t^yelfth edition ; had been translated into eight
different languages, and was used by scores of thousands of students
the world over. The current American translation of this work,
" Stockhardt's Principles of Chemistry," is very widely and pleasantly
known among teachers and students in this country.

In 1844 Stockhardt began a course of popular agricultural lectures
before the Chemnitz Agricultural Society. To these lectures may be
traced the beginning of the movement which, eight years later, resulted
in the establishment at Mockern, Saxony, of the first of the agricult-
ural experiment stations, of which there are now over one hundred in
Europe and several in the United States, and from whose work, it may
be said without exaggeration, has emanated a great part perhaps the
greater part of our accurate knowledge of the principles of chem-
istry and physiology that underlie the right practice of agriculture.
On the occasion of the celebration, in 1877, of the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of the founding of the Mockern Station, three albums, with
photographs of the directors of the experiments at that time estab-
lished, were provided : one for the parent station at Mockern, one for
Professor von Wolff, its first director ; and one for Professor Stock-
hardt in consideration of his services in founding and promoting that
and other stations.

From 1846 to 1849 Stockhardt was editor of the " Polytechnisches
Centralblatt," and from 1850 to 1855 of the " Zeitschrift fiir deutsche
Landwirthe." In 1848 he was appointed Professor of Agricultural
Chemistry in the Royal Academy at Tharandt, where a new chair had
been founded purposely for him, and where he has since remained.
Since then, extending his idea of popular agricultural instruction, he
has given plain conversational lectures to farmers' clubs and societies
in Saxony and other parts of Germany, explaining the improvement
in agriculture which chemical science has shown to be desirable, and
illustrating them with experiments where practicable. The more im-
portant of these lectures have been published with the title " Che-
mische Feldpredigten " (" Chemical Field-Sermons "), and have been
translated into several languages. In 1855 he established at LeijDsic
" Der chemische Ackersmann," a journal which was continued until
1876, when increase of years and cares, and the doing away of its
necessity by the establishment, with his aid, of another journal, *^Die
Landwirthschaftlichen Versuchs-Stationen," occasioned its discontinu-
ance.

But this brief outline of his career gives very little idea of Stock-
hardt as a man, an investigator, a teacher, and an expounder of the
occult facts of science. To know him in these relations one must see
him at his home, among his friends, in his study, his laboratory, his
lecture-room, with students and farmers, and must read him in his
books.

In appearance and demeanor he is plain and quiet. In social inter-

SKETCH OF JULIUS ADOLPH STOCKHARDT. 263

course he is approachable, kind, ready for a pleasantry, a laugh, or
to impart from the great store of his learning whatever the earnest
inquirer may need. In the lecture-room his talk is so simple and
familiar that the most abstruse principles seem like every-day facts ;
and his illustrations, drawn from the ordinary and homely experi-
ences of common life, are so clear, pat, and to the point, that one can
neither fail to feel their force nor forget their application. With
farmers, be they great landholders or humble peasants, his informa-
tion and explanations are always plain, attractive, practical, and suited
to the occasion and the men. And everywhere he is the earnest, la-
borious, learned, and reverent student, the kindly, faithful instructor,
and the worthy man.

Among the especial services Stockhardt has rendered as teacher
and promoter of science is one which, perhaps, is best illustrated in his
text-book of chemistry (" Schule der Chemie "), the setting forth of the
idea that the right way to teach science is by bringing the student
into direct contact with nature, by making him an observer, an inves-
tigator, and thus his own best teacher. In the preface to the twelfth
edition of this book, he says :

Experiments must be the foundation of theory. With them the beginner
should learn to observe, reflect, and judge ; from them he should himself unfold
the general chemical relations and truths; he should himself discover, and in
this way by his own efforts, along with manual dexterity, acquire an intellectual
possession also. Every experiment and every fact observed therein will thus
be to him a conquest, and will incite to new exertion.

Accordingly the book abounds with simple experiments to be made
with apparatus which any student may get and handle, and is yet suf-
ficient to illustrate, enforce, and impress the truths that are taught,
and, what is better, to enable the learner to find the highest inspira-
tion in working out the truths himself. How useful this system of in-
struction, as thus set forth by Stockhardt, has proved, may be inferred
from the wide circulation of the book as mentioned above, and the
facts that sets of apparatus put up to go with it were sent to all parts
of Germany, to England, and to Russia, and that a depot for their sale
was established in New York.

Of Stockhardt's greatest work, the promotion of agricultural sci-
ence, perhaps the best idea may be got from his " Chemical Field-
Sermons," which show his methods of popularizing science, and espe-
cially from his journal, " Der chemische Ackersmann," in which both
his popular treatises and his scientific investigations have been pub-
lished.

As a discoverer, Stockhardt, though well known, is outranked by
other agricultural chemists of his time. Liebig, the father of agricult-
ural chemistry, Wolff, Henneberg, Knop, Nobbe, Stohmann, Ktihn,
and others in Germany, Boussingault in France, and Lawes and Gil-

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

bert in England, have each, perhaps, given the world more of new
truth than he. Stockhardt's chief labor has been to teach, to pojDU-
larize, to encourage, and thus to promote science, and, withal, to help
in its application to practical life. In this great work of mediating
between science and the people for whose benefit science is, among
those who have done most for agriculture, no man, except, perhaps,
Justus Liebig, excels Julius Stockhardt.

An inkling of the spirit in which Stockhardt's labors for agricult-
ure has been j^erformed he has himself given us, perhaps unwittingly,
in the illustration on the cover of his journal, " Der chemische Ack-
ersmann " (" The Chemical Husbandman "). In the center is a rural
scene. In the foreground, cattle and sheep are feeding in the com-
fort of a peaceful autumn day. Farther away, a reaper is laying down
his sickle by the waving grain to follow the heavy load that is trun-
dling homeward from the field. In another field a plowman has left
his plow in the furrow, while he and his tired horses are enjoying a
brief period of rest. Close by him are the bags of guano and bone-
dust to replace the precious ingredients of plant-food that have been
carried away with the harvest. Beyond is the little village, with its
steep-roofed cottages, and the village church surrounded by shade-
trees and surmounted by the tower whose bell calls the inhabitants to
morning work, to vesper rest, and to Sabbath worship. Directly in
front the ground has been cut away, and reveals, in the deep recesses
toward which the roots of trees and herbs are seen to penetrate, a
strange laboratory where imps and kobolds are busy with furnace and
crucible, retort and mortar, test-tube and balance, as it were, working
over the materials and concocting the compounds that are to be gath-
ered up by the plants, and make the fruit to reward the tiller of the
soil. Between this occult laboratory and the farm-work that is going
on above are the words " Praxis mit Wissenschaft " (" Practice with
science "). But this scene and motto are not all of the picture, nor do
they typify the whole of the spirit of Stockhardt's life and work.
Above are clouds with sunbeams streaming brightly through them
upon the earth below, and on them is written, ''An Gottes Segen ist
Alles gelegen " (" On God's blessing all depends ").

EDITOR'S TABLE,

265

EDITOR'S TABLE.

TEE BUFFALO FIELD CLUB.

THERE is urgent need for more gen-
eral and efficient association for
popular scientific improvement. In pol-
itics, in religion, in philantliropj, in re-
form, and in the original extension of
science, the key of influence and the se-
cret of success are cooperation ; and this
is the agency to which we must look for
the popular cultivation of science. The
best form of associative action for the
promotion of self-education in science is,
undoubtedly, the field club, and we are
gratified to observe that these excellent
organizations are multiplying and doing
admirable work. We called attention
some months since to the proceedings
of the Ottawa Club, and are glad now
to be able to report the successful or-
ganization of a similar club in Buffalo.
It is an outgrowth of the botany and
geology classes in the Central High
School of that city. These classes have
for several years made excursions into
the country surrounding Buffalo, under
the direction of their able instructor.
Professor Charles Linden. The work-
ing Field Club was organized in the
spring of 1880, with over forty mem-
bers, and proved successful from the
beginning. Professor Linden, the di-
rector, is an ardent student and a
skillful instructor, and seems to have
imbued the members with much of his
own enthusiasm for science. The field
meetings have been attended on all oc-
casions by a majority of the members.
In order to systematize their work,
the club is organized into sections in
botany, geology, and entomology, and
they are now busy in providing cases
to arrange and preserve whatever has
been collected in the field. Several
members have nearly complete collec-
tions of the local flora and of geologi-

cal specimens representing the forma-
tions of the vicinity ; the entomological
branch, which begins work this spring
under the direction of Professor Kelli-
cott, of the State Normal School, will no
doubt make rapid progress during the
coming season and contribute to the in -
creasing success of the club.

Experience has shown that these
organizations are only too often ephem-
eral, and are generally weakened by
the prolonged interruption of winter
when the excitement passes off, and
they need to be freshly stimulated every
spring. But there is interesting winter
work as well as summer work in sci-
ence. The Buffalo club has there-
fore held its meetings all along during
the winter in the spacious library of
the Society of Natural Sciences. At
these semi-monthly meetings papers
have been read before the club, fol-
lowed by their discussion, and an exhi-
bition of specimens necessary to illus-
trate all the main points upon which
beginners are in relative ignorance.
When needed, the calcium light and
screen have been used to enhance the
interest pf illustration. The meetings
have been well attended by the mem-
bers, their friends, and local scientists ;
they have been profitable for instruc-
tion, and have kept up an unbroken
solicitude for the success of the associ-
ation.

The twelve papers read at the semi-
monthly meetings in the past season
were published in the Buffalo "Daily
Courier," and were well worthy of
being laid before the public. We have
been favored with the reports, and have
read them all with interest. They are,
of course, not of equal merit, nor equal-
ly relevant to the strict objects of the
club ; but, as a whole and as a first

266

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

trial, they are ndmirable. Perhaps the
best of the essavs are those on "The
Gorge of the Niagara," "Alaska,"
" The Catskill Mountains," " Coal," and
" The Tulip-Tree." As the club grows
older, the thought of its members will
no doubt be more concentrated upon
objects within their immediate field of
observation, and these will become the
subjects of exposition at the winter
meetings. It wonld be well, indeed, if
members would take up lines of obser-
vation to be pursued during the sum-
mer, with special reference to their dis-
cussion at the winter gatherings of the
club. By taking notes and reading up
on the subject chosen, and doing the
literary part at convenient intervals,
the work would be deliberately and
carefully done, and, while the student
carried on his own self -instruction, the
club would be a gainer by improving
the standard of its winter performances.

AGNOSTICTSM AT ITAEVAED.

The students of Harvard Univer-
sity have been canvassed to ascertain
their religious opinions. It has been
suspected that this institution, so long
the headquarters of Unitarian liberal-
ism, has become pervaded by atheism
and agnosticism. But it is now found
that the believers in these doctrines are
virtually nowhere in this great estab-
lishment, and that in fact it is drifting
away from rationalistic Unitarianism in
the direction of pronounced orthodoxy.

There is a great propensity in this
country to count up and see who is
ahead. Next to the prime national
question, "How many dollars?" the
American soul yearns to know "How
many votes? " Wherever two or three
are gathered together, just before elec-
tion, they are sure to count noses on
the nominations. That there should
also be a curiosity to know who is los-
ing, who is gaining, and who leads, in
the sphere of religious rivalry, is not sur-
prising, for with our people, next after

money-getting and politics, sectarian
concernments have the most urgent
claims. So the Harvard students were
questioned as to their spiritual prefer-
ences, with the following results : " Col-
lege and Law School, 972 men; agnos-
tics, 26 ; atheists, 7 ; Baptists, 42 ; Chi-
nese, 1 ; Christians, 2 ; Dutch Reform-
ers, 2 ; Episcopalians, 275 ; Hebrews,
10; Lutheran,!; Methodists, 16 ; non-
sectarian, 97; orthodox Congregation-
al, 173 ; Presbyterians, 27 ; Quakers, 2 ;
Roman Catholics, 33 ; Swedenborgians,
20; Unitarians, 214; Universalists, 18 ;
not seen, 6." There has been a great
deal of comment and no little congrat-
ulation on these unexpected results, but
there is one aspect of the matter that
we have not seen noticed.

From the point of view of agnosti-
cism there are but two parties in the col-
lege, the 26 adherents to that view, and
the 940 who do not accept it. The ag-
nostic ground is that religion, in so far
as it is supernatural, transcends human
intelligence, so that man can really Tcnow
nothing beyond the phenomenal and
the finite. He may imagine much, and
believe much, and fancy that he knows,
but strictly tested it turns out that his
conjectures are not knowledge in the
true and proper sense. The position
of the agnostic, in short, in regard to
other worlds or spheres of existence be-
yond time, space, and the course of nat-
ure, is briefly this: "I know nothing
and you know nothing, we neither of us
can know anything, and we had better
modestly confine our thoughts to the
universe which we can know."

Now, as there are only 26 that take
this ground, it is only fair to suppose
that the other 940 take other and op-
posite ground ; that is, they claim to
I'now in regard to the religious matters
of which they profess belief claim, in-
deed, that their religious knowledge is
the most clear and certain of all their
knowledge.

The Harvard agnostic replies: "The
condition and course of things in our

EDITOR'S TABLE.

267

university do not look like it. Let iis
test your claim by reference to that re-
ligious doctrine which is here regarded
as of leading importance. The lowest
and most rudimentary form of intel-
ligence undoubtedly relates to num-
bers. No human beings have ever been
found so incapable that they could not
count a little, if no more than three or
four fingers. At the very dawn of in-
telligence there must arise a perception
of the diiference between one object
and two or three objects. Knowledge
may be said to begin here, and, as it
agrees with all experience, it is beyond
all other knowledge exact, fundamental,
and sure. Now, when you undertake
to rise above nature and experience, and
pass into the realm beyond, what suc-
cess have you in the application of your
primary numerical ideas ? Is the infinite
object of worship one, two, three, or
twenty ? Our students are divided over
the question ; and the fiuctuations that
are observed in regard to it do not
favor the notion that it rests on real
knowledge. The mass of our students
are not agnostics. They say they know.
But, while 214 of them declare that the
Divine Being is a unit, 589 of the rest
deny this simple proposition, and say
that the Divine Being is three or some-
thing like it. Since the third century
the Church has been quarreling over
the application of the most elementary
arithmetic to the object of divine wor-
ship, and the swaying of opinion now
indicated in Harvard University shows
that the question is just as unsettled as
ever. But if men can not agree in ap-
plying the very first and simplest steps
of numeration in the transcendental
sphere, can they be said to have any
real 'knowledge' of it, and how can
they succeed better in the application of
higher ideas? "

But our Harvard agnostic pushes the
case still further. He can say: "We
have among us 275 Episcopalians, who,
with the other orthodox students, make
up 589 professed Trinitarians. They are

not agnostics, because they 'know'
about this matter ; and they are not Uni-
tarians, because they are certain that
hypothesis implies a false application
of primary arithmetic in the premises.
They reject the idea of unity applied
to the Deity as false, and condemn it
as wicked, and maintain that the true
hypothesis is that of tri-personality, or
of three Divine persons in the Godhead.
But when any one of the '589' is
pushed a little to explain himself, and
make his alleged 'knowledge' clear,
he says, ' Forbear ! it is a great mystery,
above poor human reason,' and that we
are not required to understand it. But
that is rank agnosticism ! A mystery is
simply that which can not be known.
So our Trinitarians, who begin by de-
claring their 'knowledge' of the Di-
vine nature, when cross-questioned,
take a ready refuge in the unknow-
able."

ANOTHER STEP lY EDUCATIONAL
PROGRESS.

The great movement of the century
to modernize education, and make it
conform to the progress of knowledge, is
most conspicuously illustrated in Eng-
land. An old, vigorous, advancing na-
tion, leading in the multifarious work
of civilization, and at the same time
dominated by conservative habits, and
maintaining two ancient, rich, and pow-
erful universities, rooted in the most
venerable traditions, England has been
well situated for the display of those im-
portant changes in which educational
progress consists. The tendency of the
old universities was to check the growth
of thought by a slavish devotion to the
learning of antiquity. The spirit of the
modern study of nature penetrated them
but slowly. Bacon protested against
scholastic verbalism, and called men
back from the study of words to the
study of things. The progress was out-
side of England's great seats of learn-
ing; and, when it had become palpable
that they were behind the age and

268

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

would not do the work demanded, other
universities had to be established more
in harmony with the state of knowl-
edge. Various institutions were organ-
ized, notably the University of London,
which accepted more modern standards
of scholarship, and gradually recognized
the claims of science as a means of ed-
ucation and a basis of university hon-
ors. The conflict between ancient and
modern studies has continued and is
still rife, but there is no dcubt as to how
the battle is going. We gave an ac-
count not long ago of the newly-organ-
ized Mason College, in which the com-
prehensive educational scheme is based
upon science, and the old learning
is passed by. We observe that an-
other important step is taken in the
same direction by the reorganization of
Owens College, which is now known
as Victoria University. The students
of this college have hitherto mostly
taken their degrees at the London Uni-
versity. But the right to confer de-
grees is now granted to the new uni-
versity, and in drawing up their plans
of study the governing body have been
guided by the most liberal and enlight-
ened views of education. They have
openly repudiated the old superstition
that all minds are alike and ought to
pursue the same studies, and they pro-
ceed, in the language of the Vice-Chan-
cellor, Dr. Greenwood, "upon the fun-
damental notion that a man of capacity
ought to be encouraged to devote him-
self with a certain amount of concen-
tration to some particular or definite
branch of arts or science study." Of
course, students can come to Victoria
University and take its best degrees
without knowing Latin and Greek.
There are various courses, and the
standard of attainment is to be high
and thorough, but Latin and Greek are
no longer indispensable to the acqui-
sition of university honors. We have
been a long time arriving at the very
common-sense view expressed by Mr.
Jacob Bright in a discussion on the pol-

icy of the university in respect to clas-
sics, that " it seemed to him extraordi-
nary if the whole field of science and
learning of various kinds apart from
Latin and Greek were not enough to
form the basis of a sound education."

UELMHOLTZ'S FARADAY LECTURE.

On Tuesday evening, April 5th, Pro-
fessor Helmholtz, of the Universitv of
Berlin, gave the Faraday Lecture before
the Chemical Society at the Royal Insti-
tution. As might have been expected,
he was greeted by a distinguished au-
dience. Professor Roscoe presided, and,
before introducing the eminent Ger-
man physicist, presented him with the
Faraday Medal. The address, notes of
which were furnished by Professor
Helmholtz to the London press, is re-
produced in our pages, and will be care-
fully read by all interested in chemi-
cal physics. It is, perhaps, the most
weighty and significant tribute to the
genius of Faraday that has yet been
made ; and at the same time it is itself
no slight contribution to physico-chem-
ical theory. It was stated that Faraday,
although not a mathematician, had an-
ticipated with great sagacity the results
of electro-chemical research bv the
trained mathematicians of the present
generation. Professor Helmholtz's orig-
inal speculations were thus referred to
by Dr. Roscoe : " Upon Faraday's well-
known law of electrolysis he has founded
a new electro-chemical theory which re-
veals to us chemists conclusions of the
utmost importance. He tells us, as the
result of the application of the modern
theory of electricity to Faraday's great
experimental law,^ that the atom of
every chemical element is always imited
with a definite, unvarying quantity of
electricity. Moreover and this is most
important that tliis definite amount of
electricity attached to each atom stands
in close connection with the combining
power of the atom which modern chem-
istry terms quantivalence. For, if the

LITERARY NOTICES.

269

amount of electricity belonging to the
monad atom be taken as a unit, then
that of the dyad atom is two, of the
triad atom, three, and so on. Hence,
then, thanks first to Faraday and now
to Helmholtz, chemists have now a new
and unlooked-for confirmation of one
of their most important doctrines from
the science of electricity."

LITERARY NOTICES.

Popular Lectures ok Scientific Subjects.
By H. Helmholtz. Translated by E.
Atkinson, Ph. D. Second Series. Xew
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 265.
Price, 81.50.

The first series of Helmholtz's lectures
met with the success which has induced Pro-
fessor Atkinson to translate an additional
volume of them. It is gratifying to know
that the translator feels himself justified in
this, as it shows a growing popular appreci-
ation of solid intellectual work in science.
The contents of this volume are considerably
varied, and represent the action of Helm-
holtz's mind upon widely different subjects.
The first paper is an in memoriam address
on Professor Gustave Magnus, who died in

1869. The essay is not a mere biographical
notice or an ordinary eulogy, but is rather
an analysis of the character and the scien-
tific labors of Magnus in connection with the
state of knowled^re and circumstances of his
time, so that the paper becomes in some
respects an interesting portion of scientific
history.

The second paper is " On the Origin and
Significance of Geometrical Axioms," and it
was a lecture delivered in Heidelberg in

1870. This discussion is not child's play,
but many will be attracted to master it be-
cause it breaks into the field of speculation
with regard to the different dimensions of
space.

Artists will be interested in the ab-
stracts of five lectures " On the Relation of
Optics to Painting," which were delivered in
Cologne, Berlin, and Bonn. After the intro-
ductory he takes up successively the subjects,
form, shade, color, and harmony of color.
His point of view is neither that of the
practical artist nor of the student of pict-

ures and schools of painting, but it is that
of the physiological optician who is master
of a subject. He shows in various ways
how a knowledge of the mode of perception
of the organ of vision may be of importance
to the artist.

Perhaps the most striking of all the pa-
pers is the lecture " On the Origin of the
Planetary System." So much is said about
the nebular hypothesis of Kant and La-
place in these evolutionary times, that many
will be glad to see the subject summed up
within a moderate compass, and by an au-
thoritative hand. No man is better prepared
by his broad scientific erudition and his
thorough mastery of mathematical and ex-
perimental physics than Professor Helm-
holtz to report on the present state of
knowledge regarding the origin of the plane-
tary system. But it was very far from the
author's intention to make a mere popular
statement of what former inquirers have
arrived at. As one of the founders of the
doctrine of the conservation of forces, he
may be said to have been an original con-
tributor to the nebular theory ; and he is
very pointed in his remarks on the grave
scientific significance of the inquiry. He
says, " Science is not only entitled, but is in-
deed beholden, to make such an investiga-
tion. For her it is a definite and important
question the question, namely, as to the
existence of limits to the validity of the
laws of nature, which rule all that now sur-
rounds us ; the question whether they have
always held in the past, and whether they
will always hold in the future ; or whether,
on the supposition of an everlasting uni-
formity of natural laws, our conclusions
from present circumstances as to the past,
and as to the future, imperatively lead to
an impossible state of things ; that is, to
the necessity of an infraction of natural
laws, of a beginning which could not have
been due to processes known to us. Hence,
to begin such an investigation as to the
possible or probable primeval history of our
present world, is considered as a question
of science no idle speculation, but a ques-
tion as to the limits of its methods, and as
to the extent to which existing laws are
valid."

Professor Helmholtz is of opinion that
our planetary system must sooner or later

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

come to an end by the exhaustion of its
forces. The sun must ultimately " run
down " like a clock. lie thinks that the ex-
isting stock of power available for the main-
tenance of life may last some seventeen
million years, but that it must at length be
speot. lie thus philosophizes, in conclusion,
over the phenomena of the final extinction
of life :

However ihU may be, that whicli most
arouses our moral feelings at the thought of a
future (though possibly very remote) cessation of
all living creation on the earth is, more particu-
larly, the question whether all this life is not an
aimless sport, which will ultimately fall a prey
to destruction by brute force ? Under the light
of Darwin's great thought we begin to see that
not only pleasure and joy, but also pain, strug-
gle, and death, are the powerful means by which
Nature has built up her finer and more perfect
forms of life. And we men know more particu-
larly that in our intelligence, our civic order,
and our morality, we are living on the inheri-
tance which our forefathers have gained for us,
and that which we acquire in the same way will
in like manner ennoble the life of our posterity.
Thus the individual, who works for the ideal
objects of humanity, even if in a modest posi-
tion and in a limited sphere of activity, may
bear without fear the thought that the thread of
his own consciousness will one day break. But
even men of such free and large order of minds
a? Lcssing and David Strauss could not recon-
cile themselves to the thought of a final destruc-
tion of the living race, and with it of all the fruits
of all past generations.

As yet we know of no fact, which can be es-
tablished by scientific abservation, which would
show that the finer and complex forms of vital
motion could exi<t otherwise than in the dense
material of organic life ; that it can propagate
itself as the sound movement of a string can
leave its originally narrow and fixed home, and
diff'use itself in the air, keeping all the time its
pitch, and the most delicate shade of its color-
tint ; and that, when it meets another string at-
tuned to it, starts tliis again or excites a flame
ready to sing to the same tone. The flame even,
which, of all processes in animate nature, is the
closest type of life, may become extinct, but the
heat which it produces continues to exist, in-
destructible, imperishable, as an invisible mo-
tion, now agitating the molecules of ponderable
matter, and then radiating into boundless space
as the vibration of an ether. Even there it re-
tains the characteristic peculiarities of its origin,
and it reveals its history to the inquirer who
questions it by the spectroscope. United afresh,
these rays may ignite a new flame, and thus, as
it were, acquire a new bodily existence.

Just as the flame remains the same in ap-
pearance and continues to exist with the same
form and structure, althoui^h it draws every
minute fresh combu>tible vapf)r and fresh oxy-
gen from the air, into the vortex of its ascend-

ing current; and just as the wave goes on in
unaltered form, and is yet being reconstructed
every moment from fresh particles of water, so
also in the living being, it is not the definite
mass of substance, which now constitutes the
body, to which the continuance of the individ-
ual is attached. For the material of the body,
like that of the flame, is subject to continuous
and comparatively rapid change a change the
more rapid, the livelier the activity of the or-
gans in question. Some constituents are re-
newed from day to day, some from month to
month, and others only after years. That which,
continues to exist as a particular individual is
like the flame and the wave only the form of
motion which continually attracts fresh matter
into its vortex and expels the old. The ob-
server with a deaf ear only recognizes the vibra-
tion of sound as long as it is visible and can be
felt, bound up with heavy matter. Are our
senses, in reference to life, like the deaf ear in
this respect ?

The Human Body : An Account of its Struct-
ure and Activities, and the Conditions
of its Healthy Working. By H. Newell
Martin, D. 8. C, M. A., M. B., Professor
of Biology in the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity. New York : Henry Holt & Co.
1881. Pp. 655. Price, ^2.75.

This work is a contribution to the Amer-
ican " Science Series " of college text-books,
and is one of the best of those excellent
publications that has yet appeared. Dr.
Martin's task in its preparation has not
been a light one ; for, although he has had
the most interesting of all subjects to deal
with, and is herein specially fortunate, yet,
on the other hand, he has had to compete in
the most thoroughly cultivated field of our
whole scientific literature. There are many
physiological text-books of all grades, and
amonir them are some of the best scientific
manuals to be anywhere found. A new
work must therefore be of exceptional ex-
cellence if it aspires to become a standard
on this subject in the higher education.

"We have looked over " The Human
Body " carefully, and have been interested
throughout. The descriptive and explana-
tory part is remarkably clear, and the ac-
companying illustrations are abundant and
of a superior quality. The book has, more-
over, something of a freshness and origi-
nality which seemed to be due to the breadth
of Dr. Martins preparation as a biologist.
One of the difficulties, indeed, with our
physiological text-books is, that they have
been too generally the work of physiologi-

LITERARY NOTICES.

271

cal specialists and exclusive students of the
human body. Human physiology of some
sort is as old as the practice of medicine,
but it became a new science under the in-
fluence of modern biology. The human body
is only to be understood in connection with
the general system of life in nature, and, as
this subject has recently been greatly de-
veloped, its results should contribute much
interesting interpretation to human physi-
ology. Dr. Martin, we think, has written
bis work from this point of view, and that
it may be taken as embodying all the lat-
est assured advances of science in their
bearing upon his subject. But, as there
is no sharp boundary where accredited sci-
ence stops, the author, in posting up his
work, necessarily encountered the perplex-
ity of dealing with facts and principles not
yet settled, for physiology is still an actively
progressive science. Dr. Martin does not
avoid " disputed matters," but simply aims
to do justice to the present state of his sub-
ject. He says in his preface : " This was
deliberately done, as the result of an expe-
rience in teaching physiology, which now
extends over more than ten years. It
would have been comparatively easy to slip
over things still uncertain, and subjects as
yet uninvestigated, and to represent our
knowledge of the workings of the animal
body as neatly rounded off at all its con-
tours, and complete in all its details totus,
teres, et rotundis. But, by so doing, no ade-
quate idea of the present state of physio-
logical science would have been conveyed ;
in many directions it is much further trav-
eled and more completely known than in
others ; and, as ever, exactly the most in-
teresting points are those which lie on the
boundary between what we know and what
we hope to know. In gross anatomy there
arc now but few points calling for a suspen-
sion of judgment ; with respect to micro-
scopic anatomy there are more ; but a trea-
tise on physiology which would pass by, un-
mentioned, all things not known but sought,
would convey an utterly unfaithful and un-
true idea. Physiology has not finished its
course ; it is not cut and dried, and ready
to be laid aside for reference like a speci-
men in an herbarium, but is comparable
rather to a living, growing plant, with some
stout and useful branches well raised into

the light, others but part-grown, and many
still represented by unfolded buds."

We have no space to go into the method
or classification of Dr. Martin's work, which
seems to be lucid and convenient, while the
share given to the leading subjects is well
proportioned to their importance.

In one respect this manual is better
than we expected to find it: it is more
thoroughly practical than we were prepared
to expect from an experimental biologist,
and such a devotee of original scientific
study as Dr. Martin is well known to be.
We anticipated a valuable and trustworthy
scientific treatise, but we are glad to see
that the science is constantly and effective-
ly applied to the hygienic art. The appli-
cation of physiological principles for the
preservation of health, the care of the body,
and the improvement of the conditions of
life, are copiously interspersed through the
text, and they will have the effect both of
increasing the student's interest in the
study and of securing the first object of all
education the acquisition of knowledge in-
dispensable to self-preservation.

YiCTOR Hugo : His Life akd Works. From
the French of Alfred Barbou. By
Frances A. Shaw. Chicago: S. C.
Griggs & Co. Pp. 207. Price, 1.

The life of a man who has acquired such
a hold upon a nation as Victor Hugo has
gained upon the French people can not fail
to be full of interest and instruction, and
well deserves to be written. The great
French poet and patriot has found a com-
petent and appreciative biographer in M.
Barbou, who seems to be one of his most
enthusiastic admirers, and has associated
with him intimately.

The Telescope : The Principles involved
IN the Construction of Refracting and
Beflecting Telescopes. By Thomas
Nolan, B. S, Reprinted from "Van
Nostrand's Magazine." New York : D.
Van Nostrand. Pp. 75. Price, 50 cents.

This little book presents a brief exposi-
tion of the optical principles of lenses and
mirrors, and their application to the con-
struction of refracting and reflecting tele-
scopes, illustrated by several figures and
plates.

2/2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Sight, an Expositiox op the Principles of
Monocular and Binocular Vision. By
Joseph Le Conte, LL. D. With numer-
ous Illustrations. Pp. 275. D. Applcton
& Co. lutcrnational Scientific Series,
No. XXII. Price, $1.50.

Dr. Le Conte has for many years made
the eye a subject of special study, from the
point of view assumed in this book. And
this is the way this wonderful organ will in
future have to be studied. Its interest as
an object of investigation is inexhaustible.
Its mechanism and action are roughly ex-
plained in every physiology ; but, to state all
that is known about it, in its several aspects
in health and disease, would require whole
libraries, nelmholtz has made a large and
a profound book on physiological optics,
devoted to an elucidation of the relations of
light to the visual organism, while the psy-
chological relations of the organ of vision
have yet to be explored. The eye is, there-
fore, a subject so complex, obscure, and ex-
tensive, that it must in future be approached
on different sides by separate investigators.
In taking up the eye with a view of explain-
ing the mechanism and process of sight as
single and double, our author declares that
he does not know the existence of "any
work covering the same ground in the Eng-
lish language." He, therefore, claims that
it meets a real want, and fills a real gap in
scientific literature.

In regard to its form. Dr. Le Conte says :
" I have tried to make a book that will be
intelligible and interesting to the thought-
ful general reader, and at the same time
profitable to even the most advanced special-
ist in this department." It must be admit-
ted that that the author has fairly attained
to his ideal. Ilis explanations are so clear,
and his facts and principles so interesting,
that they will be sure to engage the atten-
tion of ordinary readers, while at the same
time he gradually passes to the consideration
of questions and the presentation of views
that will' appeal to instructed critics as new
contributions to the subject.

Another point in regard to this work
strikes us as most important. It is largely
a book of experiments ; the effects discussed
and illustrated with the woodcuts are such
as can be tested by the reader who will take
some pains to practice. This is an impor-
tant means of education, by which the reader

not only learns how to do things, but be-
comes acquainted with the subject at first
hand, and knows what he knows. On this
feature of his book. Dr. Le Conte remarks '
" As a means of scientific culture, the study
of vision seems to me exceptional. It makes
use of, and thus connects together, the sci-
ences of physics, physiology, and even psy-
chology. It makes the cultivation of the
habit of observation and experiment possible
to all ; for the greatest variety of experi-
ments may be made without expensive ap-
paratus, or, indeed, apparatus of any kind.
And, above all, it compels one to analyze the
complex phenomena of sense in his own
person, and is thus a truly admirable prep-
aration for the more difficult task of analy-
sis of those still higher and more complex
phenomena which are embraced in the sci-
ence of psychology."

Sketches and Reminiscences of the Radi-
cal Club of Chestnut Street, Boston.
Edited by Mrs. John T. Sargent. Bos-
ton: James R. Osgood &; Co. 1880. Pp.
418. Price, $2.

The Radical Club was founded in the
spring of 1867, with the purpose of bring-
ing together occasionally a few persons who
were known to be daring thinkers on sub-
jects of high import, and of furnishing them
" an opportunity for uttering their thought
to an audience capable of appreciating its
scope, of criticising its worth, and of devel-
oping its relations." It was composed of
members of all religious denominations, and
enjoyed an attendance of two hundred at
the closincr sessions of 1880. This volume
contains about fifty of the essays which
were presented at the meetings, with notices
of the discussions which followed the read-
ing. The authors, whose names are append-
ed, are, as a rule, men and women known
in literature, science, or the forum, whose
words never fail to command attention. The
subjects of their papers represent a wide
range of thought in literature, art, theology,
metaphysics, science, and sociology, and are
of degrees of practicality of which " Color-
blindness " may be taken to represent one
extreme and " The Impossible in Mathe-
matics " the other. The reports of the in-
formal discussions are full of conventional
life, and are hardly less interesting than the
essays.

LITERARY NOTICES,

^11

Our Native Ferns and how to study
THEM, WITH Synoptical Descriptions

OF THE XORTH AMERICAN SpECIES. By

LuciEN M. Underwood, Ph. D. Bloora-
ington, Illinois. Pp. 116. Illustrated.
Price, 1.

The development of interest in the study
of ferns is illustrated by the works treating
of them, or embodying illustrations of them,
that have been published in this country
during the last four years. Still, they oc-
cupy a subordinate place in our botanical
manuals, the descriptions of many species
are stored away in inaccessible periodicals
and rare books, and, till this work appeared,
no manual available to students had been
issued that classified all our native species,
or outlined their morphology and mode of
life. Professor Underwood has made, in
the little manual before us, a most com-
mendable attempt to fill this gap in botani-
cal literature. The descriptions of genera
and species are preceded by chapters de-
scribing in an engaging style the haunts,
habits, distribution, morphology, fructifica-
tion, structure, classification, and nomenclat-
ure, etc., of ferns, the germination of fern-
spores, " How to study Ferns," and " A
Little Fern Literature."

Druos THAT enslave: The Opium, Mor-
phine, Chloral, and Hasheesh Hab-
its. By H. H. Kane, M. D. Philadel-
phia : Presley Blakiston. Pp. 22i. Price,
1.50.

This book contains a great deal of in-
formation on the narcotic habit, its effects,
dangers, and treatment, which is derived
from the author's special experience as a
medical practitioner, from wide acquaint-
ance with the literature of the subject,
and from extensive correspondence with
medical men, systematically carried on for
the elucidation of obscure or undetermined
questions. Though the work aims to be a
contribution to medical science, and is ad-
dressed to the profession, it yet has a gen-
eral interest, from the prominence given to
the growing dangers of narcotic indulgence
among nearly all classes of society. Dr.
Kane maintains that a great impulse has
been given to the illegitimate use of opium
by the introduction of the hypodermic syr-
inge for the injection of morphine under
the skin into the tissues. The practice with
VOL. XIX. 18

this instrument is but recent. It was in-
troduced into this country from England ia
1856, by Dr. Fordyce Barker, and has not
only come into universal use by physicians,
but it is much and increasingly employed
by individuals, who continue the habit as a
fascinating indulgence, which was begun by
the doctor for the relief of painful disease.
The book is full of examples of the dis-
tressing evils of narcotic indulgence, and
abounds in warnings against its insidious
approaches and deadly results.

Reminiscences of Dr. Spurzheim and
George Combe. A Review of the Sci-
ence of Phrenology from the Time of
its Discovery by Dr. Gall, to the Time
of the Visit of George Combe to the
United States, in lS38-'40, with a new
Portrait of Spurzheim. By Nahum Ca-
PEN, LL. D. New York : Fowler &
Wells. Pp. 262. Price, 1.50.

The author was a personal friend and
confidential assistant of Spurzheim during
his visit to the United States, and is thor-
oughly versed, as an active sympathizer,
with the school of thought of which he was
a conspicuous representative from the be-
ginning. He has prepared his reminiscences
in answer to what he believes to be a gen-
eral demand, and has incorporated in it
many interesting recollections concerning
other advocates of the phrenological school,
as Drs. Gall, George Combe, and Andrew
Combe.

History op the Free-Trade Movement in
England. By Augustus Mongredieu.
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
188. Price, 50 cents.

The question naturally occurs to the ob-
server of national progress, who is also a
student of political and economical litera-
ture, why, when the majority of the scien-
tific writers and thinkers of all nations
agree in approving the principles of free
trade, statesmen set them at naught, and
only one state, England, has yet adopted
them and put them in practice ; and they
may ask further, "What conditions have
prompted that country to take a different
course from its neighbors ? This little book
undertakes to answer these questions. It
does more. Protectionists assert that Eng-
land has been declining since it adopted
free trade. It answers these assertions by

274

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

setting forth " the exact truth as embodied
iu historical and statistical facts of undeni-
able authenticity."

Is Consumption contagious, and can it

BE transmitted BY MeaNS OF FoOD ?

By Herbert C. Clapp, A. M., M. D.

Boston and Providence: Otis Clapp &
Son. 1881. Pp. ITS. Price, $1.25.

Considerable evidence is offered in this
work tending to show that, " to a certain ex-
tent, at least, and under certain conditions,
consumption is contagious." This evidence
is derived from incidents in the history of the
disease, the statements of physicians, and
special reports of twenty-five cases. The
subjects of contagion in cattle, the possi-
bility of the transmission of tuberculosis
by means of food, and the inoculability of

tubercle, are also considered.

The Spirit of EDUCATtoN. By M. L'Abbe
Amable Beesau. Translated by Mrs.
E, M. McCarthy,' Syracuse: C. W. Bar-
deen. Pp. 825. Price, $1.25.

This little work, by a pious French ec-
clesiastic, is said to have been very popu-
lar in his country. Its author is a Catholic
priest, and the work is written from the
point of view of the system he represents.
It is endorsed by high authorities of the
Church as a volume to which Catholics may
Took with confidence. An interesting feat-
ure of the book is its numerous extracts
from the writings of eminent Catholics in
past times on the subject of education. As
might be expected, there is very little rec-
ognition of science in the work, and no ref-
erence to the more urgent of the modern
questions that are agitating the public on
the subject of education. It might have
been written a thousand years ago.

Lectures on Electricity in its Relations
TO Medicine and Surgery. By A. D.
Rockwell, A. M., M. D. New York :
William Wood k Co. Pp. 99. Price,
$1.

These lectures deal chiefly with the prac-
tical points of the subject, and give special
consideration to the methods of general far-
adization and central galvanization meth-
ods already familiar by name to the profes-
sion, but which the author thinks might be
better understood and appreciated.

The Logic of Christian Evidences. By G.
Frederick Wright. Andover: Warren
F. Draper. 1880. Pp. 306. Price, $1.50.

In consequence of the constant changes
in the condition of the world and the lines
of thought, each generation approaches the
subject of the evidences of Christianity from
a slightly different point of view. Hence
a re-presentation of the subject, correspond-
ing with the new conditions, is always in
place. The author regards the power of
Christianity to adjust itself in form to dif-
ferent degrees of civilization, while its sub-
stance remains unchangeable, as in fact one
of the evidence? ; for the power is a conse-
quence of its spiritual nature, and of its in-
dependence of transitory phases of intel-
lectual and social development. The aim of
this treatise is to bring into view the exter-
nal and the internal evidences of Christianity
as they now stand, and as they appear when
compared with the evidences on which the
beliefs of science are based.

First German Book, after the Natural or
Pestalgzzian Method, for Schools and
Home Instruction. By James H. Wor-
man, a. M. New York and Chicago:
A. S. Barnes & Co. Pp. 63. Price, 35
cents.

This book is intended for beginners
wishing to learn the spoken language of
Germany, which is taught in it by direct
appeal to illustrations of the objects men-
tioned, and without the use of English. The
author has designed in it to present in a few
pages all the essentials of German grammai'
so as to make their mastery easy, and pre-
pare the student, after going through it, to
enter upon the study of the more I'ccondite,
complicated, and irregular principles of the
language.

PUBLICATIONS KECEIVED.

Torn Paine on Trial, and the Infidels in
Court. Brooklyn : D. S. Ilohnes. Pp.87. Price,
25 cents.

On Statical Electro-Tlierapentics, or Treat-
ment of Dis^easi! by Franklinism. By W. J.
Morton, M. D. New York. 1S81. Pp. 28.

Trances and Trancoidal States in the Lower
Animals. By George M. Beard, A.M., M. D.
1881. Pp. 17.

Ohpcrvations on Jnpiter. By L. Trouvelot.
Pp. 23.

On the Geographical Distrihution of the Tn-
dicennus Plants of F^urope and the Northeast
United States. By .loseph F. James. 1881. Pp-
18.

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275

Abstract of Transaction? of the Anthropologi-
cal Society of Waehiucrton. L). C, with the An-
nual Address of the President, for the First
Year, ending January 20, 1880. and for the Sec-
ond Year, ending January 18, 1881. Prepared
by J. W. Powell. Washington: National Ke-
publicau Printing-House. Pp. 150.

Report of the Cruise of the United States
Revenue Steamer Corwin in the Arctic Ocean,
With Meteorological Abstracts. By Captain C.
L. Hoop r, U. S. R. M. Washington: Govern-
ment Printing-office. 1880. Pp. 74.

A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (a. d.
1450-1881). Edited by George Grove, D. C. L.
Part XIII. Planche to Richter. Loudon and
New York: Macmillaa & Co. Pp. 128. Price.
$1.

Quarterly Report of the Chief of the Bureau
of Statistics relative to the Import*?, Exports,
Immigration, and Navigation of the United
Sratesforthe Three Mouths ended December
31, 188a Pp. 130.

On the Variation of the Leaf-Scars of LepMo-
cUndron Jculeatum (Sternberg). With Plates.
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Leaf-Scars of Certain Sigillariae. With Plates.
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lia (Brongniart). With Plate. Pp. 5. By Her-
man L. Fairchild. From the " Annals of the
New York Academy of Sciences."

The Nature of Vibration in Extended Media,
and the Polarization of Sound. By S. W. Rob-
inson. Philadelphia. 1881. Pp.13.

Thoughts on Agricultural Education. By E.
Lewis Sturtevant, M. D., South Framiugham,
Ma^isachusetts. 1881. Pp. 19.

The " Spoils" System and Civil-Service Re-
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New York. By Dorman B. Eaton. New York:
G. P. Putnam''8 Sons. Pp. l-<i3. Price, 50 cents.

A Fourth State of Matter. By Alexander E.
Outerbridge, Jr. Philadelphia. 1881. Pp. 11.

Notes on North American Microgasters, with
Descriptions of New Species. By C. V. Riley,
M. A., Ph. D. From the " Tran^^actions of the
Academy of Sciences of Sc. Louis," April 6,
1881. Pp. 20.

The Infidel Pulpit. A Study of Ingersoll.
By George Chainey. Boston. Pp. 8. Price, 5
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The Microscope and its Relation to Medicine
and Pharmacy. Edited and published by Charles
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Physiolosry in Thought, Conduct, and Belief.
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Rapid Breatliingas aPain-Ohtunderin Minor
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On the Geology of Florida. By Eugene A,
Smith. With a Plate. Fr im the "American
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The "Journal of Phvsiolocrv." By Michael
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Contributions to the Anatomy of the Milk-
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"The Maeazine of Art." London, Paris,
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The Student's Dream. Chicago : Janseo,
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The Dirt-Cure. By T. L. Nichols, M. D.
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88. Price, 50 cents.

Imaginary Quantities: Their Geometrical
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M. Argaud. By Professor A. S. Hardy. New
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Locke's Conduct of the Understanding. Ed-
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Second German Book, after the Natural or
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A. M. New York : A. S. Barnes & Co. 1881.
Pp. 81. Price, 40 cents.

Working Drawings, and how to make and
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Pocket Pronunciation-Book. By E. V. De
GraflF, A. M. Syracuse, New York : C. W. Bar-
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Short History of Education. Being Articles in
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Cooperation as a Business. By Charles Bar-
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The School of Life. By William R. Alger.
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How to tell the Parts of Speech. Bv the Rev.
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Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1S81. Pp.143. Price,
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Report on Foreign Life-Saving Apparatus.
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The Origin Of Primitive Superstitions. By
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POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Diseases and the Weather. A paper
read by Dr. Henry B. Baker, Secretary of
the Michigan State Board of Health, before
the Sanitary Convention of that State, fur-
nishes some interesting; facts concerning the
relation of meteorological conditions and
particular diseases. Meteorological reports
are received from about thirty observers in
different parts of the State, who record the

276

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

facts of the state of the weather three times
a day, and reports of health are received
regularly. The reports, as a whole, show
how certain diseases vary with the season,
and indicate that relations exist, for in-
stance, between the great heat of summer
and the amount of sickness from diarrhoea,
cholera-morbus, cholera-infantum, etc., and
between the cold, dry air in winter and
spring and the increase of sickness from
pneumonia and similar diseases, which near-
ly disappear during the warm months. In
several years the sickness from pneumonia
increased slightly in September, decreased
slightly in October, about the time of the
Indian summer, and then gradually rose as
cold weather set in. "When the facts are
represented in diagrams, a correspondence
appears to be shown between the changes
in certain features of the weather and the
progress of particular diseases. Thus, the
line representing the amount of ozone at
night for IS'/S nearly agrees with the line
representing the prevalence of pneumonia.
The bronchitis line is nearly parallel with
these, while the lines representing zymotic
diseases run in an opposite direction. It is
unsafe, however, to lay too much stress on
these conincidences, for it is not probable
that the amount of ozone was accurately
measured. Intermittent fever was at its
highest from July to September, remittent
fever in August, typho-malarial fever in
September, typhoid fever in November, and
cerebro-spinal meningitis was irregular, pre-
vailing most from January to March.

Sknil-Worship. " Skull-Worship in the
Pacific Ocean " was the title of an address
recently made by Ilerr J. D. C. Schmeltz
before a scientific society in Hamburg. The
Museum Godefroy in Hamburg has several
skulls which have been adorned with stripes
over the eyebrows ; on some a triangle has
been traced in red, from the apex of which
another red stripe has been drawn down the
nose, with black stripes on either side of it.
In other specimens a red line has also been
drawn from the apex of the triangle to the
roof of the skull, ending there in a spiral on
cither side. It was already known that
the under jaws, if not the whole skulls, of
dead relatives were often peculiarly adorned
and highly honored in New Guinea. Ilerr

Schmeltz, observing similarly painted skulls
in the New Britain Islands, has concluded
that a like cultus exists there. Herr Klein-
schmidt, of the Museum Godefroy, relates
that at stated times a kind of priestly per-
son, called at Pall-Pall the Duk-Duk, or re-
ligion-man, collects the Bkulls of the dead
and commits them to the care of their rela-
tives; and he has sent to the museum a
skull from there, in which the fleshy parts
are represented by plaster and the eyes
by a snail-shell, and the whole is painted.
On one of the New Hebrides Islands whole
skeletons of deceased persons have been
exhumed, endowed with a flesh prepared
from vegetable matters, and installed in
the temples. A traveler on the German
man-of-war Ariadne sent the museum at
Hamburg a skull from the Island of Isabel
(Solomon Islands) which had been browned
with smoke, and with it the statement that,
"when prominent men, who have distin-
guished themselves in war or by superior
power, die, they enjoy after death a par-
ticular reverence, which aj^ears to origi-
nate in the belief that the spirit of the
dead man passes over to his worshiper
and makes him fit for similar deeds. After
the body has remained for a half-year in
the earth, the grave is opened and the skull
taken out. It is then subjected to a course
of various processes, especially to a pro-
tracted smoking, after which it is deposited
in the temple as an object of worship."

Chesapeake Zoological Lahoratory.

The fourth annual session of the Chesapeake
Zoological Laboratory of Johns Hopkins
University was to begin at Beaufort, North
Carolina, May 2d, and will continue till the
end of August. Dr. W. K. Brooks^ Associ-
ate in Biology and Assistant Professor of
Comparative Anatomy, has charge as direc-
tor. The laboratory is designed for advanced
students, and for persons who are qualified
to carry on original investigations. No defi-
nite courses of instruction are given, as
the persons who are received as students
are presumed to have sufficient knowl-
edge to carry on their studies without such.
aid. An elementary class will also be con- '
ducted in connection with the laboratory,
during about six weeks of the summer, at
which daily lectures will be given, and ar-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

277

rangements made for systematic -work in
the laboratory, and a part of the class will
be allowed to join each day in the dredging
and collecting expeditions. Dr. Brooks will
exercise personal supervision of the work
of this class, and will give a course of lect-
ures on general zoology, but the students
will be under the more immediate guidance
of Dr. S. F. Clarke, who will lecture daily
on the structure and habits of marine ani-
mals. Beaufort, on account of its diver-
sified fauna, and of its mild and uniform
climate, is described as a desirable place
for study during the hot months of sum-
mer.

Trees and Lightning. Professor Colla-
don, of Geneva, published the conclusion
several 3-ears ago that, when lightning
strikes a tree, it is received on the ends of
the branches, which, being excellent con-
ductors, lead it, without suffering disturb-
ance, down to the larger limbs. Thence it
descends to the main limbs and the trunk,
whose conducting power, intrinsically infe-
rior to that of the smaller and younger
shoots of the top, is insufficient to sustain
the concentrated force of the currents which
have united here from the thousand chan-
nels by which they have so far descended.
Here, then, generally appear the first marks
of the shock, not because the lightning has
struck the tree at that place, as might be
superficially supposed, but because the con-
ducting powers of the tree begin to fail at
this point- This view was satisfactorily
confirmed by the effect of the lightning
upon a poplar-tree, which was struck at Ge-
neva on the oth of May, 1880. The young,
tender leaves of the main topmost branch
of this tree and of the branches immediate-
ly below it were toi'n up into small frag-
ments, which strewed the ground below
them, as if they had undergone a violent
shock of air, such as would be produced by
an explosion of dynamite. Many trees may
be compared, in respect to their power to
conduct electricity, to structures of wood or
masonry, which are well furnished with con-
ductors on their upper part, but with which
no conducting connection with the ground
is given. If such a building were struck
with lightning, its upper part would not be
hurt, while its lower part would suffer badly.

The danger of being struck by lightning, to
which persons standing under a tree are ex-
posed, is thus accounted for. The top of
the tree, bristling with conducting twigs,
attracts the lightning ; the current, meeting
with non-conducting obstacles at the trunk,
jumps from it to the surrounding bodies,
whether they be bushes or men and animals.
Of two persons, one standing under the tree,
the other sitting among the limbs at the
top, the latter would be in a vastly safer
position. Birds having nests in trees are
rarely struck by lightning, and their nests
are hardly ever damaged. Large trees
growing near a house will protect it from
lightning, provided there is no pond or well
or stream beyond the house to attract the
current across it. If the w-ater is on the
same side of the house as the tree, or the
tree is between it and the house, or has a
rod attached to it, the protection is almost
perfect. When a vineyard is struck by
lightning, the leaves over a large circuit
will, a few hours or days afterward, appear
discolored, showing that the electrical ac-
tion has taken place in a diffused manner,
and not in a concentrated attack. In such
cases hundreds or even thousands of vines
may be affected, showing palpably that it is
the property of lightning to manifest itself
upon the whole top of a tree or a plot of
vegetation. In his memoir on this subject,
M. CoUadon mentions a single stroke of
lightning which left its traces on more than
two thousand things.

Progress of Cremation. Cremation is
growing in favor throughout Europe. The
first furnace for the purpose was erected
at Milan, in 18'75 ; the second, built at Gotha,
in 1878, has been recognized by the author-
ities of the city, so that there the choice
between burial and cremation is free to
every citizen. Several societies for the ad-
vancement of the rite have been formed,
some of them even in states where no prep-
arations have been made for performing it.
The International Hygienic Congress which
met at Milan in September, 1880, adopted a
resolution in favor of compelling the bodies
of all animals dying of contagious diseases
to be incinerated, and of the provision of
facilities for that purpose in every parish.
, It also appointed a special international

278

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

committee to draft and present to the sev-
eral governments wiihin a year a series of
propositions for expediting the adoption of
cremation. A third furnace for cremation
has been built at Woking, England, but has
not been used. The society having charge
of it, although it is assured by the Govern-
ment that the execution of its purposes will
not be interfered with by the law, is seeking
to obtain an express sanction of them from
the Government, with the expectation that
a measure recognizing cremations properly
performed with an efficient apparatus will
impose restrictions against the irregularities
of indiscriminate cremations, and against
the use of defective apparatus.

Glacial Action in the Yellowstone Val-
ley. Mr. William H. Holmes has furnished
the "American Naturalist," from the un-
pubhshed report of the Government sur-
vey, an account of the glacial phenomena
in the Yellowstone Park, which are mani-
fested in a variety of forms, chiefly in er-
ratic rocks scattered everywhere, and in the
glaciation of rocks in situ in the narrow
gorges. It is not always safe to assume
that the presence of a bowlder in a particu-
lar spot indicates the former existence of a
glacier there, for the rock may have been
carried to a considerable distance by a force-
torrent or by a gradual, creeping movement
caused by the undermining of the soil un-
derneath ; nevertheless, we have every rea-
son to believe that glaciers formerly existed
in the park on a very extensive scale. Gla-
cial moraines are curiously absent from the
region ; and the tens of thousands of bowl-
ders that dot both sides of the Yellowstone
Valley generally lie on the smooth surface
of the flood-planes of the river, or on low
ridges of alluvial drift. " The significance
of this fact may be that the transporting
glaciers existed in the earlier stages of the
erosion of the valley, and that the morainal
ridges have been destroyed by the river, as
it oscillated from side to side in the suc-
ceeding stages of its descent from the pla-
teau-level to its present bed. These great
bowlders would, in such a case, be the more
durable masses of the moraines stranded on
the various flood-planes for want of water-
power to transport them." In seeking for
th source of the granite bowlders, it is ob-

served that they occur to a great extent on
the south side of the valley, and at all ele-
vations, while the only bodies of similar rock
within the valley are found either on the
north side or on the bottom at no consider-
able elevation above the level of the river.
Either, then, the bowlders must have been
transported to their present positions be-
fore the valley existed, or the ice-streams
must have been so deep as to fill the valley
to the brim and thus carry and strand them.
In the latter case, if the glacier followed
the course of the valley, the bowlders must
have crossed the whole width of it after the
manner of a ferry. " This could really oc-
cur only in case there should be such an in-
crease in the masses of ice descending from
the highlands to the north as to completely
fill the valley, sweep across its course and
overspread the broad table-land to the
south." This table-land, the park plateau,
is wholly volcanic, extends for a hundred
miles to the south, and is separated from
the base of the granite highlands on the
north by the valley of the Yellowstone prop-
er and by the East Fork. A great bowlder
more than two thousand cubic feet in size
which was noticed near the brink of the
caiion, and a mile and a half below the
great falls, must have come either from the
granite highland north of the valley, in
which case it must have crossed the valley
of the East Fork and the third caiion, and
ascended the river for twenty miles, avoid-
ing Amethyst Mountain and the Washburn
I range by a circuitous route, or, less probably,
from the Gallatin Mountains, also twenty
miles away, when it must have had to cross
the valley of the Upper Gardiner Iviver and
the spurs of the Washburn Mountain. If
it be admitted, as all the evidence seems to
indicate, that the ice-rivers bringing down
the erratic blocks of granite came from the
north, " it becomes at once clear that the
erosion of the grand canon has been ac-
complished since the close of the glacial
period, or at least that a second erosion has
taken place if a canon existed prior to the
glacial epoch."

Refrij^cration and Animal Heat. Dr.

Paul Delmas, of Bordeaux, has published
the results of some experiments in refriger-
ating a healthy person by exposing him, du^

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

279

ing from a quarter of a minute to five min-
utes, to a bath of water at 50, in which he
took notice of the temperature of the sub-
ject during the exposure and every five
minutes in succeeding hours. During the
application of the cold, while the subject
showed every sign of very intense sensa-
tions, the temperature of the body hardly
varied at all, or, at most, less than half a
degree from that recorded in the beginning.
It still varies but little after the application
is over, if, having been diied and dressed,
the subject remains perfectly still ; but if
he exert himself actively, either immediately
or after a time of immobility, so as to bring
on the external phenomena of cold reaction^
the temperature suddenly falls. The reduc-
tion persists for several hours, and is more
pronounced as the sensation of heat in the
subject ifi stronger. On the other hand, if
chill continue or reappear, the animal tem-
perature either does not fall or begins to
rise again. The pulse suddenly becomes
very quick at the beginning of the cold ap-
plication ; its velocity diminishes after a few
seconds, and by the end of the experiment
returns to the original rate, or falls below it.
The retardation stops or progresses slowly
if the subject keeps quiet, but becomes
more pronounced and persL?tent as he gives
signs of energetic reaction and of a general
sensation of heat.

The Reality of Hypnotic Phenomena,

The "Lancet" publishes an article of
Dr. Charles Richet, considering the reality
of the phenomena of hypnotism. It is im-
possible to fix upon a decisive test in this
inatter. We know that a fact is scientifi-
cally certain when the phenomenon, which
is the evidence of it, can be reproduced at
will by all persons who will use the same
processes, as in the case of any chemical or
physical manipulation. The phenomena of
hypnotism are uncertain, intangible, and
variable ; different persons, even though
employing identical processes, are liable
to obtain very different results. The only
absolute sign possible is one's own experi-
ence, and that is applicable only to himself.
There are, however, certain arguments which
bear upon the ease with almost, if not quite,
the force of a demonstration. First, it is ab-
surd to suppose that all hypnotized persons

have simulated sleep. Friends, in whom we
have absolute confidence, may be among
them; it is not possible to believe that they
have conspired all at once to deceive us.
Second, a close agreement has prevailed
among certain of the phenomena of the
manifestations for sixty years. " That
would be a very strange simulation to be
reproduced so often, in so long a time,
with the same appearances closed eyelids,
fibrillar movements in the muscles of the
face, hallucinations of vision and hearing,
catalepsy, contracture" and this among
persons strangers to each other and who
may be wholly ignorant of hypnotism.
Third, many of the phenomena can not
be simulated without a profound knowl.
edge of anatomy and physiology, which
hardly any hypnotics possess. When the
nerves of the hypnotized person are pressed,
the muscles supplied by them contract.
Who among them knows what muscles
should act under the influence of a par-
ticular nerve? Yet no mistake is made.
"With somnambulists one can, by direct
incitation, cause contraction of the muscles
(rudimentary in man) moving the auricle
of the ear. Now, this contraction is im-
possible in the individuiil when awake."
With a certain hysteric, who came under
Dr. Riehet's observation, " by opening the
right eye aphasia was produced ; while, by
opening the left eye, no such effect was ob-
tained. Certainly, if this be simulation, one
must assume that the patient knows that
speech is affected by the left cerebral hemi-
sphere, and that the retina of the right eye
is in relation with this hemisphere, while
the right hemisphere is useless for speech."
The hysterical contractures afford equally
convincing evidence. "There is no indi-
vidual strong enough to preserve volunta-
rily the contraction of a muscle during a
quarter of an hour without one perceiving
in it the slightest tendency to weakness
or relaxation. Now, somnambulists main-
tain their contractures for many hours, and
on waking they have no recollection of, no
fatigue from, this prolonged and improb-
able effort." Again, insensibility may be
feigned ; " but how many persons are there
who would have the courage to bear, with-
out serious reason, pricks in the face, on
the nostrils, or bands ; to allow their hair

28o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to be plucked out, and the conjunctiva, the
nose, and the ears to be tickled ; to have
pins thrust into the arms ; to drink nause-
ous liquids ; to breathe with delight ammo-
nia or sulphurous acid ? " Somnambulists
oppose no resistance to tests like these,
"Must we suppose that they exhibit hero-
ism (and a very misplaced heroism) or an-
a?sthesia?" It is objected that the phe-
nomena of somnambulism are incompatible
with the facts of science. But, if they are
themselves facts, they can not be overthrown
by a priori reasoning. Another objection
has been made: that everything observed
in hypnotism is inconstant, irregular, 'mo-
bile, and that the phenomena vary with
every observer and with each subject. The
same is the case with other psychological
phenomena, and the diversities may, in all
cases, be perfectly explained by the prodi-
gious complexity of the niind. " We ought
to be really struck by the resemblances
rather than the differences, for the latter
are of small account relatively to what they
might be."

Gradaal Disappearance of the Larger
Animals. The species among the different
classes of animals which exceed their con-
geners in size are now more than ever threat-
ened with extermination. The progressive
diminution in their numbers has been more
rapid during the recent g'eological period
because they have had man as their com-
petitor ; and the present age may be des-
tined to witness their entire disappearance.
In consequence of the new competition op-
posed by man, more formidable than any
other that the large animals have had to
meet, many species have already become
extinct, and many of those which are still
represented among living beings are daily
diminishing in numbers. The animals com-
prising these species, l)eing those which are
hunted with profit, or those the destruction
of which is important for human security,
are for these reasons inevitably the most
exposed to be driven from every i-egion in
Avhich the privileged being has established
his abode. In the struggle which they have
to sustain against the new rivalry they la-
bor under the two marked disadvantages, as
compared with smaller animals, that they
require a more abundant supply of food and

that their reproduction is less frequent and
more limited, so that the losses they endure
are hardly repaired. The smaller species
keep up their numbers, and even increase,
in consequence of their extreme fertility, in
spite of the most persistent efforts of man
to exterminate them. The larger animals
would be totally destroyed in a very short
time if they had to suffer the same propor-
tion of losses. It is hardly rash to assert
that the whales, the cachalots, the Sirenidce,
the morses, certain species of seals and
otaries, the great white bear of the Arctic
coasts, and the other bears, the large car-
nivorous cats (lions, tigers, etc.), the goril-
las, the great armadillo, the great ant-eater,
the giraffes, the elan, the aurochs, the bi-
son, the elephants, the hippopotamuses, the
rhinoceroses, the great kangaroo, the ele-
phantine turtles, the crocodiles, the birds of
the ostrich group, the great penguin of the
frozen sea, etc., are threatened with the fate
that has within a few centuries befallen
the enormous epiornis of Madagascar, the
gigantic moas of New Zealand, and within
less than two centuries the dodo and the
giant bird of the Island of Mauritius, the
two latter species representing the largest
columbid and the tallest waterfowl that have
ever existed. The great carnivora are al-
ready fast disappearing before the bullets of
emulous lion and tiger hunters ; the whales
and other larger mammalia are becoming
scarce. The largest of the deer, the elan,
is less widely distributed than formerly ; the
largest of wild cattle, the aurochs, which
formerly ranged over all Europe, is now
found only in the forests of Lithuania and
Moldavia ; the bison no longer covers the
prairies with boundless herds ; the great ar-
madillo is disappearing from South Ameri-
ca, and the great kangaroo from Australia ;
and the numbers of the other animals we
have named are gradually diminishing. It
is time for science to be busy in completing
the study of these animals before some of
their species go to join the ranks of those
which are represented only in fossils. La
Nat-ure.

Medianical Vibrations as a Remedy in
Nenralgia. M. Boudet de Paris and Dr. J.
Mortimer- Granville have published observa-
tions upon the application of mechanical vi-

POPULAR MISCELLANY,

281

brations as a remedy for neuralgia. The
publication of M. Boudet de Paris was ear-
liest in time; but Dr. Mortimer-Granville
has been prosecuting researches on the sub-
ject for several years, while he intended to
withhold the results from the public until
the efficacy of the new remedy could be fully
established. The publication of M. Boudet
de Paris has, however, made it necessary for
him to describe his own views and experi-
ments, so far as he has gone, though he still
considers them unperfected. His attention
was drawn to the subject by the success of
applications of ice in alleviating neuralgic
pains in labor. Having persuaded himself
that if the nerve affected in such pains could
be strongly impressed, so as to change its
state of irritation, the pain would cease, he
tried the effect of tapping over the fifth
nerve in ordinary facial neuralgia. The re-
sults were "very remarkable." He then
devised an instrument, a percuteur^ which
would give a known number of blows in a
second. The operations of this instrument
were remarkable, although they are not yet
considered decisive as to its efficacy. In
numerous instances, pain was arrested by
its application, and did not return. ^Yhen
applied over a healthy nerve, which was so
situated as to be thrown readily into me-
chanical vibration, it produced a sensation
like that caused by the passage of a weak,
interrupted current of electricity, changing,
when the action was prolonged, into a sen-
sation of tingling, then of numbness, and
finally to some twitching of the superficial
mu%cles. A nervous headache, or migraine,
could be produced by an application to the
frontal ridges or the margins of the orbit.
In some instances, when pain existed, the
sensation was aggravated by the augmented
state of vibration into which the nerve was
thrown through the shaking of the adjacent
tissues. It is noteworthy that a compara-
tively high number of vibrations per second
seems to relieve a dull, aching, or grinding
pain, while an acutely pitched and quick
pain is most frequently arrested by a slower
movement of the instrument. This is in
harmony with the theory that the pain is
the result of abnormal nervous vibration,
and that the operation of the percuteur is
to arrest those motions by opposing counter
and interfering vibrations to them. M. Bou-

det de Paris relates in his paper that, by the
aid of a large tuning-fork and sounding-
board, he caused hemianesthesia to disap-
pear; provoked contractions in hysterical
patients at the Salpetriere as rapidly as
with the magnet or electricity ; and sub-
dued the pains of an ataxic. With a modi-
fied apparatus he was able to produce local
analgesia, often anaesthesia, in a healthy
man, or a sensation of approaching vertigo,
with a desire for sleep. An attack of mi-
graine could be cut short by the application.
Neuralgia, especially of the fifth nerve, dis-
appeared after a few minutes' application of
the instrument; but it was more difficult
to get good results with the deeper-seated
nerves. Both gentlemen suggest that the
action of metallo-therapy, or of metallic ap-
plications, is best explained on the theory
of vibrations.

Some Facts about Explosions. Mr. Cor-
nelius Walford has lately attempted to col-
late the statistics of explosions, as a help
to ascertaining their causes and the means
of avoiding them. A large increase in such
disasters, which has been remarked in mod-
ern times, is easily accounted for when we
remember that we deal with explosive ma-
terials and machinery vastly more than our
ancestors did. The returns of the deaths
from explosions in England and Wales, dur-
ing twenty-two of the years between 1852
and 1879, give a total of 6,814, or 309 a
year, of which 187 a year were ascribed to
explosions of fire-damp, 37 to those of boil-
ers, and 70 to those of chemicals, including
gunpowder. Assuming, as the insurance
companies do, that one hundred persons
are hurt by such accidents where one is
killed, a proportion which is not confirmed
by the figures that follow, we have an
annual average of 30,900 persons injured
by explosions in England and Wales. Xo
means exist of ascertaining the amount of
property destroyed. Explosions of chem-
icals are increasing in frequency and va-
riety of character as new processes are intro-
duced in the arts. Remarkable instances
of these occurred at Gateshead in 1854,
when, during a fire, nitrate of soda and
sulphur, neither of which would explode
alone or in simple combinations, exploded
terribly when water was brought to bear

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon them ; in the explosion of bisulphide of
carbon in a shoddy-oil factory in 1867 ; and
in a celluloid-factory at Newark, Xew Jersey,
in 1879. An explosion, believed to be of
carbonic acid, which occurred in a French
coal-mine, is supposed to have been caused
by the formation, from the decomposition
of pyrites, of sulphuric acid, which, finding
its way to the limestone, suddenly generated
large quantities of gas. M. Kuhlmann has
shown that sulphuric acid mixing with ten
equivalents of water may cause a very vio-
lent explosion. Of 156 colliery explosions,
recorded in the United Kingdom during the
present reign, the largest numbers occurred
in February, March, and December, and the
smallest number in May. Help in the study
of disasters of this class is ei^pected from
meteorological investigations. Dust has re-
cently been found to be a formidable explo-
sive, and is now believed to have nearly as
much to do with coal-mine accidents as fire-
damp. The charred appearance of the
wood-work in coal-mines after explosions is
ascribed to the deposition of a crust of
scorched or melted coal-dust upon it. The
fine dust generated in some of the processes
employed in flouring-mills has been recog-
nized lately as a very dangerous source of
explosions, and attention has been directed
to the contrivance of improvements in ma-
chinery to mitigate the perils to which the
workers in tens of thousands of mills are
exposed from it. The dangers arising from
the liability of illuminating-gas to explode
are great enough, but they would be much
increased if a process should be adopted for
depriving the gas of its odor. The explosive
properties of gunpowder and petroleum in
all the ways in which they are used are fa-
miliar enough and dreaded. The frequent
damage to powder-mills by lightning may
be ascribed not so much to the attractive
power of the substances stored in them as
to their isolated situation on marsh-lands
near rivers. Insurance-tables show that
1,536 explosions of steam-boilers have taken
place in the United Kingdom during the
present century, killing 2,293 persons and
injuring 3,259. In the United States, 1,299
explosions, killing 2,506 persons and injur-
ing 2,612, are recorded as having taken
place between October 1, 1867, and Janu-
ary 1, 1880. The largest number of these

were in saw, planing, and wood-working
mills, the next largest in steam-vessels, and
the next largest of railroad locomotives.
The greatest number killed and injured were
on steam-vessels. The causes of explosions,
according to English tables, appear to be
about evenly divided between bad design,
workmanship, and material, and ignorance
or carelessness of attendants. A smaller
number were attributed to defects arising
in course of use. The most frequent and
most destructive explosions in England ap-
pear to have been in iron-works and mines.

Earthquakes in England. The earliest
earthquake in England of which a record
has been made took place in 1101, when,
according to William of Malmcsbury, the
whole country was terrified " with a horrid
spectacle, for all the buildings were lifted up,
and then again set down as before." The
next was in 1133, when houses were over-
thrown and flames were said to have issued
from rifts in the earth. A third shock oc-
curred in 1185, when, according to Holins-
hed, " stones that lay couched fast in the
earth were removed out of their places,
houses were overthrown, and the great
church of Lincoln rent from the top down-
ward." An earthquake in 1247, by which
much property in London was damaged,
was preceded for three months by a sus-
pension of tidal movements on the English
coast. On April 6, 1580, two shocks oc-
curred, the second of which caused the
church-bells to ring, threw some stones
from St. Paul's Cathedral, leveled a part
of the Temple Church, caused the death
of two worshipers in Christ Church, by the
falling of a stone from the roof, and threw
a part of the cliff of Dover into the sea.
Excitement prevailed for weeks afterward,
business was seriously affected, riots were
fretjuent, and prayers were prepared to bo
offered night and morning for protection
against further convulsions. Two undula-
tory movements of the earth, lasting to-
gether about four seconds, took plaoe at
noon on September 8, 1692, causing a great
panic, but not inflicting very serious dam-
age on property. A slight but evident
shock, accompanied with a " great roaring,"
took plack on February 8, 1750, when bells
were rung, " dogs howled, and fish jumped

POPULAR MISCELLANY,

283

high out of the water." A month later, the
people were awakened between one and two
o'clock in the morning by a series of shocks.
A frantic terror, causing neglect of domestic
concerns, riot, and a suspension of business
enterprise, possessed all classes for several
weeks afterward. It was heightened by a
prediction that a third earthquake would
occur in April, and all who could left the
city ; others spent their nights out of doors.
A quack made his fortune during the panic
by selling pills which he warranted to be a
sure preservative against injury by earth-
quakes. Only slight shocks have since been
felt in the metropolis.

Impnre Air and Disease. Dr. J. Ward,
health-officer of an English sanitary district
of considerable extent and population, has
given in the " Sanitary Record " an account
of a large number of instances which have
come un-der his immediate observation, in
which impure air, arising either from de-
fective ventilation or noxious surroundings,
has appeared to be directly associated with
the production of diseases of the lungs and
other organs. Of eight fatal cases of pneu-
monia occurring within a year among chil-
dren and persons in middle life, in all but
one the air was defiled from some neigh-
boring source of filth. In about ninety
fatal cases of diseases of the respiratory
organs, other than pulmonary consumption,
most of which were acute or subacute, un-
doubted defects of ventilation existed. In
some cases there was no fireplace or air
exit in the room ; in some, such opening,
where it had existed, had been closed tight ;
in some the bed, with many in it, was in a
close corner ; in others the air was defiled
by some neighboring household or farm
nuisance. Similar defects were observed
in nearly all of thirty cases of disorders of
the lungs following measles ; in forty cases
following whooping-cough in sixteen of
which last, " filth influence from immediate-
ly contiguous byre, pig-styes, stable, water-
closet, or sewer, was noticed." The sani-
tary investigation of the interior and sur-
roundings of houses where inflammatory
affections of the brain have occurred has
forced upon Dr. Ward the conclusion that
diseases of this class are also frequently, and,
.it may be inferred, causatively, associated

with similar insanitary conditions. In twenty-
eight fatal cases of this nature, seventeen
cases of tubercular meningitis, and twenty-
two cases of convulsions in children, the
air was either confined or polluted. Dr.
AYard draws frcra these observations the
obvious lesson that it should be the aim of
sanitary administration to secure for each
habitable room, especially in the crowded
cottages of the poorer classes, some suitable
provision for a constant change of air.
Particularly should care be taken in fixing
the position of the bed so that it shall not
be in a close corner remote from the in-
fluence of the door, window, and fireplace,
but should be near some opening through
which a constant circulation may be relied
upon. In transforming old houses, the pro-
vision of fresh air, now neglected and too
often prevented in the arrangement of the
partitions, should be carefully looked after
else the sanitary condition of the house
may be made worse than it was before.

An ImproTed Filtering Apparatus.

Some experiments that have lately been
made in France on the working of the
Farquhar apparatus for filtering sewage
have been attended with quite satisfactory
results. One of the chief obstacles to the
purification of foul waters by filtration has
arisen from the accumulation of an imper-
vious, slimy deposit on the matter which
prevents the liquid from reaching the filter-
ing surface. The Farquhar apparatus is
designed to obviate this difficulty by means
of a provision for the continuous removal
of the slime. The filter-bed, which may be
composed of any suitable material, is con-
tained in a closed cylinder in which is
worked a cutter-plate continually scraping
off the top of the deposit. The liquid to
be filtered is forced in throuirh a hollow
in the screw-spindle by which the cutter-
plate is worked, direct to the underside of
that instrument, where it is uniformly dis-
tributed over the surface of the filter-bed.
The cutter-plate is caused, by suitable ma-
chinery, to revolve during the process of
filtration, and may also be made to descend
if that is desired. The accumulating de-
posit is scraped off, and forced up the
inclined plane of the knife, as shavings are
forced up through a carpenter's plane, to

2^4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the upper surface of the cuttcr-platc. By
this operation a new clean surface is con-
stantly produced on the tilter-bcd, practi-
cally starting a new filter, at each revolu-
tion of the cutter-plate. A model machine,
when tried with common sewer-waters at
Asnieres, near Paris, having a filter-bed of
9i inches in diameter, filtered eight litres,
or 1*761 gallons, in a minute under a press-
ure of one atmosphere and a half. In the
same proportion the rate of filtration with
a bed one foot in diameter would be 3"31
gallons a minute, and with a bed ten feet in
diameter 260 gallons a minute, or 074,400
gallons a day of twenty-four hours. Ap-
plied to the water-supply of towns, a ma-
chine having a filter-bed ten feet in diame-
ter should filter, under a pressure of one
atmosphere, 466,560 gallons in twenty-four
hours.

Orio;in of Diphtheria. The observa-
tions of Mr. G. II. Fosbrooke, medical
health-officer of Birmingham, England,
have led him to form conclusions respect-
ing the etiology of diphtheria which differ
in some points from those which have been
urged by other authorities. He regards it
as a well-established fact, confirmed by his
experience, that the disease is more com-
mon in rural than in urban districts, and
has observed that even when it has pre-
vailed extensively in a rural district, and
has thence been conveyed into a neighbor-
ing town, it has not spread in the town.
In one town of five thousand inhabitants,
diphtheria, when it occurred, prevailed con-
currently with typhoid fever or scarlatina,
giving rise to the suggestion that all those
diseases might originate in a common poi-
son. Mr. Fosbrooke does not agree with
other authorities as to the conditions of
soil most favorable to the propagation of
diphtheria. Generally the disease has been
thought to flourish most in damp situations
and in connection with damp subsoils. All
of his attempts to associate its origin and
distribution with any peculiar soil or situa-
tion have failed, for he has met it both in
villages occupying elevated and airy situa-
tions and in low places. The most serious
epidemics and the larger number of cases
of which he has had personal knowledge
have appeared on soils that were '^ rather

gravelly and well drained." With one ex-
ception, his experience opposes the idea
that houses shut in by trees are more liable
to harbor the disease than those which are
not surrounded bv an abundant vecretation.
The fluctuations of diphtheria, when it pre-
vails for any considerable length of time, do
not appear to be influenced by changes of
season or by variations of weather. Mete-
orological observations, made with reference
to this point, differ widely, and furnish no
guide to an opinion. The disease is gener-
ally found first to break out in October, and
to prevail as an epidemic, when it does so
prevail, in the winter months, increasing, as
is natural with epidemics, during the earlier
months of its course, but without regard to
the regularity or irregularity of the season.

Anthropology in Russia. Anthropology
has made much progress in Russia. The
Imperial Society of the Friends of Natural
Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography,
founded in 1863, of which Bogdanof is the
master-spirit, has done good service in
assuming the patronage of investigations
among the numerous diverse stocks of whom
the Russian nationality is composed, and in
encouraging measures to bring the interests
of anthropology before the public. The
Anthropological Exhibition, which was held
at Moscow last summer, had this object
prominently in view, and was further in-
tended to promote the establishment of a
professorship of anthropology, and of an
anthropological museum. The collections
exhibited and reported upon embraced
skulls, skeletons, relics, prehistoric and
modern, and articles of various kinds, illus-
trating the character, condition, and cus-
toms of the ancient and modern inhabitants
of the empire. Among the neolithic stone
implements from Kazan were hatchets,
crossed by a groove in which to fasten the
handle, precisely as in the North American
hatchets, and arrow-heads, both with and
without shafts. Fragments of urns bearing
the well-known pack-thread ornament and
bronzes of the so-called Tschudic type were
shown from the Volga. Filimonof brought
from the Caucasus, where he has been dig-
ging under the auspices of the society, great
bronze whorls, of similar form to those
which are met in the Baltic provinces, but

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

28i

larger, fibulae, precisely like those of the
terra mare of Italy, but to which nothing
similar has been found between the two
places, and Etruscan potteries. These arti-
cles are probably of the sixth century b. c,
and relics of Italian colonists. A splendidly
ornamented bronze hatchet, from the same
region, also deserves mention. Filimonof
has concluded, from the researches he has
made, that the transition from bronze to
iron took place in the Caucasus about five
hundred years before Christ. Bronze buckles
from near Kertch, like those of the Mero-
vingian period in France, were probably
Roman. Craniology was fully represented
by more than five hundred Kurgan skulls,
and by a host of skulls representing about
twenty races of Europe and Asia. Among
the numerous skeletons were two of Ainos.
A skull of the stone age from the govern-
ment of Vladimir and pieces of other skulls
and skeletons found with it are the old-
est remains of man yet found in Russia,
and the first of the stone age. Professor
Inostranzof, of St. Petersburg, has recently
found other human remains of that age.
The ethnographic department was not so
fully represented as the others, but included
collections illustrating the vai'ious modes of
caring for infants, embroideries, articles of
household manufacture, models of houses
and farm-buildings, musical instruments,
hunting, fishing, and farming implements,
and rare articles representing the diversified
populations of Siberia, the last being con-
tributed by the Imperial Russian Geographi-
cal Society of St. Petersburg. This depart-
ment is richly illustrated in the collection of
the Rumyanzof Museum, of Moscow.

The Phaeodaria. Professor Ernst Haeck-
el, at a recent meeting of the Natural His-
tory Society of Jena, read a note on the
phaeodaria, a new group of marine siliceous
rhizopods, rich in specific forms and remark-
able in many respects, which have hitherto
been included in the tvpical radiolaria, from
which, however, they present considerable
points of difference. A new light has been
thrown upon these beings by the Challenger
Expedition, which, besides discovering forms
of typical radiolaria corresponding to two
thousand species, brought to light a num-
ber of deep-sea phaeodaria, hitherto entirely

unkno^Ti. John Murray, in 18*76, described
some of the forms of these new species,
drawing attention to the extremely delicate
and finely fenestrated structure of the large
siliceous shells, and to the constant appear-
ance of masses of black-brown pigment
which are scattered through the sarcode,
outside the central capsule. These ani-
mals are usually considerably larger than
the other radiolaria, and many of them are
visible to the naked eye. They bear a pe-
culiar mass of dark pigment-granules, called
pheodium, outside the central capsule, and
have, with few exceptions, a well-developed,
always exti*a-capsular, siliceous skeleton,
which forms very varied and delicate struct-
ures, usually radiating outward in hollow
siliceous tubes.

Industrial Accidents, etc. Mr. T. A.

Brocklebank suggests that the amount of
sickness and death incurred in industrial
operations in England, as a direct result of
the conditions under which they are carried
on, is a subject that demands investigation.
In ISTY he compiled tables for use before
the House of Lords, which gave returns of
deaths and injuries by boilers in mines, on
railways, and at factories, with totals for
1873, 18*74, 18*75, and 1876, of 107,000
men, women, and children; and he estimates,
on the basis of the facts contained in these
tables, that 500,000 workmen will be killed
during the ten years, 1877 to 1886, as follows :
in mines, 300,000 ; on railways, 70,000 ; in
factories, 180,000. Sir Edward Watkin also
has made a statement in the House of Com-
mons to the effect that 100,000 persons are
killed annually in industrial occupations in
England. Facts are cited to show that the
accidents that are reported compose only a
part of those which take place, and to make
it appear probable that Mr. Brocklebank's
estimate is a very moderate one.

Sewage-Farming. The Royal Agricult-
ural Society has recently awarded two prizes
of one hundred pounds sterling each for the
best managed sewage-farm, the one utiliz-
ing the sewage of not more, the other that
of more than twenty thousand people. Nine
farmers competed for the two prizes. The
judges stated in their report that there was
a veiy considerable difference, both in the

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

amount of capital engaged upon the several
farms, and in the gross returns per acre.
The gross returns and the amount of wages
paid per acre were greatest in cases where
market-gardening was in vogue. It was re-
marked that a lufrge area of ordinary agri-
cultural land attached to a sewage-farm
does not always add to the profit of the un-
dertaking. Statistical tables showing the
number of persons living or working on the
farms, and the number of children on them,
make it appear that the average annual
mortality upon them does not exceed three
per thousand, and that " sewage-farming is
not detrimental to life or health." About
one hundred sewage-farms are in operation
in England.

Habits of the Green Lizard. Sarah P.
Monks has contributed to *' The American
Naturalist " an interesting study of the hab-
its of two green lizards, or American cha-
meleons, which she has kept in her rooms.
The first, a female, came from South Caro-
lina in November, and was kept in a room
warmed with a furnace. It was very lively
and ran about a great deal during the win-
ter, but paid no attention to the flies till the
warm spring-days came, when it greedily de-
voured them and eagerly lapped water with
its tongue. "When a male lizard was put in
the cage in May, a curious ceremonial court-
ship took place between the pair, each ani-
mal raising itself to the full extent of its
forelegs and bowing its head and the fore-
part of the body in a regular and dignified
manner as if it had a hinged joint at the
shoulder. Both lizards would scamper off
when they found that their actions were ob-
served ; and, if a fly came near them, they
would dart after it " like a flash of green
light." The changes of color in the creat-
ures were frequent and marked, but the
observations upon them were contradictory
and unsatisfactor)'. The changes were dif-
ferent in the two specimens : the same
causes did not affect them both alike ; and
the changes came on without regard to the
object on which they were placed, or to the
amount of light and darkness. They would
become green or light-brown when placed
in sunliirht, but would also assume the same
colors in the darkest room. When disturbed
they would sometimes become darker, but at

other times would not change. The chanjres
were rapid, taking place in from two to
eight minutes ; and at one time one of the
lizards changed from green to light-brown,
then back to green again, in five minutes.
They would go to sleep as soon as it became
dark, and in the gloom of a storm, and would
wake again on the appearance of the sun,
although they were not exposed to its di-
rect rays. They assumed various positions in
sleeping sometimes, when it was cool,
lying close up under a bit of loose bark,
sometimes curled in a corner behind a small
jar, sometimes stretched out on a limb or
along the twigs. "When in a crevice or
hole, they took any shape that was conven-
ient, but on sticks and twigs they arranged
themselves so as to imitate the general form
of the branches. The changes of the skin
do not appear to depend upon any particu-
lar time or season, but upon the general
health and growth of the animal. One of
the lizards changed twice in seventeen days,
the other only four times in fire months.
The skin split along the back and the upper
sides of the legs, and came off in large frag-
ments. The lizard would seize a bit in his
mouth and pull it off as if it were an invert-
ed glove, and would then eat it. The bits
of skin that remained around the jaws and
eyes seemed to annoy the animal very much.
When the tail had been broken off and re-
newed, as was the case with one of the liz-
ards, the exuviation of that part took place
independently of the rest of the body.

The Safe Manufacture of Dynamite.

The French Academy of Sciences has re-
cently awarded a prize of twenty-five hun-
dred francs to Messrs. Boutmy and Foucher
for introducing new modes of producing
nitro-glycerine in quantity, by means of
which the manufacture of dynamite has
been rendered much safer than it has here-
tofore been. The old method, in which
fuming nitric acid, or a mixture of that
substance and sulphuric acid, was made to
act on glycerine, and the mass was suddenly
immersed in water, often resulted in the
production of enough heat to decompose a
part of the nitro-glycerine, and occasion a
violent explosion in spite of the best refrig-
erating processes that could be employed.
The principle of the new process consists in

NOTES.

287

obviating the greater part of the heat by
first engaging the glycerine in a combination
with sulphuric acid, which forms a sulpho-
glyceric acid, and then destroying this com-
pound slowly by means of nitric acid. Two
liquors are prepared in advance a sulpho-
glyceric and a sulpho-nitric liquor (the lat-
ter with equal weights of sulphuric and ni-
tric acids). These disengage a considerable
amount of heat ; they are allowed to cool,
and are then combined in such proportions
that the reaction takes place slowly. In the
old method the nitro-glycerine is separated
almost instantaneously, and rises in part to
the surface, rendering washing difficult ; in
the new method it forms in about twenty
hours, with a regularity which prevents dan-
ger, and goes to the bottom of the vessel, so
that it can be washed rapidly. In the works
of Messrs. Boutmy and Toucher at Vouges,
where the new process has been employed,
no life has been lost for six vears, and the
general health has been excellent.

NOTES.

The annual meeting of theXational Acad-
emy of .Sciences was held in Washington,
D. C, beginning April 19th, under the presi-
dency of Professor W. B. Rogers, of Boston,
The sessions continued through four days,
and were marked by the reading of a large
number of papers, of general as well as
special interest. None of the papers re-
ceived more attention than that of Professor
Bell concerning his later experiments in the
production of sound by radiant energy, which
we publish. Professor Barker, in his paper
on " Incandescent Lighting," also touched
a subject which engages general interest.
The papers of Professor Pumpelly, on the
relation of soils to health, of Professor
Morse, on the utilization of the sun's rays in
heating and ventilating, and others, show
that the Academy does not neglect practical
subjects. Mr. W. H. Ball gave an account
of the " Land Ice in Kotzebue Sound," of
which mention has already been made in
the " Monthly " ; and Professor T. Sterry
Hunt described the " Auriferous Gravels ot
California." President Garfield visited the
Academy, and was warmly welcomed. The
meeting was more than ordinarily inter-
esting.

The Boston Society of Natural Hi.-5tory
announces that a seaside laboratory, capa-
ble of accommodating only a limited number
of students, will be open under the direction
of its curator, Alpheus Hyatt, at Annisquam,

near Gloucester, Massachusetts, from June
5th to September 15th. As the purpose is
simply to afford opportunities for the study
and observation of common types of ma-
rine animals under suitable direction and
advice, no attempt will be made to give any
stated course of instruction or lectures.
The work will be adapted to meet the wants
of those who have already made a begin-
ning in the study of natural history. The
apparatus will consist of the simplest labo-
ratory furniture, collecting instruments, and
row-boats, and a yacht for dredging excjur-
sions after the latter part of July.

AcHiLLE Delesse, an eminent French
geologist, died March 24th. He was en-
gaged through most of his life as a mining
engineer, and was at one time Professor of
Geology and Mineralogy at Besan9on, and at
another Professor of A^rriculture, Drainaire,
and Irrigation in the Ecole des Mines. He
was author of works on some of the min-
eralogical features of the Vosges, of " Re-
searches on the Origin of the Rocks," geo-
logical and hydrological maps of the city of
Paris, and the rainfall of Paris, and, in con-
junction with MM. Langel and De Lappa-
rent, issued for twenty years the annual
"Revue de Geologic." He was for two
years President of the Geological Society of
France.

"Nature" doubts whether our Fish
Commissioners will be able greatly to in-
crease the yield of sea-fish, like shad, her-
ring, and cod. The arguments of Malthus
respecting the relations between food-supply
and the increase of population are thought
in England to be applicable to fish. " Sea-
fish, like all other animals," it says, " are
undoubtedly increasing in greater propor-
tion than their food ; and it is obvious,
therefore, that, unless man can increase
their food, it is only lost labor to increase
their number."

Fanny, a very aged carp in the ponds at
Fontainebleau, well known to the people of
Paris, has just died. She is said to have
been hatched during the reim of King
Francis I, and had become very gray.

The sixth session of the Summer School
of Biology of the Peabody Academy of Sci-
ence, Salem, Massachusetts, will commence
July 12th, and continue for four weeks.
Instruction designed especially for teachers.
Further information may be obtained from
Professor Edward S. Morse, of Salem.

Mr. William Pearce, of the Clyde ship-
building firm of John Elder & Co., has stated,
in a lecture on recent improvements in ma-
rine navigation, that the first steamers of
the Cunard Company, in 1840, were under
contract to go 8| knots an hour ; were of
V40 horse-power ; and consumed 4-j^j pounds

288

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of coal per hor?c-power. The Persia, built
in 1850, had side-lever engines, indicating
3,600 horse power, and consumed 3 ?ci pounds
of coal per horse-power. The Gallia, built
in 1879, was fitted with compound engines
of 5,000 horse-power, and sailed with a
speed of 15^ knots an hour. The Persia
burned (S\ tons of coal for every ton of car-
go it carried ; while the Gallia burned less
than half a ton, although it carried the car-
go 2^ knots an hour faster than the Persia.
The Arizona, with 6,000 horse-power, con-
sumed If pound of coal per indicated horse-
power, and carried 3,400 tons of cargo at an
average speed of 16^ knots, burning less
than four hundred-weight per ton of cargo at
a speed across the Atlantic faster than any
previously recorded.

Dr. Hiram A. Cutting, of Vermont, has
made a series of examinations into the dura-
bility under heat of different kinds of gran-
ite, sandstone, limestone, marble, conglom-
erate, slate, soapstone, and artificial stone.
Granite began to yield at a temperature of
between 700 and 800 ; it became cracked
between 800 and 900 ; generally cracked
between 800 and 950 ; and was made
worthless by or before reaching a tempera-
ture of 1,000. Sandstones showed a great-
er power of endurance, massive limestones
still greater, and marbles the greatest, while
conglomerates seem to have been among the
weakest stones. The least absorbent and
the most absorbent of the granites were
equally the granites most destructible by
heat.

The annual meeting of the Society for
the Promotion of Agricultural Science will
be held at Cincinnati, August 16th, the day
before the meeting of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science.
Papers will be presented by Professor W. J.
Beal, on " Testing Seeds "; by Professor R. C.
Kcdzie, on "The Ripening of Wheat" ; and
other essays, the subjects of which have not
been announced, will be read by Professor
S. W, Johnson, Patrick Barry, Professors J.
il. Comstock, E. W. Ililgard, and A. J. Cook,
Messrs. J. J. Thomas, L. B. Arnold, and E.
Lewis Sturtevant, M. D.

The meeting of the French Association
for the Advancement of Science at Al<riers
was successful in point of numbers, at least,
notwithstanding the troubles with Tunis. A
great many members had arrived on the 11th
of April, fresh ones were coming in every
boat, and it was thought that the attendance
would exceed a thousand.

Professor James Tennant, F. G. S., a
"well-known mineralogist, has recently died
in London, at the age of seventy-three years.
He was the possessor of one of the largest
and most valuable collections of minerals,
was for many years Professor of Geology and
Mineralogy, afterward Professor of Mineral-

ogy in King's College, London ; he held the
office of "Mineralogist to the Queen," and
was consulted by the Government, as one of
the best authorities on gems, with respect to
the cutting of the Koh-i-noor diamond. He
did useful work in preparing collections of
minerals and fossils suitable for educational
purposes and as a lecturer, and was author,
in connection w'ith the late Professor Ansted
and the Rev. W. 0. Mitchell, of the treatise
on " Geology, Mineralogy, and Crystallogra-
phy " in Orr's " Circle of the Sciences."

The death is reported of Mr. F. A. Xo-
bert, the celebrated producer of test-plates
for miscroscopists. He had been engaged
for many years in ruling micrometers and
diffraction plates, and produced one set of
lines his nineteenth band equivalent to
about 112,000 lines to the inch, which he
believed could never be seen resolved in the
microscope. Dr. Woodward eventually pro-
duced photographs of the finest of these
lines ; when Mr. Nobert ruled a new plate,
the finest band of which the twentieth
was of a fineness equivalent to about 224,-
000 lines to the inch.

The New York Electrical Society was
formed in this city on the 8th of February
last, with the purpose of bringing persons
engaged in operations connected with elec-
tricity into closer connection and association
with each other for improvement in knowl-
edge of electric art and science, and for so-
cial intercourse. The first regular meeting
of the society was held on the 2d of March,
when the organization was completed. Its
real work was begun at the meeting of
March 16th, when a paper was read by Mr.
F. W. Gushing on the " Harmonic Telegraph "
of Professor Elisha Gray. The preliminary
meeting was participated in by between
thirty and forty electricians and telegra-
phists : more than two hundred members
had been enrolled at the meeting of March
16th.

Sir Philip Egerton, Bart., M. P., one of
the Vice-Presidents of the Geological Socie-
ty, died in London, April 5th, in the seventy-
fifth year of his age. He was chosen a
Fellow of the Geological Society in 1829,
and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1831,
and was also a Fellow of the Society of An-
ticiuaries, antiquary to the Royal Academy,
trustee of the British Museum, and one of the
senate of London University. He was the
author of fifty-one scientific papers, chiefly
devoted to studies of fossil fishes, and gen-
erally published in the journal of the Geo-
logical Society, besides several papers in
which he was joint author with other per-
sons. He was owner of a collection of fos-
sil fishes of remarkable value, it being but
little inferior to that of the Earl of Ennis-
killen, which is, perhaps, the finest in the
world.

CHARLES THOMAS JACKSON.

n^

HE

POPULAR SCIENCE
. MONTHLY.

JULY, 1881.
THE EACES OF MANKIND.*

Br E. B. TYLOE, F. E. S.

ANTHROPOLOGY finds race-differences most clearly in stature
and proportions of limbs, conformation of the skull and the brain
within, characters of features, skin, eyes, and hair, peculiarities of con-
stitution, and mental and moral temperament.

In comparing races as to their stature, we concern ourselves not
with the tallest or shortest men of each tribe, but with the ordinary or
average-sized men who may be taken as fair representatives of their
whole tribe. The difference of general stature is well shown where a
tall and a short people come together in one district. Thus, in Aus-
tralia the average English colonist of five feet eight inches looks clear
over the heads of the five feet four inch Chinese laborers. Still more
in Sweden does the Swede of five feet seven inches tower over the
stunted Lapps, whose average measure is not much over five feet.
Amono- the tallest of mankind are the Pataofonians, who seemed a race
of giants to the Europeans who first watched them striding along their
cliffs draped in their skin cloaks ; it was even declared that the heads
of Magalhaens's men hardly reached the waist of the first Patagonian
they met. Modern travelers find, on measuring them, that they really
often reach six feet four inches, their mean heio-ht beini]c about five feet
eleven inches three or four inches taller than average Englishmen.
The shortest of mankind are the Bushmen and related tribes in South
Africa, with an average height not far exceeding four feet six inches.
A fair contrast between the tallest and shortest races of mankind may
be seen in Fig. 1, where a Patagonian is drawn side by side with a

* Abridged from Chapter III of " Anthropology : An Introduction to the Study of
Man and Civilization." By Edward B. Tylor, D. C. L., F. R. S. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. 1881.

VOL. XIX. 19

290

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Bushman, whose head only reaches to his breast. Thus, the tallest
race of man is less than one fourth higher than the shortest, a fact
which seems surprising to those not used to measurements. In general,
the stature of the women of any race may be taken as about one six-
teenth less than that of the men. Thus, in England a man of five feet
eight inches and a woman of five feet four inches look an ordinary
well-matched conple.

Not only the stature, but the proportions of the body, differ in men
of various races. Care must be taken not to confuse real race-differ-

FiG. 1. Patagonian and Bushman.

ences with the alterations made by the individual's early training or
habit of life. A man's measure round the chest depends a good deal
on his way of life, as do also the lengths of arm and leg, which are not
even the same in soldiers and sailors. But there are certain distinc-
tions which are inherited, and mark different races. Thus, there are
long-limbed and short-limbed tribes of mankind. The African negro
is remarkal)le for length of arm and leg, the Aymara Indian of Peru
for shortness. Negro soldiers standing at drill bring the middle
finger-tip an inch or two nearer the knee than white men can do, and
some have been even known to touch the knee-pan. Such differences,
however, are less remarkable than the general correspondence in bodily
proportions of a model of strength and beauty, to whatever race he
may belong. Even good judges have been led to forget the niceties
of race-type and to treat the form of the athlete as everywhere one
and the same. Thus, Benjamin West, the American painter, when he

THE RACES OF MANKIND.

291

came to Rome and saw the Belvedere Apollo, exclaimed, " It is a
young Mohawk warrior ! " Much the same has been said of the pro-
portions of Zooloo athletes. Yet, if fairly-chosen photographs of Caffres
be compared with a classic model, such as the Ajoollo, it will be noticed
that the trunk of the African has a somewhat wall-sided straightness,
wanting in the inward slope which gives fineness to the waist, and in
the expansion below which gives breadth across the hips, these being
two of the most noticeable points in the classic model which our j^aint-
ers recognize as an ideal of manly beauty.

In comparing races, one of the first questions that occurs is, whether
people, who differ so much intellectually as savage tribes and civilized
nations, show any corresponding difference in their brain. There is,
in fact, a considerable difference. The most usual way of ascertaining
the quantity of brain is to measure the capacity of the brain-case by
filling skulls with shot or seed. Professor Flower gives as a mean
estimate of the contents of skulls in cubic inches Australian, seventy-
nine ; African, eighty-five ; European, ninety-one. Eminent anato-
mists also think that the brain of the European is somewhat more com-
plex in its convolutions than the brain of a negro or Hottentot. Thus,
though these observations are far from perfect, they show a connection
between a more full and intricate system of brain-cells and fibers, and
a higher intellectual power, in the races w^hich have risen in the scale
of civilization.

The form of the skull itself has been to the anatomist one of the
best means of distinguishing races. It is often possible to tell by in-
spection of a skull what race it belongs to. In comparing skulls, some
of the most easily noticeable distinctions are the following :

When looked at from the vertical or top view, the proportion of
breadth to length is seen as in Fig. 2. Taking the diameter from back

a

Fig. 2. Top View of Skulls, a. Ne^ro. index 70. rlolichocephalic : h. European, index 80, meso-

ceplialic; c, Samoyed, index 85, brachycephalic.

to front as 100, the cross diameter gives the so-called index of breadth,
which is here about 70 in the negro (), 80 in the European (b), and
85 in the Samoyed (c). Such skulls are classed respectively as cloU-
chocephalic, or "long-headed" ; mesocephallc, or "middle-headed";
and brachycephalic, or " short-headed." A model skull of a flexible

292

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

material like gutta-jiercha, if of the middle shape, like that of an ordi-
nary Englishman, might, by pressure at the sides, be made long like a
negro's, or by pressure at back and front be brought to the broad Tar-
tar form. In the above figure it may be noticed that while some

Fig. 3. Side View of Skulls, d, Australian, prognathous ; e, African, prognathous ; /, European,

orthognathous.

skulls, as b, have a somewhat elliptical form, others, as a, are ovoid,
having the longest cross diameter considerably behind the center.
Also in some classes of skulls, as in a, the zygomatic arches connecting
the skull and face are fully seen ; while in others, as h and c, the bulg-
ing of the skull almost hides them. In the front and back view of
skulls, the proportion of w^idth to height is taken in much the same

Fig. 4. a, Swalieli ; b, Persian.

way as the index of breadth just described. Next Fig. 3, which rep-
resents in profile the skulls of an Australian ((/), a negro {e), and an
Englishman (/), shows the strong difference in the facial angle be-
tween the two lower races and our own. The Australian and African

THE RACES OF MANKIND.

293

2XQ prognatlious^ or "forward-jawed," while the European is orthogna-
thous, or " upright-jawed." At the same time the Australian and
African have more retreating foreheads than the European, to the dis-
advantage of the frontal lobes of their brain as compared with ours.

Fig. 5. Female Po"traits. a. Negro (W. Africa) ; b. Barolong (S. Africa) ; c. Hottentot ; (?, Gil-
yak vN. Asia) ; e, Japanese ; /, Colorado Indian (N. America) ; g, English.

Thus the upper and lower parts of the profile combine to give the
faces of these less civilized peoples a somewhat ape-like slope, as dis-
tinguished from the more nearly upright European face.

294

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Let ns now glance at the evident j^oints of the living face. To
some extent feature directly follows the shape of the skull beneath.
Thus the contrast just mentioned, between the forward-sloj^ing negro
skull and its more upright form in the white race, is as plainly seen in
the portraits of a Swaheli negro and a Persian, given in Fig. 4. On
looking at the female portraits in Fig. 5, the Barolong girl (South
Africa) may be selected as an example of the effect of narrowness of
skull {b), in contrast wdth the broader Tartar and North American
faces {d,f). She also shows the convex African forehead, while they,
as well as the Hottentot (c), show the effect of high cheek-bones. The
Tartar and Japanese faces (d, e) show the skew-eyelids of. the Mongo-
lian race. Much of the character of the human face depends on the
shape of the softer parts nose, lips, cheeks, chin, etc. which are often
excellent marks to distinguish race. Contrasts in the form of nose
may even exceed that here show^n between the aquiline of the Persian
and the snub of the negro in Figs. 4 and 6. European travelers in
Tartary in the middle ages described its flat-nosed inhabitants as hav-
ing no noses at all, but breathing through holes in their faces. By
pushing the tips of our own noses upward, Ave can in some degree imi-
tate the manner in Avhich various other races, notably the negro, show
the opening of the nostrils in full face. Our thin, close-fitting lips
differ in the extreme from those of the negro, well seen in the portrait

Fig. 6. African Negro.

(Fig. 6) of Jacob Wainwright, Livingstone's faithful boy. With the
purpose of calling attention to some well-marked peculiarities of the
human face in different races, a small group of female faces (Fig. 5) is
given, all young, and such as would be considered among their own

THE RACES OF MANKIND. 295

people as at least moderately handsome. Setting aside hair and com-
plexion, there is still enough difference in the actual outline of the feat-
ures to distinguish the negro, Caffre, Hottentot, Tartar, Japanese, and
North American faces from the English face below.

The color of the skin, that important mark of race, may be best
understood by looking at the darkest variety. The dark hue of the
negro does not lie so deej) as the innermost or true skin, which is sub-
stantially alike among all races of mankind. The negro, in spite of
his name, is not black, but deep brown, and even this darkest hue does
not appear at the beginning of life, for the new-born negro child is
reddish-brown, soon becoming slaty-gray, and then darkening. Nor
does the darkest tint ever extend over the negro's whole body, but his
soles and palms are brown. The coloring of the dark races appears to
be similar in nature to the temporary freckling and sunburning of the
fair white race. On the whole, it seems that the distinction of color,
from the fairest Englishman to the darkest African, has no hard and
fast lines, but varies gradually from one tint to another.

The natural hue of skin farthest from that of the neoTo is the com-
plexion of the fair race of Northern Europe, of which perfect tyj^es
are to be met with in Scandinavia, North Germany, and England. In
such fair or blonde people the almost transparent skin has its pink
tinge by showing the small blood-vessels through it. In the nations
of Southern Europe, such as Italians and Sj^aniards, the browner com-
plexion to some extent hides this red, which among darker peoples in
other quarters of the world ceases to be discernible. Thus the differ-
ence between light and dark races is well observed in their blushing,
which is caused by the rush of hot red blood into the vessels near the
surface of the body. The contrary effect, paleness, caused by retreat
of blood from the surface, is in like manner masked by dark tints of
skin.

The range of complexion among mankind, beginning with the tint
of the fair- whites of Northern Europe and the dark- whites of Southern
Europe, passes to the brownish-yellow of the Malays, and the full-
brown of American tribes, the deep-brown of Australians, and the
black-brown of negroes. Until modern times these race-tints have
generally been described with too little care. Now, however, the
traveler, by using Broca's set of pattern-colors, records the color of any
tribe he is observing, with the accuracy of a mercer matching a piece
of silk. The evaporation from the human skin is accompanied by a
smell which dift'ers in different races. This peculiarity, which not
only indicates difference in the secretions of the skin, but seems con-
nected with liability to certain fevers, etc., is a race-character of some
importance.

The part of the human body which shows the greatest variety of
color in different individuals is the iris of the eye. This is the more
noticeable because the adjacent parts vary particularly little among

296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mankind. Professor Broca, in bis scale of colors of eyes, arranges
shades of orange, green, blue, and violet-gray. But one has only to
look closely into any eye to see the impossibility of recording its com-
plex pattern of colors ; indeed, what is done is to observe it from a
distance, so that its tints blend into one uniform hue. It need hardly
be said that what are popularly called black eyes are far from having the
iris really black like the pupil ; eyes described as black are commonly
of the deepest shades of brown or violet. These so-called black eyes
are by far the most numerous in the world, belonging not only to
brown-black, brown, and yellow races, but even prevailing among the
darker varieties of the white race, such as Greeks and Spaniards. In
races with the darker skin and black hair, the darkest eyes generally
prevail, while a fair complexion is usually accompanied by the lighter
tints of iris, especially blue.

From ancient times, the color and form of the hair have been
noticed as distinctive marks of race. Thus Strabo mentions the
Ethiopians as black men with woolly hair, and Tacitus describes
the German warriors of his day w^ith their fierce blue eyes and tawny
hair. As to color of hair, the most usual is black, or shades so dark
as to be taken for black, which belongs not only to the dark-skinned
Africans and Americans, but to the yellow Chinese and the dark-
whites, such as Hindoos or Jews. In the fair-white peoples of North-
ern Europe, on the contrary, flaxen or chestnut hair prevails. Thus
we see that there is a connection between fair hair and fair skin, and
dark hair and dark skin. But it is impossible to lay down a rule
for intermediate tints, for the red-brown or auburn hair common in
fair-skinned peoples occurs among darker races, and dark-brown hair
has a still wider range. Our own extremely mixed nation shows every

/' \

Fig. 7. Sections of Haik, highly magnified (after Primer), a, Japanese ; b, German ; c, Af-
rican negro ; d, Papuan.

variety, from flaxen and golden to raven black. As to the form of the
hair, its well-known differences may be seen in the female portraits in
Fig. 5, where the Africans on the left show the woolly or frizzy kind,
where the hair naturally curls into little corkscrew spirals, while the
Asiatic and American heads on the right have straight hair like a
horse's mane. Between these extreme kinds are the flowing or wavy
hair, and the curly hair which Avinds in large spirals ; the English hair
in the figure is rather of the latter variety. If cross-sections of single
hairs are examined under the microscope, their differences of form are
seen as in four of the sections by Pruner-Bey (Fig. 7). The almost

THE RACES OF MANKIND. 297

circular Mongolian hair () hangs straight ; the more curly European
hair {b) has an oval or elliptical section ; the woolly African hair (c)
is more flattened ; while the frizzy Papuan hair (^d) is a yet more
extreme example of the flattened ribbon-like kind. Not only the color
and form of the hair, but its quantity, vary in different races.

That certain races are constitutionally fit, and others unfit, for cer-
tain climates, is a fact which the English have but too good reason to
know. It is well known that races are not affected alike by certain
diseases. While in equatorial Africa or the West Indies, the coast-
fever and yellow fever are so fatal or injurious to the new-eome
Europeans, the negroes, and even mulattoes, are almost untouched by
this scourge of the white nations. On the other hand, we English
look upon measles as a trifling complaint, and hear with astonishment
of its being carried into Feejee, and there, aggravated, no doubt, by
improper treatment, sweeping away the natives by thousands. It is
plain that nations moving into a new climate, if they are to flourish,
must become adapted in body to the new state of life. Fitness for a
special climate, being matter of life or death to a race, must be reck-
oned among the chief of race-characters.

Travelers notice striking distinctions in the temper of races. There
seems no difference of condition betvv^een the native Indian and the
African negro in Brazil to make the brown man dull and sullen, while
the black is overflowing with eagerness and gayety. So, in Europe,
the unlikeness between the melancholy Russian peasant and the viva-
cious Italian can hardly depend altogether on climate and food and
government. There seem to be in mankind inbred temperament and
inbred capacity of mind. History points the great lesson that some
races have marched on in civilization while others have stood still or
fallen back, and we should partly look for an explanation of this in

Fig. 8. Race or Population arranged by Stature (Qiietelet's method).

differences of intellectual and moral powers between such tribes as the
native Americans and Africans, and the old-world nations who over-
match and subdue them. In measurino; the minds of the lower races,
a good test is, how far their children are able to take a civilized edu-
cation. The account generally given by European teachers who have
had the children of lower races in their schools is that, though these

298

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

often learn as well as the white children up to about twelve years old,
they then fall off, and are left behind by the children of the ruling
race.

It will be well now to examine more closely what a race is. Single
portraits of men and women can only in a general way represent the
nation they belong to, for no two of its individuals are really alike, not
even brothers. AVhat is looked for in such a race-portrait is the gen-

FiG. 9. Caeibs.

eral character belonging to the whole race. It is an often-repeated
observation of travelers that a European landing among some people
unlike his own, such as Cliinese, or Mexican Indians, at first thinks
them all alike. After days of careful observation he makes out their
individual peculiarities, but at first his attention is occupied with the

THE RACES OF MANKIND,

299

broad typical characters of the foreign race. It is just this broad
type that the anthropologist desires to sketch and describe, and he
selects as his examples such portraits of men and women as show it
best. It is even possible to measure the type of a people. To give an
idea of the working of this problem, let us suppose ourselves to be
examining Scotchmen, and the first point to be settled how tall they
are. Obviously there are some few as short as Lapps, and some as tall
as Patagonians ; these very short and tall men belong to the race, and
yet are not its ordinary members. If, however, the whole population
were measured and made to stand in order of height, there would be a
crowd of men about five feet eight inches, but much fewer of either
five feet four inches or six feet, and so on till the numbers decreased
on either side to one or two giants, and one or two dwarfs. This is
seen in Quetelet's diagram. Fig. 8, Avhere the heights or ordinates of
the binomial curve show the numbers of men of each stature, decreas-
ing both Tvays from the central five feet eight inches, which is the
stature of the mean or typical man. Here, in a total of near 2,600
men, there are 160 of five feet eight inches, but only about 150 of five
feet seven inches or five feet nine inches, and so on, till not even ten
men are found so short as five feet, or so tall as six feet four inches.

'jr ECll'''iir!'ii!;;xr;M:; "":'!.''"'"' iir''i:,-i!:,,:,i:

Ujlli ..; '!l.:|!'!l.

Fio. 10. Malay Mother and Half-caste Daughters.

It thus appears that a race is a body of peoj^le comprising a regular
set of variations, which center round one representative type. In the
same way a race or nation is estimated as to other characters.

The people whom it is easiest to represent by single portraits are

300 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

uncivilized tribes, in whose food and way of life there is little to cause
difference between one man and another, and who have lived together
and intermarried for many generations. Thus Fig. 9, taken from a
j^hotograph of a i)arty of Caribs, is remarkable for the close likeness
running through all. In such a nation the race-type is peculiarly easy
to make out. It is by no means always thus easy to represent a whole
population. To see how ditticult it may be, one has only to look at an
English crowd, with its endless diversity. But, to get a view of the
problem of human varieties, it is best to attend to the simplest cases
tirst, looking at some uniform and well-marked race, and asking what
in the course of ages may happen to it.

The first thing to be noticed is its power of lasting. Where a
23eople lives on in its own district, without too much change in habits,
or mixture with other nations, there seems no reason to expect its
type to alter. The Egyptian monuments show good instances of this
permanence. Indeed, the ancient Egyptian race, who built the Pyra-
mids, and whose life and toil are pictured on the walls of the tombs, are
with little change still represented by the fellahs of the villages, who
carry on the old labor under new tax-gatherers. Thus, too, the Ethio-
pians on the early Egyptian bass-reliefs may have their counterparts
picked out still among the White Nile tribes, while we recognize in the
figures of Phoenician or Israelite captives the familiar Jewish profile of
our own day. Thus there is proof that a race may keep its special
characters plainly recognizable for over thirty centuries, or a hundred
generations. And this permanence of type may more or less remain
when the race migrates far from its early home, as when African ne-

^^v-

-.-L

Fig. 11. Cafusa Woman.

groes are carried into America, or Israelites naturalize themselves fi-om
Archangel to Singapore. Where marked change has taken place in
the appearance of a nation, the cause of this change must be sought
in intermarriage with foreigners, or altered conditions of life, or both. 1
The result of intermarriage or crossing of races is familiar to all

THE RACES OF MANKIND.

301

English people in one of its most conspicuous examples, the cross be-
tween white and negro called mulatto. The mulatto complexion and

Fig. 12. Aheta (Negrito), Philippine Islands.

hair are intermediate between those of the parents, and new inter-
mediate grades of complexion appear in the children of white and

Fig. 13. Melanesians.

302

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mulatto, called quadroon or quarter-blood, and so on ; on the other
hand, the descendants of negro and mulatto, called sambo, return tow-
ard the full negro type. This intermediate character is the general
nature of crossed races, but with more or less tendency to revert to
one or other of the parent types. To illustrate this. Fig. 10 gives the
portrait of a Malay mother and her half-caste daughters, the father
being a Spaniard ; here, while all the children show their mixed race,
it is sometimes the European and sometimes the Malay cast of feat-
ures that prevails. The effect of mixture is also traceable in the hair,
as may often be well noticed in a mulatto's crimped, curly locks, be-
tween the straighter European and the woolly African kind. The
Cafusas of Brazil, a peculiar cross between the native tribes of the
land and the imported negro slaves, are remarkable for their hair,
which rises in a curly mass, forming a natural periwig which obliges
the wearers to stoop low in passing through their hut-doors. This is
seen in the portrait of a Cafusa (Fig. 11), and seems easily accounted
for by the long stiff hair of the native American having acquired in
some degree the negro frizziness.

Fig. 14. Soi:th Australian (Man).

Fig. 15. South Australian (Woman).

Within the last few centuries it is well known that a large fraction
of the world's population has actually come into existence by race-
crossing. This is nowhere so evident as on the American Continent,
where since the Spanish conquest such districts as Mexico are largely
peopled b)^ the mestizo descendants of Spaniards and native Ameri-
cans, while the importation of African slaves in the West Indies has
given rise to a mulatto population. By taking into account such inter-

THE RACES OF MANKIND.

303

crossing of races, anthropologists have a reason to give for the endless
shades of diversity among mankind, without attempting the hopeless
task of classifying every little uncertain group of men into a special
race. Among the natives of India, a variety of complexion and feature
is found which can not be classified exactly by race. But it must be
remembered that several very distinct varieties of men have contrib-
uted to the population of the country. So in Europe, taking the
fair nations of the Baltic and the dark nations of the Mediterranean
as two distinct races or varieties, their intercrossing may explain the
infinite diversity of brown hair and intermediate complexion to be
met Avith. If, then, it may be considered that man was already divided
into a few great main races in remote antiquity, then* intermarriage

Fig. 16. Dravidian Hill-man (after Fryer).

throuo^h acres since will s:o far to account for the innumerable sliohter
varieties which shade into one another.

It is not enough to look at a race of men as a mere body of people
happening to have a common type or likeness. For the reason of their
likeness is plain, and indeed our calling them a race means that we
consider them a breed whose common nature is inherited from com-
mon ancestors. Now, experience of the animal world shows that a
race or breed, while capable of carrying on its likeness from generation
to generation, is also capable of varying. It must be admitted that
our knowledge of the manner and causes of race-variation among
mankind is still very imperfect. The great races, black, brown, yel-
low, white, had already settled into their well-known characters before

304

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

written record began, so that their formation is hidden far back in the
prehistoric period. Nor are alterations of such amount known to
have taken phxce in any people Avithin the range of history.

That there is a real connection between the color of races and the
climate they belong to, seems most likely from the so-called black
peoples. Ancient writers were satisfied to account for the color of the
Ethiopians by saying that the siin had burned them black, and, though
modern anthrojiologists would not settle the question in this off-hand
way, yet the map of the world shows that this darkest race-type is
principally found in a troj^ical climate. The main line of black races

Fig. 17. Calmuck (after Goldsmid).

stretches along the hot and fertile regions of the equator, from Guinea
in West Africa to that great island of the Eastern Ai'chipelago, which
has its name of New Guinea from its neg^*o-like natives. The type of
the African negro race perhaps shows itself most perfectly in the
nations near the equator, as in Guinea, but it spreads far and wide
over the continent, shading off by crossing with lighter-colored races
on its borders, such as the Berbers in the north, and the Ai-abs on the
east coast. As the race spreads southward into Congo and the Caffre
regions, there is noticed a less full negro complex;ion and feature, look-

THE RACES OF MANKIND.

305

ins: as thoiiG:h mio^ration from the central region into new climates had
somewhat modified the type. There are found in the Malay Penin-
sula and the Philippines scanty forest-tribes ajjparently allied to the
Andamaners and classed under the general term Negritos (i. e., " little
blacks " ), seeming to belong to a race once widely spread over this
part of the world, whose remnants have been driven by stronger new-
come races to find refuge in the mountains. Fig. 12 represents one of
them, an Aheta from the island of Luzon. Lastly come the wide-
spread and complicated varieties of the Eastern negro race in the region
known as Melanesia, the " black islands," extending from New Guinea to
Feejee. The group of various islanders (Fig. 13), belonging to Bishop

Fig. 18. Coreans.

Patteson's mission, shows plainly the resemblance to the African negro,
though with some marked points of difference, as in the brows being
more strongly ridged, and the nose being more prominent, even aqui-
line a striking contrast to the African. The great variety of color
in Melanesia, from the full brown-black down to chocolate or nut-
brown, shows that there has been much crossing with lighter popula-
tions. Finally, the Tasmanians were a distant outlying population be-
longing to the Eastern blacks.

In Australia, there appears a thin population of roaming savages,

TOL. XIX.

-20

3o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

strongly distinct from the blacker races of New Guinea at the north,
and Tasmania at the south. The Australians, with skin of dark
chocolate-color, may be taken as a special ty23e of the brown races of
man. AVhile their skull is narrow and jn'ognathous like the negro's, it
differs from it in special points, and has peculiarities which distinguish
it very certainly from that of other races. In the portraits of Austra-
lians (Figs. 14, 15), there may be noticed the heavy brows and project-
ing jaws, the wide but not flat nose, the full lips, and the curly but
not woolly black hair. On the continent of India, the Dravidian hill-
tribes present the type of the old dwellers in South and Central India
before the conquest by the Aryan Hindoos. Fig. 16 represents one of
the ruder Dravidians, from the Travancore forests.

Fig. 19. Finn (Man).

Fig. 20. Finn (Woman).

The Mongoloid type of man has its best marked representatives on
the vast steppes of Northern Asia. Their skin is brownish-yellow,
the hair of the head black, coarse, and long, but face-hair scanty.
Their skull is characterized by breadth, projection of cheek-bones, and
forward position of the outer edge of the orbits, which, as well as the
slightness of brow-ridges, the slanting aperture of the eyes, and the
snub-nose, are observable in Fig. 17, and in Fig. 5 {d). The Mongoloid
race is immense in range and numbers. The great nations of South-
east Asia show their connection with it in the familiar complexion and
features of the Chinese and Japanese. Fig. 18 gives portraits from
Corea. In his wide migrations over the world, the Mongoloid, through
change of climate and life, and still further by intermarriage with

THE RACES OF MANKIND.

307

other races, loses more and more of his special points. It is so in the
southeast, where in China and Japan the characteristic breadth of
skull is lessened. In Europe, where from remotest antiquity hordes of
Tartar race have poured in, their descendants have often preserved in
their languages, such as Hungarian and Finnish, clearer traces of their
Asiatic home than can be made out in their present types of com-

FiG. 21. Dyaks.

plexion and feature. Yet the Finns (Figs. 19 and 20) have not lost
the race-differences which mark them off from the Swedes among
whom they dwell, and the stunted Lapps show some points of likeness
to their Siberian kinsfolk.

On the Malay Peninsula, at the extreme southeast corner of Asia,
appear the first members of the Malay race, seemingly a distant branch

3o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the Mongoloid, wbicli spreads over Sumatra, Java, and other islands
of the Eastern Archipehxgo. Fig. 21 shows the Dyaks of Borneo,
who represent the race in its wilder and perhaps less mixed state.
The Mieronesians and Polynesians show connection with the Malays
in language, and more or less in bodily make. But they are not Ma-
lays proper, and there are seen among them high faces, narrow noses,
and small mouths, which remind us of the European face. The Maoris

Fig. 22. Colorado Indian (North America).

are still further from being pure Malays, as is seen by their more curly
hair, often prominent and even aquiline noses.

Turning now to the double continent of America, we find in this
New World a problem of race remarkably different from that of the
Old World. The traveler who should cross the earth from Nova Zem-
bla to the Cape of Good Hope or Van Diemen's Land would find in
its various climates various strongly-marked kinds of men, white, yel-
low, browm, and black. But, if Columbus had surveyed America from

THE RACES OF MANKIND.

309

the Arctic to the Antarctic regions, he would have found no such ex-
treme unlikeness in the inhabitants. Apart from the Europeans and
Africans who have poured in since the fifteenth century, the native
Americans in general might be, as has often been said, of one race.
Not that they are all alike, but their differences in stature, form of
skull, feature, and complexion, though considerable, seem variations of
a secondary kind. The race to which most anthropologists refer the
native Americans is the Mongoloid of Eastern Asia, who are capable
of accommodating themselves to the extremest climates, and who by
the form of skull, the light-brown skin, straight black hair, and black
eyes, show considerable agreement with the American tribes. Fig.

Fig. 23. Swedes.

22 represents the wild hunting-tribes of North America in one of the
finest forms now existing, the Colorado Indians.

Though commonly spoken of as one variety of mankind, it is plain
that the white men are not a single uniform race, but a varied and
mixed population. It is a step toward classing them to separate them
into two great divisions, the dark- whites and fair- whites {Quelanochroi,
xanthochroi). Ancient portraits have come down to us of the dark-
white nations, as Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans ;
and when beside these are placed moderns such as the Andalusians,
and the dark Welshmen or Bretons, and people from the Caucasus, it
will be evident that the resemblance runnino- throusfh all these can
only be in broad and general characters. Thev have a dusky or

310

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

broM'iiisli-wliite skin, black or deep-brown eyes, black hair, mostly wavy
or cnrly ; their skulls vary much in proportions, though seldom ex-
tremely broad or narrow, while the profile is upright, the nose straight
or aquiline, the lips less full than in other races. Fig. 23, a group of
Swedes, represents the fair-whites, whose transparent skin, flaxen hair,
and blue eyes may be seen as well, though not as often, in England as
in Scandinavia or North Germany. The intermarriage of the clark and
fair varieties, which has gone on since early times, has resulted in num-
berless varieties of brown-haired people, between fair and dark in com-
plexion. But as to the origin and first home of the fair and dark races

Fig. 24. Gtpst.

themselves, it is hard to form an oi:)inion. Language does much
toward tracing the early history of the white nations, but it does not
clear u)) the difliculty of separating fair-whites from dark-whites.
Both sorts have been living united by national language, as at this
day German is spoken by the fair Hanoverian and the darker Austrian.
Among Keltic people, the Scotch Highlanders often remind us of the
tall, red-haired Gauls described in classical history, but there are also
passages which prove that smaller darker Kelts like the modern Welsh
and Bretons existed then as well. A mixture of the white and brown
races seems to have largely formed the population of countries where
they meet. The Moors of North Africa, and many so-called Arabs

EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY. 311

who are darker than white men, may be thus accounted for. It is thus
that in India millions who speak Hindoo languages show by their tint
that their race is mixed between that of the Aryan conquerors of the
land and its darker indigenes. An instructive instance of this very
combination is to be seen in the gypsies, low-caste wanderers who
found their way from India and spread over Europe not many centu-
ries since. Fig. 24, a gypsy woman from Wallachia, is a favorable
type of these latest incomers from the East, whose broken-down Hin-
doo dialect shows that part of their ancestry comes from our Aryan
forefathers, while their complexion, swarthiest in the population of
our country, marks also descent belonging to a darker zone of the hu-
man species.

Thus to map out the nations of the world among a few main varie-
ties of man, and their combinations, is, in spite of its difficulty and
uncertainty, a profitable task. But to account for the origin of these
great primary varieties or races themselves, and exactly to assign to
them their earliest homes, can not be usefully attempted in the present
scantiness of evidence.

EUEOPEA^ SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY.

Br N. H. EGLESTON.

THE word " forestry " has not yet come into familiar use in this
country, and its meaning is understood only by the few ; " school
of forestry " is still less comprehensible. It is only natural that our
people, occupying a region covered to a great extent with a dense and
varied growth of trees, in regard to which no apprehension of defi-
ciency has been suggested until within a comparatively short time,
should have entertained little thought of the forest as a thing to be
specially cared for and cultivated. Much less should it have occurred
to them to make its maintenance an object of scientific study, to put
the school and the wood, education and trees, into close association,
and to think and speak of " schools of forestry."

Both these terms, however, are well understood abroad, and the
time has come, in the changed condition of things here, when we
should know what they mean, and that practically.

The " school of forestry," or whatever equivalent may be used in
different countries, signifies an organization for the purpose of giving
instruction in regard to all that pertains to the growth of trees, espe-
cially in masses, and their management, including their natural history,
their adaptation to the arts, and their influence upon human welfare.
It regards the forest in altogether a different light from that in which
it is considered with us, or in fact from that in which it has been
considered in any country until within a comparatively recent pe-

312 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY,

riod. Instead of an accidental growth of trees, spared from the gen-
eral clearing of the ground, which have been suffered to come up in
a hap-hazard sort of way, exposed to assault and damage of various
kinds, from inse(.'ts, from browsing cattle allowed to roam freely among
them, and from the carelessness, if not the wanton waste, of man, the
forest is regarded as a growth carefully provided for, the conditions
of its increase are diligently studied beforehand, and all means are
used to develop it to the fullest measure of its value according to
the purpose for which its cultivation has been undertaken. In short,
forestry looks upon the growth of a piece of woods as we look upon
the growth of plants in a garden, or a crop in the field of a farmer, as
the result both of science and art. Only it is a nobler growth than
these, and requires a higher science and nicer art, inasmuch as the trees
measure their age by centuries and not by months or seasons, as do the
ordinary crops of the garden and the field, and because they have
important relations, controlling relations even to agriculture itself, to
climate, to commerce, and the industrial arts, and so to the highest in-
terests of national life.

The work of forestry, as understood in Europe, contemplates not
only the projDer care of existing woodlands, but the replanting of dis-
tricts which have been stripped of their forests, and also the plant-
ing of forests in new places, where such planting may be advanta-
geously done. Schools of forestry have their origin in the desire to
accomplish this most successfully. The growth of a forest is the
Avork of a century, and even more. It is not properly to be under-
taken with only the limited intelligence or care with which we culti-
vate the annual crops of our fields. If the work is begun without
adequate preparation, or is conducted in a faulty manner, the mistake
can not be remedied soon, if at all. If one makes a mistake in the
culture of ordinary crops, he can correct it the next year ; but, if he
plants a forest on an erroneous plan, the mistake is not one of a year,
but of a hundred, or even two hundred years. ]Rot only is it neces-
sary that the botany of the trees should be understood, the nature and
habits of the various species be studied, and their adaptations to dif-
ferent soils and situations, as well as to different practical uses when
grown, be regarded, but the laws of meteorology are to be consid-
ered and conformed to. The knowledge of geology and mineralogy
is also involved, as well as the laws of mechanics. Indeed, no sooner
is the subject taken into consideration in its true character, than it
is seen to be interwoven with a very large range of studies, so that
something like schools of forestry seem almost at once desirable, if not
indispensable.

The beginning of forest schools may be dated from 1770, when
Frederick the Great established a course of theoretical instruction in
forestry at Berlin. This, however, was irregular, dependent upon the
competency of the professors at the university, for the time being, to

EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY. 313

give instruction upon the subject. The course was greatly deficient, at
the best, on account of its entire lack of technical teaching. This de-
fect, felt more and more, finally led to the establishment of an academy
for forest instruction at Berlin in 1821, under the general superintend-
ence of Pfeil, then Oberforstratk. The academy was not organically
connected with the university, but was brought into such an association
with it that the professors and apparatus of instruction belonging to
the university could be used for teaching the fundamental and acces-
sory sciences, while technical forestry was taught by professors in the
academ}^ specially qualified for the work. This arrangement, how-
ever, did not prove satisfactory. Too much j^rominence was given to
the accessory sciences, and too little to forestry proper. Especially
was the lack of sufticient instruction in practical forestry felt, there
beinsT no suitable woodland in the neiorhborhood of Berlin in which
the theoretical instruction could be practically illustrated and applied.
Excursions to distant forests, which could be made only infrequently,
did not meet the want. On the advice of the superintendent, seconded
by the energetic support of the two Humboldts, the academy was
removed in 1830 to Neustadt-Eberswalde, about twenty-four miles
northeast of Berlin, under the name of the High Institution for Forest
Science. The school was now in the immediate vicinity of two large
forest districts, affording every facility for instruction in practical
forestry. The superintendent of the academy was made also adminis-
trator of the forest districts. Associated with him, as instructor in
forestry j^roper, were two others as teachers of the natural sciences
and of mathematics and geodesy. At the same time a teacher of
Prussian jurisprudence, with particular reference to forest matters,
was added, and, after an interval of twenty years, a second teacher of
forest science was appointed. Since 1866 important changes have
been made in the organization of the academy, and the number of
instructors has been largely increased. There are now three teachers
of forest science, a teacher of mathematics, physics, mechanics, and
meteorology ; one of chemistry, mineralogy, and geognosy ; one of
botany, one of zoology, and one of jurisprudence. In addition, there
are a royal chief forest ofiicer, as assistant teacher of road-construc-
tion, geodesy, and plan-drawing, and also a chemist as assistant teacher
of geology. The principal forest meteorological station of Germany
is also in connection with this school.

The course of instruction in the schools of forestry extends from
two years to two and a half, or five semesters, the tendency having
been constantly to protract the time. The course at Xeustadt-Ebers-
walde embraces five semesters. The branches tauirht are arrang^ed in
three groups, viz., " Fundamental Sciences," "Principal Sciences," and
" Secondary Sciences." Under the heading of " Fundamental Sciences "
are included : 1. JSTatural Sciences. Chemistry, theoretic and applied ;
physics and meteorology ; mineralogy and geognosy ; botany, and

314 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

forest botany in particular, with anatomy of plants, vegetable physi-
ology and pathology, and botanical excursions ; microscopy ; zoology,
with especial study of forest insects, preparations, and excursions : to
all of which 840 hours are allotted. 2. Mathematics. Geodesy ; inter-
est and rent account ; wood-measuring ; surveying and leveling exer-
cises ; j^lan-drawing exercises : 440 hours. 3. Economical Sciences.
Public economy and linances : 48 hours. Whole time allotted to
" Fundamental Sciences," 1,328 hours. In the " Principal Sciences " are
included Avhat relate especially to forests, their cultivation, protection,
technics in various branches, legal and customary usages, etc., with
forest excursions : to all of which 980 hours are allotted. In the "Sec-
ondary Sciences " are jurisprudence (civil and criminal law, constitu-
tional rights, etc.), construction of roads, and shooting exercises : to
which 340 hours are given. Of the total, 2,648 hours of instruction,
50 i^er cent, are given to the "fundamental," 37 per cent, to the "prin-
cipal," and 13 per cent, to the "secondary" sciences. The average
time of lessons, counting the five semesters as including ninety-three
weeks, is 28 '5 hours per week, or 4'9 hours per day. From this it will
be seen that nearly five hours are given to lectures each day. Nearly
as much more time is expected to be given to study, making almost
ten hours of daily work for the students. If we compare this with
the average time during Avhich the students in our colleges are em-
ployed, it will be seen that a course of instruction at one of these for-
est academies is more than equivalent, in the amount of work done, to
an ordinary college course.

The forest schools, as at present existing, may be divided into
three classes, according as they are forest schools strictly and inde-
pendently that is, schools situated in the forest as well as teaching the
art of forest management or as they form only a part of the general
course of instruction at the university or polytechnic school ; or as,
again, they are united with agricultural schools, and the attempt is
made to teach forestry and agriculture together. There has been of
late years a good deal of discussion, in Germany especially, as to
which of these arrangements is to be preferred. The academies at
Keustadt-Eberswalde, Miinden, Eisenach, and at Nancy, in France, are
examples of the first class. Those at Giessen, at the Polytechnic School
at Ziirich and the projected arrangement at the university of Munich,
are examples of the second class ; while the establishments at Ilohen-
heim, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm, are examj^les of the
third class.

On behalf of the first class it is urged that when the academy is
located in the forest there will be greater facilities for the practical
study of all that relates to the growth of trees, their influence upon
climate, and the like. On behalf of a connection of the forest acade-
mies with the universities and polytechnic schools or with schools
of agriculture, it is urged that this would be an economical arrange-

EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY. 315

ment because only the technical teaching of forestry would have to
be provided for, instruction in the fundamental and allied sciences
being already abundantly secured in the necessary endowment of the
ordinary educational establishments. The argument for the union of
the separate forest schools with the universities, as put by Dr. Richard
Hess, formerly Professor of Forestry and now director of the Forestry
Department of the University of Giessen, in a recent work of his,
may be taken as a fair exhibition of the reasoning of those who favor
the. union of the forest schools with the universities. He claims that
the universities can always command for their various chairs men of
the highest ability, and this, in the lirst place, because the position of
such a professor is the most independent one, the instructors in the
forest schools being dependent upon the director ; secondly, because
the universities have better libraries and apparatus than the forest
schools can have by themselves ; thirdly, the natural stimulation of
colleagues in allied chairs is a powerful motive to excellence ; fourthly,
the latest developments of science in the related departments of in-
struction will be found in the universities ; fifthly, the professors in
connection with the universities receive a better income than those in
the isolated forest schools ; and, finally, the academic atmosphere of
the great university is of value, and helpful to professors and students
alike. These reasons are forcibly urged in addition to those econom-
ical considerations which we have already mentioned. Professor Hess
also adduces the practical fact that the forests of Hesse show the very
best management, and are visited by foresters from abroad on this ac-
count, and that the forest management of Hesse took a high position
at the Congress of Foresters held in connection with the Vienna Ex-
position in 1873.

The tendency of opinion, especially in the central and southern
portions of Germany, seems to be in favor of attaching the forest
academies to the universities. More and more there is demanded, in
those who are called to important positions in the forestry service, the
most thorough academical education, and one now has very little
chance of gaining a high position in the management of the govern-
ment forests who has not had a complete university education. With-
out this he can hope to occupy only a subordinate place. The tendency
of the opinion of those most competent to judge in the case is shown
also by the fact that at a convention of foresters held at Freyburg in
1874, and numbering three hundred and sixty-nine members, it was
declared unanimously that the isolated system of forest instruction
will no longer suffice, and the study of forestry in connection with the
universities was favored.

One of the most recently established schools is that at Miinden
under the directorship of Dr. Gustav Heyer. Its management is like
that at Neustadt-Eberswalde, and the average number of students has
been about seventy -five. The Central Forest Institute at Aschaffen-

3i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

burg, Bavaria, one of the most clistinguished schools, has grown out
of a forest institute established originally in 1807, which by a decree
of the Government in 1874 was united with the University of Mu-
nich. It is under the direction of Stumpf, who is assisted by five
professors. This school has had the benefit and honor of the labors
of Dr. Ernst Ebermayer, whose work on the " Physical Influences
of Forests on the Earth and Air," published in 1873, in two vol-
umes octavo, ranks as one of the most important treatises upon this
subject.

The Royal Saxon Forest Academy at Tharandt is justly distin-
guished. It is now under the care of Dr. J. F. Judeich, who was
president of the jury of award on exhibitions of forestry at Vienna in
1873. The course of instruction occupies two years and a half, under
a director aided by four professors and two assistants. The average
attendance of students is about fifty, more than half of whom are
foreigners. The number in attendance has lately been much increased,
and several Americans are reported among them.

In Wtirtemberg is the agricultural and forestral academy at Hohen-
heim, which has grown out of two separate institutions founded in
1818, and united two years afterward. It was reorganized in 1865, and
is now one of the most important of the German schools, its course of
instruction both in agriculture and forestry being very full. It is
located on a princely estate near Stuttgart. It has a noble park of
twenty acres, and extensive plantations or nurseries of trees and plants
both native and foreign. Between seven and eight hundred acres of
land are devoted to the purposes of agriculture, and between five and
six thousand acres are devoted to the study and uses of forestry. This
academy is probably the best sf)ecimen Avhich Germany affords of the
combined agricultural and forestral school. It has extensive and valu-
able collections. Its course of instruction extends to two and a half
years. Its faculty consists of a director, nine professors and seven
adjunct professors, two reviewers, and one assistant.

Professor Mathieu, of Nancy, describing this institution in the
" Review of Woods and Forests," says : " The little kingdom of Wtir-
temberg, with scarcely two million of inhabitants, has spared nothing
in providing itself with whatever could contribute to the success of
instruction or to the progress of science. This truly liberal spirit has
led to the establishment of magnificent agricultural galleries, where
we find collected, to the number of sixteen hundred, the various tools
and machines employed in labors of the field ; elegant rooms filled with
forestral collections, implements, woods, and various products ; cab-
inets in botany, zoology, mineralogy, and geology ; instruments for
use in studies of physics and geodesy ; a station for experiments con-
cerning woods, and another for meteorology. Its library numbers
five thousand five hundred volumes, and its reading-room contains
numerous periodicals in all languages, of which forty-nine are scientific,

EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY. 317

agricultural, or forestral journals, and thirty-five are of the political,
literary, or illustrated class."

The design of this academy is, in the words of another, " to impart
a thorough, practical, and professional education to those who are to
become the owners or managers of estates, and to farmers and foresters
in public or private service, and to enable them to become champions
of progress among their colleagues in business."

At the University of Tubingen, a chair of Agriculture and Forestry
has existed since 1817.

The Polytechnic School at Carlsruhe, in Baden, has a department
of forestry, with two professors. From thirty-five to forty students
attend, of whom about one fifth are foreigners. The requirements for
admission are as follows : Citizens of the state, who wish to enter the
state forestry service, after attending a full course at the gymnasium,
are admitted, and must pass through a course of four years, of which
the first two are devoted to those fundamental and auxiliary studies
which do not relate directly to forest-science, but which serve as a
preparation for the remaining two years' studies, or the forest-course
proper. Foreigners may attend the first two years or not, as they pre-
fer. . An age of seventeen years is required for admission. At the close
of the second year the state students must pass an examination in
natural philosophy and mathematics ; but if they fail they are allowed
one more trial. This examination entitles them to enter upon the last
two years of special forest studies, in which they are taught agricult-
ure, forest jurisprudence, and the higher mathematics, when they are
again examined, and, if j^assed, are qualified for a place in the state
service. The examination at the end of the first two years is by the
professors of the polytechnic school, and the final examination by the
forest directors, a person skilled in law, a professor of agriculture, a
professor of forest management, and two professors of mathematics.

After passing all examinations, the candidate is assigned to the
general district foresters as an assistant, to enable him to become prac-
tically acquainted with his duties, and he receives a tract of forest to
manage. After six to ten years, according to the number waiting, he
gets a position as general district forester. The number of forest dis-
tricts in Baden at present is one hundred and ten, to about four of
which appointments are made annually. The Forest Direction has
its seat in Carlsruhe, and is composed of six members, who are in-
spectors.

The aids to instruction at this forest school are a valuable collection
of objects pertaining to the subject, a chemical and physiological lab-
oratory, to which a greenhouse is annexed, and a forest garden. The
area of forests in Baden is 1,262,493 acres.

A school of forestry was established in connection with the Uni-
versity of Giessen, in Hesse-Darmstadt, in 1825, with two chairs of
forestry and a course of three years. In 1831 this school was imited

3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with tlio nnivcrsity, of wliicli it now forms a department. The funda-
mental and auxiliary sciences, mathematics, natural sciences, chemistry,
agriculture, law, etc., are taught by the professors of the university,
while those studies that immediately relate to forestry come within
the care of this special department.

The academic forest garden occupies six hectares, and Giessen and
Schiffenberg forest-reviers in the neighborhood afford opportunities
for practical study. The course of instruction extends through two
years. Two excursions are made weekly, at which the subject of the
lectures is practically illustrated, and the various operations of sylvi-
culture are shown. Besides these, journeys of one or two weeks at a
time are taken in summer, under the guidance of one of the teachers.
The students of the forest institute enjoy the same rights as those of
the university. The average attendance in the forestry department
for several years past has been only about fifteen.

In the Grand-duchy of Saxe- Weimar is a forest institute, at Eise-
nach, with three professors and a course of instruction extending through
three semesters. This institute was founded as a private school in
1808 by Oberforstrath Konig, at Rhula, but was made a state institu-
tion in 1830.

The Ducal Polytechnic School of Brunswick, founded in 1745 by
Duke Charles I, and the first polytechnic school ever established, has
a department of forestry.

In addition to these forest schools of the first order, as they may
be termed, are subordinate schools at Weihrastephan and at Lichten-
hof, near Nuremberg, besides numerous academies and private schools
in which the principles of forestry are taught. Many forestry associ-
ations also, in one way or another, encourage the study of this science.

When we consider the limited territory of Germany, as compared
with our own country, one can not take even this cursory observation
of its forest schools without having the conviction impressed upon
him that forestry is there regarded as a subject of the first importance,
and that it has interests and relations which are very much if not alto-
gether overlooked by us.

France has an eminent forest school at Nancy, which was estab-
lished more than fifty years ago, and has a director and ten professors.
It is designed to prepare agents for the state forest service, and foresters
for the management of forests belonging to communes and public es-
tablishments. The number of ])upils admitted is regulated by the
wants of the administration from time to time. During the last fifty
years, the school has graduated about a thousand men. In addition
to those admitted to be trained for the public service, a certain number
are admitted who are called externes. Great Britain, which has no
school of forestry of her own, sends annually to Nancy from five to
ten pupils to be trained for the management of her forests in India,
and in the South African and other colonies.

EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY. 319

The course of instruction at Nancy covers two years, and is very
mucli like that at the German schools.

Another school, called the school of Forest Guards, at Barres, was
established in 1865, by the Director-General of Forests, on what had
been the estate of an eminent arboriculturist, M. Yilmorin. It has
been reorganized recently and its plan has been extended.

An Agronomic Institute has been established lately at the Con-
servatory of Arts and Trades at Paris, having for its object the ad-
vancement of agriculture. It has fifteen professors, several of whom
will be instructors of forestry in some of its branches. In addition to
the instruction in forestry thus given, the French forestry administra-
tion is accustomed to send out agents to instruct classes in forestry at
several of the agricultural schools. There are also inferior forest
schools for the education of subaltern foresters at Grenoble and Yillers-
Cotterets.

The Austrian Empire is second only to Germany in the abundance
and character of its forest schools and in the general interest taken in
the subject of forestry. At the head of the Austrian schools stands
the Imperial High School of Agriculture and Forestry at Vienna. This
was founded by a royal decree of 1872, upon the basis of a reorgan-
ized forest school originally established at Mariabrunn, near Vienna,
at the entrance of the beautiful Wienerwald. The school occupied
an old monastery, and in it were gathered the amplest apparatus for
study, including very fine museums and collections. By the decree of
1872 this school was united with the Agricultural College of Vienna,
and the two now constitute one school in two sections. The agricultu-
ral section was opened in 1872, the forest section in 1875. The con-
solidated institution is designed to give the best instruction both in
agriculture and forestry. The course of instruction extends over three
years. Two classes of students are admitted : the ordinary, who must
bring a certificate that they have completed a course at a gymnasium
or upper real-school, or a department school of equal rank ; and the ex-
traordinary, who must have sufficient preparatory training at least to
enable them to understand the lectures, and who must have reached
the age of seventeen years. The latter class are also obliged to pay
tuition fees and can not receive the state stipends of which the ordi-
nary pupils may avail themselves.

What are called secondary schools of forestry are established at
Weisswasser in Bohemia, Eulenberg in Moravia, and at Lemberg in
Galicia. These schools are formed on the German model. The course
of instruction embraces two years. The requirements for admission
are attendance for one year at a lower real-school or gymnasium, and
in some cases a year's forest practice besides. Tuition is practically
free.

There are also schools of forestrv in Hung^ary. One is the Royal
Hungarian Mining and Forest Academy at Schemnitz, which has been

320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

developed from a School of Mines established as long ago as 1TC5. A
forest institute was begun in 1807. Reorganizations have frequently
taken place, until now the course of instruction is divided into six
classes, two of which relate to forestry and forest engineering. The
whole course is arranged for four years. From a memorial volume
published recently, and soon after the celebration of the first centen-
nial of the academy, it appears that it has graduated 5,373 pupils.
The average annual attendance in recent years has been about 150.

Other schools of a lower grade, having a course of instruction of
only one year in extent, are established at Aggsbach, in Lower Aus-
tria, and at Wildalpen, in Styria.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire has also many societies, Avhich,
though not schools of forestry, have a more or less direct relation to
that subject and do much to promote it. Such are the Forest Society
of the Tyrol, the Forestry Association of Manhartsburg, in Lower
Austria, the Vienna Joint Stock Company for Forestry, the Forestry
Company of Styria and Carinthia, the Association of Moravia and Bo-
hemia, the Society of Western Galicia, and several others. In Croatia
is a School of Agriculture and Forestry, with five professors, and a
course of study of three years.

The Federal Union of the Swiss Cantons established a Polytechnic
School at Zurich in 1855, in which a school of forestry forms the fifth
division of instruction. The course of teaching extends to two years
and a half. The separate cantons also make provision for elementary
instruction in the science and art of forestry ; and still further provi-
sion is made for the teaching of the subject. As different states or
kingdoms have a common interest in the navigation of a river which
flows through their territories, and will rightly insist upon its being
unimpeded, so it has been found by the cantons that they often have a
common interest in the preservation of forests which may be situated
in separate cantons, because their effects reach far be3^ond their par-
ticular locality. One canton might be more harmed by the destruc-
tion of a forest belonging to another canton than that canton itself.
Accordingly, through the influence of the Swiss Forestry Association
and the help of others acting with them, the Federal Constitution was
amended in 1873, by the adoption of an article declaring that " the
Federal Union has the right of supervising structures for the protec-
tion of watercourses and of the forest police in the mountain-regions."
In the exercise of this right, the Union in 1876 enacted a comprehen-
sive law, embodied in thirty-one distinct articles, relating to the high
surveillance of the Confederation over the police of forests in the ele-
vated regions. ,

For the more efi^ectual carrying out of this law, provision was made
in the same year for holding what may be called forest institutes, in
the several cantons, during two months every year. At these institutes
practical instruction is given in forestry, little if any attention being

EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY. 321

bestowed on theories. The course of instruction embraces the fol-
lowing subjects, and we give the schedule, as suggesting what perhaps
may be profitably done in this country at present, and while waiting
for the establishment of fully endowed forest schools.

1. Forest surveys ; the marking out of woodlands ; measurement
and calculation of small areas, as also of the trunks of trees, linear
distances, etc. ; estimation of single trees and parcels of forest, as to
quantity and value ; making of forest roads ; means of shielding for-
ests against avalanches and small slides.

2. Study of the kinds of wood and of injurious herbs that should
be known by sub-foresters.

3. Elementary study of the soil, and of the relations between differ-
ent kinds of soils, and of the nature of different tracts of land.

4. Indispensable ideas of climatology and meteorology.

5. Cultivation and management of forests.

6. The information most important to sub-foresters concerning
the working of forests, forest police and protection, and book-
keeping.

7. The number of pupils shall not exceed thirty.

The applicants must be at least eighteen years of age, and must
pass an examination in the primary studies as taught at the best schools ;
and, if, at the end of the course of instruction, they are approved, they
receive a certificate which puts them in the way of an appointment to
the care of the high forests of which the Confederation has assumed
the control, or of the forests still managed by the cantons separately,
or by other corporations.

The teachers of these institutes are appointed by the cantons, sub-
ject to the approval of the Federal authority, but they are paid from
the general treasury.

Italy, which has suffered greatly from the removal of her forests,
and has taken action similar to that of the Swiss Confederation for
their control, has an Institute of Forestry in the vale of Vallombrosa.
It is situated in a noble wood of firs, high upon the slope of the Ap-
ennines, near the source of the Arno, where it puts to good use an old
convent. In its plan of instruction the institute at Yallombrosa is
much like that at Nancy.

Distinguished as Sweden is for her interest in education, statis-
tics showing that at the present time only three per cent, of her crimi-
nals even are without school-training, we should expect that she would
not be behind other countries in the matter of forestral instruction ; nor
is she. A competent observer tells us that of late years " strenuous and
successful endeavors have been made to introduce into the manas^ement
of the forests the latest improvements adopted in Germany and France,
and to regulate the national forest economy in accordance with the
most advanced forest science of the day." The system of instruction
established embraces a Forest Institute at Stockholm, which, in the

TOL. XIX. 21

322 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

language of the royal ordinance for its management, " has for its end
to educate able forest managers by free instruction " ; subordinate to
this, a system of district forest schools, of which the same ordinance
says, " The aim of these forest schools is, through gratis instruction,
to form good foresters " ; and, finally, the common schools, together
with private elementary schools of forestry, aided to some extent by
the Government.

The Forest Institute at Stockholm ranks with the best forest
schools of Europe. Its course of instruction and its mauagement are
so nearly like those in use at Nancy, at Neustadt-Eberswalde, and
elsewhere, that we need not speak of them in detail.

The district forest schools are established at suitable points in
the public forests. They are under the oversight of the Forest Bureau,
and each under the visitation of the forest inspector in whose district
of service the school is situated. Each forest school is presided over
by a president, who is at the same time the teacher of the school, with
a forest overseer as his assistant. The course of instruction embraces
one full year, at the end of which the pupils have a public examination.
In 1874 there were seven schools of this kind. There were alse thir-
teen private elementary schools of forestry, supported in part by gov-
ernment aid. It is also a noticeable feature of the system of education
in Sweden that horticulture and tree-planting are taught in the Falk
schools, or common schools. From the report of 1873 we find that in
that year 59,860 pupils received such instruction. The same ratio
would give 600,000 pupils for the United States.

Spain and Portugal, ranking lowest almost of all European coun-
tries in the proportion of their forest area to their total surface, the
one having, on the authority of Reutzsch, 5*52, and the other 4*40 per
cent., are yet not without their forest schools. A School of Forest
Engineers was established in 1846, at Villaviciosa, not far from Madrid.
In 1869 it was transferred to San Lorenzo del Escurial. It is under
the direction of the Minister of Agriculture. Is has a director, nine
professors, and two assistants. The course of instruction extends to
three years.

An Agricultural Institute was founded at Lisbon in 1852. It was
reorganized in 1865 as the General Institute of Agriculture. The
course of instruction embraces rural engineering, sylviculture, agrono-
my, forest engineering, and veterinary medicine. The corps of in-
struction consists of ten professors and five substitutes, as they are
called. The institute is well furnished with grounds, cabinets, and
collections adapted to give practical instruction in the studies
taught.

Denmark and Finland also have their schools of forestry, the one
at Copenhagen, under the title of the Royal Veterinary and Agricult-
ural High School, and the other at Evois.

Russia has several schools scattered throughout her vast territory.

EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY. 323

For although her forests, particularly in the northern portion, seem
inexhaustible, yet even among these the waste by accidental and de-
signed burnings has at length shown the necessity of care and economy
in forestry management. The forests of Russia have been swept off
year by year by fires until portions of the country are suffering in a
change of climate and in other respects as the consequence. The
Volga is diminished in volume ; navigation is becoming more difficult ;
fuel is srettino; scarce : and the services of those trained in forest
schools are needed in Russia almost as much as they are in Italy or
Spain.

The Agronomic Institute at St. Petersburg is designed to give the
best education in both agriculture and sylviculture, and is organized
for this purpose in two sections. Those admitted to it must have
finished a course of instruction at some gymnasium. It has one hun-
dred and fifty students in the forestry section, a three years' course of
study, and graduates annually about forty puj)ils.

The Agricultural and Forestral Academy at Petrovsk, near Mos-
cow, founded in 1865, is similar in character and course of instruction
to the institute at St. Petersburg. In 1872 it had three hundred and
thh'ty-three pupils in attendance.

About fifty miles from St. Petersburg is the forest school of Lis-
sino, a school of the second class, whose graduates receive the rank of
forest conductors. The course of studies is of a practical character,
and is of three years in extent.*

" This sketch gives a partial idea of the importance that is attached to forestry in coun-
tries whose age and experience have carried them beyond the stage of wasteful expenditure
of resources in wood through which we are passing, to the point where necessity compels
them to do all that is possible to make amends for their former recklessness, and to en-
deavor bv every means to restore what thcv have lost. The trees are rccosrnized as one of
man's most valuable inheritances with which his fortunes, public and private, are inti-
mately associated ; and no interest in state or nation is paramount to that of having them
preserved and properly cared for. The sources of information in regard to forestry and
forest schools are of course as yet chiefly foreign. J. Croumbie Brown, of Haddington,
England, for some time Government botanist at the Cape of Good Hope, has published
several volumes bearing more or less directly on the subject. Hon. C. C. Andrews, late
Minister to Sweden and Xorway, has made a valuable report to the Department of State
on the forests and forest-culture of Sweden. A report on forests and forestry, in con-
nection with the International Exhibition at Vienna, in 1873, has also been made by John
A. Warder, one of our commissioners. A voluminous report upon forestry has also been
made, under the direction of the Commissioner of Agriculture, in pursuance of an act of
Congress of 1876, by Franklin B. Hough, which contains a large amount of valuable in-
formation. We have drawn from these, in addition to the numerous French and German
pablications on forestry, for the facts here given in regard to forest schools.

324

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

rr.ODUCTiox of sound by eadiant energy.^

By ALEXANDER GKAIIAM BELL.

AT the time of my communication to the American Association f
the loudest effects obtained were produced by the use of sele-
nium, arranged in a cell of suitable construction, and placed in a gal-
vanic circuit with a telejihone. Upon allowing an intermittent beam
of sunlight to fall upon the selenium, a musical tone of great intensity
was produced from the telej^lione connected with it.

But the selenium Avas very inconstant in its action. It was rarely,
if ever, found to be the case that two pieces of selenium (even of the

same stick) yielded the same

Fig. 7. ...

results under identical cir-
cumstances of annealing, etc.
While in Europe last autumn,
Dr. Chichester Bell, of Uni-
versity College, London, sug-
gested to me that this incon-
stancy of result might be due
to chemical impurities in the
selenium used. Dr. Bell has
since visited my laboratory in
Washington, and has made a
chemical examination of the
various samples of selenium I
had collected from different
parts of the world. As I un-
derstand it to be his intention to publish the results of this analysis
very soon, I shall make no further mention of liis investigation than to
state that he has found sulphur, iron, lead, and arsenic in the so-called
" selenium," with traces of organic matter ; that a quantitative exami-
nation has revealed the fact that sulphur constitutes nearly one per
cent, of the whole mass ; and that when these impurities are eliminated
the selenium appears to be more constant in its action and more sen-
sitive to light.

Professor W. G. Adams \ has shown that tellurium, like selenium,
has its electrical resistance affected by light, and we have attempted
to utilize this substance in place of selenium. The arrangement of
cell (shown in Fig. 7) was constructed for this purpose in the early

* Continued from paae 197.

f "Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of Science," August 27,
1880 ; see, also, "American Journal of Science," vol. xx, p. 305 ; " Journal of the American
Electrical Society," vol, iii, p. 3 ; " Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and
Electricians," vol. ix, p. 404 ; " Annales dc Chimie et de Physique," vol. xxi.

\ "Proceedings of the Royal Society," vol. xxiv, p. 163.

PRODTJCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 325

part of 1880 ; but we failed at that time to obtain any indications of
sensitiveness with a reflecting galvanometer. We have since found,
however, that when this tellurium spiral is connected in circuit with a
galvanic battery and telephone, and exposed to the action of an inter-
mittent beam of sunlight, a distinct musical tone is produced by the
telephone. The audible effect is much increased by placing the tel-
lurium cell with the battery in the primary circuit of an induction-
coil, and placing the telephone in the secondary circuit.

The enormously high resistance of selenium and the extremely
low resistance of tellurium suggested the thought that an alloy of
these two substances might possess intermediate electrical projDerties.
We have accordingly mixed together selenium and tellurium in differ-
ent proportions, and, while we do not feel warranted at the present
time in making definite statements concerning the results, I may say
that such alloys have proved to be sensitive to the action of light.

It occurred to Mr. Tainter, before my return to Washington last
January, that the very great molecular disturbance produced in lamp-
black by the action of intermittent sunlight should produce a corre-
sponding disturbance in an electric current passed through it, in which
case lampblack could be employed in place
of selenium in an electrical receiver. This
haa turned out to be the case, and the im-
portance of the discovery is very great,
especially when we consider the expense
of such rare substances as selenium and
tellurium.

The form of lampblack cell we have
found most effective is shown in Fig. 8.
Silver is deposited upon a plate of glass,
and a zigzag line is then scratched through
the film, as shown, dividing the silver sur-
face into two portions insulated from one
another, having the form of two combs

with interlockino^ teeth.

Each comb is attached to a screw-cup,
so that the cell can be placed in an elec-
trical circuit when required. The surface
is then smoked until a good film of lamp-
black is obtained, filling the interstices be-
tween the teeth of the silver combs. When
the lampblack cell is connected with a tele-
phone and galvanic battery, and exposed
to the influence of an intermittent beam of sunlight, a loud musical
tone is produced by the telephone. This result seems to be due rather
to the physical condition than to the nature of the conducting material
employed, as metals in a spongy condition produce similar effects. For

326

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

instance, when an electrical current is passed through spongy platinum
while it is exposed to intermittent sunlight, a distinct musical tone is
produced by a telephone in the same circuit. In all such cases the
effect is increased by the use of an induction-coil ; and the sensitive
cells can be employed for the reproduction of articulate speech, as well
as for the production of musical sounds.

We have also found that loud sounds are produced from lamp-
black by passing through it an intermittent electrical current ; and
that it can be used as a telephonic receiver for the reproduction of
articulate speech by electrical means.

A convenient mode of arranging a lampblack cell for experimental

purposes is shown in Fio-. 9. When

Fig 9, . . *

an intermittent current is passed
through the lampblack (A), or when
an intermittent beam of sunlight
falls upon it through the glass plate
(B), a loud musical tone can be
heard by applying the ear to the
hearing-tube (C). When the light
and the electrical current act simul-
taneously, two musical tones are
perceived, which produce beats when nearly of the
same pitch. By proper arrangements a complete
interference of sound can undoubtedly be produced.
Upon the Measurement of the Sonorous
Effects produced by Different Substances.
We have observed that different substances produce
sounds of very different intensities under similar cir-
cumstances of experiment, and it has appeared to us
that very valuable information might be obtained if
we could measure the audible effects produced. For this purpose we
have constructed several different forms of apparatus for studying
the effects, but, as our researches are not yet complete, I shall confine
myself to a simple description of some of the forms of apparatus we
have devised.

When a beam of lio-ht is broui^ht to a focus bv means of a lens,
the beam diverging from the focal point becomes weaker as the dis-
tance increases in a calculable degree. Hence, if we can determine
the distances from the focal point at which two different substances
emit sounds of equal intensity, we can calculate their relative sonorous
powers.

Preliminary experiments were made by ^Nlr. Tainter, during my
absence in Europe, to ascertain the distance from the focal point of a
lens at which the sound produced by a substance became inaudible.
A few of the results obtained will show the enormous differences ex-
isting between different substances in this respect.

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 327

DISTANCE FEOM FOCAL POIXT OF LENS AT ^VHICH SOUNDS BECOME INAUDIBLE

WITH DIFFERENT SUBSTANCES.

Metres.

Zinc diaphragm (polished) 1'51

Hard-rubber diaphragm 1*90

Tin-foil " 2-00

Telephone " (japanned iron) 2*15

Zinc " (unpolished) 2'15

White silk, (in receiver shown in Fig. 1.) 3-10

White worsted, " " " 4-01

Yellow worsted, " " " 4'06

Yellow silk, " '' " 4-13

White cotton-wool, " " " 4-38

Green silk, " " " 4-52

Blue worsted, '' " " 4-69

Purple silk, " " " 4-82

Brown silk, " " " 5-02

Black silk, " " " 5-21

Red silk, " " '^ 5-24

Black worsted, " " " 6-50

Lampblack. In receiver the limit of audibility could not be determined, on

account of want of space. Sound perfectly audible at a distance of. .10*00

Mr. Tainter was convinced from these experiments that this field
of research promised valuable results, and he at once debased an ap-
paratus for studying the effects, which he described to me upon my
return from Europe. The apparatus has since been constructed, and
I take great pleasure in showing it to you to-day.

1. A beam of light is received by two similar lenses (A B, Fig.
10), wdiich bring the light to a focus on either side of the interrupting
disk (C). The two substances, whose sonorous powers are to be com-
pared, are placed in the receiving vessels (D E) (so arranged as to ex-
pose equal surfaces to the action of the beam) which communicate, by
flexible tubes (F G) of equal length, with the common hearing- tube
(H). The receivers (D E) are placed upon slides, which can be moved
along the graduated supports (I K). The beams of light passing
through the interrupting disk (C) ; are alternately cut off by the swing-
ing of a pendulum (L). Thus a musical tone is produced alternately
from the substance in D and from that in E. One of the receivers is
kept at a constant point upon its scale, and the other receiver is moved
toward or from the focus of its beam until the ear decides that the
sounds produced from D and E are of equal intensity. The relative
positions of the receivers are then noted.

2. Another method of investigation is based upon the production
of an interference of sound, and the apparatus employed is shown in
Fig. 11. The interrupter consists of a tuning-fork (A, Fig. 11, ),
w^hich is kept in continuous vibration by means of an electro-mag-
net (B).

A powerful beam of light is brought to a focus between the prongs

;28

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of the tuning-fork (A), and the passage of the beam is more or less
obstructed by the vibration of the opaque screens (C D) carried by
the prongs of the fork.

As the tuning-fork (A) produces a sound
by its own vibration, it is placed at a suffi-
cient distance away to be inaudible through
the air, and a system of lenses is employed
for the purpose of bringing the undulating
beam of light to the receiving lens (E)
with as little loss as possible. The two
receivers (F G) are attached to slides (H I)
which move upon opposite sides of the
axis of the beam, and the receivers are
connected by flexible tubes of unequal
length (K L) communicating wdth the
common hearing-tube (M).

The length of the tube (K) is such
that the sonorous vibrations from the re-
ceivers (F G) reach the common hearing-
tube (M) in opposite phases. Under these
circumstances silence is produced when
the vibrations in the receivers (F G) are
of equal intensity. When the intensities
are unequal, a residual effect is perceived.
In operating the instrument the position
of the receiver (G) remains constant, and
the receiver (F) is moved to or from the
focus of the beam until complete silence
is produced. The relative positions of the
two receivers are then noted.

3. Another
mode is as fol-

lows : The loud-
ness of a musi-
cal tone pro-
duced by the action of light is compared
with the loudness of a tone of similar
pitch produced by electrical means. A
rheostat introduced into the circuit en-
ables us to measure tlie amount of re-
sistance required to render the electrical
sound equal in intensity to the other.

4. If the tuning-fork (A) in Fig. 11 is
thrown into vibration by an undulatory

instead of an intermittent current passed through the electro-magnet
(B), it is probable that a musical tone, electrically produced in the re-

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 329

Fig. 11.

ceiver (F) by the action of the same current, would be found capable
of extinguishing the effect produced in the receiver (G) by the action
of the undulatory beam of light, in which case it should be possible to
establish an acoustic balance be-
tween the effects produced by
light and electricity by introduc-
ing sufficient resistance into the
electric circuit.

Upon the Nature of the
Rats that produce Soxorous
Effects ix Different Sub-
stances. In my paper read be-
fore the American Association
last August, and in the present
paper, I have used the word
" liglit " in its usual rather than
its scientific sense, and I have not
hitherto attempted to discrimi-
nate the effects produced by the
different constituents of ordinary
light the thermal, luminous, and
actinic rays. I find, however, that
the adoption of the word "pho-
tophone " by Mr. Tainter and my-
self has led to the assumption
that we believed the audible ef-
fects discovered by us to be due
entirely to the action of luminous
rays. The meaning we have uni-
formly attached to the words
" photophone " and " light " will
be obvious from the following:
passage, quoted from my Boston
paper :

Althoiifrh effects are produced, as
above shown, by forms of radiant en-
ergy, which are invisible, we have
named the apparatus for the produc-
tion and reproduction of sound in this
way the " photophone," 'because an
ordinary beam of light contains the
rays ichich are operati}:e.

To avoid in future anv misun-
derstandings upon this point, we
have decided to adopt the term
" radiophone,'''' proposed by M.

^^

330

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTHLY.

Mercadier, as a general term signifying an apparatus for the production
of sound by any form of radiant energy, limiting the words thermo-
])hone^ photophone., and actinophone to apparatus for the production
of sound by thermal, luminous, or actinic rays respectively.

M. Mercadier, in the course of his researches
in radiophony, passed an intermittent beam
from an electric lamp through a prism, and
then examined the audible effects produced in
different parts of the spectrum (" Comptes
Rendus," December 6, 1880).

We have repeated this experiment, using
the sun as our source of radiation, and have ob-
tained results somewhat different from those
noted by M. Mercadier.

A beam of sunlight was reflected from a
heliostat (A, Fig. 12) through an achromatic
lens (B), so as to form an image of the sun
upon the slit (C).

The beam then passed through another ach-
romatic lens (D), and through a bisulphide-of-
carbon prism (E), forming a spectrum of great
intensity, which, when focused upon a screen,
was found to be sufficiently pure to show the
principal absorption lines of the solar spec-
trum.

The disk-interrupter (F) was then turned
Avith sufficient rapidity to produce from five
to six hundred interruptions of the light per
second, and the spectrum was explored with
the receiver (G), which was so arranged that
the lampblack surface exposed was limited by
a slit, as shown.

Under these circumstances sounds were ob-
tained in every part of the visible spectrum,
excepting the extreme half of the violet, as
well as in the ultra-red. A continuous increase
in the loudness of the sound was observed upon
moving the receiver (G) gradually from the
violet into the ultra-red. The point of maxi-
mum sound lay very far out in the ultra-red.
Beyond this point the sound began to de-
crease, and then stopped so suddenly that a
very slight motion of the receiver (G) made
all the difference between almost maximum
sound and complete silence.
2. The lampblacked wire gauze was then removed, and the in-

PRODUCTION OF SOUXD BY RADIAXT EXERGY. 331

terior of the receiver (G) was filled with red worsted. Upon explor-
ing the spectrum as before, entirely different results were obtained.
The maximum effect was produced in the green at that part where
the red worsted appeared to be black. On either side of this point
the sound gradually died away, becoming inaudible on the one side in
the middle of the indigo, and on the other at a short distance outside
the edge of the red.

3. Upon substituting green silk for red worsted, the limits of audi-
tion appeared to be the middle of the blue and a point a short distance
out in the ultra-red maximum in the red.

4. Some hard-rubber shavings were now placed in the receiver
(G). The limits of audibility appeared to be, on the one hand, the
junction of the green and blue, and, on the other, the outside edge of
the red maximum in the yellow. Mr. Tainter thought he could
hear a little way into the ultra-red, and to his ear the maximum was
about the junction of the red and orange.

5. A test-tube containing the vapor of sulphuric ether was then
substituted for the receiver (G). Commencing at the violet end, the
test-tube was gradually moved down the spectrum and out into the
ultra-red without audible effect, but, when a certain point far out in
the ultra-red was reached, a distinct musical tone suddenly made its
appearance, which disappeared as suddenly on moving the test-tube a
very little farther on.

6. Upon exploring the spectrum with a test-tube containing the
vapor of iodine, the limits of audibility appeared to be the middle of
the red and the junction of the blue and indigo maximum in the
green.

7. A test-tube containing peroxide of nitrogen was substituted for
that containing iodine. Distinct sounds were obtained in all parts of
the visible spectrum, but no sounds were observed in the ultra-red.

The maximum effect seemed to me to be in the blue. The sounds
were well marked in all parts of the violet, and I even fancied that
the audible effect extended a little way into the ultra-violet, but of
this I can not be certain. Upon examining the absorj^tion spectrum
of peroxide of nitrogen it was at once observed that the maximum
sound was produced in that part of the spectrum where the greatest
number of absorption lines made their appearance.

8. The spectrum was now explored by a selenium cell, and the
audible effects were observed by means of a telephone in the same
galvanic circuit with the cell. The maximum effect was produced in
the red. The audible effect extended a little way into the ultra-red on
the one hand and up as high as the middle of the violet on the other.

Although the experiments so far made can only be considered as-
preliminary to others of a more refined nature, I think we are war-
ranted in concluding that the nature of the rays that produce sonorous
effects in different substances depends upon the nature of the substances

332

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

that are exjyosed to the beam, and that the sounds are in every case due
to those rays of the spectrum that are absorbed by the body.

The Spectrophoxe. Our experi-
ments upon the range of audibility of
different substances in the spectrum
have led us to the construction of a
new instrument for use in spectrum
analysis, Avhich was described and ex-
hibited to the Philosophical Society of
Washington last Saturday.* The eye-
piece of a spectroscope is removed, and
sensitive substances are placed in the
focal point of the instrument behind
an opaque diaphragm containing a slit.
These substances are put in communi-
cation with the ear by means of a hear-
ing-tube, and thus the instrument is con-
verted into a verita-

5)

ble " s2:)ectrophone,
like that shown in
Fig. 13.

Suppose Ave smoke
the interior of our
spectrophonic receiv-
er, and fill the cavity
with peroxide of ni-
trogen gas. We have
then a combination
that gives us good
sounds in all parts of
the spectrum (visible
and invisible), ex-
cept the ultra-violet.
Now, pass a rapidly-
interrupted beam of
lioht throuo'h some
substance whose ab-
sorption sjDectrum is
to be investigated,
and bands of sound
and silence are ob-
served upon exploring the spectrum, the silent positions correspond-
ing to the absorption bands. Of course, the ear can not for one mo-
ment compete with the eye in the examination of the visible part
of the spectrum ; but in the invisible part beyond the red, where

"Proceedings of the Philosophical Society" of Washington, April 10, 1881.

PRODUCTION OF SOUND BY RADIANT ENERGY. 333

the eye is useless, the ear is
invaluable. In working in
this region of the spectrum,
lampblack alone may be used
in the spectrophonic receiver.
Indeed, the sounds produced
by this substance in the ultra-
red are so well marked as to
constitute our instrument a
most reliable and convenient
substitute for the thermopile.
A few experiments that have
been made may be interest-

ing.

1. The interrupted beam
was filtered through a sat-
urated solution of alum.

Result : The rans^e of au-
dibility in the ultra-red was
slightly reduced by the ab-
sorption of a narrow band of
the rays of lowest refran-
gibility. The sounds in the
visible part of the si^ectrum
seemed to be unaffected.

2. A thin sheet of hard
rubber was interposed in the
path of the beam.

Result : Well-marked
sounds in every part of the
ultra-red. Ko sounds in the
visible part of the spectrum,
excepting the extreme half
of the red.

These experiments reveal
the cause of the curious fact
alluded to in my paper read
before the American Asso-
ciation last August that
sounds were heard from se-
lenium when the beam was
filtered through both hard
rubber and alum at the same
time. (See table of results in
Fig. 14.)
3, A solution of ammonia- sulphate of coj^per was tried.

33+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Result : AVhen placed in the path of the beam, the spectrum disap-
j^eared, with the exception of the blue and violet end. To the eye the
spectrum was thus reduced to a single broad band of blue-violet light.
To the ear, however, the spectrum revealed itself as two bands of
sound, with a broad space of silence between. The invisible rays
transmitted constituted a narrow band just outside the red.

I think I have said enough to convince you of the value of this new
method of examination, but I do not wish you to understand that we
look upon our results as by any means complete. It is (3ften more
interesting to observe the first totterings of a child than to watch the
firm tread of a full-grown man, and I feel that our first footsteps in
this new field of science may have more of interest to you than the
fuller results of mature research. This must be my excuse for having
dwelt so long upon the details of incomplete experiments.

I recognize the fact that the spectrophone must ever remain a mere
adjunct to the spectroscope, but I anticipate that it has a wide and in-
dependent field of usefulness in the investigation of absorption spectra
in the ultra-red.

--

PHYSICAL EDrCATION".

By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D.
SLEEP.

"Cliildren, stinted in their sleep, are never wide-awake.''' Pestalozzi.

THE vital processes of man, like those of all his fellow-creatures,
are partly controlled by automatic tendencies. Some functions
of our internal economy are too important to be trusted to the caprices
of human volition ; breathing, eating, drinking, and even love, are
only semi-voluntary actions ; and during a period varying from one
fourth to two fifths of each solar day the conscious activity of the
senses undergoes a complete suspense : the cerebral workshoj) is closed
for repairs, and the abused or exhausted body commits its organism
into the healing hands of Nature. Under favorable conditions eight
hours of undisturbed sleep would almost suffice to counteract the
physiological mischief of the sixteen waking hours. During sleep
the organ of consciousness is at rest, and the energies of the system
seem to be concentrated on the function of nutrition and the renewal
of the vital energy in general ; sleep promotes digestion, repairs the
waste of the muscular tissue, favors the process of cutaneous excretion,
and renews the vioror of the mental faculties.

The amount of sleep required by man is generally proportionate
to the waste of vital strength, whether by muscular exertion, mental

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 335

activity (or emotion), or by the process of rapid assimilation, as during
the first years of growth and during the recovery from an exhaust-
ing disease. The weight of a new-born child increases more rapidly
than that of a eupeptic adult, enjoying a liberal diet after a period of
starvation, and, though an infant is incapable of forming abstract ideas,
we need not doubt that the variety of new and bevrildering impres-
sions must overtask its little sensorium in a few hours. Xurslings
should therefore be permitted to sleep to their full satisfaction ; weakly
babies, especially, need sleep more than food, and it is the safest plan
never to disturb a child's slumber while the regularity of his breathing
indicates the healthfulness of his repose ; there is little danger of his
" oversleeping " himself in a moderately warmed, well-ventilated room.
Kever mind about meal-times : hunger will awaken him at the right
moment, or teach him to make up for lost time. Three or four nurs-
ings in the twenty-four hours are enough ; Dr. C. E. Page, who has
made the problem of infant diet his special study, believes that fifty
per cent, of the enormous number of children dying under two years
of age are killed by being coaxed to guzzle till they are hopelessly
diseased with fatty degeneration.*

The healthfulness of village-children is partly due to the tranquil-
lity of their slumber in the comfortable nooks of a cpiiet homestead,
or in the shade of a leafy tree, while their parents are at work in a way
rather incompatible with the habit of fondling the baby all night. In
houses where there is plenty of room, the nursery and the infant's
dormitory ought to be two separate apartments : the play-room can
not be too sunny ; for the bedroom a shady and sequestered location
is, on the whole, preferable. Xext to out-door exercise, silence and a
subdued light are the best hypnotics. But under no circumstances
should insomnia be overcome by cradling or narcotics. Stupefaction
is not slumber. The lethargy induced by rocking and cradling is akin
to the drowsy torpor of a sea-sick passenger, and the opium-doctor
might as well benumb his patient by a whack on the head. The
morbid sleeplessness of children may be owing to several causes which
can be generally recognized by the symptoms of their modus operandi ;
impatient turning from side to side, as if in a vain attempt to obtain
a much-needed repose, means that the room is too stuffy or too warm ;
long wakefulness, combined with squalling-fits and petulant move-
ments, indicates acidity in the stomach (overfeeding, or too much
"soothing-sirup") let the little kicker exercise his muscle on the
floor ; in malignant cases, skip a meal or two, or give water instead of

^ " The only wonder is that any infant lives sixty days from birth. Fed before birth
but three times a day he is after birth subjected to ten or twenty meals in the twenty-
four hours, until chronic dyspepsia or some acute disease interferes. ... So far from
admitting a possible error in advising three meals only, I am convinced that, for a hand-
fed baby especially, two would often be better than three." (" How to feed a Baby to
make it healthy and happy," p. 55.)

336 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

milk. After weathering an attack of croup, children often lie motion-
less on their backs with a peculiar glassy stare of their wide-open eyes.
Leave them alone ; instinct teaches them to assuage the distress of
their lungs by slow and deep respirations ; rest and a half-open win-
dow will do them more good than medicine.

Healthful infants i. e., under rational management the great plu-
rality can soon be taught to transact their public business at season-
able hours, or at least to abstain from midnight serenades. If mothers
would make it a rule to do all their nursing and fondling in the daytime,
their little revivalists would soon learn to associate darkness with the
idea of silence and slumber. Habit will do wonders in such thinofs.
Captain Barclay and several American pedestrians learned to take
their half -hour naps as a traveler snatches a hasty lunch, and many
old soldiers develop a faculty of going off to sleep, as it were, at the
word of command, the moment their shoulders touch the guard-
house bunk. The two drowsiest years of my life I passed at an old-
style boarding-school, where teachers and pupils were limited to seven
hours of sleep, after nine hours of study, besides written exercises and
special recitations, and where sixty or seventy of us had to sleej) in
a large hall ; and I do not believe that the last flickering of our iive-
minutes candle was ever witnessed by a pair of more than half-oj^en
eyes.

But that same faculty of sleeping and waking at short notice may
be utilized for the purpose of taking little naps whenever opportunity
offers in the last half-hour of the noontide recess, or during the
Buncombe interacts of a protracted session. The inhabitants of all
intertropical countries make the time of repose a movable festival, and
during the dog-days of our torrid summers it would clearly be the best
plan to imitate their example. " Children must not sleep in the day-
time," says a by-law of our time-dishonored Koran of domestic suj^er-
stitions ; and, not satisfied with keeping our little ones at school during
the drowsy afternoons of the summer solstice, we increase their misery
by stuffing them at the very noon of the hottest hours with a mass of
greasy (1. e., heat-producing and soporific) food. An hour after the
end of a long, sultry day comes the cool night-wind, heaven's own
blessing for all who hunger and thirst after fresh air ; but no, " Xight-
air is injurious" ; besides, Mrs. Grundy objects to promenades after
dark, so the children are driven to their suffocating, unventilated bed-
rooms, not to sleep but to swelter, till toward midnight, when drowsi-
ness subsides into a sort of lethargy which yields only to broad day-
light, three or four hours after sunrise ; "So much the better," says
the fashionable mother, who has passed the night at an ice-cream
ridotto, " and morning air isn't healthy, either ; most dangerous to
leave the house before the dew is off the grass."

Only the curse of pessimism, our woful distrust of our natural in-
stincts, can explain such absurdities. The parched palate's petition

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 337

for a cooling liquid is not plainer than the brain's craving for rest and
slumber when a high temperature adds its somniferous tendency to
the drowsy influence of a full meal. On warm summer days all
Nature indulges in a noontide nap ; I have walked through tropical
forests that were as silent under the rays of a vertical sun as a Nor-
wegian pine-grove in the dead of a polar night ; nor would it be easy
to name a single animal that does not appear sleepy after meals. At
noon leaf -trees throw their densest shade ; even butterflies seek the
penetralia of the foliage, and lizards cling lazily to the dark side of the
lower branches ; every school-teacher knows that children feel the
drowsy spell of the afternoon sun ; why should they alone be hurt by
yielding to its promptings? Either postpone the principal meal to
the end of the day, or increase the noontide recess to at least three
hours, so as to leave time for a digestive siesta.

In midsummer all mammals (squirrels, perhaps, excepted) become
semi-nocturnal : deer and llamas pasture the moonlit mountain-mead-
ows ; bears, badgers, and the larger species of monkeys are wide-awake ;
buffaloes wander en masse to the next drinking-place ; and the step-
children of Nature, the starved lazzaroni of Southern Europe, forget
their misery if they can procure a fiddle or a guitar. The moonlit
streets of the Mexican cities swarm with merry children, but north
of the Rio Grande not a decent lad is seen out-doors after sundown ;
Luna has to seek her Endymions in the tropics, though our summer
nights are often as glorious as the noches serenas of southern Anda-
lusia. And what would our hardy forefathers have said about our
dread of the morning dew ? How many thousands of hunters and
soldiers have slept in the open fields, and how many times did we icade
through the dew-drenched brambles of the Ardennes, my little brother
and I, to see the sun rise, and breathe the mountain wind, at the only
hour Avhen the air is both fragrant and cool, inspiring thoughts which
music can only awaken for a fleeting moment ! if such hours are
mortiferous, there can not be a more as:reeable wav of endinoj what
our latter-day epicures are pleased to call life.

What harm can there be in dividing our daily portion of sleep ?
Birds and beasts do it, the founders of the most ascetic orders of
Spanish monks allowed it, and our summer months are certainly as
warm as those of Southern Europe. People who are so anxious to
improve the shining hours for business purposes had much better
curtail the number of their meals ; take a vote among the juvenile
operatives of a cotton-factory, and ten to one that a large majority
would gladly postpone, or even renounce, their dinner for the privilege
of sleeping an hour or two between 1 and 3 p. m. A Belgian silk-
manufacturer, who had spent his own boyhood at the loom, told me
that he could never find it in his heart to discharge a factory-child for
dozing over its work.

Necessity may compel individuals to compromise such matters. If
VOL. XIX. 22

338 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I had to work or teach all day, I would not eat a crumb between
breakfast and supjier, and pass the dinner-hour under a shade-tree ; but
parents who can afford to educate their children at home should give
them either an all-summer vacation or a half-afternoon recess let them
rest from twelve till three, or sleep if they prefer ; in the evening, do
not send them to bed till they are really tired, and till the night-wind
has revitalized the air of their bedrooms ; but make them rise with the
sun if tliey are drowsy they will go to bed earlier the next evening.
There is no danger of a child's especially a boy's oversleej^ing him-
self, unless the hardships of his waking hours are so intolerable that
oblivion becomes a blessing ; but it can do no harm to make the
health-giving morning hour as attractive as possible : provide some
out-door amusement, a prize foot-race, a butterfly-hunt, or gathering
windfalls in the apple-orchard ; if the desire for longer sleep can out-
weigh such inducements, there must be something wrong plethorific
diet, probably, or over-study. The requisite amount of sleep depends
on temperament and occupation as well as on age ; with children
under ten, however, too much indulgence would be an error on the
safer side : let them choose their allowance between eight and ten
hours ; in after-years, seven hours should be the minimum, nine the
maximum for healthy children ; sickly ones ought to have carte
hlanche, both as to quantum and time of repose ; consumptives, espe-
cially, need all the rest they can get. Profound sleep in a cool, quiet
retreat is Nature's own specific for all wasting diseases, a panacea
without price and money.

ISTothing can be more injudicious than to stint children in their
sleep with a view of gaining a few hours for study. " That plan,"
says Pestalozzi, " defeats its own purpose, for such children are never
wide-awake ; you can keep them out of bed, but you can not prevent
them from dozing with their eyes open. A wide-awake boy will learn
more in one hour than a day-dreamer in ten."

Habitual deficiency of sleep will undermine the strongest consti-
tution ; headache, throbbing, and feverish heat are the precursors of
graver evils, unless a temporary loss of mental power compels an ar-
mistice with outraged Nature. King Alfred, Spinoza, Kepler, Victor
Alfieri, Madame de Stael, and Frederick Schiller killed themselves
with restless study ; Beethoven and Charles Dickens, too, probably
prepaid the debt of Nature by their habit of fighting fatigue with
strong coffee. Sleeplessness may lead to chronic hypochondria, and
even to idiocy ; without their long vigils, the monks of the Thebais and
the fathers of the Alexandrian Church could hardly have written such
stupendous nonsense. It is a curious fact that comjoulsory wakefulness
combined with mental activity often induces a state of morbid insom-
nia, an absolute inability to obtain the sleep which it was at first so
difficult to resist. In such cases, the only remedy is fresh air and a
complete change of occupation. During sleep the brain is in a com-

PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 339

paratively bloodless condition ; * a hot head and throbbing temples
are unfavorable to repose, and it has been suggested that insomnia
might be counteracted by a hot foot-bath, chafing the arms and legs,
or any similar operation that would divert the blood from the head
toward the extremities, and thus tend to diminish the activity of the
cerebral circulation. Listening to distant music or the ripple of a
river-current has also a wonderful hypnotic effect, the repetition of
monotonous sounds, or, indeed, of any sensorial impression, seems
more favorable to repose than their entire absence. The philosopher
Kant assures us that he could obtain sleep in a paroxysm of gout by
resolutely fixing his attention on some abstruse ethical or mathemati-
cal problem, but remarks that the success of that method depends
upon the laboriousness of the mental process ; the mind, as it were,
takes refuge in sleep as the alternative of drudging at a wearisome
task. Robert Burton, too, gives a number of similar recipes, besides
a list of wondrous medicinal compounds to be swallowed or inhaled
ad horam som?ii, but in ordinary cases it is better to try the effects of
out-door exercise, before resorting to dormo use-fat, f theological text-
books, or other desperate remedies.

Being naturally a sound and long sleeper has been ranked among
the surest prognostics of a long life, and sleep after a wasting disease
as the most certain symptom of recovery. Most brain-workers are
subject to occasional fits of insomnia, but the faculty of sustaining
health and vigor upon a very small allowance of sleep is generally a
concomitant of mental inferiority, or at least inactivity. The most
intelligent animals, dogs and monkeys, sleep the longest ; stupid brutes
merely stretch their legs, their inert brain requires no rest ; a cow
never sleeps in the proper sense of the word. Mirabeau, Goethe, and
James Quin often slumbered for twelve or fourteen hours successively,
while Leopold I, of Austria, and Charles IV, of Spain, the heartless
and brainless bigots, could content themselves with five hours of sleep
out of the twenty-four, and their prototype, the Emperor Justinian,
often even with one. (Gibbon's "Rome," vol. vii, p. 406.)

Heinrich Heine wonders why Jehovah did not square his account
with our wicked forefathers by punishing them in their sleep, instead
of compromising their innocent progeny. Dietetic sins often avenge
themselves in that way ; blutwurst, sauerkraut, or short-cakes with

* Dr. Caldwell records a case of a woman at MontpelHer, who " had lost part of her
skull (from disease), the brain and part of its membranes lying bare. When she was in
a deep and sound sleep, the brain lay in the skull almost motionless ; when she was
dreaming, it became elevated ; and, when she awoke, it became suffused with blood and
seemed inclined to rise through the cranial aperture." ("Psychological Journal," vol. r,
P- ^4.)

f " Anoint the soles of the feet with the fat of a dormouse, the teeth with ear-wax of
a dog, swine's gall, oil of nunanhar, henbane," etc. (" Correctors of Accidents to procure
Sleep," " Anatomy of Melancholy," p. 414.)

340 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

pork-fritters, generally result in apocalyptic visions, and an eel-pie for
supper is a reliable receipt for a first-class nightmare. Vivid dreams,
per se, however, are by no means a morbid symptom ; on the con-
trary, the scenes of the slumber-drama are most lively and lifelike in
the happiest years of childhood ; and I remember a time when I longed
for the bed-hour, in anticipation of a pleasant dream-land excursion.
Children are apt to relate their trance adventures, and I would encour-
age the habit ; dreams, as the elder Pliny already observes, may often
afford a suggestive insight into the ethical condition of the mind ; also
into the condition of the stomach. Melodramatic incidents indicate
the presence of irritating ingesta, and the least attempt at clairvoyance
calls for out-door exercise and an aperient diet. A South-German
feather-bed is a Trophonian cave ; the difficulty of turning from side
to side crowds the brain with alarming phantasms, and the excessive
warmth of the thing itself is apt to affect the imagination. The best
bed is, indeed, a hard, broad mattress, or a well-stuffed straw tick, and,
for reasons I have stated in the chapter on " In-door Life/' a woolen
blanket over a linen bed-sheet is preferable to a quilt. Those who
find it uncomfortable to sleep in an absolutely horizontal position
should slightly raise the head-end of the bedstead rather than use a
thick bolster. A thick pillow bends the head upon the breast, or
keeps the neck in a position that aggravates the distress of respiratory
difiiculties. Woven-wire mattresses recommend themselves by their
cleanliness and durability ; their elastic qualities alone would hardly
justify a great ex^Dense, though luxury has even devised an "hydro-
static bed," a trough of water with a tegument of caoutchouc. His-
tory records the name of the Sybarite who "cried aloud because a
leaflet of his flower-mattress got crumpled " ; and Chevalier Luckner,
the Russian Lucullus, built himself an air-pillow bed on noiseless
wheels, that could be turned by a hand-lever, in order to move the
sleeping-car from or toward the stove, the aphelion and perihelion be-
ing determined by the state of the out-door atmosphere. Such chev-
aliers deserve the penance of Ezekiel (iv, 3-6), who had to lie three hun-
dred and ninety days on his left side for the iniquity of the house of
Israel, and forty days extra for the iniquity of the house of Judah. A
weary head needs no air-cushions, with noiseless wheel-attachments ;
brakesmen take their intermittent naps on the hard caboose-bunk of
a rumbling freight-train ; and the log of the Royal Sovereign records
that, during the heat of the battle of the Kile, some of the over-
fatigued boys fell asleep upon the deck.

The habit of going to sleep at fixed hours can overcome the tort-
ures of neuralgia, and some practical stoics have manifested a not
less astonishing command over their mental emotions ; Napoleon I
slept soundly on the eve of the battle he knew to be his last chance,
like Mohammed II before his last neck-or-nothing assault upon the
ramparts of Constantinople. Army-life can acquaint a man with

PHYSICAL EDUCATIOX. 341

strange beds, as well as bedfellows. Skobeleff's troopers bad to sleep
in dug-outs on tbe woodless ridges of tbe Balkan ; and during Key's
retreat from Moscow, tbe commander bimself bad once to pass a nigbt
in a root-bouse, wbere a few rotten boards and a bundle of straw
formed bis only protection against a raging snow-storm.

But " rougbing it " teacbes some useful lessons, and soldiers and
bunters often learn by experience tbat sleep under sucb circumstances
depends upon tbe possibility of getting the feet icarm rain in tbe
face, or even a wet overcoat, is less anti-bypnotic tban cbilled toes.
In a trapper's bivouac tbe sleepers generally lie in a circle around tbe
camp-fire, witb tbeir feet toward tbe glowing embers, and tbe Swiss
mountaineers use foot-sacks long socks of a felt-like stuff, and wide
enougb to leave room for a lot of dry leaves, besides two or tbree ^^airs
of stockings. Botb metbods are practical applications of Dr. Cald-
well's tbeory tbat a decrease of tbe cerebral blood-circulation bas a
somniferous influence ; in otber words, tbat sleep can be promoted by
warming tbe extremities of tbe body, and tbus diverting tbe blood
from tbe bead.

In-doors, summer often reverses tbe problem ; in tbe dog-days,
wben tbe amount of bedclotbing bas to be reduced to a minimum,
tbe main point is to cool tbe bead by lowering tbe temperature of
tbe bedroom. Open windows, a bard, smootb mattress, linen bed-
sbeets, and a ligbt supper will generally answer tbe purpose ; in
tbe lower latitudes, George Combe recommends glazed brick floors,
frequent sprinklings, and in very bot nigbts a tub witb ice. And wby
not ? Tbe Turkisb residents of Damascus pass tbe summer nigbts
in tbe yeyirman or fountain-ball of tbeir cool bouses, and tbe gar-
rison soldiers of San Juan d'Ulloa deem it a special privilege to sleep
on tbe floating wbarf, exposed to tbe spray and tbe fitful swell of tbe
Gulf-tide.

In tbe "West Indies and tbe Mississippi Yalley, mosquito-bars are
a sad necessity, but all sensible people sbould be glad tbat tbe Frencb
canopy-beds are going out of fasbion. Tbe Frencb are rigbt, tbougb,
in making cbildren over ten years sleep alone ; it is one of tbe rare
instances of an etiquette law being supported by a valid reason. To
tbose wbo can afford it. Dr. Franklin recommends even two beds per
individual, and in sweltering summer nigbts it is certainly a blessing
to be able to leave a bot bed for a cool one ; in tbe large family guest-
cbambers of a German botel, sleepless travelers can tbus cbange tbe
beds like relay-borses. Tbe builders of tbe old Englisb country-seats
seem to bave made it a rule to bave tbe bouses face due soutb, witb
few or no windows on tbe nortb side, and in sucb buildings tbe east
windows would make tbe best bedroom fronts, botb on account of tbe
evening sbade and tbe monitory morning sun. In our Xortbwestern
Territories, wbere tbe tbermometer ranges from 90 above zero to 45
below, it would be no bad plan to vary tbe location of tbe bedcbam-

342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ber with tlie change of the season, but, as a general rule, the dormi-
tory should be the coolest room in the house i. e., the nearest to the
north side, and the farthest from the kitchen.

*

THE DEYELOPMEXT OF POLITICAL I^^STITUTIOXS.

By HEEBEKT SPENCER.
YIII. CONSULTATIVE BODIES.

TWO parts of the primitive triune political structure have, in the
last two chapters, been dealt with separately ; or, to speak
strictly, the first has been considered as independent of the second,
and again, the second as independent of the first : incidentally noting
its relations to the third. Here we have to treat of the two in combi-
nation. Instead of observing how from the chief, little above the
rest, there is, under certain conditions, evolved the absolute ruler, en-
tirely subordinating the select few and the many ; and instead of
observing how, under other conditions, the select few become an oli-
garchy tolerating no supreme man, and keeping the multitude in sub-
jection, we have now to observe the cases in which there is estab-
lished a cooperation between the first and the second.

After chieftainship has become settled, the chief continues to have
sundry reasons for acting in concert with his head-men. It is needful
to conciliate them ; it is needful to get their advice and willing assist-
ance ; and, in serious matters, it is desirable to divide responsibility
with them. Hence the prevalence of a consultative assembly. In
Samoa, " the chief of the village and the heads of families formed,
and still form, the legislative body of the place." Among the Foolahs,
*' before undertaking anything imj^ortant or declaring war, the king
[of Rabbah] is obliged to summon a council of Mallams and the prin-
cipal people." Of the Mandingo states we read that, " in all affairs of
importance, the king calls an assembly of the principal men, or elders,
by whose counsels he is directed." And such cases might be multi-
plied indefinitely.

That we may fully understand the essential nature of this institu-
tion, and that we may see why, as it evolves, it assumes the distinctive
characters it does, we must once more go back to the beginning.

Evidence, coming from many peoples in all times, shows that the
consultative body is, at the outset;, nothing more than a council of war.
It is in the open-air meeting of armed men that the cluster of leaders
is first seen performing that deliberative function in respect of military
measures which is afterward extended to other measures. Long after

CONSULTATIVE BODIES. 343

its deliberations have become more general in their scope, there sur-
vive traces of this origin.

In Rome, where the king was above all things the general, and
where the senators, as the heads of clans, were, at the outset, war-
chiefs, the burgesses were habitually, when called together, addressed
as " spear-men " : there survived the title which was naturally given
to them when they were present as listeners at war-councils. So, dur-
ing later days in Italy, when the small republics grew up. Describing
the assembling of " citizens at the sound of a great bell, to concert
together the means of their common defense," Sismondi says, " This
meeting of all the men of the state capable of bearing arms was called
a Parliament." Concerning the gatherings of the Poles in early times
we read : " Such assemblies, before the establishment of a senate, and
while the kings w^ere limited in power, were of frequent occurrence,
and . . . were attended by all who bore arms " ; and at a later stage
" the comitia paludata, which assembled during an interregnum, con-
sisted of the whole body of nobles, who attended in the open plain,
armed and equipped as if for battle.'