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APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY

EDITED BY / P I 1 * T •!

WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS \^^»»"C^j^bra^

VOL. XLVIII

NOVEMBER, 1 89 5, TO APRIL, 1 896

NEW YORK

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1896

COPTKIOHT, 1896,

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ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE.

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

NOVEMBEE, 1895.
PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS.

" TTie principles of good government art far from easy to learn accurately i and very much
harder to put in practice.^^ — F. B. Sanborn.

INTRODUCTION.

IT is the purpose of the writer in the chapters which follow,
to discuss the principles of taxation from a broader basis and
by different methods than have heretofore been attempted, special
consideration being given to the experience of the United States.

Such a discussion primarily involves the inquiry, of how far
the varied and curious experience of nations leads up through
what may be regarded as a process of evolution, to a recognition
of the underlying and essential principles of a just and at the
same time an efficient system of taxation. And it also necessi-
tates, for the attainment of correct conclusions in the prosecution
of such inquiry, that illustrations drawn from the world's great
record of experience should take precedence of theory, espe-
cially in the way of example and exhibit of the many abuses of
the power of taxation w]iich the ignorance of legislators and the
cupidity of designing men have inflicted upon nations.

The subject is one of transcendent importance, perhiaps more
universally important than any other that can invite public
attention. Its discussion opens questions of the widest possible
range. There can be no civilization without government and no
government without an adequate supply of revenue obtained
from the persons and property of the people governed. There
can be no health in the body politic without sound finance, and
no sound finance without a sound system of taxation. In fact,

VOL. XLVIII. — 1

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

taxation is to our body politic what blood is to tbe body physical :
if healthy, infusing life and warmth ; but if unhealthy, the agent
for producing discontent, decrepitude, and paralysis.

The absence or existence of limitations on the power of a gov-
ernment to make compulsory levies on the property or persons of
its people for its use or support, constitutes the dividing line be-
tween a despotism and a free government — a fact most pertinent
to legal, economic, and societary studies which has attracted little
attention.

The methods and scope of what is called taxation regulate
more than all other agencies the distribution of wealth, which is
really the great question of the future to all nations. Ever since
Adam Smith wrote his paramount work on the Wealth of Nations
the political economists and students of social science have con-
cerned themselves mainly with the production of wealth. That
problem has been practically solved. Wealth is now produced
with a rapidity that the world had never before supposed possible,*
and the laws governing its production have become well under-
stood by those who have made a special study of the subject. An
inevitable result of this condition of affairs has been, that wealth
produced under the greater control that man in general has ob-
tained over the forces of Nature has aggregated itself, as it always
will, in the hands of those whose faculties especially qualify them
to obtain and manage it, and who, in common parlance, have
received the name of " money-getters" These have become enor-
mously rich, while the masses, whose material condition is also
absolutely much better than at any former period of the world's
history, are, however, relatively poorer. Improved facilities for
transportation have greatly facilitated intercommunication,! and
the opportunity thus afforded for the observation of extreme con-
trasts in individual conditions has operated as a very great factor
in occasioning discontent among the masses, who by reason of the

* Recent investigations indicate that the absolute effective force available to the Ameri-
can people for the production of wealth is more than three times greater at the present time
than it was in 1860. The outflow of British capital for investment in foreign securities
and negotiated in London alone, during the eight years next previous to 1890, has been
estimated by those best qualified to express an opinion, to have amounted to the large sum
of nearly or quite $700,000,000 per annum. And this estimate does not comprise all the
British capital loaned to foreign countries, but only such as was subject to public cog-
nizance.

f The number of people annually transported on the railroads alone in the United States
exceeds many times the total population of the country, the annual number for the New Eng-
land States being more than sixteen times greater than their population. The widening of
the sphere of one's surroundings, and a larger acquaintance with other men and pursuits, have
long been recognized as not productive of content. Writing to his nephew more than one
hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson thus concisely expressed the results of his own observa-
1ic«i : " Traveling," he says, " makes men wiser, but less happy. When men of sober age

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 3

never as yet fully tested experiment of universal suJffrage, have
become, at least theoretically in the United States, the sole arbi-
ters of the policy of their Government and of the selection of the
legislators who are to enact laws in conformity with such policy.*

The problem of the acquisition of wealth having thus been
solved, that of the proper distribution of wealth logically and
necessarily follows, and the character of the measures which
directly or indirectly involve what is called taxation for the at-
tainment of such result, which seem to commend themselves to
the people of the United States, are especially worthy of attention.
They are indicated in part by the adoption of a pension system
unlike anything of the kind ever known in history, and which
necessitates an annual expenditure of money (raised by taxation)
to meet the military expenses of the country — army, navy, and
pensions — in excess of that entailed by the immense military estab-
lishment of any of the countries of Europe, and the enactment of
an income-tax statute whose primary object was not to raise reve-
nue for the support of the Government, but an unmistakably po-
litical and socialistic measure, which threatened to annul the most
important and exceptional feature of the Federal Constitution.

That the diminishing rate of returns, in way of interest or
profits, by the force of laws which no combination of capital can
resist, is seriously impairing the relative value of wealth, and may
eventually reach a minimum which will greatly diminish the in-
ducement to individuals to economize or save it, although not gen-
erally recognized or appreciated, can not be denied. And neither
is it recognized that the current rate of taxation on capital in all
civilized countries even now approximates, and to an extent actu-
ally exceeds, the current rates of interest or profit on its use.
Thus, for example, the rate of discount at the Bank of England
during the greater portion of the years 1894 and 1895 has not
been in excess of two per cent, and the discount (borrowing) rate
for three months during this period was not infrequently less
than a rate of three quarters per cent per annum. If taxes, ac-
cording to popular theory, do not diffuse themselves, but remain
a burden on the person, business, and property subject to their

travel they gather knowledge, but they are, after all, subject to recollections mixed with
regret ; their affections are weakened by being extended over more objects, and they leam
new habits which can not be gratified when they return home."

* " The great, the unanswerable argument in favor of universal suffrage is, not that it
insures a better or purer government, but that all must be contented with a government in
which all have an equal voice. If it be deficient in this particular, if it fail to protect the
poor against the oppression of the rich, or the rich against a destruction of their property
by the poor, it is pro tanto a failure, and another method of representation should be
adopted." — Address of Justice Brovon^ United States Supreme Court, before the Law D^^rt-
ment of Yale University, July, 1895.

4 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

first incidence, there is a problem likely to come at no distant day
before tax legislators, which up to the present time they have
hardly thought of, and which is certain under a free government
to be solved by human nature rather than by statute.*

The scope and methods of raising revenue for the support of a
State are also some of the greatest, if not the very greatest, deter-
mining factors of the morality of a people. " I insist," said an
eminent lawyer and member of the Constitutional Convention of
the State of New York in 1868, " that a people can not prosper
whose officers work and tell lies. There is not an assessment
roll now made out in this State that does not both tell and
work lies." And no member of the convention, or any repre-
sentative of the press, either then or subsequently, has chal-
lenged the assertion. The extent also to which the existing sys-
tem of taxation in the United States has obliterated the sense of
honesty in its people in their individual dealings with the Govern-
ment, removed all repugnance to the act of perjury, and caused
each one to justify himself to his conscience for making a false
return in the matter of taxes, by the supposition that every one
is doing the same, is also strikingly illustrated by the circum-
stance, that a high court in one of the States of the Federal Union
has recently decided that " perjury in connection with a man's
tax lists does not affect his general credibility under oath."

The idea that the proper relation of a State to its people is
essentially of a paternal nature finds much of popular approval,
and is without doubt popularly desired. Accepting this idea as
correct, let us exemplify it in its application to the State. Sup-
pose a father in dealing with his family, placed, so far as his chil-
dren are concerned, a premium on lying and concealment, and
vested with a heavy penalty all truthfulness and straightfor-

* M. L4on Say, the distinguished French economist, in a recent discussion of the income
tax, asserts that the public and private financial history of France has been one of inces-
sant abolition of private and state debts, and in substantiation of such a conclusion he
shows that if a capital of 8,330 francs had been invested in national debt obligations of
France in 1522 and allowed to remain subject to the various changes in respect to capital
and interest which the financial policy of the state has necessitated and required under its
successive governments, the present value of the investment to the legitimate heirs of the
first investor would be but 83 francs.

The reduction of annual income to the holders of the national debts of Europe, contin-
gent on the refunding of the same during the year 1894, is estimated at $24,000,000, requir-
ing an addition of $960,000,000, with an earning capacity of two and a half per cent per
annum, to the total of what is called capital, to make up for the subtraction of income
from the individual holders of such securities in the previous year. In the United States
the shrinkage in the amount of annual dividends paid on the capital stock of its railroads
between the years 1892 and 1894 is reported as in excess of $14,000,000, and in the annual
interest on bonds during the same period at $13,000,000, or a total greater than the losses
contingent on the whole refunding operations of the states of Europe during 1894.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 5

ward dealing, he would be regarded as a worthy inmate for the
States prison. But this is exactly what the Government of the
United States does, or proposed to do, in the case of many of its
so-called tax statutes. Thus in the recent income-tax statute it
offered to its citizens considerations in money if they would for-
swear themselves, or practice deception ; and it imposed a direct
and heavy fine on those who were conscientious and truthful.
Again, when the Government imposes a tax of more than a thou-
sand per cent in excess of the prime cost of the article taxed, as
it did in 1864 in the case of distilled spirits (whiskey), it offered a
premium for the perpetration of fraud that human nature as
ordinarily c&nstituted could not resist. Could any course of ac-
tion, if deliberately intended, be more demoralizing to a people ?
Do not these experiences go far in support of the theory that if a
people desire to have a paternal government it would be wise to
choose a despotic form, inasmuch as all experience has shown that
a republican or popular form of government is least fitted for
such work ? Give democracy a firm hold of the reins of govern-
ment, and it is no easy matter, as the French Revolution of 1789
and the present fiscal condition of France exemplify, to restrain
its excesses.

It should not furthermore be overlooked that that class of
the community to whom the questions of morality and religion
are especially intrusted, rarely, if ever, give this subject of taxa-
tion any attention. If any sermon has ever been preached in this
country by any clergyman of any denomination on the moral
and religious results of a defective system of taxation, the writer
has never heard of it. One reason and apology for such conduct
may be found in the circumstance that intelligent and reliable
expositions of this subject are not readily accessible. Indiffer-
ence or antagonism to the study of taxation is not, however, con-
fined to the clergy. Minds trained in the law are not necessarily,
and indeed rarely, trained thereby to esteem or intelligently dis-
cuss economic subjects. One of the most eminent members of
the American bar recently remarked to the writer that, grant
whatever measure of importance we may to economic principles
and interests, they have no place in the legal profession, the
business of which was, not to make or amend laws as expressed
in enactments, but to interpret and determine their application.
Hence the popularity at the American bar of the legal maxim
stare decisis, which may be interpreted to mean, follow prece-
dents, and do not attempt to invalidate the reasons and conclu-
sions of the lawmakers. Such a theory and rule of practice would,
however, close the door on reason and truth, and constitute an
almost insuperable barrier to all social progress. If Lord Mans-
field, when the negro slave Somerset came before him with a de-

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

mand that lie be given his freedom, had followed precedents, he
would have denied the application, for such precedents were
opposed to it. But recognizing the change which an advanced
civilization had effected in the government of the English peo-
ple, and that the slave was held, to quote his language, " in virtue
of positive law" (precedent), "which preserves its force long
after the reasons and occasions from whence it was created are
erased from memory," he granted the application ; and incorpo-
rated into the policy of the English Government the principle of
which the British people have ever since been proud — that no
person can continue to be a slave after he has planted his foot on
English soil.

Other obstacles, at present almost insuperable, in the way of
establishing a correct system of taxation, are that the subject is
not properly taught, if taught at all, in the higher institutions of
learning of the United States and Great Britain ; that up to the
present time there is rarely if ever given a correct and scientific
definition of the terms "tax" and "taxation," which makes it
somewhat doubtful if those who talk about their meaning and
incidents know what they are talking about ; that there are no
text-books on the subject generally accepted as authoritative;
that there is no clear and settled understanding even as to what
constitutes the main subject of taxation — namely, property ; that
the meaning of terms which have formed the basis of statutes
and legal practice is entirely different in the United States and
other leading civilized nations ; and that, as a rule, professors of
economic science in the United States have failed to recognize in
their reasoning and teachings of this whole subject, that the Gov-
ernment of the United States, both Federal and State, differs in
many respects, both in theory and practice, from any other gov-
ernment that has heretofore existed ; and that therefore ideas and
experiences which are regarded as the basis of sound policy in
respect to taxation in the former are not accepted as such in the
latter. Thus the United States, alone of the great nations of the
world, regards debts and credits as property rightfully subject to
taxation. The United States is also the only nation in which the
taxation of exports is forbidden both to Federal and State gov-
ernments under any circumstances. To no other government,
furthermore, than that of the United States is applicable the fol-
lowing principle enunciated by the United States Supreme Court
(116 United States Reports, p. 631) respecting the assessment and
collection of taxes : " Any compulsory discovery, by extorting the
party's oath, or compelling the production of his private books
and papers to convict him of a crime or to forfeit his property, is
contrary to the principles of a free government. It is abhorrent
to the instincts of an American. It may suit the purposes of

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 7

despotic power, but it can not abide the pure atmosphere of po-
litical liberty and personal freedom." If this principle was rec-
ognized as the higher law in European states, it would be safe to
say that the revenue collected from their income taxes would be
exceedingly small.

It is also a very curious circumstance that an existing system
of municipal or local taxation, which has proved itself to be most
intelligent, satisfactory, and efficient for revenue, and most worthy
of being studied as a model for adoption, has as yet almost en-
tirely failed of recognition or consideration by any of the recent
writers on taxation or authorities on general economic subjects
on either side of the Atlantic.

Again, ignorance or willful disregard of the true principles of
taxation in the United States has powerfully contributed to fos-
ter the idea among its people that they should look to Govern-
ment for their support, rather than that the people should sup-
port the Government. The practical incorporation of this idea
into the fiscal policy of the Government has enabled a compara-
tively few persons to accumulate vast fortunes, has built up class
distinctions, promoted popular discontent, and established a pre-
cedent for state socialism. Figs, however, can no more be gath-
ered from thistles than class legislation, whether it be the rich
against the poor or the poor against the rich, can be looked to for
the perpetuation of popular government or the spread of demo-
cratic virtues. The evil of bad taxation is not merely economic,
it is moral, and no argument can change its character.

To defective elementary education, in respect to the principles
of taxation, may also be attributed the almost universal disasso-
ciation in the minds of the masses between the payment of taxes
and the benefit, or profitable return consequent upon such pay-
ment. The youth of the United States, and doubtless of all other
countries, as he grows up, finds roads and bridges, schools, courts
and churches, commercial regulation and police — in short, all
national. State, or municipal machinery — provided for him almost
as freely as air, sunshine, or water. He has but to live to expe-
rience their benefits or discomforts. At home these subjects,
regarded as dry and abstruse, are rarely if ever selected as topics
for social conversation, and, if casually brought up, are discussed
merely in reference to their bearing upon the interests of this or
that political party. The sons, therefore, of even refined and in-
telligent American families, so far as home education and influ-
ences are concerned, enter upon their duties as citizens, with votes
and voices for determining the policy of their government, with
not merely an entire ignorance of the principles or methods by
which the cost of the benefits accruing from such policy are
defrayed, but with a disinclination to receive instruction on the

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

subject. Eacli one, indeed, seems to argue to himself that " as gov-
ernment and society went on very well without thought or care
of mine during the first twenty years of my life, they will un-
doubtedly so continue during my manhood." And if they eventu-
ally become public functionaries, their tendencies, conjoined with
not having inherited or acquired the value-perceiving faculty, are
toward extravagance and waste in governmental matters. What
would have been saved to the people of the United States since
the beginning of the civil war through wise methods of taxation
is almost beyond conception. The loss to the Federal Govern-
ment during the single year 1864, when revenue was most needed
on account of the war, through a needless imperfection of the
law imposing taxes on the single item of distilled spirits, was
proved to have been in excess of $50,000,000.

In short, it is a most singular idiosyncrasy of the American
people, and perhaps the people of all other countries, that they
will defer or neglect the study of the most vital question which
can concern a citizen. Probably not more than one citizen out
of a hundred, even among those who pay taxes, can be induced,
as a rule, either to talk about, think about, or study how much
national Government costs him per annum, or how much his
State or local government costs. And as long as this is the situa-
tion, and until the American citizen does become a student of
taxation, it is difficult to see how the national and State govern-
ments can be wisely and justly managed.

Of the utter lack of comprehension of the results of what may
be termed everyday experiences of taxation, coupled with a gen-
eral indifference to the subject, which often characterizes Ameri-
can legislators, even such as are popularly regarded and spoken
of as statesmen, the following incidents will abundantly illustrate :
Pending a recent presidential election, a distinguished member of
the Senate of the United States, and also of the American bar,
assured a popular audience that the people of the single State of
Illinois paid a larger amount in taxes to the Federal Govern-
ment than were paid by all the people of the former Confederate
States. Such a statement was obviously made on the assumption
that because the State of Illinois annually manufactured a very
large amount of distilled spirits, the burden of a very heavy tax
on the same rested upon its people ; when a very little thought
would have shown that the manufacturers of the spirits incor-
porated the tax in the market price of their product, and that the
payment of the same fell entirely upon the people who consumed
them, who were not in the main the people of Illinois. If this
was not the case, the manufacturers of Illinois paid and assumed
a tax obligation of ninety cents a gallon for the privilege of making
whiskey costing and worth an average of but thirteen cents per gal-

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 9

Ion. The average annual consumption by the people of Illinois at
the time, supposing that they actually paid the tax on their prod-
uct of whiskey, must have also been at the rate of over six gallons
per head for every man, woman, and child of its population.

When " an act to reduce taxation to provide revenue for the
Government and for other purposes " — passed August 28, 1894 —
was under consideration by the Senate of the United States ; and
pending a proposition to increase the revenue by increasing an
existing tax of about seven hundred per cent on the average prime
cost of distilled spirits to a rate of near nine hundred per cent, a
Senator of long experience, apparently utterly oblivious that the
subject involved had years before been thoroughly considered by
the United States Treasury Department and declared to be im-
practicable, submitted a motion, permitting the use of alcohol in
the arts, or in any medicinal or other like compound, without the
payment of any internal revenue tax. The motion in question,
after very brief consideration, was accepted and incorporated in
the statute and now forms a part of the fiscal obligations and laws
of the United States. The result was that the Secretary of the
Treasury reported, that in default of any appropriation to defray
the expenses of the administration of the act and the repayment
of taxes, and " after full consideration of the subject, and an un-
successful attempt to frame regulations which would protect the
Government and the manufacturers, the department was con-
strained to abandon the effort.'* It was also estimated that the
expense to the Government of attempting to administer the act
would probably be not less than one million dollars per annum ;
that the legitimate loss of revenue contingent on its enforcement
would be about ten million dollars yearly, or " more than one half
of the estimated increase of revenue'* that it was expected to
accrue from the increase of the tax, and that the loss of revenue
from the opportunity for illicit and fraudulent practice, which the
act would facilitate would be unquestionably very considerable —
probably an equal amount. The inference from all of which is,
that when a State sends a representative to the United States Sen-
ate who, through indifference or gross ignorance of the most com-
mon principles and domestic experiences of taxation prospective-
ly, entails a loss to the Government of some twenty million dol-
lars per annum, it pays a very great price for such a privilege.

During another comparatively recent fiscal debate in the
United States Senate, a Senator, who is popularly and justly ac-
credited with statesmanship, advocated certain proposed appro-
priations of the public money, which were opposed on the ground
that they were in the nature of extravagances, by saying that
they could not be grievous to the people *' since they would not
amount to more than three cents per day per capita." But three

lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cents per day assessed on sixty-five millions of people would
amount to nearly eleven dollars per liead per annum, or over
seven million dollars for the entire country.

Finally, there has been one most serious and unfortunate mis-
take, which nearly all who have undertaken to discuss the prin-
ciples and practice of taxation have been prone to make — a mis-
take, moreover, which more than all else is responsible for the
opinion which has come so generally to prevail, that the subject
of taxation, through lack of any fixed principles or axioms, does
not as yet rise to the dignity of a science ; and that its practice at
the best can be but a sort of empiricism, to be varied in propor-
tion to the strength which a Government possesses to enforce its
enactments, or in proportion to the prejudices of the people who
are to be called on for a contribution. The mistake consists in
taking up the subject for investigation and discussion, if we may
so express it, wrong end foremost ; or in devoting time and effort
to warring against abuses ; or in attempting to show how certain
forms of taxation commend themselves in respect to productive-
ness, freedom from personal inquisition, and economy in collec-
tion, and how others are to be avoided for contrary reasons ; and
in not attempting to inquire whether the whole subject was un-
derlaid by any general laws in accordance with which the contri-
butions which the State is compelled as a condition of its exist-
ence to exact of its citizens diffuse themselves ; and which laws,
being once determined, will constitute a certain and sure founda-
tion on which practical administration can be based and conducted.

The fact that such laws exist and only await discovery may
be predicated, as it were, from surface indications, in the form of
a great variety of disconnected economic facts, with just as much
of certainty as the miner who, picking up here and there in the
beds of streams fragments of coal or ore which the elements have
scattered, predicates that somewhere there must be a larger vein
or deposit from which the fragments have been derived.

The aggregates of the sums required by the governments of
the world for their support are annually increasing, but probably
in no greater ratio than the increase in their wealth, or property
rightfully subject to taxation ; and in those states in which there
is a marked and continued increase in the control of the forces of
nature for production, the ratio of taxation to aggregate wealth
undoubtedly tends to diminish.

That there are, however, some striking illustrations that seem
to prove to the contrary, is not to be denied. Thus, we have a
recent statement that the expenses of the city of Philadelphia in
eight years have increased two hundred and thirty per cent, while
the taxable valuation of property in the same time has increased
only twenty-five per cent. In 1862 the aggregate taxation of the

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. n

city of Providence, K. L, was $379,000. In 1892 it was $2,333,000.
In the former year the taxable real and personal estate was valued
at $61,000,000, while for the year 1892 the valuation was $155,000,-
000. Thus the increase in the amount of taxes collected within
the thirty years was five hundred and fifteen per cent, while in
the amount of assessable property the gain was only one hundred
and fifty-four per cent. The rate of tax increased during the
same period from $6.50 per $1,000 to $15.

Among the leading nations of the world the comparative bur-
den of exactions by Government is heaviest in Russia, Italy, and
France. In Russia the present governmental exactions — under
the name of taxes — from the agricultural peasant are reported to
be about forty-five per cent of the value of his annual product or
earnings. In Italy the State exaction is believed to absorb from
one third to one half of the value of its agricultural product. The
present aggregate of annual taxation in France is undoubtedly
the greatest to which any country in modern times has been sub-
jected ; and including all taxes — national and local — is estimated
as in excess of $1,400,000,000, or about one fourth of the annual
income of its people. And yet it is claimed that the prosperity of
the nation is increasing. There can, however, be no doubt that
the financial strain caused by such great and continuous demands
on the income of the French people is beginning to be severely
felt ; and in a recent budget discussion in the Senate of the re-
public, M. Loubet, chairman of its financial committee, insisted
that taxation had reached its utmost endurable limit.*

As far back as 1879 the taxation imposed by Spain on her island
of Cuba was reported to have made the latter the most heavily
taxed country in the world ; the rate on its free population being
then estimated as equal to $34.50 per capita.

The cost of the Government of Great Britain for 1893-^94 de-
frayed by what are termed imperial taxes — mainly customs and
inland revenue, and deducting all items of compensating rev-
enue — as receipts from crown lands, etc. — was £75,427,000. The

* In a recent article in the l^conomiste Fran9ais, M. Leroy-Beaulieu presents some facts
which enable foreigners to form an opinion of the financial management of France under its
present democratic form of government. There is at present, according to this well-recog-
nized authority, an actual annual deficit of between three and four hundred million francs.
The floating debt, " official or concealed," has taken enormous proportions, and is met by a
variety of expedients, and mostly by secret loans (which are always costly), because the
Government does not dare contract a large public loan, the only regular and least expensive
means of extrication from financial embarrassments. Expenses are piling up and nobody
takes any thought of repressing them. In short, according to M. Beaulieu, there is under
the present Government, notwithstanding " constant and vain buzzing on the subject of
democratic reforms, the adhesion of a mollusc to the wretchedest routine and a downright
hatred of every kind of improvement."

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

total expenditures of tlie local authorities of the kingdom for
1893, defrayed from rates on the annual value of houses, or lands
occupied, from gas and water rents, tolls, dues, loans, etc., and less
the grant of subsidies from the Imperial Government, was about
£56,000,000, making an aggregate of £131,400,000— or $657,000,000.

For the year 1890 the aggregate receipts of the Federal and
State governments of the United States, mainly from taxes, as
reported by the census for that year, were $1,040,473,013, appor-
tioned as follows: Federal taxation, $461,154,000; State or local
taxation, $578,328,000. Deducting the cost of postal service repaid
by postal charges, and the receipts from the sale of public lands,
the aggregate expenditures of the Federal Government would
have been about $390,000,000.

Of these large sums it is safe to say, more especially of the
latter national summary, that very small proportion, not even as
much as a single dollar, has been raised under a statute framed
and enacted solely from recognition of and conformity with any
correct economic principles ; and that in most, if not all, tax legis-
lation, ideas not warranted by thought and experience, and based
on expediency or political considerations, have always predomi-
nated. Illustrations of the truth of this assertion are abundant,
but for the present one most pertinent, drawn from recent experi-
ence, must suffice. In August, 1891, the Farmers' Alliance of the
State of Maryland held a convention in Baltimore, for the purpose
of advocating a complete revision of the tax laws of their State,
the imperfection, injustice, and practical futility of which were
not questioned. And after general debate the following resolu-
tions were unanimously adopted, not one of which is econom-
ically true ; not one of which in the light of experience can be
successfully enforced by other than a despotic government ; and
every one of which, if enforced, would prove prejudicial to the
interests of the community which sanctions and enacts them :

Resolved^ that the burden of all taxation ought to be imposed equally
and impartially on all property, of whatsoever kind, both personal and
real, without distinction and discrimination ; that every exemption from
taxation is equivalent to direct appropriation for the benefit of the owner
of exempt property, and an increased levy on the property of those who
pay taxes ; that no tax law which provides for the exemption of any prop-
erty of any kind can be either expedient or just; that no law, no contract,
no device which by any means directly or indu-ectly imposes the payment"
of any part of any tax upon any man not the bona fide owner of that prop-
erty ought to he tolerated ; that debts secured by mortgages at legal inter-
est are among the best and most productive forms of property, and should
be taxed when the mortgages are recorded,*

* In the following chapters the absurdity of the above resolutions will be specifically
demonstrated.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 13

A recent English writer has claimed that the experience in
reference to taxation of the forty-five anomalous sovereignties
which now make up the United States [none subordinate to a
national Government except to a limited extent and in respect
to particular questions], has thrown a great light upon the temper
of democracies. "Half a century ago every thinker predicted
that the one grand evil of democracy would be meanness ; that it
would display an ' ignorant impatience of taxation,' and that it
would refuse supplies necessary to the dignity, or at least to the
visible greatness, of the state." That prediction has, however,
proved itself, not only by the experience of the United States, but
also of the leading countries in Europe, to be the exact contrary
of the facts. "The lower the suffrage, the higher the budget
mounts. Democracy loves spending, is devoted to dignity, and,
provided they are indirect, or fall heaviest on the rich, will pay
any amount of taxes. The English democracy with household
suffrage, though it has reduced its debt, has increased its budget,
increased rates all over the country, and would not be frightened
to-morrow if a great socialistic experiment were to cost it a hun-
dred millions. It hardly shudders when it is asked to support
in comfort, at a cost of about £17,000,000 ($85,000,000), its whole
aged poor. The French democracy has nearly doubled its taxa-
tion and raised its debt more than a third, apart from the tribute
paid to Germany. The German democracy, with enlarged suf-
frage, a poor soil, and nearly universal poverty, is always grant-
ing new demands, whether for soldiers, ships, colonies, or central-
ized officials."

But it is in the United States, with universal suffrage and the
richest of estates, that the extravagance of government expendi-
tures, sustained by taxation, rises to a point which fiscal experts,
like Alexander Hamilton, Robert J. Walker, and Albert Gallatin
in the United States, and Sir Robert Peel or Ricardo in Eng-
land, could not have been persuaded to believe possible. Either
of them would have declared an American pension list amounting
to $155,000,000 (£31,000,000) a year too absurd for credence, and
would have criticised the prophet who made the prediction for
his poverty of invention.

That the interests benefited by national extravagance will,
under free suffrage, always constitute a formidable obstacle to
judicious tax reform, especially if such reform contemplates na-
tional economizing, can not well be doubted ; and also that this
opposition will be re-enforced to some extent by a popular feeling
that something of color and dignity will go out of national life
by any marked curtailment of the expenditures of the State. On
the other hand, the political supremacy of the United States con-
fessedly yet resides in its agricultural classes, who more than any

14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

other are characterized by a spirit of thrift and a desire for
equitable and low taxes.

Such, then, is the situation which confronts any one who pro-
poses to discuss broadly the great subject of taxation with a view
of effecting reforms in the existing system. It exacts, on the
part of him that is to attempt it with any prospect of success, a
familiarity with theory, not merely gained from the study of
books, but theory based on extensive practical administration.
It requires, on the part of both the teacher and the taught, what
Herbert Spencer has declared to be the conditions of success in
all departments of scientific research, namely, " an honest recep-
tivity and willingness to abandon all preconceived notions, how-
ever cherished, if they be found to contradict the truth."

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS, THE FLOOD, AND THE
GLACIAL PERIOD.

By H. p. FITZGERALD MARRIOTT.
PART I. THE PALEOLITHIC SKELETONS OF MENTONE.

IN the rocks near Mentone that go by the name of Les Hochers
Rouges * there was discovered, on the 12th of January, 1894,
another human skeleton. It is that of a man about six feet two
inches in height, but, owing to the head having been crushed, ac-
curate measurement is difficult. M. Adolphe Mdgret,f however,
has calculated the height of the living man to have been 1*984 me-
tre. This he does by multiplying the length of the phalangine J
of the medial finger, 0*031 metre, by 64, a method that in every
case proves successful. The first account of this find, in the local
Anglo-American, mentioned two skeletons, and in spite of it be-
ing now affirmed that only one was discovered, we rather suspect
that there was truth in the first statement, especially as the leg
bones of another are admitted to have been found beside it ; and
all the more, knowing as we do how the skeleton of 1872 was ac-
companied by two others, the existence of which was kept a secret,
as they were too imperfect for the scientific discoverer to describe
conscientiously at the time. This skeleton of 1894, as we must
hereafter call it, lay on its back, inclining to the left side, the body
slightly bent, the legs stretched and crossed below the knee, the
right arm bent and with the hand lying open over the left breast.

* In dialect their name is Baousse-Eousse, the Italian for which 13 Baize Jiosse.

f I^tude de Mensurations sur THomme prehistorique, Nice, 1894.

X La phalangine is probably the smallest and last of the phalanges of the medius.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 15

while the left hand was supporting the side of the head. The
teeth are large and strong, but much used ; the front teeth are
nearly as thick as ordinary molars. Near the right hand was a
crystal of quartz, similar to those found on the rocks around to
this day, but pointed at one end, and about two inches long and
an inch and a half thick ; some suppose this to be the top of the
handle of a knife. The head was ornamented with chaplets of
deer teeth and shells. By the remains and on the bones is seen
the same deposit of red ochre that was noticed on all the other
skeletons. Several slabs of stone were found, which seemed to
have formed part of a dolmen. The skeleton, however, was not
resting in a palaeolithic stratum, though it is considered that these
remains are pre-neolithic. A few metres below it, however, in
a stratum that is decidedly palaeolithic, were found several huge
mammoth bones — the hip-joint head of the thigh bone (femur)
and the socket of the pelvis : beneath these was found the remains
of a fire — a line of black in the stratum — and a large flint instru-
ment, thus proving that man was contemporary with the mam-
moth.

The length, or depth, of this cave was once at least forty-five
metres ; and its mouth appeared smaller when it opened nearer
the sea, before quarrying destroyed it, and, in particular, removed
nearly the whole of its eastern side. At present its depth is about
twenty metres, though the end is but a mere crack. It now ap-
pears as a huge fissure that rends the face of the lower end of the
Rochers Rouges for fifteen metres to nearly the height of the cliff ;
but from the sloping and irregular level of its own earth floor,
which rises several yards above that of the base of the cliff, it is
only thirty or forty feet high, and narrows at the top to a mere
crack. In width it is about four metres, diminishing inward.
Within the dark brown mold filling the lowest levels of this
cave, which for facility of reference is called No. 5, were found
also the skeletons of 1884 and 1892.

The rocks in which these human remains, bones of animals,
and flint instruments have from time to time been discovered are
situated at the east end of Mentone, and extend toward the sea,
which washes their rough rocky beach ; they rise on the other
side of the little stream of the St. Louis ravine that divides France
from Italy, and are therefore on Italian soil. Round their base runs
the narrow old Roman road, which crosses a little bridge of the
same date, immediately after rounding the corner. These ruddy
colored cliffs are composed of the secondary cretaceous limestone,
and contain many crevices and small caverns, in which, mixed
with the softer earth covering the floor to many yards in depth,
have been found from time to time mammalian bones, with shells
and Crustacea, imbedded in places in hard sand and calcareous

i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

matter, mixed with flint instruments. Thus they were known in
1848, yet even as early as the last century De Saussure had drawn
the attention of the scientific world to their existence. But in
1858 they were first actually described by M. Frangois Forel, a
Swiss. M. Riviere commenced excavations in 1869 ; it was not,
however, till 1872, while making the cutting for the railway, that
the first human skeletons became unearthed by him on March
26th, six metres and a half below the level of the older excava-
tions, in cave No. 4. Beside the one on which M. Riviere wrote
his monograph in 1873, two others * were discovered lying near it
about the same time, but so badly were they broken that he made
mention of only that one, which is now in the Natural History
Museum of Paris. On its head were found some shells forming
a circlet, as also some carved reindeer teeth in the same position,
while beneath the head was found a curved flint blade. It was
supposed to have been the skeleton of an Ethiopian, at first, but
there were differences that marked a race that has now passed
away, or become somewhat altered: the orbital cavities were
larger, and its height, though not great, was abnormal. We pass
over this skeleton,! and all that M. Riviere has already written
about it, and all the names % that he has given to the flint and

* In a paper of February, 1892, by M. Binet-Heutsch, entitled Nouvelles D6couvertes
aux Grottes de Menton, we find mention of a skeleton that was found in the same cave by
M. Riviere in the following year (1873), far less well preserved than the first. It was of
enormous size, and was more than two metres in height; the skull was damaged during
the excavation. Possibly this may be one of the skeletons that we have mentioned, on the
excellent authority of one who was present with M. Riviere at the time, as having been
discovered with the 1872 skeleton. Mention, however, is made by M. Riviere of three
skeletons, that he found, in a brochure entitled D^couverte d'un second Squelette humain
de PEpoque Pal6olithique dans les Cavemes de Baouss6-Rousse, Nice, 1873. With the
measurements given of these last three skeletons by M. Riviere, M. Adolphe M<§gret (by his
method of multiplying the length of the phalangine of the medial finger by sixty-four), in
his fitude de Mensurations sur I'Homme pr^historique, calculates their living heights to
have been respectively 1*984, 1*920, and 2'048 metre.

f An amusing Box and Cox episode recalls to our mind the name of Mr. Moggeridge, a
gentleman who many years ago lived at Mentone, and who published an excellent outline
panorama of all the mountains as seen from the Borrigo Valley bridge, and who had scien-
tifically studied the exact maximum and minimum temperature at the top of each summit.
This gentleman, bemg equally persuaded that he would find hmnan bones beneath the other
remains of extinct animals and flint instruments, used to work at the cave during hours
when it was deserted, leaving the soil somewhat disturbed, to the bewilderment of M.
Riviere on his return the next day. It fell, however, to the lot of the Frenchman to re-
move the last layers of earth, and, therefore, to have gained the sole honor of being the
discoverer.

X Among other names, M. Riviere, in his monograph published in 1873, D^couverte
d'un Squelette Humain de I'Epoque Paleolithique dans les Cavemes des Baouss6-RousB6
dites Grottes de Menton, gave that of '* hdton de commandement " to a small bone, un meta-
carpien principal gauche^ appartenarU d VEquus cavallua (a chief left metacarpal of a horse),
which is 0'21 metre in length, or about eight inches. It is pierced by a hole, and he re-

PRIMIOENIAL SKELETONS.

J7

bone instruments that were"' found beside it, and we come to the
skeletons discovered in cave No. 5 by M. Bonfils, curator of tbe
Mentone Museum, in February of 1884. Again three were found
together. Owing to the stupidity and jealousy of the actual
owner of the land, an Italian peasant of the name of Abbo, they
were much broken ; but neither of these skulls, which M. Bonfils
has shown to us, seems to be quite of the same formation as those
of 1892, though the peculiar, somewhat quadrangular shape of

Photograph of thk i ai i mi.hhic Skeleton discovered in the Fifth Cave in the Ro-
CHKR8 Rouges, near Mentone, on January 12, 1894. Reproduced by tbe kind per-
mission of M. Bertrand, Mentone.

the orbital cavities, turning up at the outer cornersj is very simi-
lar. Prof. Boyd Dawkins believed these 1884 skeletons to be of
"doubtful antiquity." They, however, appear more ancient than
those found in 1872 ; and th6 male skeleton was of gigantic size,
being six feet nine and a half inches in height, from top of head
to heel, according to M. Bonfils. The latter also discovered with

marks " devait etre port(! suspendu au ecu comme insigne, II ne porte aucun dessin, ni
gravure, ni entaille " (" was probably worn suspended from the neck as an insigtiium. It
bears no drawing, or engraving, or carving "). We may here add that if what he here de-
scribes is in any way like what we have referred to under the skeleton of 189'2, it is prob-
ably a roughly formed totem for veneration.

VOL. XLVIII. — 2

i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

this last specimen several flint blades, one on each shoulder and
one resting on the top of the head. It was 8*40 metres below the
original floor.

Of the three skeletons discovered in February, 1892, Mr.
Vaughan Jennings gave a description in an article to which we
will refer later on. They also were found in the fifth cave, but a
very little further within its depths than those of 1884, and were
first noticed by workmen who were blasting and hewing the face
of the cliff for stone. During this work they gradually destroyed
the sides of the high cleft or cave, and in removing the hard earth
that filled its floor to some eight or ten feet in depth, at the dis-
tance of about twenty-five metres from its original entrance, they
came upon a skull which, unfortunately, was broken by the blow
from a man's pickaxe, or, as some say, by the energetic digging of
one of Abbo's young sons with the iron instrument used for sink-
ing holes for blasting. From that moment, but not with sufiicient
care, the skeletons, lying side by side, were unearthed and rapidly
robbed of the flints and ornaments found about them, with the re-
sult that none can be certain in what position Abbo found them.
At first only two were entirely visible — those of a man and a
woman — but soon a third, that of a youth, lying between the two,
came to light. They lay seven metres and a half below the origi-
nal floor. All are of great size ; the skulls being broken and the
skeletons half in the earth, exact measurement of the height was
very difficult at the time ; but both then and since the skulls have
been pieced together we have managed to take some sort of meas-
urement, showing the biggest skeleton, from the crown of the
skull to the heel, to be six feet ten inches and a half,* and the
other two about six feet six inches and a half. If, then, we allow
for the shrinking of the tendons and for the flesh on the heels
and head, the man must have stood about seven feet four inches,
and the others, to whom the remaining skeletons belonged, about
seven feet and half an inch at most. No child was found, as
was erroneously stated by a newspaper. The skulls are of un-
usual size and thickness, the frontal bone being at least a quarter
of an inch thick, and the parietal and occipital bones fully three
quarters of an inch. The occiput in one of them is enormous, and
is very much larger and out of proportion to the rest of the cra-
nium, being expanded lengthwise, while in another it is the parie-
tal bones which exhibit excessive extension. The orbital cavities
are unusually large and curiously curved up at the outer corners.
The bones, too, are of great thickness ; they are, however, most
friable ; to the slightest touch many of them will crumble, and all

* M. Adolphe Megret, by his usual calculation, makes the height of the living man to
have been 2* 144 metres, or about seven feet and half an inch.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 19

of them are covered with a red sort of rust, while they lie in a
sepia-colored earth softer than that which is immediately above
and around them in the cave. M. Bonfils explains this rusty color
by the fact that lumps of red ocher have been found near the
skeletons, probably having been obtained from some rocks that
exist not far off ; with this the bodies most probably had been
covered, and the flesh having disappeared, the ocher had settled
and remained on the bones. It is said that around the head of the
man was a circlet of carved reindeer teeth and a chaplet of shells,
and around the necks of all were found necklaces, of course long
since fallen to pieces, formed from the backbones of fish ; these
latter have been strung together on wire. But so many people
claim to have seen the skeletons first and dispute each other's
assertions with regard to these relics found with them that we
only refer to them for what they are worth : certain it is that
circlets of carved reindeer teeth and other objects have been found
in these caves ; all that has been found we have ourself seen, but,
unfortunately, no authoritative person was able to reach the caves
in time to ascertain in exactly what positions these chaplets,
knives, and other objects were found by the peasant Abbo and his
wife, to whose house, not far from the caves, the articles were at
once transported, to be placed with many others which have from
time to time been discovered. These bones and other objects are
here and there tinged with the same ocher rust with which the
skeletons themselves are covered. The outermost skeleton, that
of the man, was lying on its back, the knees slightly bent toward
its left, its arms stretched out by its side. In the left hand was
found a flint blade exactly nine inches long, held loosely, which
proves that once there was a handle of some perishable material.
The woman and the youth had been buried lying on their left
sides, the legs bent slightly at the knee ; the former held in her
left hand, raised beside her face, a smooth, wide, and hollow-
curved blade of flint that lay under the head as if it had been
placed there for it to rest on, while in the right hands of both
these smaller skeletons were said to have been found flint knives,
as in that of the bigger one. Their right arms were bent so that
the hand reached the shoulder. The third, buried between the
man and woman, and whose skull is missing, we have taken to
be that of a tall youth. From the appearance of these skeletons
they seem to have been buried rather than to have been overcome
by some sudden catastrophe, as has sometimes been supposed of
that of 1872, which was very much bent up and leaning on its left
side. Around them, above and below, were the bones of many
extinct species of mammalia — huge teeth, teeth of reindeer and of
the Bos primigenius and the horse, together with many small
flint instruments ; but these would merely seem to indicate that

20

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they had been buried in the cave in which, during their lifetime^
they had lived and consumed these animals whose remains
we find.

M. Adolphe M^gret suggests that, in the position in which
all the skeletons that have as yet been discovered were found to
have been buried, we are " in the presence of a funeral and reli-
gious rite that was perpetuated." Here we would further draw
attention to the little bone objects of various dimensions, but al-
ways of the same shape, that have each time been found with the

Photograph of the Paleolithic Skeletons discovered in the Fifth Cave in the
EocHERS Rouges, near Mentone, in February, 1892. Keproduced by the kind peimis-
sion of M. Bertrand, Mentone.

ornaments that are supposed to have been around the heads or
necks ; we refer to the pieces of bone that measure from about
one inch and a half to three inches in length, cut in the center so
as to form two ovals joined together; they are slightly ribbed
longitudinally ; these were supposed to have united the ends of
the necklaces of deer's teeth or shells and thus been suspended in
a prominent position ; they probably were roughly cut " totems ''
or objects of veneration of their " religious " instinct. Even the
same shaped " totems " have been found elsewhere. For further
and fuller explanation of a meaning that we can not express here,.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 21

see a note in our Facts about Pompeii, published by Messrs.
Hazell, Watson & Viney, London.

Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings, as we have said, in 1892 had an
article in the June number of Natural Science concerning The
Oave Men of Mentone, which was so peculiarly inaccurate in its
facts as to merit a few lines of criticism. First of all he refers to
M. Riviere's skeleton of 1872 as if discovered in 1873. It was M.
Riviere's monograph that appeared in 1873. Knowing the place,
a,s we have all our life, we can say that he is correct when he
affirms that " the east side of the cavern No. 4 * has been a good
deal cut back by quarrying," although he omits to mention that
both sides of the cavern — indeed, the whole face of the cliff — some
twenty years ago came to within a couple of yards of the rocks
that break the force of the sea. Mr. Jennings, from his state-
ment, shows that he did not see the remains till the 15th of March,
and that by that date they were considerably modified, the skull
and arms having been removed. We saw the skeletons on March
18th, and according to notes we made at the time the arms were
still there ; however, we had the opportunity of seeing them on
the 23d of February in a very complete state. We also saw the
left arm of the third skeleton, that of the woman, bent up, which
Mr. Vaughan Jennings particularly says was not the case. In a
footnote on M. Riviere's measurements and those mentioned by
the papers, Mr. Vaughan Jennings regrets that " the exact meas-
ure will probably never be known, as the neck and shoulder re-
gion is now destroyed." We are happy to have been able to supply
this necessary information, from measurements that we took at
the time on the spot, before the skeletons were removed from the
earth in which they were imbedded. Later on Mr. Hanbury, of
Mortola, very generously bought the skeletons from Abbo and
placed them in the latter's cottage with the other remains ; this
has saved them from further destruction. Mr. Jennings places
the 1892 skeletons between the palaeolithic and neolithic periods
of man, and very rightly deprecates the habit of speaking of
these periods with sharp distinctions ; thus it is possible that an
intermediate race existed, while it is only natural to understand
that the formation of neolithic man was merely a series of pro-
gressions from earlier forms. On the other hand, the period of
time between the existence of palaeolithic and neolithic man may
not have been so great as has been supposed.

PART II. MAN, THE FLOOD, AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD.

Flint instruments, the product of man, for a long time have
been often found in many places. It is merely necessary here to

* M. Rividre's No. 5.

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

mention a few instances. In 1715 a flint knife, now in the British
Museum, was found imbedded in gravel with the tooth of an ex-
tinct species of elephant, near Gray's Inn Lane, London, thus
marking the extreme antiquity of flint instruments. In 1797 flint
hatchets were found in Suffolk, and in 1847 flint instruments at
Abbeville. In 1858 Sir Charles Lyell found others in the valley
of Somme in Picardy. Flint instruments have been found in
caves all over the earth, mixed with bones of animals that lived
before, during, and after the Glacial period. They can be more
or less classified according to their form and finish.* We believe
that in all instances flint instruments have been found with what
are supposed to be the earliest skeletons of mankind ; moreover,
the oldest type of flint instrument has been found with the skele-
ton of man.f

The diflSculty now is to assign a period to the earliest type of
flint instrument. If this can be done, the period in which man
first appeared on the earth can be more precisely ascertained, and
this in two ways — either by finding these flint instruments be-
neath certain strata which can be assigned to certain periods by
geologists, or by finding them with the bones of certain animals
the period of whose extinction is also approximately known.
This only is certain : that the bones of extinct species of animals,
extinct yet still represented by later races, have been found in
these and other caverns with those of man and with flint instru-
ments. These bones are those of mammalia of the Miocene, Plio-
cene, and Pleistocene periods. Secondly, the caverns in which
these human bones have often been found have, we believe, been
always in the Secondary and Lower Cretaceous rocks, though this
does not, of course, show that man was in existence immediately
after the formation of these rocks, but merely that they were the
most accessible and convenient for him in which to live or be
buried, for many of the skeletons that have been discovered seem
to have been carefully buried by others. The alluvial deposits,
formed by the action of water, which actually contain man's
remains, belong to a more modern era than the newest stage of
the Tertiary epoch and are within the Post-tertiary series, in the
Pleistocene, Glacial, or Bowlderdrift period, as it is variously

* M. Bonfils, curator of the Mentone Museum, in order to prove how rapidly these flint
knives, hatchets, spearheads, daggers, fishing weights, etc., could be made, has himself
made many with the aid of only stones with which to commence, and later on with the help
of the instruments thus formed. And thus he has found that they only took from five hours
to nine days to make, according to the quality of the flint or agate and the form of the in-
strument.

f Previous to flint, man must have used wood, breaking boughs from off the trees and
making them into the form of stout staves and clubs, and later into that of wooden spears^
bows, and arrows, of which perishable materials naturally no traces can be found.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS.

23

called. But then we must remember that this may not have been
the original soil in which they first lay, for the very reason that
it is alluvial and could have been formed afterward. In 1852
human bones were found in a cave at Aurignac, near the foot of
the Pyrenees. In caves in the valley of the Meuse, near Li^ge,
three human skeletons with flint knives and a mammoth's tooth
were found. In 1858 human bones were found in Brixham cave

Photograph or some of the Paleolithic Remains discovered in the Caves near Men-
tone, LN February, 1892, A, B, skulls of two of the three skeletons; C, chains formed
of fish bones strung together by the holes with which they were found to have been
pierced ; D, carved reindeer teeth strung together by the holes with which they were
found to have been pierced ; E, flint knives, etc. ; F, carved bones, shaped as if to be
tied round the middle by a string, and possibly worn round the neck or wrist as an orna-
ment or "totem." (See note, page 12, Facts about Pompeii; Hazell, Watson & Vinej,
London.) Reproduced by the kind permission of M. Bertrand, Mentone.

near Torquay. In 1863 a human tooth and jawbone with flint
instruments and the bones of extinct animals were found in a
gravel pit at Montin-Guignon. In North America human bones
have been found in the caverns of Kentucky, and in South Amer-
ica in caverns in Brazil. In the Dordogne caves in central
France were found perforated teeth, vertebrae, and shells of
Cyprsea, and still more important the bones of mammoth and

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reindeer on whicli were etched the figures of mastodons, deer, and
horses. Caves in Saxony, Gibraltar, Austria, and many other
places have been discovered containing human bones. The hu-
man skeletons discovered in a modern limestone formation at
Guadaloupe, in the Windward Islands, are possibly of a later
period and are not even fossilized, though imbedded in compact
stone. In August, 1894, Herr Mascha, director of the Grammar
School at Predmost in Bohemia, who has for many years made
discoveries in that neighborhood • and has found hundreds of
mammoth skeletons, has unearthed a family of six people — a man
of enormous size and a woman and her children — near to the re-
mains of mammoths ; this is said to be the furthest northeast .that
primeval man has been discovered with the bones of antediluvian
animals. It is a pity that more exact information upon certain
interesting points has not come to hand. It is equally a pity
that all such treasures of the ancestry of our race should not be
preserved and indeed systematically sought for by professional
scientists and arch geologists, for we know how those at Mentone
have been ruined and altered and their ornaments removed by
the peasant Abbo and his workmen before competent judges have
had any chance of observing the several different points of inter-
est that seem to require even more than the knowledge of the
anatomist and osteologist. These remains at Predmost and the
men whose bones have been discovered at Mentone must have
been coeval with the animals of either the Miocene, Pliocene, or
Glacial periods. But as late as the Glacial period the bones have
been discovered of mammoth and of extinct species of lions, bears,
rhinoceros, hyenas, reindeer, Irish elk, and of the Bos primige-
nius, animals that had also existed in the two earlier periods, and
with whose bones flint instruments have been in different places
discovered in fluviatile gravels and in caves. This, however, only
proves that man lived either during or just -previous to the Gla-
cial period, the latest at which these animals existed. Till, how-
ever, the bones of man or his flint instruments can be found with
the bones of some animal that became extinct before the Glacial
period, we can not place him at any earlier date.

If, however, man existed before or during the Glacial period,
it is strange that there should be no tradition of such a change
taking place on the earth's surface. It may be that the alteration
in temperature was so gradual, and extended over such a great
length of time, that the generations of men who succeeded each
other were unaware of it ; perhaps, too, almost imperceptibly to
themselves, the then existing races of men moved gradually to
warmer regions, keeping pace with the advance of cold, which
we must, in reasoning thus, suppose to have been so gradual that
at any rate nomadic races would not have noticed it by their tradi-

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 25

tions. But such a change in one portion of the earth would not
be likely to take place without a coincident change everywhere
else. While ice lay over a great portion of the earth, the rest of
its surface may have possessed a temperate or almost semitropical
climate, of peculiarly equable character the whole year round.
The race of men born in such a zone would probably be hardy
and strong, and this is precisely what we suppose our first ances-
tors to have been. But, though in what appear such favored
conditions, they have left to us, in nearly all the races that have
sprung from them over the whole world, a tradition of a great
catastrophe— a flood. The chiefs of the then world, it seems, were
saved, and, whether in one ark, or in several strangely and won-
derfully built vessels, were preserved to again spread the human
race. But how came this flood, and when ? And why should
immense quantities of rain descend, and why should the seas rise
in every direction ? If we refer to the probable cause of the Gla-
cial period, we shall also see the origin of the flood. It is, we
believe, an accepted theory that the mountain ranges of the globe
were formed by the shrinking of the earth's crust. This was
caused by the diminishing lava or molten earth within having
contracted at length to such an extent as to have been often re-
moved during the globe's rotation on its axis far away from the
still self-supporting crust, till a stage was at length reached when
the outer crust became so cold that ice gradually formed over all
those parts that were furthest from the molten liquid. At the two
poles — that is, furthest from the greatest sunshine, as also from
the lava (since the latter would be naturally drawn round with
the velocity of the equator, and therefore would be furthest from
the poles and nearest to the equator) — there was the greatest
abundance of ice. After many centuries of this there came a
time when the crust could no longer support itself ; the strain of
the internal lava beating loosely within was too great at times ;
great convulsions shook the earth's surface, the crust breaking in
long lines, and forcing up huge mountain ridges covered with
gigantic blocks of ice that rose thousands of feet high. The crust,
diminished in extent, again touched the molten lava, the ice
melted, volcanoes arose, steam escaped from the cracks, the whole
range of the Andes poured forth clouds of steam, the earth again
became warm. But what then happened ? The water that was
formed by the melting icCy that had not risen in steam to the
clouds, spread at once over the lessened area of the earth's surface ;
the seas rose in every direction and chilled the air ; and thus the
■earth's outermost surface also once more cooling somewhat, the
vapor or clouds dispersed around descended again in torrents to
add to the great sea already spreading between the newly raised
and the ancient mountain ranges of the earth. This, then, is the

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

connection between the Glacial period and the flood, and the
probable reason why no tradition has descended to us of the
former ; first, because man was born during its epoch and was
formed by it and accustomed to it, and living in the one temper-
ate zone on the equator saw nothing strange in his surroundings,
and, secondly, because the only change that man saw was the
sudden accumulation of waters descending from the earthquake-
riven and colder portions of his then unexplored globe.

Thus, man's remains have been found with those of the mam-
moth — a mammal of the warm, subtropical Pliocene period, that
lived on into the cold Pleistocene epoch. Probably his origin was
previous to that of man ; but man may not have appeared until
the end of the Pliocene period and the commencement of the cold,
which, in all likelihood, gradually and surely came on, as the
interior of the globe shrank farther and farther away from con-
tact with the easily chilled outer crust, which it left to fields
of ice bordering a narrow temperate zone ; the ice reaching from
the north pole as far south possibly as 50° north of the equator,
and from the south pole as far north as 40° south of the equator ;
thus the present temperate zones became arctic, and the tropical
zone became almost unvaryingly temperate. Man probably in
his first ages had spread far and wide north and south of the
equator, but not so far as at present we find ourselves ; he had
been gradually driven back by the advancing cold, yet so slowly
that the change did not make itself noticeable to him, and as his
civilization advanced to the time when he began to build and to
establish great cities he found himself settled near the equator,,
even further south than ancient Thebes, and probably where the
great deserts of Arabia, Nubia, and those of the Sahara stretch
their vast plains of sands, and perchance now cover works even
older than the stepped pyramid of Ata. However long, therefore,
these periods of change may have been, it seems very probable
that man first appeared in a fresh, temperate climate, the only
proof of which is that he has several times been found with the
remains of the mammoth, an animal that outlived the primal
warm periods. Probably no preglacial period existed for man. As
for the length of time that must have elapsed between the first
appearance of vegetation upon the earth until the time that the
climax of the Glacial period arrived, when the flood took place,,
ten thousand years need not be too much. Midst the surround-
ings of that Glacial period, however, man's remains have been
found, but not in those of the preglacial ages that lead back to the
ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, and other monsters of the deep, or of
the age of gigantic flora, huge pine trees, and enormous ferns.

If the flood, then, as some have calculated, was only five or six
thousand years ago, then the coldest period of the Glacial age can

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 27

not have been very far removed, and not much, further ojffi than
five or six thousand years from the present date ; and those skele-
tons found near Mentone may be those of men who lived eight
or nine thousand years ago, before the coldest epoch had gradually
driven them further south, near the completion of the evolution
of the race, and its consolidation into the perfect form of man,
whose intelligence lives and breathes as much as does his more
visible and wonderfully formed body.

RECENT TENDENCIES IN THE EDUCATION OF

WOMEN.

By MARY ROBERTS SMITH,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN SOCIOLOGY, LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY.

THE first women who asked admission to colleges which offered
a higher education to men were those whose strong indi-
viduality and distinctive intellectual bent demanded some other
outlet than housekeeping for their energies. They wished to
teach in the higher schools, or to enter the professions of litera-
ture, law, or medicine. That competition with men in these lines
required better training than was afforded by the " female semi-
nary " was obvious, and they naturally inferred that it was only
to be had by means of the same curriculum as that which men
pursued. These first women, therefore, applied themselves to
mathematics, Greek, and Latin, and found in them satisfaction
for hungry minds, if not a perfect equipment for their business
in life. Although many of them afterward married, their strong
intellectuality is clearly shown by the mark which they have
left on their generation in some lines of professional labor.

At that time women were not prepared to question the meth-
ods of education ; in such matters they were accustomed to be led
by men, and what seemed good to men seemed doubly good to
those to whom it was newly opened. Indeed, before the middle
of this century it had not occurred to many minds that anything
else than the classical curriculum could be the basis of a truly
high education. What wonder, then, that women should eagerly
seek that which men valued most ?

When it had once been granted by even a small number of
intelligent people that it might be desirable for some women to
seek a higher education, the door was practically open to any
ambitious girl who had the will-power to overcome prejudice at
home and the pluck to endure the opposition and scorn of men at
college. Coeducation was- the outcome of this tendency to de-
mand for women precisely the same kind of education as that

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

which was offered 1o meu. It is a significant fact that the early-
objections to it were primarily women's supposed physical in-
ability and the danger to womanly character. The traditional
curriculum was as well adapted to the needs of women as to the
needs of men in nonprofessional occupations. It was rightly
felt that there is a virtue in culture, irrespective of the aims of
the individual.

By the Morrill Land Grant of 1862 coeducation was assured,
potentially at least, in one institution in every State. The other
provisions of the act, compelling the teaching of agriculture and
the mechanic arts, also indicated the rise of a new and broader
idea in education. The colleges thus founded were not intended
primarily for rich men's children, but for the sons and daughters
of the great middle class. Coeducation seems to have been a con-
cession to the American sense of fairness. If the farmer's boy
should have a school, then the farmer's girl must have a school
too ; it was obviously cheaper to educate them together, while
social tradition, less developed among the farming classes and in
the States west of New England, offered no obstacle to this pur-
pose. While, therefore in New England coeducation was still
mentioned with horror as an impropriety,* in the more crude and
democratic West it was having a natural and wholesome growth.

The logical consequences of coeducation in these institutions
were evidently not anticipated. The boy who went to the State
college took lectures in scientific agriculture or mechanical en-
gineering, with so many hours a day on the farm or in the shop,
under a trained instructor; the girl who went to college took
whatever was considered strictly ornamental in the course —
French, literature, ancient history, rhetoric, with a certain number
of hours per day of domestic work. But the hours of sweeping,
bed-making, and dish-washing were illuminated by no applica-
tion of scientific principles from the mind of a trained instructor.
In fact, nobody knew very well what she was there for ; it seemed
only fair that she should "have a chance too," but a chance
for what ? Why, to marry, of course ! But nobody ever said
that aloud, and nobody thought of adapting her training to her
probable and desirable business in life.

The West had solved the problem of woman's education by
offering her the same curriculum under essentially the same con-
ditions of life and discipline as those of men. The disasters to
coeducation which had been prophesied had not occurred. Girls

* Young men and young women have been taught together in the Maine Wesleyan
Seminary, Kent's Hill, Maine, one of the best known classical and preparatory schools in
New England, since at least 1828, and in the seminary at Cazenovia, N. Y., since 1830. —
Editor Popular Science Monthly.

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN, 29

showed no physical or mental inability to endure the strain of
college life, and apparently lost none of the precious bloom of true
womanliness. But no sooner had the system become thoroughly
established than a whole world of new social problems was dis-
covered in connection with it. The primeval attraction of men
and women for each other was not obliterated by the higher edu-
cation. Conventionality stood aghast at the primitive and unre-
fined social life sometimes found within college walls. The social
tone of these new colleges could not be much higher than that of
the rural communities from which it came. It was not to be
expected that students from progressive but uncultured commu-
nities should at once be transformed into dignified, self -restrained,
conventionally proper young men and women.

Eastern scholars and teachers who went West to fill chairs in
these colleges were shocked at the crudity which they met ; in
their eyes and in the eyes of the cultured New Englander all im-
proprieties, unconventionalities, and crudities were the oifspring^
of the vicious principle, coeducation. In New England, conse-
quently, the pressure of social conservatism compelled a less rad-
ical solution of the impending problem of woman's education.

Following the type of Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith were
founded still with the curriculum based on the old classical model
of Harvard and Yale, but with living conditions and social re-
straints especially intended to preserve and develop womanliness.
A liberal allowance of the classics, a little harmless inorganic sci-
ence, some music or art by way of sweetening, and domestic labor
as a reminder of housewifely occupations, constituted the regimen
of the typical woman's college. No inducements or opportunities
were offered for young women to enter any professions except
literature and teaching. Curiously enough, few women could be
found prepared to fill the professorships except those who had
been coeducated at Oberlin, Michigan, and Cornell, and to them
was set the task of preserving femininity by a harmlessly miscel-
laneous culture.

Meanwhile the great tide of scientific education had risen ; the
evolutionary theory had been proposed, attacked, accepted by the
greater scientists. New fields were thus opened to men, which
women as yet could not enter. That which they had supposed
would insure to them the highest intellectual life no longer suf-
ficed. In the larger coeducational colleges, laboratories and
elaborate scientific equipments were rapidly acquired. Women,,
more conservative and true to the traditions of higher education,
continued to choose classical courses long after science had become
the most prominent feature of the younger institutions. Slowly
the women's colleges were compelled to add zoology and physiol-
ogy, laboratories and apparatus to their meager courses in science^

30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In 1886 two thirds of the senior class at Wellesley graduated
from the classical course ; in 1890 more than one half took the
degree of Bachelor of Science.

Competition with coeducational colleges made it evident that
the women's colleges were offering almost no facilities for special-
ization and graduate study. To meet this deficiency, and yet to
preserve the distinctive ideals of separate education, a new com-
bination was devised. Bryn Mawr proposed to offer opportuni-
ties for advanced study similar to those afforded at Johns Hopkins
and Cornell, but under social conditions and restraints such as
characterized the women's colleges, thus securing womanliness at
no cost of intellectual development. Harvard Annex offered ap-
proximately the same courses under the same professors as Har-
vard itself, but with meager equipment and social isolation.
Barnard College, and recently the Yale graduate department, have
recognized the principle of coeducation in a restricted form.

The tendency to provide the same kind of education for
women as for men, and the desire to preserve that intangible
quality, womanliness, were constantly at variance in all these
different methods, producing some unexpected results. Here
and there women who were coeducated specialized. Perhaps Ph.
D.'s of Zurich, after a short and brilliant career, fell in love in a
hopelessly feminine manner, married, and apparently wasted all
their intellectual achievements in cuddling babies and training
the immigrant domestic ; all this without any sign of discontent
or domestic tragedy. On the other hand, as many sweet, femi-
nine, docile creatures from the women's colleges, whose femininity
had been preserved to ideal sweetness, went into law or medicine,
declined to marry at all, and lived happy, unregretf ul lives.

The same contradictions were to be found among educated
men. The farmer's boy who had taken a course in scientific agri-
culture refused to farm and went into journalism; the college
professor's son failed in the classics, but made a fortune on a
Western cattle ranch ; the orthodox became the heterodox, and,
behold, everything was topsy-turvy ! Given a boy, a girl, and a
curriculum — results : The boy a poet, the girl a lawyer, and the
curriculum something which had somehow missed fire ! No anx-
ious parent or zealous professor could be sure of the effect of a
given training.

Into the midst of this uncertainty the elective system was
projected by one of the most conservative of Eastern colleges ; it
said, " Let him follow his bent." The thought spread like con-
tagion to the coeducational colleges, where traditions were less
fixed, and gradually to the older men's colleges as well ; but not
to the women's colleges. If a girl followed her bent, who knew
what might happen ? She might become too " learned for the

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN 31

common uses of life." The fear that she will not marry was less
alarming than the thought " men will not marry her." The elect-
ive system meant freedom of choice, the inevitable result of
which is freedom of life. Intelligent men saw clearly that an in-
telligent, highly-educated woman might possibly hesitate to sac-
rifice the pure delights of scientific learning for the pettiness of
domestic routine and the satisfactions of burden-bearing mother-
hood. Therefore she must not be too highly educated, lest
freedom turn her from her proper sphere.

In our day the cry of alarm has again been raised ; more and
more women are coming up to the doors of the colleges ; if intelli-
gent women do not marry, the future of this race is uncertain,
and civilization itself is in danger. Some would even make this
question the test of the varied systems of education for women, in
the hope of finding one which may be labeled, " Warranted not
to divert women from marriage ! " But the problem is neither so
imminent nor so serious as many suppose. Two thirds of all
women graduates marry ; the one third who do not are an infini-
tesimal part of the thirty million five hundred thousand women
in the whole United States. The one third in our day have, on
the whole, as good a chance to obtain a suitable training as men
in the same lines. They specialize and find growth and content-
ment in the sense of power and usefulness. It is not their destiny
which should concern us, but rather the destiny of the other two
thirds who do marry. The question arises, Does their college
training bear so definite and satisfactory a relation to their after-
lives ? I fear not. It is constantly impressed upon a boy during
these four years that he must find out what he is good for ; he
must either be fit or ready to be fitted to do something which
will have a definite market value. But the destiny of the girl
who goes to college is carefully concealed frbm her. During
these four years, who says to her : If you marry, you will need
biology, the sciences of life and reproduction ; hygiene, the wis-
dom to attain and preserve health ; sociology, the laws which
govern individuals in society ; chemistry, physics, economics, all
the sciences which may help to solve the problems which the
housewife must meet; literature and language, the vehicles of
poetry and inspiration ? No one has the courage to suggest any
of these as suitable— nay, absolutely essential — to the successful
fulfillment of her probable vocation in life. Young women are
turned blindly adrift among a mass of subjects, with no guide
but a perverted instinct, and with many a hindrance in the shape
of tradition and ridicule. In all ages men have united in adora-
tion of the dignity of domesticity and the sacredness of mother-
hood, yet any loving, foolish, untrained, ineflB.cient creature has
been held good enough to be a wife and mother. We do not ex-

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE 'MONTHLY.

pect a man to become a distinguished engineer or a professor of
Latin by studying a little literature, history, music, and lan-
guage ; yet we expect a woman to undertake an occupation for
which, in this age at least, a certain definite kind of training i&
necessary, without anything more applicable than " general cul-
ture/'

The want of co-ordination between training and the needs of
life in the education of women has repeatedly brought into ques-
tion the desirability of the higher education at all for a woman
who is to return to the home. As a result, there is a distinct
tendency to demand a differentiation in the education of women.
The recent proposal of a new type of woman's college is, in fact,
a demand for a separate technical school in which there shall be
a liberal scientific training with special reference to their domes-
tic occupations and functions.

This is, however, not a new idea. In all those State colleges in
which agriculture and the mechanic arts are taught a similar
problem and a like solution were presented. The farmers de-
manded that the agricultural colleges teach how to plow, sow, and
reap, rather than how to think ; as a result, many of these insti-
tutions are to-day little more than high schools, with manual
training added. In others it was perceived that, to make a suc-
cessful farmer or engineer, a man must have the power to think
clearly, accurately, effectively on any subject. The best agricul-
tural colleges give little beyond what may be called laboratory
demonstrations in field and barn, while the most progressive en-
gineering schools no longer attempt to turn out skilled mechan-
ics. Teachers of these subjects prophesy the complete elimination
of shop work and practical farm operations from university
courses, and their relegation to the position of entrance require-
ments.

Shall, then, the woman's college be a technical school, where
she may learn all the practical details of housekeeping and sani-
tary science ? It is the same problem, and must also be answered
in the negative. Technical schools, wherever outside the uni-
versity atmosphere, show a fatal lack of breadth. Physicians
with only the training of the medical school, engineers with no
ideas beyond their own specialty, farmers who despise pure sci-
ence, housewives who are only perfect housekeepers, are the in-
evitable product of a purely technical education.

While such propositions as this are being widely discussed,,
the true solution is coming by a natural process. Within the
boundaries of the new universities a few courses are offered to-
meet the specific needs of women's occupations. What women
need is not to know how to cook, and wash, and lay a table, but
how to think out clearly, accurately, and effectively any problem.

CONSUMPTION AS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE. 33

wliicli they may meet in every-day life. As tlie numbers of
women in the universities increase, and the influence of educated
wives and mothers is more widely felt, there will be an adaptation
of university work to the needs of women as well as of men. The
now scarcely perceptible tendency to emphasize the profession of
wifehood and motherhood in its proper relations will be increas-
ingly controlling in all education of women. Surrounded by the
atmosphere of generous culture, molded by men and women of
varied abilities, guided in the special preparation for her future,
the young woman will soon be able to obtain as broad and as
specialized a training as her profession shall require — a training
which shall put her in touch with the best of the world for the
benefit of her home and her children.

CONSUMPTION CONSIDERED AS A CONTAGIOUS

DISEASE.

By a. L. benedict, M. D.

A FEW years ago the newspapers were discussing rumors of
the advent of leprosy in this country. Many were appre-
hensive of an epidemic of this disease, whose very name suggests
all that is unclean, horrible, and loathsome. Although official re-
ports made it certain that the lepers who had reached our shores
were few, and that comparatively simple precautions could pre-
vent the spread of the disease, public sentiment demanded the
most rigorous quarantine and the sending back of those lepers
who had already landed.

But there is in our midst another leprosy whose victims we
meet, not outside the city wall warning us of their presence with
the cry " Unclean ! unclean ! " but who walk the public streets,
whom we meet in our places of business and amusement, in social
gatherings, and, too frequently, in our very homes. It is doubt-
less a surprise that consumption should be mentioned in terms
applicable to leprosy, but investigation shows that a close analogy
may be drawn between the two diseases. Consumption or phthi-
sis, as either word implies, is a consuming or wasting disease,
characterized by a progressive failure of strength and an almost
certain tendency toward death. Although the exact lesions differ
in different cases, the essential nature of consumption is in inflam-
mation, excited by a small germ which, magnified five hundred
times, is just visible as a minute hyphen, usually tilted up at one
end.

The same germ — the Bacillus tuberculosis — may lodge in bones,
joints, the intestines, the membranes of the brain, and, in fact, in

TOL. XLVIII.— 8

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

almost any part of the body. Thus, consumption is only a special
manifestation of the general disease — tuberculosis. The germs
are not merely thorns in the flesh, producing a local inflammation,
but they are plants which multiply rapidly, and form in their
growth poisons as dangerous to life as if they were elaborated in
one large plant instead of millions of small ones.

The germ of leprosy is very like that of tuberculosis. In both
diseases, little masses of inflammatory tissue form around the
bacilli, and then, not having the vitality of normal structures,
these break down, involving other parts in their own destruction.
Leprosy attacks chiefly those parts of the body which are exposed,
like the hands, feet, arms, and legs, though it occasionally invades
the mucous membranes, and it is seen in the nose, mouth, and
throat. Tuberculosis, on the other hand, seeks the deeply seated
organs by preference, though it, too, may affect the throat ; and
many of the so-called scrofulous sores are tubercular. Leprosy
thrusts out its hideous deformities and disgusting ulcers to the
gaze of the passer-by ; tuberculosis hides its devastations beneath
an exterior which may be even beautiful. The greater sufferer
from fever, lassitude, and pain is the consumptive. So, too, is
his mental suffering greater, since the leper is usually a person
who has lived in filth and squalor, while the tubercular patient is
more likely than not to be one who has worked hard to gratify
some ambition and who feels more keenly than bodily pain the
necessity of abandoning active life. Leprosy is not a rapidly
fatal disease, usually lasting from nine to twenty years after its
recognition. Consumption fortunately does not allow its victims
to linger so long, but kills in from one to four years in the great
majority of cases.

In order to see how formidable an enemy we have in tubercu-
losis, let us contrast it with some other diseases which are even
more dreaded. Leprosy is rare in most civilized countries ; even
in Asia Minor it causes less than one per cent of the total death
rate. Typhoid and scarlet fevers are each held responsible for
three per cent ; diphtheria and pneumonia, for five per cent each.
The deaths from consumption alone, omitting such tubercular
troubles as hip-joint disease. Pott's disease of the spine, some forms
of meningitis, intestinal marasmus, caries of bone, and many ab-
scesses, make up, according to one authority, about twenty per
cent of the total death rate of this country. It is estimated that
one third of all deaths occurring in the medical wards of hospitals
are due to tuberculosis, and that a fifth of all surgical cases
treated — many of which are cured — are tubercular. We may
bring these statistics home by saying that you and I were born
with one chance in five of dying of some form of tuberculosis. If
our chance of being instantaneously and decently killed by an

CONSUMPTION AS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE, 35

electric shock were one in five liundred, we would turn tlie wheels
of progress back twenty years rather than allow an electric light
or a trolley car to threaten our safety. No pains and no expense
are thought too great in maintaining a quarantine against cholera,
smallpox — which the sensible part of the community is already
vaccinated against — diphtheria, and the like. Large appropria-
tions are made that there may be tried a yet unproved defense
against diphtheria, but to the insidious enemy that numbers its
dead by hundreds where these other open foes count theirs by
scores we are blind. It is time that the veil should be drawn
from the loathsomeness of " the great white scourge,'' that the
false sentiment which poetry and prose have thrown over infec-
tion, blood poisoning, suppuration, and decay should be dissipated.

In the case of a disease so fatal and so general as tuberculosis,
the considerations of cause and prevention become all-important,
especially since few cases are curable. The most sanguine author-
ity on the subject — a New York physician whose patients can com-
mand every means of relief, and who usually seek medical advice
at the first suspicion of illness — claims to cure only one consump-
tive out of six. Most physicians would consider this an extremely
high proportion, while with regard to well-established cases there
is no question that all or nearly all end in death.

It has been demonstrated by the experimental inoculation of
guinea-pigs and other animals that the tubercle bacillus needs no
dormant period outside the body — such as is requisite for certain
other germs — but that the disease is directly transmissible. There
are two factors in the establishment of any disease — the presence
of the germ and a certain predisposition. It is not a metaphor
but a plain statement of fact to compare the former to the plant-
ing of a vegetable, the latter to the adaptability of the soil. Some
germs will thrive only under the most favorable conditions, others
will grow in almost any person. In other words, some diseases
are liable to occur only under definite circumstances of predispo-
sition, and these may be readily prevented, while others are viru-
lent, attacking whole communities at once. Fortunately, the lat-
ter usually " exhaust the soil,'' so that if the patient recovers from
one attack he is not liable to a second, though there are excep-
tions to all such rules. Measles, scarlet fever, smallpox — in fact,
nearly all the eruptive fevers — find the proper soil in almost every
body, but the something on which they thrive is exhausted, so
that thereafter an immunity exists. Tuberculosis never "ex-
hausts the soil." Even if the patient recovers — as not infre-
quently happens in surgical cases, hip-joint disease, inflammation
of bones, etc. — ^he is always liable to a subsequent attack of tuber-
cular disease, not necessarily in the same organ. On the face of
the matter it would seem that a germ that kills a fifth — or, to give

36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE. MONTHLY,

the lowest estimate, a tenth — of the civilized human race is not
very exacting as to the soil afforded. Yet until recently con-
sumption has not been recognized as a contagious disease, and
the factor of predisposition, as determined by heredity, lack of
proper air and exercise, failure of vital strength, impoverished
blood, " weak lungs," etc, has been considered paramount. It is
certainly true that a robust person may be placed in the most
intimate contact with the germs of tuberculosis and throw them
off or inclose them as inert foreign bodies in his tissues ; on the
other hand, nearly every one is at one time or another susceptible
to tuberculosis and escapes or becomes a victim according as he
is free from or is exposed to contagious influences. A mother and
her baby, for instance, both die of consumption and heredity is
blamed. Bat does the child inherit the bacilli, or does it imbibe
them in the milk — where they have been repeatedly found — or
are they inhaled as the mother bends over the child and smothers
it with kisses ? Again, brothers and sisters drop oft' one after
another, and it is said that " consumption runs in the family " ;
but we would seek another explanation if the same succession of
deaths were due to scarlet fever. Tubercle bacilli have been
found in the dust on the top of the door and window casings, in
carpets, bedding, and wall paper. Is it not rational to suppose
that these foci of infection have more to do with the death of
successive members of the family than a hereditary taint ? "When
we note that members of the family who leave home escape the
disease and that other persons occupying the same house later
contract it, is not the evidence tolerably clear ? Are not hus-
bands and wives, roommates, and other persons intimately asso-
ciated almost as likely to follow one another with consumption as
if there were a blood relationship ? Such questions can only be
fully answered by a careful collection of statistics, taking ad-
vantage of the experiments of chance ; enough evidence has been
already gathered to warrant the adoption of the contagiousness of
tuberculosis as a practical basis for preventive measures.

The predisposing tendencies to tuberculosis may be modified,
often absolutely removed, by hygienic and tonic treatment. If,
however, any systematic attempt is to be made to stamp out the
disease, such an attempt as has been eminently successful in the
case of cholera and smallpox, it must depend upon isolation and
disinfection. We may logically hope to be able to vaccinate
against any disease which occurs but once in a lifetime— that is to
say, we may dwarf the germs so that their growth will occasion
no dangerous symptoms while they will still " exhaust the soil "
so as to prevent a subsequent development of the corresponding
unmitigated germs. This hope has been realized only in the case
of smallpox, but it is quite likely that the bacteriological horti-

CONSUMPTION AS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE, 37

culturist may learn to dwarf the germs of scarlet fever, typhoid,
and similar diseases. Diseases, on the other hand, which are
essentially chronic, which remain or recur without a tendency to
self -limitation, must be attacked in another manner. The failure
of Koch's tuberculin was simply an illustration of this general
principle.

At present the main obstacle to the carrying out of measures
of quarantine against tuberculosis is public sentiment. Public
sentiment requires all smallpox patients to be sent to a pest
house, though, with rare exceptions, such patients can be of danger
only to the ignorant who have refused vaccination. Public senti-
ment kept a poor Chinese leper confined in a bare stone cell with
almost the same neglect of humanity as characterized the treat-
ment of prisoners in the dark ages. Public sentiment checked
immigration and commerce in the effort to quarantine against
cholera. Yet this same public sentiment would characterize as
barbarous the isolation of consumptives, with every provision for
their comfort, in hospitals so arranged as not only to prevent the
spread of the disease, but to afford every possible chance for the
relief or cure of their inmates.

While yielding to the inevitable, something may still be done
to limit the spread of tubercular disease without removing the
consumptive from his customary associations. Barring surgical
tuberculosis, in which the ordinary antiseptic dressings and the
destruction of old bandages by fire will suffice, we have to contend
against the dissemination of germs by the various excretions of
the body. Fortunately, in the vast majority of instances we can
restrict our attention to the expectorated matter. Few germs are
exhaled in the breath, yet it is unwise for any one with a severe
cold or bronchitis to be in the same room with a consumptive,
and no one should sleep night after night in the same bed. If it
is absolutely necessary for an attendant to sleep in the same room,
the freest ventilation should be insisted on.

Our sleeping cars are, I believe, a positive source of infection.
A considerable proportion of travelers are consumptives seeking
warmer or drier climates. An almost equal number are persons
predisposed to the disease, but not yet infected, going to the same
resorts to escape our northern winters. Imagine such a person
passing three or four days in the confined air of a palace car, with
several consumptives sleeping in a berth whose hangings have
been infected from the exhalations of consumptives on previous
trips, and, on reaching his destination, spending a number of
months at a hotel which is practically a hospital for consump-
tives I In many instances public hospitals are breeding places for
tuberculosis, patients with various depressing ailments, includiDg
those that render the lungs particularly vulnerable, being assigned

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to wards occupied also by consumptives. Sucli instances are more
often due to lack of funds than to a failure to appreciate the
danger.

The idea is apparently widely entertained that sidewalks and
the floors of public conveyances and buildings are a sort of ever-
ready cuspidor. The habit of ubiquitous expectoration — always
disgusting and unnecessary in health— becomes dangerous when
practiced by consumptives. Sweeping trains catch a surprising
amount of filth, and tubercle bacilli as well as other germs have
been found in the skirts of ladies' dresses, whence they may be
introduced into houses. How often do we see a consumptive
shivering over a register and dropping the scourings of the cavi-
ties in his lungs down the hot-air pipe, to be dried and dissemi-
nated throughout the building ! An apparatus, differing only in
detail from the ordinary register, is used in laboratories for the
experimental inoculation of guinea-pigs with tuberculosis.

On the other hand, the consumptive must not swallow the
infectious material raised from the lungs, for, by so doing, he
might set up tubercular inflammation of the stomach and intes-
tine. The expectoration should take place into a cup that can be
readily disinfected, or into a waterproof -paper receptacle that can
be burned. For disinfection, strong carbolic acid or a solution
of zinc chloride may be used, and the disinfectant must remain in
contact with the sputum for a long time; preferably the cup
should always contain some of the solution. For use away from
home, pocket cuspidors, or those fitted into canes, may be used.
The sputum should never be allowed to dry. Handkerchiefs,
sheets, etc., should be boiled for at least half an hour — so resistant
are the tiny plants that cause the trouble — apart from other
clothing.

The communication of tuberculosis through cow's milk is at
length obtaining the attention that it deserves. Milk once in-
fected can not be made safe except by such treatment as will
seriously interfere with its nutritious qualities. Ordinary germs
of putrefaction may be killed by boiling, or even by letting the
milk stand in water previously brought to the boiling point, but
the only satisfactory dealing with tuberculous milk is destruction
at the hands of Government inspectors.

So long as tubercular patients are allowed the freedom of so-
cial intercourse they must be held to the moral obligation of cer-
tain restrictions. Kissing has been called an elegant method of
transmitting disease. Consumptives must hold their affection in
check ; above all, they must not kiss little children, whose resist-
ance to disease is slight. They must recognize the necessity, if
they are not to be isolated from their surroundings, of isolating
from themselves children and those at all inclined to tubercular

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD. 39

trouble. Cleanliness of habit and tborougli disinfection of spu-
tum must largely depend upon the conscientiousness of consump-
tives themselves. All these precautions involve a great amount of
self-sacrifice on the part of those affected with this terrible dis-
ease ; they necessitate the realization of certain facts which we
would gladly keep from the sufferer ; they demand a sacrifice of
sentiment on the part of those near and dear to the patient. To
this extent the attempt to exterminate the greatest plague of
civilization is cold-blooded. But a worse alternative confronts
us. So long as we neglect to consider tuberculosis as a contagious
disease, though not so conspicuously so as the eruptive fevers;
so long as we occupy homes in which the germs of this disease
linger, neglecting to disinfect, repaint, and repaper ; so long as sick
and well mingle without an effort to destroy the virus, so long
will the great white scourge shorten valuable lives and bring
mourning on millions. Because its foulness is concealed, because
it strikes painlessly and its wound is not felt for weeks or months,
because it does not mark its victims in letters of red or choke them
in a week with a visible mass of poison, shall we ignore the fact
that this insidious, relentless foe is the chief lieutenant of Death ?

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD.

By CHAELES 8. ASHLEY.

IT is, I think, universally claimed by advocates of the free
coinage of silver that the so-called demonetization of silver
has led to an appreciation in the value of gold; and that this
appreciation has worked grievous hardship to the debtor, or, what
is largely the same, the producing classes, who are thus obliged
to pay in a more valuable currency than that in which their
debts were contracted. The claim is that, by an artificial change
in the value of the dollar, the farmer has to produce twice or
three times as many bushels of wheat as formerly to pay off his
mortgage. The resulting embarrassment of the debtor classes
has, in this view, spread among other classes, and has led to
panics and long-continued depression in business. Aside from
the natural desire of the silver miners to have their product
doubled in debt-paying power, this is the whole basis of the silver
agitation.

If one were to say that for this theory, upon which an interna-
tional agitation has been built, and which is countenanced by a
large number who have given the matter considerable investiga-
tion, some of whom are generally reputed to be competent for the
purpose, there is absolutely no foundation in fact, and that, s(?

40 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

far from tliere having been a rise in the value of gold, there has
been an appreciable fall, he might be thought to take an extreme
position. To that position, however, a careful examination of the
facts has led me ; and this article is written to present the evi-
dence on the question.*

To ascertain the value of gold, two sources of inquiry are open :
First, what is the comparative standing of gold in the mass of
commodities, such as labor, land, agricultural products, manufac-
tured products, etc. ? Second, what are the influences directly-
affecting the value of gold, such as rate of production and rela-
tive demand for its use ? In considering the evidence on the first
point we must be careful to bear in mind what our silver friends
generally, if not always, ignore — i. e., the influence of railways
and inventions in cheapening products. Kerosene sold at Toledo
forty years ago for seventy-five cents a gallon ; recently as low as
five cents. If, then, we ignored all other commodities and the
influence of discovery, we might reach the absurd conclusion that
gold had appreciated fifteen times and silver seven and a half
times in forty years. So with the value of wheat and cotton
in Liverpool. Improvements have cheapened transportation so
vastly that, though the Ohio farmer now gets more for his wheat
and com than he did in the "forties," those products sell in
Liverpool for one third the former price. So this low price in
Liverpool does not mean that gold, as compared with wheat and
corn, has risen. It merely registers the force of other circum-
stances. In using this method of comparison, therefore, we must
be careful to consider not simply present as compared with for-
mer prices, but also other matters affecting market values ; and it
is best, whenever possible, to make comparison with commodities
where the methods of production and transportation are compara-
tively unchanged.

I. For the purpose of comparison we shall go back a period
of fifty years, and by observing the change in price-level of a
given amount of gold we shall have pretty clear evidence of its
rise or fall. Such a method ought to meet with acceptance by
the silver men, because they are, I think, universally fond of as-
serting that for hundreds of years the " bimetallic standard" pro-
vided a good currency, free from all objections, and that our great

* Never until the past few months have the " gold " men seemed to put forth their
case in public argument. Their feeling seemed to be that the silver agitation was a
piece of childish folly which required simply a little soothing talk about international bi-
metallism and " increased use of silver," and other Utopian schemes. Accordingly, the silver
men have really had the field to themselves, and have filled the air with talk about the
" appreciation " of gold, " the crime of "73," etc., almost without contradiction ; so that the
public mind has given far more credit to these fairy tales than could otherwise have hap-
pened.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD, 41

object is to reverse tlie current of events and return to the practice
of the past, from which the nations have one by one unfortunately-
departed. The '' bimetallic standard " was in force in the United
States fifty years since — so it is claimed— although the actual
standard of the country after 1834 was gold, and less silver was
then coined in a year than has been issued of late years in a month
or even in a week, because the gold constituting a dollar could
be bought slightly cheaper than the silver in a silver dollar, and
therefore, though the coinage of silver was nominally " f ree,'^ it
had really ceased to be '' basic money " long before the " crime of
1873 " had been thought of.* If, now, the evidence shows that
the existing standard of value, or " basic money," has lost instead
of gained in value since the days of the " bimetallic standard " of
glorious memory, then the complaints and theories of the free-
silver men are without any solid foundation; and the existing
agitation is like all agitations destitute of justice, simply a hin-
drance to the establishment of firm confidence and prosperity,
and, in short, an unmitigated nuisance with which no compromise
should be made.

It is a singular fact that the method of showing that the gen-
eral level of prices has greatly fallen, and that therefore the gold
dollar has risen, is to take the statistics of prices in great centers
as a final basis. Wheat is cheaper in London in 1895 than it was
in 1845 — much cheaper ; so is cotton, so is corn — the three great
staples. Therefore, say our friends, gold has risen, and the debtor,
the farmer, and the producer are robbed! This, with a little
bogy-talk about Shylocks, England, and Wall Street, is all there
is of their argument.

Now, if we ask what the Ohio farmer received fifty years
ago for his wheat and corn, we come upon the fact — which
must be a disagreeable one for the cheap- money men — that he
did not get as much then as he does to-day. No books of sta-
tistics take any account of the prices obtained by the Ohio
farmer in 1845 ; and our statistical friends, overlooking (or " re-
membering to forget ") the difference in transportation and
other conditions then and now, conveniently assume that because
wheat was higher in London in 1845 than now, the Ohio farmer
must have been rolling in wealth. In the forties, the Ohio farmer
seldom got twenty cents a bushel for his corn, and frequently
burned it up ; and men still living can remember how, in those

* This fact, which must be well known to men like Senators Teller, Jones, and
Stewart, renders it difficult to acquit the leading advocates of free coinage of deliberate
hypocrisy, when they so loudly declaim about " the crime of ISYS " (which Senator
Stewart himself voted to enact), and the " dollar of our daddies," which was practically
non-existent.

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

glorious bimetallic days, the farmer got but twenty-five cents
a bushel for his wheat. In those times the western farmer lived
chiefly by consuming his own products, buying almost noth-
ing. It is too clear for argument or dispute that it has been rail-
roads, telegraphs, produce exchanges, and such-like means of
facilitating exchange, and not gold or silver, that have caused
the fall of the great staples in commercial centers — a fact easily
verifiable by any western man who will consult the oldest resi-
dents of his town.

In a late number of The Forum, that excellent statistician, Mr.
Edward Atkinson, has given a most interesting table which, in
the present connection, I can not do better than copy. The table
was constructed to show at a glance the variations in price of the
principal commodities as expressed in gold.*

Prices, Wages, Purchcmng Power.

Meat

Other food

Cloths and clothing

Fuel and lighting

Metals and implements

Lumber and building material

Drugs and chemicals

House furnishings

Miscellaneous

Average of all prices

Average of all wages

Average wages by importance

Salaries of city teachers

Paper money

Gold price of silver bullion in London
Purchasing power of wages

1845.

79-4
82-8
97-1

110-8

106-7

121-0

102-3

114-8

102-8

86-8

85-7

74-8

100-0

95-8

84-4

1880.

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

1865.

197-0
240-3
299-2
237-8
191-4
182-1
271-6
181-1
202-8
216-8
143-1
148-6
134-7
49-5
99-0
66-0

1870.

174-3
146-3
139-4
196-5
127-8
148-3
149-6
121-6
148-7
142-3
162-2
167-1
186-3
81-1
98-2
114-1

1880.

103-6
116-9
104-5
100-2

96-3
130-9
113-1

85-2
109-8
106-9
141-5
143-0
182-8
100-0

84-7
132-3

1890.

82-

92-

73'
123-

87-

69-

89-

92-3
158-9
168-2
186-3
100-0

77-4
172-1

In brief, the table shows that the prices of many commodities
rose very much between 1845 and 1865, and afterward fell a little
lower than the 1845 level ; while wages, on the contrary, not only
did not recede, but continued to advance after 1865. It shows
another interesting fact — that 1865 is the date when prices began to
fall, and not 1873 ; and thus discloses the purely artificial nature
of the effort to make the era of cheap prices coincide with the
" demonetization of silver " in that year.

In Mulhairs History of Prices (page 7) the author brings to-
gether in a short comparison a statement of the views of various
authorities on the subject of the rise and fall of prices.

* For the excellent discussion as to the price variations of the different commodities, the
reader must be referred to the article itself, which is a good antidote for the reckless asser-
tions and hasty theories current on this subject.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD,

43

Yeabb.

Soetbeer.

Jevons.

Laepeyre.

" Economist."

Mulhall.

Medium.

1845 to 1850

100
114
125
127
125
136
127
124

100
107
120
120
121

100
111
122
123

100

i27

140
127
115
105

100
104
105
110
111
112
99
92

100

1851 to 1855

109

1856 to 1860

120

1861 to 1865

121

1866 to 1870

124

1871 to 1875

1876 to 1880

125
114

1881 to 1884

107

A study of any of these tables will convince one that there is
an enormous exaggeration in the way the cheap-money men talk
about the fall of prices. While there has been to some extent a
fall in the price of most products in centers of trade, it is by no
means very extensive or portentous.

According to Mulhall (History of Prices, page 7), cotton in the
United States averages thirty-three per cent higher in 1881-83
than in 1841-'50 ; and wheat two per cent higher. Owing, how-
ever, to the great fall in transportation, and to improvements in
agricultural machinery, the farmers' increased remuneration is
by no means expressed by these figures. For corn the showing
is still better, probably amounting to something like one hundred
per cent for the average American farmer. During the same
period pork has risen fifty-six per cent ; tobacco, forty-four per
cent ; butter, forty-five per cent, and cheese eighty per cent — all in
centers of distribution, while they have risen still more in the
hands of the producer. If my personal recollection is at all
reliable, we pay in Toledo, Ohio,, to-day more for eggs, chickens,
potatoes, and fruits than twenty years ago in greenbacks. Thus,
by a little discrimination, we see that the " great fall in prices,"
so often and so lugubriously spoken of, is in the great centers
where the consumers and not where the producers live. In-
stead, therefore, of being a calamity, this fall in prices has
been an unmixed blessing. The farmer gets more for his prod-
uct; the city man pays less. Such has been the result of the
construction of railroads, the most beneficent and far-reach-
ing of all practical inventions. And yet, with locomotive whis-
tles reaching well-nigh every ear in the country, from lines of
railroads having a mileage of nearly one hundred and seventy
thousand in the United States, our free-silver friends ignore their
existence, and, on the basis of London prices in former times,
build up a purely imaginary farmers' paradise in contemporary
America.

The evidence afforded by wages shows either that the money
standard has not risen, as claimed, or that the working classes
have received an astounding increase of wages. Take the trades
in which the conditions are wholly or comparatively unchanged

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by modern inventions, and in a country where no economic revo-
lution has occurred — England : *

Ybar.

BHILLIKGS FEB WEEK.

Blacksmith.

Mason.

Carpenter.

1740

16
21
32

16
23
35

16

1840

20

1880

80

Thus wages are seen to have advanced about twice as much in
the forty years, 1840 to 1880, as in the previous century. In the
United States Mulhall gives tables (Dictionary of Statistics, page
463) showing that operatives' wages have risen from two hundred
and fifty to three hundred dollars per annum in the thirty years
beginning witb 1850. Even during the last few years, in spite of
the depression prevailing, I very much doubt if wages and sal-
aries have, taken as a whole, declined at all, or at any rate so
much as is usually supposed. Only a few days since I read in a
newspaper of the city in which I live a table showing that the
salaries of teachers in the public schools had had a steady average
increase during the past four years; and the increase was not
confined to any one year, but continued gradually through the
whole period. However this may be, we can not turn to any
reputable authority which does not show that a large increase of
wages has occurred during the past fifty years in every civilized
country. If, therefore, " gold has risen fifty per cent " in value,
the working classes have had a far more wonderful advance than
they or any one else supposed.

Again, real estate is one of the greatest of commodities, and if
the dollar has increased in value it ought to be reflected in the fall
of real estate. No such fall has, however, taken place. Farms in
the United States, irrespective of cattle, implements, etc., rose
from two hundred and fifty dollars per inhabitant to two hundred
and eighty dollars per inhabitant during the thirty years ending
in 1880 t — a fine increase, considering the accompanying increase
of population.

Another consideration is of far greater weight than any de-
rived from a single commodity. If land rises in value, the rent
increases ; if money rises in value by reason of scarcity, the rate of
interest advances. If, then, the combined Shylocks of the world,
together with the banks, England, and Wall Street, have " de-
monetized silver " in order to " corner money '* and boom the rate
of interest, there ought to be traces of it. Singular as it may be
to our silver friends, there seem to be none. In fifty years the

* Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics, p. 461. f Ibid., p. 9.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD, 45

average rate of interest in the United States lias been about
cut in two. Tlie best railroad bonds formerly bore seven and
ten per cent interest; now they bear four and five per cent.
The same proportion holds good of United States bonds and
of municipal indebtedness. Every decade has seen a great
decline in the rate of interest. If, now, money is getting
scarce, and if, as our silver friends claim, the quantity of money
regulates its value, then interest should be three or four times
as high as we find it. While I do not claim that the fall of
interest, which has taken place in Europe as well as America,
absolutely proves that the value of money has not risen, I do
think it very good evidence of the fact ; and it certainly shows
that the " bankers' conspiracy " theory of the free-silver men is
one of the wildest ideas ever put forth by men outside of insane
asylums.

II. Having briefly considered what may be called the direct
evidence bearing on the subject, it remains to consider the indi-
rect — the circumstances occurring during this half century which
would naturally have an influence on the value of gold money.
One of the most prominent of these is the growth of banks and
the popularization of checks. The first English bank was
established just two hundred years ago. " Since 1840 the bank-
ing of the world has increased about eleven fold — that is, three
times as fast as commerce, or thirty times faster than popu-
lation.''

In 1870 the Bank of Germany did about seventy-five times the
business it transacted in 1820. A like state of affairs prevails in
the United States. A very large proportion — some say ninety-
five per cent — of the country's business in done by checks which
supply the place of currency, and diminish to their extent the
necessity of the use of gold. Fifty years since comparatively
little business was done through banks. In this way the cur-
rency, while maintaining its quality, has been vastly expanded ;
so that the actual currency (counting checks) circulating in the
United States to-day is perhaps one hundred times what it was in
1845. Banks and the use of checks also save the loss of gold aris-
ing from shipwreck and other accident, and, by storing it quietly
in vaults, save the loss by abrasion which would occur if it were
actually used in business.

A great economy in the use of gold has been made by modern
electroplating inventions. Few things are now made of solid
gold. Solid gold watch cases are superseded by " filled," which
are stronger and wear sufficiently well. Plate, too, has largely
gone out of style, a circumstance which is a principal cause in the
decline of silver. " Official returns of silver stamped in Great
Britain for plate and ornament show an annual average of 1,091,-

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

000 OTinces in the years 1821-'50, and only 790,000 ounces in the
decade ending 1880." *

But the most tangible and solid evidence that can be found
on the subject lies probably in the history of the production
of gold. On page 174 of the Report of the Director of the
Mint for 1894 is a table giving a statement of the annual
product of gold from the discovery of America. It may be
summarized as follows :

Periods. Average annual product.

1493 to 1520 $3,855,000

1701 to 1720 8,520,000

1801 to 1810 11 ,815,000

1850 to 1856 132,613,000

1890 1 18,849,000

1893 157,222,000

Prior to the Californian period the average product for three
hundred and fifty years was about $8,794,000. Before 1493 it was
still less. The value of gold therefore — its standing relatively to
other commodities — may be said to have been determined by this
long-continued rate of production. Then almost in the twinkling
of an eye came the Californian and Australian discoveries. The
annual product of gold became nearly twenty times what it had
been : and this rate of production has not only been substantially
maintained, but is now showing a rapid increase. The extraor-
dinary contrast between the annual product of gold prior to and
after 1850 deserves a diagram ;

World's annual product of gold, 1493 to 1850. — — «

World's annual product of gold, 1850 to 1893. _^__^^^— i—

Total product, 1493 to 1860, $3,158,233,000. ^^^^^^^^-^—

Total product, 1850 to 1893, $5,240,878,000. ^— — — i— — ^— — ~

It is therefore difficult to imagine that gold has appreciated
fifty per cent, or to any other extent, in the face of this wonderful
and continuous production.! The facts above stated — its standing
relative to labor, land, and commodities not greatly affected by
modern conditions, the economy in its use effected by banks and
checks, and its novel rate of production — lead me, on the contrary,
to think that since 1845 gold has suffered a slight decline, some-

* Mulhall, History of Prices, p. 11. "Notwithstanding the great increase which has
taken place in the means of all classes during the interval, the average Englishman of the
present day consumes less gold than the Englishman of fifty years back." (J. E. Caimes,
Essays, p. 134.) M. Chevalier likewise finds a decrease in the consumption of gold for
tableware purposes during the present century, both in England and France.

f J. E. Cairnes (Essays, p. 115) states the gold production of the three hundred and
fifty-six years from 1492 to 1848 to have been, in round numbers, £400,000,000 — an
amount nearly supplied, as he states, every decade at the present rate of production.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD. 47

thing like twenty-five per cent.* The decline was much dis-
cussed and feared about 1855, owing to the then novel rate of pro-
duction ; but men get used to all wonderful things, and cease to
consider what they get used to. Nevertheless, the force of vast
production continues to operate year after year.f

So much for the past of gold ; now for its future. In 1877 Dr.
Suess, of Austria, an eminent geologist, startled the economic and
financial world by proving to his own satisfaction that the world's
production of gold was destined to decrease and in no very long
time to become insignificant. His theory was based on the fact
that gold, being one of the heaviest metals, would naturally, dur-
ing the molten period of the earth, have sunk very far from the
surface — too far to be mined successfully. This theory, though
not corroborated by any direct or historical evidence, obtained
considerable currency, and was an important factor in promoting
the sentiment for bimetallism.

Like the other scientific theory that no man could ride a two-
wheeled vehicle because of the perpetual tendency to fall over,
and another, supposed to be based on the laws of motion, that a
ball-pitcher could not " curve " a baseball, this theory has proved
to have no foundation in fact. It is now evident that the produc-
tion of gold for the next fifty years will be altogether unprece-
dented. This production has been vigorously stimulated by fresh
discoveries of mines, by new and cheap mining processes, and by
the fall of silver, leading miners to pay greater attention to the
other metal. The operation of the latter factor is best seen in

* M. Chevalier, in his once celebrated book on the Depreciation of Gold, says that since
1492 silver has fallen in the ratio of six to one and gold four to one — i. e., that gold is
worth only twenty-five per cent what it was in 1492.

f In volume clviii of the North American Review, p. 464 (April, 1894), President E. B.
Andrews, of Brown University, asserts that "it is universally admitted that since 1873
there has been an extraordinary appreciation of gold." This is a very easy way to settle
a question. For my part I do not think there is much more evidence of a rise since
1873 than since 1845. Land has risen, wages have risen, cheese, butter, eggs, beef, and
many other commodities have risen, and interest has fallen — all going to show that gold
has continued to fall. The only commodities which have fallen greatly are those like iron,
in which great inventions have been made, tending to reduce the cost of production, or,
like coal, where the extension and improvement of railways, canals, and telegraphs have
quickened and cheapened transportation. The Suez Canal, Indian railways, and western
railroad building in the United States have naturally had a profound effect on the prices of
wheat, corn, and cotton. In Mr. Atkinson's article, above referred to, this claim of an ap-
preciation of gold since 1873 is not admitted, but controverted. Instead of being "uni-
versally admitted," this alleged appreciation is, in my opinion, generally denied by the best
authorities on the subject, among whom Mr. Atkinson stands high. It is true, however,
that gold has not depreciated since 1873 so fast as in the fifties. The reason is not far to
seek. The production of the Californian period was extremely sensational, so long as it
was new, and led men to fear that gold would be a dmg in the market — thus *' bearing "
the price of gold.

48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Colorado, wliere the production of gold rose from $5,300,000 in
1892 to $7,527,000 in 1893, and to about $12,000,000 in 1894. The
production for 1895 in Colorado is confidently expected to reach
$20,000,000. The Director of the Mint is of opinion that the pro-
duction of the United States rose from $33,014,981 in 1892 to about
$39,500,000 in 1894, while other good authorities put the produc-
tion for 1894 at $50,000,000. The annual product of other great
producing countries shows a large increase of late years. In his
notable article in the North American Review,* Mr. Preston
states that the world's production of gold for 1893 was "the largest
in history, amounting in round numbers to $155,522,000." The
product for 1894, however, very largely exceeded — probably by
twenty-five per cent — the product of 1893. There is scarcely any
assignable limit to the gold known to exist in the world or even
in the United States. It is said that simply by the removal of
the restrictions on hydraulic mining California can produce half
a billion of gold. The quantity easily obtainable in Colorado is
stupendous. Other parts of the United States are also rich, while
Australia and Russia probably possess a stock equal to our own,
and are increasing the annual output every year.

But the most surprising and, so to speak, revolutionary facts
regarding gold that have recently come to light are those con-
cerning the great Witwatersrandt mines of South Africa. There
gold is found in enormous quantities and in a cheaply workable
form in a new geological situation — " in strata the component
parts of which are pieces of quartz held together by a clayey
cement." A part of this tract — about one fifth of the whole — has
been separately explored by a mining expert sent by the German
Government and by a distinguished American mining engineer,
Mr. Hamilton Smith. Each of these gentlemen concluded that
the minimum amount of gold obtainable from the tract surveyed
was upward of a billion dollars. These mines began production
in 1887, when their product was about $500,000. In 1893 it was
nearly $30,000,000. It is therefore not hazardous to predict that
from this one mine will come in the near future enough gold to
double the total existing stock of about $4,000,000,000.

There is therefore, in my opinion, not the slightest fear of an
appreciation of gold arising from its scarcity. It is as certain as
anything can well be that the abundance of gold will be such as
not only to prevent a rise in its value, but materially to accelerate
its fall. It is not probable that the increased production will be
relatively as great as that of the Calif ornian period ; but the ab-
solute increase may well be larger, and it would not be surprising
to see an annual production of $300,000,000 worth of gold by the

* January, 1895, p. 46.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 49

end of this century. The real danger is that gold will fall so
much as to cause a contraction of credits ; for no one will volun-
tarily give credit in a falling commodity or depreciating money
standard. As the greater part of the world's business is done on
credit, this possibility is most serious. It would be difficult to
borrow large sums on long time for the construction of railways
and other great works if capitalists were convinced that after ten
or twenty years they would receive in full payment of a dollar of
the present value of one hundred cents a dollar of the value of
seventy-five cents.

Probably, however, the world will soon get used to the great
increase in gold production, and cease to pay any attention to it,
as was the case in the Californian period. Now, as then, we may
expect that the vast gold production now going on will result in
a rise of the general price level, in wages, and in the great relief
of the debtor class. Barring the possibility of foolish experi-
ments in currency legislation, which, in spite of much noise in
irresponsible quarters, is but small, we are entering on an era of
great prosperity, where all business will sail along triumphantly
on an ever-rising tide of gold.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

Vn.— JUDGE AND LAWYER.
By HEEBERT SPENCER.

IN the preceding division of this work, and more particularly
in § 529, it was shown that in early societies such regulation
of conduct as is effected by custom, and afterward by that hard-
ened form of custom called law, originates in the expressed or im-
plied wills of ancestors — primarily those of the undistinguished
dead, and secondarily those of the distinguished dead. Regard
for the wishes of deceased relatives greatly influences actions
among ourselves, and it influences them far more among savage
and semi-civilized peoples ; because such peoples think that the
spirits of the deceased are either constantly at hand or occasion-
ally return, and in either case will, if made angry, punish the
survivors by disease or misfortune. When, in the course of so-
cial development, there arise chiefs of unusual power, or con-
quering kings, the belief that their ghosts will wreak terrible ven-
geance on those who disregard their injunctions becomes a still
more potent controlling agency ; so that to regulation of con-
duct by customs inherited from ancestors at large, and ordinarily
enforced by the living ruler, there comes to be added regulation
by the transmitted commands of the dead ruler.

VOL. XLVIII. — 4

50 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Hence originates that early conception of law which long con-
tinues with slowly increasing modification, and which, in our
day, still survives in those who hold that Right means "that
which is ordered " — firstly, by a revelation from God, and second-
ly by god-appointed or god-approved kings. For the theological
view implies that governments in general exist by divine permis-
sion, and that their dictates have consequently a divine sanction.
In the absence of a utilitarian justification which only gradually
emerges in the minds of thinking men, there of course exists for
law no other justification than that of being supernaturally de-
rived — first of all directly and afterward indirectly.

It follows, therefore, that primitive law, formed out of trans-
mitted injunctions, partly of ancestry at large and partly of the
distinguished ancestor or deceased ruler, comes usually to be
enunciated by those who were in contact with the ruler — those
who, first of all as attendants communicated his commands to his
subjects, and who afterward, ministering to his apotheosized
ghost, became (some of them) his priests. Naturally these last,
carrying on the worship of him in successive generations, grow
into exponents of his will ; both as depositories of his original
commands and as mouth-pieces through whom the commands of
his spirit are communicated. By necessity, then, the primitive
priests are distinguished as those who above all others know
what the law is, and as those to whom, therefore, all questions
about transgressions are referred — the judges.

In small rude societies judicial systems have not arisen, and
hence there is little evidence. Still we read that among the Gui-
ana Indians the Pe-i-men are at once priests, sorcerers, doctors,
and judges. Concerning the Kalmucks, who are more advanced,
Pallas tells us that the highest judicial council consisted partly
of priests, and also that one of the high-priests of the community
was head- judge.

Though among the semi-civilized Negro races of Africa, theo-
logical development has usually not gone far enough to establish
the cult of a great god or gods, yet among them may be traced the
belief that conduct is to be regulated by the wills of supernatural
beings, who are originally the ghosts of the distinguished dead ;
and in pursuance of this belief the ministrants of such ghosts
come to be the oracles. Thus Lander tells us that " in Badagry
the fetich-priests are the sole judges of the people." Cameron
describes a sitting of Mganga, chief medicine man at Kow^di.
After the chief's wife had made presents and received replies to
her inquiries others inquired.

Questions were " put by the public, some of which were quickly disposed
of, while others evidently raised knotty points, resulting in much gesticula-

PROFJEJSSIONAL INSTITUTIOJ^S. 51

tion and oratory. When tlie Waganga [apparently the plural of Mganga]
pretended they could not find an answer the idols were consulted, and one
of the fetich men who was a clever ventriloquist made the necessary reply,
the poor dupes believing it to be spoken by the idol."

Of ancient historic evidence readers will at once recall that
which the Hebrews yield.

There is in the Bible clear proof that the ideas of law and of
divine will were equivalents. Their equivalence is shown alike
in the bringing down of the tables from Sinai and in the elaborate
code of regulations for life contained in Leviticus-, where the
rules even for diet, agricultural operations, and commercial trans-
actions, are set down as prescribed by God. Still more specific
evidence, elucidating both the general theory of law and the func-
tions of the priestly class, is supplied by the following passages
from Deuteronomy: —

" If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood
and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being
matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get
thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose ; and thou
shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in
those days, and inquire ; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judg-
ment; and thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that
place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee."
Moreover, beyond the often recurring injunction to " inquire of
the Lord," we have the example furnished by the authority and
actions of Samuel, who, dedicated to him from childhood was a
" prophet of the Lord," who as a priest built an altar, and, as we
see in the case of Agag, was the medium through whom God con-
veyed his commands, and who played the part of both judge and
executioner.

Of course we may expect that Egypt with its long history fur-
nishes good evidence, and we find it. Here are relative facts from
three authorities — Bunsen, Brugsch, and Erman.

" That the oldest laws were ascribed to Hermes, implies however noth-
ing more than that the first germ of the civil law sprung from the Sacred
Books, and that it was based in part upon the religious tenets which they
contained."

Mentu-hotep, a priest and official of the 12th dyn., on his tomb,
"prides himself on having been 'a man learned in the law, a legis-
lator.'"

" The chief judge was always of highest degree; if he was not one of the
king's own sons, he was chief priest of one of the great gods, an hereditary
prince."

"All the judges of higher rank served Mo'at, the goddess of Truth, as
priests, and the chief judge wore a small figure of this goddess as a badge
round his neck."

A court which held a sitting in the 46 of Ramses H consisted of 9 priests

52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

(prophets and priests) and one lay member, the registrar. But in another
case (Ramses IX) the lay element preponderated.

Which last statement implies a step toward differentiation of
the secular from the sacred in local administration.

To tlie circumstance that the Greek States did not become
fully united has already been ascribed the fact that the Greek
priesthood never became a hierarchy. Says Thirl wall — "the
Greek priests never formed one organized body . . . even within
the same State they were not incorporated." Hence the normal
development of sundry professions is less distinctly to be traced.
Nevertheless the relation between the priestly and the judicial
functions is visible in a rudimentary, if not in a developed, form.
Among the Greeks, as among the Hebrews, it was the habit in
cases of doubt to " inquire of the Lord " ; and the oracular utter-
ance embodying the will of a god was made by a priest or priest-
ess. Moreover, the circumstance that Greek laws were called
themistes or utterances of the goddess Themis, as the mouthpiece
of Zeus, shows that among the early Greeks, as among other peo-
ples, a law and a divine fiat were the same thing. That systems
of law were regarded as of supernatural origin, is also evidenced
by the code of Lycurgus. Says Hase : — " The origin of his code
was religious. A declaration of the Delphic god contains the
fundamental principles of the measures by which he reconciled
the rival claims " [of the Spartans]. That the non-development
of a legal class out of a priestly class followed from the lack of
development of the priestly class itself, seems in some measure
implied by the following extract from Thirlwall : —

" The priestly oflBce in itself involved no civil exemptions or disabilities,
and was not thought to unfit the person who filled it for discharging the
duties of a senator, a judge, or a warrior. . . . But the care of a temple
often required the continual residence and presence of its ministers."
Possibly the rise of priest-lawyers, impeded by this local fixity
and by want of co-operative organization among priests, may
have been also impeded by the independence of the Greek nature ;
which, unlike Oriental natures, did not readily submit to the ex-
tension of sacerdotal control over civil affairs.

How priestly and legal functions were mingled among the early
Romans is shown by the two following extracts from Duruy : —

The patricians "held the priesthood and the auspices; they were priests,
augurs, and judges, and they carefully hid from the eyes of the people the
mysterious formulae of public worship and of jurisprudence."

The " servile attachment to legal forms [which characterized the early
Romans] came from the religious character of the law and from the belief
imposed by the doctrine of augury, that the least inadvertence in the
accomplishment of rites was sufficient to alienate the goodwill of the gods."
It seems probable, indeed, that legal procedure consisted in part
of ceremonies originally devotional, by which the god Numa was

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 53

to be propitiated, and that the complex symbolic actions used
were superposed. For of the judges, who "sat only on days fixed
by the secret calendar of the pontiffs," it is said that "they did
not admit the litigants to set forth simply the matters in dispute ;
mysterious formulae, gestures, and actions were necessary/' In
further evidence of this priestly character of the judicial admin-
istration is the following statement of Professor W. A. Hunter : —

'' Pomponius, in his brief account of the history of Eoman Law, informs
us that the custody of the XII Tables, the exclusive knowledge of the
forms of procedure (Jtegis actiones), and the right of interpreting the law,
belonged to the College of Pontiffs."
And Mommsen tells us in other words the same thing.

But while we here see, as we saw in the cases of other early
peoples, that the priest, intimately acquainted with the injunc-
tions of the god, and able to get further intimations of his will,
consequently became the fountain of law, and therefore the judge
respecting breaches of law, we do not find evidence that in ancient
Rome, any more than in Greece, Egypt, or Palestine, the advocate
was of priestly origin. Contrariwise we find evidence that among
these early civilized peoples, as at the present time among some
peoples who have become civilized enough to have legal pro-
cedures, the advocate is of lay origin. Marsden says that in
Sumatra —

"the plaintiff and defendant usually plead their own cause, but if circum-
stances render them unequal to it, they are allowed to pinjam mulut (bor-
row a mouth). Tbeir advocate may be a proattin^ or other person indif-
ferently ; nor is there any stated compensation for tbe assistance, though
if the cause be gained, a gratuity is generally given."
So, too, from Parkyns we learn that the Abyssinians have a sort
of lawyers — merely " an ordinary man with an extraordinary gift
of the gab. These men are sometimes employed by the disputants
in serious cases, but not invariably.'' Indeed, it must everywhere
have happened in early stages when litigants usually stated their
respective cases, that sometimes one or other of them asked a
friend to state his case for him ; and a spokesman who became
noted for skill in doing this would be employed by others, and
eventually a present to him would become a fee. It was thus
among the Romans. After knowledge of the Twelve Tables had
been diffused, and after the secrets of legal procedure had been
disclosed by a secretary of Appius Claudius, there grew up a class
of men, the jurisconsulti, learned in the law, who gave their ad-
vice, and also, later, advocates distinguished by their oratorical
powers, who, as among ourselves, were furnished with materials
and suggestions by lawyers of lower grade.

The superposing of civilizations and of religions throughout
Northern Europe after Roman days, complicated the relations

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

between religion and law, and between those who administered
them. Nevertheless, the evidence everywhere points to the con-
clusion we have already reached.

Beginning with heathen times there may be put first the facts
which Sir George Dasent gives us respecting the ancient Norse.
He writes : —

The priest *' was the only civil, just as he was the only religious author-
ity — minister and magistrate in one."

" In trials ... it fell on him [the priest] to name the judges, and to
superintend the proceedings."

But it seems that even in those rude days there had come into ex-
istence non-clerical advocates.

*' There were the lawmen or lawyers (logmenn), a class which we shall
find still flourishing in the time of which our Saga tells. They were pri-
vate persons, invested with no official character." "They seem to have
been simply law-skilled men, * counsel ' to whom men in need of advice
betook themselves."

In harmony with these statements are those made by an au-
thority respecting Old-English institutions, Mr. Gomme. He
says —

'* We learn from the historians of Saxony that the ' Frey Feldgericht ' of
Corbey was, in pagan times, under the supremacy of the priests of the
Eresburgh."

*' There can be little doubt that the church or temple of primitive so-
ciety was the self- same spot as the assembly -place of the people and the
court of justice."

In support of this last conclusion it may be remarked that as in
early times gatherings for worship afforded occasions for trad-
ing, so they also afforded occasions for legal settlements of dis-
putes ; and further that the use of the sacred edifice for this pur-
pose (as among the Babylonians) was congruous with the concep-
tion, everywhere anciently entertained, that legal proceedings
tacitly or avowedly invoked divine interposition — tacitly in the
taking of an oath and avowedly in trial by judicial combat.

The conquest of northern heathenism by Christianity gradu-
ally led to subjugation of the heathen system of law by the sys-
tem of law the Church imposed — partly its own, the canon law,
and partly that inherited from Roman civilization, the civil
law. The rules of conduct which, transmitted from the heathen
priesthood, had become the common law, were in large meas-
ure overridden by the rules of conduct which the Christian
priesthood either enacted or adopted. In early English days
lay and clerical magnates co-operated in the local courts: laws
derived from the old religion and from the new religion were
jointly enforced.

" The clergy, in particular, as they then engrossed almost every other
branch of learning, so (like their predecessors, the British Druids), they

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 5^

were peculiarly remarkable for their proficiency in the study of the law.
. . . The judges therefore were usually created out of the sacred order, as
was likewise the case among the Normans ; and all the inferior ofiBces
were supplied by the lower clergy, which has occasioned their successors
to be denominated clerks to this day."

But with the growth of papal power a change began. As writes
the author just quoted, Stephen —

" It soon became an established maxim in the papal system of policy, that
all ecclesiastical persons, and all ecclesiastical causes, should be solely and
entirely subject to ecclesiastical jurisdiction only.''

After the conquest, when shoals of foreign clergy came over, and
when they and the pre-existing monastic clergy were bribed
by endowments to support the Conqueror, the papal policy pre-
vailed so far as to separate the ecclesiastical court from the
civil court ; after which " the Saxon laws were soon overborne
by the Norman justiciaries." In subsequent reigns, according
to Hallam —

" the clergy combined its study \i. e., the Roman law] with that of their
own canons ; it was a maxim that every canonist must be a civilian, and
that no one could be a good civilian unless he were also a canonist."
Along with acceptance of the doctrine that the Christian high
priest, the pope, was an oracle through whom God spoke, there
was established in Christendom a theory of law like that held by
ancient peoples : laws were divine dicta and priests divinely au-
thorized interpreters of them. Under these circumstances the
ecclesiastical courts extended their jurisdiction to secular causes ;
until, gradually, the secular courts were almost deprived of
power : the removal of criminal clerics from secular jurisdiction
and the penalty of excommunication on those who in any serious
way opposed the clerical power, being of course efficient weapons.
The condition of things then existing is well shown by the fol-
lowing statement of Prof. Maitland : —

" If we look back to Richard I.'s reign we may see, as the highest tem-
poral court of the realm, a court chiefly composed of ecclesiastics, presided
over by an archbishop, who is also Chief Justiciar; he will have at his side
two or three bishops, two or three archdeacons, and but two or three lay-
men. The greatest judges even of Henry III.'s reign are ecclesiastics,
though by this time it has become scandalous for a bishop to do much sec-
ular justice."

Not only were priests the judges and the interpreters of law,
but they at one time discharged subordinate legal functions. In
Germany, according to Stolzel, the notarial profession was in the
hands of ecclesiastics. France, during the 13th century, furnished
like evidence. Clerics played the parts of procureurs or attorneys,
according to Fournier, who says : —

" les ecclesiastiques ne pouvait, en principe, accepter ces fonctions que pour
representer les pauvres, les eglises, ou dans les causes spirituelles. "

$6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

So, too, was it with the function of advocate. Sainte Palaye
writes —

" Loisel . . . remarks that in the time of Philip [the Fair] and since, the
best of them were ' ecclesiastical persons instructed in the Canon and Civil
Law, learning practice chiefly by the decretals.' "

However, according to Fournier, this function was limited to cer-
tain cases —

" le pretre ne pent exercer les fonctions d'avocat si ce n'est au profit de son
Eglise et des pauvres, et sans recevoir de salaire."

But in England, when ecclesiastics had been forbidden by the
pope to make their appearance in secular courts, it appears that
they evaded the prohibition by disguising themselves.

"Sir H. Spelman conjectures (Glossar. 335), that coifs were introduced
to hide the tonsure of such renegade clerks, as were still tempted to remain
in the secular courts in the quality of advocates or judges, notwithstanding
their prohibition by canon."

From which it would seem that the " renegade clerks " became
barristers who personally received the profits of their advocacy.

By what steps the complete secularization of the legal class
was effected in England, it does not here concern us to ascertain.
It suffices to observe the state of things now arrived at.

So long have our judges ceased to display any clerical attri-
butes, that now, to the ordinary citizen, the statement that they
were once priests is surprising. If there remains any trace of the
original condition of things, it is only in such a fact as that the
Archbishop of Canterbury retains the power of conferring the de-
gree of Doctor of Civil Law ; which degree, however, is one cover-
ing only a restricted sphere of practice. But, while, save perhaps
in observance of certain ceremonies and seasons, separation of
judicial functionaries from clerical functionaries has long been
complete, separation of certain areas of jurisdiction has taken
place quite recently. Until some five and thirty years ago eccle-
siastical courts still had jurisdiction over some secular matters —
testamentary and matrimonial ; but they were then deprived of
this jurisdiction, and retained none save over affairs within the
Church itself.

In conformity with the usual course of things, while the legal
profession has been differentiating from the ecclesiastical, there
have been going on differentiations within the legal profession
itself. Originally, beyond the judge and the two suitors there
occasionally existed only the advocate — a functionary who, be-
coming established, presently rendered his services to defendants
as well as to plaintiffs. Gradually these ancillary agencies have
complicated ; until now there are various classes and sub- classes
of those who conduct legal proceedings.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 57

The original body of them has separated itself primarily into
two great divisions — those directly concerned in carrying on
causes in law-courts and those indirectly concerned who prepare
the cases, collect evidence, summon witnesses, etc. Within the
first of these classes has arisen a partial distinction between those
whose business is mainly in courts and those whose business is
mainly in chambers ; and there are further segregations deter-
mined by the different courts in which the pleadings are carried
on. To which add the cross-division of this class into Queen's
Counsel or leaders, and ordinary barristers or juniors. Then in
the accessory class — lawyers commonly so-called — we have the
distinction, once well recognised, between attorneys and solic-
itors, arising from the separate divisions of jurisprudence with
which they were concerned, but which has now lapsed. And we
have various miscellaneous subdivisions partially established, as
of those mainly concerned with litigious matter and those mainly
concerned with non-litigious matter ; of those who transact busi-
ness directly and of those who act for others ; those who are par-
liamentary agents ; and so on.

In their general character, if not in their details, the facts now
to be named will be anticipated by the reader. He will look for
illustrations of the integrating tendency, and he will not be mis-
taken in so doing.

Very soon after the divergence of the legal class from the
clerical class had commenced, there arose some union among
members of the legal class. Thus we read that in France —
"En 1274, le concile de Lyon, dans quelques dispositions relatives aux pro-
cureurs, les met a peu pres sur le meme pied que les avocats. C'est que d^s
lors les procureurs forment une corporation qui se gouveme sous I'autorite
des Juges d'Eglise."

In England also it appears that the two processes began almost
simultaneously. When the deputies of the king in his judicial
capacity ceased to be wholly nomadic, and fixed courts of justice
were established at Westminster, the advocates, who were before
dispersed about the kingdom, began to aggregate in London,
where, as Stephen says, they " naturally fell into a kind of col-
legiate order." Hence resulted the Inns of Court, in which lec-
tures were read and eventually degrees given: the keeping of
terms being for a long time the only requirement, and the pass-
ing of an examination having but recently become a needful
qualification for a call to the bar. Within this aggregate, consti-
tuting the collegiate body, we have minor divisions — the benchers
who are its governors, the barristers, and the students. This pro-
cess of incorporation began before the reign of Edward I; and
while certain of the inns, devoted to that kind of law which has

58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

now ceased to be marked off, have dwindled away, the others still
form the centres of integration for the higher members of the
legal profession.

Then we come to the lower members, who in early days be-
came incorporated.

" It was ordained by stat. 4 Henry IV. c. 18, that all attornies should be
examined by the justices, and by their discretions their names should be
put in a roll: they were to be good and virtuous, and of good fame. ^"^

Other groupings of more modern and less coherent kinds have
to be named. There is the Bar Committee, serving as an organ
for the practising barristers; and there are the relatively vague
unions of barristers who go the same circuits. For solicitors
there is in London a central Law Society, along with which may
be named Law Societies in leading provincial districts ; and there
are also various benevolent associations formed within these
larger bodies.

Nor let us omit to notice how in this case, as in all cases, the
process of integration has been accompanied by progress in defi-
niteness. Early in its history the body of barristers separated
itself by its regulations from the trading community ; and then,
more recently, it has increased its distinctness of demarcation by
excluding those not adequately instructed. So too, with the body
of solicitors. This has fenced itself round by certain regulations
respecting admission, conduct, and practice, in such wise that by
striking off the rolls those who have not conformed to the rules
complete precision is given to the limits of the body.

And then, as serving to hold together these larger and smaller
definitely consolidated aggregates, we have various periodicals —
several weekly law-journals, and now also a law-quarterly.

A CURIOUS case of dual consciousness is recorded in the English journal
Brain, by Dr. Lewis C. Bruce, late of the Derby Borough Lunatic Asylum.
Deterioration is going on in the brain of the patient, but at different rates in
the two lobes. Sometimes the right side alone acts ; and then the patient
talks Welsh, takes little interest in life, does not care for money or tobacco
or for anything but his food, is left-handed, and is almost idiotic. When
that side of the brain is inert and the left side is acting, the patient speaks
chiefly English, is eager for money and tobacco, being even almost ready
to steal them, and is right-handed. For a short interval between these
two conditions, he mingles Welsh and English words, uses both hands,
and is about halfway active. Of specimens of his handwriting in both
stages, the Welsh can hardly be read and goes from right to left, while the
English is legible, from left to right, and is generally normal. In either
stage he seems to have no knowledge of what has passed in the other.
The case seems to suggest that the two sides of the brain may have action
independently of one another, and may be organs of communication with
the external world of often very different degrees of power.

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 59

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY.*

By DANIEL G. BRINTON.

A MODERN philosopher has advanced the maxim that what
is first in thought is last in expression, illustrating it by
the rules of grammar, which are present even in unwritten lan-
guages, whose speakers have no idea of syntax or parts of
speech.

It may be that this is the reason why man, who has ever been
the most important creature to himself in existence, has never
seriously and to the best of his abilities made a study of his own
nature, its wants and its weaknesses, and how best he could sat-
isfy the one and amend the other.

The branch of human learning which undertakes to do this is
one of the newest of the sciences ; in fact, it has scarcely yet
gained admission as a science at all, and is rather looked upon as
a dilettante occupation, suited to persons of elegant leisure and re-
tired old gentlemen, and without any very direct or visible prac-
tical applications or concern with the daily affairs of life.

It is with the intention of correcting this prevalent impres-
sion that I address you to-day. My endeavor will be to point out
both the immediate and remote aims of the science of anthro-
pology, and to illustrate by some examples the bearings they
have, or surely soon will have, on the thoughts and acts of civi-
lized communities and intelligent individuals.

It is well at the outset to say that I use the term anthropology
in the sense in which it has been adopted by this association — that
is, to include the study of the whole of man, his psychical as well
as his physical nature, and the products of all his activities,
whether in the past or in the present. By some writers, es-
pecially on the Continent of Europe, the term anthropology is
restricted to what we call physical anthropology or somatology, a
limitation of the generic term which we can not but deplore.
Others again, and some of worthy note, would exclude from it
the realm of history, confining it in time to the research of pre-
historic epochs, and in extent, to the investigation of savage
nations.

I can not too positively protest against such opinions. Thus
"cabined, cribbed, confined," it could never soar to that lofty
eminence whence it could survey the whole course of the life of
the species, note the development of its inborn tendencies, and
mark the lines along which it has been moving since the first

* Address of the retiring president of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, delivered at Springfield, Mass., August 29, 1895.

6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

syllables of recorded time ; for this, and nothing less than this,
is the bold ambition toward which aspires this crowning bough
of the tree of human knowledge.

You will readily understand from this the magnitude of the
material which anthropology includes within its domain. First,
it investigates the physical life of man in all its stages and in
every direction. While he is still folded in the womb, it watches
his embryonic progress through those lower forms, which seem
the reminiscences of far-off stages of the evolution of the species,
until the child is born into the world, endowed with the heritage
transmitted from innumerable ancestors and already rich in per-
sonal experiences from its prenatal life. These combined decide
the individual's race and strain, and potently incline, if they do
not absolutely coerce, his tastes and ambitions, his fears and
hopes, his failure or success.

On the differences thus brought about, and later nourished by
the environment, biology, as applied to the human species, is
based ; and on them as expressed in aggregates, ethnography, the
separation of the species into its subspecies and smaller groups,
is founded. It has been observed that numerous and persistent
although often slight differences arose in remote times, independ-
ently, on each of the great continental areas, sufficient to charac-
terize with accuracy these subspecies. We therefore give to
such the terms " races " or " varieties " of man.

All these are the physical traits of men. They are studied by
the anatomist, the embryologist, the physician; and the closest
attention to them is indispensable if we would attain a correct
understanding of the creature man and his position in the chain
of organic life.

But there is another vast field of study wholly apart from
this and even more fruitful in revelations. It illustrates man's
mental or psychical nature, his passions and instincts, his emo-
tions and thoughts, his powers of ratiocination, volition, and ex-
pression. These are preserved and displayed subjectively in his
governments and religions, his laws and his languages, his words
and his writings, and, objectively, in his manufactures and struc-
tures, in the environment which he himself creates — in other
words, in all that which we call the arts, be they " hooked to some
useful end " or designed to give pleasure only.

It is not sufficient to study these as we find them in the pres-
ent. We should learn little by such a procedure. What we are
especially seeking is to discover their laws of growth, and this
can only be done by tracing these outward expressions of the in-
ward faculties step by step back to their incipiency. This leads
us inevitably to that branch of learning which is known as
archaeology, " the study of ancient things," and more and more

TEE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 61

to that part of archaeology called prehistoric, for that concerns
itself with the most ancient ; and the most ancient is the simplest,
and the simplest is the most transparent, and therefore the most
instructive.

Prehistoric archaeology is a new science. I can remember
when neither its name nor its methods were known to the most
learned anthropologists. But it has already taught us by incon-
trovertible arguments a wonderful truth — a truth opposing and
reducing to naught many teachings of the sages and seers of past
generations. They imagined that the primal man had fallen from
some high estate ; that he had forfeited by his own falseness, or
been driven by some hard fate, from a pristine paradise, an Eden
garden, an Arcadia ; that his ancestors were demigods and heroes,
himself their degenerate descendant.

How has prehistoric archaeology reversed this picture ? We
know beyond cavil or question that the earliest was also the
lowest man, the most ignorant, the most brutish, naked, homeless,
half speechless. But the gloom surrounding this distant back-
ground of the race is relieved by rays of glory, for with knowl-
edge not less positive are we assured that through all hither time,
through seeming retrogressions and darkened epochs, the advance
of the race in the main toward a condition better by every stand-
ard has been certain and steady, " ne'er known retiring ebb, but
kept due on."

Archaeology, however, is, after all, a dealing with dry bones, a
series of inferences from inanimate objects. The color and the
warmth of life it never has. How can we divine the real mean-
ing of the fragments and ruins, the forgotten symbols and the
perished gods, it shows us ?

The means has been found, and this through a discovery little
less than marvelous, the most pregnant of all that anthropology
has yet offered, not yet appreciated even by the learned. This
discovery is that of the physical unity of man, the parallelism of
his development everywhere and in all time ; any, more, the nigh
absolute uniformity of his thoughts and actions, his aims and
methods, when in the same degree of development, no matter
where he is or in what epoch living. Scarcely anything but his
geographical environment, using that term in its larger sense,
seems to modify the monotonous sameness of his creations.

I shall refer more than once to this discovery, for its full recog-
nition is the corner stone of true anthropology. In this connec-
tion I refer to it for its application to archaeology. It teaches us
this : That when we find a living nation of low culture we are
safe in taking its modes of thought and feeling as analogous to
those of extinct tribes whose remains show them to have been in
about the same stage of culture.

62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This emphasizes the importance of a prolonged and profound
investigation of the few savage tribes who still exist, for, al-
though none of them is as rude or as brutelike as primitive man,
they stand nearest to his condition, and, moreover, so rapid now-
adays is the extension of culture that probably not one of them
will remain untouched by its presence another score of years.

Another discovery, also very recent, has enabled us to throw
light on the prehistoric or forgotten past. "We have found that
much of it, thought to be long since dead, is still alive and in our
midst, under forms easily enough recognized when our attention
is directed to them. This branch of anthropology is known as
folklore. It investigates the stories, the superstitions, the beliefs,
and customs which prevail among the unlettered, the isolated, and
the young ; for these are nothing less than survivals of the my-
thologies, the legal usages, and the sacred rites of earlier genera-
tions. It is surprising to observe how much of the past we have
been able to reconstruct from this humble and long-neglected
material.

From what I have already said, you will understand some of
the aims of anthropology, those which I will call its " immediate "
aims. They are embraced in the collection of accurate informa-
tion about man and men, about the individual and the group, as
they exist now and as they have existed at any and all times in
the past, here where we are and on every continent and island
of the globe.

We desire to know about a man his weight and his measure,
the shape of his head, the color of his skin, and the curl of his
hair ; we would pry into all his secrets and his habits, discover
his deficiencies and debilities, learn his language, and inquire
about his politics and his religion — yes, probe those recesses of his
body and his soul which he conceals from wife and brother. This
we would do with every man and every woman, and, not content
with the doing it, we would register all these facts in tables and
columns, so that they should become perpetual records, to which
we give the name " vital statistics."

The generations of the past escape such personal investigation,
but not our pursuit. We rifle their graves, measure their skulls,
and analyze their bones ; we carry to our museums the utensils
and weapons, the gods and jewels, which sad and loving hands
laid beside them ; .we dig up the foundations of their houses and
cart off the monuments which their proud kings set up. Nothing
is sacred to us; and yet nothing to us is vile or worthless. The
broken potsherd, with half-gnawed bone, cast on the refuse heap,
conveys a message to us more pregnant with meaning, more in-
dicative of what the people were, than the boastful inscription
which, their king caused to be engraved on royal marble.

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 63

This gleaning and gathering, this collecting and storing of
facts about man from all quarters of the world and all epochs of
his existence, is the first and indispensable aim of anthropologic
science. It is pressing and urgent beyond all other aims at this
period of its existence as a science, for here more than elsewhere
we feel the force of the Hippocratic warning that the time is
short and the opportunity fleeting. Every day there perish price-
less relics of the past, every year the languages, the habits, and
the modes of thought of the surviving tribes which represent the
earlier condition of the whole species are increasingly trans-
formed and lost through the extension of civilization. It devolves
on the scholars of this generation to be up and doing in these
fields of research, for those of the next will find many a chance
lost forever of which we can avail ourselves.

And here let me insert a few much-needed words of counsel on
this portion of my theme. Why is it that even in scientific circles
so little attention is paid to the proper training of observers and
collectors in anthropology ?

We erect stately museums, we purchase costly specimens, we
send out expensive expeditions ; but where are the universities,
the institutions of higher education, that train young men how to
observe, how to explore and collect in this branch ? As an emi-
nent ethnologist has remarked, in any other department of science —
in that, for instance, which deals with flowers or with butterflies —
no institution would dream of sending a collector into the field
who lacked all preliminary training in the line or knowledge of
it; but in anthropology the opinion seems universal that such
preparation is quite needless. Carlyle used to say that every
man feels himself competent to be a gentleman farmer or a crown
prince ; our institutions seem to think that every man is compe-
tent to be an anthropologist and archaeologist; and let a plausible
explorer present himself, the last question put to him will be
whether he has any fitness for the job.

Hence our museums are crammed with doubtful specimens,
vaguely located, and our volumes of travel with incomplete or
wholly incorrect statements, worse than purely fictitious ones,
because we know them to be the fruit of honest intentions, and
therefore give them credit.

But you will naturally ask. To what end this accumulating
and collecting, this filling of museums with the art products of
savages and the ghastly contents of charnel houses ? Why write
down their stupid stories and make notes of their obscene rites ?
When it shall be done, or as good as done, what use can be made
of them beyond satisfying a profitless curiosity ?

This leads me to explain another branch of anthropology to
which I have not yet alluded— one which introduces us to other

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

aims of this science quite distinct from those I have mentioned.
That branch is ethnology.

Ethnology in its true sense represents the application of the
principles of inductive philosophy to the products of man's facul-
ties. You are aware that that philosophy proceeds from observed
facts alone ; it discards all preconceived opinions concerning these
facts ; it renounces all allegiance to dogma, or doctrine, or intui-
tion ; in short, to every form of statement that is not capable of
verification. Its method of procedure is by comparison — that is,
by the logical equations of similarity and diversity, of identity
and difference ; and on these it bases those generalizations which
range the isolated fact under the general law, of which it is at
once the exponent and the proof.

By such comparisons ethnology aims to define in clear terms
the influence which the geographical and other environment exer-
cises on the individual, the social group, and the race ; and, con-
versely, how much in each remains unaltered by the external
forces, and what residual elements are left, defiant of surround-
ings, wholly personal, purely human. Thus, rising to wider and
wider circles of observation and generalization, it will be able at
last to offer a conclusive and exhaustive connotation of what man
is — a necessary preliminary, mark you, to that other question, so
often and so ignorantly answered in the past, as to what he
should be.

Ethnology, however, does not and should not concern itself
with this latter inquiry. Its own field is broad enough and the
harvest offered is rich enough. Its materials are drawn from the
whole of history and from pre-history. Those writers who limit
its scope to the explanation of the phenomena of primitive social
life only have so done because these phenomena are simpler in
such conditions, not that the methods of ethnology are applicable
only to such. On the contrary, they are not merely suitable, they
are necessary to all the facts of history, if we would learn their
true meaning and import. The time will come, and that soon,
when sound historians will adopt as their guide the principles
and methods of ethnologic science, because by these alone can
they assign to the isolated fact its right place in the vast struc-
ture of human development.

In the past, histories have told of little but of kings and their
wars ; some writers of recent date have remembered that there is
such a thing as the people, and have essayed to present its hum-
ble annals ; but how few have even attempted to avail themselves
of the myriad of sidelights which ethnology can throw on the
motives and the manners of a people, its impulses and acquisi-
tions !

It is the constant aim of ethnology to present its results free

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 6s

from bias. It deprecates alike enthusiasm and antipathy. Like
Spinoza's god, nullum amat, nullum edit. Its aim is to compare
dispassionately all the acts and arts of man, his philosophies and
religions, his social schemes and personal plans, weighing and
analyzing them, separating the local and temporal in them from
the permanent and general, explaining the former by the condi-
tions of time and place, referring the latter to the category of
qualities which make up the oneness of humanity, the solid
ground on which he who hereafter builds "will build for aye."

This, then, briefly stated, is the aim of that department of
anthropology which we call ethnology. In yet fewer words, its
mission is "to define the universal in humanity," as distin-
guished from all those traits which are the products of fluctu-
ating environments.

This universal, however, is to be discovered, not assumed.
The fatal flaw in the arguments of most philosophers is that
they frame a theory of what man is and what are the laws of
his growth, and pile up proofs of these, neglecting the counter-
evidence, and passing in silence what contradicts their hypoth-
eses.

Take, for instance, the doctrine of evolution as applied to man.
It is not only a doctrine but a dogma with many scientists. They
look with theological ire on any one who questions it. I have
already said that in the long run and the general average it has
been true of man. But that we have any certainty that it will
continue true is a mistake ; or that it has been true of the vast
majority of individuals or ethnic groups is another mistake. As
the basis for a boastful and confident optimism it is as shaky as
sand. Taken at its real value, as the provisional and partial
result of our observations, it is a useful guide; but swallowed
with unquestioning faith as a final law of the universe, it is not
a whit more inspiring than the narrowest dogma of religious
bigotry.

We have no right, indeed, to assume that there is anything
universal in humanity until we have proved it. But this has been
done. Its demonstration is the last and greatest conquest of eth-
nology, and it is so complete as to be bewildering. It has been
brought about by the careful study of what are called " ethno-
graphic parallels " — that is, similarities or identities of laws, games,
customs, myths, arts, etc., in primitive tribes located far asunder
on the earth's surface. Able students, such as Bastian, Andree,
Post, Steinmetz, and others have collected so many of these paral-
lels, often of seemingly the most artificial and capricious charac-
ter, extending into such minute and apparently accidental details
from tribes almost antipodal to each other on the globe, that Dr.
Post does not hesitate to say : " Such results leave no room for

VOL. ILTIII. — 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

doubt that the psychical faculties of the individual as soon as
they reach outward expression fall under the control of natural
laws as fixed as those of inorganic nature."

As the endless variety of arts and events in the culture history
of different tribes in different places, or of the same tribe at different
epochs, illustrates the variables in anthropologic science, so these
independent parallelisms prove beyond cavil the ever-present con-
stant in the problem — to wit, the one and unvarying psychical
nature of man, guided by the same reason, swept by the same
storms of passion and emotion, directed by the same will toward
the same goals, availing itself of the same means when they are
within reach, finding its pleasure in the same actions, lulling its
fears with the same sedatives.

The anthropologist of to-day who, like a late distinguished
scholar among ourselves, would claim that because the rather
complex social system of the Iroquois had a close parallel among
the Munda tribes of the Punjab, therefore the ancestors of each
must have come from a common culture center ; or who, like an
eminent living English ethnologist, sees a proof of Asiatic rela-
tions in American culture because the Aztec game of patolli is like
the East Indian game of parchesi — such an ethnologist, I say,
may have contributed ably to his science in the past, but he does
not know where it stands to-day. Its true position on this crucial
question is thus tersely and admirably stated by Dr. Steinmetz :
"The various customs, institutions, thoughts, etc., of different
peoples are to be regarded either as the expressions of the differ-
ent stadia of culture of our common humanity or as different
reactions of that common humanity under varying conditions and
circumstances. The one does not exclude the other. Therefore
the concordance of two peoples in a custom, etc., should be ex-
plained by borrowing or by derivation from a common source
only when there are special known and controlling reasons indi-
cating this ; and when these are absent, the explanation should be
either because the two peoples are on the same plane of culture or
because their surroundings are similar.''

This is true not only of the articles intended for use, to supply
the necessities of existence, as weapons and huts and boats — we
might anticipate that they would be something similar, otherwise
they would not serve the purpose everywhere in view ; but the
analogies are, if anything, still more close and striking when we
come to compare pure products of the fancy, creations of the
imagination or the emotions, such as stories, myths, and motives
of decorative art.

It has proved very difficult for the comparative mythologist
or the folklorist of the old school to learn that the same stories —
for instance, of the four rivers of Paradise, the flood, the ark, and

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 67

the patriarch who is saved in it — arose independently in western
Asia, in Mexico, and in South America, as well as in many inter-
vening places, alike even in details, and yet neither borrowed one
from the other nor yet drawn from a cpmmon source. But until
he understands this he has not caught up with the progress of
ethnologic science.

So it is also with the motives of primitive art, be they sym-
bolic or merely decorative. How many volumes have been writ-
ten tracing the migrations and connections of nations by the dis-
tribution of some art motive, say the svastika, the meander, or
the cross ! And how little of value is left in all such speculations
by the rigid analysis of primitive arts that we see in such works as
Dr. Grosse's Anf ange der Kunst, or Dr. Haddon's attractive mono-
graph on the Decorative Art of British New Guinea, published
last year ! The latter sums up in these few and decisive words
the result of such researches pursued on strictly inductive lines :
" The same processes operate on the art of decoration, whatever
the subject, wherever the country, whenever the age.'' This is
equally true of the myth and the folk tale, of the symbol and the
legend, of the religious ritual and the musical scale.

I have even attempted, 1 hope not rashly, to show that there
are quite a number of important words, in languages nowise re-
lated by origin and contact, which are phonetically the same or
similar, not of the mimetic class, but arising from certain common
relations of the x^hysiological function of language ; and I have
urged that words of this class should not be accounted of value in
studying the affiliations of language.

And I have also endeavored to demonstrate that the sacred-
ness which we observe attached to certain numbers, and the same
numbers, in so many mythologies and customs the world over, is
neither fortuitous nor borrowed the one from the other, but de-
pends on fixed relations which the human body bears to its sur-
roundings, and the human mind to the laws of its own activity ;
and therefore that all such coincidences and their consequences
— and it is surprising how far-reaching these are — do not belong
to the similarities which reveal contact, but only to those which
testify to psychical unity.

So numerous and so amazing have these examples of culture
identities become of late years that they have led more than one
student of ethnology into a denial of the freedom of the human
will under any of the definitions of voluntary action. But the
aims of ethnology are not so aspiring. It is strictly a natural
science, dealing with outward things — to wit, the expressions of
man's psychical life, endeavoring to ascertain the conditions of
their appearance and disappearance, the organic laws of their
birth, growth, and decay. These laws must undoubtedly be cor-

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

related with certain mental traits, but it is not the business of the
ethnologist to pursue them to their last analysis in the realm of
metaphysics. For instance, we may trace all forms of punish-
ment back to the individual's passion for revenge, or we may
analyze all systems of religion until we find the common source
of all to be man's dread of the unknown, and these will be suffi-
cient ethnologic explanations of both these phenomena, but not a
final analysis of the emotion of dread or the thirst for vengeance.
Ethnology declines to enter these realms of abstraction.

I repeat that to define " the universal in humanity " is the aim
of ethnology — that is, the universal soul or psyche of humanity.

But let me not be understood as speaking of this as of some
entity, like the ame humaine of the Comtists. That were sophis-
tical word-mongering in the style of ancient scholasticism. There
is no such entity as humanity, or race, or people, or nation.
There is nothing but the individual man or woman, the " single,
separate person," as Walt Whitman says. Hence some of the
most advanced ethnologists are ready to give up the ethnos itself
as a subject of study. Those terms so popular a few years ago,
Volkerpsychologie, Volkergedanken, racial psychology, ethnic sen-
timents, and the like, are looked upon with distrust. The ex-
ternal proofs of the psychical unity of the whole species have
multiplied so abundantly that some maintain strenuously that it
is not ethnic or racial peculiarities, but solely external conditions
on the one hand and individual faculties on the other, which are
the factors of culture evolution.

While I admit that this question is still suh judice, I add that
the position just stated seems to be erroneous. All members of
the species have common human mental traits ; that goes with-
out saying ; and in addition it seems to me that each of the great
races, each ethnic group, has its own added special powers and
special limitations compared with the others ; and that these eth-
nic and racial psychic peculiarities attached to all or nearly all
members of the group are tremendously potent in deciding the
result of its struggle for existence.

I must still deny that all races are equally endowed, or that
the position with reference to civilization which the various eth-
nic groups hold to-day is one merely of opportunity and exter-
nalities. I must still claim that the definition of the ethnos is
one of the chief aims of ethnology ; and that the terms of this
definition are not satisfied by geographic explanations. Let me,
with utmost brevity, name a few other connotations, prepotent, I
believe, in the future fate of nations and races.

None, I maintain, can escape the mental correlations of its
physical structure. The black, the brown, and the red races differ
anatomically so much from the white, especially in their splanch-

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 69

nic organs, that even with equal cerebral capacity they never
could rival its results by equal efforts.

Again, there is in some stocks and some smaller ethnic groups
a peculiar mental temperament, which has become hereditary and
general, of a nature to disqualify them for the atmosphere of
modern enlightenment. Dr. Von Buschan has recently pointed
out this as distinctly and racially pathologic ; an inborn morbid
tendency, constitutionally recreant to the codes of civilization,
and therefore technically criminal.

Once more, one can not but acknowledge that the relations of
the emotional to the intellectual nature vary considerably and
permanently in different ethnic groups. Nothing is more incor-
rect than the statement so often repeated by physicians that the
modern civilized man has a more sensitive emotional system than
the savage. The reverse is the case. Since the dark ages, Europe
has not witnessed epidemic neuroses so violent as those still
prevalent among rude tribes.

These and a number of similar traits separate races and peo-
ples from each other by well-marked idiosyncrasies, extending to
the vast majority of their members and pregnant with power for
weal or woe on their present fortunes and ultimate destinies.
The patient and thorough investigations of these peculiarities is
therefore one of the most apposite aims of modern ethnology.

In this sense we can speak of the Volhsgeist and Volkergedan-
ken, a racial mind, or the temperament of a people, with as much
propriety and accuracy as we can of any of the physical traits
which distinguish it from other peoples or races.

For the branch of anthropology which has for its field the in-
vestigation of these general mental traits the Germans have pro-
posed the name " Characterology " {KaraMerologie), Its aim is
to examine the collective mental conditions and expressions of
ethnic groups, and to point out where they differ from other
groups and from humanity at large ; also to find through what
causes these peculiarities cam.e about, the genetic laws of their ap-
pearance, and the consequences to which they have given rise.

This branch of anthropology is that which offers a positive
basis for legislation, politics, and education as applied to a given
ethnic group ; and it is only through its careful study and appli-
cation that the best results of these can be attained, and not by
the indiscriminate enforcement of general prescriptions, as has
hitherto been the custom of governments.

The development of humanity as a whole has arisen from the
differences of its component social parts, its races, nations, tribes.
Their specific peculiarities have brought about the struggles
which in the main have resulted in an advance. These peculiari-
ties, as ascertained by objective investigation, supply the only

70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sure foundation for legislation ; not a priori notions of the rights
of man, nor abstract theories of what should constitute a perfect
state, as was the fashion with the older philosophies and still is
with the modern social reformers. The aim of the anthropolo-
gist in this practical field is to ascertain in all their details, such
as religions, language, social life, notions of right and wrong,
etc., wherein lie the idiosyncrasies of a given group, and frame
its laws accordingly.

Perhaps what I have said sufficiently explains the aims of eth-
nology. Some one has pertinently called it " the natural science
of social life," because its methods are strictly those of the natu-
ral sciences, and its material is supplied by man living in society.

The final arbiter, however, to whom it appeals is, I repeat, not
the ethnos, not the social group, but the individual. I think it
was Goethe who, nearly a century ago, uttered the pithy remark,
"Man makes genera and species; Nature makes only individ-
naW Hence the justification of any result claimed by ethnol-
ogy must come from the psychology of the individual; in his
personal feelings and thoughts will be discovered the final and
only complete explanation of the forms of sociology and the
events of history. As I have elsewhere urged, man himself, the
individual man, is the only final measure of his own activities, in
whatever direction they are directed.

On the other hand, the only rational psychology — using that
term as a science of the mental processes — must be the outcome of
anthropology conducted as a natural science. For thousands of
years other plans have been pursued. The philosopher would
delve in his " inner consciousness " ; the theologian would turn to
his revelation ; the historian would reason on his undigested facts ;
but the psychologist of the future, taking nothing for granted,
will define the mentality of the race by analj^zing each of its lines
of action back to the individual feelings which gave them rise.

It is quite likely that some who have heard me thus far, and
have agreed with me, are still dissatisfied. On their lips is that
question which is so often put to, and which so often puzzles, the
student of the sciences, cui bono ? What practical worth have
these analyses and generalizations which have been referred to ?

Fortunately, the anthropologist is not puzzled. His science,
like others, has its abstract side, seemingly remote from the inter-
ests of the workaday world ; but it is also and pre-eminently an
applied science — one the practicality and immediate pertinence of
which to daily affairs render it utilitarian in the highest degree.

Applied anthropology has for its aims to bring to bear on the
improvement of the species, regarded on the one hand as groups,
and on the other as individuals, the results obtained by ethnog-
raphy, ethnology, and psychology.

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 71

Such an improvement is broadly referred to as an increased or
higher civilization ; and it is the avowed aim of applied anthro-
pology accurately to ascertain what are the criteria of civiliza-
tion, what individual or social elements have in the past contrib-
uted most to it, how these can be continued and strengthened, and
what new forces, if any, may be called in to hasten the progress*
Certainly no aims could be more immediately practical than these.

Here, again, anthropology sharply opposes its methods to those
of the ideologists, the dogmatists, and the deductive philosophers.
It refuses to ask. What should improve man ? but asks only.
What has improved him in the past ? and it is extremely cau-
tious in its decision as to what " improvement " really means. It
certainly does not accept the definition which up to the present
the philosophies and theologies have offered any more than it
accepts the means by which these claim that our present civiliza-
tion has been brought about.

This department of anthropology is still in its infancy. We
are only beginning to appreciate that, in the future, political
economy, like history, will have to be rearranged on lines which
this new science dictates. The lessons of the past, their meaning
clearly apprehended, will be acknowledged as the sole guides for
the future. It may be true, as De Tocqueville said of the United
States, that a new world needs a new political science; but the
only sure foundation for the new will be the old.

Applied anthropology clearly recognizes that the improvement
of humanity depends primarily on the correct adjustment of the
group to the individual ; and, as in ethnology, its ultimate refer-
ence is not to the group, but to the individual. In the words of
John Stuart Mill, the first to apply inductive science to social
evolution, it is that the individual may become " happier, nobler,
wiser," that all social systems have any value.

We may profitably recall what the same profound thinker and
logician tells us have been up to the present time the prime mov-
ers in human social progress. They are : First, property and its
protection ; second, knowledge and the opportunity to use it ; and
third, co-operation, or the application of knowledge and property
to the benefit of the many.

But Mill was altogether too acute an observer not to perceive
that while these momenta have proved powerful stimulants to the
group, they have often reacted injuriously on the individual, de-
veloping that morbid and remorseless egotism which is so preva-
lent in modern civilized communities. Nor should I omit to add
that the remedy which he urged and believed adequate for this
dangerous symptom is one which every anthropologist and every
scientist will fully indorse — the general inculcation of the love of
truth, scientific, verifiable truth.

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It seems clear, therefore, that the teachings of anthropology,
whether theoretical or practical, lead us back to the individual as
the point of departure and also the goal. The state was made for
him, not he for the state ; any improvement in the group must
start by the improvement of its individual members. This may
seem a .truism, but how constantly is it overlooked in the most
modern legislation and schemes of social amelioration! How
many even of such a learned audience as this have carefully con-
sidered in what respects the individual man has improved since
the beginning of historic time ? Is he taller, stronger, more beau-
tiful ? Are his senses more acute, his love purer, his memory
more retentive, his will firmer, his reason stronger ? Can you
answer me these questions correctly ? I doubt it much. Yet if
you can not, what right have you to say that there is any im-
provement at all ?

To be sure there is less physical suffering, less pain. War and
famine and bitter cold are not the sleuthhounds that they once
were. The dungeons and flames of brutal laws and bigoted reli-
gions have mostly passed away. Life is on the average longer, its
days of sickness fewer, justice is more within reach, mercy is
more bountifully dispensed, the tender eye of pity is ever
unscarfed.

But under what difficulties have these results been secured !
What floods of tears and blood, what long wails of woe, sound
down the centuries of the past, poured forth by humanity in its
desperate struggle for a better life — a struggle which was blind,
unconscious of its aims, unknowing of the means by which they
should be obtained, groping in darkness for the track leading it
knew not whither !

Ignorant of his past, ignorant of his real needs, ignorant of
himself, man has blundered and stumbled up the thorny path of
progress for tens of thousands of years. Mighty states, millions
of individuals, have been hurled to destruction in the perilous
ascent, mistaking the way, pursuing false paths, following blind
guides.

Now anthropology steps in, the new Science of Man, offering
the knowledge of what he has been and is, the young but wise
teacher, revealing the future by the unwavering light of the past,
offering itself as man's trusty mentor and friend, ready to con-
duct him by sure steps upward and onward to the highest sum-
mit which his nature is capable of attaining ; and who dares set
a limit to that ?

This is the final aim of anthropology, the lofty ambition which
the student of this science deliberately sets before himself. Who
will point to a worthier or a nobler one ?

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. -jt,
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION.

By Pkof. E. p. EVANS.
\Concluded.'\

AN article published in the Popular Science Monthly for De-
cember, 1892, and entitled Modern Instances of Demoniacal
Possession, gives an account of the casting out of a devil from a
boy named Michael Zilk, by Father Aurelian, a Capuchin monk,
in Wemding, Bavaria. The exorcist accused a Protestant woman,
Frau Herz, of having conjured the devil into the boy and de-
nounced her as a witch, and was prosecuted by the woman's hus-
band for defamation. The trial, which took place in November,
1892, resulted in the condemnation of the defendant, who was sen-
tenced to pay a fine of fifty marks, with costs, and, in default of
payment, to five days' imprisonment. The case derives its chief
interest from the testimony of two ecclesiastical experts, whom
Father Aurelian called in for the purpose of proving that he had
acted strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations of the
Catholic Church. These experts were Dr. J. E. Prunner, provost
of the cathedral in Eichstadt, and the cathedral capitular, Dr.
Schneidt, both of whom approved of Father Aurelian's method
of proceeding. That men may enter into a league with Satan,
says Dr. Prunner, is affirmed by Holy Writ and by canon law ;
both the truth of Scripture and the teachings of the Church estab-
lish the possibility and actuality of demoniacal possession beyond
a peradventure, which must therefore be accepted as incontesta-
ble. As regards Michael Zilk, Father Aurelian was perfectly
justified in assuming that he was possessed with a devil, since all
the signs favored this presumption, such as sudden paroxysms,
abnormal bodily strength, hagiophobia, or strange dread of holy
things, and demoniac ecstasy. The demon becomes firmly estab-
lished in the organism and uses it as a base of operations, causing
the individual to curse and rage and foam, using his tongue to
speak languages unknown to him, and endowing his muscles
with preternatural force. When these manifestations convinced
Father Aurelian that the devil was to pay, it was his duty to
investigate the matter and to ascertain the causa posse ssionis, and
whether it was produced by ars magica or witchcraft. " Malefi-
cium always presupposes factum cum d(Bmone" ; in other words,
sorcery implies a compact with Satan. In the course which he
pursued. Father Aurelian followed the instructions and obeyed
the injunctions of the ritual, even to the assumption that the dried
pears given by Frau Herz to the boy had been the means of con-
veying the demoniac infection, since the ritual expressly enjoins

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon tlie exorcist to pay heed to what the energumen has eaten.
He was also right in believing what the devil said on this point,
for "if the devil is the father of lies, he can nevertheless be
compelled by the Church to tell the truth ; that he was forced
in this case to bow to ecclesiastical authority, is proved by the
result."

Dr. Schneidt indorsed the opinion of his colleague, adding a
few remarks from a " philosophical-psychological " point of view
and denouncing the scientific materialism of the day, which de-
nies the existence of spirits and their influence on corporeal sub-
stances. He admitted that the symptoms of Saint Vitus's dance
and hysteria are very similar to those of demoniacal possession,
but can be readily distinguished by two tests, both of which were
applied by Father Aurelian : the boy Zilk raged and fumed when
sprinkled with holy water, but remained quiet if ordinary water
was used ; the utterance of a benediction in ecclesiastical Latin
rendered him extremely violent, whereas he was wholly unaf-
fected by the recitation of a passage from a Latin classic. Dr.
Schneidt thought Father Aurelian was right in laying great stress
upon these two criteria, and in regarding the manner of their " re-
action " as conclusive proof of diabolic agency.

That learned doctors of theology and high Church dignitaries
should be willing to appear before a court of justice at the present
day with such expert testimony as this, is a curious psychological
phenomenon and a remarkable instance of superstitious survival.
It would also be a greater miracle than any wrought by the holy
coat of Trier, if the inculcation and dissemination of these me-
diaeval notions by the bishops and other clergy should not pro-
duce a benighting and degrading effect upon the masses intrusted
to their instruction and guidance in spiritual things. A few ex-
amples may be cited to show to what extent the popular belief in
witchcraft, demoniacal possession, and the efficacy of conjurations
still prevails. In the spring of 1894 a Hungarian named Jordan
started on a bicycle from Bucharest, with the intention of making
a tour through the Balkan peninsula to Constantinople. Not far
from Philipoppel, in Roumelia, he was overtaken by night and
obliged to stop at a hovel which served as a public house, and
after confiding his "wheel" to the care of the innkeeper, who
took charge of it with considerable distrust, went to bed. Very
soon the news spread abroad that a sorcerer had arrived riding
on a magic car drawn by invisible spirits, and a crowd of excited
peasants filled the inn under the direction of the pope, or village
priest, who sprinkled the bicycle with holy water and adjured
the demon to depart. The " magic car " of the itinerant sorcerer
was then taken out of doors and demolished. On the next morn-
ing, when Mr. Jordan wished to continue his journey, he found

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 75

his bicycle broken to pieces, and was nnder the necessity of walk-
ing a long distance to the nearest railway station. It was only
the fear of his enchantments as a wandering magician that saved
him from personal harm.

In October, 1894, a chromolithograph of St. Anna, in a church
at Naples, showed suddenly on the breast of the saint a white
spot, which in the eyes of her worshipers gradually grew into
the form of a lily. The rumor of this wonder caused thousands
of people to flock to the sacred shrine, and several miracles were
already reported, when the police ordered the print to be taken
down and examined. On investigation, the white lily proved to
be mold. It is hardly credible that the Neapolitan clergy should
not have known the nature of this phenomenon, and yet they did
nothing to expose the delusion, but made capital out of it by
holding solemn services at the altar in recognition of its sup-
posed miraculous character.

The results of such superstitious notions are not always so
harmless as in the cases just cited. Thus, a peasant living at Pon-
tea Ema, about a mile from Florence, in Tuscany, had a daughter
who was subject to severe hysterical convulsions ; she had also
"suffered many things of many physicians,^' and was thereby
" nothing bettered, but rather grew worse " — a result which will
not surprise any one who knows what a wretched quacksalver the
country doctor is in Italy. The parish priest intimated that the
girl was probably possessed with a devil, and one day in Febru-
ary, 1893, the peasant and his daughter, after hearing several
masses suitable to the occasion, went to Florence to consult a wise
woman famous for sorceries, who informed him that an ordinary
conjuration would cost five lire, and might not be effective,
whereas the invocation of Beelzebub, which would cost twenty-
five lire, would be an infallible remedy. The peasant paid the
twenty-five lire and the old witch began her conjurations, drag-
ging herself over the floor on her knees and howling fearfully.
Finally she ceased, and declared that the conjuration had been
successful. " Now go home,'' she added, " and heat the oven. The
first person who comes to your door will be the one who has
caused your daughter's malady; thrust this person into the oven
in the presence of your daughter, and there will be no recurrence
of the disease." The peasant obeyed these instructions and kept
the oven heated all night. Early the next morning there was a rap
at the door. "Chi e 9 " (Who's there ? ) asked the peasant. " For
heaven's sake, a piece of bread!" was the reply. The peasant
rushed to the door, seized the beggar woman as she stood there
pale with hunger and shivering with cold, and without a mo-
ment's hesitation put her into the heated oven. Two milkmen
passing by heard her cries, and, breaking open the bolted door of

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the house, rescued her, already half-suffocated, from a horrible
death.

About a year ago an old woman named Theresia Kleitsch
was crucified at Kekeseley, in Hungary, on suspicion of having
bewitched the stalls of her neighbors and thus caused many
cattle to die of murrain. Not long since, in a village near Moscow,
a woman seventy-three years of age, named Darya, was clubbed
and stoned to death by the inhabitants because she was supposed
to have an " evil eye," which brought sickness and other misfor-
tunes upon her neighbors. Seven of the chief culprits were sen-
tenced to four years' hard labor in Siberia. When brought to
trial they pleaded not guilty, declaring that the old hag was well
known to be a witch, and that they were perfectly justified in not
suffering her to live.

The measures recently devised to suppress a witch at Lupest,
in Hungary, are the more noteworthy because they emanated
from the civil authorities. The death of an old woman who had
the reputation of being in solemn covenant with the devil was
the occasion of public rejoicings. In the midst of the festivities
it was announced that a villager's cow had died suddenly and
under suspicious circumstances. The common council, after an
official investigation, reported that the cow had been bewitched
by the deceased beldame, and, in order to prevent her from doing
further harm, commanded that a stallion should be brought and
made to leap over her grave. The horse, however, showed signs
of fright and refused to jump, and this circumstance greatly
added to the public excitement. Finally, it was decreed by the
common council that the body of the witch should be exhumed
and stabbed with red-hot pitchforks. This proceeding proved
effective, and the old hag ceased to trouble her former neighbors.

In the little town of Gif, about twelve miles from Paris, was a
girl nineteen years of age, who had suffered for several months
from an aggravated form of hysteria accompanied by catalepsy.
One of the most distinguished Parisian physicians. Dr. Dumontpal-
lier, made a diagnosis of the disease, declared it to be curable, and
offered to treat it gratuitously if the parents would send the
patient to one of the city hospitals. This generous offer was de-
clined, owing to the intervention of the village priest, who had
meanwhile informed the family that it was a clear case of de-
moniacal possession, with which the Church alone was competent
to cope, and had applied to Monseigneur Goux, Bishop of Ver-
sailles, for permission to proceed with the exorcism. The right
reverend ecclesiastic not only granted this request, but also sent
the director of the theological seminary of Versailles to assist
him in the conjuration. Both appeared at the bedside of the
maiden in full canonicals, each with a crucifix in his hand and

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, jj

attended by their acolytes, and went through, with the benedic-
tions, adjurations, and aspersions prescribed by the ritual. No
sooner did the girl perceive them than she cried out, " There
come the parsons with their hocus-pocus ! " and as they recited
the litany, instead of responding with or a pro nobis, she used the
word said to have been uttered by Cambroche at the battle of
Waterloo when the Old Guard was summoned to surrender, re-
peating it three times in an angry tone. This conduct only con-
firmed the exorcists in their theory of diabolism. Indeed, one
young priest recognized the different devils by their accent in
speaking, and made a long list of their names: Satan, Lucifer,
Beelzebub, Mammon, etc. Thus encouraged, the conjurers con-
tinued their efforts with unabated zeal, and finally succeeded, ac-
cording to their own statement, in casting out all the large
demons, and had only twenty-eight lesser demons to expel, when
the bishop of Versailles, in view of the scandal which the discus-
sion of the affair by the press threatened to bring on the Church,
recalled the director .of the seminary, and put an end to the cere-
mony which he had himself authorized. What became of the
residue of devilkins that remained in possession of the maiden
we are not informed.

About the same time, in the spring of 1893, in the French
hamlet of Cras-Culot, the parents of a small boy who had fallen
ill and was assumed to have been bewitched, enticed into their
house a woman suspected of having caused the trouble and com-
manded her to exorcise the victim of her sorceries. On her pro-
testing that she knew nothing of such arts, the parents of the
child and their assembled friends began to beat the supposed
witch and to stick hairpins into her neck and shoulders, and one
of the fanatical crowd expressed his regret that it was no longer
possible to burn her publicly at the stake. Perhaps a private
auto da fe would have been held had she not succeeded finally in
escaping and claiming the protection of the police court, which
sentenced her principal persecutors each to fourteen days im-
prisonment and a fine of twenty-six francs.

In June, 1891, a Viennese waitress named Fanny Strobl brought
a suit for slander against Maria Wirzar, a servant girl, who had
sent the plaintiff several postal cards, addressing her as "canni-
bal, witch, night liag,^' and accusing her of coming down the
chimney in the dark and sucking all the blood out of her (Maria
Wirzar's) veins until she was reduced to skin and bone. The
curiosity of the judge was excited, and he requested the defendant
to state more clearly what she meant. " Well," she replied, " such
a night hag comes over a person when asleep like a current of air,
benumbing and stupefying him: If the sleeper is able to rouse
himself and cry out * Jesus ! Mary ! Joseph ! ' then the witch de-

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sists and departs. This woman (pointing to the plaintiff) is such
a night hag. She drives me out of every place, so that I can never
stay anywhere more than three weeks. At midnight she comes
out from under my bed when I am asleep, sits on me, and sucks
the blood out of my breast. I am so weak that I can not work.
Formerly I was strong and healthy, now I am lank and lean, be-
cause she has drained me of all my blood.'' Thereupon a woman
in the court room exclaimed : " That is true ; the witch ought to
let her alone. I myself have seen the red spot on her breast and
the bites on her arm with the marks of real teeth." The case was
then adjourned in order to obtain the opinion of a physician as
to the mental condition of the defendant. But if the psychiater
declares Maria Wirzar to be crazy, what should he say of the
sanity of priests like Dr. Bischofberger, or of the Catholic bishops
and other ecclesiastical dignitaries whose teachings are directly
responsible for the spread of such gross popular delusions ?

Still later, in the autumn of 1892, Victoria Seifritz was charged
with having bewitched the stall of the burgomaster of Schapbach,
in Baden, and thereby produced an epidemic of hoof disease. As
the circulation of this report was injurious to her reputation, and
she found it inconvenient to prosecute the burgomaster, with
whom it appears to have originated, she published a notice in the
local newspaper denying that she ever possessed or exercised any
power as a witch. In December of the same year a maid-servant,
Elizabeth Horrath, of Obermichelbach, in Bavaria, was sentenced
to ten days' imprisonment for having accused her aunt of being a
house witch and her own mother of being a stall witch, asserting
that she saw the latter riding on the back of a cow, which imme-
diately afterward went dry. The remarkable thing was, not that
an ignorant and malevolent girl should have started such a re-
port, but that many of the neighbors should have believed it and
broken off all intercourse with the two satellites of Satan.

In June, 1885, at Kempten, in Bavaria, Xaver Endtes, a pro-
fessional wizard, was tried and condemned to jail for three weeks
because he swindled a peasant named Ostheimer out of seventeen
marks under the pretext of casting devils out of cattle. He
kindled a fire in the stable and heated two iron bars red hot, then
poured on them a quantity of milk, and persuaded Ostheimer that
the film of scalded milk that remained was the skin of the witch,
who had thus been burned and rendered harmless for the future.

In 1891 a witch conjurer (Hexenbanner), a mason by trade, was
arrested by the police at Ulm, where he had established himself
as an exorcist, charging twenty-five marks for his services and
finding apparently plenty of customers. He was also sentenced
to three weeks' imprisonment as a common swindler. The possi-
bility of brazen-faced deceptions of this sort implies a general

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 79

prevalence of gross superstition in the communities where they
are practiced. The first and strongest impulse of the European
peasant even in the most enlightened countries is to ascribe all
extraordinary good or evil fortune to diabolical agencies. If a
man's hens lay more eggs, or his cows give more milk, or his fields
yield better crops than those of his neighbors, the latter are pretty
sure to attribute his prosperity to witchcraft. Pliny records a
case of this kind in which the freedman C. Furius Cresinus was
summoned to appear before the sedile Spurius Albinus on the
charge of sorcery, because he raised richer harvests on his small
farm than others did on their large estates. In his defense he
pointed to his well-fed slaves, his superior agricultural imple-
ments, and his fat oxen, and exclaimed: "These, O Quirites, are
some of my magic arts; but my night- waking and continuous
toil I can not show you here on the forum ! " Curiously enough,
in the early part of the last century precisely the same accusation
was brought against a woman who cultivated her own land at
Bischofswerder, in west Prussia; and again in November, 1893,
at Dresden, a shoemaker named Liebscher instituted a suit against
a miner and small innkeeper named Timmel to recover damages
for defamation of a like character. Both parties lived in the vil-
lage of Miidisdorf, not far from Freiberg. It seems that Lieb-
scher's hens and cows supplied him abundantly with eggs and
milk, whereas TimmeFs were remarkably unproductive. Lieb-
scher was then charged with practicing sorcery, and thereby
transferring the eggs and milk from TimmeFs poultry and kine
to his own. As this report was diligently circulated by the de-
fendant and believed by the great majority of the inhabitants of
Miidisdorf and of the surrounding country, it naturally proved to
be very injurious to the reputation and the business of the shoe-
maker, who appears to have been a man of intelligence far supe-
rior to that of his neighbors. The testimony taken at the trial
revealed the startling fact that nine tenths of the population of
this mining district, although good Protestants, hold firmly to
the belief in witchcraft and the reality of satanic compacts.

In the summer of 1874 a woman named Frenzel, living at
Trulben, in the Bavarian palatinate, consulted a famous wizard at
Ixheim, near Zweibriicken, in order to ascertain who had be-
witched her child that he should have fallen sick. The wizard
placed a key in an open Bible and told Frau Frenzel to lay her
finger on it and then to repeat the names of all the people in
Trulben. No sooner had she mentioned Margaret Klein than the
key turned over. "That is the witch," exclaimed the wizard,
who also learned through the movements of the key that she had
acquired her knowledge of the magic art from her grandmother,
and had the power of transforming herself into a cat or dog at

8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

pleasure. When the mother returned home and was washing her
child she heard the melancholy mewing of a cat near the house,
and was now thoroughly convinced of the truth of the wizard's
statements. Margaret Klein, an estimable maiden of twenty-two,
was on this account decried and shunned by nearly every person
in the village, and was finally compelled, for the sake of her good
name, to prosecute Frau Frenzel, who was sent to jail for five
days and condemned to pay the costs of the trial.

It is hardly necessary to multiply instances of this kind.
They are of constant occurrence and endlessly repetitious, the
tautological echo of old superstition, a striking illustration of the
persistency of tradition and the poverty of the popular imagina-
tion. The question as to when the last witch was burned has been
frequently discussed by historians, who differ as to the exact date,
but generally agree that it was not later than the second half of
the eighteenth century. As a matter of fact, a woman named
Agraf ena Ignatyeva was burned as a witch by her fellow-country-
men at Vratshevo, in the Russian province of Novgorod, in 1879, if
not with the co-operation at least with the collusion of the local
authorities, and we have no reason to suppose that she was or
will be the last victim of this cruel delusion.

The unpleasant smell of garlic which so often offends the nos-
trils of travelers in Servia and other countries of eastern and
southern Europe is due in a great measure to the notion that
witches have a strong aversion to this plant. It is chiefly for this
reason that the common people not only eat it, but also rub them-
selves and their children with it, especially on going to bed, so as
not to be visited by any wandering night hag who might other-
wise strike the sleeper on his breast with her magic wand, open
his side, and devour his heart ; the wound would then close up
without leaving any scar to show the cause of his death.

In some districts of Dalmatia it is still customary to throw all
the women into the water on a specified day to see whether they
will sink or swim. A rope is attached to each one in order to
save from drowning those who prove their innocence by sinking.
The witches who float are also pulled out, and after being rather
roughly handled are made to promise to renounce the devil on
pain of being stoned. The Dalmatians are evidently of Heine's
opinion, that

" Genau bei Weibern
Weiss man nicht wo der Engel
Aufhort und der Teufel anfangt."

Hence they deem it necessary to apply their simple but decisive
test occasionally, and the prevalence of an epidemic or epizooty is
pretty sure to be followed by a general immersion of the fairer
and frailer sex.

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 81

In August, 1893, at Montelepre, in Sicily, a girl of seventeen
suffered from a painful malady wliicli her family and kinsmen
suspected of being the result of demoniacal possession. This
opinion was confirmed by the village strega or witch, who gave
them full information concerning the name, character, origin, and
power of the indwelling demon, and recommended the fifteenth
of the month, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, as
the fittest time for casting out the evil spirit. On the appointed
day the witch prepared a bath of boiling-hot water, into which
she threw snail shells, lobsters' claws, nettles, and similar ingre-
dients of a powerful hell-broth, recalling the contents of the cal-
dron over which the three weird sisters in Macbeth muttered
their potent charm. The patient was then put into the water and
covered with a bed blanket, under which a pound and a half of
burning incense was placed. The screams and struggles of the
unfortunate girl were of no avail, and not until she fainted away
was she taken out in a parboiled condition and laid on a bed,
where she soon afterward expired. As she was at the last gasp
the witch said, " Now the charm is beginning to work and the
demon is about to go out of her."

It is not merely among ignorant and superstitious Sicilians
that such things are possible. Not many years ago a young
man at Urschtitz, near Rosenberg, in Upper Silesia, was treated
by a "wise woman" in precisely the same manner and with
equally fatal results.

It was recently reported from Catania, in Sicily, that a fiddler
named Carmolo had killed twenty-four children and saturated
the earth with their blood as a means of finding hidden treasure.
A little later the bodies of twenty children were discovered in the
woods near the hamlets of Cibali and Santa Sofia ; at the same
time the parents received anonymous letters, in which the writer
told them not to grieve for the dead, since their blood would en-
able him to unearth an immense amount of money, which he
would share with them and thus amply compensate them for
their loss.

In March, 1894, a farm laborer, Sier, was sentenced to four-
teen months' imprisonment for having exhumed the body of a
newly buried child in the graveyard at Moosbach, in Bavaria,
and taken out one of its eyes, which, he believed, would render
him invisible, like the tarn-helmet of the old German saga, and
thus make it possible for him to thieve with impunity. The
notion that a bridge will remain firm for all time if a living
human being is immured in its foundations is quite prevalent in
eastern Europe, and the gypsies are generally suspected of steal-
ing children and selling them for this purpose. Not long since,
when a bridge was to be built over the Save, near Breczka, in

TOL. XLTIII. — 6

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Bosnia, the whole population, Christian and Mohammedan, rose
up in arms against a band of gypsies who were camping in the
neighborhood, and would have put them to death had it not been
for the energetic intervention of the authorities. The excite-
ment was caused by a rumor that negotiations were going on be-
tween the bridge builders and this vagabond folk for the pur-
chase of a child. There is a popular tradition that a bridal pair
were walled up in the old Roman bridge over the Narenta at
Mostar, and that the structure owes its strength to this sacrifice.
A fresh human liver, especially that of a woman, is supposed to
confer magical powers upon him who eats it ; and it is highly
probable that the desire to become a great magician may explain
the many mysterious murders and horrible mutilations of women
which have occurred within the past few years, such as the other-
wise incomprehensible exploits of Jack the Ripper in London,
and similar hideous deeds near Innsbruck, in the Tyrol, and else-
where. A like exhibition of superstition was recently witnessed
in Barcelona at the execution of six anarchists, when old women
dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood that flowed from the
coffins, making the sign of the cross three times and holding the
dirty clouts to their noses. Such a blood-stained cloth is prized
as a powerful talisman and carefully preserved.

In some districts on the Rhine the belief that mid wives may be
in league with the devil and substitute an imp for the newborn
infant is not uncommon. Such changelings are called Kiel-
kropfe, and this term would imply that their fiendish origin is
indicated by a wen on the throat. It is well known that Luther
was firmly convinced of the reality of these substitutions, and
urged the Prince of Anhalt to have every hellish succubus or
succuba drowned at once ; but the sovereign, whose theological
education on this point seems to have been neglected, could not
be fully persuaded of the existence of such creatures and declined
to act upon the reformer's advice.

During the reign of Frederick the Great the statue of a ma-
donna in the Catholic church of a Prussian town was robbed of a
costly ornament. A soldier, whose frequent and fervent devo-
tions at this shrine had been remarked, was arrested, and the
jewels were found in his possession. He was accordingly tried
for church robbery and sacrilege and condemned to be shot.
The sentence of the court-martial was submitted to the king for
approval, together with the culprit's protest that he had not stolen
the precious stones, but that while he was engaged in prayer
and laying his necessities before the seat of mercy, the Virgin
took the ornament from her neck and gave it to him. One can
imagine the malicious pleasure with which the cynical and skep-
tical monarch referred the whole matter to the Catholic bishop.

BE CENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 83

requesting him to give his official opinion as to the possibility
of such a miracle. The bishop was in a quandary. He knew
that the soldier's statement was false and absurd, but he could
not say so without contradicting the teachings and traditions of
the Church and impeaching the testimony of the saints and all
the records of hagiology. In his report he was therefore com-
pelled to admit that the prayer may have been answered in the
manner described. On the strength of this " expert evidence "
Frederick annulled the sentence of the court-martial, but forbade
the soldier on penalty of death to offer henceforth petitions of
this kind to any image of the Virgin.

One of the most characteristic as well as anachronistic exhibi-
tions of religious folly and frenzy in our day is the Springpro-
cession, or procession of jumpers, which takes place yearly at
Echternach, in Luxemburg, on the first Tuesday after Whitsun-
day, and is popularly regarded as a sure cure for epilepsy, St.
Vitus's dance, syntexis, murrain, and other maladies of men and
cattle. A full description of this performance was given in a
book published more than twenty years ago and entitled Die
Springprocession und die Wallfahrt zum Grabe des heiligen
Willibrord in Echternach (Luxemburg, Briick, 1871), the author
of which, J. B. Krier, a priest and religious instructor in the Ech-
ternach preparatory school, expresses his firm belief in its thera-
peutic efficacy and general wonder-working power. " We can
not but envy these people,^' he says, " on account of their living
faith, and in our inmost soul praise God, who in our cold and in-
different age has kept alive such a fire in the hearts of our fellow-
men.*' A few Catholics of superior culture, like Prof. Froscham-
mer, of Munich, vigorously protested against the glorification of
such crass fanaticism, but it received the approval and encour-
agement of the episcopate, and, instead of disappearing in the
light of the nineteenth century, as one would expect such a sur-
vival of medisevalism to do, has been growing stronger ever since.
On May 15, 1894, 16,905 persons, including one bishop, 140 clergy,
267 musicians, 2,213 prayers, 2,448 singers, and 11,836 springers,
took part in the strange ceremony. This number, which has
been derived from official documents, is the largest on record, and
furnishes a drastic illustration of the manner in which the patron-
age of the Church contributes to the promotion of superstition.

The " springprocession " is, in fact, one of the queerest sights
that have been witnessed in Christendom since the Flagellants
of the thirteenth century made the streets of Italian cities hideous
with their scourgings and bowlings. The men, women, and chil-
dren who are to join in the choral dance — which an ancient Greek
or Roman, if he should rise from the dead, might easily mistake
for a Bacchanalian orgy — assemble on a meadow near the town,

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

where they are arranged in rows or groups, the schoolboys and
schoolgirls being in charge of their respective teachers, as if they
were going on a picnic. At a given signal the musicians strike
up the lively tune known as " Willibrord's Dance," and the salta-
tory movement begins, the whole mass moving three or four steps
forward and one or two steps backward, or four steps to the right
and the same number to the left in a diagonal direction, thus
advancing, as it were, on the hypothenuse instead of on the per-
pendicular of a triangle. From a distance, the bobbing and
swaying throng resembles the swell and fall of a restless sea, or
the bubbling of boiling water in an immense caldron. In this
manner the procession moves on for more than two hours through
the streets of the town and up the sixty-two steps leading to the
parish church, where the dance is kept up for some time around
the tomb of St. Willibrord. The dancers join hands, or more
frequently hold together by means of a handkerchief, for the sake
of greater freedom of motion. Here and there an old man may
be seen dragging along an infirm son, who makes desperate at-
tempts to leap with the rest, or a stout woman gasping and sweat-
ing under the heavy burden of a paralytic daughter, whom she
bears in her arms as she bounds to and fro.

Many legends are afloat concerning the origin of this custom.
Thus it is said that in the latter half of the eighth century a
sort of epizootic chorea broke out in the region round about
Echternach, and caused all the horses, cows, sheep, and goats to
dance in their stalls and to refuse to eat. As no medicine gave
relief, the people made a vow that they would dance round the
grave of St. Willibrord, and no sooner was this vow fulfilled than
the plague ceased, apparently in accordance with the homoeopathic
principle — saltus saUibus curantur. Another tradition connects
it with the pestilence known as the black death, which prevailed
about the middle of the fourteenth century. In all probability,
however, it is a survival of the old pagan feast which was cele-
brated at the summer solstice in honor of the sun, and changed
by Willibrord into a Christian festival. This policy of adopting
heathen observances that could not be easily abolished was urged
by Pope Gregory the Great as early as the sixth century, in his
famous letter to the Benedictine Augustine, first Bishop of Can-
terbury, and followed by Boniface, Willibrord, and all the other
Anglo-Saxon missionaries to the German tribes. It was due to
this prudent spirit of compromise that the feast of Ostara, the
German goddess of spring, was transformed into Easter, and the
nativity of John the Baptist, the herald of the Sun of Righteous-
ness, was placed on June 24th, so as to correspond with the pagan
festivities of midsummer.

In Italy the belief in the baneful power of *' the evil eye/' or

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 85

jettatura, is almost universal among the peasants and common
people, and quite prevalent even among the higher and more cul-
tivated classes. Pope Pius IX was generally supposed to be a
jettatore, and many good Catholics, while kneeling before him for
his benediction, were wont slyly to extend toward him their hands
doubled into a fist, with the thumb thrust between the index and
middle finger as a means of warding off the malign influence.
Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was born with this uncanny gift,
and neither his consecration to the priesthood nor his elevation to
the papacy sufficed to eradicate it or to suspend its operation.
The benignity of aspect which distinguished this kind-hearted
successor of St. Peter might conceal, but could not counteract, the
fatal fascination that lurked in his " evil eye."

In Germany, it is only in the Tyrol that this superstition ap-
pears to prevail, although sporadic cases of it occur in Thuringia,
where the witchcraft delusion still has a strong hold on the rural
population. The village of Espenfeld, for example, numbers two
hundred inhabitants, of whom one half are firmly convinced that
the other half are skilled in sorcery; of the latter, several are
supposed to have grown rich by paying out money and then con-
juring it back into their own coffers. A peasant, who imagined
that he had lost considerable money in this way, was advised by
a " wise woman " to put the coin thus received into a glass jar and
then seal it up. He did so, and soon afterward the coins began to
hop and skip as if they wished to get out, but, finding it impossi-
ble to escape, gradually grew quiet. By taking this precaution he
tjircumvented the conjurer and saved his money.

In England, men or kine that are supposed to suffer from the
witchery of the evil eye are said to be " overlooked." " If a mur-
rain afflicts a farmer^s cattle," says the author of a recently pub-
lished work on this subject (The Evil Eye, by Frederick T. El-
worthy ; London, Murray, 1895), " he goes off secretly to the ' white
witch ' — that is, the old witch finder — to ascertain who has ' over-
looked his things,' and to learn the best antidote. Only the other
day a farmer in North Devon, whose cattle were dying of an-
thrax, applied, not to a first-class veterinary surgeon, but to a
' white witch,' for a remedy against the pestilence, and as a conse-
quence lost almost his whole herd." The same writer states that
a pig's or sheep's heart stuck full of pins is found in many chim-
neys in old farmhouses as a reprisal against witches. It was
believed that the witch, who had " overlooked " the animal and
caused its death, would have her own heart pricked and pierced
by the pins thrust into the heart of her victim, which had been
" ill wisht " by her. This sort of retribution, based upon the prin-
ciple of sympathy, plays a prominent part in the annals of witch-
craft. The Somerset peasant says : " Nif you do meet wi' anybody

86 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wi' a north eye, spat dree times." Pliny speaks of spitting in tlie
"bosom as a means of inducing the gods to grant any presumptu-
ous desire {veniam quoqiie a deis spei alicujus audacioris peti-
muSy in sinum spuendo), and Juvenal refers to the custom of
bespitting the upper folds of the toga {conspuere sinus) in order
to avert divine wrath provoked by haughtiness of speech ; and if
we go back nearly four centuries earlier to the Greek poet Theoc-
ritus, we find that the remedy prescribed by the English boor for
warding off the influence of the evil eye was employed by the
rustics of that ancient time for precisely the same purpose. The
sixth idyl of this pastoral poet consists of a dialogue between two
herdsmen, Daphnis and Demoitas, of whom the latter, in the
course of conversation, remarks : " Lest I should be enchanted by
the evil eye, I spit three times into my breast " (ws /xr] paa-KavOut
Si T/ots €ts ifwv hrrva-a koAttov), and adds that in doing so he had fol-
lowed the advice of an old wizard.

An ornament in the shape of a crescent moon (o-cXt^vcs or
a-fX-qvUrKoi) was wom by the Greeks or placed on the walls of their
houses as a Trpopaa-Kdviov or preservative against the evil eye, and
the luluncB, with which Roman women adorned their persons,
were also regarded as safeguards against witchcraft. We have
a survival of this superstition in the half moons so often seen on
harness and occasionally on buildings. Indeed, in Oriental coun-
tries all jewels are amulets, and are prized more for their occult
virtue than for their superficial beauty. The Romans hung a
fascinum in the form of a phallus round the necks of children
as a preventive against witchcraft, and the pieces of red coral
used by our teething infants to facilitate dentition are a reminis-
cence of this usage connected with the Priapian cult. The Dru-
denfuss, or pentagram (*), which the Tyrolese draws on the
threshold of his stable to protect his cattle against enchantment,
is a relic of Pythagorean mysticism and mediaeval magic.

A dreadful tale of cruelty caused by the witchcraft delusion
comes to us from the Emerald Isle. A few months ago, at Bally-
vadlea, in the county of Tipperary, a woman named Bridget
Cleary had an attack of influenza or grippe, which, as is usually
the case with maladies of m^ and beasts, was ascribed to demo-
niac influences. Her husband, a cooper by trade, got the notion
into his head that she had been " overlooked," and thereby spirited
away by a wicked fairy, who had taken possession of her body.
He called a family council, consisting of her father, an aunt, four
cousins, a couple of neighbors, and the village simplist,who unan-
imously confirmed his suspicion, and went to work to exorcise
and expel the evil spirit, so that the unfortunate woman might
return to herself and her friends. The simplist prepared a dis-
gusting decoction, which her husband poured down her throat.

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 87

exclaiming, "There, take that, thou witch!'' He then put this
question to her twice: "Art thou Mary Boland, the wife of
Michael Cleary ? Speak by the Lord ! '' She replied : " I am
Mary Boland, the daughter of Pat Boland, by the Holy Ghost ! "
It now occurred to one of the neighbors, named Dunin, that if
they should put her on the fire, which fairies are notoriously
much afraid of, the indwelling spirit would speak the truth, and
probably be compelled also to depart. This clever suggestion
was at once acted upon. The sick woman was taken out of her
bed and held over the flames, while in the midst of her fearful
screams her tormentors kept shouting, " Come home, Bridget
Boland, come home ! " She was again put to bed, and Cleary,
who had become greatly excited, continued to cry out, " In the
name of God, art thou Bridget Cleary, my wife ? " declaring that,
if she did not give a satisfactory answer three times, he would
burn her up. As she was too exhausted to heed this threat, he
threw the petroleum lamp at her and she was soon all ablaze,
and, in the words of an eyewitness, " burned like a torch.'* No
voice of compassion responded to her shrieks, which only pro-
voked the harsh command of her husband : " Be still ! Troth, Fm
not burning Bridget ; in a minute, begorrah, you'll see the witch
going up the chimney." The charred body was put into a sack
and thrown out of the window. There it was found and borne to
the graveyard by the constables of the village, but no member
of the family of the deceased attended her funeral. They were
all scattered about on the neighboring hills, each armed with
a sharp knife and awaiting the appearance of Bridget Cleary
mounted on a white horse which the fairies had given her.
There they watched day and night, firmly believing that if
they could only succeed in cutting the reins of the bridle
the spell would be broken and the unfortunate woman disen-
chanted. Instead of the magic steed, they were met by a body of
policemen and taken to Dublin, where they are to be tried for
murder.

In Ireland the laws against witchcraft were not abolished
until 1821 ; and as the Catholic Church still prescribes formulas
and performs rites for the exorcism and expulsion of evil spirits,
it is no wonder that the delusion lingers in the minds of the peo-
ple, and sometimes gives rise to horrible cruelty like that igno-
rantly inflicted upon Bridget Cleary.

About thirty years ago printed prayers addressed to " the true
stature of Jesus," which had been supernaturally revealed to some
ecstatic soul, were extensively sold in Bavaria as talismans to
prevent and destroy diseases. But superstition, too, is not wholly
free from the whims of fashion, and these prayers have now been
superseded by another panacea called " Lourdes waffle," a thin

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

piece of pastry in the form of a madonna made of flour and the
water of Lonrdes by the Order of Redemptorists at Cortona, in
Tuscany. Quantities of these new-baked fetiches are manufac-
tured and exported every year with the approval of His Holiness
Leo XIII, by whom they are especially commended as a specific
for demoniacal infestations.

In 1887, when the phenomena of hypnotism began to excite
general interest and to be discussed by the press. La Civitt^ Cat-
tolica, the official organ of the Vatican, published an article
ascribing these strange manifestations to diabolical agencies, and
asserting them to be desperate attempts of Satan to recover the
sovereignty of this world, which the Church is gradually wrest-
ing from his grasp.

Unfortunately for the progress of knowledge and the general
diffusion of enlightenment, this explanation of hypnotism is a
fair example and illustration of the attitude of the papacy toward
every puzzling problem which presents itself to the human mind
for investigation. There is only one solution : the devil is to pay.
The same opinion is held and taught by the Greek Church, as
well as by conservative Lutheranism and many other rigidly
orthodox sects of Protestantism. Luther asserted that "if a man
loses an eye or hand, falls into the fire and is burned to death, or
into the water and is drowned, mounts a ladder and breaks his
neck, tumbles down without knowing why or how, or incurs daily
unforeseen accidents, all these things are mere tricks and onsets
of the devil" {eitel Teufelswiirf' und Schldg'). If a big blue-
bottle buzzed about in his study and happened to light on his
pen, he was sure that it was an emissary of Satan endeavoring to
hinder him in his work. Even the refined and scholarly Melanch-
thon relates similar experiences : " When I was in Tubingen," he
says, " I saw every night flames which burned a long time and
then vanished in a dense cloud of smoke. Likewise in Heidel-
berg, forms like falling stars appeared to me every night. They
were undoubtedly devils, which are constantly roving about
among men." This belief in the omnipresence of satanic satel-
lites, embodied in animate and inanimate objects, was easily con-
firmed by the citation and frequent perversion of scriptural texts.
Thus the words of the Psalmist, " Set a watch, Lord, before my
mouth : keep the doors of my lips," was interpreted, not as en-
treaty to be saved from the sin of evil- speaking, but as a prayer
for protection against evil spirits, who might take advantage of
the act of oscitation to enter into and get possession of the human
body. It was formerly believed that the devil drowzed people
and thus incited them to yawn for this express purpose ; hence
the custom, once generally prevalent and still practiced in Spain
and Italy, of making the sign of the cross over the mouth in

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 89

yawning, of which, the habit of covering the month with the hand
when yawning is said to be a survival.

Delusions growing out of the dread of demons die hard, espe-
cially when it is in the supposed interest of sacerdotalism to up-
hold them. Every invasion of the realm of supernaturalism
through the progress of science is feared and resented by ecclesi-
astical organizations, lest it should prove to be an entering wedge
destined to destroy the foundations upon which they rest. It is
this apprehension that often leads men as a body to sustain and
perpetuate beliefs which as individuals they know to be false,
boldly asserting and often honestly believing that the overthrow
of their own little system of faith would imperil the whole edifice
of religion and society, although the existence of such solidarity
is shown by all the teachings of history to be utterly illusive.
Hierarchical and official Christianity to-day bears about the same
relation to contemporary scientific and philosophic culture that
paganism did to the best thoughts of the period when Lucretius
wrote his didactic poem De Rerum Natura, or when Lucian, more
than two centuries later, composed his satirical dialogues.

The Tyrolese Jesuit Tanner had brought himself into grave
suspicion by advising inquisitors to proceed with caution in the
prosecution and punishment of witches ; and when he died, in
1632, he was denied Christian burial, because there was found in
his possession a dangerous hairy devil, which, on closer examina-
tion, proved to be a flea under a magnifying glass. The Church,
however, obstinately refused to recognize its error, and still holds
to the legend of the "dangerous hairy devil." Recantation is
fatal to the prestige of infallible authority, which is forced by its
pretensions to cling to its decisions, however absurd, and to close
its mind to all sources of enlightenment. It is in this necessity
that the divergence of scientific from theological conceptions of
the universe originates and gradually widens into an impassable
gulf. A divinely inspired and therefore inerrable record can
adapt itself to the progress of human thought only by forced in-
terpretations and positive perversions of its original meaning.
Hence the supreme importance which all systems of religion
attach to hermeneutics, the science of sciences, as Origen called
it, absolutely essential to the evolution of doctrinal theology. It
was Samuel Werenfels who said of the Bible :

" Hie liber est, in quo quisque sua dogmata quaerit,
Invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua."

The same idea is expressed by Rtickert in Die Weisheit des
Brahmanen :

" Des Glaubens Bilder sind unendlich umzudeuten ;
Das macht so brauchbar sie bei so verschiednen Leu ten."

90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This sort of exegetical jugglery, with its allegorical, anagogic-
al, and tropological methods of exposition, is not confined to
the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, but extends to the sacred
books of all nations. Veda, Avesta, Tripitaka, Ta5-t6-King, Ko-
ziki, Kur'an, Adi Granth, Kurral, and Popol Yuh have all been
put to the rack by hermeneutical inquisitors and made to confess
whatever doctrines their tormentors wished them to teach. We
have a striking illustration of this tendency in recent attempts to
deprive the Hebrew cosmogony of its true character as the terse
and highly poetical version of an ancient Assyrian creation myth,
in order to bring it into harmony with the modern theory of evo-
lution.

The same fatality compels the Church in the nineteenth cen-
tury to observe the forms of propitiation, incantation, and conju-
ration which were the natural outgrowth and consistent expres-
sion of primitive demonolatry, but are utterly repugnant to all
rational conceptions of the constitution of the universe and of the
laws that govern it. Some years ago the writer was the guest of
a Catholic priest in a remote region of the Tyrol. The house was
a massive building of the tenth century, formerly used as a clois-
ter, and still adorned with portraits of the old abbots and distin-
guished monks who were once its inmates. Attached to it was a
spacious chapel which now served as the parish church. One
day as a severe storm was gathering the church bells began to
ring violently in order to affright and drive away the devils who
were supposed to be riding on the tempest as satellites of the
"prince of the power of the air," and hurling thunderbolts
against the habitations of men. The priest admitted that the cus-
tom was a relic of pagan superstition and of no efficacy what-
ever, denied the demonic origin of meteorological phenomena,
and added that the ringing of many large bells, like the firing of
cannon, would rather tend to produce storms by agitating the air
than to disperse them. " But if I should act according to my own
judgment and neglect this time-honored practice," he continued,
"I should be held morally responsible for all damage done by
lightning within the precincts of my parish." He placed his own
person and property under the protection of a lightning-rod, but
was constrained by his ecclesiastical affiliations to pander to medi-
aeval tradition, and cause the mountain valley to resound with the
devil-defeating clangor of consecrated bells.

In November, 1894, it was reported that a statue of the Virgin
Mary at Keggio, in Calabria, had been seen opening her mouth
and moving her lips, and this absurd rumor attracted thousands
of persons, who came to present offerings and to prostrate them-
selves before the wonderful image, praying to be delivered from
the perils of earthquake and similar calamities. It is not surpris-

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 91

ing tliat tlie ignorant and credulous peasantry of southern Italy
should fall into gross f etichism of this sort ; the astonishing thing
is that the priests of a Church which sends missionaries to Africa
should encourage such crass superstition at home, and, instead of
seeking to enlighten the minds of the masses, should march in
procession to the scene of the supposed miracle with banners and
censers, singing hymns and chanting litanies, and displaying all
the pomp and paraphernalia of an imposing religious ritual in
confirmation of a vulgar delusion.

In August, 1894, the population of one of the suburbs of Vi-
enna was thrown into intense excitement by the rumored appari-
tion of the Virgin Mary, who was said to have been seen at
sundry times sitting on the branch of a tree in an old cemetery
and holding the child in her arms. The throng became so great
as to require the intervention of a squadron of police in order to
prevent a complete interruption of the city traffic. Not only was
the reality of the supernatural appearance generally believed, but
several persons turned it to practical account by noting the exact
time of the occurrence, hour, day, month, and year, so as to secure
lucky numbers for the lottery, and even attributed the presence
of the police to the anxiety of the Austrian Minister of Finance
lest, by a happy combination of these numbers, some one should
win a tern and thus deplete the state treasury. A workman from
a neighboring factory, who chanced to pass by, endeavored to
demonstrate the impossibility of such phenomena, and urged the
crowd not to give credence to idle tales of this sort; but this
laborer was the only one who acted the part of Paul on Mar's Hill
and reproved the multitude for being " too superstitious." Not a
representative of the clergy, from the humblest ecclesiastic to the
highest dignitary of the Church, has ever been known to improve
occasions of this kind for the religious instruction and intellectual
elevation of the people. Indeed, it would be difficult for them to
do so, in view of the fact that the literature which the Catholic
Church still publishes and disseminates for the promotion of
piety consists chiefly of similar legends ; and it would not sur-
prise us if a full and authentic account of the Vienna apparition
should appear in the columns of the Innsbruck periodical. Monthly
Roses to the Honor of the Immaculate Mary, Mother of God, as
an incentive to more ardent adoration of the Virgin.

Some years ago, in the month of May, I was walking up the
Ludwigstrasse, in Munich, with a German friend well known as
a genial poet and earnest Catholic. Just then a procession of
maidens dressed in white, with wreaths of flowers on their heads
and an image of the Virgin borne aloft, came out of the church
and passed through the garden, in which are the stations with
Fortner's frescoes representing the life and passion of Christ.

92 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" There is something that appeals to the imagination/' remarked
the German. " And purely a creation of the imagination, too,"
was my reply. A conversation ensued, from which it appeared
that my friend regarded all religious beliefs, institutions, rites,
and ceremonies solely from an aesthetic and poetic point of view.
He even declared that it made no difference to him whether such
a person as Christ ever lived, and whether the popes were the
successors of Peter or not ; he should still be a Christian and a
Catholic. He admitted that all sacred literatures are more or less
mythical, and that our Holy Writ forms no exception to the rule.
With the progress of the race the old myths are refined and
transformed, both artistically and ethically, and thus adapted to
every advance in civilization, but they never die out. "The
masses," he added, " are mentally and morally mere children and
will probably always remain so, and the most interesting and
instructive books for children are mdrchen" Here was a schol-
arly and thoughtful man who stood wholly out of reach of " the
higher criticism," since he was ready to assent to its most radical
conclusions without the slightest change in his attitude to the
current system of belief.

A mind thus constituted would regret the decay of supersti-
tion as a decline of ideality and a limitation of the undefined
and unknown regions of the supernatural, in which that errant
sprite, the imagination, is free to expatiate and quick to discover
wonders more strange than any invented by the Moor of Venice
to win the heart of Senator Brabantio's daughter. We fully ap-
preciate the poetical side of popular mythology and the unfading
fascination of folklore, and feel the charm that lingers in cus-
toms growing out of these survivals of primitive beliefs; but
this is another phase of the subject which can not be discussed in
the present paper. There are many tourists who remember Rome
as it was under papal rule, with its countless beggars and chronic
filth and perennial sources of malarial fever, and are fain to
lament the disappearance of these picturesque features through
the purification and regeneration of the ancient city. It is the
same sort of false sentiment that mourns over what the poet calls

" The fair humanities of old religion,"

the loss of which has been more than made good by the marvelous
discoveries of modern science, whose achievements rival the an-
nals of credulity in their appeals to the imagination, and render
the visible and invisible forces of Nature, once the terror of man,
now tributary to his happiness.

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE, 93

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE.

SOME WEST AFEICAN PEOTOTYPES OF THE "UNCLE
EEMUS" STOEIES.

By the late Colonel A. B. ELLIS.

IN the process of collecting the folklore of West Africa, but
chiefly that of the Gold Coast, I have found several tales
which are evidently the West African variants of some of the
stories collected in the Southern States by Mr. Joel Chandler
Harris, and published under the title of " Uncle Remus," and a
comparison of the two sets may be of some interest to American
readers, besides affording an example of the extent to which folk-
lore is affected by change of environment.

The role of Brer Rabbit is filled on the Gold Coast by the
Spider (Anansi), and on the Slave Coast by the Tortoise (Awon),
who is doubtless the prototype of the Terrapin in " Uncle Remus."
In both districts the Hare figures in the tales, and possibly Brer
Rabbit is the Hare amid new surroundings, but in West Africa
" Long Ears " rather takes the place of Brer Fox, as he is usually
outwitted by the Spider and the Tortoise.

So large a number of the folklore tales of the Gold Coast have
the Spider for their hero that the title Anansi' sem, "Spider
stories," is now the generic native name for all folklore tales
whatever, no matter what the subject may be ; and this designa-
tion survives in the British West Indies in the name " Nancy
stories," which is there applied by the negro to his local folk-
lore. The supply of slaves for the British West Indies was drawn
almost exclusively from the Gold Coast, so that all, or almost all,
of the existing folklore of those islands is derived direct from
the Spider stories, and can be readily traced ; but in the Southern
States the connection is not always so apparent, for although up
to the beginning of the present century Gold Coast negroes
formed the bulk of the imported slaves, yet, after about 1810,
when the African kingdom of Yoruba broke up, large numbers
of Slave Coast negroes were introduced, with the result that the
local tales present features peculiar to both districts of West
Africa.

The second tale in Mr. Harris's ''Uncle Remus" series is en-
titled The Wonderful Tar-baby, and, briefly, is as follows : Brer
Fox makes an effigy of tar, mixed with turpentine, and sets it up
by the roadside. Brer Rabbit, coming along the road, sees the
tar-baby and bids it " Good morning." The tar-baby makes no
^^JJjly, upon which Brer Rabbit grows angry and strikes it, with
the result that his hand sticks to the effigy. Then he strikes with

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

his other hand, with the same result ; then he kicks with his feet,
and, finally, butts with his head, until he is completely fixed to
the tar-baby. As will be readily seen, this is evidently a variant
of the following Gold Coast tale :

SPIDER AND THE FARMER.

There was a famine in Spider's country, and Spider had noth-
ing to eat. Now Spider had a son, named Kwaku Tyom, and
Spider's son used to go to a farm not far away and steal
cassava. And every day when he brought home the cassava, his
father would ask him, " Where dost thou get this cassava ? " But
Spider's son always made answer that he could not tell him, for
if he, Spider, were to go there, some harm might befall him.
Spider said, "Oh! my son, did I not beget thee, and yet thou
thinkest thyself to be more clever than I ? Show me the place,
and I will be careful that no one sees me." But Spider's son still
refused to show Spider.

Now, whenever Spider's son went to the farm to dig cassava,
he used to carry a bag, which he filled with cassava, and so
brought home ; and Spider played his son Kwaku Tyom a trick,
for, when night fell, and Spider's son had laid himself down and
was sleeping. Spider put wood ashes into the bag and made a hole
in the bottom thereof.

Next morning Spider's son arose, and slung the bag around
his neck, and set forth to go to the farm ; and as he walked, the
ashes fell through the hole in the bag and marked the path. Then
Spider came after his son and saw the road, but he did not go to
the farm that day ; he returned home and said nothing. In the
evening Spider's son returned home and brought cassava.

Next morning Spider arose early and followed the track of the
ashes to go to the farm ; and when he reached the place he saw a
something there made of crossed sticks, standing in the midst of
the farm, and there were snail ^shells hanging thereon, which the
breeze rattled.*

When Spider saw this he was afraid. He saluted the some-
thing, and said, " Good morning, sir " ; but the something made
him no answer. Then Spider became vexed, and he said, " Oh !
oh ! dost thou want to shake me by the hand before thou answer-
est me ? " He put out his hand to the something, and his hand
became fixed to the sticks so that he could not draw it back.

* What we should call a scarecrow, but on the Gold Coast such things scare people
rather than birds, for they are meant to protect crops from thieves, and are believed to
possess a latent power, derived from some god, to entrap or bring misfortune upon any one
who interferes with what is under their guardianship. The snail shells here mentioned are
those of the large edible snail of West Africa.

EVOLUTION IJSr FOLKLORE, 95

Then Spider became more vexed, and said, " What sort of man-
ners are these ? I was so polite as to come and shake thy hand,
and now thou dost hold my hand and will not leave it." He put
forth his left hand to the something, and the left hand became
fastened also. " Well, well," said Spider, "what is it that thou
wishest me to do ? Thou hast caught my two hands. Dost want
me to embrace thee ? " He put his face to the shoulder of the
something, and it remained fixed there so that he could not draw
it back. He kicked with his two feet at the sticks, and they also
were caught and held.

In this wise Spider remained all that day and until the morn-
ing of the next day, when the plantation owner came there and
saw Spider fastened to the something. And the farmer said:
*' Hallo, Father Spider, and is it thou who hast been coming to
take my cassava all this time ? At last I have found thee out ! "

Spider's wife and Spider's son Kwaku Tyom knew that Spi-
der had gone to the farm, because they had not seen him in the
house all the night.

The farmer said to Spider, " I have lost about two hundred
and fifty cassavas from my farm since this began, and unless thou
pay est me thou wilt not go from here." Then Spider begged for
pardon, and prayed the man to release him, saying that he would
pay for all, and the farmer released him.

Then Spider said to the man that he must return home with
him, and they went together ; and when they arrived at Spider's
house, they met there Spider's wife and son. The farmer said to
Spider's wife : " I saw Spider in my farm this morning, quite fas-
tened up, and, as I have lost about two hundred and fifty cassavas
from my farm, I asked Spider concerning them, and he confessed
it was he who had taken them, and said he would pay me, so I
have come hither with him to receive payment."

Then Spider's son spake to Spider and said : " Father, I told
thee not to go to the farm. My mother has told me that, when I
was sleeping one night, thou didst put some ashes into my bag,
and picked a hole in the bag ; but I knew not when I was going
next morning that the ashes were falling along the road. Now,
father, how art thou going to pay for so much ? " Spider an-
swered softly, " Never mind, my son, I will pay him up in the
roof."

Then Spider made an excuse to the farmer that he wanted to
go into his sleeping room, but the farmer said : " No, I will not
let thee do so, for thou art too tricky." But Spider begged the
farmer, saying that he only wanted to go into the room to get the
money wherewith to pay him, and that he would return at once ;
and at last, after much talking, the farmer left Spider.

Then, when Spider had moved about three steps from where

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the farmer was sitting, lie cried : " Oli ! oli ! daddy farmer, I have
no money for thee. I will pay thee on the roof top." And he
jumped at once into the rafters, where he said, " I shall not come
down again."

Since then Spider has not come down from the roof, for he
owes the farmer too much, and the farmer is still looking for
him.

The eighteenth of Mr. Harris's tales, entitled Mr. Kabbit finds
his Match at Last, describes how Brer Rabbit runs a race with
the Terrapin, which the Terrapin wins by distributing his wife
and children at the different mileposts along the track, and by
concealing himself near the winning post, up to which he crawls
when Brer Rabbit draws near. In the introduction Mr. Harris
mentions a similar tale from the South Atlantic States, where the
Terrapin, by the same stratagem, wins a race that he runs against
the Deer. In this instance, however, the race is for a bride, who
is to marry the winner, and so the tale probably has reference to
the once widely distributed marriage custom known as "bride
racing." The Gold Coast tale, equally with that of Uncle Remus,
has no reference to marriage. It is as follows :

THE FROG AND THE LEOPARD.

One day the Frog challenged the Leopard to run a race with
him from Axim to Accra, and the Leopard answered: "This
is foolishness. A little slow-moving creature such as thou art
could not race with me " ; but the Frog said, " Yes, I will, and
we will then see who is a man " ; so the Leopard agreed, and they
fixed a day for the race.

Then the Frog went to Axim, and he placed frogs all along
the road from Axim to Accra. He hid them in the bush, putting
here five and there ten ; and when the time came, the Leopard
came and called the Frog to go and race.

When they started, they started together, and the Leopard at
once made one leap and came to Shamah, and when he alighted
on the ground he called " Frog," and a frog answered " Yaow."
The Leopard said : " What ! such a little creature as that can beat
me in a race ? No, it is not possible. I will go on again " ; and he
skipped from Shamah to Kommenda, and when he alighted he
called again, "Frog," and a frog answered "Yaow." Then the
Leopard was ready to scream with vexation, he did not know
what to do, and it was bitter to think that such a slow creature
as a frog could leap as far as he.

The Leopard made another leap, and he leaped from Kommen-
da to Amkwana, and as he alighted he called " Frog," and a frog
answered "Yaow." The Leopard said, "What! art thou here
again ? " and he was angry, and he made a bound from Amkwana

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE. 97

to Simpa, without touching anywhere, and when he came down
at Simpa he called " Frog," and a frog said " Yaow." The leop-
ard said : " I am the King of the Bush. Every creature is under
me. I am the King, I can cut off heads, and yet a little creature
like thee is able to race with me, and now thou seekest to beat
me."

Then he leaped at once from Simpa to the Sakum River, and
when he came there he thought, " Frog is not here," and he did
not call the Frog, but said he would first drink some palm wine,
because he was tired. And after he had drunk the palm wine he
called " Frog," and a frog answered " Yaow." The Leopard asked,
" What ! art thou here. Frog ? " And the frog again said " Yaow."
Then the Leopard made a leap from that place and came to Accra,
and called " Frog," and a frog answered " Yaow." At every place
to which he came ho met the Frog, because a frog was there be-
fore he leaped.

At that time the Frog lived in the bush — he lived there with
all the other animals ; but now the Leopard said to him, " I am
the King of the Bush, and after this I will not keep thee there
any more. I will put thee down close to the water side."

That is why ye can hear frogs crying by the water side where-
ever ye go. The Leopard has driven them out of the bush, be-
cause the Frog was the only animal that could race with him.

Another Gold Coast tale is :

HOW SPIDER AND KWAKU TSE KILLED THE KING'S COWS AND TOOK

HIS WIVES.

There was a certain king who had two fine cows, and these
two cows were in the same town with the king. In this town
people often could not get meat to eat, but the king always had
meat to eat from the two cows, for they used to void meat every
morning.

Now, Spider and Kwaku Tse came to that town as strangers,*
and when they came the people had no meat to eat ; they had
nothing but plantains and dokonno ; f so Spider and Kwaku Tse
asked the master of the house in which they lodged, since he had
no meat to give them, to show them the house of the king.

Then Spider and Kwaku Tse went to the king, and said to
him : " We are strangers who have come to thy town, and to-mor-

* It should perhaps have been stated before that Spider and his family are able to as-
sume the human form at will. When Spider is in human shape he is small, lean, and
hairy, and these peculiarities are shared by his children. In the tale of Spider and the
Farmer it is to be understood that Spider goes to the farm in human shape and, when in
his own house, escapes from the farmer by becoming a spider again and climbing up
among the rafters.

f Dokonno — a kind of boiled maize bread.

TOL. XLVIII. — 1

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

row we will pass on our way, and we can find no meat to eat, but
as we were coming liitlier to thee we saw two fine cows." The
king answered, " The cows are mine, and they are not to kill."
Spider asked, " Why should not the cows be to kill ? " and the
king answered, " They supply me with meat." Then Spider and
Kwaku Tse asked the king if he could not give them even a small
piece of meat, and the king refused.

They departed from the king and returned to the house in
which they were lodging, and they told the owner of the house
of all that they had said to the king, and how the king had re-
fused to give them even a small piece of meat. They said to the
man : " The king said that his two cows supplied him with beef,
and that therefore he could not kill them." Spider said, " My
name is Spider, and this man is my namesake Kwaku. Never be-
fore have I seen a cow that could supply meat and yet live. I
came hither only to pass through and go upon my way, but now
I will tarry here and see how it is that these cows can supply
the king with meat." The owner of the house answered, " That
thou wilt not be able to see, for they do it in the king's private
yard." Spider said, " I am he who is called Kwaku Anansi, and
anything in this world that I want to see or want to do and that
I am not able to see or do, I have not yet found it." He said :
" These two cows of the king, I will kill them and I will take
their heads. I and my friend will do it ; we will each kill one,
and as for the heads of the cows, the king will cut them off and
give them to us."

When Spider spake thus the owner of the house marveled
greatly to hear such words, and he ran and called his neighbor
and said to him, " Come and listen, for there is a great trouble
which these strangers who have come to lodge with me are about
to bring upon me." When the neighbor came the owner of the
house told him, in the presence of Spider, what Spider had said,
and Spider gave them a proverb, saying, " If the load on thy
head is heavy, and it is something to eat, whilst thou art eating it
thou art lightening it." Then Kwaku Tse said : " We have spoken
this in thy house ; it is no concern of any one else."

Then Spider and Kwaku Tse told the owner of the house that
they were going out to see if they could not get the heads of the
two cows and bring them there. And they departed and went to
the king's yard, and it was night time, and they found the place
wherein the cows used to sleep. Now they had with them a leaf
that, when a person smelled it, it made him sneeze, and they
rubbed the leaf upon the noses of the two cows. Then the cows at
once looked as if they wanted to sneeze ; they opened their mouths
wide open, and Spider and Kwaku Tse turned themselves very
small and each of them jumped into the mouth of a cow, and the

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE, 99

cows swallowed them up. Then they cut meat from the insides
of the cows, but the cows did not die.

Next morning the king came to his cows to get meat, and the
cows voided meat for the king, but this time the meat was not
fresh as it always used to be, because Spider and Kwaku Tse had
cut it and left it inside all night. The king said, " I wonder why
the meat is not fresh as it always is ? " and he sent for a medicine
man to see if he could cure the cows, for he thought that they
were sick. When the medicine man came, he said that the cows
had eaten a bad leaf, and he poured medicine down their throats.
Then the medicine purged them and they voided more meat, but
it was all stinking.

When the king and the medicine man had gone away, and
there was nobody left with the cows, Kwaku Tse came out and
went into the cow in which was Spider, and when he came there
he found that Spider had done the same as he, Kwaku Tse, had
done in the other cow. He said to Spider : " I do not know why
we can not make these two cows die. We have cut all the meat
inside. I am going back to my cow, and after I have gone inside
I will cut its belly right through with a knife." Spider answered :
" No, do not do that. When thou goest in, thou must cut neither
the belly nor the heart." Kwaku Tse asked, " Why not ? " and Spi-
der said, " Because if we kill the cows while we are yet inside, we
shall not be able to get out again, and what shall we do then ? "
Kwaku Tse asked, " Why should we not be able to come out ? "
Then Spider said, " Is not thy mother dead ?" and Kwaku Tse an-
swered, " Yes." Spider said again, "And what caused her death ? "
and Kwaku Tse answered, " She died by poison." Spider said :
" When she was dead, did not a medicine man come and try to
make her sneeze or open her mouth, and did he not fail to do it ?
Thus thou must know that if the cows die while we are yet inside
them, we can not get out. But we can hide ourselves, and that is
what we will do. The king will rip open their bellies to discover
the cause of their death, so thou must chop the meat on one side
very small, so that they will think that the cows have received a
blow, and have died therefrom. When the king rips open the
cow thou must hide in the stomach, and if thou seest that they
are about to search there, thou must run into the bowels and hide.
When thou goest into thy cow now, after thou hast chopped the
side as I told thee, thou must search for the heart and cut it down.
When thou hast cut the heart down the cow will die, and then
thou must be careful where thou hidest, so as to escape the knife
with which they will open the belly. But before thou doest this,
first run to the man in whose house we lodge and tell him that
we are going to the water side to wash." Then Kwaku Tse went
to the house-master and told him, and returned into the belly of

loo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the cow, and chopped the side and cut the heart down, and the
cow died. And Spider did the same in his cow, and both cows
were dead.

When the king came and saw that his cows were dead, he
ordered his people to go and bring the medicine man who had phys-
icked the cows, and when the medicine man came he said that if
the king would allow it he would rip open the cows^ bellies. The
king consented, and they ripped open the cows, and the medicine
man said that something had struck the cows a blow in the side
and that that was the cause of their death. The king asked the
medicine man if the cows were still good to eat, and the medicine
man said that they were. Then the king said : " When thou camest
first to the cows thou didst say that they had eaten a bad leaf.
How, then, can their flesh now be good to eat ? " The medicine
man answered that at first he thought the cows had eaten a bad
leaf and were sick therefrom, but now he found that a blow had
been struck them, and therefore the flesh would be good to eat.
He said that the people must cut up the cows and carry the
paunches to the water side and wash them.

Then the king had the cows cut up, and he ordered two of his
slaves to carry the paunches to the water side ; and when they
went there they threw them down in the water. When the
paunches fell into the water Spider and Kwaku Tse broke forth
from their hiding places and changed themselves at once, and
looked up at the two slaves and cried unto them : " See how ye
have acted to us ! see how ye have acted to us ! We were bathing
here in this water and ye came and cast cows' paunches upon us."

The two slaves were frightened, and they left the paunches
and ran away and returned to the king and told him : " When
we carried the cow paunches to the stream and cast them into the
water, two men arose and said we had cast the cow paunches up-
on them. The king asked, " And did ye throw the paunches upon
them ? " The slaves answered : " We saw them not ; but when
they jumped up before us they were covered with the filth from
the cow paunches.''^ The king asked, " How deep was the place ? "
and the slaves answered that it was about the depth of a man's
knees. Then the king said, " If it were only of that depth ye
m.ust have seen the men when ye cast in the cow paunches."

The king called two elders and sent them to the water side to
see the two men, and when the elders came they found Spider and
his friend covered with filth and the cow paunches in the water.
Spider said to them : " That which these two slaves have done to
us, if we were not strangers here in the town, we would deal with
them for it. We asked if we might come here and wash before
we came here." The elders said, " This is the place where we
always are used to wash. The slaves have done wrong, but they

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE. loi

are the king's slaves, therefore we beg thee to let the matter rest."
Spider answered : " Ye are begging us while the filth is still upon
us. Ye can not beg us so with empty hands. If the cows have
been killed 'twill not be so grave a matter, but if they have died
our medicine will be spoiled, therefore we will go with ye and see
the cows. When first we came to this town we could get no
meat. We went to the king and told him we were strangers and
had no meat to eat, and he told us he had no meat to give us.''

While they were still talking by the water side, the son of the
man in whose house Spider and Kwaku Tse were lodging came
there and saw them with the elders, and he ran home and told his
father. Then the father came to see what was the matter, but
when he came he did not find the two strangers, for they had
already departed with the elders to go to the king's house. Then
he went to the king's house, and when he reached there the
strangers and the two elders had not yet arrived. When the man
came, the king asked him what he came for, and he answered :
" Two strangers came to me three days past and lodged in my
house. They went out this morning, and after a time one of them
returned to me and told me they were going to the water side to
wash. Afterward my son came and told me he had seen them at
the water side talking with two elders. So I have come hither to
learn what the matter is." The king asked: "What strangers
are they ? Whence do they come ? " and the man answered :
" King, thou knowest them. They are the two young men who
came to thee and asked for meat, because they were strangers."
Then tfie king said, " Ah ! I know them now." He said : " When
thou doest good for a man it is good for thyself.* These young
men came and asked me for meat, and I said I had none to give
them. Now my cows are dead, and the slaves whom I sent to
wash the paunches at the water side have cast them upon the
young men. I have sent two elders to go and soothe them, but
they have not yet returned."

While the king was speaking. Spider and Kwaku Tse and the
two elders came, and with them the slaves bearing the paunches
of the cows, and Spider and Kwaku Tse were still covered with
the dirt from the paunches. The king asked the elders: "The
place where these slaves cast down the paunches, if any persons
were there, could they see them ? " The elders answered that the
slaves could not fail to see them. Then the king said, " Then the
slaves must have done this thing purposely," and the elders an-
swered, " Thou hast said it." Spider said : " If thou art a stranger
and thou goest to another country, they treat thee like a stranger,
in truth. The slaves, when they saw my small body, they thought

* A proverb.

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I was a young boy, or else they would not have done such a
thing." The king said : " Thou must not say so. I am here for
all people, for the townfolk and for strangers also, to protect
them and be a father to them." Kwaku Tse answered : " How
canst thou say thou art a father to the stranger ? Did not we
come and ask thee for meat, and didst not thou tell us that thou
hadst only meat for thine own household ? " Spider said : " In
this world in which we live it is not everybody that likes every-
body, so it behooves every man to keep a little medicine * to guide
him. If the cows died of sickness then our medicine is spoiled,
but if the cows were killed no great harm was done." The king
said that the cows had died, and then Spider sang :

" My namesake, Kwaku, we are wearied, we are wearied.
We are wearied without cause."

The king asked what this song might mean, and Spider said that
the little medicine which they possessed was a medicine which for-
bade them even to pass by dead animals, and now the flesh of ani-
mals that had died had been thrown upon them. He said : " Had
these two slaves killed one of us, instead of throwing the paunches
upon us, it would have been better, because the one who lived
would have mourned for the other, and that is something. As
we are standing before thee now, O king, if war came upon thee
we are thy men. And if war did come upon thee now, we should
be the first to die in battle on account of what thy slaves have
done." He said, " No son can be older than his father." Then
the king asked what this proverb might mean, and Spider and
Kwaku Tse showed each a medicine that was upon their loins,
and said : " This medicine, when we were born it was not upon us.
After we were born we made it, and if thou wilt help us we will
make fresh medicine again, and let this matter rest, for thy sake."
The king said, " Whatever it is ye want, say it," and they an-
swered, " That which we want, perchance thou thyself will want
it also." The king said, " As ye are strangers, ask for what ye
wish, and, even though I want it, ye shall have it." Then they
said that they wanted the two heads and the two hearts of the very
cows whose paunches had spoiled their medicine, and hair from
two of the king's own wives. The king answered that he would
give them the cows' heads and the two hearts, but as for his
wives' hair, that was too much to ask. Spider said, " If the cows
were not thine own it would be different, but as the cows were
thine own we must ask for the hair." Then the king said he
would give them the hair according to their wish, but only a
little ; and Spider and Kwaku Tse said that a little would suffice.

* I. e., an amulet or charm.

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE. 103

Then the king called two of his wives, and when they came he
was ashamed to tell them what he wanted, so he said to them that
their hair had grown too much, and that they must cut it down.
Then the two women went into their own room and cut the hair,
and the king came behind them and gathered some of it and gave
it to Spider and Kwaku Tse, together with the two heads and the
two hearts of the cows.

Spider and Kwaku Tse departed from the king and carried
all the things to the house wherein they lodged, and they told the
house-master that they wished to marry and to give a wedding
feast. The house-master said that there was no meat in the town,
and though people passed by driving cows to other towns yet they
would not sell them. Then Spider and Kwaku Tse took the two
cows' heads, and went into the road where the people used to pass
driving their cows, and there was much mire at a certain part of
the road, and they took the two heads and planted them in the
mire so that the severed necks were hidden.

By and by some people came driving cows, and Spider and
Kwaku Tse called to them, and said : " We were passing here with
our cows, and lo ! this mire has swallowed them up, and we can
not draw them out. Can ye take them out for us ? " The people
said " Yes " ; and they left their own cows, and went and laid hold
of the horns of the cows' heads that were in the mire, and pulled
hard to pull the cows out, and when they pulled the two heads
came up out of the mire. Then Spider and Kwaku Tse cried
aloud and said : " See what ye have done ! See what ye have done !
Ye have pulled the heads off our cows and left the bodies still in
the mire. Ye must pay us for our two cows." Then the people
were obliged to give them two of their own cows, and they took
the two heads and cast them among the bushes.

Spider and Kwaku Tse take the heads from the bushes and
play the same trick upon some other passers-by, after which they
make a medicine with the hair of the king's wives, and by means
of it compel the two wives to come to them at night, and in the
end deprive the king of his wives altogether.

This tale furnishes the material for two of the stories of Uncle
Remus. The notion of entering a cow and cutting meat from its
inside is to be found in No. XXXIV— The Sad Fate of Mr. Fox.
Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox enter a cow and cut meat, and Brer
Rabbit, through disregarding Brer Fox's injunction and cutting
into the " haslet," kills the cow, so that they can not make their
way out again. Then one hides in the maul and the other in the
gall when the cow is cut open. The trick of planting the cows'
heads in the mire and pretending that the animals had foundered
appears in No. XX — How Mr. Rabbit saved his Meat — where
Brer Rabbit plants a cow's tail in the earth and tells Brer Fox

104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

that the cow has sunk into the ground. They both pull at the
tail, and when it comes out Brer Rabbit winks his eye and says,
" Dar ! de tail done pull out en de cow gone/'

No. XXXIII, Why the Negro is Black, is practically the same
as the Gold Coast tale. Why Some People are Black and Some
White. In the Uncle Remus variant there is a pool of water in
which those who wash become white ; but the water is soon used
up, and the last comers only find enough to whiten the palms of
their hands and the soles of their feet. In the Gold Coast tale
the change of color is brought about by means of the blood , of a
handsome boy, who has committed suicide by casting himself
down from a tree.

No. VI, Mr. Rabbit Grossly deceives Mr. Fox, which describes
how Brer Rabbit, by a trick, rides Brer Fox to Miss Meadows's
house, is like the Slave Coast tale. How the Tortoise rode the
Elephant to Town, and the stratagem by which the Tortoise es-
capes being killed by the Elephant is similar to that employed by
Brer Rabbit when Brer Fox is about to kill him (No. IV, How Mr.
Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox), and also by the Terrapin when
in the same dilemma (No. XII, Mr. Fox tackles Old Man Tarry-
pin). In the first case Brer Rabbit says, " I don't keer w'at you
do wid me. Brer Fox, so you don't fling me in dat brier patch,"
and in the second the Terrapin begs Brer Fox not to drown him,
but to burn him. In the Slave Coast tale, the Tortoise begs the
Elephant to dash him down upon the stones, but not to throw him
into the swamp, as the water and mire would drown him.

In No. XVII— Mr. Rabbit Nibbles up the Butter— where Brer
Rabbit rubs the butter upon the mouth of the sleeping Opossum,
and causes him to be thought guilty of the offense, we find a more
delicate version of an incident in the Gold Coast tale — How the
Cat got the Better of Spider — but as this paper has already
reached sufficient length, this and the other stories above men-
tioned can not be given in detail.

Prof. Angelo Heilprin points out as a field where thorough geo-
graphical explorations may be made with profit and additions to knowl-
edge, the regions of the North Pacific uniting North America — by stepping
stones — with Asia : the Aleutian Islands and peninsula, Bering Sea and
Strait, and the peninsula of Kamchatka. " Where two continents approach
one another so closely and give evidence of having been united at seem-
ingly no very ancient date ; where a connecting land-bridge could not but
most effectually influence the distribution of life — human, animal, and
vegetable — upon two hemispheres; there, manifestly, the harvest of explo-
ration must be great, for bound in with the research are problems of deep
significance, touching alike the sciences of physical geography, ethnology,
geology, and botany."

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 105

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.

XII.— UKDEK LAW.

By JAMES SULLY, M.A.,LL.D.,

OBOTE PBOFESSOB OF THE PHILOSOPHT OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVEBSITT COLLEGE,

LONDON.

(a) THE STRUGGLE WITH LAW.

IN the last chapter we tried to get at those tendencies of child-
nature which, though they have a certain moral significance,
may in a manner be called spontaneous and independent of the
institution of moral training. We will now examine the child^s
attitude toward the moral government with which he finds him-
self confronted.

Here, again, we meet with opposite views. Children, say some,
are essentially disobedient and lawbreaking. A child as such is
a rebel, delighting in nothing so much as in evading and dodging
the rule which he finds imposed by others.

The view that children are instinctively obedient and law-abid-
ing has not, I think, been very boldly insisted on. A follower of
Rousseau at least, who sees only clumsy interference with natural
development in our attempts to govern children, would say that
child-nature must resist the artificial and cramping system which
the disciplinarian imposes.

It seems, however, to be allowed by some that a certain num-
ber of children are docile and disposed to accept authority with
its commands. According to them, children are either obedient
or disobedient. This is probably the view of many mothers and
pedagogues.

Here, too, it is probable that we try to make nature too simple.
Even the latter view, in spite of its apparent wish to be discrimi-
nating, does not allow for the many-sidedness of the child and for
the many different ways in which the instincts of child-nature
may vary.

Now it is worth asking whether, if the child were naturally
disposed to look on authority as something wholly hostile, he
would get morally trained at all. Physically mastered and mor-
ally cowed he might, of course, become ; but this is not the same
thing as being morally induced into a habit of accepting law and
obeying it.

In inquiring into this matter we must begin by drawing a dis-
tinction. There is first the attitude of a child toward the gov-
ernor, the parent, or other ruler, and there is his attitude toward
law as such. These are by no means the same thing, and a child
of three or four begins to illustrate the distinction. He may seem
to be lawless, opposed to the very idea of government, when, in

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reality, lie is merely objecting to a particular ruler and tlie kind
of rule (or, as the child would say, misrule) which he is carrying
out.

Let us look a little into the noncompliant, disobedient attitude
of children. As we have seen, the very liveliness of a child, the
abundance of his vigorous impulses, brings him into conflict with
others' wills. The ruler, more particularly, is a great and con-
tinual source of crossings and checkings. The child has his natu-
ral wishes and propensities. He is full of fun, bent on his harm-
less tricks, and the mother has to talk seriously to him about being
naughty. How can we wonder at his disliking the constraint ?
He has a number of inconvenient active impulses, such as putting
things in disorder, playing with water, and so forth. As we all
know, he has a ducklike fondness for dirty puddles. Civilization,
which wills that a child should be nicely dressed and clean, inter-
venes in the shape of the nurse and soon puts a stop to this mode
of diversion. The tyro in submission, if sound and robust, kicks
against the restraint, yells, slaps the nurse, and so forth.

Such collisions are perfectly normal in the first years of life.
"We should not care to see a child give up his inclinations at an-
other's bidding without some little show of resistance. These con-
flicts are frequent and sharp in proportion to the sanity and vigor
of the child. The best children, best from a biological point of
view, have, I think, most of the rebel in them. Not infrequently
these resistances of young will to old will are accompanied by
more emphatic protests in the shape of slapping, pushing, and
even biting. The ridiculous inequality in bodily power, however,
saves, or ought to save, the contest from becoming a serious phys-
ical struggle. The resistance where superior force is used can
only resolve itself into a helpless protest, a vain yelling, or other
utterance of baffled impulse.

If, instead of physical compulsion, authority is asserted in the
shape of a highly disagreeable command, a child, before obedience
has grown into a habit, will be likely to disobey. If the nurse, in-
stead of pulling the mite away from the puddle, bids him come
away, he may assert his self in an eloquent "I won't," or, less
bluntly, " I can't come yet." If he is very much in love with the
puddle and has a stout heart, he probably embarks in a tussle of
words ; " I won't," or, as the child will significantly put it, " I
mus'n't," being bandied with " You must," until the nurse has to
abandon the " moral " method and to resort, after all, to physical
compulsion.

Our sample child has not, we will assume, yet got so fa;r as to
recognize and defer to a general rule about cleanliness. Hence it
may be said that his opposition is directed against the nurse, as
propounding a particular command, and one which at the moment

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 107

is excessively unpleasant. It is as yet not resistance to law as
such, but rather to one specific interference of another's will.

At the same time we may detect in some of this early resist-
ance to authority something of the true rebel nature — that is to
say, the love of lawlessness, and, what is worse perhaps, the obsti-
nate recklessness of the lawbreaker. The very behavior of a
child when another will crosses and blocks the line of his activity
is suggestive of this. The yelling and other disorderly proceed-
ings, do not they speak of the temper of the rioter, of the rowdy ?
And then, the fierce persistence in disobedience under rebuke, and
the wild, wicked determination to face everything rather than
obey, are not these marks of an almost Satanic fierceness of re-
volt ? The thoroughly naughty child sticks at nothing. Thus a
little offender of four, when he was reminded by his sister, two
years older, that he would be shut out from heaven, retorted
impiously, " I don't care," adding, " Uncle won't go ; Til stay with
him." *

The fierce and noisy utterance of the disobedient and law-
resisting temper is eminently impressive. Yet it is not the only
utterance. If we observe children who may be said to show, on
the whole, an outward submission to authority we shall discover
signs of secret dissatisfaction and antagonism. The conflict with
rule has not wholly ceased ; it has simply changed its manner of
proceeding, physical assault and riotous shouts of defiance being
now exchanged for dialectic attack.

A curious chapter in the psychology of the child which still
has to be written is the account of the various devices by which
the astute little novice called upon to wear the yoke of authority
seeks to smooth its chafing asperities. These devices may, per-
haps, be summed up under the head of " trying it on."

One of the simplest and most obvious of these contrivances is
the extempore invention of an excuse for not instantly obeying a
particular command. A child soon finds out that to say "I
won't," when he is bidden to do something, is indiscreet as well
as vulgar. He wants to have his own way without resorting to
a gross breach of good manners, so he replies insinuatingly, " I's
very sorry, but I's so busy," or in some such conciliatory words.
This field of invention offers a fine opportunity for the imagina-
tive child. A small boy of three years and nine months received
from his nurse the familiar order, " Come here ! " He at once
replied, " I can't, nurse ; I's looking for a flea," and he pretended
to be much engrossed in the momentous business of hunting for
this quarry in the blanket of his cot. The little trickster is such

* My correspondent, discreetly perhaps, does not explain why the uncle was selected as
fellow-outcast.

io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a lover of fun that lie is pretty certain to betray his ruse in a case
like this, and our small flea-catcher, we are told, laughed mis-
chievously as he proffered his excuse. Such sly fabrications may
be just as naughty as the uninspired excuses of a stupidly sulky
child, but it is hard to be quite as much put out by them.

These excuses often show a fine range of inventive activity.
How manifold, for example, are the reasons, more or less ficti-
tious, which a boy, when told to make less noise, is able to urge
in favor of noncompliance ! Here, of course, all the great matters
of the play world, the need of getting his " gQQ-gQQ " on, of giving
his orders to his soldiers, and so forth, come in between the pro-
hibition and compliance. And disobedience in such cases has its
excuses ; for to the child his play- world, even though in a man-
ner modeled on the pattern of our common world, is apart and
sacred ; and the conventional restraints as to noise and such like,
borrowed from the every-day world, seem to him to be quite out
of place in this free and private domain of his own.

We all know the child's aptness in "easing" the pressure of
commands and prohibitions. If, for example, he is told to keep
perfectly quiet because mother or father wants to sleep, he will
prettily plead for the reservation of whispering ever so softly.
If he is bidden not to ask for things at the table, he will resort to
sly indirect reminders of what he wants, as when a boy of five
years and a half whispered audibly, " I hope somebody will offer
me some more soup," or when a girl of three years and a half,
with still greater childish tact, observed on seeing the elder folk
eating cake, " I not asking." This last may be compared with a
story told by Kousseau of a little girl of six years who, having
eaten of all the dishes but one, artfully indicated the fact by
pointing in turn to all the dishes, saying, " I have eaten that,"
but carefully passing by the untasted one.*

When more difficult duties come to be enforced and the neo-
phyte in the higher morality is bidden to be considerate for
others, and even to sacrifice his own comfort for theirs, he is apt
to manifest a good deal of skill in adjusting the counsel of per-
fection to young weakness. Here is an amusing example: A
little boy, Edgar by name, aged five years and three quarters, was
going out to take tea with some little girls. The mother, as is
usual on such occasions, primed him with special directions as
to behavior, saying, " Remember to give way to them, like father
does to me." To which Edgar, after thinking a brief instant
replied ; " Oh, but not all at once. You have to persuade him."

A like astuteness will show itself in meeting accusation. The

* !l&mile, livre v, quoted by Perez, L'Art et la Poesie chez I'Enfant, p. 127. Rousseau
uses this story in order to show that girls are more artful than boys.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 109

various ways in which a child will seek to evade the point in snch
cases are truly marvelous, and show the childish intelligence at
its ablest.

Sometimes the dreary " talking to," with its well-known deep
accusatory tone, its familiar pleadings, " How can you be so
naughty?'' and the rest, is daringly ignored. After keeping up
an excellent appearance of listening, the small culprit proceeds in
the most artless way to talk about something more agreeable.
This is trying, but is not the worst. The deepest depth of mater-
nal humiliation is reached when a carefully prepared and solemnly
delivered homily is rewarded by a tu quoque in the shape of a cor-
rection of something in the delivery which offends the child's sense
of propriety. This befell one mother who, after talking seriously
to her little boy about some fault, was met with this remark :
*' Mamma, when you talk you don't move your upper jaw."

It is, of course, difficult to say how far a child's interruptions,
and what look like turnings of the conversation when receiving
rebuke, are the result of deliberate plotting. We know it is hard
to hold the young thoughts long on any subject, and the homily
makes a heavy demand in this respect, and its theme is apt to seem
dull to a child's lively brain. The thoughts will be sure to wander
then, and the rude interruptions and digression's may, after all, be
but the natural play of the young mind. I fear, however, that
design often has a hand here. The first digression to which the
weak disciplinarian succumbed may have been the result of a
spontaneous movement of child-thought ; but its success enables
the observant child to try it on a second time with artful aim.

In cases in which no attempt is made to ignore the accusation,
the small wits are busy discovering palliatives and exculpations.
Here we have the many ruses, often crude enough, by which the
little culprit tries to shake off moral responsibility, to deny the
authorship of the action found fault with. The blame is put on
anybody or anything. When he breaks something, say a cup,
and is scolded, he saves himself by saying it was because the cup
wasn't made strong enough, or because the maid put it too near
the edge of the table. There are clear indications of fatalistic
thought in these childish disclaimers. Things were so conditioned
that he could not help doing what he did. This fatalism betrays
itself in the childish ruses already referred to by which the ego
tries to screen itself shabbily by throwing responsibility on to the
bodily agents. This device is sometimes hit upon very early. A
wee child of two, when told not to cry, gasped out, " Elsie cry — not
Elsie cry — tears cry — naughty tears." This, it must be allowed, is

more plausible than C 's lame attempt to put off responsibility

on his hands ; for our tears are in a sense apart from us, and in
the first years are wholly beyond control.

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The fatalistic form of exculpation meets us later on under the
familiar form, " God made me like that." A boy of three was
blamed for leaving his crusts, and his conduct contrasted with
that of his model papa. Whereupon he observed with a touch of
metaphysical precocity, " Yes, but papa you see God had made
you and me different."

These denials of authorship occur when a charge is brought
home and no clear justification of the action is forthcoming. In
many cases the shrewd intelligence of the child, which is never so
acute as in this art of moral self-defense, discovers justificatory
reasons. In such a case the attitude is a very different one. It is
no longer the helpless hand-lifted attitude of the irresponsible
one, but the bold, steady-eyed attitude of one who is prepared to
defend his action.

Sometimes these justifications are pitiful examples of quib-
bling. A boy has been rough with his baby brother. His mother
chides him, telling him he might hurt baby. He then asks his
mother, " Isn't he my own brother ? " and on his mother admitting
so incontestable a proposition, exclaims triumphantly, " Well, you
said I could do what I liked with my own things." The idea of
the precious baby being a boy's own to do what he likes with is
so remote from older people's conceptions that it is hard for us to
credit the boy with misunderstanding. We ought, perhaps, to set
him down as a depraved little sophist, and destined — But pre-
dictions happily lie outside our metier.

In some cases these justifications have a dreadful look of being
after-thoughts invented for the express purpose of self-protection
and knowingly put forward as fibs. Yet there is need of a wise
discrimination here. Take, for example, the following from the
Worcester Collection : A boy of three was told by his mother to
stay and mind his baby sister while she went downstairs. On
going up again some time after, she met him on the stairs. Being
asked why he had left the baby, he said there was a bumblebee
in the room, and he was afraid he would get stung if he stayed
there. His mother asked him if he wasn't afraid his little sister
would get stung. He said " Yes," but added that if he stayed in
the room the bee might sting them both, and then she would have
two to take care of. Now, with every wish to be charitable I can
not bring myself to think that this small boy had really gone
through that subtle process of disinterested calculation before
vacating the room in favor of the bumblebee — if indeed there was
a bumblebee. To be caught in the act and questioned is, I sus-
pect, a situation particularly productive of such specious fibbing.

One other illustration of this keen childish dialectic when face
to face with the accuser deserves to be touched on. The sharp
little wits have something of a lawyer's quickness in detecting a

JSTUBIUS OF CHILDHOOD. ill

flaw in the indictment. Any exaggeration into wliicli a feeling of
indignation happens to betray the accuser is instantly pounced
upon. If, for example, a child is scolded for pulling kitty^s ears
and making her cry, it is enough for the little stickler for accu-
racy to be able to say : " I wasn't pulling kitty's ears, I was only
pulling one of her ears." This ability to deny the charge in its
initial form gives the child a great advantage, and robs the accu-
sation in its amended form of much of its sting. Whence, by the
way, one may infer that wisdom in managing children shows it-
self in nothing more than in a scrupulous exactness in the use of
words.

While there are these isolated attacks on various points of the
daily discipline, we see now and again a bolder line of action in
the shape of a general protest against its severity. Children have
been known to urge that the punishments inflicted on them are
ineffectual ; and although their opinion on such a matter is hardly
disinterested, it is sometimes pertinent enough. An American boy,
aged five years and ten months, began to cry because he was for-
bidden to go into the yard to play, and was threatened by his
mother with a whipping. Whereupon he observed, " Well now,
mamma, that will only make me cry more.''

These childish protests are, as we know, wont to be met by the
commonplaces about the afi!ection which prompts the correction.
But the child finds it hard to swallow these subtleties. For him
love is caressing him and doing everything for his present en-
joyment; and here is the mother who says she loves him, and
often acts as if she did, transforming herself into an ogre to tor-
ment him and make him miserable. He may accept her assurance
that she scolds and chastises him because she is a good mother ;
only he is apt to wish that she were a shade less good. A boy of
four had one morning to remain in bed till ten o'clock as a punish-
ment for misbehavior. He proceeded to address his mother on this
wise : " If I had any little children I'd be a worse mother than you
— I'd be quite a bad mother. I'd let my children get up directly
I had done my breakfast, at any rate."

If, on the other hand, the mother puts forward her own com-
fort as the ground of the restraint, she may be met by this kind of
thing : " I wish you'd be a little more self-sacrificing and let me
make a noise."

Enough has been said to illustrate the ways in which the nat-
ural child kicks against the imposition of restraints on his free
activity. He begins by showing himself an open foe to authority.
For a long time after, while making a certain show of submission,
he harbors in his breast something of the rebel's spirit. He does
his best to avoid the most galling parts of the daily discipline, and
displays an admirable ingenuity in devising excuses for apparent

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

acts of insubordination. Where candor is permitted he is apt to
prove himself an exceedingly acute critic of the system which is
imposed on him.

All this, moreover, seems to show that a child objects not only
to the particular administration under which he happens to live,
but to all law, as implying restraints on free activity. Thus, from
the child's point of view, so far as we have yet examined it, pun-
ishment as such is a thing which ought not to be.

So strong and deep-reaching is this antagonism to law and its
restraints apt to be that the childish longing to be " big " is, I be-
lieve, grounded on the expectation of liberty. To be big means to
the child more than anything else to be rid of all this imposition
of commands, to be able to do what one likes without interference
from others. This longing may grow intense in the breast of a
quite small child. " Do you know," asked a little fellow of four
years, " what I shall do when I'm a big man ? I'll go to a shop and
buy a bun and pick out all the currants." This funny story is
characteristic of the movements of young desire. The small
prohibition not to pick out the currants is one that may chafe
to soreness a child's sensibility.

SKETCH OF ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE.

THE life which is to be sketched in the following pages con-
tributes support to the doctrine that what a man is to be, or,
rather, what he is capable of being, is mainly determined by what
his parents and ancestors have been. According to the doctrine
of heredity, it is not surprising that Bache, descended from illus-
trious progenitors on both sides of his family, should himself
achieve intellectual eminence. As he received an education that
was very appropriate for the work he was to perform, his career
does not give any help in answering the question whether heredity
is or is not stronger than training.

His most important work is instructive in another way. It
shows how effective efforts for the advancement of knowledge
made by the power and resources of a great government can be
when the right man is secured to direct them, just as other in-
stances have made plain how wasteful and demoralizing such
efforts may become when unwisely managed.

Alexander Dallas Bache was born in Philadelphia, July
19, 1806. His father, Richard Bache, was a grandson of Benjamin
Franklin, being one of the eight children of Richard Bache, Post-
master-General from 1776 to 1782, and Franklin's only daughter,
Sarah. His mother, Sophia Burret (Dallas), was a daughter of

ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE, 113

Alexander J. Dallas, who was Madison^s Secretary of the Treasury,
and sister of George M. Dallas, Vice-President of the United
States in Polk's administration.

Dallas Bache, as he was usually called by his intimates, was
placed in a classical school at an early age, and proved to be a
remarkably bright pupil. The year he was fifteen years old he
was appointed a cadet in the Military Academy at West Point.
He maintained a high stand in scholarship from the beginning to
the end of his course, and graduated in 1825 at the head of his
class, although its youngest member. This was no small achieve-
ment in a class from which four cadets were assigned to the engi-
neer corps, when only one or two members attained this honor in
most classes. Moreover, he went through the whole four years
without receiving a demerit mark — equally remarkable in view
of the rigid discipline of the academy, and the only instance on
record. Students are none too prone to admire one of their fel-
lows who is noted only for studious habits and correct deport-
ment, but young Bache had besides the personal qualities that win
esteem. Prof. Joseph Henry, in his memoir read before the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences, relates of cadet Bache that " his su-
periority in scholarship was freely acknowledged by every mem-
ber of his class, while his unassuming manner, friendly demeanor,
and fidelity to duty secured him the affection as well as the respect
of not only his fellow-pupils, but also of the officers of the insti-
tution. It is also remembered that his classmates, with instinc-
tive deference to his scrupulous sense of propriety, forbore to
solicit his participation in any amusement which in the slightest
degree conflicted with the rules of the academy. So far from
this, they commended his course, and took pride to themselves, as
members of his class, in his reputation for high standing and ex-
emplary conduct. His roommate — older by several years than he
was, and by no means noted for regularity or studious habits —
constituted himself, as it were, his guardian, and sedulously ex-
cluded all visitors or other interruptions to study during the pre-
scribed hours. For this self-imposed service, gravely rendered as
essential to the honor of the class, he was accustomed jocularly to
claim immunity for his own delinquencies or shortcomings."

All of young Bache's predispositions for good were stimulated
and sustained by the judicious care of his mother, not only while
he was a child at home, but also by means of a ready pen during
the whole of his residence at West Point. It should not be in-
ferred that the young man attained perfection in his conduct.
'* When a child he is said to have been quick-tempered, and at
later periods of his life, when suddenly provoked beyond his ha-
bitual power of endurance, he sometimes gave way to manifesta-
tions of temper which might have surprised those who only knew

VOL. XLTIII. — 8

114 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

him in Ms usual state of calm deportment. These ebullitions
were, however, of rare occurrence, and always of short duration."

On graduating. Lieutenant Bache was assigned to duty at the
academy as assistant professor. A year later he was transferred
at his own request to engineering service on the fortifications at
Newport, R. I., under Major (afterward General) J. G. Totten.
Here he remained two years. One of his recreations during this
period was making a collection of shells of mollusks.

In 1828, being then twenty-two years of age. Lieutenant Bache
resigned his commission in the army to accept a call to the chair
of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the University of Pennsyl-
vania. This change was welcome in more ways than one. He
was engaged to Miss Nancy Clarke Fowler, the daughter of an old
and highly respected citizen of Newport, but marriage was appar-
ently a remote prospect, for he had only the stinted pay of a lieu-
tenant of engineers, out of which he must contribute to the
support of his mother and her younger children. The salary of
his new position, however, justified him in hastening the happy
event.

His year's experience in teaching at West Point assisted Mr.
Bache in taking up his duties at the university. He was a very suc-
cessful instructor, and popular with his students. But he did not
rest content with imparting knowledge obtained by the labors of
others. He joined the Franklin Institute, then newly established,
and took a prominent part in its investigations for the promotion
of the mechanical arts.

For a full account of his labors in connection with this society
we must here be content with referring to the volumes of its
Journal from 1828 to 1835 inclusive. One of the most important
and fruitful of these was the investigation of the bursting of
steam boilers, of which he was the principal director. From in-
quiries and experiments, the latter not unattended with danger,
" the most frequent cause of explosion was found to be the grad-
ual heating of the boiler beyond its power of resistance; and,
next to this, the sudden generation of steam by allowing the
water to become too low, and its subsequent contact with the
overheated metal of the sides and other portions of the boiler.
The generation of gas from the decomposition of water as a cause
of explosion was disproved, as was also the dispersion of water in
the form of spray through superheated steam."

Early in 1829 Mr. Bache was elected to membership in the
American Philosophical Society, and at once entered upon va-
rious researches in pure science in co-operation with his fellow-
members. With the aid of his wife and of his former pupil, John
F. Fraser, he determined with accuracy, for the first time in this
country, the periods of the daily variations of the magnetic

ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE, 115

needle, and by another series of observations established the
connection between certain perturbations of the terrestrial mag-
netism and the aurora borealis. With Prof. Courtenay he inves-
tigated the magnetic dip at various places in the United States,
and with Mr. Espy made a minute survey of part of the track of
a tornado which visited New Jersey, June 19, 1835.

After Stephen Girard died, in 1832, Prof. Bache was elected
one of the trustees of the College for Orphans, founded by the
will of the childless merchant. Three years later the trustees
decided to select a president for the institution, in order that he
might go abroad and study European methods of education while
other preparations were being made. Prof. Bache, then only
thirty years of age, was selected for the position. Although re-
gretting the consequent interruption of his scientific researches,
in which he had become much absorbed, he accepted the appoint-
ment, and departed on his mission, September 30, 1836. Two years
were spent agreeably and profitably in Europe, and on his return
Prof. Bache made a report to the trustees embodying his observa-
tions on the schools of England, France, Prussia, Austria, Swit-
zerland, and Italy, with the many helpful conclusions and sugges-
tions that he had derived from these data. The document was
printed, making a large octavo volume.

As the preparations for opening the college were not yet com-
plete. Prof. Bache offered his services gratuitously to reorganize
the public schools of Philadelphia, and his offer was gladly accepted
by the municipal authorities. A year later, finding that the trus-
tees of the college were still unprepared to open the institution,
he relinquished the salary of his office and accepted from the
city a much smaller compensation for his time. His work on the
public schools was completed in 1842, and resulted in a system
that has been taken as a model by other cities in various parts of
the United States. So highly were his labors appreciated that
the Central High School was frequently called Bache Institute.

Girard College having made very little progress, he now re-
signed all connection with it, and accepted his former chair at
the University of Pennsylvania, with its welcome opportunities
for scientific research. The preceding six years had by no means
been a blank with respect to his favorite investigations. When
he went to Europe he took care to provide himself with a set of
portable instruments, with which, as a relief from the labors im-
posed by the special object of his mission, he made a connected
series of observations on the dip and intensity of terrestrial mag-
netism at important places on the Continent and in Great Britain.

After his return to Philadelphia he co-operated in the under-
taking of the British Association to determine by contempora-
neous observations at widely separated points the fluctuations of

ii6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the magnetic and meteorological elements of the globe. He also
made in his summer vacations a magnetic survey of Pennsyl-
vania. Mr. Cramp, afterward the famous shipbuilder, was then
a boy in the high school, and assisted Prof. Bache in his obser-
vations.

Valuable instruments and methods for performing scientific
observations were devised by Bache during this period. He in-
vented an ingenious instrument for determining the dew point,
which is especially valuable where readings must be made by per-
sons without special scientific training. Only much later did he
learn that the principle of the device had already been used by
Belli, of Milan. He also introduced a modification of Osier's ane-
mometer and invented a thermoscope of contact, both of which
avoided difficulties involved in the use of previous instruments.

The way in which a man conducts a controversy is always a
severe test of his character. Bache had one with Denison Olmsted
on the periodical recurrence of meteors. Prof. Gould, in his Amer-
ican Association memoir, thus describes the occurrence: "Mr.
Bache maintained that there was no recurrence in 1834; Prof.
Olmsted, on the other hand, maintained the reverse. Prof. Bache
instituted special inquiries at the military posts (where, of course,
sentinels were on duty) along all the frontiers of the United States,
also among the night police of various cities, and at the universi-
ties, and he found but one exception to the statement that no un-
usual number of meteors was seen. Of this controversy Bache
wrote, in 1846 :

" ' There is something yet to be found out on this subject which
may reconcile our opinions. Neither I nor any of those watching
with me, or for me, have seen an unusual number of meteors on
the night of the 12th of November in any year since the great
night at Philadelphia, and we have taken great pains to be sure.
Yet I can not doubt the testimony as given for some other places.
... I had a complimentary letter from the professor in regard to
my manner of conducting the controversy, which I valued more
highly than if I had gained the victory.' "

The year after Prof. Bache resumed his old position at the uni-
versity he was called to the superintendency of the United States
Coast Survey, left vacant by the death of Mr. Hassler. His ap-
pointment to this position was first suggested by members of the
American Philosophical Society, and the nomination was fully
concurred in by the other principal scientific and literary institu-
tions of the country.

Although the Coast Survey had been founded a quarter of a
century, the policy of Congress toward it had been changeable
and its appropriations limited. It had been suspended fifteen
years of that time, so that its work was but just begun. The At-

ALEXANDER DALLAS BAG HE. 117

lantic coast line had been surveyed only from Point Judith, on
the coast of Rhode Island, to Cape Henlopen, at the entrance of
Delaware Bay. " The new superintendent," says Prof. Henry in
his memoir, " saw the necessity of greatly enlarging the plan, so
as to embrace a much broader field of simultaneous labor than it
had previously included. He divided the whole coast line into
sections, and organized, under separate parties, the essential
operations of the survey simultaneously in each. He commenced
the exploration of the Gulf Stream, and at the same time pro-
jected a series of observations on the -tides, on the magnetism of
the earth, and the direction of the winds at different seasons of
the year. He also instituted a succession of researches in regard
to the bottom of the ocean within soundings, and the forms of
animal life which are found there, thus offering new and unex-
pected indications to the navigator. He pressed into service, for
the determination of longitude, the electric telegraph ; for the
ready reproduction of charts, photography ; and for multiplying
copperplate engravings, the new art of electrotyping. In plan-
ning and directing the execution of these varied improvements,
which exacted so much comprehensiveness in design and minute-
ness in detail. Prof. Bache was entirely successful. He was equally
fortunate, principally through the moral influence of its charac-
ter, in impressing upon the Government, and especially upon
Congress, a more just estimate of what such a survey required for
its maintenance and creditable prosecution. Not only was a
largely increased appropriation needed to carry out this more
comprehensive plan, but also to meet the expenses consequent
upon the extension of the shore line itself. Our seacoast, when
the survey commenced, already exceeded in length that of any
other civilized nation, but in 1845 it was still more extended by
the annexation of Texas, and again, in 1848, by our acquisitions
on the Pacific. Prof. Bache was in the habit of answering the
question often propounded to him by members of Congress,
' When will this survey be completed ? ' by asking, ' When will
you cease annexing territory ? ' "

Prof. Bache's policy of dividing the Atlantic and Gulf coast
(we had no Pacific coast in 1843) into sections, and carrying on
work in all the sections at the same time greatly allayed sectional
jealousies in States which the previous operations of the survey
had not reached and had great influence in winning public favor
for the survey. He had a wonderful faculty for enlisting the
efforts and talents of others in carrying out his plans. "As rapidly
as means allowed, the services of American scientists throughout
the land were enlisted in aid of the survey, and the whole intellec-
tual resources of the country thus made tributary to its usefulness
and success. Thus Walker, Peirce, Bailey, Agassiz, Barnard,

ii8 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Kendall, Mitchell, Bond, Alexander, and many others, were called
on to assist in the advancement of the undertaking; and this
large and wise policy prevailed during the whole period of his
superintendence." * Many of the ablest officers of the navy and
the army were brought into the Coast Survey service, and gained
experience of great value in the duties many of them were after-
ward called upon to perform in the civil war.

The efficiency of the survey was greatly increased by improved
instrumental equipment. Antiquated instruments were replaced
by those of the most improved type; an apparatus for the
measurement of base lines, invented by Prof. Bache, was in-
troduced, and secured a degree of accuracy before unknown.
The method of determining longitude by the exchange of star
signals was developed through the agency of Sears C. Walker.
Prof. Gould has stated that he had received accounts of this
important advance in geodetic practice from the lips of both
Bache and Walker, and that " their descriptions varied but in one
salient point, namely, that each ascribed the chief merit to the
other." The determination of latitudes with the zenith telescope,
by Talcott's method, first tested in 1845, was early adopted by the
survey. " Thus by the use of the zenith telescope, combined with
the determination of longitudes from the adopted meridian by
the exchange of star-signals, the geographical position of the
primary astronomical stations of the survey could claim, ten or
fifteen years ago, to be determined with more accuracy than that
of any European observatory."

Stations for tidal observation were established all along the At-
lantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. The character of the Gulf Stream
and other currents along our coast were determined. Twice was
Agassiz sent to study the formation of the coral reefs of Florida,
and the causes that promote and restrict their growth. The mag-
netic constants were determined for every important point pos-
sible within reach of the survey.

Other duties were assigned to Prof. Bache by the Government
from time to time. He was made Superintendent of Weights and
Measures, and in the exercise of this function directed a series
of investigations relative to the collection of excise duties on
distilled spirits, and superintended the construction of a large
number of sets of standard weights and measures for distribu-
tion to the several States of the Union. He was appointed on
a commission created to examine the lighthouse system of the
United States, and was a member of the Lighthouse Board, into
which this commission was merged, from its organization till

* Address in commemoration of Alexander Dallas Bache, by Benjamin Apthorp Gould,
delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, August 6, 1 868.

ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 119

his death. In this work he took a lively interest and rendered
important service.

As to the connection of Prof. Bache with the Smithsonian In-
stitution we can not have better testimony than that of him who
was identified with the institution for more than thirty years, its
first secretary. Prof. Henry says : " In 1846 he had been named
in the act of incorporation as one of the regents of the Smith-
sonian Institution, and by successive re-election was continued by
Congress in this ofiSce until his death, a period of nearly twenty
years. To say that he assisted in shaping the policy of the estab-
lishment would not be enough. It was almost exclusively through
his predominating influence that the policy which has given the
institution its present celebrity was, after much opposition, finally
adopted." * Not the least of Bache's services to the institution
was securing Henry for its secretary. The latter states, in the
place just quoted, that "it was entirely due to the persuasive
influence of the professor " that he was induced to take the posi-
tion.

Although not fond of physical exertion. Prof. Bache had been
accustomed to spend part of each summer in a tent at some station
of the survey on the top of a mountain, where he took part in
the measurement of angles and directed the movements of field
parties at other stations. The civil war brought added labors
upon him so that his constant presence in Washington was re-
quired, and his health no longer obtained the yearly recuperation
of this season of outdoor life. Being solicited by the Governor of
Pennsylvania to plan lines of defense for Philadelphia, he con-
sented, although overburdened with other public duties, and per-
sonally superintended the construction of some of the works.
Unaccustomed for many years to direct exposure to the sun, this
undertaking brought on the first indications of the malady that
ended his life. He had been subject to attacks of "sick head-
ache " — a tendency which he seems to have inherited — and now
various symptoms of softening of the brain came upon him in
succession. For several months he was very anxious about the
business of the Coast Survey, and with difficulty could be re-
strained from attempting to perform the duties of his office. As
the malady increased, however, his attention was gradually with-
drawn from the exterior world, with which he almost ceased to
hold active communication. A trip to Europe, covering a period
of eighteen months, produced no permanent benefit. He died a
short time after his return, at Newport, R. I., February 17, 1867.

The ability and worth of Dallas Bache brought him many and
high honors. There were few for our leading learned societies

* Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, i, 197, 198.

120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that did not number him among their associates. He was Presi-
dent of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
in 1850 and 1851, of the American Philosophical Society in 1855
and 1856, and of the National Academy of Sciences from its estab-
lishment in 1863 until his death. He was a member also of the
Royal Society of London, the Imperial Academy of Sciences at
St. Petersburg, the Institute of France, the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, the Royal and Imperial Geographical Society of
Vienna, the Royal Academy of Turin, the Mathematical Society
of Hamburg, the Academy of Sciences in the Institute of Bologna,
the Royal Astronomical Society of London, and the Royal Irish
Academy of Dublin.

The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the principal
American universities, and he received several medals from foreign
governments for his distinguished services to science in the course
of his labors on the Coast Survey and in other researches.

Mr. Bache was gifted with quick apprehension, and at the
same time with deep intelligence, which is not always allied to
the former quality. He had also great power of application.
When at the head of a body of workers those under him were
always nerved to do their best, because they saw that the master
did not spare himself. He was always ready to learn from others.
He would listen carefully to younger men if he saw that they had
ideas which might be developed to good purpose. After arguing
vehemently in opposition to the views of his brother on a matter
under consideration, he would often come out on the same side of
the question, and explain that his contention was designed to
draw out arguments.

In his home he dropped science, and was a genial companion
of old and young. Although not prepossessing in face, he was
charming in manner and disposition. He was a very lovable
man, and there was always plenty of company at his house in
Washington. His favorite relaxation was reading light novels.
He had a great appreciation of humor, but failed in trying to
contribute humorously to the entertainment of others.

As an evidence of his high appreciation of abstract science
derived from original investigation, he left his property in trust
to the National Academy of Sciences, the income to be devoted to
the prosecution of researches in physical and natural science, by
assisting experimenters and observers, and the publication of the
results of their investigations.

Appended to the memorial address by Dr. Benjamin A. Gould
already cited is a list of the published scientific papers of Prof.
Bache, embracing one hundred and twenty- three titles, besides
thirty-five annual reports, and twenty-one reports on harbors
made jointly with Messrs. Totten and Davis.

CORRESPONDENCE.

121

®0ri;jeBjx0.txjcljetxi:je*

ARE ANIMALS LEFT-HANDED?

Editor Popular Science MontJdy :

In The Popular Science Monthly for
March, 1894, page 615, Prof. J. Mark Bald-
win says, in a footnote : " I know only the
assertion of Yierordt that parrots grasp and
hold food with the left claw, that lions strike
with the left paw, and his quotation from
Livingstone — i. e., 'All animals are left-
handed.' (Vierordt, loc. cit., page 428.) Dr.
W. Ogle reports observations on parrots and
monkeys in Trans. Royal Med. and Chirur.
Society, 1871."

I have tried to verify these observations
on two parrots lately brought from Mexico.
I find that in grasping a finger offered as a
perch the parrots almost always put the left
foot forward. Usually the finger thus of-
fered is that of the right hand. But when
the left finger is offered to the parrots they
put forward the right foot. There is, how-
ever, apparently a small residuum of prefer-
ence for the left foot. This seems to be due
to the fact that men are usually right-handed
and offer the right hand to the parrot. The
left foot is the one naturally put forward by
the parrot in this case, and through repeti-
tion of this action a species of left-footed-
ness is induced. My general conclusion is
that there is no evidence that the parrot is
naturally left-footed. The appearance of
left-footedness is due entirely to the fact
that those who offer the finger or food to
parrots do so as a rule with the right hand.
Repetition of this process makes the parrot
more or less left-footed in time.

David S. Jordan.
Palo Axto, Cat., May 16, 1895.

IMITATIVE HABITS OF THE BLUE
JAY.

Editor Popular Science Monthly:

Sir: In reading Variation in the Hab-
its of Animals, I see the author is not in
line with The Study of Birds Out-of-doors,
or she would not have written, " The prac-
tice of mocking the hawk is, at present at
least, confined, so far as I know, to the in-
dividuals of such limited area — this one
town — that with Mr. Ridgway we must be-
lieve this peculiarity exhibited by the blue
jay to be scarcely the ' manifestation of a
regional impress.' "

My boyhood and early manhood were
spent in the country, in middle Tennessee,
where I had ample opportunity to observe
the habits and, I might say, peculiarities of

certain birds. The blue jay not only mocks
the hawk, which I have heard him do hun-
dreds of times, but mocks also many other
birds. The catbird possesses this faculty
in a remarkable degree, and so rapidly does
he " change his tune " that if he was not
visible we should be apt to say, What a lovely
mocking bird you have singing in your apple
tree ! Don't again mistake the jay for a
hawk, for wherever yoii hear the jay he
mocks the hawk, redbird, and many of his
other neighbours. Yours truly,

W. A. Howard, M. D.
Waco, Tbxas, September 7, 1895.

Editor Popular Science MontMy :

Dear Sir: I noticed in the September
Monthly, in the article. Variation in the Hab-
its of Animals, by G. C. Davenport, that the
writer speaks of the blue jay (Cyanuy^
crisiata, or more recently Cyanodtta cristata)
as acquiring and using the cry of the hawk
in order to assist in the fight with Eng-
lish sparrows, and she seemed to imply that
it was an accomplishment of the blue jay in
that region only. I have heard in the wood-
ed lands of southeastern Indiana the blue
jay give a fairly good imitation of the shrill,
piercing, drawn-out cry of the large chicken
hawk {Buteo borealis) at different times for
as much as twenty years. I think this cry
has not been developed in this region, at
least, in the fight with recent enemies, but
rather that the blue jay — robber and despoiler
that he is — has now and then used this cry
to terrify smaller birds for untold years.
Yours truly.

Prof. Glenn Culbertson.

Hanovbb College, Hanovkr, Ind.,

September 19, 1895.

ORIGIN OF THE TERM AGNOSTIC.

Editor Popular Science MontMy :

Sir: In the September Forum appears
an article on Prof. Huxley by Richard H.
Hutton, editor of The Spectator, in which,
on pages 27 and 28, he states that Prof.
Huxley " claimed to be in the strictest sense
an Agnostic," and further states that Prof.
Huxley borrowed that term from an " inci-
dent related in the Acts of the Apostles,"
where refei-ence is made to the fact that the
Athenians had erected an altar " Agnosto
Theo " — to the Unknown God. Is not Mr.
Hutton mistaken in regard to the origin of
this term ? In a letter written to Mr. J. A.
Skilton, December 10, 1889, and published in

122

TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Popular Science Monthly for June, 1890,
Mr. Huxley expressly states that the term
" Agnostic " was not suggested by the pas-
sage to which Mr. Button refers, but came
into his mind " as a fit antithesis to ' Gnos-
tic ' — the ' Gnostics ' being those ancient
heretics who professed to know most about

those very things of which I am quite
sure I know nothing." As the use of the
term in theological discussion has become
universal, it is interesting to know how
Prof. Huxley came to introduce it

J. T. Gorman.
Opelika, Ala., September 14, 1895.

WAtax's SaWu.

THE PRESEiVT POSITION OF
ANTHROPOLOGY.

AMONG the scientific addresses
- of the present year we are dis-
posed to assign a high place in point
of interest and general merit to that
on The Aims of Anthropology, de-
livered at the August meeting of the
Alherican Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science hy the retir-
ing president, Prof. Brinton, and
reprinted in this number of the
Monthly. Like others who have ad-
vocated the claims of that science,
the professor almost overwhelms us
with the enumeration of all its tribu-
tary streams of knowledge ; but more
successfully than most, he enables us
to keep in view the unity of aim in
anthropological study. He makes
us feel that it is concerned not with
unrelated or but slightly related de-
tails in regard to man, but with man
himself, as a great organic fact, as
the crowning product of creation,
whom to know is for each of us
in the truest sense self-knowledge.
" Hearken unto me," said the prophet
of old, ''all ye that love righteous-
ness! Look unto the rock whence
ye are hewn, and the hole of the pit
whence ye are digged." It is in the
same spirit, we imagine, that Dr.
Brinton asks us to look into our ori-
gins, and into whatever else can
throw light upon what we really
are. As regards the origin of man,
science, he asserts, has now estab-

lished beyond cavil that, far from
having fallen from some original
high estate and forfeited a pristine
paradise, the earliest man was also
" the lowest, the most ignorant, the
most brutish, naked, homeless, half
speechless." Such as he was, how-
ever, he had within him that which
made possible for him a progress
denied to all other animal races, that
secured for him long since the mas-
tery of the planet, and that holds
out to him the prospect of a future
civilization far in advance of any-
thing he has heretofore enjoyed.

The most vitalizing discovery
that has been made within recent
years, in its bearings upon anthro-
pology, Dr. Brinton considers to be
that of the psychical unity of man-
kind, "the parallelism of his devel-
opment everywhere and in all times;
nay, more, the nigh absolute uni-
formity of his thoughts and actions
when in the same degree of develop-
ment, no matter where he is or in
what epoch living." Seeing that
savage tribes represent a stage of
human culture which has left traces
in ourselves, but the perfect mani-
festation of which will soon have
passed away forever, he calls ear-
nestly for a prolonged and profound
study of such savage races as still
exist, though none of them are in
his opinion quite low enough to rep-
resent fully primitive man. He
also strongly recommends the study

EDITOR'S TABLE.

123

of folklore, inasmucli as " the stories,
the superstitions, the beliefs, and
customs which prevail among- the
unlettered, the isolated, and the
young, are nothing else than sur-
vivals of the mythologies, the legal
usages, and the sacred rites of earlier
generations. ... It is surprising,"
he adds, " to observe how much of
the past we have been able to con-
struct from this humble and long-
neglected material."

The zeal of the learned doctor
seems almost to assume a slight
character of ferocity when he goes
on to declare: "The generations of
the past escape our personal inves-
tigation, but not our pursuit. We
rifle their graves, measure their
skulls, and analyze their bones; we
carry to our museums the utensils
and weapons, the gods and jewels,
which sad and loving hands laid be
side them; we dig up the founda-
tions of their houses, and cart off the
monuments which proud kings set
up. Nothing is sacred to us; and
yet nothing to us is vile or worth-
less." If the doctor had wished to
quote Horace, he might have said
very appositely ^^ omne sacrum ra-
piente dextrd'''; but we should be
loath to take him at his word that
to the anthropologist nothing is sa-
cred. We believe, on the contrary,
that to the true anthropologist the
cause of humanity is very sacred;
and that it is because an exhaustive
knowledge of what man has been
and is will, as he considers, greatly
advance human well-being, by plac-
ing our systems of instruction and
all our social arrangements on a
more scientific basis, that, in his con-
suming desire for knowledge, he is
prepared even for spoliation.

One of the most important branch-
es or subdivisions of anthropology is
ethnology. Its mission. Dr. Brinton
says, is "to define the universal in
humanity." It aims to define "the

influences which the geographical
and other environment exercises on
the individual, the social group, and
the race ; and conversely how much
in each remains unaltered by these
external forces. " Like political econ-
omy, according to its orthodox pro-
fessors at least, it has nothing to do
with what Ought to be ; its sole con-
cern is with what is. Ethnology,
the doctor asserts with some empha-
sis, lends no countenance to any
absolute doctrine of evolution. He
considers that, "taken at its real
value, as the provisional and partial
result of our observations," that doc-
trine is a useful guide, but that,
" swallowed with unquestioning faith
as a final law of the universe," it is
no better than the narrowest tradi-
tional dogma. At this point we may
venture to suggest that the learned
doctor is waxing wroth with an
imaginary foe, or, if not with an
imaginary one, at least with one
hardly worthy of his ire. Idle talk
about evolution can no more be pre-
vented than idle talk about any
other subject, say electricity for ex-
ample, which some persons believe
to be a device, invented probably by
Mr. Edison, for getting something
out of nothing. No one whose opin-
ion is worth discussing regards evo-
lution otherwise than as a name for
the process by which such advance-
ment as the world has hitherto made
has been won, and on which we may
reasonably depend for further prog-
ress in the future, Nature as yet hav-
ing given no sign that her powers
are exhausted or on the point of ex-
haustion. " The development of hu-
manity as a whole," says Dr. Brin-
ton, " has arisen from the differences
of its component parts, its races, na-
tions, tribes. Their specific peculiar-
ities have brought about the strug-
gles which, in the main, have result-
ed in an advance." Even so, we
may hope that in the future, in spite

24

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of a growing equalization of general
conditions, those differences which,
as Dr. Tylor has well pointed out,
will more and more assert them-
selves in the higher regions of
thought and feeling, will lead to a
steady advance in human capacity
and character.

Anthropology, according to its
able advocate and professor, possesses
no little skill in dodging the most
difficult questions. Having investi-
gated penal laws until it finds their
common origin in a desire for venge-
ance, and having analyzed relig-
ions until it discovers that they all
spring from a dread of the unknown,
it will not follow up either inquiry
by attempting to ascertain why men
dread the unknown or whether there
is any more ultimate form or under-
lying explanation of the desire for
vengeance. In the same way, while
noting empirically what has made
for the improvement of mankind, it
will be careful about grappling with
the question as to what "improve-
ment" really means. Perhaps we
should not complain of these dis-
creetly imposed limitations, but it
seems to us that, as regards the ques-
tion of human improvement at least,
anthropology, with its very wide
outlook, ought, above all other sci-
ences, to be in a position to give us
its rationale.

We are glad to find Dr. Brinton,
in the conclusion of his valuable
address, declaring that "the teach-
ings of anthropology, whether theo-
retical or practical, lead us back to
the individual as the point of de-
parture and also the goal. The
state was made for him, not he for
the state ; any improvement in the
group must start by the improve-
ment of its individual members."
We hold that this is the teaching of
every true form of social science.
The doctrine of individualism is not
a doctrine of selfishness ; it simply

aims at arousing each individual to
a sense of his own value as a social
unit, and at making him feel that, if
he wishes to live in an improved
society, he should strive to improve
himself and his own immediate en-
vironment. The intelligent study of
sociology, we have no doubt, will
work in this direction, inasmuch as
it more and more tends to make all
classifications and class distinctions
appear unreal, and to bring the indi-
vidual man into prominence as the
one subject and center of its labors.
On this ground, if on no other, we
would wish it every success ; and as
there are so many different fields
that can be explored in its interest,
we would counsel those who have no
other scientific occupation to see if
they can not bring some offering,
however slight, to the great con-
struction which we may hope the
leaders of the science will one day
give to the world.

RELIGION FOE THE AGE.

Canon Samuel A. Barnett, of
England, is a man who has devoted
much time and labour to the study
of social problems in their widest
aspect, and whose writings on such
subjects are always marked by ac-
tive human sympathy allied with
strong common sense. We therefore
turned at once with interest to his
article in the September number of
the Contemporary Review to see
what he had to say on the subject
of The Church's Opportunity, and
were not at all surprised to find that
he had some very pertinent things
to say. In Canon Barnett's opinion
" the Church " might, if it could only
rise to the level of its duty and privi-
lege, lend most useful assistance to
the j)ractical solution of our present-
day social problems. How this might,
in his opinion at least, be done he
clearly indicates. The Church per-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

125

forms three main functions : it pro-
vides means of worship, it imparts
religious teaching, and it interests
itself in charitable work; and what
it has to do, according to Canon Bar-
nett, is simply, in each department
of its activity, to plant itself at the
modern standpoint so as to meet the
needs of the men and women of to-
day.

In the matter of worship this
writer observes that " the words and
forms remain the same as those
which helped the people of three
hundred years ago, although the fash-
ions, the thought, and the whole
organization of society have been
changed. " Cathedrals are little more
than "the hunting ground of anti-
quarians and the practising places
of choirs." The Church should "use
the art and knowledge of the time
as aids to worship." " It might," con-
tinues the writer, "by showing the
wonders of science, open the eyes of
the blind to see something of the
height and breadth of the universe " ;
and the result would be that readier
access would be found to men's minds
for those sentiments of justice, char-
ity, and mutual forbearance on which
the peace and welfare of society must
rest. Canon Barnett is quite right
when, speaking of the social strug-
glersof to-day, he says that "conceit,
pride in their own methods and aims,
restless vanity, selfish anxiety are
elements in the present confusion " ;
nor are we disposed to disagree with
him when he says further that "the
majority of people think much of
themselves, because they are not con-
scious of One before whom they are
as nothing, because, in a word, they
do not worship." Here is where the
true work of religion comes in, not in
opposing the conclusions of science.

" Let science grow trora more to more,"

as Tennyson has said,

"But more of reverence in us dwell."

The two are not incompatible, and
Canon Barnett seems to feel strongly
that it is through neglect of duty on
the part of the Church, especially the
duty of keeping in touch with the
times, that reverence is not more act-
ive and influential among men than
it is.

Turning to the subject of teach-
ing, this writer is very outspoken.
He says in effect that we must find
the teaching requii-ed by the times
in a study of the times. The follow-
ing quotation will illustrate his mean-
ing : " In the first century slavery
was common, and was accepted with-
out question both by Christ and by St.
Paul. . . . These teachers, however
(the antislavery leaders of the early
part of the century), found the spirit
behind the words — the Christ of the
nineteenth century behind the Christ
of the first century. In the name
of a contemporary Christ they con-
demned slavery and convinced their
hearers." The reverend gentleman
does not observe, as he might have
done, that those who appealed merely
to the text of Scripture were among
the strongest upholders of slavery.
The reformers were more or less ra-
tionalizers, not pinning their faith to
texts, but seeking a spirit and prin-
ciple of life. The following remarks
on religious teaching are much to the
point : " Teachers have been too often
stewards who bring out only the
old things from the treasury, words
spoken thousands of years ago, and
acts fitted to another age. They go
on using a phraseology which is not
understood, preaching sermons about
dead controversies, and condemning
heresies long forgotten. They teach,
but the people, tried and troubled by
thoughts of duty to the rich or duty
to the poor, find no help in their
teaching. . . . Bishops might with
advantage set candidates for orders
to read modern books, and in exami-
nation test their powers to observe

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the signs of the tiraes. The knowl-
edge of Paley and Pearson might be
supplemented, if not supplanted, by-
some knowledge of the movement of
scientific and economic thought dur-
ing- the last fifty years, and proof be
given that those offering themselves
as teachers ' perceive with their eyes
and hear with their ears and undei^
stand with their hearts.' "

The canon proceeds to discuss the
relation of the Church to charitable
work, but what we have already
quoted will suffice to show how ad-
vanced are his views as to the kind
of religious ministrations of which
society stands at present in need.
He believes, and we agree with him,
that the Church occupies a position
of exceptional advantage for holding
up to men the ideals toward which
they ought to strive. Ministers of
religion are allowed to preachy an
exercise in which other men must
indulge very sparingly, if at all, on
pain of being laughed at. They are
supposed to be occupied at all times
with the highest and most enduring
interests of mankind, and they can
adopt a tone of elevation and an ac-
cent of earnestness which in all oth-
ers might seem out of place. More-
over, there is something in human
nature which is prepared to respond
to their appeals. However conven-
tional or even sordid men may be in
their daily lives, however immersed
they may be in the all but universal
game of grab, they feel that some-
where in their natures is a chord
which might vibrate to higher im-
pulses. To put it otherwise, every
man knows that there is something
in him better than that which he
habitually shows to the world or to
himseK ; and it is for the religious
teacher above all to awaken that hid-
den, as Matthew Arnold says, " deep-
buried self " into life and activity, to
make it assert its authority and pow-
er. The rest of us deal with the aver-

age man and make our appeal in
general to average sentiments: the
clergyman, the minister of the gos-
pel, testifies by virtue of his office to
the existence of a divine element in
human nature, and to him therefore,
in dealing with men, all things are
or should be possible. What he
needs, however, as Canon Barnett so
clearly points out, is to be armed with
the kind of knowledge which will
place him at the modern point of
view and make him a true interpreter
of the times and of contemporary
human nature. Let him use the
words of his creeds as far as they
will go, and show the soul of truth
in antiquated forms and usages; but
let him not imagine that human
thought can ever be confined within
or fully expressed by, any formula
or set of formulas : the spirit of life is
a spirit of growth and of liberty.

In conclusion, we have only to
say that we welcome most cordially
such utterances as those of the An-
glican canon, not because we suppose
that he occupies precisely the point
of view that we do, but because we
feel that no essential claim of science
is antagonized by aught that he ad-
vances in the name of religion. He
may, for anything we know, hold
many special opinions which we do
not share ; but, if so, these to us are of
no consequence beside what we take
to be his main and most characteristic
belief — namely, that religion is not
a fetter for the human intellect, but
a garment of beauty for the whole
man, and that, without a due recog-
nition of science, no perfect or abid-
ing form of religion can be.

HON. DAVID A. WELLS'S ARTICLES ON
TAXATION.

The editor of the Popular Science
Monthly is gratified that he is now
able to announce to its readers and
the general public, the beginning in

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

127

the present number, wliicli opens the
forty-eighth volume of the magazine,
of the long-promised and anticipated
series of articles by Hon. David A.
Wells, on the most important subject
of taxation.

For the execution of the task
which Mr. Wells has assigned to him-
self, it is acknowledged that he has
enjoyed extraordinary advantages ;
as Chairman of the United States
Revenue Commission, 1865-66 (an
instrumentality devised by President
Lincoln in anticipation of the close
of the war) ; United States Special
Commissioner of Revenue, 1866-70
(an office specially created by Con-
gress) ; chairman of a commission for
the revision of the tax laws of the
State of New York (specially created
by its Legislature, 1870-72, with a
view of obtaining Mr. Wells's serv-
ices) ; and subsequent membership of
important railroad receiverships ; of
the Arbitration Board of the associ-
ated railways of the United States,
1879-'81, and of the Board of Direc-
tion of some of the largest manu-
facturing and insurance companies
in the country. The assertion is
therefore warranted that to prob-
ably no one person, in either the

United States or Europe, has greater
opportunities been afforded for study
of taxation from the basis of practi-
cal experience and administration;
and while the prediction may not be
warranted, that Mr. Wells's conclu-
sions will be accepted finally as solv-
ing the vexed and intricate problems
involved in the subject, it is certain
that the results of his investigations
will prove most valuable and intense-
ly interesting contributions to gen-
eral economic science, and greatly
assist in formulating better systems
and rules for taxation, especially in
the United States, than are now gen-
erally accepted.

The editor also feels warranted in
saying that the course pursued by
Mr. Wells which made his book on
Economic Changes one of the most
popular and instructive of recent
economical publications, will also,
characterize the new field of inquiry
on which he now enters — namely, to
marshal in a clear manner and proper
order all the facts that seem capable
of explaining the situation of vexed
and disputed questions, and of thus
indicating where and how the truth
should be sought for, with the great-
est chances of finding it.

^t\tuX\t\t %\Xtx^\viXt.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

How many evil doers have escaped the just penalties for their acts and
what great sums of money have been lost or expended in litigation for lack
of an unfailing means of proving personal identity ! If the police know
that A. B. committed a certain crime and catch a man who they believe is
A. B., but who stoutly denies it, they must establish his identity beyond a
reasonable doubt in order to secure a conviction. The testimony of acquaint-
ances and even the photographs in the Rogues' Gallery frequently fail to
give certainty on this point. There is, however, a set of marks which, in
the words of Pudd'nhead Wilson, " every one carries with him from the
cradle to the grave" that seem to afford an infallible test. These are the
patterns formed by the little ridges on the tips of the fingei's. Mr. Francis

128 TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Galton, whose study of the subject has already extended over seven years,
calculates that there is only one chance in 64,000,000,000 of the pattern on
any human finger being identical with that on any other. If the patterns
of three or four fingers (or the prints from them in printer s ink) be com-
pared, all possibility of error is eliminated, while with a set of prints from
the whole ten fingers assurance is made doubly and trebly sure. Mr. Gal-
ton has published on various phases of this subject from time to time, and
in his latest book* deals with methods of handling large collections of
prints so that reference to them may be simple and rapid. It appears that,
with a few border-line exceptions, every print may be classified as a loop,
a whorl, or an arch. A loop on the forefinger may open toward the ulnar
(little finger) or radial (thumb) side of the hand. Loops on other fingers
almost always open toward the ulnar side. Where these particulars are
not sufficient, minor points, such as the number of ridges from the nucleus
to the outside of a loop, and breaks, junctions, or forks of the lines, etc.,
which an expert can point out to any intelligent person, will be found con-
clusive. Mr. Galton presents an abstract of- the report of a British depart-
mental committee which fully indorses his system, recommending, how-
ever, for registering and identifying habitual criminals that a part of the
French system of physical measurements be combined with it. The vol-
ume contains a specimen directory of three hundred sets of prints and
plates in which nearly two hundred impressions are shown. Mr. Galton
suggests that finger prints could be employed also for identifying deserters
from the army and detecting impersonators of deceased pensioners. This
by no means exhausts their possibilities. What an expensive and trouble-
some litigation could have been saved if a set of finger prints of the real
Tichborne heir had been on file when the "claimant " appeared! An im-
portant class of life-insurance frauds would be prevented if the companies
should require the taking of finger prints as a part of their physical exami-
nation, and the abortive attempt of the United States Government to pre-
vent the personation by Chinese immigrants of fellow-countrymen who had
been in the United States and gone home could be made effectual by the
same means. Mr, Galton has secured abundant official recognition of his
system, and the idea is being brought into wide popular cognizance by Mark
Twain's story, cited above, and its dramatization.

No happier choice of A writer to tell The Story of the Plants could have
been made than Grant Allen.i He knows what to tell in order to give his
readers a satisfactory bird's-eye view of the subject, he has a most attrac-
tive way of telling it, and, above all, he knows what to leave untold. His
story is not a string of definitions nor an annotated catalogue of genera
and species. It tells how plants obtain their food, how they grow, rest, and
perpetuate themselves, and what means they take to overcome obstacles
and protect themselves from dangers. Something is told also about the
way plants lived before there was any one to describe them, and how they
came to differ from one another so much as they now do. Although it is
thus seen that the physiology of plants is given cbief prominence, consid-
erable is told as to their anatomy. Thus, when showing that plants eat

* Finger-print Directories. By Francis Galton, P. R, S. London and New York : Macmillan &
Ck>. Pp. 123, 8vo. Price, $2 (5«.).

t The Story of the Plants. By Grant Allen. The Library of Useful Stories. Illustrated. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 213, 16mo. Price, 40 cents. London : George Newnes, Ltd.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 129

"witli their leaves, the author describes the chief forms of leaves, but in such
a way as to indicate that each form results from an effort of the plant to
meet some particular need. Eoots are described in the same way. Under
the headings How Plants Marry and Various Marriage Customs, the inter-
esting subjects of fertilization and the production of seed are explained.
In the chapter What Plants Do for their Young the chief provisions for
the dissemination of seeds and the nutrition of the germs within them are
described. Some acquaintance with the characteristics of the chief kinds
of plants is given under the heading Some Plant Biographies, where whit-
low grass, the Mexican agave, the beech tree, the vetch, the coltsfoot, etc., are
described. Throughout the book the reasons of things and the adaptation
of means to ends are made prominent. The author states that he has
** freely admitted the main results of the latest investigations, accepting
throughout the evolutionary theory, and making the study of plants a first
introduction to the modem principles of heredity, variation, natural selec-
tion, and adaptation to the environment." He says further that he will be
disappointed if this little book does not lead the reader to pursue the sub-
ject in the fields and woods by the aid of a flora. We do not tliink he will
be disappointed.

Is there any limit to the operation of the evolutionary process within
the universe as known to us ? Is man an exception, and does the popular
phrase *' lord of creation " mark a real distinction ? Mr. Edinond Kelly * is
convinced that man is an exception now, although subject to evolution
during the earlier part of his career. Man has developed physically and
mentally as other animals have. In a struggle for existence he has shown
himself the fittest of all to survive. But now, says Mr. Kelly, this mode of
progress has stopped. Under the influence of religion man has developed
the faculty of choice and the power of self-restraint, and he is now repress-
ing some of the instincts by which he advanced during his evolutionary
period, thereby better fitting himself to live in the social relation. As a
member of society he has many grave problems before him, among which
Mr. Kelly calls especial attention to municipal misgovernment, pauperism,
socialism, and education. Religion is recommended as the guide to be fol-
lowed in solving them. It might be queried how religion is to remedy
the abuses in public affairs that have grown up when religion had a
stronger hold upon men than it has now. Mr. Kelly recognises that
abuses have grown up under and apparently in connection with religion,
but he affirms that theology and various clerical institutions were then
dominant rather than real religion. He would by no means bring back
the partnership of Church and State where it has been dissolved, but would
have religion govern individuals in their performance of social duties. It
might be supposed that it would be a matter of indifference to Mr. Kelly
whether religion or science were taken as the guide in social affairs, since
he takes pains to show that they reach the same goal. Perhaps he could
be brought to admit that, in a certain stage of their progress, men are less
fitted to follow the guidance of the former than that of the latter. At the
present time they are rapidly acquiring the capacity to govern their con-
duct on scientific principles, but they have so far had great trouble in keep-

* Evolution and Effort. By Edmond Kelly. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 297, 12mo.
Price, $1.25.

VOL. XLVIII. — 9

130

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ing in touch with their guide when they have attempted to regulate their
conduct by religion. Perhaps they may be able to do so in the future,
but we think the evolutionary process which Mr. Kelly believes is ended
must go on some time longer before man can afford to dispense with the
aid which the scientific method gives him.

The bird-loving amateur need be at no loss for guidance. Three man-
uals adapted to his wants have come to us recently, the latest being a
charmingly attractive one entitled Birdcraft* Emerson's query, ''Hast
thou named all the birds without a gun ? " is its motto, and any one who
will identify half the si)ecies it describes, or verify half it tells about their
general appearance, habits, and song, will have occupation enough for sev-
eral seasons without paying attention to the matters that can be learn'ed
only from the dead bird. The sprightliness of the smaller birds makes
them delightful subjects of study, their elusiveness adds zest to their pur-
suit, while the various mental and moral traits indicated by the actions of
all kinds well deserve the attention of the psychologist. This instance of
the extreme politeness ascribed to the cedar waxwing was observed by the
author : " A stout green worm (for they eat animal as well as vegetable
food) was passed up and down a row of eight birds ; once, twice it went the
rounds, until halfway on its third trip it became a wreck and dropped to
the ground, so that no one enjoyed it— a commentary, in general, upon
useless ceremony." Much pains is taken to represent the songs of the
birds described ; thus the song of the red-eyed vireo is given in the words
of Wilson Flagg as " You see it ! you know it ! do you hear me ? do you
believe it ? " The bluebird seems to murmur, " Dear, dear, think of it, think
of it ! " The Carolina wren cries joyfully, *' Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweet ! "
while there are several versions of the bobolink's rippling song to choose
from, and any one may make another to suit his fancy. The song birds by
no means monopolize the volume ; birds of prey, game birds, shore birds,
and waterfowl are all represented by species to be seen in southern New
England. Fifteen double-page plates, each bearing from seven to twenty
figures of birds in their natural colours, greatly enhance the value of the
book.

GENERAL NOTICES.

In Dr. Kerner's Natural History of
Plants \ all the features of the growth,
stnicture, and metamorphoses of vegetation
are examined in their relations to one an-
other. Interest was ISrst excited in plants,
we are told, by the question of their uses.
Other avenues to botanical knowledge have
been man's sense of beauty andjthe impulse
to investigate structural differences even

• Blrdcraft. By Mahel Osgood Wright. Illus-
trated. New York and London : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 317, Bmall 8vo. Price, $3 net.

t The Natural History of Plants. From the
German of Anton Kemer von Marilaun. By P.
W. Oliver. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Half
Volnmes I and n. Pp. 777. Price, $7.50. Lon-
don : Blackie & Son. Price, 25«. net.

down to their most minute characteristics.
This has brought the science to its present
condition. In addition to these steps, the
passion for collecting has been developed.
In the later stages of the growth of botany
observers have become convinced that every
plant undergoes a continuous transformation
which follows a definite course, and every
species is constructed on a plan fixed within
general limits and exhibiting variation in ex-
ternals only. The systematic arrangement
that has grown out of the application of
these principles starts with the idea that
rather than by similarity between adult
forms the relationships of different plants
are more correctly indicated by the fact of
their exhibiting the same laws of growth

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

131

and the same phenomena of reproduction.
As the beginning of the plants and of the
study of them we are told of the living prin-
ciple in them, represented by the protoplasts,
which are considered as the seat of life, and
of their movements, secretions, and construct-
ive activity, and their communication with one
another and with the outer world. The next
steps are the absorption of nutriment from
inorganic substances and organic and the
changes it produces in the soil; the con-
duction of food; and the formation of or-
ganic matter from the absorbed inorganic
food, with the functions of chlorophyll and
the green leaves. Metabolism and the trans-
port of materials are considered with refer-
ence to the organic compounds in plants, the
transport of substances in living plants, and
the propelling forces in the conversion and
distribution of materials. Under the head-
ing of the Growth and Construction of Plants
are included the Theory of Growth, Growth
and Heat, and the Ultimate Structure of
Plants. The last chapter of the present
volume relates to plant forms as completed
structures, and in it are discussed the pro-
gressive stages in complexity of structure
from unicellular plants to plant bodies and
the forms of leaf, stem, and root structures.
The volume concludes with the observation
that the just pride and satisfaction we may
have in what we have gained in the knowl-
edge of plants "must not blind us to the
recognition of the fact that most questions
concerning the life of plants are as yet only
at the commencement of their solution."
The work is illustrated by about one thou-
sand original wood-cuts and sixteen plates in
oil colors.

Menschutkin's Analytical Chemistry'^ is
a college manual embracing both qualita-
tive and quantitative analysis. Its most
distinctive feature is the care that the au-
thor has taken to make the student under-
stand the reasons for what he is doing. In
the qualitative determination of metals the
corresponding compounds of all the metals
of a group are studied, and the conditions
necessary for the separation of one group
from another are deduced (General Reac-

♦ Analytical Chemistry. By N. Menschutkin.
Translated by James Locke. London and New
York: MacmlUan & Co. Pp.512, 8vo. Price, $4
net.

tions), after which the behavior of the
compounds relied upon for detecting single
metals (Special Reactions) is considered. A
systematic course of analysis for the group
in hand follows. With the metalloids, on
the contrary, the special reactions of these
elements and their compounds are first con-
sidered, and the student then passes to the
complicated methods required for detecting
the elements when occurring together. In
the quantitative part the chief methods of
gravimetric and volumetric analysis and the
analysis of organic compounds are set forth.
Here the author has followed also, so far as
practicable, the procedure employed in the
qualitative part.

It is generally acoepted now that all life
originated in the sea, and very probably in
the littoral or coast region. The constantly
varying conditions here, due to the surf and
the tides, doubtless had a large share in de-
termining form and structure ; the violence
of the surf beating its inhabitants to death,
and the retreat of the tide exposing them to
the attacks of predatory birds and beasts
and to new atmospheric conditions. Hence
in all probability have originated the various
forms of adaptation which are calculated to
bring about the survival of the fittest. The
widespread effect of these factors in shaping
present forms lends a special interest to the
study of the littoral life of to-day. The general
plan of classification in the work before us *
is not that of any single authority. The au-
thors have adopted the views of the leading
specialists in the various groups. While
this has the advantage of placing before the
student the results of recent investigation,
it occasions a certain number of discrepan-
cies where the departments overlap, which
are likely to lead to confusion. Up to re-
cent times the mollusca have been regarded
as one of the four subdivisions of the great
family Malacozoa. The progress of investi-
gation, however, tends to the belief that the
mollusca are not so closely related to these
groups as such a classification implies. The
authors think that any attempt definitely to
relate them to one group or another is to go

* MoUusks and Recent and Fossil Brachiopode.
Vol. in of the Cambr.dge Natural History. By
A. H. Cooke, A. E. Shipley, aud P. R. C. Reed.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co, Pp.
585. Price, $2.C0.

132

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

further than the present state of our knowl-
edge warrants. The group Brachiopoda owes
its chief interest to the immense variety and
great antiquity of its fossil forms. There
are at the present time only about one hun-
dred and twenty extant species. The study
of the mollusca occupies 460 pages, the re-
mainder of the work being devoted to the
brachiopods. The book is intended appar-
ently as a student's manual The description
is clearly written and contains considerable
historical narrative and many good illustra-

HODS.

Mr. Clodd justifies his Primer of Evolii-
tion* an abridgment of his Story of Crea-
tion, by the reception which the larger work
received, and the necessity for putting the
material into a condensed and inexpensive
form in order to reach the general reader.
The first portion is descriptive : matter and
motion, from the philosophical standpoint ;
the distribution of matter and the solar sys-
tem; and finally two long chapters on the
past life history of the earth and present life
forms, compose Part I. Part II, the explana-
tory portion, has chapters on the becoming
and growth of the universe, the origin of
life and life forms, on the origin of species,
and social evolution. The book is written in
a popular style, and seems an improvement
on its more bulky predecessor.

The high disciplinary value of the study
of psychology, which gives a scientific basis
to education and lifts it out of empiricism, is
distinctly shown in the volume before us.f
The authors have pointed out, in a very in-
teresting manner, the application of psychol-
ogy to number. They say that the teacher
who knows how the mind works in the con-
struction of number is prepared to help the
child to think number. They take the posi-
tion that the normal activity of the mind in
constructing number is highly pleasurable.
This is confirmed by actual experience and
observation of facts in child-life. There are
few children who do not delight in counting,
and the fact should be taken advantage of

* A Primer of Evolution. By Edward Clodd.
London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 186. Price, 75 cents.

t Psychology of Number. By Dr. J. A. Mc-
Clellan and Prof. John Dewey. International
Education Series. New York: D. Appleton &
Co. Pp. 309, 12mo. Price, ^1.50.

by instructors. A sympathetic and compe-
tent teacher can interest them so keenly that
apparently wonderful results may be ob-
tained with but little difficulty.

The authors speak of how an absolute dis-
taste for number is created by faulty meth-
ods of teaching, with arrested development as
a natural result. They say it is perhaps not
too much to affirm that nine tenths of those
who dislike arithmetic, or who at least feel
that they have no aptitude for mathematics,
owe this misfortune to wrong teaching at
first. The teacher can readily learn from an
intelligent study how to make the work of
the schoolroom consistent with the method
under which by Nature's teaching the child
has already secured some development of the
number activity. Beginning with a group,
countmg, parting, and wholing are all in har-
mony with Nature's method, which "promotes
the natural exercise of mental function and
leads gradually but with ease and certainty to
true ideas of number. It minimizes the diffi-
culty with which multiplication and division
have hitherto been attended, and helps the
child to recognize in the dreaded terra incog-
nita of fractions a pleasant and familiar land."

The authors' remarks concerning kinder-
garten work are sound and are based upon
results that are evident to all. There is a
sure and pleasurable way, along the line of
least resistance, that may be followed in the
kindergarten, with great improvement in the
method of preparation for a child's work
later. The authors say : " Surely something
is lacking, either in the kindergarten as a
preparation for the primary school or in the
primary school as a continuation of the kin-
dergarten, when a child after full training in
the kindergarten, together with three years'
work in the primary school, is considered
able to undertake nothing beyond the ' num-
ber twenty.' " They add that under rational
and pleasurable training of the number in-
stinct in the kindergarten the child ought to
be arithmetically strong enough to make
immediate acquaintance with the number
twenty, and rapidly acquire, if he has not
already acquired, a working conception of
much larger numbers.

In the easiest possible manner the authors
go on to explain every process of number,
and the presentation is such as to interest
any one impressed with the necessity of a

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

33

sound basis for education, but more partic-
ularly those instructors to whom we look
for guidance — from kindergarten to college.
Mr. Frank Sargent RoffmanrCs book on
TJie Sphere of the State * is the substance,
chiefly, of lectures delivered before the senior
class of Union College in 1893, and is in-
tended to set forth clearly and concisely the
ethical principles involved in the rights and
action of the state, and to show how they
may be applied under present conditions
and principles. In the author's view the
state is the primal and universal unit of so-
ciety ; it is coextensive with the human
race, and is independent of the existence of
nations, and every man is born into it. It
is manifold, for many distinct divisions of
mankind called states may exist at any
given period. The supreme control of all
persons and commodities must be with it,
and there can never be an individual right
to anything in the state that is not subordi-
nate to its right. Dismissing such concep-
tions as base the organization and extent of
the state on geography, race, famiiy rela-
tion, language, or religion, the author ac-
cepts that which founds it on brotherhood
and the needs thereof, and makes the chief
and ultimate end of the state, to which all
other ends must be subordinate, the perfec-
tion of the brotherhood ; and all this, the
state, the entity, is distinguished from the
government, which is only an instrument.
The state's first duty is to enlighten its
members respecting their ever-varying rela-
tions, and what they require — education.
While the true and distinctive ground of
proj>erty is labour, by which it is acquired,
and that is performed by individuals, the
natural right to property is ultimately re-
solved into a state right, and the individual's
right must in the end be controlled by the
needs of the state or the good of the whole
brotherhood ; and " only from the concep-
tion of property as ultimately owned and
controlled by the state can we come to a
true conception of the property right of
each citizen of the state." The principles
thus laid down are followed out in their ap-

* The Sphere of the State, or the People as a
Body Politic ; with Special Consideration of Cer-
tain Present Problems. By Frank Sargent Hoff-
mann. New York and London : G. P. Putnam's
Sons, pp. itt.

plication to the various functions and fea-
tures of civic and social life ; to the crea-
tion of corporations and the assigning them
their places in the state ; to the matter of
transportation and its relation to the state ;
to taxation, the right to impose which be-
longs only to the state as a whole and is
absolute there, but not to any individual »
to questions of money ; to the treatment of
criminals ; to relations with the poor ; to
the government of cities, the family, the
Church, and relations with other states.
The author's reasoning is profound and com-
prehensive, his tone is conservative, and the
book is full of thought.

Of all the leaders in the late war for the
preservation of the Union, General Sheridan *
probably comes nearest among the Unionist
commanders to fulfilling the popular ideal of
a hero. Brave, alert, often brilliant, and
nearly always successful, he acquired his full
measure of glory while in active service,
while nothing happened in his after-life to
dim his renown. His biographer was for-
tunate in his subject. "We may say that the
subject is as fortunate in its biographer.
General Davies served with distinction in the
cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac
under General Sheridan from September,
1863, till the end of the war, and his brigade
was present in all Sheridan's battles. It was
mainly for this reason that he was chosen by
the editor of this series to be Sheridan's bi-
ographer. He was an oflBcer of correct mili-
tary information and was, as his narrative
proves, a writer with clear perception of what
should go into a biography, and was able to
estimate correctly the value of each action
and to describe his hero justly and without
exaggeration or extravagance. He died one
month after he had completed this book.
He regards General Sheridan as having pos-
sessed to an eminent degree the most indis-
pensable qualities of a commander. "He
had the ability to think and act promptly
and energetically, and, if need were, independ-
ently of instructions, and to assume and sup-
port with ease whatever responsibilities his
situation might require; he had the power
to impress his will and personal influence

• Great Commanders : (Jeneral Sheridan. By
General Henry E. Davies. With Portrait and
Maps. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 832.
Price, $1.50.

13+

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

upon all who were under his command." He
was not a martinet or a rigid disciplinarian,
but exacted implicit obedience from bis sub-
ordinates and a prompt and energetic per-
formance of duty. He also recognized the
reciprocal relations that should exist between
a commander and his troops. Great stress
has been laid by some writers upon his
" dash," but no estimate of his character
coald be more erroneous than that which
made him only a hard-riding, hard-fighting,
and reckless soldier, whose fame and success
were due to desperate personal courage and
impulsive combativeness, with exceptional
good fortune. He had energy and dash, and,
added to these, judgment, patience, industry,
and full knowledge of all the duties of a
commander and a soldier, and deserved all
the distinction he won.

The Annual Report of the New Yoi-k
State Board of Charities for 1894, a bulky
volume of 576 pages, is a valuable compila-
tion of statistics relating to the charitable
institutions and other charities of the State.
The total expenditure of the State charities
department for the year ending September
30, 1894, was $3,877,709.80 ; of county and
city institutions, $3,872,985.50 ; and of pri-
vate and incorporated societies and associa-
tions, $13,231,698.52. This was a total in-
crease over 1893 of $574,410.88.

TTie Teacher's Mentor (Bardeen, 50 cents)
is written to aid the inexperience and guide
the uncertainty regarding practical details of
the beginner who is without special training.
It is, the author says, based on what he now
sees would have been useful to him in his
early years of teaching. Among the topics
considered are, the outfit for teaching, in-
cluding knowledge of subjects to be taught
and general information desirable ; necessity
for understanding the children ; what educa-
tion is ; relations between teacher and trus-
tee; desirability of producing a good first
impression on the children ; and school rou-
tine in detail.

The studies on which Le Petrole^ VAs-
phalte, et le Bitumen (Petroleum, Asphalt, and
Bitumen), of the late Prof. A. Jaggard, of
Neufch4tel, is based, were begun in the Jura
and the asphalt bed of the Val-de-Travers,
and were stimulated by the discovery of min-
eral oil in the United States. Their purpose
was to investigate the origin of the natural

hydrocarbons. The various theories of pe-
troleum are criticised, the mode of its forma-
tion is discussed, the discoveries of beds of
it in the Old and New Worlds are described ;
and bitumen and asphalt are similarly treated.
The author concludes that no extraordinary
processes or forces are needed to account for
the production of these substances, but that
it is still going on in the usual course of
events, by a kind of natural, slow distillation
of organic matter. But in studying the beds
it is necessary to discriminate between the
original formation of the substances and the
displacements which they may have, under-
gone afterward, and which may havis had
much to do in bringing them into their pres-
ent position. The book is published by F^lix
Alcan, Paris, as a number of the French In-
ternational Scientific Series.

In a similar line, though the starting-
point is different, is Les Merveilles de la Flore
Primitive (Wonders of the Primitive Flora)
of M. A. Froment, which is published by
Georg & Co., at Geneva and at Paris. It be-
gins with a minute study of the carboniferous
vegetation, its structure and forms, and pro-
ceeds to the discussion of the way in which
the coal-forming plants may have been accu-
mulated and converted into coal. This is
done by gradual, unheated distillation, which,
under certain other conditions, produces the
hydrocarbons. A preponderant function is
ascribed to electricity in the production of
the coal plants. This well-reasoned essay is
followed by a remarkable speculation over
what may have happened if Australia fell
upon the earth as a meteoric mass.

In obedience to an act of Congress, the
Commissioner of Labor has made an investi-
gation and a report on The Slums of Balti-
more^ Chicago^ New York^ and Philadelphia.
The report embraces thirty-three tables, in
which are given under various classifications
the color or race, country of birth, citizen-
ship, illiteracy, occupations, weekly earnings,
number of children, bodily condition, etc.,
of the inhabitants of the districts examined,
also the school attendance of their children,
the number of families to a tenement, air
space to a person, rent paid, and sanitary
condition of the tenements. From an analy-
sis of the tables it appears that the slums, as
compared with other parts of the cities in
which they are, have a larger proportion of

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

135

foreign-born denizens ; sickness does not pre-
vail in them to any greater extent, and most
of the bacteria found in the air of the tene-
ments are harmless ; the occupations of the
slum population are as varied as those fol-
lowed in other districts, and their earnings
are " quite up to the average earnings of the
people generally and at large." But few
tenements could be reported as in excellent
sanitary condition ; in Philadelphia and Bal-
timore those classed as good formed the
largest division, while in New York and Chi-
cago those reported as fair were the largest
class. Cases of overcrowding were numerous.
Part XXVII of the Proceedings of the
Society for Psychical Research opens with an
account of some experiments in thought
transference, by Henry G. Pawson, in which
drawings were reproduced and cards were
named correctly in a large proportion of
cases. The chief contribution in the num-
ber is a second installment of the experiences
of the late W. Stainton Moses, communicated
by F. W. H. Myers. These experiences are
what are commonly known as spiritual com-
munications. There is also a paper on the

Apparent Sources of Subliminal Messages,
and reviews of books on hypnotism, the ex-
posure of Mrae. Blavatsky, and other psy-
chical subjects.

In The Coming Revolution (Boston,
Arena Publishing Company) the position is
assumed by Henry L. Call that the prevail-
ing discontent among the " toiling masses "
is a sign that the present conditions of so-
ciety and the relations of the rich and the
wage workers are all wrong and a revulsion
is imminent. The author accordingly begins
his diagnosis with an examination into the
condition of society, and follows it up with
inquiries into the causes that have produced
that condition; the nature of these causes,
and whether they rightfully admit of a rem-
edy and its justification ; the application of
the remedy to each of the causes in turn ;
the effects of the remedy ; and the manner
in which it is to be achieved. The causes
of the trouble are abuses of privilege of a
political nature and origin. The remedy is
to enforce the law of freedom — of social
and industrial as well as political freedom ;
and it is to be secured by political means.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins.
North Dakota Weather and Crop Service. Au-
gust, 1895. Pp. 10.— Purdue University, Lafa-
yette, Ind. Field Experiments with Wheat ; Po-
tato Scab and its Prevention. Pp. 80.

American Forestry Association. Proceedings.
Part of Vol. X. Pp.42.

Baldwin, J ames. A Guide to Systematic Read-
ings in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. New York
and Chicago : The Werner Company. Pp. 316.
$2.

Beesey, Charles E., University of Nebraska,
Lincoln. Summer School of Botany in the Moun-
tains. Pp. 8.

Buck, Gertrude. Figures of Rhetoric : A Psy-
chological Study. University of Michigan : F.
Newton Scott. Pp. 27.

Cincinnati Souvenir. Cotton States and In-
ternational Exhibition, Atlanta, Ga. k p. 24.

Clarke, Agnes M. The Herschels and Mod-
ern Astronomy. New York and London : Mac-
millan«&Co. Pp.224. $1.25.

Cohen, Isabel E., Compiler. Readings and
Recitations for Jewish Homes and Schools. Phila-
delphia : The Jewish Publication Society of Amer-
ica. Pp.294.

Dav, William C. The Stone Industry in 1891.
Washington : United States Geological Survey.
Pp. 83.

Hoffman, Walter James. The Beginnings of
Wri.ing. New York : D. Appleton «fc Co. (The
Anthropological Series.) Pp. 209. $1.75.

Houston, Edwin J., and Kennelly, A. E. Al-
ternating Electric Currents. New York : TheW.
J. Johnstone Company. Pp. 225.

Lassar-Cohn, Dr. A Laboratory Manual of
Organic Chemistry. Translated by Alexander
Smith. Macmillan & Co. Pp.403. $2.25.

Locomotive, The. August, 1895. Hartford,
Conn. : Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance
Company. Pp. 16.

McLellan, James A., and Dewey, John. The
Psychology of Number, and its Application to
Methods of Teaching Arithmetic. New York : D.
Appleton & Co.

Macmillan, Conway, State Botanist. Minne-
sota Botanical Studies, No. 23. A Contribution to
the Bibliography of American Algae. By Jo-
sephine E. Tilden. Minneapolis. Pp. 124.

Niagara, State Reservation at. Eleventh An-
nual Report of the Commissioners, 1893-'94. Al-
bany, N. Y. Pp. 126.

Old South Leaflets, Nos. ."58 to 64. English
Puritanism and Commonwealth Series. Hooper's
Letters to Bullinger ; Sir John Eliot's Apology
for Socrates ; Ships Money Papers ; Pym's
Speech against Strafford ; Cromwell's Second
Speech ; Milton's Free Commonwealth ; Sir
Henry Vane's Defence. Pp. 8 to 24 each.

Reeve, C. H., Plymouth, Ind. Penal Legisla-
tion with a View to the Prevention of Crime and
Reformation of Offenders. Pp. 10.

Rolker. Charles M. The Production of Tin in
Various Parts of the World. Washington, D. C. :
Geological Survey. Pp. 88.

Shenstone, W. A. Justus von Liebig. his Life
and Work. New York and London : Macmillan
«&Co. Pp.219. $1.25.

Spanhoodf, A. W., Editor Germania Texts
(No. 1. Buyer's Leon; re. Pp. 32 ; No. 2. Qervinus's
Goethe und Schiller, Lessing und Herder. Pp. 22;
No. 3. Cholevius's Klopstock's Bedeutung fflr
sein Zeitalter. Pp. 28.) American Book Com-
pany. 10 cents each.

Spencer, J. W. The '" uration of Niagara Falls
and the History of the Great Lakes. Albany, N.
Y. : J. B. Lyon. Pp. 12t).

136

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Chart Corrections for August, 1895. Pp. 12.

United States Fish Commission. Bulletin. Vol.
XIV, 1894. Washington : Government Printing
Office. Pp.496.

United States Geological Survey. Monographs.
Vols. XXm and XXIV. Green Mountains in
Massachusetts. By Raphael Piimpelly, J. E.
Wolff, and T. N. Dale. Pp. 206. with Plates.
— Mollusca and Crustacea of the Miocene Forma-
tions of New Jersey. Bv Robert Parr Whitefleld.
Pp. 195, with Plates.— Bulletins: No. 118. A Geo-
graphic Dictionary of New Jersey. By Henry
Gannett. Pp. 131 ; No. 119. A Geological Re-
connoissance in Northwest Wyoming. By G. H.
Eldridge. Pp. 72 : No. 120. The Devonian Sys-
tem of Eastern Pennsylvania and New York. By
C. S. Prosser. Pp. 81 ; No. 121. A Bibliography
of North American Palaeontology, 1888-1892. By

C. R. Keyes. Pp. 251 ; No. 122. Results of
Primary Triangulatlon. By Henry Gannett. Pp.
412.

University of the State of New York Exami-
nation Bulletin, No. 3. Academic Syllabus. Pp.
100.— Extension Bulletin, No. 9. Summer Scho' Is.
Pp. 142.— Regents' Bulletin, No. 31. Proceedings
of the Tenth Annual Conference of Associated
Academic Principals, December, 1894. Pp. 132.

Ward. Lester F. The Place of Sociology
among the Sciences. Pp. 12. — Saporta and Wil-
liamson and their Work in Paleobotany. Pp. 18.
—Fossil Plants. Pp. 8.

Weir, James. Jr. The Effect of Female Suf-
frage on Posterity. Pp. 10.

Wiley, Harvey W. Principles and Practice
of Agricultural Analysis. Vol. II, Fertilizers.
Easton, Pa. : Chemical Publishing Company.
Pp.832.

^raflnxjetxts 0f ^j:ijetti:je*

Nature's Defenses against Disease. — It

is maintained by Dr. C. Theodore Williams,
of the Hospital for Consumptives, Brompton,
England, that in most of the specific modes
of treating consumption, particularly in the
antiseptic modes, the greatest factor of all —
the resisting power of the organism to dis-
ease — is ignored, and that it is to this that
the physician should lend his aid and sup-
port. For if his means are effectual he can
ward off disease, or if a patient has been
already attacked he can limit its inroads and
possibly arrest it altogether. The history of
the treatment of phthisis show^s that life in
the pure air, judicious exercise, light, nour-
ishing dietary, and such aids as cod-liver oil
and tonics have effected more than all the
bacillicide treatment put together. These all
act on the old principle of helping Nature to
help herself and reducing the vulnerability
of the patient to attack. The weapons of
resistance which Nature lends the human
body are the leucocytes or phagocytes, stud-
ied by Metchnikoff, which absorb the bacilli
and destroy their energy. Another destroyer
of bacilli is the serum of certain animals ;
and a third method of destruction is seen in
the process of fibrosis, which is largely pres-
ent in chronic consimiption. In a well-or-
ganized, well-developed, and therefore well-
protected person the bacilli are overwhelmed
by the irruption of phagocytes at the point
of entry, and immunity is the result. In one
of less protective power they may enter and

be carried along by the lymphatics to the
lymphatic glands, where they undergo diges-
tion and destruction. When, however, the
tubercle bacilli gain an entrance, and settle,
and destroy the tissues, as in the case of the
lung, the most that can be hoped for is that
the progress may be obstructed by fibrous
growth, or that, through developing and ex-
panding the healthy lung in the neighbor-
hood, pressure may be brought to bear on the
diseased portion, inducing a drying process
incompatible with the life of bacilli. This
process is encouraged by living at high alti-
tudes. The problem of treatment resolves
itself principally into means to increase the
number and activity of the phagocytes and
thus render more probable the destruction
of the tubercle bacilli. Moreover, whatever
improves the quality of the phagocytes would
also improve and enrich the blood and lymph
serum, of which they form a principal part.
To this quality the author attributes the
virtue of cod- liver oil — to which he has
found, he says, no substitute comparable.
Sunshine and pure air are the best bacilli-
cides. At Davos and St. Moritz phthisical
patients almost invariably sleep with open
windows throughout the winter, when the
thermometer not uncommonly registers —4°
F., or 36° below the freezing point, care, of
course, being taken to heat the room with
stoves, to provide plenty of blankets and
coverlets, and to see that the current of ex-
ternal air is not. directed on to the patient.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

137

but always first ascends to the ceiling. The
universal testimony of medical men is to the
effect that no harm, and much good, results
from this practice. One effect is that pa-
tients accustom themselves to living at a
lower temperature without noticing it. At
Davos, Leysin, and Falkenstein there are
covered terraces or long, sheltered corridors,
open on one side to the air and protected
from wind, where a large number of phthisic-
al patients in various stages of disease re-
cline on couches for the greatest part of the
day in all weathers. In the winter there is
no heating apparatus, and warmth is kept
up by fur clothing and abundant covering.

Requisites of a Pablie Mnsenm. — '' If

public libraries, why not public museums ? "
asked Prof. E. S. Morse in the Atlantic
Monthly a year ago. Having discussed the
subject in a general way, he comes to the
application : " First and foremost, then, the
town museum should illustrate the natural
products of the immediate region. By natu-
ral products is meant, of course, the animals,
plants, rocks, and minerals found in the
county, or possibly in the State; for a
county collection would require but a few
extralimital forms to compass the State.
Second, a general collection of similar ma-
terial from elsewhere, to show the relation
of the county to the rest of the world.
Anatomical, physiological, and morphological
series should next find place in such a mu-
seum. The minor factors of natural selec-
tion, such as protective, alluring, and warn-
ing coloration, mimicry, etc., should be il-
lustrated, as far as possible, from collections
made in the immediate neighborhood. And,
finally, a series of forms to show the phy-
logenetic development of the animal king-
dom should in some way be given. Such a
series would require large floor space, and
the solution of many perplexing problems as
to form of cases and methods of display.
Yet a scheme of this sort must ultimately be
devised." Such an idea has been attained
in part by the Peabody Academy of Science
in Salem, the collections of which comprise,
first, a remarkable series of the animals and
plants, rocks, minerals, and archaeological
specimens collected in the county of Essex,
which are continually increasing as new
forms are added ; an epitome collection of

the animal kingdom, brought from all parts
of the world ; and an ethnological collection,
arranged by countries. These collections
are all fully and clearly labeled. At close
intervals throughout the entire collection
special colored labels are displayed, calling
attention by title and shelf number to books
in the public library referring to the immedi-
ate groups. Courses of lectures are given
in the Academy Hall every year, which are
practically free to the public.

Life in Balochistan. — An interesting lec-
ture on the northern Balochis, a hill tribe of
Balochistan on the northwestern frontier of
India, was recently read before the Indian
Section of the Society of Arts by Mr. Oswald
U. Yates, a gentleman who, while engaged
in Government work, spent seventeen years
in the neighborhood of these people and
gave much of his time to a study of their
language, history, and customs. The Balo-
chis are Mohammedans, but not very assidu-
ous votaries ; none have been converted to
Christianity, however. They are probably a
mixture of Kurd and Arab. Their language
is quite similar to Persian — so much so that
Pottinger, who visited Balochistan in 1 830,
and who was familiar with Persian, could
after a few weeks understand most of what
was said to him. In order to be a respected
citizen, a Balochi must have long, curly
black hair, the longer the better ; and a long
beard is also considered desirable. They
are very superstitious. On certain days they
believe it is bad luck to go in certain direc-
tions ; they are guided in this by a rhyme,
which translated is :
"On the 1st and 11th I will not go east.

On the 5th and 1 5th I will not go west.

On the 3d and 13th I will not go south.

On the 7th and 17th I will not go north."
They augur coming events from an ex-
amination of the lines on the shoulder blade
of a newly killed goat. Goats are also made
use of in discovering the sites of disused
wells, this, however, is not peculiar to the
Balochis. Their method of irrigating is
rather unique. " Before the commencement
of the rains, the fields are inclosed by lofty
embankments, varying in height from three
to ten feet, and inside these banks (called
lathandi) the water from the hill torrents is
admitted ; when one is full the next is filled.

138

TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The banks are made by bullocks; a board
about eighteen inches long and twelve inches
broad is attached to a pair of bullocks, who
drag it, along almost vertically until a heap
of earth is raised in front of it ; this board
is then thrown flat by means of a cord and
dragged on to the bank, with the earth on
top of it and there its load is deposited. As
soon as the water has sunk into the ground
plowing commences, and the seed is sown " ;
millet is the chief crop. They kill all male
colts as soon as they are born. " The reason
for killing them is that they can not be taken
on marauding expeditions owiug to their
neighing on seeing a mare." They use the
Persian saddle and are very good horsemen.
Adultery is punished by the death of both
man and woman. They firmly believe in the
ordeal by fire. One of the most trying of
their tests is the following: In a large
vessel filled with scalding hot water are
placed two stones of different colors; one
of these stones, unknown to the supposed
criminal, has been labeled the guilty-stone.
In order to establish his innocence he has
not only got to choose the other stone, but
also remove it from the boiling water by
using bis naked hand and arm.

The Care of Milk.— The compositioa of
milk admirably adapts it to the growth of all
kinds of bacteria; this growth causes in it
undesirable chemical changes. As secreted
in a healthy animal milk contains no micro-
organisms of a dangerous character ; but
during and subsequent to the process of
milking its contamination is inevitable. Va-
rious forms of disease — consumption, typhoid
and scarlet fevers, diphtheria, etc. — have
been in numerous instances traced to an in-
fected milk supply, and it is unquestionable
that much of the stomach and intestinal
trouble so fatal to young children during the
summer months is caused by unhygienic
milk. It is plain, therefore, that the elimi-
nation of living germs from milk is quite
essential to its safe use as a food, especially
for infants. The most scrupulous cleanliness
has been found inadequate ; hence some
artificial process becomes necessary. There
are two methods in common use, pasteuriza-
tion and sterilization. The former heats the
milk to about 160'' F., and the latter to over
212° F. The pasteurizing process, whUe not

quite so thorough, kills any growing bacteria
that may be present, and has the advantage
over sterilization, of leaving the physical
condition and flavor of the milk practically
unchanged. A method of pasteurization for
family use is as follows : "1. Use only fresh
milk (not more than twelve hours old) for
this purpose. 2. Place the milk in clean bot-
tles or fruit cans, filling to a uniform level.
(If pint and quart cans are used at the same
time, an inverted dish or piece of wood will
equalize the level.) Set these in a flat-bot-
tomed tin pail and fill with warm water to
same level as milk. An inverted pie tin
punched with holes will serve as a stand on
which to place the bottles during the heatmg
process. 3. Heat water in pail until the
temperature reaches 160° F. ; then remove
from fire, cover with a cloth or tin cover, and
allow the whole to stand for half an hour.
4. Remove bottles of milk and cool them as
rapidly as possible without danger to bottles,
and store in a refrigerator." The following
suggestions to buyers of commercially steril-
ized milk are worthy of note : " 1. Label on
bottle should show that the material was
pasteurized not more than one day previous
to delivery. 2. Shake the bottle thoroughly
before opening, so as to remix the contents
as much as possible. 3. The paper disk
should not be replaced after it is once re-
moved. Invert over neck of the bottle a
clean, dry tumbler or glass to prevent anything
from falling into the bottle. 4. Any unused
milk or cream that has been put in another
vessel should not be poured back into ori-
ginal bottle again. 5. Keep the original
bottle in the coldest part of the refrigera-
tor as much as possible. When so treated,
properly pasteurized cream or milk ought to
keep perfectly sweet for several (two to four)
days, even in the height of the summer sea-
son."

ImproTement of Crops. — In presenting a
new theory respecting the improvement of
crops, J. C. Arthur propounds as fundamental,
interacting principles, that a decrease in nu-
trition during the period of growth of an
organism favors the development of the re-
productive parts at the expense of the vegeta-
tive parts. The converse, that an increase
in nutrition favors the vegetative parts at
the expense of the reproductive parts, is also

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

139

equally true, and that as a general law large
seeds produce stronger plants with a greater
capacity for reproduction than small seeds
of the same kind. In the economy of Na-
ture, as the food supply is lessened, a greater
effort is made on behalf of the parent plants
to enhance the chances for perpetuity, but
at the same time the largest seeds, having
the greatest potentiality, stand the best
chance in the future struggle, and, although
the best, nourished plants produce the fewest
seeds, their greater size gives them decided
advantages over seeds from starved plants.
The two laws acting together, therefore, aid
in maintaining the perpetuity of the species
and its full measure of vigor. The two cate-
gories of methods for the improvement of
crops are the enrichment and cultivation of
the soil and the selection of seed, especially
of large seed. It is desirable to know that
intensive farming will give a better return in
all crops grown for fodder, or for the roots,
or other portions of the vegetative part of
plants, than in those grown for grain and
fruit. In either case, but more especially in
the latter, the highest vigor and best returns
can be obtained only by the use of the best
and heaviest seed. When this is done high
tillage will increase the yield and make pos-
sible the greater improvement of succeeding
crops.

Happiness of Animals. — "What makes
the happiness of wild animals ? " asks a
writer in the London Spectator. What the
happiness of wild creatures consists in, he
continues, "can perhaps be best judged by
their daily habits. Within certain limits
they are free to choose their life, and pre-
sumably they choose what pleases them best-
In nearly every case this is one of pure routine.
It consists in a daily repetition of a limited
series of actions, the greater number of
which seem to give them satisfaction rather
than pleasure, but make up in the aggregate
the sum of animal happiness. Unlike the
domestic dog, which welcomes any break in
the monotony of life, they never, except in
the courting season, seem to seek change, or
adventure, or excitement. It may be doubted
whether, if the food supply were plentiful and
constant, animals or birds would ever care to
move beyond the circle in which they can
find enough for their daily wants. The prob-

able whereabouts of deer at any time in
the twenty-four hours, and their occupation^
whether feeding, sleeping, or resting, are
known with the utmost certainty by those
whose business it is to watch the forest, and
could be predicted for any month in the year.
. . . The adventurous life, if it is found any-
where among wild creatures, belongs to the
carnivorous animals. Yet most of these only
wander just so far as is necessary to find their
prey, and then prefer to kill some creature that
will provide a meal for more than one day.
They are naturally indolent, and active only
from necessity." Even lack of space is not
a serious drawback to the happiness of most
animals at the London " Zoo," " The lions
and tigers feel the confinement of their inner
cages and often strike impatiently at the
doors which separate them in winter from
their summer palaces, and the wild cattle
would enjoy life far more if a roomy pad-
dock could be added to their pens. No
hawks or eagles can be happy in cages, be-
cause exercise in flight is essential to their
health. Parrots, on the other hand, dislike
exercise, and consequently live to the great-
est age of any creatures in the gardens.
Bears seem to share this dislike for unneces-
sary movements, and 'my lords the ele-
phants,' and all the camels, with true Ori-
ental indifference, would prefer to stand all
day doing nothing, if they were not com-
pelled to earn their living by carrying visitors.
All the reptiles lead the life of lotus-eaters,
and, so far as their brief day lasts, the trop-
ical butterflies in their cages seem equally
happy with those which flit among the flow-
ers that line the garden walks."

Picturesque Aretie Nature. — How small,
says Julius von Payer, is the matter for ar-
tistic reproduction in the old civilized world
compared with the rest of the globe ! " Has
the desert been depicted in such a manner
as it undoubtedly deserves to be ? Or the
Tundra, the primeval forest of the Dark Con-
tinent, the swampy shores of Lake Chad, the
bridle-path of the Cordilleras, the Tibetan
mountain lake, or the coral islands ? What
of the animal world, if we except our do-
mestic animals and some wild game: the
Indian beasts of prey; the African pachy-
derms ; the troops of monkeys or tortoises
of Brazil ? And then the scenes of human

140

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

activity : the negro battles ; the dreamy, still
life of the South Sea islanders ; the bufifalo
hunters ; Yakuts so hardened as to sleep al-
most naked in the snow ; India-rubber col-
lectors on the Amazons ; Patagonian giants ;
Niam Niam dwarfs, etc." The author espe-
cially commends the polar regions as artis-
tically attractive, where great effects are pro-
duced with little color by the varying charms
of light conferring life upon even the most mo-
notonous views. In the four years and a half
he spent there he was ever charmed by the
change in pictures of Nature. " What a magic
spell, for instance, is produced even by the
twilight, . . . the time without bright light,
almost without shade ; that of soft, dreamy
silhouettes, of the clear green sky, and the
pale, silvery tone of the mountains ! The
snow is now melted, and the blue sea-ice lies
bare, scarcely tinged with red by the setting
sun. Even the long winter night possesses
its artistic charm from the midday arch
of light, or the moon, which changes the
channels beneath into rivers of silver. The
arctic sky alone would enrapture the painter.
As the returning sun nears the horizon, every
color glows forth, a border of light dividing
the part of the atmosphere still in the shadow
of the earth from that already lighted up."
Then there are the infinitely varied phe-
nomena of refraction, with Faia Morgana^
giving the most curiously odd and unlike
appearances to various objects ; vapor ef-
fects; the ice blink; variations of snow
and bare ground; pastures with reindeer
and musk oxen ; and vegetation, for, " al-
though there is never the thick flora of
our meadows, yet one meets with limited
areas either yellow with Papava nudicaule
or ManunculuSy or carmine with Silene or
Saxi/raga, or blue with forget-me-not, or
white with CrasHum. East Greenland has
its huge Kaiser Franz Josef fiord, surpassing
the fiord of Norway, and the whole of Green-
land furnishes surpassing mountain land-
scapes ; Spitzbergen has a profile like a saw ;
and Novaya Zemlya is a table land, but-
tressed by mountain cones."

Forest Protection in the Tnited States.

— In a paper published in the Proceedings
of the American Forestry Association, Mr.
George H. Parsons, of Colorado Springs,
shows that measures for the protection of

forests were taken by some of the colonies
as early as in the seventeenth century.
These provisions were continued everywhere
after the formal organization of the Govern-
ment of the United States, and now each
State and Territory has some law, providing
more or less severe punishment to any per-
son setting fire to woodland or prairie. But
as it is very difficult to find the offender, or
to convict him afterward, laws of this class
are operative, if at all, by their threat rather
than by their execution, and with few excep-
tions have become dead letters. The only
States said to be comparatively free from
forest fires are Maine and Massachusetts, and
especially New York, whose forest commis-
sioner reports that they are now a thing of
the past. Laws encouraging the planting
and growing of timber and shade trees are
found on the statutes of twenty- two States
and Territories, having been adopted more
generally in the prairie States. They have
been the means of covering with trees thou-
sands of acres, and have driven the prairies
many miles westward. Kansas is credited
with the largest area planted with forest
trees, and Nebraska comes next. These
laws have done much good, but, after all,
tree-planting along roadsides, and in small,
isolated clumps, is not forestry, and legisla-
tion of this kind, though indirectly aiding
the cause in an educational way, does not
preserve or create forests. In the same
direction of education is the appointment of
Arbor Day, which has become a legal holi-
day in thirty States and Territories. Being
celebrated in the public schools, it is made a
most important factor in creating an interest
in trees and a knowledge of plant life among
people at their most impressionable age.
Regular forest commissioners or commissions
have been appointed in ten States. They
began work actively and enthusiastically,
but it is now a question whether they are
able to do much good. Politics is gnawing
their vitals out.

A Tolcanie Dnst Deposit in Kansas.— A

large deposit of volcanic dust is described in
Science by H. J. Harney as existing in cen-
tral Kansas, in McPherson County, north of
the watershed between the Smoky Hill and
Little Arkansas, and in the great depression
extending from Salina to the Little Arkansas.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

141

The exposure is about fifteen miles long,
from two to four feet thick, from forty to
fifty feet high, rests on a bed of clay, and is
overlaid by a bed of yellow marl. At the
lowest point the dust is well assorted and
Stratified ; at the higher points it shows signs
of having been deposited in shallow water.
It is composed chiefly of silica, with small
proportions of ferric and alummum oxides,
protoxide of manganese, water, lime, and
traces of other substances. The microscope
shows it as consisting almost wholly of micro-
scopic, transparent, silicious flakes of various
irregular forms.

Geological Society of Ameriea.— The

seventh summer meeting of the Geological
Society of America was held at Springfield,
Mass., Prof. N. S. Shaler presiding. A paper
was read by C. H. Hitchcock on the Cham-
plain Glacial Epoch, which was regarded as
corresponding with Prof. James Geikie's
Mecklenbergian Epoch. In a paper on the
Glacial Genesee Lakes, H. L. Fairchild ex-
hibited the relations of the Genesee River
drainage basin to surrounding river systems,
and endeavoured to determine the glacial
history of the region. In his paper on the
Bearing of Physiography on Uniformitarian-
ism, W. M. Davis maintained that the suc-
cess in the interpretation of Nature by means
of the physiographic study of land forms
confirmed the correctness of the postulates
of uniformitarianism and brought to its sup-
port a series of facts not in the beginning
of the study supposed to bear upon it. J. C.
Branner described the decomposition of rocks
going on in Brazil as being more profound
there than in temperate regions. The chief
mechanical agency promoting it is the daily
change of temperature to which rocks exposed
to the sun are subject, which causes exfolia-
tion and the admission of a number of de-
structive agencies and reactions. Among
these agencies are rain, bringing down cor-
roding acids, insects, and plants. Many
papers of more special interest were read on
subjects of strati graphical, glacial, and eco-
nomical geology, and paleontology. A com-
mittee which had been appointed in 1893 to
secure the expropriation of the region about
Mount Rainier as a public park reported
that it had presented the case to a committee
of the United States Senate, but had failed

to have a bill recommended. The committee
was continued, to make another effort.

The French Scientific Association.— The

French Association for the Advancement of
Science met for 1895 in Bordeaux, where its
first meeting was held in 1872. The maire^
in welcoming the association, referred to the
changes which had taken place in the city
since then — all for good, and largely for the
diffusion of knowledge and the promotion
of public comfort. The number of primary
schools had been tripled ; the Lyceum, in
whose halls the sectional meetings were held,
had been built, and faculties of law, science,
letters, and medicine and pharmacy had been
established and an observatory erected; all
attracting an attendance of more than two
thousand students, and giving the place all
the privileges of a university except the
name. Museums also and art galleries had
been founded, and benevolent institutions
brought into existence. All these, the maire
intimated, were the results of the scientific
activity which began with the meeting of
1872. The president, M. Emile Tr61at, took
salubrity as the subject of his address, in
which he gave a felicitous description of the
ideal city of health. The work of the pre-
vious meeting of the association, which was
held at Caen, and the history of the associa-
tion during the year, were reviewed by the
secretary, M. Livon. The association lost
many of its distinguished members during
the year, among whom were Baron Adolphe
d'Eichthal, one of the founders, a benefactor,
and president in 1875 at Nantes; Vemeuii,
the eminent doctor, president in 1885 at
Grenoble; Gustave Cotteau, several times
president of the Geological Section ; AK
phonse Gu6rin, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Re-
cipen, and Armand Lalande, founders; Vic-
tor Duruy, and others ; and among the for-
eign associates the Russian mathematician
Tchebichef and Carl Vogt, who had attended
a number of the meetings. It appears from
the financial reports presented by M. ^mile
Galante, treasurer, that the year's receipts
of the association were 86,244 francs.

Infectiousness of Millt. — The Massachu-
setts Society for Promoting Agriculture has
issued a report of work done under its aus-
pices on the above subject. It being already

42

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

well established that there was much danger
of the milk being contaminated if the cow
from which it came had tuberculosis of the
udder, attention was restricted to the ques-
tion whether the milk was ever infected
when the disease was confined to other parts
of the animal. Bacilli were found in the
milk from twelve out of thirty-six tubercu-
lous cows. Milk from six out of fifteen in-
fected cows produced bacilli when inoculated
into guinea-pigs, and the milk of four out of
nineteen cows produced bacilli in rabbits.
Bacilli developed in two out of forty-eight
rabbits, five out of twelve pigs, and eight
out of twenty-one calves to which milk from
tuberculous cows was fed. It is interesting
to note that microscopic examination re-
vealed bacilli in only one out of thirty-three
samples of milk ordinarily supplied to con-
sumers in Boston, but bacilli appeared in
rabbits after inoculation with three of the
samples which gave negative results under
the microscope. A circular sent to eighteen
hundred physicians and veterinarians asking
" Have you ever seen a case of tuberculosis
which it seemed possible to you to trace to
a milk supply as a cause ? " brought replies
from one thousand and thirteen, eight of
whom reported cases where they believed
children had been infected by mother's milk,
and eleven reported cases in which children
had been infected by cow's milk, while six-
teen spoke of suspicious cases which they
had not been able to verify. Some results
of inquiries as to the prevalence of bovine
tuberculosis and as to tuberculosis among
Hebrews are also given.

Extermination of British Species.— In

the inaugural address of the president of
the Cheltenham, England, Natural History
Society, Dr. E. T. Wilson, on Man and the
Extinction of Species, are some historical
notes on the disappearance of certain species
in the British Islands. Within limited areas,
the author says, species were not unfrequent-
ly eradicated before the use of firearms, as
the beaver in England, which, though once
common, was in the twelfth century only to
be found in one river in Wales and one in
Scotland ; and wolves, which were practically
exterminated in four years after the demand
by Edgar for a tribute of five hundred heads
annually from his Welsh subjects. "But

even the introduction of firearms at first did
little beyond giving man an increased advan-
tage in his contest with the more formidable
of the lower animals. Far otherwise is it,
however, when man, the primitive hunter,
gives place to man the tiller of the soil, man
the cultivator, who fells forests, drains
marshes, plows prairies, and in a thousand
ways alters the face of Nature." To most of
the larger quadrupeds, and to many birds,
space is of vital importance, and space is
being rapidly curtailed. The bustard, de-
scribed by Bewick as common on the plains
of Wiltshire, Dorset, and Yorkshire, has dis-
appeared before advancing cultivation. The
egret and the crane, once common in Scot-
land, are now among the rarest of visitors.
Drainage in the broads and fens has led to
the banishment of many former inhabitants,
such as the grey lag goose, and in many
parts the bearded tit. Between 1825 and
1855 the avocet, the bustard, and the god-
wit ceased breeding in Norfolk. About the
same time the ruff became uncommon, and
the bittern left off breeding regularly in
1850. Eagles and large hawks, such as the
kite and the buzzard, and among mammals
the otter and even the harmless badger, are
becoming rarer year by year before the gun
or the trap of the gamekeeper; while the
trade collector, with his demand for whole
clutches of eggs, contributes to the destruc-
tion of some of the rarer species. In 1893
an Item was published that two sloops had
visited the island of Foula in the Shetlands,
the chief breeding station of the great skua,
and carried off several dozens of the eggs,
and there was reason to believe that not a
single young bird was reared on the island
during the breeding season of that year.

The Feigning of Death. — The probability
of this phenomenon being a pure reflex, in
most animals, is indicated by the following
experiment on a currant moth, whose powers
of " shamming " are so familiar, which is
described in a recent letter to Nature by a
Mr. Oswald H. Latter : •' The moth was first
seized by one wing, and it at once feigned
death ; thereupon its head was cut off with
a pair of scissors, and the animal continued
to feign death. I use the expression advised-
ly, for absolute immobility was maintained
for some seconds and then violent fluttering

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

H3

ensued, causing the animal to rush wildly
about the table, but failing to lift it into the
air. In this condition any impulse, such as
touching or pinching, induced a repetition of
' shamming.' After a strong impulse the
shamming was prolonged, and, indeed, a
direct connection was obvious between the
strength of stimulus and the length of period
of quiescence. This power of response to
stimulus was maintained for two days, and
then weak fluttering set in for some hours,
followed by death. We are forced, then, to
conclude that here, at any rate, death-feign-
ing is a purely reflex phenomenon, and that

the sensory stimulus received by the surface
of the body caused inhibitory impulses to
arise reflexly from the ganglia of the cen-
tral nerve cham, and prevented all movement
of the locomotor muscles. In confirmation
of this it may be mentioned that denuding
the wing of its scales over any area caused
a marked diminution of sensitiveness over
the area so treated. Since all stages be-
tween sensory hairs and ordinary scales oc-
cur in Lepidoptera^ it is not unreasonable to
assume that the scales still function as tac-
tile end organs in spite of their modification
subserving decorative purposes."

MINOR PARAGRAPHS.

Navigators and other writers of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries speak of a
pretended art of controlling the winds which
was claimed by Finnish and Lapp wizards,
who sold wind in packages consisting of a
cord with three knots. "If the first knot
is untied," Grimm says, "the wind be-
comes favourable ; if the second, a still bet-
ter wind is secured ; but a tempest inevita-
bly follows the undoing of the third knot."
Speaking of Greenland, Nightingale says:
" The sailors of the north are so credulous
that they often buy these magical cords;
and they believe that, if they follow the in-
structions concerning the way of untying
them, they will get whatever sort of wind
they want." Like accounts are given by
Leems and Scheffer ; and the belief is re-
ferred to by Shakespeare in Macbeth.

A SUMMARY is published in the journal
Himmel und Erde of reports made to the
Bureau of Statistics in Berlin, which seem to
show that cases of damage from lightning
are regularly increasing. Thus while, accord-
ing to Prof, von Bezold, the average number
of accidents per year in Bavaria was thirty-
two from 1833 to 1843, it has gone up from
period to period till in 1880-83 it was one
hundred and thirty- two; and, while in 1855
one hundred and thirty-four persons were
struck by lightning and seventy-three of them
were killed, the number struck thirty years
later was one hundred and eighty-nine, of
whom one hundred and sixty-one were killed.
The increase is ascribed to a variety of causes,
among which are the use of electricity in in-
dustry; changes worked upon the earth's

surface by the cutting away of woods, drain-
age, etc. ; and the fouling of the air with
coal smoke.

As presented by General Greely in a pa-
per at the recent International Geographical
Congress, arctic exploration has passed
through three important phases. The first
was a commercial phase, when the discov-
eries of Chancellor gave rise to the Mus-
covy Company and the institution of trade
between Great Britain and Russia. The sec-
ond was the geographical phase, which culmi-
nated in the beginning of the present cen-
tury, and under which an unparalleled wealth
of geographical results has been harvested.
The third phase of scientific investigation
has been prominent in later years, and now
dominates, so that no expedition can com-
mand support unless its aim is scientific.
Altogether, it can be proved that arctic in-
dustries have contributed some $12,250,-
000,000 to the wealth of the world.

Herr S. a. Andree presented his plan for
a balloon expedition to the north pole before
the recent International Geographical Con-
gress. He advises that the balloon should
be capable of carrying three persons, neces-
sary instruments, and provisions for four
months; that it should be so impermeable
that it can be kept afloat thirty days ; that it
be filled somewhere in the arctic region, and
be to a certain extent steerable. The start
should be made in July, as early as the
weather would permit, on a clear day with a
brisk south wind blowing, so that it may go
north quickly. The central and most inac-
cessible part of the polar region should be

144

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

aimed for. Besides geographical work, ex-
tensive meteorological observations should
be carried on, all possible data collected, and
the topographical outfit should not be for-
gotten.

M. Charles Dufour has found, from ob-
servations of the variations of refraction on
the Lake of Geneva, that when the air is
colder than the water the refracted ray is
turned from the perpendicular, and that fine
mirages like those of the desert are present-
ed ; while, when the water is colder than the
air, the refraction is toward the perpendicu-
lar, and objects may be seen which are usu-
ally concealed by the roundness of the earth.
Hence the horizon is usually depressed be-
low the average in winter, and less so in
summer. The author suggests that such
variations may sometimes lead to errors in
observations made at sea.

NOTES.

At a ferry across the Yarkand River,
which was crossed by Captain H. Bower dur-
ing a trip to Turkestan, no rafts are kept ready,
but when wanted they are made by the
villagers from inflated skins and poplar poles.
This raft is tied by a rope to a horse's tail ;
the horse is then driven into the water and
guided by a man strapped to an inflated
skin who swims alongside. " How our things
got safely over," says Captain Bower, " has
been a puzzle to me ever since. The raft
was of the craziest description, and swayed
about in the current, threatening to capsize
every minute. All our things got wet, but
no disaster happened, and nothing was miss-
ing when an inspection of our baggage was
made in the evening."

A SATISFACTORY pavement has been made
at Chino, Cal., with the refuse molasses of a
sugar factoiy thei-e. The molasses is mixed
with sand to about the consistence of asphalt,
and is laid on like an asphalt pavement.
The composition dries quickly and becomes
permanently hard, the heat of the sun only
making it harder.

Having added to its collections during
the past year specimens of the eyra, yagu-
aruiidi, the fishing cat of India, and the Ben-
galese cat, the Zoological Society of Philadel-
phia has now thirteen species of the cat
family in its gardens.

Mr. James Constantine Pilling, bibli-
ographer of the Bureau of American Ethnol-
ogy, who died July 26th, made the study of
the languages and literature of the North
American Indians his life-work. Soon after
becoming connected with the Geological and
Geographical Surveys, under Major Powell,

in 1875, he made himself very useful in
collecting the vocabularies, myths, and le-
gends of the tribes, and in the study and de-
scriptions of their ceremonials. He retired
from the survey in 1891, on account of fail-
ing health, and devoted himself to the study
of the bibliography of American languages.
He had published, at the time of his death,
nine parts of his work on this subject, relating
to as many languages or families of languages
— a work which can not fail to be of great
value to future students.

Prof. Charles V. Riley, late chief of
the Bureau of Entomology, died in Washing-
ton, September 14th, from injuries received
while riding a bicycle. He was bora in Lon-
don in 1843, studied in France and Germany,
came to the United States in 1860, and set-
tled on a farm. He was afterward engaged
in editorial work ; served in the army during
the last year of the civil war ; and was ap-
pointed State Entomologist of Missouri in
1868. In 1877 he was made chief of the
United States Entomological Expedition sent
to investigate the Rocky Mountain locust.
Later he was placed in charge of the en-
tomological division of the Bureau of Agri-
culture. He was a prolific writer, chiefly of
entomological monographs. He received a
gold medal from the French Government for
his investigation of the phylloxera, and a
medal from the International Forestry Ex-
hibition at Edinburgh.

M. H. Baillon, the French botanist, who
died July 19th, was the author of a Botanical
Dictionary, and a History of Plants, which
have become standard works in their own
country. While he was not a member of
the Academy of Sciences, he had been elected
to the Royal Society.

One hundred and thirty-eight dollars
have been contributed at Princeton Uni-
versity, through Prof. J. Mark Baldwin, to-
ward the memorial to Prof. Helmholtz.

The death is announced of Dr. Hoppe
Seyler, for many years a professor in the
University of Tiibingen, and, since 1852,
Professor of Physiological and Pathological
Chemistry in the University of Strasburg.
He was born in 1825.

Prof. Louis Pasteur, the world-famous
investigator of germ diseases and on those
of the extended application of the system of
moculation as a remedy and preventive, died
at his home near St. Cloud, France, Septem-
ber 28th. He had been in a low condition
for some time as a result of the increasing
paralysis with which he had been afflicted,
but became suddenly worse on Friday even-
ing, the 27th, and suffered much from fre-
quent spasms until a few hours before his
death, when he became unconscious. A bio-
graphical sketch of M. Pasteur was given,
with a portrait, in The Popular Science
Monthly for March, 1882 (vol. xx, p. 883).

DAVID DALE OWEN.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MON^THLY.

DECEMBER, 1895.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C. L.,

0OBRE8PONDANT DB l'iNSTITUT DK TBANCE, ETC.

L— THE COMPARATIVELY RECENT TAX EXPERIENCES OF THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

BEFORE passing to the detailed consideration under proper
and consecutive subdivisions of the above subject, the writer
thinks it expedient to outline briefly the exceptional circumstances
under which his studies and investigations have been prosecuted ;
inasmuch, as apart from any expectation of consequent intelligent
criticism on his conclusions, a somewhat personal narration may
help to a better popular understanding of a great chapter in the
nation's fiscal experience, which, although without a parallel in all
history, has thus far received scant notice and little appreciation
on the part of economic writers and historians.

His first connection with economic and fiscal questions of pub-
lic import was through the publication, at the darkest financial
period of the war — 1864— of the results of an inquiry into the re-
sources and prospective debt-paying ability of the United States,
and bearing the title of Our Burden and Our Strength. This
essay, although first printed privately, was reprinted and circu-
lated by the Loyal Publication Society of New York, and, re-
ceiving the approbation of the Government, became one of the
current publications of the war period. Reprinted in different
sections of the country by loyal citizens, and also in repeated
instances in England, translated into French and German, it at-
tained a very large circulation ; in excess of two hundred thousand
copies. Coming also at a period when the nation was beginning
to be alarmed at the magnitude and prospective increase of its

VOL. XLTIII. — 10

146 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

public debt, and apprehensive of an impending crusbing burden
of taxation, its publication and circulation was instrumental in
restoring public confidence and maintaining the credit of the Gov-
ernment.

The attention of President Lincoln having been attracted to
this publication, he invited the author in early February, 1865, to
come to Washington and confer with him and Mr. Fessenden,
then Secretary of the Treasury, on the best methods of dealing,
after the termination of the war (then evidently near at hand),
with the enormous debt and burden of taxation that the war had
entailed upon the nation.* The result of this conference was, that
an amendment was added, at the last hours of the Thirty-eighth
Congress, to a bill " To provide Internal Revenue," and passed
March 3, 1865, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury " to ap-
point a commission of three persons to inquire and report at the
earliest practical moment on the subject of raising by taxation
such revenue as may be necessary to supply the wants of the
Government, having regard to and including the sources from
which such revenue should be drawn, and the best and most
effectual mode of raising the same." The commission was further
empowered " to inquire into the present and best methods of col-
lecting the revenue," and to take testimony. Of this commission
the writer was, unexpectedly to himself, appointed chairman by
the then Secretary of the Treasury — Hon. Hugh McCulloch —
after the assassination of the President, but in accordance with his
previously indicated wishes, f It was also deemed expedient that,
of the other members, one should be a representative of the agri-
cultural interests of the West, and the third a citizen of Pennsyl-
vania, the chairman being at the time a citizen of New York;
and in accordance with this view Mr. S. S. Hayes, who had distin-
guished himself as Comptroller of Chicago, and Mr. Stephen Col-
well, of Philadelphia, a gentleman of advanced age, and a success-
ful manufacturer of iron, who had written some years before the

* Mr. Lincoln opened the conference by remarking that, although the war was evidently
drawing to a close, he feared that great difiBculties were yet to be encountered through the
possible unwillingness or inability of the nation to pay the war debt, or the great increase
in taxation which the war had made necessary ; and followed this remark by asking if the
writer had anything to suggest on the subject. The offhand answer returned was, that the
best thing to be done was to have an examination made by competent persons of the re-
sources of the country and the best methods of making them available for meeting the ex-
penses of the Government through taxation. Turning to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
Lincoln remarked : " That's a pretty good idea, Fessenden, isn't it ? We'll think about it " ;
and as the hour (evening) was becoming late, the conference substantially soon ended.

\ The appointment was tmsolicited and unexpected, and Mr. Fessenden some years
afterward stated that when the composition of the commission was under consideration Mr.
Lincoln remarked that " he thought we had better let the young man who had suggested
the idea of it be at the head of it."

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION 147

war an able book entitled Ways and Means of Payment, a Full
Analysis of the Credit System, were selected. A word of retro-
spection is bere essential to an understanding of the situation.

If it be an axiom in political and social as well as physical and
natural science, that the first requisite for progress consists in the
correct observation and recording of phenomena, whereby old laws
or principles may be verified or extended and new ones discovered,
it would be difficult to imagine a field more fruitful for investiga-
tion and more promising of reward than the financial and indus-
trial experiences of the United States immediately anterior and
subsequent to the outbreak of the civil war — experiences which
had truly the character of vast social and political experiments,
made on a scale of magnitude rarely if ever before equaled ; for the
most part emphatically tentative in character, and affecting in
their results not only the growth, the income, and the industrial
pursuits of the nation directly and immediately concerned, but also
in a greater or less degree the trade and commerce of the whole
world.

At the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, the United States
was in the a.nomalous position of a great nation practically unen-
cumbered with a national or public debt. Excise, stamp, income,
license, and direct or general property taxes under the Federal
Government were absolutely unknown ; the expenses of a simple
and economical administration being defrayed almost entirely by
indirect taxes, levied in the form of a tariff on the importation of
foreign products or merchandise. In fact, the only other notice-
able source of national revenue was from the sale of public lands,
which, at a maximum price fixed by law of one dollar and a quar-
ter per acre, returned to the Treasury an average income of from
one to three millions of dollars per annum ; rising in a few in-
stances, during periods of wild speculation to six, fourteen, and
in one exceptional year (1836) to even twenty-four millions of
dollars.

The average rate of duties imposed on the aggregate value of
foreign importations during the thirty years immediately preced-
ing 1860 was about twenty per cent ; but for a portion of the time
the annual rate was much less, and for a number of years — 1834,
to 1843 and 1858 to 1861 inclusive — it was not in excess of fifteen
per cent.

But notwithstanding these limitations on the sources and
amount of income, the requirements of the national Government
for all purposes were so moderate that the receipts of its Treasury
continually tended to exceed its disbursements ; and the difficulty
which most frequently presented itself to its financial administra-
tors, was not the customary one in all other countries, of how to
avoid an annual deficit, but rather how to manage to escape an

148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

inconvenient but inevitable surplus. And it is a curious fact, and
one perhaps altogether unprecedented and almost unrecognized
in history, that from the years 1837 to 1857 there was rarely a sin-
gle fiscal year, in which the unexpended balance in the national
Treasury — derived from a few sources — at the end of the year,
was not in excess of one half of the total expenditure of the pre-
ceding year.*

To provide for the use, or rather to get rid of a continual sur-
plus, various plans were from time to time suggested. In one in-
stance the House of Representatives, on motion of Henry Clay (the
leading statesman of his day), seriously considered the question of
the expediency of the national Government becoming by purchase
and investment a partner in various stock corporations or enter-
prises; and pending any conclusion the surplus funds were de-
posited in the local or small State banks, with reiterated injunc-
tions " to loan liberally to merchants."

In 1836, the unexpended cash balance in the Treasury of the
United States reported as available for public purposes, being
$65,723,959— $46,001,467 of which was on deposit in ninety-one
different State banks — Congress (by act of June 23d of that year)
appropriated the sum of $37,468,859 for distribution among the
States ; of which $27,063,430 was officially certified in September,
1837, as having been actually paid. Most of the States applied the
amount apportioned to them for educational purposes. Others
used it differently and less wisely: Massachusetts, for example,
dividing her share proportionally among her towns and cities,
where it was expended at the discretion of the local authorities ;
in one instance, in a small fishing town, for the construction of
walks on the sands for the benefit of pedestrians ; and in others
for the purchase of houses and lands for the use and settlement
of the town's poor.

As might have been expected under such circumstances, fiscal
and economic subjects were during the period under considera-
tion, those that least of all attracted the attention of the Ameri-
can people. Few books or essays on such topics were either writ-
ten or read, while the continually increasing agitation and interest
respecting the existence or extension of negro slavery furnished

* During the decade from 1821 to 1831 the average ordinary annual expenditures of
the United States were $12,390,000, or at the rate of %\.0l per capita of its whole popu-
lation.

From 1831 to 1841, $24,740,000, or $1.61 joer capita.

From 1841 to 1851, $33,760,000, or $1.63 joer capita.

From 1861 to 1861, $57,870,000, or %'iM per capita.

For the year 1894 the total expenditures of the Federal Government, as officially re-
ported, were $442,605,758, or $6.08 per capita of the entire population of the country ; or
$4.50 less expenditure for pensions.

FEINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 149

the never-ending and predominant theme for discussion alike to
the press, the politicians, the pulpit. Congress, and the local legis-
latures. There had been, indeed, fierce discussions and political
divisions in 1836-'38 respecting the organization and manage-
ment of banks, and the establishment of a national bank ; and in
1840-'41 and 1846, respecting the construction and adjustment of
the tariff, and the principles of free trade and protection. But
during the decade from 1850 to 1860 all of these questions were
generally regarded as old-time issues, and by the generation that
then had control of the business and government of the country
were both substantially ignored and forgotten ; and it was dur-
ing the latter years of this period, or from 1851 to 1860, that the
comparative growth and progress attained by every department
of American trade, commerce, and industry was greater than for
any corresponding period either before or since, in the history of
the nation. During the same decade the increase in population
of the country was returned at 35*59 per cent, its increase in
wealth at 126*4 per cent, and the average of property to each in-
dividual at $510. In short, it would be difficult to find a more
happy illustration of the influence of the " noninterference " or
" nonobstructive " policy of a government with the trade, com-
merce, and industry of a highly civilized and active people, than
the condition of the United States at that time afforded.

That the country, viewed from a politico- economic standpoint,
was at this time in all respects what it should or might have
been, is not, however, asserted. The institution of slavery, deny-
ing to over four millions of human beings the freedom of the
person, the right to real property, and the blessings of education,
was tolerated and supported by law. The paper and ordinary cur-
rency of the country, neglected by the General Government, and
issued by local banks under almost as many different systems as
there were States in the Union, was as defective as could be well
imagined, and often necessitated a rate of exchange between
the different sections of the country which was equal to or in
excess of the current rates of interest at the principaL commer-
cial centers.

But notwithstanding these drawbacks the people in general
were highly prosperous. Pauperism, apart from the large cities,
was almost unknown; wealth was very equitably distributed;
while the opportunities for elementary education were free, and
in all the more densely populated portions of the country amply
provided. In short, the prosperity of the people was so great,
through the utilization of their natural resources, their activity,
and the continued influx of the population and capital of other
countries, that it constituted in itself an obstacle to reform ; and
the nation at large may be said to have actually preferred to en-

150 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dure the various economic and social evils incident to their situa-
tion rather than devote time to their consideration and meet the
grave political issues consequent upon any change or reforma-
tion. What would have happened ? what would have been the
economic and social condition of the United States, had not the
people of its southern section appealed to the arbitrament of the
sword in the matter of slavery and consented to its peaceful
abolition,* constitutes a most curious and interesting theme for
speculation. Certainly it would have been something without
precedent in the world's former experience.

It was with such antecedents and under such conditions, that
the nation found itself in the early months of 1861 suddenly and
unexpectedly involved in a gigantic civil war, in which its very
existence was threatened by the uprising of at least a third of its
population against the legitimate and regularly constituted Gov-
ernment. The most urgent and important requirement of the
Federal Government at the outset was revenue. Men in excess of
any immediate necessity volunteered for service in the army, but
to equip and supply even such as were needed precipitated an
avalanche of expenditure upon the Treasury. To meet these finan-
cial requirements there was on the part of the Government neither
money, credit, nor any adequate system of raising revenue by
taxation ; the previous reliable supply of revenue from the cus-
toms having at the most critical period, through the diminution
of imports consequent upon the political disturbances, become
subject to a serious and ominous impairment ; while the money
returns from all sources, other than loans, for the year 1862 were
only $2,867,057. For this latter year the total ordinary receipts
of revenue of the Government were but $51,919,000, and its ex-
penditures $456,379,000.

At the outset it was assumed that the war would be short, and
that the expenditures of the Government could be met by the
agency of loans and an issue of paper money, the detailed history
of which, although not yet familiar to the American public, is not
directly pertinent to the subject under consideration, and would
require a separate essay for its presentation in any degree of full-
ness. All direct or internal taxation was accordingly for a time
avoided; there having been apparently an apprehension on the
part of Congress that inasmuch as the people had never been
accustomed to it, and as all machinery for assessment and collec-
tion was wholly wanting, its adoption would create popular dis-
content, and thereby interfere with a vigorous prosecution of
hostilities. Congress accordingly confined itself at first to the

* Subsequent events have made it clear that with the continuance of slavery the devel-
opment of the nation must have been greatly retarded.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 151

enactment of measures looking to an increase of revenue from
the increase of indirect taxes upon imports, and it was not until
four months after the actual outbreak of hostilities that a direct
tax of twenty million dollars was apportioned among the States,
and an income tax of three per cent on all incomes in excess of
eight hundred dollars was authorized, the first being made to take
effect practically eight and the second ten months after date of
enactment. Such laws, of course, became operative in the loyal
States only, and produced but comparatively little revenue ; and
although the sphere of taxation was soon extended, the aggregate
receipts from all sources by the Government for the third year
of the war — from excise, income, stamps, and all other internal
and direct taxes — was less than forty million dollars, and that too
at a time when the expenditures were in excess of sixty million
dollars per month, or at the rate of more than seven hundred
million dollars per annum. And as showing how novel was this
whole system of direct and internal taxation to the people, and
how completely the Government officials were lacking in all ex-
perience in respect to it, the following incident may be cited :
The Secretary of the Treasury in his report for 1863 stated that
with a view of determining his resources he had employed a very
competent person, with the aid of practical men, to estimate the
probable amount of revenue to be derived from each department
of internal taxation for the current year. The estimate arrived
at was eighty-five million dollars, but the actual receipts were
less than forty million— $37,640,787.

The people of the loyal States were, however, more determined
and earnest in respect to this matter of taxation and revenue than
were their rulers, and everywhere the one opinion expressed was,
that taxation in all its forms should immediately, and to the
largest extent, be made effective and imperative. And Congress,
spurred up by and rightfully relying on public sentiment to sus-
tain its action, at last resolutely took up the matter, and devised,
or rather drifted into, a system of internal taxation which for its
universality and peculiarities has no parallel in anything which
had theretofore been recorded in civil history, or is likely to be
thereafter.

The great necessity of the situation was revenue, and to obtain
it speedily and in large amounts through taxation was the only
principle recognized (if it can be called a principle), and was akin
to that recommended to the traditionary Irishman on his first
visit to Donnybrook Fair : " Wherever you see a head, hit it ! "
Wherever you find an article, a product, a trade, a profession, a
sale, or a source of income, tax it ! And so an edict went forth to
this effect, and the people cheerfully submitted. Incomes under
five thousand dollars were taxed five per cent, with an exemption

152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of five hundred dollars and house rent actually paid. Incomes
in excess of five thousand dollars and not in excess of ten thou-
sand dollars were taxed two and a half per cent in addition, and
incomes over ten thousand dollars, five per cent additional, with-
out any allowance or exemptions whatever. Nearly every indus-
trial product was taxed. Cotton was taxed at the rate of two
cents per pound; salt, six cents per hundred pounds; tobacco,
from fifteen to thirty-five cents per pound; cigars, from three
to forty dollars per thousand ; sugar, from two to three cents and
a half per pound. Distilled spirits were taxed progressively ; first
at twenty cents, and finally at two dollars per proof gallon.

But the most curious and complex taxes were those imposed
on the various products of what may be termed ordinary manu-
facturing industry — a tax, by intent or construction, being first
imposed on the raw material, and then on the total or increased
value, according to circumstances, of each successive stage of its
elaboration up to the finished product. And, as if this was not
enough, every manufacturer was compelled to take out an annual
license, while the goods produced, if sold by dealers or agents
independent of the manufacturers, were subject to an additional
tax of one tenth of one per cent, reckoned upon the amount of
sales. This tax upon manufactures and products, with the excep-
tion of a few articles, was at first fixed, in 1864, at an average of
five per cent ; but in 1865 the rate was increased twenty per cent,
making the tax for most articles six per cent.

Under the operation of this system the Government actually
levied and collected on many articles of finished industrial prod-
ucts a tax of six per cent, the effect of which may be thus illus-
trated : Many manufacturing establishments sold products an-
nually to three times the amount of their invested capital. If the
capital invested was one hundred thousand dollars and the sales
three hundred thousand, the tax on that business was eighteen
thousand dollars, or eighteen per cent on the cost of the establish-
ment.

The sales of its products by a manufacturing establishment are,
however, no indication of its profits. It may make and sell to the
amount of a million dollars without making a dollar of profit,
but that, under the law, was no reason for the nonassessment and
noncollection of a tax of sixty thousand dollars on the value of
the product represented by its sales.

Again, the effect of the tax on every stage of elaboration of a
manufactured product may be illustrated by a great variety of
actual examples. Thus, in the case of the manufacture of um-
brellas and parasols, it was shown that separate taxes were paid,
first, on the sticks or supporting rods ; then upon the handles, if
carved or turned separately, of bone, wood, or ivory ; then, in like

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 153

manner, upon the brass runners, the tips, the ribs, the cloth com-
posing the cover, the elastic band which fastened the cover when
closed, the rubber of which the band was composed,, the button to
which it was attached ; and finally upon the umbrella itself, when
the separate parts were aggregated, and thereby converted into a
finished product. And if any of the constituents of the umbrella
— as the ivory, the silk, or the metal — were of foreign production,
the same were subjected on coming into the country to an import
duty in addition.

In the case of books and pamphlets, it was proved by the New
York Publishers' Association that, including the license and in-
come taxes, the finished book and its constituent materials paid
from fifteen to twenty separate and distinct taxes before it
came to the reader — the paper and its constituents, the cloth, the
glue, the starch, the leather, the slaughtered animal whence the
hide furnishing the leather was obtained, the dyes with which
the cloth or leather was colored or stained, the thread, the gold
leaf, the type metal, the type, and the printing machinery ; and
then, when the whole was combined, the finished book paid an
additional tax of six per cent, which was levied not upon the cost
of manufacture but upon the price at which the book was sold.
In addition to all these taxes, the manufacturer or publisher paid
for the privilege of doing business an annual license tax, and an in-
come tax of from five to ten per cent on his profits, if he had any.

In short, it was as if a frontier line had been drawn about each
individual article or product in the nation, across which nothing
could pass without being submitted to an exaction.

Besides these taxes on manufactured products of the character
specified, a tax of from three to six per cent was imposed on re-
pairs when the value of the article repaired was increased by the
reason of the repairs to the extent of ten per cent ; and a further
tax of six per cent on what was termed " increased values," or the
additional value given to any article, which had either paid an
import or internal tax, by being "polished, painted, varnished,
waxed, gilded, oiled, electrotyped, galvanized, plated, framed,
ground, pressed, colored, dyed, trimmed, or ornamented."

The examples of difficult and nice adjudication experienced
in enforcing these two classes of taxes are so curious as to justify
somewhat more than a passing notice. Thus, if a worker in tin
or iron made a stove at one hour and in the next hour repaired a
stove to the extent of more than ten per cent of its value, he paid
on the product of his first hour's work a tax of six per cent, and
on his second three per cent. In like manner, a blacksmith making
a taxable article, and then repairing one exactly like it, was liable
to the payment of the two classes of taxes ; and the theory of the
law, furthermore, was that both the tinsmith and the blacksmith

VOL. XLVIIl. — 11

154 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

kept a separate and distinct account of their different transac-
tions. Again, if a worker in wood repaired a wheelbarrow worth
one dollar, and by so doing added ten cents to its value, the in-
creased value was taxable. But if, on the other hand, he repaired
a carriage or pianoforte worth five hundred dollars, no tax ac-
crued unless the value of the repairs exceeded ten per cent, or
fifty dollars. The following absurd case was presented for adju-
dication under these statutes :

A wheelwright repaired a carriage to the extent of eight per
cent. The owner then passed it successively to a blacksmith, a
painter, and an upholsterer, neither of whom added repairs to
the extent of ten per cent, or knew the value of previous repairs
or the value of the carriage before it was repaired. The question
then was, shall the repairs, however extensive, go untaxed, or
shall the owner be taxed ? The construction of the law was,
that the tax must be assessed on the manufacturer, or persons re-
ceiving pay for the work, and that the owner could not be the
manufacturer unless he furnished the materials, in whole or in
part, for making the repairs ; and then the further question arose,
whether the subject of repair in the shape of the old carriage fur-
nished by the owner was a material for making the repair, and
thus constituted the owner a manufacturer, and as such liable to
taxation.

In another case the question came up whether the publishers
residing in one assessment district and having their books printed
and bound by contract in another, were to be regarded as manu-
facturers of the books ; or whether the printers and binders who
executed the work were to be so regarded and taxed. And in two
instances, in two contiguous districts in the State of Massachu-
setts, the law was interpreted in both ways, or in one way in one
district and another way in another district ; and the parties in-
terested submitted rather than incur the trouble and expense of
contesting the matter before the courts.

In fact, it is safe to say that no more complicated and absurd
questions have ever seriously occupied the minds of educated
men since the discussions of the schoolmen in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries (as, for example, as to how many angels could
stand at once on the point of a fine needle), than were evolved
from the tax system of the United States during and for some
time after the war period.

We have said that the people of the United States submitted
to such a system. They did more. For such was the fervor of
patriotism and the determination to push the war to a successful
issue, that they rejoiced in it ; and during the continuance of hos-
tilities there was no movement or protest against the system which
found any notable response among the masses. The country was

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

5?

rich, and its accnmulated resources had not for two generations
been subjected by either the national or state governments to
extraordinary taxation. Wealth, moreover, was very uniformly
distributed, and the people pointed with pride to the annually
increasing receipts of revenue under the new system ; which, start-
ing with $41,000,000 of internal revenue in 1863, rose rapidly to
$117,000,000 in 1864, $211,000,000 in 1865, and culminated in 1866
with the large sum of $310,000,000, making the total revenue for
that year, drawn from all sources by so-called taxation, $559,000,-
000, the largest sum previously contributed in any one year for
the support of any Government by the free consent of its people.
So long, moreover, as the war lasted, the attempts to evade
taxation by illicit methods were exceptional and in amount incon-
siderable. The demand for most manufactured and agricultural
products, owing to the enormous consumption of the armies and
the withdrawal of labor from its accustomed vocations by en-
listments, was fully equal to or in excess of supply. Prices rose
rapidly with every increasing taxation or additional issues of
paper money,* and under such circumstances the fiscal require-
ments of the war were not regarded by the majority of producers
as oppressive. But, on the contrary, counting the taxes as elements
of cost and reckoning profit as a percentage of the whole cost, it
was generally the case that the aggregate profits of the producer
were actually enhanced by reason of the taxes, to an extent con-
siderably greater than they would have been had no taxes what-
ever been collected. Indeed, it was not infrequently the case that
the manufacturers themselves were the most strenuous advo-
cates for continued and rapidly increasing taxation, with a view
of realizing thereby, through an advance in prices, large additional
profits on products, or constituents of products, previously assessed
or imported at lower rates of (customs) duties, and to bring about
such advances influence and money were used without scruple.

* Among the absurd theories put forth in justification of an extravagant issue of (irre-
deemable) paper money was a favorite one, that such a policy was a matter of necessity to
make money easy, in order that the securities (bonds) representing Government loans
should be easily floated ; the one uppermost idea in the heads of the Government oflScials
having been, apparently, that in the floating thus contrived, the bonds alone would possess
the property of buoyancy. But in this they were mistaken. The bonds indeed floated, but
everything else floated with them ; or, to borrow the language of a writer of the period (who
criticised this experience from the humorous point of view), " the bonds were floated, but
by just about the same operation as that by which things are floated in the suburbs of a
town or city submerged in a heavy freshet — hencoops floated, cellars floated, streets floated,
barge houses and outhouses floated, stray children and first floors floated, all creation floated
and floated together." The market for five-twenties was made easy, the market for flour,
beef, cotton, and military stores, of which the Government was compelled to purchase im-
mense quantities, was made particularly easy. The whole country was put under water and
remained so for a considerable period after the war terminated.

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tlius, in the case of distilled spirits, the taxation was advanced
in successive years from twenty cents per gallon to sixty cents, next
to a dollar and fifty cents, and finally to two dollars per gallon, and
in each of these instances, and particularly after the imposition of
the first two and lowest rates, the distillers and speculators reck-
oned, with a great degree of certainty, that a further large ad-
vance would be enacted, and that the new law would not be made
retroactive or applicable to spirits distilled and assessed pre-
viously and at lower rates. In this they were not disappointed,
for Congress, under the influences to which it was subjected, did
virtually legislate in each instance in the manner expected, and
thus gave occasion for the realization of profits in strict conformity
with law by the holders of stocks made in anticipation of the sev-
eral advances, which can not be estimated at a less aggregate than
one hundred millions of dollars. Thus, the evidence before the
United States Revenue Commission in 1865-'66 showed that there
was on the 1st of January, 1864, a stock of tax-paid distilled
spirits, made in anticipation of an increased tax, sufficient to meet
all the requirements of the country for a period of six months,
and on each gallon of this quantity, a profit or revenue, which did
not accrue to the Government, of from sixty cents to a dollar and
forty cents per gallon was realized. And yet, with this lesson of
costly experience before it, the Fifty- third Congress, in advancing
the tax on distilled spirits from ninety cents to a dollar and ten
cents per gallon, afforded again such facilities to distillers and
speculators, for anticipating such advance, as to legislate into
their pockets at least ten millions of dollars.

In the case of cotton, which advanced mainly by reason of
conditions affecting its production or distribution, it was shown
by actual calculation, in respect to one manufacturing corpora-
tion in New England, that if they had at the commencement of
the war burned their mills, lost their insurance, and sunk their
capital other than was invested in cotton, and had subsequently
sold their cotton at the highest price obtainable in place of manu-
facturing it, the result would have afforded to the stockholders
an annuity of at least twelve per cent on their original invest-
ments.

How much the cost of the war and its expression in the form
of debt, were unnecessarily increased by this state of affairs, has
not until very recently been taken into account by writers on the
fiscal history of this period, and probably can not be accurately
estimated. But the following data throw great light on the sub-
ject : Thus, assuming the general average of prices in the loyal
States of the Union before the war, or, more precisely, in 1860, at
100, the average from 1860 to 1865 was 18671. But for the last
year of the war, or in 1865, it was 216*81, and it was during this

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 157

latter period of greatest increase in prices tliat tlie heaviest pur-
chases were made by the Government on account of munitions
and supplies. The increased cost of the war by reason of this in-
crease in the price of commodities, which in turn may be in a
great degree attributed to the use of irredeemable paper money
invested with legal-tender quality, has been estimated * at over a
thousand millions of dollars, and the interest on this increased
cost, another equal sum. By so much, furthermore, as these sup-
plies and other necessaries of life were increased in price through
the depreciation of the currency, those who rendered personal
service in the army and navy were deprived of what ought to
have been the purchasing power of the payments made to them
by the Government for such service.

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

By Prof. G. FREDERICK WRIGHT.

THE doubt which lingers in the minds of many concerning
the sufficiency of the evidence for the existence of man in
America during the Glacial period is so great, and has been so in-
dustriously fomented in certain quarters, that special interest has
been manifested in a fresh discovery recently brought to light in
Ohio. The discovery consists of a chipped chert implement, one
inch and three quarters long and three quarters of an inch wide
in its broadest part, with a projecting shoulder upon one edge,
giving to it the character of what, in aboriginal usage, would be
called a knife. The implement was found a mile and a half be-
low Brilliant Station on the Ohio River, six miles from Steu-
benville, Ohio. In view of recent doubts upon the subject, it is
necessary to give special attention to the evidence in three par-
ticulars : 1. The competence and character of the discoverer.
2. The facilities for noting the undisturbed condition of the
gravel in which the implement lay. 3. The evidence that the
gravel is of glacial age.

1. The Competence and Character of the Discoverer. — Mr. Sam
Huston, the discoverer, is a graduate of the Scientific Department
of Washington and Jefferson College, and has for twenty years or
more been the county surveyor of Jefferson County, Ohio, resid-
ing at Steubenville. Having charge of the public improvements
of the county, especially of the construction of the turnpikes, his
familiarity with the topography, and especially with the gravel
deposits along the river terraces, extensively resorted to for road-

* Edward Atkinson.

158

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

building and ballast for railroads, is as intimate as it is possible
for any one's to be. But in connection with the engrossing occupa-

Fio. 1. — Talcs rbmoved, so as to show the <>ki(un-al «'()ni)iti'>n of thk \'\\ .\ I'kw Feet

BACK FROM THE PlACE WHERE THE IMPLEMENT WAS FOUND, WHICH IS MARKED BY A *.

tions of his public business, Mr. Huston has maintained his love
for pure science, and his valuable aid has been solicited by numer-
ous scientific men engaged in making paleontological collections.
It was Mr. Huston who discovered for Prof. Samuel H. Scudder
the fossil insects of the coal measures which attracted so much
attention two or three years ago. Prof. Cope has likewise been
greatly indebted to Mr. Huston for fossils collected by him in the
neighborhood of Steubenville. The evidence, therefore, is not that
of either an unknown or an inexperienced observer.

2. The Discovery. — This I will give in Mr. Huston's own lan-
guage, written out for me at my request.

" Prof. G. F. Wright. " Steubenville, Ohio, August 13, 1895.

" My Dear Sir : Below Brilliant, Jefferson County, Ohio, is a
very fine remnant of high-level river terrace. Its length is two
miles and maximum width over a quarter of a mile. On the West
Virginia side of the Ohio River at that point the bluffs rise to a

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 159

height of over three hundred feet, directly from the water at
ordinary level. On the Ohio side there is a flood-plain from fifty
to one hundred yards wide and from twenty -to thirty feet above
low water. Along the west side of this flood-plain is located the
river division of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad, along the
foot of the high-level terrace. This terrace ranges from sixty-five
to eighty feet above low water. Excavations in this terrace to a
depth of forty-three feet show it to consist of interstratified sand,
fine gravel, and clay in small quantities, all with rare exceptions
cross-bedded. Coarse gravel is found at the top of the terrace ;
but, except for two or three feet on top, only rare pieces of gravel
occur of more than one half cubic inch in size. Two small ravines
cut through the terrace at Brilliant. A mile below these, Block
House Run, and a mile and a half below, Riddle^s Run cut through
the terrace down to the flood-plain of the river. Otherwise the
surface of the terrace is a plain. A half mile of turnpike was
built on it, in which the original surface varied less than two feet.

Fig. 2. — Gknkkal View of the Abandoned Gravel Pit.

Indian mounds and intrusive burials occur at numerous places on
the terrace, but the stratification and cross-bedding of the sands
and gravels of it are such that intrusive burials or excavations
can not be made without leaving evidence so distinct as to be

i6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

readily seen, and at the face of an excavation a slip or talus is
easily detected.

" Over three yea»rs ago a sandpit was worked in this terrace
at its southern extremity, below Riddle's Run. While the exca-
vation was being made, and at a noon hour, I found a plainly
marked but rude flint implement imbedded in the freshly exposed
face of the stratified sand and gravel, under about eight feet of
undisturbed cross-bedded stratification, onlj the point of the im-
plement showing on the perpendicular face of the excavation.
The condition of .the stratification in all of the superincumbent
eight feet, which was closely examined by me, was such as to
convince me that the implement was not intrusive, but had been
deposited with the remainder of the material of the terrace. The
condition of the face of the excavation above the find is fairly,
but not as clearly as would be desired, shown by the photograph
taken by Mr. Doyle of the now abandoned sandpit where the find
was made, where slips and talus cover the face.

"Sam Huston."

.3. Glacial Age of the Oravel. — In company with Mr. Huston,
Mr. Joseph B. Doyle, and Mr. Frederick C MacClave (to whom
I am indebted for the photographs and many other favors) I
visited the abandoned pit where the implement was found, and
studied carefully the situation, and can add my testimony to the
correctness of the above description so far as it goes. But a gen-
eral discussion of the questions relating to these gravel terraces
is essential for the information of the general reader.

As shown in the accompanying illustration, the Ohio River
occupies a narrow valley which might almost be called a gorge,
which it has eroded in the nearly parallel strata of the coal
measures to an average depth of about three hundred feet. This
gorge is continuous from Louisville, in Kentucky, to the head-
waters of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, a distance of
more than twelve hundred miles. All the tributaries of the river
occupy gorges of similar depth. This erosion has evidently taken
place with considerable rapidity consequent upon an elevation of
the continent at the close of the Tertiary period, giving a steep
gradient to streams which, during the most of the Tertiary period,
had been very sluggish. The evidence of this is seen in ther nar-
rowness of the gorge and in the gentleness of the slope above the
three-hundred-foot line.

Along the three-hundred-foot level there is a line of rock
shelves which contain a shallow deposit of loam and pebbles.
This is very conspicuous on the Alleghany River and for some
distance below Pittsburg, but rather less so as far down as Steu-
benville. Still, those high-level deposits are clearly marked there

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 161

on both sides of the river. The most significant thing about these
high-level terrace deposits is that they contain granitic pebbles,
which are a sure indication that the deposit is postglacial ; for
none of the tributaries of the Ohio River have access to granite
rock, except as fragments have been brought over from Canada
by the glacial movement and deposited within their reach.

A sharp discussion concerning the age of the gravel upon
these high rock shelves is in progress. On the one hand, Prof. T.
C. Chamberlin contends that there have been two glacial periods ;
that the first period came on before the elevation of land which
led to the erosion of the rock gorge, and that therefore this ero-
sion is wholly interglacial, and is evidence of the lapse of an
extremely long time between the two periods. On the contrary,
I have maintained that the evidence of two distinct glacial
periods was insufiicient, and have regarded the erosion of this

Fig. 3. — Section of the Trough of the Ohio at Brilliant.
Location of the implement shown by a *.

inner rock gorge as preglacial — that is, as having been effected
during the progress of that long period of late Tertiary elevation
which culminated in the Glacial period. On this view of the
case, the deposits of glacial gravel upon the three-hundred-foot
rock shelf have been produced partly by an extensive filling up
of the Alleghany gorge as far as Pittsburg and somewhat below,
and lower down by the effect of the Cincinnati ice-dam, which set
back the water up to this level, and is sufiicient to account for
many of the facts. Under this view these high-level deposits
would coincide approximately with what Dana calls the " Cham-
plain epoch," during which there was considerable depression of
land at the north, the influence of which may have been felt as
far south as the latitude of Pittsburg.

But whatever may be the difference of opinion about the age
of these high-level gravels, there is no disagreement about the
glacial character and relatively late age of the lower terraces
along the Ohio River such as occur at Steubenville and Brilliant.
The rock gorge extends on the average a hundred feet below the
present bottom of the river, having been filled up originally by
gravel not only to that extent, but to the level of the terrace in
which the implement was found. That this extensive deposition

l62

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of gravel in the old rock gorge is connected with the Glacial
period is clearly shown by the fact that these lower terraces can
be followed up the banks of every stream which comes out of the
glaciated region to the old ice border, where they emerge into the
moraines which were deposited directly by the ice. This is shown
in our map, on which a small portion of the glaciated area ap-
pears with Big Beaver and Little Beaver Creeks flowing out from
it. The gravel terraces at Brilliant and Steuben ville are shown

40 30

Fig. 4. — Map of Middle Ohio River Region.
Glaciated area, shaded. Terraces shown by dots.

on this, together with other remnants of this terrace farther up
the river.

Only those streams which rise in the glaciated area have such
terraces. The contrast between the Monongahela and the Alle-
ghany in this respect is very marked. The Alleghany River
throughout its course was gorged with this glacial gravel, but
the Monongahela River neither had the gravel within reach nor
the floods of water coming from the melting ice to distribute it if
it had been within reach, therefore the gravel terraces are absent.

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 163

The nortlierii tributaries of the Ohio had hoth these advantages
(or disadvantages), and therefore they have the terraces. On the
Ohio these are always larger and higher where a tributary conies
in from the glaciated region to the north, as, for example, at the
mouth of Big Beaver Creek, where the terrace is a hundred and
thirty feet above low- water mark. But down the river the sup-
ply of gravel diminished, and the terrace becomes correspondingly
lower, being at Steuben ville and Brilliant only seventy or eighty
feet above low water.

I have personally examined every stream emerging from the
glaciated area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River,
and can testify that everywhere substantially the same system of
gravel terraces marks them as that which characterizes the Ohio
and its tributaries. Without doubt they were formed during the
closing stage of the period, when both great torrents of water and
vast deposits of glacial debris were periodically released by the
melting ice sheet.

So far as direct evidence is concerned in estimating the age of
implements in these terraces, it relates to the question whether or
not they have been found in undisturbed strata of the original
terrace. If they are so found they are as old as the deposition of
the gravel which took place in glacial times ; for since that period
of deposition the action of the present river has been confined to
eroding an inner channel, such as is shown in Fig. 3, and to work-
ing over the gravel within the limits of its own flood-plain. No
disturbances by present floods could affect the gravel of the
eighty-foot terrace. That has remained constant from the time
of its original deposition.

The direct evidence, therefore, regarding this implement would
seem to be as clear and positive as it is possible to be. Relying
upon the strength of this, I took the implement to the meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science at
Springfield, Mass., in August last with great confidence. Nor was
this misplaced. On being submitted, at a joint meeting of the
Geological and Anthropological Sections, to Prof. F. W. Putnam,
Mr. F. H. Gushing, Miss Alice Fletcher, and others, the corrobo-
rative indications of its antiquity were readily and emphatically
recognized.

Prof. Putnam remarked upon the distinctness with which it
retained the patina indicative of the conditions in which it is said
to have been found, and said without hesitation that the imple-
ment in itself bore evidence of being a relic of great antiquity.

Mr. Gushing remarked that there could be no question that it
was a finished implement, and not a " reject " ; and that not only
had it been finished by careful chipping all along the edge, but
it had been finished twice, having been at least once resharpened

64

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon its cutting edge ; and, what is of special significance, that it
had been sharpened not by the more modern processes, described
by the speaker in a previous paper, in which the chips were
broken from the edge by pressing against it with a piece of bone,
but by the older process of striking against the edge with another
stone. The type of the implement also was pronounced by Mr.
Gushing to be the earliest known, although from the convenience
of the form it has always continued in use. It was one, however,
which appeared at the very dawn of human development.

Thus the circumstantial evidence connected with the imple-
ment itself confirms in a remarkable degree the direct evidence
respecting it. And it deserves to be placed, as it doubtless will

Fig. 5. — Face View
OF THK Implement.

Fig. 6.— Face View.

Fig. 7. — Diagonal View
OF Shakpened Edge.

be, among the most important discoveries heretofore made con-
necting man with the Glacial period.

In closing, I can not refrain from a few remarks concerning
the conditions of life at that period, especially since the prolonged
visits which I have made to the retreating ice front in Alaska
and in Greenland have rendered it so much easier for me to believe
in glacial man than it would have been without those experi-
ences. The neighborhood of the ice border during the Glacial
period was probably not an uncomfortable place In which to live.
Even in Greenland, where there is no timber, the Eskimos manage
to live in a great degree of comfort, and that too with no imple-
ments but those of stone and bone which they have made with
their own hands. The importation of firearms and of iron imple-
ments has been of doubtful advantage to the Eskimos. From all
accounts, they flourished better before their contact with Euro-
peans than they have since.

Substantially the same may be said of the tribes in Alaska.
There the conditions are in one respect even more closely similar
to those which existed on the Delaware and Ohio Rivers where
the remains of glacial man have been found in America. Like

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 165

southeastern Alaska, the Delaware and Ohio Valleys were densely
covered with forests. Of this we have abundant evidence in the
numerous trunks of trees which were overwhelmed by the ad-
vancing ice and buried in its debris all along the^ margin of the
glaciated area in Ohio. It was, therefore, easily within the reach
of men as intelligent as the Eskimos to maintain a comfortable
existence in the valley of the Ohio when the continental glacier
had expanded to its farthest extent. He did not need to resort to
caverns for shelter, since the forests furnished him with the readi-
est means for protection.

When we reflect, also, upon the completeness with which the
habitations of the modern Indian have disappeared, we need not
be surprised at the total disappearance of the habitations of gla-
cial men. Nor is it strange that well-accredited discoveries of his
implements have so rarely been made in the undisturbed gravel
which gives us the surest evidence of his great antiquity. Natu-
rally, the cautious inhabitant of that time would have been some-
what careful about venturing down into the river valleys, whose
terrific and periodical floods were depositing the terrace gravel,
and, even though the imbedded implements were much more nu-
merous than they are, they would be relatively so few in propor-
tion to the great mass of material that the chances of finding one
in place would be extremely small. I have looked in vain for
implements in the extensive gravel pits on the Chelles and the
Somme in France, and so have the majority of archaeologists who
have visited those famous localities. M. Reinach, the Curator of
the Museum de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, has well said that one
can hope personally to make discoveries of implements in place,
as he would like to do, only by transforming himself into a hermit
and settling down for a series of years to observe the face of the
terraces where public excavations are in progress.

Meanwhile the chance discoveries by competent observers who
are on the ground should be accorded their full value. Such
discoveries in this country, made by Dr. C. L. Metz at Madison-
ville, W. C. Mills at Newcomerstown, Mr. Huston at Brilliant
—all of which are well attested in Ohio— and by Dr. C. C. Ab-
bott and Profs. Putnam, Carr, and Whitney in the glacial terrace
at Trenton, N. J., form a cumulative mass of evidence which can
not well be resisted. So considered, the clear testimony of the
ancient chipped knife discovered by Mr. Huston at Brilliant, Ohio,
must go far to close the question of man^s antiquity on the west-
ern continent, and to dispel the doubts upon the subject which,
for one reason or another, have heretofore existed.

i66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.

XIIL— UNDER LAW.

By JAMES SULLY, M.A.,LL.D.,

GKOTK PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,

LONDON.

(6) ON THE SIDE OF LAW.

IN the previous chapters we studied the child as the antagonist
of law. It is evident, however, that his ^relation to law pre-
sents another aspect. Thus a good deal of the early criticism of
parental government, so far from implying rejection of all rule,
plainly implies its acceptance. Some of the earliest and bitterest
protests against interference are directed against what looks to
the child exceptional or irregular. He is allowed, for example,
for some time to use a pair of scissors as a plaything, and is then
suddenly deprived of it, his mother having now first discovered
the unsuitability of the plaything. In such a case the passionate
outburst, the long, bitter protest, attest the sense of injustice, the
violation of custom and unwritten law. Again, the keen, resent-
ful opposition of the child to the look of anything like unfairness
and partiality in parental government shows that he has a jealous
feeling of regard for the universality and the inviolateness of
law. Much, too, of the criticism dealt with above reveals a funda-
mental acknowledgment of law — at least for the purposes of the
argument. Thus the very attempt to establish an excuse, a justi-
fication, may be said to be a tacit admission that if the action had
been done as alleged it would have been naughty and deserving
of punishment. In truth, the small person's challengings of the
modus operandi of his mother's rule just because they are often
in a true sense ethical, clearly start from the assumption of rules,
and of the distinction of right and wrong.

This of itself shows that there are compliant as well as non-
compliant tendencies in the child toward law and toward authority
so far as this is lawful. We may now pass to other parts of a
child's behavior which help to make more clear the existence of
such law-abiding impulses.

And here we may set out with those reactions of something like
remorse which often follow disobedience and punishment in the
first tender years. These may at the outset be little more than
physical reactions due to the exhaustion of the passionate out-
burst. But they soon begin to show traces of other feelings. A
child in disgrace, before he has a clear moral feeling of shame,
suffers through a sense of estrangement, of loneliness, of self-re-
striction. If the habitual relation between mother and child is a

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 167

loving and happy one, the situation becomes exceedingly painful.
The pride and obstinacy notwithstanding, the culprit feels that
he is cut off from more than one half of his life, that his beautiful
world is laid in ruins. The same little boy who said, " I'd be a
worser mother,'' when four years and nine months old remarked
to his mother that if he could say what he liked to God 'twould
be, " Love me when I'm naughty." I think one can hardly con-
ceive of a more eloquent testimony to the suffering of the child in
the lonesome, loveless state of punishment.

Is there any analogue of our sense of remorse in this early suf-
fering ? The question of an instinctive moral sense in children
is a perplexing one, and I do not propose to discuss it now. I
would only venture to suggest that in these poignant griefs of
child-life there seem to be signs of a consciousness of violated
instincts. This is, no doubt, in part the smarting of a loving
heart on remembering its unloving action. But there may be
more than this. A child of four or five is, I conceive, quite capa-
ble of reflecting at such a time that in his fit of naughtiness he
has broken with his normal orderly self, that he has set at defi-
ance that which he customarily honors and obeys.

What, it may be asked, are these instincts ? In their earliest
discernible form they seem to me to be respect for rule, for a
regular manner of proceeding as opposed to an irregular. A
child, so I understand the little sphinx, is at once the subject of
ever-changing caprices — whence the delight in playful defiance of
all rule and order — and the reverer of custom, precedent, rule.
And, as I conceive, this reverence for precedent and rule is the
deeper and stronger, holding full sway in his serious moments.

If this view is correct, the suffering of naughty children is
not, as has been said by some, wholly the result of the externals
of discipline, punishment, and the loss of the agreeable things
which follow good behavior, though this is commonly an ele-
ment ; nor is it merely the sense of loneliness and lovelessness
though that is probably a large slice of it; but it contains the
germ of something nearer a true remorse, viz., a sense of normal
feelings and dispositions set at naught and contradicted.

And now we may ask what evidence there is for the existence
of this respect for order and regularity other than that afforded
by the childish protests against apparent inconsistencies in the
administration of discipline.

Mr. Walter Bagehot tells us that the great initial difficulty in
the formation of communities was the fixing of custom. How-
ever this be in the case of primitive communities, it seems to me
indisputable that in the case of a child brought up in normal sur-
roundings there is a clearly observable instinct to fall in with a
common mode of behavior.

i68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

This respect for custom is related to the imitative instincts of
the child. He does what he sees others do, and so tends to fall in
with their manner of life. We all know that these small people
take their cue from their elders as to what is allowable. Hence,
one difficulty of moral training. A little boy when two years and
one month old had happened to see his mother tear a piece of
calico. The next day he was discovered to have taken the sheet
from the bed and made a rent in it. When scolded, he replied
in his childish German, " Mamma mach 'put " — i. e., macht cajjut
(breaks the calico). It is well when the misleading effect of " ex-
ample " is so little serious as it was in this case.

In addition to this effect of others' doings in making things
allowable in the child's eyes, there is the binding influence of a
repeated regular manner of proceeding. This is the might of
" custom " in the full sense of the term, the force which underlies
all a child's conceptions of " right." In spite of the difficulties of
moral training, of drilling children into orderly habits — and I do
not lose sight of these — it may confidently be said that a child
has an inbred respect for what is customary and has the appear-
ance of a rule of life. Nor is this, I believe, altogether a reflec-
tion, by imitation, of others' orderly ways and of the system of
rules which are imposed on him by others. I am quite ready to
admit that the institution of social life, the regular procession of
the daily doings of the house, aided by the system of parental
discipline, has much to do with fixing the idea of orderliness or
regularity in the child's mind. Yet I believe the facts point to
something more, to an innate disposition to follow precedent and
rule which precedes education, and is one of the forces to which
education can appeal. This disposition has its roots in habit,
which is apparently a law of all life ; but it is more than the
blind impulse of habit, since it is reflective and rational and im-
plies a recognition of the universal.

The first crude manifestations of this disposition to make rules
to rationalize life by subjecting it to a general method, is seen in
those actions which seem little more than the working of habit,
the insistence on the customary lines of procedure at meals and
such like. A mother writes that her boy, when five years old, was
quite a stickler for punctilious order in these matters. His cup
and spoon had to be put in precisely the right place ; the sequences
of the day, as the lesson before the walk, the walk before bed,
had to be rigorously observed. Any breach of the customary
was apt to be resented as a sort of impiety. This may be an ex-
treme instance, but my observation leads me to say that such
punctiliousness is not uncommon. What is more, I have seen it
developing itself where the system of parental government was
by no means characterized by severe insistence on such minutiae

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 169

of order. And this would seem to show that it can not wholly
be set down to the influence of such government. It seems rather
to be a spontaneous extension of the realm of rule or law.

This impulse to extend rule appears more plainly in many of
the little ceremonial observances of the child. Very charmingly
is this respect for rule exhibited in relation to his animals, dolls,
and other pets. Not only are they required to do things in a
proper orderly manner, but people have to treat them with due
deference.

" Every night," writes a mother of her boy, aged two years
and seven months, " after I have kissed and shaken hands with
him, I have to kiss his * boy,^ that is his doll, who sleeps with him,
and to shake its two hands ; also to shake the four hoofs of a tiny
horse which lies at the foot of his cot. When all this has been
gone through he stands up and entreats 'more tata please, more
tata ' — i. e., * kiss me again and say more good nights.' These cus-
toms of his with regard to kissing are peculiar to himself : he kisses
his 'boy' (doll), also pictures of horses, dogs, cocks, and hens, and
he puts his head against us to he hissed; but he will only shake
hands and will not kiss people himself; he reserves his kisses
for what he seems to feel inferior things. We kiss our boy, he
kisses his ; but he insists upon being shaken hands with for his
part. If other children come to play, he gives them toys, watches
them with delight, tries to give them rides on his ' go-go's,' t)ut
does not kiss them; though he will stroke their hair, he does not
return their kisses. It seems to me that he regards it as an action
to be reserved for an inferior thing."

I have quoted at length this careful bit of maternal observa-
tion because it seems to indicate so clearly a spontaneous exten-
sion of a custom. The practice of the mother and father in kiss-
ing him was generalized into a rule of ceremony in the treatment
of all inferiors.

This subject of childish ceremonial is a curious one and de-
serves a more careful study. It is hardly less interesting than
the origin and survival of ceremonial as elucidated by Mr. Her-
bert Spencer and others. The respect for orderly procedure on
all serious occasions, and especially at church, is as exacting as
that of any savage tribe. Punch illustrated this some years ago
by a picture of a little girl asking her mamma if Mr. So-and-so
was not a very wicked man because he didn't " smell his hat "
when he came into his pew.

This jealous regard for ceremony and the proprieties of be-
havior is seen in the enforcement of rules of politeness by chil-
dren, who will extend them far beyong the scope intended by the
parent. A delightful instance of this fell under my own obser-
vation as I was walking on Hampstead Heath. It was a spring
TOL xLviii. — 12

170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

day and the fat buds of the chestnut were bursting into magnifi-
cent green plumes. Two well-dressed " misses," aged, I should
say, about nine and eleven, were taking their correct morning
walk. The elder called the attention of the younger to one of the
trees, pointing to it. The younger exclaimed in a highly shocked
tone, " O Maud (or was it ' Mabel ' ?), you know you shouldn't
point ! " The notion of perpetrating a rudeness on the chestnut
tree was funny enough. But the incident is iustructive as illus-
trating the childish tendency to stretch and generalize rules to
the utmost.

The domain of prayer well illustrates the same tendency. The
child envisages God as a very, very grand person, and naturally
therefore extends to him all the courtesies he knows of. Thus he
must be addressed politely with the due forms, " Please,'^ " If you
please," and so forth. The German child shrinks from using the
familiar form " Du" in his prayers. As one maiden of seven
well put it in reply to a question why she used " Sie " in her
prayers : " Ich werde dock den lieben Gott nicht Du nennen : ich
kenne ihn ja gar nicht" Again, a child feels that he must not
worry or bore God (children generally find out that some people
look on them as bores), or treat him with any kind of disrespect.

C objected to his sister's remaining so long at her prayers,

apparently on the ground that, as God knew what she had to say,
her much talking would be likely to bore him. An American
boy of four on one occasion refused to say his prayers, explain-
ing : " Why, they^re old. God has heard them so many times that
they are old to him too. Why, he knows them as well as I do
myself." On the other hand, God must not be kept waiting.
" O mamma," said a little boy of three years and eight months
(the same that was so insistent about the kissing and hand-shak-
ing), " how long you have kept me awake for you ! God has been
wondering so whenever I was going to say my prayers." All the
words must be nicely said to him. A little boy aged four years
and nine months once stopped in the middle of a prayer and
asked his mother, " Oh, how do you spell that word ? " The
question is curious as suggesting that the child may have envis-
aged his silent communications to the far-off King as a letter. In
any case it showed painstaking and the wish not to offend by
slovenliness of address.

Not only do children of themselves extend the scope and em-
pire of rule ; they show a disposition to make rules for themselves.
If a child that is told to do a thing on a single occasion only is
found repeating the action on other occasions, this seems to show
the germ of a law-making impulse. A little boy of two years and
one month was once told to give a lot of old toys to the children
of the gardener. Some time after, on receiving some new toys,

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 171

he put away his old ones as before for the less fortunate children.
Every careful observer of children knows that they are apt to
proceed this way, to erect particular actions and suggestions into
precedents. This tendency gives something of the amusing prig-
gishness to the ways of childhood.

There is little doubt, I think, that this respect for proper or-
derly behavior, for precedent and general rule, forms a vital ele-
ment in the child's submission to parental law. In fixing our
attention on occasional acts of disobedience and lawlessness we
are apt to overlook the ease, the absence of friction with which
normal children, if only decently trained, fall in with the larger
part of our observances and ordinances.

That the instinct for order does assist moral discipline may be
seen in the fact that children are apt to pay enormous deference
to our rules. Nothing is more suggestive here than the talk of
children among themselves, the emphasis they are wont to lay on
the "must" and "must not." The truth is that children have a
tremendous belief in law : a rule is apt to present itself to their
imagination as a thing sup>remely sacred and awful before which
it prostrates itself.

This recognition of the absolute imperativeness of a rule prop-
erly laid down by the recognized authority is seen in children's
jealous insistence on the observance of the rule in their own case
and in that of others. As has been observed by Preyer, a child of
two years and eight months will follow out the prohibitions of
the mother when he falls into other hands, sternly protesting, for
example, against the nurse giving him the forbidden knife at
table. Very proper children rather like to instruct their aunts
and other ignorant persons as to the right way of dealing with
them, and will rejoice in the opportunity of setting them right
even when it means a deprivation for themselves. The self-
denying ordinance, " Mamma doesn't let me have many sweets,"
is by no means beyond the powers of such a child. One can see
here, no doubt, traces of a childish sense of self-importance, a
feeling of the much-waited-on little sovereign for what befits his
supreme worth. Yet, allowing for such elements, there seems
to me to be in this behavior a residue of genuine respect for pa-
rental law.

These carryings out of the parental behest when intrusted to
other hands are instructive as suggesting that the child feels the
constraining force of the command when its author is no longer
present to enforce it. Perhaps a clearer evidence of respect for
the law as such, apart from its particular enforcement by the
parent, is supplied by children's way of extending the rules laid
down for their own behavior to that of others. This point has
already been illustrated in the tendency to universalize the observ-

172 THE POPULAIi SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ances of courtesy and tlie like. No trait is better marked in fhe
normal child than the impulse to subject others to his own disci-
plinary system. In truth, children are for the most part particu-
larly alert disciplinarians. With what amusing severity are they
wont to lay down the law to their dolls, and their animal play-
mates, subjecting them to precisely the same prohibitions and
punishments as those to which they themselves are subject ! Nor
do they stop here. They enforce the duties jast as courageously
on their human elders. A mite of eighteen months went up to
her elder sister who was crying, and with perfect mimicry of the
nurse's corrective manner said, " Hush, hush ! papa ! " pointing
at the same time to the door. The little girl M , when twenty-
two months old, was disappointed because a certain Mr. G — - did

not call. In the evening she said, " Mr. D not did tum — was

very naughty. Mr. D have to be whipped." So natural and

inevitable to the intelligence of a child does it seem that the sys-
tem of restraints, rebukes, punishments under which he lives
should have universal validity.

This judicial bent of the child is a curious one, and often de-
velops a priggish fondness for setting others morally straight.
Small boys have to endure much in this way from the hands of
slightly older sisters proficient in matters of law and delighting
to enforce the moralities. But sometimes the sisters lapse into
naughtiness and then the small boys have their chance. They
too can on such occasions be priggish if not downright hypocriti-
cal. A little boy had been quarreling with his sister, named
Muriel, just before going to bed. When he was undressed he
knelt down to say his prayers, Muriel sitting near and listening.
He prayed (audibly) in this wise : " Please, God, make Muriel a
good girl," then looked up and said in an angry voice, " Do you
hear that, Muriel ? " and after this digression resumed his petition.
I believe fathers, on reading family prayers, have been known to
apply portions of Scripture in this personal manner to particular
members of the family ; and it is even possible that extempore
prayers have been invented, as by this little prig of a boy, for the
purpose of administering a sort of back-handed moral blow to an
erring neighbor.

This mania for correction shows itself too in relation to the
authorities themselves. A collection of rebukes and expositions
of moral precept supplied by children to their erring parents
would be amusing and suggestive. As was illustrated above, a
child is especially keen to spy fault in his governors when they
are themselves administering authority. Here is another exam-
ple : A boy of two — the moral instruction of parents by the child
begins betimes — would not go to sleep when bidden to do so by
his father and mother. At length the father, losing patience, ad-

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 173

dressed him with a man's fierce emphasis. This mode of admo-
nition, so far from cowing the child, simply offended his sense of
propriety, for he rejoined, "Yon souldn't souldn't Assum" (i.e.,
" Arthnr," the father's name), "you sonld speak nicely.''

The lengths to which a child with the impulse of moral cor-
rection strong in him will sometimes go are quite appalling. One
evening a little girl of six had been repeating the Lord's prayer.
When she had finished she looked up and said, " I don't like that
prayer, you ought not to ask for bread, and all that greediness,
you ought only to ask for goodness ! " There is probably in this
an imitative reproduction of something the child had had said to
herself by her mother or had overheard. Yet allowing for this,
one can not but recognize a quite alarming degree of precocious
moral priggishness.

We may now turn to what my readers will probably regard
as still clearer evidence of a law-fearing instinct in children, viz.,
their voluntary submission to its commands. We are apt to think
of these little ones as doing right only under external compulsion.
But although a child of four may be far from attaining to the
state of " autonomy of will," or self-legislation spoken of by the
philosopher, he may show a germ of such free adoption of law.
It is possible that we see the first faint traces of this in a small
child's way of giving orders to, rebuking, and praising himself.

The little girl M , when twenty months old, would, when left

by her mother alone in a room, say to herself, " Tay dar " (stay
there). About the same time, after being naughty and squealing
" like a railway whistle," she would after each squeal say in a
deep voice, " Be dood, Babba" (her name). At the age of twenty-
two months she had been in the garden and misbehaving by
treading on the box border, so that she had to be carried away by
her mother. She had to confess her fault, wanted to go into the
garden again, and promised, " Baba will not be naughty adain."
When she was out she looked at the box, saying, " If 00 (you) do
dat I shall have to take 00 in, Babba." Here, no doubt, we see
quaint mimicries of the external control ; but they seem to me to
indicate a movement in the direction of self-control.

Very instructive here is the way in which children will volun-
tarily come and submit themselves to our discipline. The little

girl M , when less than two years old, would go to her mother,

confess some piece of naughtiness, and suggest the punishment.
A little boy, aged two years and four months, was deprived of a
pencil from Thursday to Sunday for scribbling on the wall paper.
His punishment was, however, tempered by permission to draw
when taken downstairs. On Saturday he had finished a picture
downstairs which pleased him. When his nurse fetched him, she
wanted to look at the drawing, but the boy strongly objected.

174 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

saying, " No Nana (name for nurse) look at it till Sunday ."And
sure enough, when Sunday came and the pencil was restored to
him, he promptly showed nurse his picture. This is an excellent
observation full of suggestion as to the way in which a child's
mind works. Among other things it seems to show pretty plainly
that the little fellow looked on the nursery and all its belongings,
including the nurse, during these three days as a place of disgrace,
into which the privileges of the artist were not to enter. He was
allowed the indulgence of drawing downstairs, but he had no
right to exhibit his workmanship to the nurse, who was insepara-
bly associated in his mind with the forbidden nursery drawing.
Thus a process of genuine child-thought led to a self-instituted
extension of the punishment.

A month later this child "pulled down a picture in the
nursery " — the nursery walls seem to have had a fell attraction
for him — by standing on a sofa and tugging till the wire broke.
He was alone at the time and very much frightened, though not
hurt. He was soothed and told to leave the picture alone in fu-
ture, but was not in any way rebuked. He seemed, however, to
think that some punishment was necessary, for he presently asked
whether he was going to have a certain favorite frock on that
afternoon. He was told " No " (the reason being that the day
was wet or something similar), and he said immediately, " 'Cause
Neil pulled picture down ? " Here, I think, we have unmistak-
able evidence of an expectation of punishment as the fit and
proper sequel in a case which, although it did not exactly resem-
ble those already branded by punishment, was felt in a vague way
to be disorderly and naughty.

Such stories of expectation of punishment are capped by in-
stances of punishment actually inflicted by the child on himself.
I believe it is not uncommon for a child, when possessed by a sense
of having been naughty, to object to having nice things at table,
on the ground that previously on a like occasion he was deprived
of them. But the most curious instance of this moral rigor to-
ward self which I have met with is the following : A girl of nine
had been naughty, and was very sorry for her misbehavior. She
was noticed coming to her lesson limping, and remarked that she
felt very uncomfortable. Being asked by her governess what
was the matter with her, she said, " It was very naughty of me
to disobey you, so I put my right shoe on to my left foot and my
left shoe on to my right foot."

The facts here briefly illustrated seem to me to show that
there is in the child from the first a rudiment of true law-abid-
ingness. And this is a force of the greatest consequence to the
disciplinarian. It is something which takes side in the child's
breast with the reasonable governor and the laws which he or

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 175

she administers. It secures ready compliance with a large part
of the discipline enforced. When the impulse urging toward
license has been too strong, and disobedience ensues, this same
instinct comes to the aid of order and good conduct by inflicting
pains which are the beginning of what we call remorse.

By and by other forces will assist. The affectionate child will
reflect on the misery his disobedience causes his mother. A boy
of four years and nine months must, one supposes, have woke up
to this fact when he remarked to his mother : " Did you choose to
be a mother ? I think it must be rather tiresome.'' The day
when the child first becomes capable of thus putting himself into
his mother's place and realizing, if only for an instant, the trouble
he has brought on her, is an all-important one in his moral de-
velopment.

As our illustrations have suggested, and as every thoughtful
parent knows well enough, the problem of moral training in the
first years is full of difficulty. Yet our study surely suggests
that it is not so hopeless a problem as we are sometimes weakly
disposed to think. Perhaps a word or two on this may not inap-
propriately close this essay.

I will readily concede that the difficulty of inculcating in
children a sweet and cheerful obedience arises partly from the
nature of the child. There are trying children, just as there are
trying dogs that howl and make themselves disagreeable for no
discoverable reason but their inherent " cussedness." There are,
I doubt not, conscientious, -painstaking mothers, who have been
baffled by having to manage what appears to be the utterly un-
manageable.

Yet I think that we ought to be very slow to pronounce any
child unmanageable. I know full well that in the case of these
small growing things there are all kinds of hidden physical com-
motions which breed caprices, ruffle the temper, and make them
the opposite of docile. The peevish child who will do nothing, will
listen to no suggestion, is assuredly a difficult thing to deal with.
But such moodiness and cross-grainedness springing from bodily
disturbances will be allowed for by the discerning mother, who
will be too wise to bring the severer measures of discipline to bear
on a child when subject to its malign influence. Waiving these
disturbing factors, however, I should say that a good part, cer-
tainly more than one half, of the difficulty of training children is
due to our clumsy, bungling modes of going to work.

Sensible persons know that there is a good and a bad way of
approaching a child. The wrong ways of trying to constrain
children are, alas ! numerous. I am not writing an " advice to
parents," and am not called on therefore to deal with the much-
disputed question of the Tightness and the wrongness of corporal

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

punishments. Slaps may be needful in the early stages, even
though they do lead to little tussles ; a mother assures me that
these battles with her several children have all fallen between
the ages of sixteen months and two years. It is, however, con-
ceivable that such fights might be avoided altogether ; yet a man
should be chary of dogmatizing on this delicate matter.

What is beyond doubt is that the slovenly discipline— if in-
deed discipline it is to be called — which consists in alternations of
gushing fondness with almost savage severity, or fits of govern-
ment and restraint interpolated between long periods of neglect
and laisser faire, is precisely what develops the rebellious and
law-resisting propensities. But discipline can be bad without
being a stupid pretense. Everything in the shape of inconsist-
ency, saying one thing at one time, another thing at another, or
treating one child in one fashion, another in another, tends to
undermine the pillars of authority. Young eyes are quick to note
these little contradictions, and they sorely resent them. It is
astonishing how careless disciplinarians can show themselves be-
fore these astute little critics. It is the commonest thing to tell
a child to behave like his elders, forgetting that this, if indeed a
rule at all, can only be one of very limited application. Here is a
suggestive example of the effect of this sort of teaching sent me
by a mother : " At three years and six months, when some visitors
were present, she was told not to talk at dinner time. * Why me
no talk ? Papa talks.' ' Yes, but papa is grown up and you are
only a little girl ; you can't do just like grown-up people.' She
was silent for some time, but when I told her ten minutes later to
sit nicely with her hands on her lap like her cousins, she replied,
with a very humorous smile, ' Me tan't (can't) sit like grown-up
people, me is only a little girl.'"

We can fail and make children disloyal instead of loyal sub-
jects by unduly magnifying our office, by insisting too much on
our authority. Children who are over-ruled, who have no taste
of being left unmolested and free to do what they like, can hardly
be expected to submit graciously. Another way of carrying
parental control to excess is by exacting displays of virtue which
are beyond the moral capabilities of the child. A lady sends me
this reminiscence of her childhood : She had been promised six-
pence when she could play her scales without fault, and succeeded
in the exploit on her sixth birthday. The sixpence was given to
her, but soon after her mother suggested that she should spend
the sixpence in fruit to give to her (the mother's) invalid friend.
This was offending the sense of justice, for if the child, is jealous
of anything as her very own, it is surely the reward she has
earned ; and was, moreover, a foolish attempt to call forth gen-
erosity where generosity was wholly out of place. An even

ST (ID IE S OF CHILDHOOD. 177

worse example is that recorded by Ruskin : When a child, he was
expected to come down to dessert and crack nuts for the grand
older folk while peremptorily forbidden to eat any. Such refined
cruelties of government deserve to be defeated in their objects.
Much of our ill success in governing children would probably
turn out to be attributable to unwisdom in assigning tasks, and
more particularly in making exactions which wound that sensi-
tive fiber of a child^s heart, the sense of justice.

Parents are, I fear, apt to forget that generosity and the other
liberal virtues owe their worth to their spontaneity. They may
be suggested and encouraged but can not be exacted. On the
other hand, a parent can not be more foolish than to discourage a
spontaneous out-going of good impulse, as if nothing were good
but what emanated from a spirit of obedience. In a pretty and
touching little American work, Beckonings from Little Hands, the
writer describes the remorse of a father who after his chidd's
death recalled the little fellow's first crude endeavor to help him
by bringing fuel, an endeavor which, alas ! he had met with some-
thing like a rebuff.

The right method of training which develops and strengthens
by bracing exercise the instinct of obedience can not easily be
summarized, for it is the outcome of the highest wisdom. I
may, however, be permitted to indicate one or two of its main
features.

Informed at the outset by a fine moral feeling and a practical
tact as to what ought to be expected, the wise mother is concerned
before everything to make her laws appear as much a matter of
course as the daily sequences of the home life, as unquestionable
axioms of behavior; and this not by a foolish vehemence of
inculcation, but by a quiet, skillful inweaving of them into the
order of the child's world. To expect the right thing, as though
the wrong thing were an impossibility, rather than to be always
pointing out the wrong thing and threatening consequences ; to
make all her words and all her own actions support this view of
the inevitableness of law ; to meet any indications of a disobedient
spirit first with misunderstanding and later with amazement —
this is surely the first and fundamental matter.

The efl^ectiveness of this discipline depends on the simple
psychological principle that difficult actions tend to realize them-
selves in the measure in which the ideas of them become clear
and persistent. Get a child steadily to follow out in thought an
act to which he is disinclined and you have more than half
mastered the disinclination. The quiet daily insistence of the
wise rule of the nursery proceeds by setting up and maintaining
the ideas of dutiful actions, and so excluding the thought of dis-
obedient actions.

VOL. XLVIII. — 13 \

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It has recently been pointed out that in this moral control of
the child through suggestion of right actions we have something
closely analogous to the action of suggestion upon the hypnotized
subject. The mother — the right sort of mother — has on the
child's mind something of the subduing influence of the Nancy
doctor : she induces ideas of particular actions, gives them
force and persistence, so that the young mind is possessed by
them, and they work themselves out into fulfillment as occasion
arises.

In order that this effect of " obsession,^' of a full occupation of
consciousness with the right idea may result, certain precautions
are necessary. As every parent knows, a child may be led by a
prohibition to do the very thing he is bidden not to do. We have
seen how readily a child's mind moves from an affirmation to a
corresponding negation, and conversely. The contradictoriness
of a child, his passion for saying the opposite of what you say,
shows the same odd manner of working of the young mind.
Wanting to do what he is told not to do is another effect of this
" contrary suggestion," as it has been called, aided, of course, by
the child's dislike of all constraint.* If we want to avoid this
effect we must first of all acquire the difficult secret of personal
influence, of the masterfulness which does not repel ; and secondly,
reduce our prohibitions with their contrary suggestions to a
minimum.

The action in moral training of this influence of a quasi-
hypnotic suggestion becomes more clearly marked when diffi-
culties occur ; when some outbreak of willful resistance has to be
recognized and met, or some new and relatively arduous feat of
obedience has to be initiated. Here I find that intelligent
mothers have found their way to methods closely resembling

those of the hypnotist. " When R is naughty and in a passion "

(writes a lady friend of her child, aged three years and three
months), " I need only suggest to him that he is some one else, say
a friend of his, and he will take it up at once ; he will pretend to
be the other child, and at last go and call himself, now a good
boy, back again." This mode of suggestion, by helping the
higher self to detach itself from and control the lower, might, one
suspects, be much more widely employed in the moral training of
children. Suggestion may work through the emotions. Merely
to say, " Mother would like you to do this," is to set up an idea in
the child's consciousness by help of the sustaining force of his af-
fection. " If [writes a lady] there was anything L particularly

wished not to do, his mother had only to say, ' Dobbin [a sort of

* On the nature of this contrary suggestion, see Mark Baldwin, Mental Development in
the Child and the Race, p. 145.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 179

canonized toy horse already referred to] would like you to do
this/ and it was done without a murmur."

We have another analogue to hypnotic suggestion when a
mother prepares her child some time beforehand for a difficult
duty, telling him that she expects him to perform it. A mother
writes that her boy, when about the age of two years and three
months more particularly, was inclined to burst into loud but
short fits of crying. "I have found [she says] they are often
checked by telling him beforehand what would be expected of
him, and exacting a promise that he would do the thing cheer-
fully. I have seen his face flush up ready to cry when he remem-
bered his promise and controlled himself." This reminds one
forcibly of the commands suggested by the hypnotizer to be
carried into effect when the subject wakes.

Much more, perhaps, might be done in this direction by choos-
ing the right moment for setting up the persistent ideas in the
child^s consciousness. I know a lady who got into the way of
giving moral exhortation to her somewhat headstrong girl at
night before the child fell asleep, and found this very effectual.
It is possible that we may be able to apply this idea of prepara-
tory and premonitory suggestion in new and surprising ways to
difficult and refractory children.*

One other way in which the wise mother will win the child
over to duty is by developing his consciousness of freedom and
power. A mother, who was herself a well-known writer for
children, has recorded in some notes on her children that when
one of her little girls was disinclined to accede to her wish she
used to say to her, " Oh, yes, I think when you have remembered
how pleasant it is to oblige others you will do it." "I will think
about it, mamma," the child would reply, laughing, and then go
and hide her head behind a sofa pillow, which she called her
"thinking corner," In half a minute she would come out and
say, " Oh, yes, mamma, I have thought about it and I will do it."
This strikes me as an admirable combination of regulative sug-
gestion with exercise of the young will in moral decision. It
gave the child the consciousness of using her own will, and yet
maintained the needed measure of guidance and control.

As the moral consciousness develops and new problems arise,
new openings for such suggestive guidance occur. How valuable,
for example, is the mother^s encouragement of the weakly child
shrinking from a difficult self-repressive action when she says
with inspiring voice, " You can do it if you try." Thus, pilotlike.

* The bearings of (hypnotic) suggestion on moral education have been discussed by
Guyau, Education and Heredity (English translation), chap. i. Compare also Preyer, op.
cif., D. 26'7 f., and Corapayre, op. cit., p. 262.

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

she conducts the little navigator out into the open main of duty
where he will have to steer himself.

I have tried to show that the moral training of children is not
beyond human powers. It has its strong supports in child-
nature, and these, where there are wisdom and method on the
ruler's side, will secure success. I have not said that the mother's
task is easy. So far from thinking this, I hold that a mother who
bravely faces the problem, neither abandoning the wayward will
to its own devices nor, hardly less weakly, handing over the task
of disciplining it to a paid substitute, and who by well-considered
and steadfast effort succeeds in approaching the perfection I
have hinted at, combining the wise ruler with the tender and
compassionate parent, is among the few members of our species
who are entitled to its reverence.

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING.

By R. TAIT McKENZIE.

SPEED skating as a distinct branch of athletics is of recent
date, but as an art it is one of the oldest cultivated by the
vigorous nations of the temperate and frigid zones.

Fitz Stephen, the historian of London, speaks of the sport as
taking place in the twelfth century, but the first mention in his-
tory occurs eighteen hundred years ago, in the Edda, where the
god Uller is represented as distinguished by beauty, arrows, and
skates. In 1662, Pepys enters this item in his diary under date
December 1st : ** So to my Lord Sandwich's, to Mr. Moore, and
then over the Parke (where I first in my life, it being a great
frost, did see people sliding with their skeates, which is a very
pretty art)."

When we consider the improvements that modern ingenuity
has added to skates and race tracks, and the modern methods of
training, we would expect marked reductions in the time taken to
cover the various distances. We have no means of comparing
speeds for distances under a mile, but if we can trust the time
taken by the watches of 1821 we may accept the fact that in Eng-
land a Lincolnshire man won one hundred guineas by skating a
mile within two seconds of three minutes. The present record is
only four or five seconds better (2 56, Johnson, January 7, 1894).

At the beginning of the century (1801) two young women
skated thirty miles in two hours at Groningen ; and if we go into
the dangerous ground of "hearsay" we will find an account
of a father who crossed forty leagues one day to rescue his son
from danger, and of another who bet that he could cover three

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING.

81

leagues on ice while his friend went one and a half on the best
horse.

It has had among its devotees no less a man than Goethe, the
great German poet, who sought by this means to drive away his
persistent sleeplessness and bring back his youthful vigor. One
clear, cold morning in December he is said to have jumped from
his bed, strapped on his skates, and to have sallied out, reciting
the following like one inspired : " Penetrated with the gayety that

Fig. 1. — J. K. McCuLLOcH in Skating Position.

gives the feeling of health, I go to scour afar the glistening crys-
tal. . . . How brilliant is the ice that night has spread on the
waters ! "

It is also said of him that when he and Klopstock the poet met
for the first time — one in his prime and the other in the decline
of life — the subject of conversation was not poetry, literature, or
aesthetics, as we would suppose, but was entirely devoted to
skating.

l82

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The prominence of athletic sports has directed much attention
to the various problems that are intimately connected with their
practice in their various forms, and naturally the question of the
anatomical characteristics required for success in any branch of
athletics is one of the first to be investigated in the light of mod-
ern physiology and anatomy.

One of the teachings of modern physiology is that function
makes structure; that if horses are raced generation after gen-

FiG. 2.— Adolph Norsino in Skatikg Position.

eration we get the slender, nervous race horse, while if they pull
heavy loads we have developed the Clydesdale type. Again, if a
man has to use his right hand and arm only, continuously in his
work we get it large and brawny, while the rest of his muscular
system may be but poorly developed. It is this specialism that
gives such a law a chance of showing its workings, so that one
can often pick out a man's trade by peculiarities in his physique.
In athletics, which include the severest forms of physical labor,.

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING. 183

we would look for examples of the operation of this law, for
nowhere has specialism been carried further than in athletic
sports.

Such contests as the Penthalon, a revival of the Greek idea of
all-around development, which includes a test in running and
jumping and weight-putting, are too rare in our modern athletic
meets.

Men systematically train for bicycle racing until the particu-
lar set of muscles used in that particular exercise — those of legs
and thighs — are in a perfect state of development, while the arms
remain poor and the chest flat.

The " bicycle stoop " is now a well-recognized deformity, and
few men who have devoted much time or attention to racing are
entirely free from it, while in many racers the marked dorsal
curvature forward (kyphosis) is permanent, unsightly, and inju-
rious to the health.

Heavy gymnastics were the cause of many round shoulders
till a reaction took place in the world of physical education, and
now body-building is done by the almost exclusive use of light
work. This reaction has extended to the more intelligent ath-
letic trainers, who have given up the old drastic methods and
have adopted more rational means of obtaining strength and en-
durance to their proteges.

Our present method of testing athletic prowess thus encour-
ages the exclusive development of certain groups of muscles and
the neglect of others — sometimes, as we will see, to the permanent
deformity of its too zealous votaries.

Other instances of anatomical changes brought about by
special feats could be cited, such as the flat foot of the broad-
jumper or the broad back and flat chest of the oarsman ; but one
of the best examples of this effect of function on structure is seen
in " speed skating," which the international contests of the last
few years have done so much to popularize.

Speed skating differs from ordinary skating in several marked
particulars. The skate itself — about eighteen inches long — has a
flat blade, almost as thin as a knife, set into a light tube support-
ing two uprights, circular but hollow. These short upright tubes
fasten it to the boot by means of a plate, the whole purpose being
to combine the greatest strength and lightness. The boot laces
tightly, giving firm support to the ankle.

This form has evolved from the original skate, made of the
lower jawbones of horses and cattle carved to the proper shape
and polished. In the British Museum the visitor can still see a
pair of these primitive instruments, and the workmen occasionally
disinter them about Moorfields and Finsbury.

Let us take up the strengths and weaknesses of the modern

184

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

speed skaters, who, like the Homeric gods, " stride with winged
feet over the sea transmuted into solid ground."

The racing x>osture of all the best skaters is practically the
same. The back is kept straight and horizontal, the arms folded
across the back except when spurting ; then they are swung from
side to side, keeping time to the stroke. Thighs are flexed to a
right angle, while the knees are kept in half flexion or almost
straight (Figs. 1 and 2). In a recent championship race five of
the best amateurs in the world were strung out in line, and their
rhythmical swing and stride were as if one brain was moving the
whole combination. The crouching position, while it does not

interfere with respira-
tion, diminishes resist-
ance to the wind — an im-
portant advantage — and
also gives the best posi-
tion for using the pow-
erful muscles of the loins
and back.

The stroke of all the
best men is practically
the same, and differs
from that of ordinary
skating both in its direc-
tion and in the way it is
taken. Its direction is
more forward and back-
ward than one from the
ordinary short skate, and
with the long, flat blade
the stroke is given by
the whole of the foot flat.
Any lifting of the heel
in striking out is impos-
sible on account of the
length of skate - blade.
This has an important
bearing on muscular development, as will be seen later.

The muscles most used in speed skating will be seen by the
accompanying diagram, in which muscles are represented by the
heavy black lines. A stroke is made by extending the knee and
hip joints, and the erector spinse muscles (S) are brought into
strong action in straightening the back on the pelvis, which is
thereby made firm enough to resist the action of the muscles of
the lower limb. The powerful gluteal muscles (G), which in
standing keep the body in the upright position, contract strongly.

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186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

drawing the thigh bone back and out. The hamstring muscles
(H) have a similar action, with addition of flexing or bending the
knee joint. As the stroke consists in a straightening of this joint,
the skater uses the powerful extensors (E) to counteract this latter
action of the hamstrings (H).

The extensor muscles (E) are tremendously powerful, and from
their double origin on the pelvis and along the front of the thigh
bone (femur) they are inserted into the knee-cap (patella), which
changes the direction of their pull to a right angle by carrying
them over the knee joint to their final insertion on the tibia, just
as the wire of a door-bell is carried round the corners on its way
to the kitchen. As the only function of the calf muscles (C) is to
raise the heel and bend the knee, they will hardly be used at all
in skating with long, flat racing skates.

In a speed skater we would look for a strong back and broad
neck, due to his attitude while at work. His arms, which are
kept idly folded on his back, would be small and weak, as would
be his chest muscles. His abdominal muscles would get some
work from the constant swaying, and he would have powerful,
vigorous gluteal and extensor muscles, with sinewy hamstrings
but undersized calves.

An examination of the measurements of some of our most
noted skaters will show this special development even better than
their photographs.

In the accompanying charts each measurement is compared
with those of nearly three thousand Yale students, whose average,
or more correctly whose '* mean," measurements are inclosed in
the two heavy lines, and may be said to fairly represent the pro-
portions of the average young man. The variation from this
average, or mean, is marked in percentages in the extreme left-
hand column of the chart.

John S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, has had a somewhat meteoric
athletic career. Although he has been wheeling and skating for
nine years, he has been heard of only about three years, when his
phenomenal time was at first scarcely credited. His decisive de-
feat of the hitherto invincible Joe Donahue in Montreal, February
3, 1894, in all distances up to five miles, brought him up to the top
of the tree, where he has remained perched on its topmost branch
till the present hour, unquestionably the best man up to five miles
on ice. He holds nearly all the records in speed skating.

His trainer never allows him to tire himself, but starts him
with short spurts and an easy pace ; so that, although he had been
eighteen months in training when I examined him (February 5,
1894), he had in that time gained twenty-six pounds. He was then
twenty-two years of age, and weighed one hundred and forty-four
pounds. While in his sitting height he is surpassed by forty-

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five per cent of those measured (see Chart A, No. 1), his length of
legs rises to the hundred-per-cent class. The girth of the neck is
small, but the low chest measurement is due to its rounded shape.

Fig. 4. — Johnson.

Its expansive power of seven inches is extraordinary in a chest of
that shape. The muscle girths of his arms are exceeded by eighty
per cent of young men, while the elbows and wrists show rather
heavy bones. The rather small thigh girths will be due partly
to their great length. The size of his calves shows about average
development — to be attributed to bicycling largely — but the in-
steps are very large, and his photos show a flat foot. The neck
and chest are broad, as would be the shoulders if he had better
arm muscles. The " bicycle stoop," amounting almost to deform-
ity in his case, brings the depth of chest up to the one-hundred-
per-cent class. His lung capacity is very good, but he can not
pull himself up by his arms more than two and a half times, and
one dip on the parallels is the extent of his ability. His pulse is

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING. 189

only fifty-four to the minute — remarkably slow and strong, and
not easily quickened by exercise. The long thighs and " bicycle
stoop " are well shown in Fig. 4. Notice particularly the deep
chest.

Adolph Norsing has skated since childhood on the rivers and
fiords of Norway. For the last five years he has met the cham-
pions in this sport both at home and throughout Europe, and has
visited America twice. He is a worthy representative of the land
of the Vikings, and he now holds the Canadian record for half
mile (1"24). His training methods are peculiar : two hours daily,
finishing with about three miles at top speed, is his quota of work
till the day of the race ; his diet is principally oatmeal, eggs, and
meat. He allows himself one glass of ale daily at dinner, but
otherwise does not use alcohol and has never used tobacco. He is

Fig. 5. — Norsing.

a typical skater ; his occupation, that of a carriage painter, is sed-
entary, and we find in him typical development.

Although not above the forty-five-per-cent class in height, and
with his sitting height surpassed by over seventy per cent of

190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

young men, Ms length of lower limb is up to the one-hundred-
per-cent class, as in the case of Johnson (see Chart A, No. 2).
His other bone lengths are low, except his feet, which are
long. The hip and elbow girths show heavy bones. An old
fracture of the left femur, with shortening, invalidates the thigh
measures somewhat, but the calves are away below the knee
girths, while the insteps show a condition of flat foot in this
man also.

Great breadth and depth show splendid lung power in a chest
round, capacious, and barrel-shaped, but not very mobile, for he
has small expansion. His pulse is rather fast (eighty-four), and
his strength tests, much above his muscle measurements, would
give the impression that if determination and will power can do
it he will always be a winner.

In his case, as in that of all the men whose measurements are
here shown, the left thigh is the larger, probably from having
to bear the body weight in turning the corners of a rink. Fig. 5
shows well the rounded shape of the chest in expansion, also the
type of figure shown in the chart.

J. K. McCulloch, of Winnipeg, is certainly the best representa-
tive that Canada has produced lately in speed skating, and he
takes front rank both in this sport and in bicycling. We would
hardly expect the typical development of a skater, however, in
this man, who excels as a gymnast and all-round athlete as well.
At eleven years of age he was winning boys' races, and his sum-
mer evenings are taken up by rowing, canoeing and lacrosse.
For the last three years bicycling has been his main form of ath-
letic exercise during the five summer months. In winter he is
the mainstay of the Winnipeg Hockey Team, and his special
'penchant for the parallel bars in the gymnasium shows in the
well-developed arms and chest. His measurements, plotted on
Chart B, show a few of the characteristics of the skater. With
height in the thirty-per-cent class we find comparatively short
legs and long thighs. His arms are also short. A glance at Fig.
6 well shows the shortness of his leg. His muscle girths are in
the eighty to ninety per cent class, while his knee-bone measure-
ments are down to twenty per cent ; his narrow hips give origin
to very powerful muscles, whose girth make up for these bony
deficiencies to speed skating (see Fig. 6). His calves are large,
but he tells me since he stopped wheeling, four months ago, they
have decreased nearly an inch and a half in girth.

His chest is deep and his strength tests show well- developed
arms and back. Fig. 6 shows where his extraordinary speed is
obtained : the driving power lies in the very long and muscular
thighs. This young man is a natural athlete, and, although not
built for a skater, excels in that sport as he would in almost any

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING,

191

he took up. He would make a splendid high or broad jumper,
and would be a success as a gymnast.

Fig. 7 shows a typical speed skater — 01 af Nortwedt, a profes-
sional, aged twenty- four, who has been on skates almost since he
could walk. He has taken no other form of exercise, and his best
distances are under three miles. This photo, taken on the eve of a
race, shows the fine condition of his skating muscles. Here again
the body is short — the length of the leg and thigh in the one-

FlG. 6. — McCuLLOCH.

hundred-per-cent class (Chart A, 3), while the arms are not long
in proportion. The feet are long and flat, and as a rule his other
bone girths and lengths are large, with small muscle girths. The
rather small thigh girths are due to their great length in conjunc-
tion with very narrow hips ; his chest is deep and round, although
not mobile. His strength tests show weak, poorly developed
arms, but the breadth of neck in him, as in Johnson and Norsing
shows good development in the upper muscles of the back. His

192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

occupation, that of clerk, is light, so that the natural development
of a skater has not been interfered with by other causes, as in the
case of McCulloch. The plotting of the measurements of these
three great skaters, Johnson, Norsing, and Nortwedt, on Chart A,
shows the remarkable similarity of their build. All are about
the same height and weight, and we find in all certain character-
istics. The typical speed skater has a short body, capacious, round
chest, with well- developed back ; his thighs are strong and very

B
Fig. 7. — Olaf Nortwedt.

long, as are also his legs. His feet are large and flat. His weak
points are his calves, due to the long, flat skate to which his flat-
tened foot is so closely bound. The large muscles of his chest are
not exercised, and his arms, held lying idly along his back, are un-
used except in an occasional spurt, when they are brought down
and swung straight from the shoulder. They say that they catch
less wind held that way, and that the position is restful to the tense
extensors of the back. This is, no doubt, true, but the result is

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA, 193

disastrous to symmetrical development. This type of figure is
seen at its best in such skaters as the Donahues, McCormick, the
old-time professional, who still skates a fast race although now
forty years of age, and in Wilson Breen, a professional, who has
been a winner of much gold and glory by means of his long legs
and powerful thighs.

The conclusion that speed skating alone is not a good exercise
to develop a well-built, symmetrical man will be patent to any
one who reviews the facts. If indulged in, it should be, as done
by McCulloch, in conjunction with other forms of athletics
which bring into action the muscles of the arm, calf, shoulders,
and chest.

SUGGESTIBILITY, AUTOMATISM, AND KINDRED
PHENOMENA.*

By W. EOMAINE NEWBOLD, Ph. D.,
a8si8takt pboreseob of puilosopht in the cniveksitt of pknnstlvaioa.

I. MENTAL CO-ORDINATION AND ORGANIZATION.

THE thoroughgoing parallelism of mind and brain may be
regarded as an accepted principle of current psychology.
There remain, it is true, a few psychologists who dispute it, and
many of those who accept it as a working principle refuse to re-
gard it as final. It is conceivable, say they, that when our knowl-
edge is more complete we shall discover that the relation of mind
and brain is very different from what we now suppose it to be.
Yet we may be sure that the facts upon which the doctrine of
parallelism rests will never be set aside by any new discoveries,
and will find their place in that final theory toward which we are
slowly moving.

It is somewhat surprising that few, even of those who accept
this theory as a working hypothesis, have endeavored to carry it
out into all its logical implications and to see how far they will
fit the actual facts. It is my own belief that the more thoroughly
this is done the more probable does it appear that every mental
state has its accompanying physical process, and the more rigor-
ously we apply the dynamic conceptions suggested by our scanty
knowledge of these physical processes to their accompanying

* I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the recent French and English writers on
these topics, especially to Pierre Janet, with whose theory as developed in his work,
L'Automatisrae Psychologique, the above doctrines are essentially identical. It should be
noted, however, that Janet expressly repudiates any attempt to bring his psychological
theory into connection with our psycho-physiological speculations.

TOL. XLYIII. — 14

194 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mental states, the more intelligible does our inner life become to
Tis. Especially is this true of certain curious phenomena to which
our current psychology pays little attention — those of automa-
tism, suggestibility, and double consciousness as seen in hypnosis,
spirit-writing, trance speech, et id genus omne, Not that we are
yet in position to explain these phenomena in detail. There is
much that defies analysis at our present stage of knowledge, but
I have no hesitation in saying that in these dynamic conceptions
we have found the key which will in time solve these and many
other psychological riddles.

We know little or nothing of what happens in the brain while
we live and move and have our being. In the early days of ex-
perimental psychology the physical bases of mental states were
crudely conceived as gross movements, either of the nerves them-
selves or of some j9.uid supposed to flow along the nerves and
veins to the brain and heart. Nowadays these simpler concep-
tions are displaced by theories of chemical activities or molecular
vibrations of some kind. For my own part, I am sometimes in-
clined to suspect that the true physical basis is none of these, but
a disturbance of the same medium that transmits light and heat
— the ether — and to regard the cellular and fibrous structures of
the nervous system as a mechanism for producing and transmit-
ting these disturbances, much as the battery and wires of an elec-
tric circuit produce and transmit that mode of ethereal disturb-
ance which we call electricity. However this may be, it is quite
certain that the processes which take place in the nervous system
are all of one order and are analogous to— nay, a part of — the phys-
ical transformations of energy which we see in the outer world.
Their proximate source is the stored-up molecular energy of the
food we eat; they are disengaged by the operation of external
and internal stimuli ; they can re-enforce or destroy one another ;
they can produce extensive muscular, secretory, and nutritive
changes in the body.

Although all of these processes are of essentially the same
order in that all taken together form one system of forces, the
constitution of every part of which depends for its character upon
the constitution of all the coexisting parts, it is probable that con-
sciousness is not connected with every part of the system, but
only with those processes that take place in the cortex — that is,
the outer layer of gray matter that covers the surface of the
brain. At every moment of conscious life the cortex is the scene
of activities so delicate and complex that we can never hope to
frame an adequate conception of them. The masses of cells are
forever disengaging pulse after pulse of molecular or ethereal
disturbance, probably of a vibratory character ; by the countless
systems of interlacing fibers these pulses are transmitted from

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA,

9^

one cortical area to another ; meeting, they re-enforce or destroy
one another; impinging upon a cell system which was in com-
parative quiet, they rouse it to activity, and are themselves modi-
fied by the pulses which it gives forth. At every second this
mass of activities is receiving from the myriads of nerves that
reach out to the eye, ear, skin, and other sensitive portions of the
body countless other pulses of the same character, but initiated
by the physical stimuli of the external world or by the chemical
changes of the body. These pulses are not accompanied by con-
sciousness, but when they reach the cortex they merge into the
complex mass there existing and contribute their share toward
the character of the total conscious state. And in the last place,
the activities disengaged within the cortex are ever discharging
downward through the outgoing channels into the co-ordinating
mechanism at the base of the brain. This controls the sys-
tems of muscular contractions needed for the performance of our
bodily movements much as the " combination stops " of an organ
control the systems of pipes needed to produce any given timbre
effect.

Thus the consciousness that you and I at any moment experi-
ence depends for its character upon the constitution of a system
of activities as definite and determinate as any known to the
physicist, although so complex that we can never hope to unravel
it. To compare the complex with the simple, we have all seen
the play of color upon the surface of a soap bubble. These colors
depend for their character upon the constitution of a system of
forces far more simple than that which underlies the human con-
sciousness. They are due to the interference of waves of ether
reflected from the inner and outer surfaces of the film ; they de-
pend, therefore, upon the angle of incidence and the thickness of
the film. These two conditions again depend upon the tenacity
of the film, the difference between the pressure within and that
without the bubble, the action of air currents, the muscular tremor
of the hand that holds the pipe, the action of gravity, etc. If any
one of these conditions be in any way altered, some change will
be made in the tint. This throws light upon one of the reasons
why psychology lags so far behind the other sciences. Suppose
the physicist should select that one square inch on the surface of
the bubble where the colors were brightest, and should endeavor
to formulate for each, in terms of the others, the laws of existence
and sequence, ignoring the while the system of forces upon which
those colors depend : however painstaking his efforts, they would
meet with little success, and this has been the fate of the psycholo-
gist. Too often he has confined his attention to that portion of
consciousness which was brightest, or for some other reason the
most interesting, while if he had but looked into the marginal or

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

subconscious he would have found traces there of the activities
which were all the while affecting the area of greatest vividness.

Not only is consciousness as a whole thus correlated to a system
of physical forces, but we find that its several elements are also re-
lated to certain subordinate systems of forces which, while form-
ing part of that total, have a certain degree of independence. It is
known, for example, that the activities which take place in the
occipital or hinder portion of the cortex are accompanied by sen-
sations and ideas of color ; those that take place in the temporal
region, in the neighborhood of the ear, have to do with sensations
and ideas of sound ; those of the Rolandic region, which forms an
archlike band passing over the brain from a point a little in front
of the ear, are probably the basis of sensations and ideas of move-
ments as felt. Since the awakening of these latter tends to pro-
duce or sustain the movement in question, and since volition is
but another name for the initiation of a movement through an
idea representing it or something with which it is associated, this
is also a region essential to the performance of voluntary move-
ments. And it is probable that all the definite qualities of sensa-
tion and the corresponding ideas are related to more or less well
defined portions of the cortex. But we know that even our very
simple ideas — as those of a rose, or a book, or a man — involve
elements drawn from many of these sources. We must then
suppose that the idea of a rose depends upon a co-ordination of
processes which, although situated in different portions of the
brain, act together in the production of this idea. As my
thought flits from the color to the fragrance, to the touch, to
the plucking of the rose, so do the pulses of energy pass along the
conducting fibers from the region of vision to that of smell, to
that of touch, to that of movement. Further, as the rose is to me
a relatively stable thing, we must suppose that these physical
processes are not merely co-ordinated for the time being, but are
organized into a quite permanent system which retains its co-
herence and existence as a system as long as the idea of a rose
remains to me one and the same idea, although consisting of un-
like mental elements.

I can not undertake to work out in detail many of the more
complex organizations or systems which we can detect in mind.
To do that would be to write a treatise on psychology, and my
only object at present is to make clear the conceptions of co-
ordination and organization. Yet to two of these more complex
forms — and they are unfortunately the most complex of all — I
must make some reference, since a comprehension of them is pre-
supposed in the application of this theory to the curious phe-
nomena which we wish to explain.

I have shown that the state of consciousness at any given mo-

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA. 197

ment involves a very complex co-ordination of the forces that
underlie it. And I have also shown that the permanent existence
of any element of consciousness, if at all complex, involves not
merely a co-ordination, which might be temporary, but a perma-
nent organization of certain of those forces into enduring sys-
tems. Not enduring in the sense that they are always actively
operating, but in the sense that when any one element is active it
calls into activity the other elements as well. The same is true of
consciousness as a whole. We may discern this in two quite dif-
ferent forms. The first is what we may call the permanent form
of consciousness. We observe that at any given time conscious-
ness has a certain form of organization which is so constant that
we are tempted to think it can not exist in any other form. Some
one element or organized group of elements tends to be more clear
and distinct than the others. This one is called the center of at-
tention or focus of consciousness ; the others constitute the mar-
gin. From moment to moment the focus shifts; new elements
rise into dominance, and the old fade away. Yet there is always a
dominant element, and this it is to which we attend. Usually the
focus and margin are inversely related to one another ; that is to
say, when any given group tends to become more clear and dis-
tinct the other elements tend to lose with respect to clearness and
distinctness. This is what we mean when we say that we can not
attend to two things at once. But it is not always true. There
are states in which the heightening of one element tends to
heighten all the others as well. In imminent danger, for in-
stance, there is frequently an intense exaltation of the total con-
tent of consciousness, and the same phenomenon is occasionally
found as a precursor of an epileptic attack. Now, this constant
form into which consciousness tends to fall, and which is, by the
way, the basis of our notion that the mind is a single entity of
some sort, is very suggestive. We know that all physical forces,
if they can in any way act upon one another, tend to coalesce into
one common resultant, and I think it probable that in the law of
attention we see the mental manifestation of some form of coa-
lescence between the physical forces which form its basis.

Again, the consciousness of each of us forms a permanent
entity which we severally call " myself." Into all the problems
connected with this word of many meanings I can not enter, but
of one thing we may be quite certain — whatever the consciousness
of self may be, it is largely dependent upon the continuity and
uniformity of our memories. Any great change in a man's life
which introduces into his present a mass of experiences quite out
of keeping with his past is apt to introduce into his consciousness
of personal identity a strange sense of unreality and uncertainty.
He rubs his eyes and says : *' Who am I ? Am I really John

198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Smith ? Am I the man who did this and that ? or is it merely a
dream ?" And when we go further, and totally destroy a man's
memories, as not infrequently happens in cases of disease or acci-
dent, we find that the consciousness of personal identity is also
gone. The man may know that he is somebody, or at least that
he ought to be somebody, but he can not tell who he is. If the
injury be greater still, even this consciousness that he ought to
be somebody is lost, and the patient sinks into a condition of de-
mentia, which we can not well understand because it is so utterly
unlike anything that we have experienced.

Now, evidently, this is very like the case of the simple idea.
I have shown that the permanence and identity of any such idea,
as that of a rose, which is the standard illustration in psycholgy,
depends upon the organization of a permanent system of physical
forces of some kind, and I think we have reason to believe that
the man remains the same for much the same reason, although
the elements entering into that system are a thousandfold more
numerous and more complexly interlaced.

PROFESSOR FORBES ON "HARNESSING NIAGARA."

By ERNEST A. LE SUEUE, So. B.

THE past few months have seen the successful completion of
a gigantic work, of epoch-making extent and significance —
the Niagara Falls electrical power transmission plant. An article
appeared in these pages in September, 1894, describing something
of the difficulties which had been met and overcome by the engi-
neers in charge of the water power and generator installation of
the Cataract Construction Company, as the corporation which
had the contracts for erecting the plant was named.

Prof. George Forbes, who held the position of consulting elec-
trical engineer to that company, is to be heartily congratulated
upon the success that has crowned his efforts. It becomes per-
tinent at present to insist, however, that Prof. Forbes should be
content to limit his claims to glory to the considerable work that
he has undoubtedly accomplished, for, unfortunately, he appears
not overanxious to define that limit when discoursing to the
public about his achievements.

There has been some bickering between Prof. Forbes and
Prof. Rowland, of Johns Hopkins, as to which of the two was the
originator of certain of the novel points in the Niagara Falls
Power Company's generators. The atmosphere is very murky in
consequence, but some facts would seem to have filtered through,
and we shall take occasion to refer to them later. What seems

PROF, FORBES ON ''HARNESSING NIAGARA:' 199

to call for notice at this moment is a paper by Prof. Forbes,
which appeared in the September Blackwood's, entitled Har-
nessing Niagara.

It is doubtful if any American magazine would have pub-
lished that article, even had it contained fewer references to the
shortcomings of the United States. It seems to us, however, that
it would have been much better for it to have appeared in this
country than in Great Britain, because of the freer criticism it
would here have had, and because America's faults would then
have been told where it might be hoped that, coming from so
authoritative a source, certain valuable reforms would result.

A large portion of the article is devoted to a description of
Forbes's own unusual endowments and capabilities, natural and
acquired, which, it would appear, fitted him for the position of
consulting electrical engineer to the Cataract Construction Com-
pany, not less than for the suppression of the American railway
conductor.* A perusal of the article brings to one's mind the
couplet by a famous English librettist :

*' He was the bravest man in France ;
He said so, and he ought to know."

Having noted the title of the paper, we are astonished at the
space that is devoted to placing the demerits of this country in
relief against the author's excellences, especially in so short an
article. To quote certain instances, he says: "There are two
great mistakes commonly made as to Americans: one is, that
they are original inventors ; the other is, that they are humor-
ous. Neither of these propositions is true." The chief argument
he advances against our possession of humor is that "their
periodical literature is filled with so-called wit, but it smells
strongly of the midnight oil." This is most sadly true, but, if
one on this side of the water may judge, how much more so is it
with British publications of alleged humorousness ! The pro-
fesssor admits, however, that in the matter of humor there are
some most brilliant exceptions in America. May we not ask
whether Great Britain, for instance, can produce exceptions in
this line to vie with the United States ?

In support of his theory that the inventive faculty is lacking
in the New World, he states that Americans are competent
merely to design, not invent, and, by implication, informs us that
his own talents in the inventive line are the real article, and that

* He informs us that on a New York Central train he created disorder in the ranks of
six (?) conductors ("the most insolent class of men in the country"), who filled the
smoking room to the exclusion of himself. The subsequent verdict of one of the con-
ductors is stated to have been that there were no flies (sic) on Prof. Forbes.

zoo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

no American was competent to undertake what he has success-
fully accomplished ; and, later, dwells at length upon his improve-
ments in dynamo construction in the matter of revolving fields.
The importance of the device of rotating the fields instead of the
armature in the situation he was dealing with was great, but, as
that was the form of the first alternating dynamo ever constructed
(in 1833), the novelty of the mere principle, which is what he
refers to, is not greatly in evidence, nor, we may add, is the in-
ventive faculty.

In leaving the non-inventive-humorous proposition he says :
"Invention and humor require a gift of imagination, the same
gift that shows itself in poetry and letters, in music, painting,
and sculpture; and in no one of these directions has this gift
of imagination been found to predominate among Americans."
Letting the last sentence pass, we may observe that it would be
as pertinent to deny to the ancient Greeks the possession of any
one of the qualities last named because (what will probably be
admitted) the inventive talent did not predominate among them.

" They like giving big names to things in America," says our
scientist. " A pond is a lake, and a hill is a mountain ; they never
speak of the sea, it must be called the ocean ; a meeting is a con-
vention, a dictionary is a ' speller and a definer,' a town is a city,
a chairman is a president, and so on." If I am not mistaken. Max
O'Rell has told us much the same thing, and we ought therefore
to take it to heart. O'Rell has wonderful insight and an unfail-
ing impartiality, which Prof. Forbes lacks. Take, for instance,
the cases the latter cites in support of his proposition. How false
some of them are, and how purely local most of the rest ! Then,
to take one of his instances, it would seem as though Americans
were not exceeding their rights in using the word " city " in the
nationally defined technical sense of a place of over such and
such a population. The method possesses indisputable advan-
tages over the British plan, by which, we understand, no place
without a cathedral can be called a city. The latter system of
nomenclature has much to recommend it on the ground of medise-
val simplicity, but results in the omission of several places of
great size and importance from the list of English cities.

We are informed that in this coimtry "the average man is not
a good specimen. He is apt to be a most awful ' bounder,' has no
taste, and does not know the meaning of the word ' repose.' " We
must waive comment on the first accusation on the ground of in-
sufficient information as to what a bounder is. As to the rest, we
might suggest to Prof. Forbes that one may possess all the repose
that ever marked the caste of Vere de Vere, when experimenting
with hons mots on railway conductors, and yet be sadly wanting,
both in that quality and in the good taste he refers to, in his liter-

PROF. FORBES ON ''HARNESSING NIAGARAS 201

ary efforts. One singular example of lack of dignity in tlie paper
under discussion is an attack on Lord Kelvin, describing a line of
action of his as hitherto unknown among professional men, in
which he attempts to take the edge off that statement by men-
tioning that distinguished man as his most esteemed and oldest
scientific friend.

A remarkable thing is that Prof. Forbes admits that there are
exceptions to his somewhat sweeping condemnation of this coun-
try, for, after miaking the uncompromising generalization about
the average American, he says that it is not necessary to meet
the specimen except in hotels and trains, and thereafter follows a
list of no less than fifteen names in one paragraph of fashionable
friends of his who were, of course, delightful, the bearing of
which on the title matter of the paper is obscure. At the begin-
ning of his article also he makes disparaging reference to our
experts, and, at the end, "wishes to bear tribute to the kindly
friendship which I almost universally experienced at the hands
of American engineers." We have one fine sentiment to record :
" An Englishman in America should always try to retain his Eng-
lishness.'* This should apply to any one who is proud of his
country ; but, unfortunately, the reasons the professor urges for
holding that aim in view constitute only another fling at Ameri-
cans.

Turning now to such portions of the paper as do actually bear
upon the Niagara work, we have, as above mentioned, the pro-
fessor's remarkable claim to originality in the matter of the
revolving fields. Again, in describing the steps leading to his
choice of apparatus, he says : " I soon realized the fact that not
only could the latter (alternating) current be more easily obtained
at high pressures, but that it could more easily, and without
moving machinery, be transformed to any required pressure at
any spot when it was wanted." This statement, it is to be re-
gretted, is nothing short of dishonest. Forbes is here speaking
of the year 1890, at which date the fact that he refers to as hav-
ing worked out for himself was literally the A B C of electrical
work, and part of the common knowledge of thousands of " line "
laborers throughout the world.

With regard to the two points so far mentioned the distin-
guished engineer has not sought to belittle the work of others,
but only to magnify his own ; he has not, however, confined him-
self to this more moderate course, and we find him stating that
" the highest scientific authority in America had taken up the
same position as Lord Kelvin," referring to the latter's alleged
strenuous opposition to the use of the alternating current. The
eminent authority referred to would seem to be Prof. Rowland, of
Baltimore. This gentleman, who ought to know what it was he

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

advised, states positively that he did not strennoTisly oppose the
use of the alternating current ; that he did not oppose it at all ;
and that, moreover, his opinion was given in 1889, not 1 890 ; that
what he did advise at that early date, in view of the untried state
of either direct or alternating current transmission, was merely
caution in adopting plans, which advice, we may add, was most
carefully followed, as will he seen from the fact that the main
plans, not to speak of the details, were not decided upon until
three years later, during which interval some most remarkable de-
velopments had taken place both in the design of machinery for
use with alternating current and in the practical transmission of
the latter over an immense distance in Europe.

Our writer says : " Until I went to America the manufacturers
of electrical machinery never had a consulting engineer to reckon
with, but dealt directly with the financiers, who knew nothing
about cost or efficiency of machinery," and reference is later
made to his being the first to get guarantees of performance from
manufacturers of such machinery. The present writer speaks
from personal experience in declaring this to be incorrect. The
way in which a company, larger and even more representative
than the chief one with which Prof. Forbes did business, filled an
eleven-hundred-horse-power contract under guarantee, and later
supplied an auxiliary generator to make the guarantee good,
would perhaps have impressed that gentleman. The particular
occurrence referred to is immediately within the writer's knowl-
edge, and the extremely exacting specifications for the said ma-
chinery were written and insisted upon by consulting engineers
and not by the financiers. It should, however, be unnecessary to
say that, of course, the method of requiring guarantees and of
employing engineers to write specifications was common in the
electrical business, as well as in all others, long before the advent
of Forbes.

There are other points in the professor's paper besides those
already referred to which require contradiction, and still others,
covered by the matter in controversy between himself and Prof.
Rowland, which there is every reason to believe might be im-
proved in the matter of accuracy, but which, since directly oppo-
site statements are put forth by the two men, we must be content
to let stand in default of other sources of information regarding
them.

An opinion of Prof. Forbes that surprises us is set forth in the
sentence, " I had always wished to put the dynamos at the bot-
tom of the pit close to the turbines, and I still believe that this
arrangement would have served us better.'' It is the opinion
of the writer that it is an unusually good thing for the Niagara
Falls Power Company that the above was not done. In his ex-

PROF, FORBES ON ''HARNESSING NIAGARA:' 203

perience it is a practical impossibility to keep penstocks under
great head from leaking, and the moisture thereby communicated
to the atmosphere, as well as that due to the location of the
dynamo room at the bottom of a narrow pit one hundred and
fifty feet deep, with a torrent carrying a hundred million gallons
per hour raging immediately beneath, could not well fail to im-
pair the machines' insulation. Since the latter must carry a vast
electrical pressure of alternating current, any impairment would
be fatal to the maintenance of the plant. An instance occurs to
mind in which a generator plant was located on a level with the
wheel cases, and this not at the bottom of the pit by any means,
but at the top of a draught tube some feet above the level of the
surrounding ground, and in which, owing to the moisture unavoid-
ably present, the generators had subsequently to be removed.

It is impossible, without quoting most of the article in ques-
tion, to convey an adequate impression of the egotism that per-
vades it. A few phrases may, however, be of assistance to an
understanding of this.

" The electrical work which I have carried out has been done
at a cost that seems incredible to many."

" I did not care to go much into society.'*

" On such occasions I would write to my millionaires and tell
them that if they did not do what I told them,'' etc.

" I had a lovely house in parklike grounds.''

" I had a nigger servant."

" I had thus become well acquainted with the system which
Nicola Tesla, a young Montenegrin, was experimenting on," etc.

We fancy that most people know the name and fame of " the
young Montenegrin" a good deal better than they do those of
Forbes.

In fact, the whole article is quite alliterative from the continu-
ous repetitions of the first personal pronoun singular.

In an opening paragraph Prof. Forbes speaks of the produc-
tion of the paper under discussion as the result of an attempt to
curb a natural tendency to reticence, and, later, in describing the
Falls of Niagara, he says, " The most impressive points of view
are those that make you feel the smallest." It is not apparent
whether the professor himself experienced the sensation, but, if
he did, the depression must have been evanescent, for near the end
he says that, while his company ascribes his " splendid results "
mainly to engineering skill, " I am inclined to believe that they
were fully as much the result of an exercise of tact, judgment,
and forbearance, combined with firmness — qualities which I do
not hesitate to say that both the officers of the company and my-
self recognized in each other." All of which, while possibly true,
is scarcely the utterance of a man hampered by a temperament in

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

whicli reticence and a feeling of insignificance are struggling
with, each other for supremacy.

Americans have faults and are not more sensitive to having
them pointed out than other people, but the tendency among de-
scendants of Anglo-Saxon stock to resent the imputation of the
possession of visual motes by ill-tempered owners of larger ocular
imperfections is deeply rooted. We have not for many a long day
seen an article in a prominent English journal so well designed,
by its gratuitous disparagements of America, to keep alive the
fast-expiring dislike to the mother country that it is to the
interest of all of us to see buried.

HEALTH EXPERIMENTS IN THE FRENCH ARMY.

By STODDARD DEWEY.

THE report made to the French Parliament in April of this
year by General Zurlinden, Minister of War, discloses a new
aspect of that life in barracks to which the armed peace of Eu-
rope condemns all her young men for a period of their best years.
It is nothing less than an experimenting on a giant scale with the
health and resistance to epidemic disease of French youth under
military regimen.

The first and most fatal enemy has always been typhoid fever.

In 1887 the annual number of cases reached eight thousand,
with a death-rate of about eight hundred, for much less than five
hundred thousand men. This gave an average of deaths from
this single disease very nearly equivalent to two out of every
thousand men, while the total mortality of the army was only
8*43 per thousand. In the mortality of French civil life, which
remains at eleven per thousand, the destructiveness of typhoid
fever is still greater, at least in a large number of towns and
cities.

Doctors have long known the cause of the prevalence of this
disease ; but it is not easy to persuade the ordinary citizen of the
necessity of precaution in the use of so common a thing as water.
Jules Simon tells a story, good by way of illustration, of the
alarming typhoid epidemic in Paris a few years ago. Both doc-
tors and Government had warned the people that the germs of
the disease were contained in the water of the Seine, and that
only filtered and boiled water could be used safely. One day a
cafe waiter was discovered replenishing the drinking decanter of
his customers from the common spigot giving forth the river
water in its unadulterated impurity. When reproached with his
deed, he answered indignantly :

HEALTH EXPERIMENTS IK THE FRENCH ARMY. 205

" My father and my grandfather drank this water, and they
lived to be old men. I have no time to bother w^th doctors'
notions."

During the last month of March there was a sudden outburst
of a strange and fatal disease among the old men in the city poor-
house at Nanterre. It was accompanied by tetanoid symptoms
(lockjaw), and was attributed by the physician in charge to the
ergot of which he discovered traces in the very bad rye bread
furnished to the inmates. The director, when asked about the
reason assigned, is reported to have answered comfortably, " Doc-
tors* humbug ! "

It is the good luck of the army that an intelligent service of
hygiene can be enforced whenever the authorities wish. The will
began with M. de Freycinet, who was Minister of War through
so many changing administrations. He set about substituting
spring water or filtered water in place of the water from wells or
rivers, which had previously been used by garrisons. By 1890,
in comparison with 1887, the number of typhoid cases had dimin-
ished in the proportion of thirty-six per cent. By 1891 the de-
crease was forty-nine per cent. In the single military jurisdic-
tion of Paris it reached seventy-five per cent. This astonishing
and satisfactory change followed immediately upon the change
of the water supply.

The record of the last three years only confirms this brilliant
demonstration of the real work which can be accomplished by
rational hygiene. There were five hundred and forty fewer cases
of typhoid fever in the army posts in 1894 than in 1891, though
the percentage of deaths to cases was slightly higher. But the
most striking facts are found in the statistics of particular places
like Paris, which has always had the reputation of being a center
of this special disease.

Among the soldiers under the military government of the city
there were eight hundred and twenty-four typhoid cases in 1888.
The following year the number increased to eleven hundred and
seventy-nine. At that time the water of the Vanne was substi-
tuted for the contaminated Seine water. The cases of the next
four years numbered, respectively, only two hundred and ninety-
nine, two hundred and seventy-six, two hundred and ninety-three,
and two hundred and fifty-eight. Last year the Vanne itself be-
came contaminated through an accident, the history of which has
been traced conclusively. The result was an increase of typhoid
cases in the Paris garrison to four hundred and thirty- six, of
which three hundred and ten occurred in the three months of
February, March, and April. During January and February of
the present year (1895) there were only eight cases in all.

The fact that typhoid fever comes and goes with impure drink-

2o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

iug water could hardly receive a more striking demonstration.
Yet the possibility has been realized in the experience of Melun,
a garrison town of about twelve thousand inhabitants, situated on
the Seine, twenty-eight miles above Paris. Here, in 1889, there
were one hundred and twenty-two cases of typhoid fever among
the soldiers. The Chamberland filters (Pasteur system) were
then introduced, and the cases of the following years numbered,
respectively, fifteen, six, two, seven, and seven again for 1894.
Suddenly, during the severe weather of February of this year,
twenty-eight dragoons, one after the other, came down with the
fever. The infantry battalion, living in the same barracks, had
not a single case. The secret was soon out. The filters had been
allowed to freeze and the soldiers were ordered to drink only the
weak infusion of tea furnished them, in which, of course, the
water was boiled. The dragoons had simply not obeyed, but had
helped themselves to the Seine water from the hydrants.

At Lorient, as in other districts of the coast of Brittany, ty-
phoid fever has long been endemic and still remains so among
the civil population. In the garrison, until 1889, there was an
average number of one hundred and seventy cases yearly. In
1890 filters were set up, with the result of a decrease in the cases
to fifty-eight for that year, while the three following years num-
bered only two, one, and one, respectively. In 1894 water was
brought into the barracks from a spring supposed to be pure. In
a short time eleven cases of typhoid fever declared themselves.
On examination it was discovered that the spring was contami-
nated, and the garrison ceased using it for a water supply. The
disease has now all but disappeared again.

Similar facts in connection with typhoid fever have been
verified in more than twenty widely separated garrison towns.
Of the cases which still appear where filtered water is used, the
cause has invariably been found, when investigation was possible,
to be some accidental use of contaminated water. Thus at Nantes,
in Brittany, endemic typhoid fever was reduced by the use of
filters to isolated cases. In 1893 there were seventeen, and in
1894 there were thirty cases needing explanation. It was soon
remarked that nearly all were among orderlies, who have the
habit of taking their meals in certain restaurants of the town.
In each of these places it was discovered that the water used was
polluted by infiltrations from privies. In four other garrison
towns the same fact was reported.

A final instance, which is also one of the most remarkable, is
that of Auxerre. Here one hundred and twenty-nine soldiers
were down with typhoid fever in 1892. Filters were set up, and
there was one single case in each of the two following years.

Only one objection has been urged against this triumph of the

HEALTH EXPERIMENTS IN THE FRENCH ARMY. 207

theory that pure water is a preservative against typhoid fever.
It is probably raore apparent than real. It concerns the attend-
ants on the sick in the military hospitals. These men can hardly
be exposed to the danger of drinking contaminated water, and
yet many of their number fall victims to each typhoid epidemic.
In their case the disease seems to have a real contagion. But it
should be remembered that the permanence of their service with
the sick undermines their strength until the system no longer
resists the action of the morbid germs, to which, moreover, they
are exposed in a thousand ways. Their case is no exception to
the rule that, under ordinary conditions of life, typhoid fever is
propagated only by impure drinking water.

With dysentery — that other enemy of the soldier, both in gar-
rison and during campaign — French military hygiene has not
proved itself so successful. Until 1892 there was even a steady
, increase of cases, though not of deaths. Since that time there
has been a diminution of cases and, in a measure, of deaths. So
far, the only amelioration seems to result from a constant super-
vision of the daily disinfecting of privies, and from a provision
of conveniences which spare the soldier the necessity of suddenly
exposing himself to the chill of night in crossing an open yard.

With cholera, on the other hand, the most encouraging prog-
ress has been made. The epidemic of 1893 cruelly tried the civil
population of Lorient. The garrison had but a single case. This
was a soldier who contracted the disease in Vannes, where he had
been in attendance on his mother, who died of it. The same
experience was repeated at Brest, where the civil population
suffered for months together. In the garrison only two cases
declared themselves from first to last. In Marseilles, out of nine-
teen cases there were only three deaths.

For measles and scarlatina the French army has found neither
remedy nor preventive. These diseases come to the barracks
from the civil population, among which they exist permanently.
Both have gone on increasing in the garrisons since 1887 — measles
with spasmodic intermittences, scarlatina steadily.

The most disquieting progress has been made by that strange
malady — la grippe. This alone, from the first months of the
present year, will give a high rate of mortality to 1895 among the
military as well as the civil population. Only one conclusion can
so far be drawn from the experience of the army. This is the
simple fact that the disease is a permanent danger which military
physicians have henceforth to foresee as they do cholera, cerebro-
spinal meningitis, and diphtheria.

The latter disease, formerly so rare among adults, has also
made alarming progress since 1888 among soldiers. It is now
hoped that the antitoxine (serum) of Dr. Roux will be as success-

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ful in dealing with the dangerous microbe in garrisons as it has
been in children's hospitals.

Vaccination continues to give satisfactory results against
smallpox. Certain attendant dangers, which are often alleged
against it, are avoided by the establishment of what are called
centres vaccinogenes, where military physicians supervise the
preparation of suitable vaccine. This, in the form of a glycerin-
ated pulp, has been distributed to the Madagascar expedition in
quantities sufficient for the revaccination of all the men during
the voyage out, and of all the porters and coolies that may be
needed after the arrival on the island.

In typhus, the lesson of the barracks confirms what has long
been thought to be the only safeguard against its spread. This is
the total isolation of cases. The disease, which is so peculiarly
contagious, seemed to have abandoned France (excepting certain
remote parts of Brittany) after the wars of the first Napoleon.
Two years ago it broke out among tramps in the workhouse of
Amiens, and soon appeared in Paris. It afterward spread among
the same class of the population, in and out of prison, through
different parts of the country. In the following year, 1894, it
broke out again, to the despair of the medical profession. It
seemed to have come back to stay, though the present prospect is
more favorable. During both these years there were only six
cases in the army. Of these, two occurred among military in-
firmarians who had volunteered their services for the civil hos-
pitals, and one was that of a gendarme whose duties brought
him in close contact with tramps already attacked by the disease.

Certain lessons of hygiene, which have been learned from
harsh experience by the army, are not yet appreciated by the
general public. One of these is the necessity of keeping in hos-
pitals those who are undoubtedly convalescent from epidemic or
contagious diseases. This is sorely against the will of families,
and often of the patients themselves, who demand permission to
complete the cure at home. Formerly, when this was granted, a
frequent consequence was a relapse, and, oftener still, a communi-
cation of the disease to a new circle of the population. This has
been especially observed of typhoid and eruptive fevers, dysen-
tery, and the grippe.

The French army also profits by all the recent discoveries in
destroying the germs of disease. Disinfecting apparatus has been
indulged in to such an extent that the health service is ready even
for an unusual epidemic. What the French oddly call " coal-
tarisation" is applied constantly to the woodwork of barracks.
Methods of permanent ventilation have also been adopted. Each
garrison is now being provided with a suitable hospital, and the
separate barracks have infirmaries well fitted up.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 209

The final result of all this solicitude for the health of the sol-
diers, who are the choice youth of the entire nation, is twofold :

First, the steady lowering of the mortality among them is of
itself an increase of strength to the army and the country. Thus,
during the last five years, on the score of typhoid fever alone,
hygiene has saved to France the lives of twelve hundred and
sixty-five soldiers. In the seven years from 1880 to 1886 the an-
nual death-rate was 8*43 per thousand. In the seven following
years it sank to 6*63, and in 1894 to 6*20 per thousand. Meanwhile,
the mortality among people who have not the advantage of living
under enforced hygiene remains at eleven per thousand.

Secondly, the compulsory military service, with all its disad-
vantages, gives the younger generation a strong training in prac-
tical hygiene. All able-bodied Frenchmen now learn, during a
term of years, the practice of bodily cleanliness and what consti-
tutes the health of habitation. These acquired habits they bring
back to civil life.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS.

By JOHN DENISON CHAMPLIN.

HOMER, in his famous catalogue of the Greek and Trojan
forces in the second book of the Iliad, enumerates more
than twenty towns around Lake Copais which contributed col-
lectively to the Greek fleet eighty ships, in each of which

"Were six score youths, Boeotia's noblest flower."

The district comprising the Copaic basin was at the time of
the Trojan war, and probably long anterior even to that, one of
the richest and most populous parts of Greece. Its wealth of
myth would prove this, even if historic record were wanting. A
circle with a radius of twelve or fifteen miles drawn around Co-
pais will include more sites famous in romance and in history
than almost any other place of like extent on earth. The Boeo-
tian plain is nearly shut in by mountains the bare mention of
whose names calls up a vast panorama of heroic figures, with a
shadowy background of demigods and of gods reaching back
into cloudland. Prominent above all is double-headed, snow-
crowned Parnassus, with Delphi at its feet, its flanks scarred with
caves and glens down which still leap the waters of Castaly.
South of it, hiding the Corinthian gulf, stretches the range of
Helicon, with its lovely valleys and ravines, home of Apollo and
the Muses. Still farther south is Cithseron, whose groves echoed
the revels of Bacchus and his train, and witnessed the punish-
ment meted to Acteon by the virgin goddess. Under its shadow

VOL. XLVIII. 15

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 2

11

lies Platsea, its soil enriched with the blood of Mardonius and his
Persians ; and not far away Leuctra, fatal to Sparta's power, and
Cadmean Thebes, home of QEdipus and of Antigone, birthplace
of Heracles and of Dionysus, where Amphion sang and the Epig-
oni fought.

The Copaic basin itself and its surrounding hills are dotted
with ruined cities. On the west shore of the lake Minyean Or-
chomenus, from whose colony of lolcus sailed Jason and the
Argonauts, still dominates the plain with its acropolis, its walls
two miles in circuit. Its temple of the Graces, with its musical
festivals, drew thither poets and singers from all the Hellenic
world. Homer compares its wealth with that of the Egyptian
Thebes, and so powerful was it that it held subject all the sur-
rounding region until Heracles slew its king and made it vassal
to Thebes. A little west of it is fatal Chseronea, where Philip of
Macedon rang the deathknell of Greece, and where, two and a
half centuries later, Sulla overthrew Mithridates. Between it and
Helicon lies Lebadea, where Croesus and Mardonius sought their
fate ftom the oracle of Zeus Trophonius ; and hard by is Coronea,
famous for its temple of the Itonian Artemis and the Pamboeotian
festival. Near the lake is Tilphusium, with its fountain of Til-
phusa, where blind Tiresias drank and died ; Alalcomense, which
claimed to be the birthplace of Athene; Haliartus, under whose
walls Lysander fell; Onchestus, founded by Poseidon's son, meet-
ing-place of the Amphictyonic Council ; Acrsephise, noted for its
oracle of Apollo ; and Medeon, Copse, Holmones, Hyettus, Hyle,
Peteon, and Ocalea, each famous in ancient story, and most of
which sent ships and troops to Troy.

With all these evidences of pre-Homeric prosperity, one is
tempted to ask, What has changed the conditions in this once
favored and still fertile land, which to-day supports but a few
thousand souls in scattered villages and hamlets ? We find the
answer in Strabo, who says : " The spot which the present Lake
Copais occupies was formerly, it is said, dry ground, and was cul-
tivated in various ways by the Orchomenians, who lived near it."
This traditional account, about the only record of the prehistoric
condition of the Copaic basin we possess, would seem to imply that
it was kept dry artificially, and we find a partial explanation in
other passages in which he describes certain subterraneous cav-
erns and fissures through which the waters were carried off. " If
the subterranean passages are stopped up, the waters of the lake
increase so as to inundate and cover cities and whole districts,
which become uncovered if the same or other passages are again
opened." The memory of such a catastrophe, caused by the stop-
page of the natural conduits, the result of seismic disturbances, as
Strabo intimates, or from want of care in consequence of political

212

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

disturbances, is embalmed doubtless in the tradition of the Ogy-
gean Deluge, Ogygea being the original name of Boeotia. A simi-
lar trouble must have occurred about the time of Alexander the
Great, who appears to have contemplated the reclaiming of the

.,..r-.--;.r4%'';':-*^- .•■.'-

Sustaining Wall of Masonry.

basin. Strabo says : " When the outlets were again obstructed.
Crates, the miner, a man of Chalcis, began to clear away the
obstructions, but desisted in consequence of the Boeotians being in
a state of insurrection, although, as he himself says in the letter
to Alexander, many places had been already drained/'

These statements of Strabo would lead to the inference that
the drainage of the basin by the ancients consisted only in keep-
ing free from obstruction certain subterraneous passages through
which the waters flowed to the sea ; and this would probably have
been the conclusion to-day but for the recent efforts of the Greek
government to reclaim the submerged lands. These efforts, under
the supervision of experienced engineers, have resulted in nearly
draining the basin, and have led to the discovery of a complete
ancient system of hydraulic works dating from so remote a period
that all record or tradition of their construction has been lost.
This system, so vast and comprehensive as to excite the wonder
of modern engineers, taking into consideration the primitive
appliances of the ancients, served to convert this now miasmatic
basin into a fruitful plain, the home, a thousand years before
our era, of a thriving and numerous population.

To give a clear conception of these ancient works and of the
problems which the prehistoric engineers had to solve, it will be
necessary to take a brief topographical survey of the region.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 213

Lake Copais is the receptacle of the drainage of the valley of the
Cephissus and of the plain of Chseronea, which is watered by the
Hyrcinus, Permessus, Olmeus, Lophis, and other streams that
descend from Helicon. All these streams flow in on the sonth
and west sides, where the shores of the lake are simply a continu-
ation of the adjacent plains ; but on the north, east, and southwest,
where the waters would naturally find an outlet to the sea, the
banks form steep, rocky shores.

At the southeast extremity the lake ends in the Bay of Car-
ditza, which is inclosed in a fold of Mount Sphingium, an off-
shoot of Helicon, and at the northeast in the Bay of Topolias or
Kephalari, inclosed in Mount Ptoum. A depression in the flank
of Sphingium is called the Hill of Carditza, and behind this, be-
tween it and Mount Ptoum, is a smaller lake, Hylice or Hylicus
(Likeri). Further east, near the seacoast, lies Mount Messapium,
with another small lake, called Paralimni, between it and Mount
Ptoum. A similar depression in Mount Ptoum, east of the Bay of
Kephalari, is called the Hill of Kephalari. The Copaic basin is

^

-^- 2

Plan of the Wells.

thus a natural cul-de-sac, with no apparent outlet ; but the pent-
up waters have worn fissures through the limestone rocks under-
lying the hills and formed for themselves, perhaps with some
volcanic aid, as Strabo suggests, subterraneous outlets into the
Euripus or channel of the sea between Boeotia and Euboea.
There are twenty- three of these subterraneous passages, locally
called Icatahothra, but many of them unite underground and
only four reach the surface on the east side of the hills. Of

2 14 T'HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

these four outlets, one passes southward under Mount Sphingium
into Lake Hylice or Likeri, from which there is probably a sub-
terraneous communication with Lake Paralimni and beyond it
with the sea. The three others pass eastward under Mount Ptoum
and its offshoots. The principal one, called the Katabothra of
Bynia, with two openings on the lake side, passes under the Hill
of Kephalari in a general direction from southwest to northeast,
and opens on the east side of the hill in a large grotto about forty-
five metres lower than its source, whence its waters flow through
the deep ravine of the Valley of Larymna into the sea.

Strabo says that Lake Copais is three hundred and eighty
stadia (about forty-seven miles) in circuit, but it differs greatly
at different seasons, sometimes threatening to inundate the whole
valley and sometimes forming only a series of fens overgrown
with reeds — the auletic or flute reeds of the ancients, from which
Pan's ^ pipes were made. Its bottom, which is ninety-five metres
above the sea, is a nearly level plain with a slight incline toward
the east and a little elevation in the center. Modern travelers,
from the time of Sir George Wheler upward, have noted on both
its north and its south shores the remains of ancient dykes, in some
parts re-enforced with masonry. These dykes, in several places
still used as roads, have generally been considered as ancient
causeways, means of communication in times of flood between the
towns on the banks ; but they are now shown to be parts of a sys-
tem of drainage canals by means of which the superfluous waters
of the basin were led to the katabothra under the hills.

The recession of the waters through the efforts of the present
engineers has shown that there were three main canals through
the entire length of the lake, branching at their western ends into
subsidiary canals or feeders for collecting the various tributary
waters. These main channels, which for convenience' sake we
will call the north, middle, and south canals, are constructed
partly of excavations and partly of a series of dykes or cause-
ways, strengthened where necessary by . walls of cyclopean ma-
sonry. The north canal, the most carefully and solidly con-
structed of the three, receives the waters of the Cephissus and
conducts them into a common channel with those of the Melas,
a stream which, rising near Orchomenus, is navigable almost
from its source. After their junction the waters flow through a
bed, formed on the north by the rocky shore of the lake and on
the south by a massive embankment re-enforced by masonry, be-
hind the island of Topolias, the site of ancient Copse. Thence the
canal leaves the shore and, embanked on both sides, crosses the
Bay of Kephalari and conducts its waters into the natural fissures
under the mountain. This double embankment, though partly
ruinous, is still plainly traceable.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 215

The middle canal, constructed to receive the waters of the
Hyrcinus, traverses the center of the lake and connects near the
east end with the south canal. Unlike the north canal it is made
wholly by excavation, the earth thrown out forming its banks,
and it is nowhere strengthened by masonry. The alluvial depos-
its from the stream have nearly obliterated it in parts, but its
course is easily traceable and in some places, especially near the
western end, the works exhibit formidable dimensions, showing
in cross-section an excavation of more than a hundred metres to
the lineal metre.

The south canal, for the reception of the waters of the Per-
messus, Olmeus, and other small streams from Helicon, starts
from the southwest end of the lake, and, following the south bank

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past Tilphusium and Haliartus, rounds the cliffs of Mount
Sphingium, a little distance from the shore, and unites probably
with the middle canal in the bay of Carditza. The two thus
united finally join the north canal in the Bay of Kephalari, and
the waters of all three are then conducted in a single channel
across the bay and into the several katabothra at its foot. Al-
though most of the first part of this canal is gone, parallel em-
bankments, more than fifty metres apart, inclosing an excavation,
are to be seen in places, occasionally strengthened with stone
work. At the junction of the several canals especially, the work
has been executed with great care, the dykes being sustained by
Cyclopean walls as solid and probably as ancient as those at
Myceene and Tiryns. Although the main waters of the south
canal were poured into the middle and finally into the north
canal, all along its course part of their volume was deflected

2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

through branch canals into the several katabothra along the
east shore. Indeed, the details of the system are much more com-
plicated than are indicated by this brief description, and com-
prise, in addition to the main canals, many smaller subsidiary
ones both for feeding and for draining them. When we take into
consideration the difficulties attending excavation in so marshy a
soil, and of transporting across it the heavy stones for the em-
bankments, and note the immensity of the plan and the thorough-
ness and solidity of its execution, we are moved to admiration for
the engineers who conceived and built the great works which
rendered this part of Boeotia habitable before the dawn of history.

The system involved, too, the clearing and the keeping open of
the katabothra, which were liable to become obstructed and some-
times to be entirely closed by the caving of the soil and rocks,
and there are many evidences of ancient efforts to enlarge and
deepen them. That these efforts were not always successful is
proved by the traditions of early inundations, referred to before,
caused probably by earthquakes, but which were attributed to
the efforts of Hercules when he espoused the cause of his native
Thebes against Orchomenus. To guard against the recurrence of
a similar catastrophe, the ancient engineers planned several cut-
tings and tunnels through the hills, which, if they had been car-
ried to completion, would have rounded out the original design
and accomplished what the Greek Government is to-day trying
to effect— the thorough reclamation of the basin and its protec-
tion from any contingency of flood. On the southeast shore of
the lake are vestiges of an immense cutting, thirty metres deep,
through the Hill of Carditza toward Lake Hylicus, and beyond
that traces of works to connect Hylicus with Paralimni, and the
latter with the sea. Across the Hill of Carditza, too, are a series
of excavated shafts marking the line of a tunnel through the hill
constructed with an object similar to that of the cutting — to con-
vey the waters to the sea through the smaller lakes ; but the shafts
are now filled up and there are no indications that the work was
ever completed.

This route is the one adopted by the modern engineers, who,
by a tunnel through the Hill of Carditza, not far from the line of
the ancient tunnel, seek to carry the waters into Lake Hylicus,
thence into Paralimni, and finally through another tunnel into
the sea. There is also a plan to deflect a portion of the waters for
use in irrigating the plain of Thebes.

A still more ambitious undertaking of the ancient engineers
was an attempt to penetrate the Hill of Kephalari at the north-
east end of the lake by a tunnel more than a mile and a quarter
long. This hill, a depression on the flank of Mount Ptoum, has a
maximum height of one hundred and forty-seven metres above

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 217

the sea and fifty-two metres above the bottom of Lake Copais.
Across this depression, from near the openings of the Katabothra
of Bynia in the Bay of Kephalari, runs a line of ancient wells or
shafts in a general direction from southwest to northeast, not in
a straight line, but following the contour of the hill, ending on
the east side not far from where the katabothra opens into the
Valley of Larymna. There are sixteen of these wells, cut through
the hard, gray limestone of which the mountain is composed, and
carefully squared, with an average horizontal section of three to
four metres. The first shaft, on the west side, is five hundred
metres from the lake ; the sixteenth, on the east side, two hundred
and twenty-five metres from the opening. The wells are at an
average distance from each other of about one hundred and sixty
metres, and the whole distance from opening to opening is about
twenty-four hundred metres.

These shafts are not mentioned by any ancient writer, but
have been frequently described by modern travelers, notably
by Forchhammer, who has given the most complete description

8S.53

LONGITIDIXAL SECTION BETWEEN WeLLS 15 AND 16.

of them. The general conclusion in regard to their object was
that they were designed to facilitate the clearing of the kata-
bothra when, from caving or other causes, it had become clogged ;
but in 1846, M. Sauvage, who examined the shafts critically and
cleared several of them, came to the conclusion that they were
part of a tunnel scheme, and were sunk with the purpose of giv-
ing many points of attack to the workmen engaged in excavating
the tunnel instead of a single one at each end. To the ancients,
ignorant of the use of explosives, this was of great importance,
for the cutting with hammer and chisel was arduous and slow.
Even with these numerous shafts, which must themselves have
been a difiicult undertaking, the excavation of so long a tunnel
would have cost the labor of many years. In 1882 several more
were cleared and thoroughly examined — the first and the second on
the west slope toward the lake and the thirteenth, fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth on the east slope of the hill. The first

2l8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

and the sixteenth wells are each eighteen metres deep, while the
sixth, at the summit of the hill, is sixty-six metres deep.

Sauvage concluded that the tunnel had been left unfinished,
which later examinations have fully proved. The fact that the
first and second wells contain water indicates that it had been
completed on the lake side for at least five hundred metres. The
exploration in 1882 of the thirteenth well, whose orifice is at an
elevation of 107'G8 metres, discovered, at a depth of 28'35 metres,
a horizontal gallery, 1'60 metre wide and 1*65 metre in the axis.

^^-t^*

Odtlet of Katabothra of Bynia.

cut in each direction about six metres. At 2' 15 metres below this
was found a second gallery of the same section, cut in the same
direction, and the shaft was excavated 270 metres farther down,
probably for use as a drainage well, ending in a level bottom, its
total depth being 36"50 metres. The fourteenth, fifteenth, and six-
teenth wells, at decreasing altitudes, show a similar interior dispo-
sition, save that in the fourteenth the gallery has been but slightly
advanced and there is no drainage well. In the fifteenth shaft,
which has a total depth of 78*93 metres, the upper gallery is cut
to a depth of five metres on the west and two metres on the east,
and the lower one 10*30 metres on the west and 10*70 on the east,
while the well is 4*70 metres deep. In the sixteenth well the up-

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 219

per gallery is cut only two metres on the west and none on the
east, the lower one seven metres on the west and 730 on the east,
with a well of 4'20 metres in depth. In the last shaft the two
galleries are three metres apart, and in the fifteenth only 2*15 me-
tres, thus showing a tendency to diverge. This would seem to
prove that there was no intention of ultimately uniting the two
galleries by cutting away the rock between. It is more probable
that the upper galleries were begun first, and that some consid-
eration induced the engineers to change the grade and give a
greater fall to the tunnel. The mean section of the lower gallery is
about two metres, the fall from Copais to its mouth is O'Oll metre
to the lineal metre, and its total length completed would have
been about twenty-four hundred metres. The cutting of so long
a tunnel through so hard a rock with the primitive means at the
disposal of the ancients shows not only an audacity of plan and
a persistent obstinacy in execution, but also a skill in the art of
the engineer and the miner that would be no discredit even to the
present age.

Who were the authors of these great works concerning which
history is silent and which are themselves their only witnesses ?
Perhaps this question will never be satisfactorily answered.
Leake and others attribute all, the wells of Kephalari as well as
the canals, to the Minyans, while some believe that Crates of
Chalcis was responsible for the parts exhibiting the most engi-
neering skill, and others ascribe them to some of the earlier Ro-
man emperors. Curtius, in his Die Deichbauten der Minyer, a
paper read before the Berlin Academy in 1892, carefully distin-
guishes two distinct works and methods of work: (1) the utiliza-
tion of the natural exutories toward which the waters were led by
means of dykes and canals, and (2) the formation of an artificial
emissary to draw off either all the water or the excess of water
from the lake. The first, grand and simple in design, he attrib-
utes to the primitive or Homeric age ; the last, marked by careful
calculation and executed with the skill of the practiced engineer,
he ascribes to the age of Alexander, and presumably to Crates,
the only name mentioned in connection with it. Unless the
future shall bring to light some inscribed stone or other monu-
ment which shall give us definite information concerning the
promoter who planned or the engineer who executed these vast
works, we shall have to accept the judgment of Curtius and give
the credit of them to Crates, the miner of Chalcis.*

* I am indebted for much of the material in this article to two articles, by Michel L.
Kambanis, in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, published in 1892 and 1893, enti-
tled Le Dessechement du Lac Copais par les Anciens ; and to an article by Dr. Alfred
Philippson, in the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1894, entitled Der
Kopais-See in Griechenland und seine Umgebung.

220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK AND THE RELIGION OF
SAVAGES.

By The Vkry Rev. JAMES CARMICHAEL,

PEAK OF MONTREAL.

THE question as to whether there are races or tribes on the
earth entirely without a religion is one that demands on its
threshold a definition of the word " religion." That it can not
fairly be tied down to advanced forms of belief seems apparent,
and hence the necessity of falling back on the original meaning
of the word — i. e., that of binding fast the human mind to a sense
of the obligation which it owes to supernatural powers. Civiliza-
tion, education, may make this obligation clearer, and a professed
revelation may bring before the mind the attributes of the powers
to whom the obligation is felt to be due ; but, as long as the obli-
gation is mentally present and the force of the obligation fashions
to any important extent not only personal but tribal conduct, so
long in fairness we seem bound to acknowledge the religiousness
of such persons or tribes, even though such religiousness may
never create a theology, or a cut-and-dried system of doctrinal
truths.

If this definition of religion be accepted, then it may boldly be
asserted that, as far as is known, there is not a tribe on the face of
the earth without a religion ; indeed, it may be said that, of all
human ideas that in any form influence the mind and conduct of
man, there is no idea so widespread and influential as the re-
ligious idea. To us, living as we think in the light of reason or
revelation, such religious ideas may appear unworthy of the
name, but when we consider that the most indefinite belief may
— and indeed, as a rule, does — lead a savage to fashion his con-
duct in accordance with what he believes to be the will of higher
powers, as far as personal actions are concerned, he stands on ex-
actly the same platform as the most devoted believer in natural
or revealed religion.

In such cases, as far as the use of the word religion is con-
cerned, it matters little what the mental idea of the higher power
or powers believed in may be. That idea may center itself in a
supreme God, or a Trinity of gods, or a multitude of gods, or in
good and evil spirits, or in gods dwelling temporarily in com-
mon things, or in the spirits of dead ancestors or friends, but as
long as any one of such powers demands and receives obedience,
and as such obedience fashions life, the most indefinite spirit is
practically as powerful as the most clearly defined god. And the
same may be said with reference to forms or methods of worship.
If the worship, whatever form it takes, is regarded as a necessity.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 221

or a privilege, or a charm, or a preservative against evil, or an
engine of evil against others, it matters little as to whether it be
rendered to God, or spirit, or goblin, or devil, because, whatever
the worship is rendered to, the worshiper honestly feels he is in
the presence of one whose power is needed to aid him in his life
or work, and without whose help he can not be successful.

The chief contestant of universal religiousness has been, and
is. Sir John Lubbock, although the force of circumstances has
driven him of late to change his mode of presenting his contest.
In the earlier editions of his Prehistoric Times he claims that
" almost all the most savage races " are " entirely without a re-
ligion," " without idea of deity," and that the " almost universal
testimony of travelers " supports this assertion. In his fifth edi-
tion (1890) he still claims that " almost all the savage races " are
" entirely without a religion, without idea of deity," but he pro-
ceeds to define what religion is not. It is not " a mere fear of the
unknown," it is not " a more or less vague belief in witchcraft,"
it is something " higher " than all this ; and if this " higher esti-
mate " of religion be adopted then his original assertion remains
true, that " many, if not all, of the most savage races " are " entire-
ly without a religion, without any idea of a deity." The object of
this definition of the word religion is plain. Between the years
1869 and 1890 evidence as to the religiousness of savage tribes
kept pouring in from all quarters of the world ; the list of un-
believing savages made public by Sir John Lubbock in 1869
was seriously interfered with, and the position taken by Waitz,
that " the religious element, so far from being absent from uncul-
tured peoples, influences their whole conception of Nature," was
powerfully substantiated. Then Sir John Lubbock repairs his
damaged argument, working with the implements of the most
bigoted member of an old-fashioned missionary society. He de-
fines religion as something spiritually " higher " than the belief
of a Hottentot or Eskimo, and then repeats his assertion of 1869
that " all of the most savage races are entirely without " such " a
religion."

Sir John Lubbock's method (pursued consistently through all
editions) of adducing evidence in favor of his assertion as to the
non-religiousness of savage tribes is palpably unreliable, as far
as he professes to give the full intention of the authors quoted.
Bates, Caillie, Ross, and others certainly say all that Sir John
Lubbock quotes, but they say much more ; and what is left un-
quoted often throws a totally different light on each quotation.
He quotes Caillie as follows: "I tried to discover whether the
Foulahs (of Wassoula, in central Africa) had any religion of
their own ; whether they worshiped fetiches, or the sun, moon,
or stars; but I could never perceive any religious ceremony

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

among them." * Here Sir John Lubbock plainly means to teach,
on the authority of Caillie, that the Foulahs were not even fetich-
worshipers; that they were positively without any religion of
their own. But if he had read Caillie more carefully — read the
context as well as the text — he would have discovered that the
Foulahs and kindred tribes were idolaters ; for that well-known
explorer goes on to say : " Wassoula is a country inhabited by
idolatrous Foulahs ; they carry on little traffic, and never travel ;
their idolatry would indeed expose them to the most dreadful
slavery if they did. . . . They have each several wives, like all
other idolaters." It is plain that Caillie here makes a distinction
between higher forms of worship and the grosser worship of
images. He sought for the higher form of worship, and found
no trace of it, but he evidently found the grosser form, or evi-
dence of it. And it was this grosser form of idolatry that made
it dangerous for the Foulahs to travel outside of their limits ; for,
if they had done so, they would have come into contact with
Mohammedanism, pledged to the extirpation of idolatry, and in
many countries to the enslavement of persistent idolaters.

The same lack of thoroughness in quotation is noticeable in
Lubbock's treatment of the testimony of Bates as to the Brazilian
Indians. He says, " According to Bates, ' none of the tribes on
the upper Amazons have an idea of a Supreme Being, and conse-
quently have no word to express it in their language.'" This
quotation is perfectly correct, but it does not imply what Sir
John Lubbock is seeking to prove — namely, that " almost all the
savage tribes are entirely without a religion." It simply affirms
that Brazilian Indians do not believe in a Supreme Being — an
affirmation that might fairly be made with reference to many
tribes whose beliefs are very apparent. But in no sense can
Bates be quoted as a witness to the absence of religious belief
among Brazilian Indians; his testimony runs in the opposite
direction. "The mind of the Indian," he writes, "is in a very
primitive condition. He has no idea of a Supreme Being, but at
the same time he is free from revolting superstitions, his re-
ligious notions going no further than belief in an evil spirit, re-
garded merely as a kind of hobgoblin who is at the bottom of all
his failures in fishing, hunting, and so forth." \ In this testimony
the word "hobgoblin" depreciates in our minds the character of
this supernatural being, but few if any savages have such a word
in their mental vocabulary. Few if any evil spirits worshiped
by savages unite in them the clumsiness and trickery of a hob-
goblin ; their evil, awful spirits are terrors, entering into all as-

* Travels to Timbuctoo, vol. i, p. 303.

f Bates's Life in the Amazons, vol. ii, p. 137.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 223

pects of life, filled with malignant purposes, and demanding con-
stant worship to propitiate them. Thus the Indians of Caracas,
in Venezuela, north of Brazil, while believing in good spirits,
render all their worship and offer all their sacrifices to a great
evil spirit, and do so because they feel that the good spirits are
naturally friendly and do not require to be lured on to perform
beneficent actions.

Sir John Lubbock's quotation from Ross as to the Eskimo is
equally lacking in thoroughness. Here is his quotation in full :
"Speaking of the Eskimo, Ross says: ' Ervick, being the senior
of the first party that came on board, was judged to be the most
proper person to question on the subject of religion. I directed
Sacheuse to ask him if he had any knowledge of a Supreme
Being ; but, after trying every word used in his language to ex-
press it, he could not make him understand what he meant. It
was distinctly ascertained that he did not worship the sun, moon,
stars, or any image or living creature. When asked what the
sun or moon was for, he said, to give light. He had no knowl-
edge or idea how he came into being, or of a future state ; but
said that when he died he would be put into the ground. Having
fully ascertained that he had no idea of a beneficent Supreme
Being, I proceeded, through Sacheuse, to inquire if he believed in
an evil spirit ; but he could not be made to understand what it
meant." ..." He was positive that in this incantation he did not
receive assistance from anything ; nor could he be made to under-
stand what a good or evil spirit meant.' "

This quotation, standing as it does alone, is unintentionally
unfair to Ross, for Sir John Lubbock either did not notice, or has
forgotten to quote, words used by Ross elsewhere with reference
to the Eskimo, although such words are very important. He
says: "Although there is no proof whatever that this people have
any idea of a Supreme Being, or of a spirit, good or bad, the cir-
cumstance of their having conjurers, and of their going to the
moon after death, are of a nature to prevent any conclusion from
being drawn to that effect ; especially as it must be evident that
our knowledge of their language was too imperfect to obtain the
whole of their ideas on the subject."*

It scarcely required these honest words of Ross, written, no
doubt, to prevent mistakes being made, because in the quotation
as given by Sir John Lubbock nothing can be clearer than the
fact that Ervick did not understand the questions put to him.
"I directed Sacheuse to ask him if had any knowledge of a Su-
preme Being, but after trying every word used in his own lan-
guage to express it, he could not make him understand what he

* Ross, Voyage of Discovery.

224 THE POPULAB SCIEI^CE MONTHLY.

meant" " I proceeded, through Sacheuse, to inquire if he believed
in an evil spirit ; but he could not be made to understand tvhat it
meant. He coidd 7\ot he made to understand what a good or evil
spirit meant." The probable fact of the matter was that Sacheuse
could not speak the Eskimo dialect of those he was catechising.
If he did not speak to them in " an unknown tongue," he certainly
did in an unfamiliar tongue, the result being a general misunder-
standing all round. If Sacheuse had been able to ask his listeners,
" Do you believe in a benevolent Creator called * Torngarsuk ' or
' Anguta ' ? " it is most likely he would have received his answer in
the shape of a definite affirmative.

" On Damood Island, between Australia and New Guinea,"
writes Sir John Lubbock, " Jukes could find no traces of any re-
ligious belief or observance." * This certainly is not to be won-
dered at, as he only spent part of a day there (March 21, 1845),
and the effort at interchange of views was singularly weak, as
the natives knew only a few words of English, and the English
visitors knew nothing of the native language. The portion of the
day spent on the island was taken up with bartering with the
natives on the seashore, and during part of this time Captain
Blackwood and Mr. Jukes struck " off for a walk across the island,"
in company with one of the natives. During this walk Jukes
noticed a superior kind of house which he thought might have
been a temple or a place for depositing the dead, or a chiefs house,
but " they could not make out which," for the simple reason that
they could not communicate with their guide.

The case of the Aru Islanders is a striking instance of Sir
John's method of quotation. Here are his words : " Mr. Wallace,
who had excellent opportunities for judging, and whose merits as
an observer no one can question, tells us that in the Aru Islands
he could find no trace of a religion ; adding, however, that he was
but a short time among them." \ Mr. Wallace, however, does not
agree with Sir John Lubbock as to his " excellent opportunities
for judging," for he says, " I could not get much real knowledge of
the customs of the Aru people during the short time I was among
them." The natives, he tells us, when in contact with foreign races
were reserved and taciturn ; and that as he could not speak the Aru
language, and the natives had " an imperfect knowledge of Malay,"
he could not " make out very clearly " what at times they said. " I
saw no signs of any religion " may mean that, in his rambles as a
naturalist through the country about Wanumbai, he never came
across anything like a temple or altar. Indeed, no one can read
Mr. Wallace's singularly interesting book without noticing that he

* Jukes, Voyage of the Fly, vol. i, p. 164.
f Wallace, Malayan Archipelago.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 225

apparently made no well- sustained effort at religious investiga-
tion at Aru or anywhere else.

The following gives evidence of further carelessness in quot-
ing : In writing of certain tribes in the country of Karaque in
Africa, Sir John says, "Captain Grant could find no distinct
form of religion in some of the comparatively civilized tribes
visited by him." * What Captain Grant says is this : " We could
not trace any distinct form of religion among this interesting race,
but there were certain indications or traces of Jewish worship."
Then Captain Grant tells us that the king had "many super-
stitions " ; that he " combined in himself the offices of prophet,
priest, and king " ; that on the feast of the new moon he " assumed
the priestly garb " ; and that a younger brother of his " consulted
daily with the gods," and was considered a greater prophet and
priest than his royal brother.

"According to Burchell," writes Sir John, "the Bachapins
(Kaffirs) had no form of worship or religion. They had no belief
in a good deity, but some vague idea of an evil being."! One
would glean from this quotation that the only approach to reli-
gious thought among the Bachapins consisted of a vague belief
in an evil spirit, whereas Burchell distinctly states that they
possessed a religion, although he believed they had no " form of
worship " or " religion." What he says is this : " Their religion
may be characterized as an inconsistent jumble of superstition
and ignorance, among which no signs were to be discovered of its
having ever been derived from any purer source, or that it was
aught else than the offspring of barbarous and uncultivated
minds." He then further states : " The superstition of the Bacha-
pins — for it can not be called a religion (although he himself had
called it so) — is of the weakest and most absurd kind. These
people have no outward worship, nor, if one may judge from
their never alluding to them, any private devotions; neither
could it be discovered that they possessed any very defined or ex-
alted notion of a supreme and beneficent deity, or of a great and
first creator. Although they do not worship a good deity, they
fear a bad one, whom they name Mooleemo, a word which my in-
terpreter translated by the Dutch word for devil. They also
believe in amulets as preservatives against evil, in lucky and un-
lucky omens, in witchcraft and sorcery."

Now, if language -means anything, BurchelPs testimony may
be summed up thus : " The Bachapin Kaffirs possess a religion
scarce worthy of the name, consisting of witchcraft and sorcery
and the recognition of an evil spirit called Mooleemo. Their no-

* A Walk across Africa, p. 145,

t Travels in South Africa, vol. ii, p. 550.

TOL. XLYIII.— 16

226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions with regard to a supreme and beneficent deity, or of a great
and first creator, are indefinite and degraded ; they have no out-
ward worship, and they never alluded to their offering private
devotions." All this, however, implies a great deal more than
Sir John's bare statement, "According to Burchell, the Bachapins
(Kaffirs) had no form of religion and worship," etc.

" Some of the Australian tribes," writes Sir John, " are said to
have no religion," and he gives as his authority for this state-
ment a reference to Collins.* Sir John does not quote literally
from Collins ; he sums up his testimony, but his mode of doing
so is scarcely satisfactory. For Collins, while stating that the
Australians worshiped neither sun, moon, nor stars, or any object,
admits that those he came in contact with had " some idea of a
future life " ; that the greater number of them believed that after
death they " went to the clouds." Conversing with Ben-nil-long
as to where the black men came from, his answer was, " They came
from the clouds, and when they died they returned to the clouds —
Boo-row-e," and he endeavored to make Collins understand that
when the black men died " they ascended as little children." Col-
lins further states that these Australians have ideas of the distinc-
tion between good and bad, and of right and wrong, but their
knowledge of the difference between right and wrong never ex-
tended beyond their existence in this world, and their ideas about
the future state had no influence on their lives and actions — an
assertion that might, unfortunately, be truthfully made in con-
nection with the religious views of many professing Christians.

In dealing with the lake tribes of Central Africa Sir John
gives Burton as his authority for stating that some of them " ad-
mit neither God, nor angel, nor devil." His words are : " Burton
also states that some of the tribes in the lake districts of Central
Africa ' admit neither God, nor angel, nor devil.' " t This quota-
tion is very meager, and its meagerness is scarcely just toward
Burton. Burton is describing f etichism, which he says " admits
neither God, nor angel, nor devil " — a statement certainly open to
argument — and then he proceeds as follows: "Fetichism," he
writes, " is the adoration, or rather the propitiation, of natural
objects, animate or inanimate — to which certain mysterious in-
fluences are attributed. Though instinctively conscious of a
Being beyond them, of a first cause to every effect subject to
their senses, the Africans have as yet failed to grasp the idea, in
their feeble minds it is an embryo rather than an object, at the
best a vague god, without personality, attributes, or providence.
They call that being Mulungu — the Ahlunga of the Kaffirs, and

* English Colony in New South Wales, p. 354.

f Transactions of the Ethnological Society, New Series, vol. i, p. 323.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 227

tlie Utita of the Hottentots. The term, however, may mean a
ghost, the firmament, or the sun/'

Sir John's method of quotation sometimes implies total unbe-
lief without asserting it, as in his quotation from Father Dobritz-
hoffer with regard to the Abipones. The words quoted are, " The
whole language of these savages does not contain a single word
which expresses God or a divinity/' * These words taken alone
imply atheism, or something akin to it, but in common fairness
they should not be taken alone, for Dobritzhoffer tells us that the
Abipones hold a somewhat defined faith. They believe in an evil
spirit called Groaperikie — i. e.. Grandfather — who is represented in
the heavens by the Pleiades. In the month of May, on the reap-
pearance of the constellation, they welcome their Grandfather
back with joyful shouts, as if he had recovered from sickness,
and with the hymn, " What thanks do we owe thee ! And art
thou returned at last ? Ah ! thou hast happily recovered."
Next day they go out to seek honey to make mead, and as soon
as that is prepared they assemble in one place at the setting of
the sun to make public demonstration of gladness. Dobritzhoffer
further tells us that the Abipones, and indeed all the nations in
Paraguay, believe in a system of conjuring, the conjurers being
invested with great powers by the evil spirit Grandfather.
" From their custom of calling up the shades of the dead, we may
deduce that they believe in the immortality of the soul, as may
also be collected from their rites and conversation. The other
people of Paraguay hold the same opinion as to the immortality
of the soul. The jugglers perform the office of priests."

Colden's testimony as to the " Five Nation " Indians of Canada
is presented by Sir John Lubbock in such a way as to imply far
more than Golden intended. Sir John says, " Golden, who had
ample means of judging, assures us that the celebrated 'Five
Nations' of Ganada had no public worship or any name for
God." t Golden certainly does tell us that " they have no kind of
public worship," but he plainly never meant to imply that they
had no idea of God because they could not express that idea in
one word. What he says is this : " I am told they have no radi-
cal word to express God, but use a compound word, signifying
the Preserver, Sustainer, or Master of the universe."

When one considers the influence that Sir John Lubbock's
Prehistoric Times has had on the reading public, and the shock
that his statements as to the utter irreligiousness of certain tribes
gave many of his readers, one feels inclined to question his au-
thority as a teacher, when his quotations are submitted to the
simple test of verification. One wonders how such a man as Sir

* Account of Abipones, vol. ii, p. 57. f The Five Nations of Canada.

2 28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

John Lubbock could gather into the compass of a few concluding
pages of a really great work such a tissue of misguiding infor-
mation. His character testifies that he could not do so inten-
tionally, and it is not likely that his religious views are of such a
nature as to lead him to rule outside of the pale of religious be-
lief all who do not use a systematic form of worship, or do not
acknowledge in creedlike fashion the person of the Divine Being.
The only feasible explanation seems to be found in that peculiar
blindness which all students know is apt to fall on the eyes of
those who are striving to gather material to support a pet theory.
In such cases, as the eye runs down page after page of close print,
seeking for a scrap of information here or there, it naturally selects
the sentence favorable to the theory, and passes over or does not see
unfavorable sentences that may contain much more valuable in-
formation. Where such a method of investigation is pursued as
a basis for quotation, a singularly strong case can commonly be
presented on behalf of the theory ; above all, where the works re-
lied on have, on account of their age, passed out of general cir-
culation. But such a method is palpably unscientific, being cal-
culated to give a partial view of the point at issue, whatever that
may be. If Sir John Lubbock, in the hurry of a busy life, has
not fallen under this common temptation, then one knows not
how to explain the extraordinary fact that one of the keenest
minds in the English scientific world has so persistently left
undone what he ought to have done, and done what he ought not
to have done, as he gave to the public quotations from other
writers.

Another strange fact is apparent. Prehistoric Times has gone
through five editions, the first being published in 1859, the sec-
ond in 1869, and the fifth in 1890. During this period of time in-
vestigations into the habits, customs, and religions of isolated and
barbarous tribes have been very widespread, and the harvest of
information reaped has been very large. But greater light has
made no change in Sir John's authorities. Jukes, Collins, Bur-
chell, Caillie, Dobritzhoff er, and Catlin maintain their time-honored
position, and the harvest of modern investigation might never
have been reaped, as far as Sir John is concerned. It is not the.
object of this article to enter into this harvest field, though the
subject is in every way interesting and the facts close to hand.
But a noble work lies before Sir John Lubbock, namely, that of
reviewing his original statements in the light of modern investi-
gation, and proceeding to prove the position that there is not a
well-authenticated case of a single tribe on the face of the earth
wholly destitute of the religious idea.

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS. zzg

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS.

By LAENAS GIFFOED WELD.

SPREAD out before you a chart of the South Pacific — one
upon which are set down the many details useful to the
navigator of this strangely interesting region. Besides the in-
tricate labyrinth of islands, reefs, rocks, and shoals which are
scattered over its surface, there are recorded the variations of the
compass, the directions of the ocean currents, and the results
of countless soundings. Running your pencil through all the
points on this map for which the indicated depth is fifteen hun-
dred fathoms or thereabouts, you will be able to trace out an
irregular and more or less interrupted band, extending from the
East Indian seas nearly to the coast of South America. Within
the area thus marked out the sea is comparatively shallow ; so
that, were its bed to be elevated some thousands of feet, we
should see emerging from its surface a vast continental area,
bordered on the north and south by open seas.

We are told that such a continent once really existed, but
that for thousands of years it has been slowly subsiding. The
coral polyp has all this time been building up the countless reefs
and atolls of this region, keeping their summits flush with the
surface of the sea as the subsidence has gone on ; so that here,
instead of the dull monotony of an ocean desert, we have one of the
most striking physical features of the globe. There are volcanic
masses among these coral islands which, rising some few thou-
sand feet above the level of the great barrier reefs that surround
them, may be looked upon as remnants of this vanishing conti-
nent of the Pacific. Among these ancient landmarks none are of
more interest than the great Fiji group of islands.

Until within quite recent years the word Fiji was regarded as
a synonym for all that is barbaric ; and if that epithet, " King
of the Cannibal Islands," ever had any real claimant, it must have
been in the person of Thakombau, the native potentate who
played so important a part in the history of Fiji from the time
of its first settlement by Europeans till it was formally annexed
by Great Britain.

This regenerate old cannibal had spent the first forty years of
his life in wars with his neighboring chiefs and in the practice of
the most horrible barbarities. The strangling of his own mother
and of his father's four other wives was only a part of the usual
ceremony attending the assumption of the title of Tui Viti, or
King of Fiji. Thakombau was, however, not hostile to the
Wesleyan missionaries who had established themselves within
his domain ; but, while he listened respectfully to their remon-

230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

strances, lie remained a determined heathen. This continued so
long as he was prosperous ; but when, in 1854, tribe after tribe had
successfully rebelled against him, he began to listen more favor-
ably to the counsels of the Christians. On the 30th of April of
that year he gave orders that the great drums at his capital,
which had been used till then to summon his people to cannibal
feasts, should be beaten to call them together at the mission
house to worship the true God. Two years later, having remained
true to his new faith, he was united in Christian marriage to his
favorite wife, and they were together baptized.

It was the same king who, at a later period, finding himself
a mere puppet in the hands of foreigners, who had formed them-
selves into a government, of which he was the nominal head,
brought about a general appeal from the most powerful chiefs to
England's Queen for protection — an appeal which was, in 1874,
listened to with favor. Upon this occasion Thakombau sent to
Queen Victoria his favorite war club, which he himself styled
" the former, and until recently the only known, law of Fiji."

The territory thus acquired by the British Empire comprises
over two hundred islands of various sizes, some seventy-five of
which are inhabited. The largest, Viti Levu, is oval in form, and
has an area nearly equal to that of the State of Connecticut.
Vanua Levu, lying to the northeast of Viti Levu, rather exceeds
Delaware in size. Between these two islands, which are by far
the largest in the group, is a channel some thirty miles in width ;
but the sea here, as well as over an immense area to the north, is
so full of coral patches that navigation is exceedingly dangerous.
The southern shores of the islands are more accessible, and afford
many excellent harbors, of which that of Suva, the English capi-
tal, on the southeast coast of Viti Levu, is the best.

The study of the difference in the character of the northern
and southern aspects of the larger islands affords an interesting
lesson in physical geography. Thrust upward into the currents
of the southeast trade winds to a height of over four thousand feet,
the mountain ranges act as huge condensers, precipitating in
torrents of rain the moisture which these currents have absorbed
from the open sea. This condensation takes place principally as
the winds blow up the southern mountain slopes, so that com-
paratively little rain falls upon the north side of the islands.
The largest streams, therefore, flow back down the southern
slopes to the sea, where they discharge immense volumes of fresh
water. As fresh water is fatal to most species of coral polyps, we
find here, along the southern coast, comparatively few of those
dangerous reefs that fringe the islands on the north.

The fertility of the soil, which in the valleys and on all the
southern slopes is thoroughly saturated with moisture, is quite

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS. 231

equal to that of other similar regions. In the dense tropical
forests, which cover large areas, tree ferns, screw pines, and a
multitude of other strange forms contend with one another for
the light of day, while affording nourishment to an immense
variety of epiphytic mosses, lianas, and ferns, which connect the
larger stems and branches with an almost impenetrable network
of green.

There are few really indigenous species of animals ; rats and
flying foxes being the only mammals. As to the others now
found here, the names by which they are known point to their
European origin; thus we have seepi (sheep), goti (goat), collie
(dog), pussi (cat), etc. Even the hogs and fowls which run wild
in the jungles came originally from the Friendly Islands, where
they were introduced by the early navigators.

Living in such a little world as this, the Fijians were of neces-
sity much in advance of the races inhabiting the neighboring
Pacific islands. The struggle for securing and holding this fair
domain must of itself have led to its possession by a superior
race. We find evidences of this superiority not only in the splen-
did physical development of the Fijians, but also in their rela-
tively advanced religious notions and in their rather elaborate
system of mythology. One traveler has likened this people, in
some respects, to the primitive Greeks. If we compare the petty
maritime enterprises celebrated in Fijian song and story with
those recorded by the early Greek poets, we may imagine the dif-
ference to be in some measure due to the difference in character
of the two archipelagoes which were their respective scenes of
action. Upon taking the trouble to translate certain books of
Homer into Fijian it was found that their recital was listened to
by a company of these untutored savages with the most appreci-
ative attention. This fact certainly speaks well for the mental
quality of the race. The one foul blot upon the character of the
Fijians was their cannibalism ; but, in view of the readiness with
which they have abandoned this practice, now that animal food
can be easily obtained, we must hold Nature responsible, not only
for this curse, but also for the many other barbarities attend-
ing it.

The national character of Fiji finds its best expression in the
songs once common among the natives, but now, under Christian
influences, almost obsolete. These songs or mekkes, as they are
called, generally recount the story of some ancient hero, of some
military campaign or naval expedition, or perhaps of a peaceful
fishing excursion. They are generally sung of evenings by the
men only, who assemble for the purpose in one of their long, low
huts. Here they sit in solemn state on mats laid upon the ground,
the only light being that of a smoky fire in one end. According

232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

to Major Abercrombie, an eyewitness of the ceremony, one man
begins the chant alone ; a second soon joins him, then a few more,
till finally all present have taken it up, accompanying the wild
music by much pantomime and earnest gesticulation. The time
is beaten upon a wooden drum by one of their number, and is
occasionally accentuated by a general clapping of the hands.
After a certain climax has been reached, the music stops quite
abruptly with one loud clap.

Yangona, the national beverage, is then served. This liquor
is brewed with much formality, accompanied by low chanting.
The great wooden bowl having been brought into the center of
the room, the operator in charge sits down cross-legged before it.
The yangona root is grated (it was formerly chewed by young
men selected for the purpose) and deposited in the bowl, the in-
side of which has, from long use, become covered with a beautiful
j)urple enamel. The requisite number of cocoanut shells of water
are measured out and poured over the grated root, the whole
being stirred to the music of a solemn chant. The floating par-
ticles of the grated root are collected and removed by means of a
net of hibiscus fibers skillfully handled by the person in charge of
the brew. The liquor thus prepared is handed round in cups of
cocoanut shell, the chief being the first to drink. Taking the
cup between his two palms, he slowly swallows its contents with-
out removing it from his lips, while the onlookers join in a meas-
ured clapping of the hands. When the cup is finally thrown
down with a spinning motion, to show that it is empty, all unite
in the chorus, ".4 matha, a matha" — it is finished. The others
now drink in a certain order of precedence. The liquor is of a
dirty yellow color and has a bitter, aromatic taste, not altogether
disagreeable. Used in moderation, it acts as a stimulant, but if
indulged in too freely a temporary paralysis of the lower extrem-
ities follows, and the victim, while perfectly rational, reels and
staggers as if drunk.

It is at these meetings around the yangona bowl that the nu-
merous legends and fables of which the Fijians were passionately
fond have been handed down in song from generation to genera-
tion. As a specimen of these mythical tales we give one which
has been rescued from oblivion by the Rev. Thomas Williams
and recorded by Mrs. C. F. Gordon Gumming in her At Home in
Fiji. It tells of a gigantic bird called " Duck of the Rock." This
monster carried off Tutu Wathi Wathi, the beautiful wife of the
god Okovo and sister of Rokoua. The two gods gave chase in a
large canoe, and as they voyaged came to an island inhabited by
beautiful goddesses. Here the brother wished to remain, but, the
husband protesting, they sailed on to the Yasawas, the most west-
erly isles of the group. Here was the cavern in which dwelt the

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS. 233

great bird, but it was empty, and they found only one little finger
of the hapless Tutu Wathi Wathi. The angry gods now swore to
avenge her death, when presently they saw the monster approach-
ing, his great wings darkening the sea like the shadow of a storm
cloud. In his beak he carried five large turtles and in his talons
ten porpoises. These he deposited upon the rocks and proceeded
to devour, while Okovo prayed the other gods to help him by
sending a storm of wind. The prayer was answered, and a sudden
gust ruffled the feathers of the monster, so that Rokoua was able
to force a spear through an unprotected spot into his vitals. Hav-
ing thus accomplished their just revenge, they took one of the
smallest feathers for a new sail, and then cast the dead body into the
sea, causing such a surge as to " flood the foundations of the sky."

It is to be regretted that these legends have not been more
carefully collected by the earlier settlers in Fiji. Even the few of
them which have been preserved exhibit a truly interesting na-
tional character. But this national character has been lost since
the advent of the European. The Fijian of to-day does not like
to be reminded in any way of the old days when cannibalism was
in vogue. He is exceedingly sensitive to the sneer of the white
man. While the race has been partially rescued from barbarism,
it has lost its old vigor and spirit. The native population has of
late years been decreasing at an alarming rate. An epidemic of
measles, heedlessly introduced in 1875, carried off fifty thousand
souls, about one third of the whole population of the islands.
Fiji is but the vestige of a former continent, which has gone down
beneath the steadily encroaching sea. The Fijians are fast be-
coming, before the resistless encroachments of the European, only
the vestige of a former race.

We have here now a well-ordered British colony. Sugar, cot-
ton, wool, tobacco, bananas, cocoanuts, and other agricultural
products are exported in great quantities. The extensive planta-
tions are worked largely by laborers introduced from India and
the neighboring Pacific islands. But as a colony Fiji does not
prosper. Better times are looked for when the Nicaragua Canal
shall have become a reality, as these islands lie upon the great
commercial route which will then be established between Eng-
land and Australia.

Enumerating the applications that have been or may be made of
zoology to the arts and industries, Dr. William A. Hardman showed, in the
British Association, that biological principles dominate medicine and sur-
gery ; bacteriology and brewing depend on the study of microscopic organ-
isms; economic entomology is of value in agriculture; and zoology has a
practical application to the fishing industry.

234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

MIRACLES m FRENCH CANADA.

By EDWAED FAREER.

THE village of Beauprd, on the north shore of the St. Law-
rence, twenty-one miles east of Quebec, is famous as the
chief seat in America of the cult of Saint Anne, mother of the
Virgin Mary. About 1620 a Breton crew, struck by a tempest
off the lower end of the Isle of Orleans, vowed a sanctuary to her
if she would rescue them, and on being driven ashore at Beaupr^,
then known as Petit Cap, built her a log chapel. A large wooden
church was afterward put up, and in it Laval, first Bishop of New
France, whose spiritual empire was so vast that it has since been
divided into seventy dioceses, deposited a piece of a finger bone
of Saint Anne.* In 1686 a stone church was erected and remains
to this day. A much more splendid edifice was completed in 1889,
at a cost of half a million dollars. In 1876 Pius IX " was pleased,"
writes one of the Redemptorist Fathers in charge, " to declare
Saint Anne patroness of the Province of Quebec, without preju-
dice to the title of Saint Joseph, the patron of all Canada." The
present Pope has bestowed honors and privileges upon the new
church, which has received more relics of the saint, including a
fragment of rock from her house in Jerusalem, " from the room,
indeed, wherein took place the mysteries of the Immaculate Con-
ception."

In the grandeur of its buildings and decorations, and in the
elaborate machinery employed to fire devotion and attract pil-
grims, the shrine is now second to none, except perhaps those of
Lourdes and La Salette. A railroad has been built from Quebec,
and steamboats make connection with the Intercolonial, Quebec
Central, Grand Trunk, and Canadian Pacific. Huge boarding
houses and hotels offer accommodation to visitors, who can also
obtain rooms in the convent of the Gray Nuns. A miracle-work-
ing spring has been discovered, and the water is sold in bottles at
a depository in the church. The Redemptorists issue a monthly

* The Manual issued by the Redemptorists says Samt Anne was buried near Jerusalem,
but her body was subsequently laid in the Church of the Sepulchre of Our Lady, in the
Valley of Jehoshaphat, " One day a mysterious bark was seen to approach the shores of
France. It had neither sail nor rudder, but God was its pilot. Never had the ocean borne
a greater treasure. In this bark were Saint Lazarus with his two pious sisters, Saint Mary
Magdalen and Saint Martha, together with several other saintly women. They were fleeing
from Palestine with a number of priceless relics, the most precious among which was the
hallowed body of Saint Anne. This treasure was placed in the hands of Saint Auspicius,
the first Bishop of Apt." It was buried " to protect it from sacrilegious hands, and the
place where it had been secreted was wholly forgotten " till, Charlemagne being at Apt one
Easter day, " a miracle led to the discovery of the place."

MIRACLES IJSr FRENCH CANADA, 235

publication to make known tlie cures. The bandages, sticks, and
crutches piled in rows speak for themselves, as also the ex voto
paintings, one or two by Lebrun, representing the saint in the act
of delivering clients from perils by sea and land ; American flags,
bracelets, wax flowers, guns, knives, tobacco pouches, etc., are
gifts from poorer clients who have experienced her kindness. Per-
sons unable to visit the shrine, owing to bodily infirmity or any
other restraining cause, may be represented by substitutes or may
forward letters containing their requests to the saint ; these are
deposited beneath the statue in front of the main altar and
prayers are said for a favorable answer through her intercession.
The number of pilgrims exceeds one hundred thousand a year.

Nature has furnished an admirable setting for the shrine.
The St. Lawrence at this point is four miles wide. Directly oppo-
site Beauprd is the Isle of Orleans ; behind it, the Saint Anne Moun-
tain and the Laurentian Hills clad with pine, maple, and balm of
Gilead. Cap Tourmente lies to the eastward ; there the river be-
gins to widen till at Tadousac, where the Saguenay joins it, it is
thirty- five miles from shore to shore. To the west are the farm-
houses and uplands of Chateau Richer, the Falls of Montmorency,
from their bellowing and white foam called the Vache, Beauport
and the valley of the St. Charles, Quebec and the historic rock.
On summer evenings the old Breton hymn peals over the waters :

" O sainte Anne, 6 M^re cherie !

Garde au cceur des Bretons la foi des anciens jours;
Entends du haut du ciel le cri de la patrie —
Catholique et Breton toujours ! "

Even in winter, when the snow lies level with the fences and the
St. Lawrence is gorged with ice, Beauprd attracts an occasional
devotee. The height of the pilgrim season is from June to the
middle of September.

Miracles are wrought for the most part in the new church,
though the old one is still favored. Some find no immediate
relief, but are cured on reaching home. At the ordinary services
the ofliciating priest marches down from the high altar to some
unhappy creature gasping at the rails, and, after a few prelimina-
ries, applies one of the relics, incased in crystal with gold bands,
to the part affected, reciting meanwhile the litany of Saint Anne :
" Grandmother of our Saviour, Mother of Mary, Ark of Noah,
Root of Jesse, Light of the Blind, Tongue of the Dumb." The
other sufferers struggle to their feet and watch the process with
breathless interest. The dying consumptive bares his breast that
the relic may be placed directly over his lungs, then sinks to his
knees at the foot of the statue ; having finished the litany, the
priest turns to the Gospel of Saint Anne ; the thurif ers surround

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the patient and swing the incense, the relic is elevated, a bell
rings, and the congregation kneels. This is the supreme moment.
No time is lost, however, on a busy day, and when it is seen that
a miracle is not forthcoming, the poor fellow is bundled into one
of the sixteen lateral chapels, where other saints are venerated ;
his place is taken by another far-gone pilgrim, or perhaps a batch
not so grievously afflicted are beckoned to the rails and the relic
passed from lip to lip amid the prayers and sobs of five thousand
onlookers. No one asks, with the skeptic in the temple of the sea-
god, Where be the offerings of them that have perished ? if only
a single miracle be announced during the week or recorded in the
monthly Annales,

The golden age of miracles in French Canada dates from
the arrival of the Recollets and Jesuits, 1615-^25, and may
be said to have terminated about 1860. The Church possesses
many relics besides those of Saint Anne, some among the most
precious in Christendom,* and has had local martyrs and con-
fessors whose ashes repose here. Nevertheless, the stream of
miracles outside Beauprd has gradually dwindled and dried up,
and those of Beauprd are losing their old characteristics.

In the early days Saint Anne cured all manner of ailments
with an untiring hand. The Relations des J^suites for 1667 contain
an account of the chief miracles wrought down to that time — the
cure of Elie Godin of dropsy ; Marguerite Bire, of fracture of the
leg, Jean Adam, blind of both eyes ; Pradere, a French soldier, of
paralysis and une apostume dans Vestomac, and other wonders to
which Laval bore witness. Saint Anne never raised the dead to
life, at least not in Canada, nor gave a limb to a one-legged client
as Saint Anthony of Padua did, but over and over again she cured
heart disease, cancer, apoplexy, and consumption. She interfered
to save pious persons from death in the forest, when they had
been pinned under a falling tree, by inspiring neighbors to go to
their aid or a faithful dog to carry a piece of blood-stained bark
to the nearest settlement, and snatched many from ice jams,
bush fires, and Dutch men-of-war, in the last case resorting to the

* At the celebration in 1874 of the second centenary of the erection of the Diocese of
Quebec over five hundred relics were exposed. The list is given in Le Deuxi^me Centenaire,
an official account, bearing the imprimatur of Cardinal Taschereau. Among them were relics
of the vetement depourpre de Jems Christy creche de Jesics Christ, colonne de la flagellation
de Jesus Christ, sainie epine de Jesus Christ, table de la dernihe sc^ne, terre ozi Jesus pria,
pierre sur laquelle Notre Seigneur s'oMit et mangea avec ses apotres, vraie croix de Jesus
Christ, etc. Also, apparel of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, fragment of the rock
struck by Moses, lock of hair of Saint Mary Magdalen, portion of the cloth of the head of
Saint John the Baptist, fragment of a wooden altar served by Saint Peter, and of the block
on which Saint Paul was beheaded, bones of the Holy Innocents, of the chief disciples, of
Saint Stephen the first martyr, etc.

MIRACLES IN FRENCH CANADA, 237

expedient of causing a fog to liide the vessel of her friends. She
rendered barren women fruitful, and once or twice cured the
dumb ; by her efforts attempts to plant Jansenism in the colony-
were frustrated ; she also brought to naught the designs of stray
Huguenots. At the siege of Quebec Wolfe dispatched an expe-
dition to harry the river parishes. "Wherever resistance was
offered," says Parkman, " farmhouses and villages were laid in
ashes, though churches were generally spared." The church at
Beaupr^ was not spared by the troops; it was set on fire three
times, but each time Saint Anne extinguished the flames, and
some of the Highlanders confessed the miracle. When the north
shore down to Cap Tourmente was blazing, nearly all the farm-
houses in which she was specially venerated escaped.

But since 1860 or 1865, when the rush of population to the
New England factories set in and French Canada began to receive
at second hand the new ideas absorbed by the emigrants, the saint
has been comparatively listless. She cures headache and dys-
pepsia, converts Protestants with Catholic wives, finds employ-
ment for clients, protects them while traveling, restores lost ob-
jects, procures young women admission to convents, and endows
those who come to her in a proper spirit with grace and strength
to quit evil practices. Now and then we hear of a hysterical girl
being cured on the spot, or of an epileptic finding relief, but as a
matter of fact the character of the miracles has deteriorated
since faith in them has been shaken by New England influences.
Hence the rather bitter remark, attributed to Mgr. B^gin, that if
the French Canadians are supplanting the Puritan stock, Puri-
tanism is having its revenge in French Canada.

Formerly images of Saint Anne were carried in procession
through a parish to bring on rain or to stop rain, a ceremony that
reminded one of the old Roman religion and the transportation of
Bacchus, Ceres, and Dea Dia through the fields and vineyards by
white-clad youths, followed by the lustral water and the full in-
cense box. The practice is falling into desuetude ; the habitant,
like the rest of us, is beginning to be satisfied with the weather
as it comes, and to have confidence in the predictions of the
meteorological office. A bad crop is still attributed to the
backsliding of the farmers or to the nonpayment of tithes. In
French Canada the tithe, collectable by law and a first lien on the
soil, is every twenty-sixth bushel of cereals. Of late, since the
opening of the western prairies, the habitants have dropped cereal
growing and taken to raising hay for the United States market.
In this manner the cures have been cheated out of tithes, and some
in whom the sense of reverence must have been dim pointed to the
McKinley bill, which levied a duty of four dollars per ton, as an
expression of the divine wrath.

238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Normans and Bretons wtio colonized New France were
governed to the end of their nails, as they used to say, from the
mother country. The local self-government of the American
colonies, the town meeting and its ramifications, were unknown ;
they were not allowed to hold meetings nor even to tax themselves
for improvements without the royal permission. There were no
common schools; the EecoUets, or begging friars, taught the
A B C as they wandered from parish to parish, but only where
they found lodging for the night. As late as 1835 an act of the
legislature was passed permitting school trustees to sign their
reports with a mark. The feu-follet, or Will o' the wisp, was either
an unshriven soul or Satan himself ; sorciers were witches and
imps who held their sabbaths on the Isle of Orleans ; the cliasse-
galerie, a huntsman with a pack of dogs, appeared on the eve of a
storm ; but the most formidable apparition was the were- wolf, or
loup-garou, which was seen as late as 1767 in the county of
Kamouraska, seeking whom it might devour. None of these
ugly visitors could cross a stream which bore a saint's name. If
encountered in the woods, the feu follet could generally be dodged
by sticking a needle in the earth or holding out a half -open knife
after first making the sign of the cross ; but the only safeguards
against the others short of making a race for the St. Lawrence or
the St. Something-else was for the traveler to carry a bottle of
holy water, Le Formulaire, a prayer-book originally got up for
the Ursuline nuns, or the petit Albert, which contained the forms
for exorcising evil spirits.

The Jesuits have described the Arcadian simplicity of life and
manners and the extraordinary piety of the early settlers, kept
fervid both by their ministrations and by the constant Indian at-
tacks. Every church had its own saint and relic, not necessarily
of that particular saint, and its own miracles. Laval's successor
presented the parish of Saint Paul in the Isle of Orleans with an
arm bone of the great apostle of the Gentiles. A few years after-
ward the parish changed its name to Saint Laurent, and the ad-
joining parish of Saint Peter thereupon called itself Saint Peter
and Saint Paul. The cures agreed to exchange relics, but the
Saint Laurent people refused to be bound by that arrangement,
and one night entered the church of Saint Pierre, carried off their
old relic, and left the other, which they deemed an inferior one.
Miracles beyond number were reported and passed into popular
belief without being vouched for by ecclesiastical authority, such
as missionaries using their cloaks as rafts to cross lakes and rivers,
checking bush fires by drawing a line on the ground, being di-
rected when they had lost their way and providentially supplied
with food.

The Acadians had miracles in plenty. In the introduction

MIRACLES IN FRENCH CANADA, 239

to A Legend of Montrose, Sir Walter Scott speaks of the por-
tents which announced the Highland clearings — the notes of
the night wind howling down the pass of Balachra modeled to
the tune of We Return no More, the song with which High-
landers usually bade farewell to their native land ; " the uncouth
cries of the Southland shepherds and the barking of their dogs in
the midst of the hills long before their actual arrival/^ I have
been told at St. Pierre-Miquelon that the Acadians who fled to
those French islands from the country of Evangeline were quite
sure they had been forewarned of what was in store by the ap-
pearance of British armies in the sky, by dirgelike sounds from
the ocean, and the wailing of souls in purgatory heard during
Mass for a year before the calamity. In 1811-^12 Bishop Plessis
visited Prince Edward Island, and in the account of his journey,
published long afterward,* we are told that mysterious voices
were heard in the Acadian churches, but not in the churches fre-
quented by the Roman Catholics of Highland Scotch extraction.
There was a groaning or sighing voice like that of a person in dis-
tress, and a singing voice like that of a woman or a child. On the
mainland of New Brunswick these voices followed the Acadians
to the lumber shanties, and were heard on Sundays when they
gathered for prayer. In the churches the voices were loudest
during the recitation of the litany of the Holy Name of Jesus.
The good bishop asks : " What are these voices ? Whence come
they, and for what reason do they make themselves heard ? " He
comes to the philosophical conclusion that " as they have done no
one any harm it matters little whether they cease or keep on."
At the grand derangement, as they call their deportation, the
Acadians received at least one mark of favor from the Virgin
Mary. Abbd Ferland tells the story in his La Gaspesie. Two
hundred and fifty of them on board a vessel bound from Port
Royal to the Carolinas overpowered the crew during a storm,
fastened a scapular to the rudder, and invited the Virgin to take
charge ; she did so, and in a few hours they made land at Riviere
Saint- Jean. The Virgin helped the French at the battle of Ticon-
deroga, appearing in white on the breastworks as the enemy came
up for each fresh attack. She did not appear on the Plains of
Abraham, nor during Montgomery's invasion ; in the latter cam-
paign, indeed, the mass of the French Canadians would probably
have been glad if she had helped the Bostonnais.

There were legends among the French Canadians of revela-
tions from heaven having been vouchsafed to the Indians. Mgr.
de S. Valier traveled through the Gulf region in 1685-87 in the
capacity of grand-vicaire to Laval, and published a report at

* Le Foyer Canadien, 1865.

240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Paris in 1688, reprinted at Quebec in 1857. He speaks of the Crn-
ciantaux Indians, wlio " have a particular respect for the cross,"
which they wore on their persons, planted over their graves, and
attached to their canoes. An Indian " one hundred or one hun-
dred and twenty years old" related that he had witnessed the
arrival of the first ship that came from Europe to that part of the
country. But the use of the cross among the Indians antedated
that event and had not been introduced by outsiders. Once upon
a time, during a famine, when the spirits had been appealed to in
vain by the medicine men, an old savage saw in a dream a yonng
man who promised the band an early deliverance by virtue of the
cross, and showed him three crosses — one to protect them from
visitations, another to serve them in their councils, the third to
guard them in their journeys. When the old man woke he whit-
tled three crosses just like them, and this is how the cult began.
The incantations and jongleries of medicine men were sometimes
blamed by the early white settlers for causing a failure of the
crops. In these modern days the blasphemy of the habitant is
blamed, though as a rule he seldom blasphemes except when
plowing with fractious oxen. In a book (Une Mine, etc.) pub-
lished in 1880 a worthy Oblat father asks, "Why these bush
fires, droughts, wet seasons, frosts, hailstorms, worms, and flies
that ruin your crops ? " and goes on to ascribe them to the " tor-
rent of bad language that deluges your fields."

When Father Labrosse, a famous Gulf missionary, died at
Tadousac, the bells of all the churches were tolled hy angels. The
orucifix outrage is among the relics of the Hotel-Dieu ; it was used
by a soldier in divinations by which he undertook to find lost
money. A fete was established by way of public atonement, and
miracles have since been performed with it. Here, as elsewhere,
the corruption of names has given rise to legends of the miracu-
lous and the uncanny. Thus Cap d'Espoir, Cape of Hope, has
been twisted by English sailors into Cape Despair ; the French
have accepted the corruption and made it Cap Ddsespoir. Then
to account for the name, tradition says one of the vessels of Sir
Hovenden Walker's expedition against Quebec was cast away at
the spot, and the remains of a wreck are still shown and known
as the naufrage anglais. Till a few years ago the fishermen at
Cap Ddsespoir used to be warned of storms by the apparition of
this English frigate, with her terror-stricken officers and men
gazing landward and the captain apparently upbraiding the pilot.
The fishermen of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are as superstitious as
fishermen elsewhere. They hear the lamentations of lost souls
like the hraiUard off Riviere de la Madeleine and see supernatural
lights like the feu des Boussis at Paspebiac. The haddock, le
poisson de Saini- Pierre, was the first fish caught at the miracu-

MIRACLES IJSr FRENCH CANADA, 241

loTis drauglit in Lake Gennesaret, and the finger marks of tlie apos-
tle are on its back. Nevertlieless it is not a lucky fish., possibly
because " their net brake " and they " filled both the ships so that
they began to sink/' The French-Canadian fisherman and the
fisherman from old France work side by side on the Banks of
Newfoundland. There is a marked difference in their accent and
intonation as well as in their physical appearance, three hundred
years of existence in the New World having made the French
Canadian swarthier and leaner than the man from Saint Malo.
On the rocks of Cap h> I'Aigle at St. Pierre-Miquelon there is a
white statue of the Virgin, and as his vessel passes it the French
Canadian is careful to salute the *' old mother," but the fisherman
from France ignores her. While the latter sings modern songs
from the cafes of Paris, the former sticks to the songs his ances-
tors brought from France — Malbrough, Dans les prisons de Nantes,
Sur le pont d' Avignon, Par derri^r' chez ma tante. En roulant ma
boule, etc. Both believe that a sorcier can find the best fishing
ground on the Banks, that a dog on board brings good luck, that
it is bad luck to whistle, and so on. At home the French-Cana-
dian fisherman occasionally sees the Wandering Jew striding
along the beach in the direction of Labrador, which, by the way,
was the heritage of Cain. To meet him face to face brings good
luck if you happen to be returning from vespers, but not other-
wise. There is an old baHad about him in which, ''near the town
of Bruxell's in Brabant," he accompanies two honest fellows into
a tavern and over a pot de hidre fratche describes the events at
Jerusalem that led to his being banished *' to everywhere and no-
where without end " :

•
** Sur le mont du Calvaire

Jesus portait sa croix ;

II me dit, debonnaire,

Passant devant chez moi:

Veux-toi bien, mon ami,

Que je repose ici ? "'

But the Wandering Jew — Isaac Laquedemme by name, and by
trade a shoemaker — was in bad humor that day, and replied sans
raison :

" 6tes-toi, criminelle,
De devant ma maison;
Avance et marche done
Car tu me f ais affront I "

Then came the terrible sentence :

" Jesus, la bonte meme,
Me dit en soupirant:

TOL. XLTIIl. — 17

242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

* Tu marcheras toi-meme
Pendant plus de mille ans;
Le dernier jugeraeut
Finira ton tourment ! ' "

He tas been tramping ever since, wearing his shoemaker's
apron, and always with five sous, never more or less, in his pocket,
glad to drink a glass of wine with any honest bourgeois he meets,
but much tormented in soul when he halts for that purpose. The
ballad, as sung in French Canada, is given in full in Ernest
Gagnon's collection.

Among the miracles recorded by ecclesiastics, the most strik-
ing was the defeat of the English expedition against Quebec in
1690 by the Virgin Mary, to whom a church, still standing in
Lower Town — Notre Dame des Victoires — was forthwith dedicated.
Miraculous cures were wrought by the relics of the Jesuit Brebeuf,
murdered in the country of the Hurons near Penetanguishene,
and through invoking the Jesuit Le Jeune. These are about the
only miracles officially credited to the Jesuits ; they bear no com-
parison with those ascribed to the Jesuit Anchieta in Brazil ; still
less with those of St, Francis Xavier and the missionary thauma-
turgists of his day. The performance of miracles by the Cana-
dian Jesuits may possibly have been hindered by the presence of
heretic traders from the neighboring English and Dutch colo-
nies; it was cynically suggested at the time that unless they
could banish the smallpox, always raging among the Indians
and frequently attacking the settlements, it was useless to work
minor wonders as a means of impressing either red men or white.

The nuns were more successful. Marie de rincarnation and
the M^re de Saint- Augustin possessed the spiritual charismata of
the Christian women of whom Tertullian wrote : " There is at this
day among us a sister who has the gift of revelations, which she
receives in church amid the solemnities of the Lord's day by
ecstasy of the spirit; she converses with angels and sometimes
also with the Lord, and she both hears and sees mysteries." The
astounding visions of these two Quebec nuns are described at
length by a recent biographer, Abbd Casgrain. Both were fore-
warned of the earthquake of 1663, when, as the Relations say,
rivers and lakes changed their beds, mountains were swallowed,
and forests hurled in the air, the trees falling on end with the
roots upward ; the warning was conveyed by the appearance of
demons, which gathered over Quebec and were restrained for a
time, but only for a time, by a majestic youth of whom they
stood in awe. The statue of Notre Dame de Toute-Grace, at
the Hotel-Dieu Convent, was wonderfully gifted. The M^re du
Saint-Esprit, of that house, foretold its destruction by fire. In
1810 a Protestant woman visited it at Christmas and prayed

MIRACLES IN FRENCH CANADA, 243

"before tlie manger. She bore a child, wliicli was the image
of VEnfant Jesus, and became a nun of extraordinary piety,
on whom the Virgin lavished favors. Marguerite Bourgeois,
founder of the Congregation of Our Lady at Montreal, is now
undergoing the process of canonization ; numerous miracles were
worked by her before and after her death. Probably, in modern
opinion, the most splendid miracle of all was the courage dis-
played by these well-born women in crossing the ocean and
spending their lives amid the rigors of a semiarctic climate,
Indian alarms, sieges, pestilence, and all the privations and hard-
ships of a new colony for the glory of God.

When the Island of Montreal was wanted by the Sulpicians,
a lay agent, apparently under Jesuit influence, had a vision in
which the owner was guaranteed heaven without purgatory.
The property, which has made the Sulpicians one of the richest
orders in America, was immediately transferred. This, I believe,
is the only instance of note in which the supernatural was in-
voked for a doubtful purpose. All the other visions and miracles
can be accounted for without the hypothesis of conscious deceit.
It was essentially a time when, as Dean Milman wrote of another
age, " the Christian lived in a supernatural world ; the notion of
the divine power — the perpetual interference of the Deity, the
agency of the countless invisible beings which hovered over
mankind — was so strongly impressed upon the belief that every
extraordinary and almost every ordinary incident became a mir-
acle ; . . . a mythic period was thus gradually formed in which
reality melted into fable, and invention unconsciously trespassed
on the province of history." This is kinder than Gibbon's ver-
dict : " If the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived
by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more fre-
quently been insulted by fiction."

The seigniorial tenure, a mitigated feudalism based upon the
Custom of Paris (1510), was abolished by the Canadian Parliament
in 1854. It was then, a scoffing Parisian said, that the habitant of
French Canada discovered that Louis XVI was dead. When he
began to migrate to New England he learned other things that are
slowly undermining his cradle beliefs, and we may say without a
scoff that it will not be long till Good Saint Anne is dead.

REMARKma on some of the results achieved by the Challenger Expedi-
tion in the antarctic seas, Dr. Murray says that the amount of animal life
found in the antarctic region south of 40** is very much more abundant
than in any other part of the world. One of the great secrets of oceanic
circulation may possibly be found by investigation of those regions. Cer-
tainly one of the greatest pieces of scientific and oceanographic work yet to
be done on the surface of the globe awaits efforts in these regions.

244 ^^^^' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION?

By SYDNEY G. FISHER.

THE immigration which, formed the basis of our colonial pop-
ulation was very slight. The men who fought the Revolution
and created the United States were almost exclusively native.
The population of New England, as is well known, was produced
out of an immigration of not much over 20,000, all of whom ar-
rived before the year 1640. From 1640 until about 1820, a period
of nearly two hundred years, the growth of New England was by
the childbearing of the original and native stock. There was no
immigration worth mentioning ; but, on the contrary, an overflow
into neighboring colonies. New York and the West. Franklin,
writing in 1751, when the population of all the colonies was about
a million, said that the immigration which had produced this
number was generally believed to have been less than 80,000.*

Modern immigration set in some time in the beginning of the
present century, and had grown to noticeable proportions about
1820, when the national Government decided to take statistics of
it. By 1830 all observers agree that the foreigners had begun to
have a decided influence and effect, and that a change could be
distinctly seen. By 1840 the Native American or Know-Nothing
movement had begun ; in 1850 it had become a distinct political
party ; and in 1856 had a candidate for the presidency.

One of the strongest arguments used against the Know- Noth-
ings was that immigration would greatly increase the population,
and in that way the wealth and strength of the country. The rate
of increase by births among the colonists had been remarkably
rapid and had astonished the people of Europe. Franklin was
among the first to call the attention of learned men to this phe-
nomenon. In some parts of the country the people, without the
aid of immigration, doubled themselves in twenty-five or twenty-
seven years ; and there were traditions of particular localities in
which the doubling had taken place within less than twenty
years. No record of a like increase over such an extended terri-
tory could be found in the history of the civilized world.

For the fifty years that followed the Revolution, when immi-
gration was at a minimum, this natural increase was greater than
ever. The whole population in that time doubled itself about
. every twenty-three years. It was therefore very natural for the
people who believed in the immigration experiment to suppose
that if to this increase in every decade were added a couple of mil-
lion immigrants, who would presumably have children in the same

* Franklin's Works (Sparks's edition), vol ii, p. 319.

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 2+5

rapid manner as the natives, tlie population, wealth, and strength,
of the United States would be forced forward in a manner that
would produce results of inconceivable grandeur. It certainly
did look like an enormous boom, irresistibly attractive both for
its possibilities and for its uncertainties. The difficulty with it
was that, like the rest of the experiment, it was all based upon
"presume'^ and "suppose."

If the calculations had turned out as expected, we should
undoubtedly now have a population of at least a hundred millions.
Jefferson, writing in the year 1815, prophesied eighty millions for
the year 1875, which would give considerably over a hundred mil-
lions for the year 1893. But, curiously enough, when the alien ele-
ment had reached a certain point, about the year 1830, the native
population began to fall off in births, and the more the aliens
increased in numbers the fewer became the births of the natives.
The foreigners themselves were not as prolific as the old native
stock had been ; and the consequence is that we have now to-day
not as many people as we would have had if the immigrants had
never come near us and the native stock had continued their old
rate of increase.

The statistics which show this were very ably discussed many
years ago by Mr. Edward Jar vis, and recently General Francis
"Walker has again called attention to them. The calculation is a
simple one. We have the population at the close of each decade
and also the number of foreigners in the country. Confining our-
selves to the white population, if we subtract from the total
whites at the close of a decade the number of foreigners at the
close of the decade and find the difference between that result and
the native whites at the end of the previous decade, we have the
natural increase of the native population, and can easily find the
percentage.

Let us therefore construct in this way a table which will show
the growth of the native white population by decades from 1750
to 1890. Previous to 1750 the numbers by even decades are not
obtainable. For the population previous to 1790 we shall take
Bancroft's estimates, which are now generally accepted, and for
the time after 1790 we shall rely on the revised figures of the
national census. For the time previous to 1800 the number of
foreign born living in the country has never been estimated, but
they were very few and would not materially alter the results.

To find the number of natives it will be necessary to deduct
from the total number of whites not only the European foreign
born but also the people who came to us by a stroke of the pen
when we acquired the Louisiana territory, Florida, Texas, New
Mexico, and California. Louisiana was purchased in 1803, and
her people considerably swelled the census of 1810. How much

246

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

they increased it is liard to say, for between 1803 and the time the
census was taken in 1810 a large number of our people moved into
the new territory, so that the population of the new territory for
1810 gives more than the number we ought to deduct. It is cer-
tain we ought to deduct something, and equally certain that we
shall never know the exact amount. The best authorities, how-
ever, seem to indicate 20,000 as about the proper number. For
Florida it is about 12,000, and for Texas, New Mexico, and Cali-
fornia, which came to us by the Mexican War, it is about 90,000,
to be deducted from the total whites as given by the census of
1850. We shall also have to make a deduction from the whites in
the census of 1860, because part of the returns for California in
the census of 1850 were burned, and the natives of that Common-
wealth were not all given in the census of 1850, but appeared in
the census of 1860. A deduction of about 70,000 will probably
account for all of them.

Dkcadvs.

Total whites.

ForeigD
whites.

By new ter-
ritory.

Per cent of
native in-
crease.

Corrections

for census

of 1870.

1750

1,040,000

1760

1,386,000

33-17

1770

1,860,000

83-57

1780

2,383,000

28-81

Revolution.

1790

3,177,257

33-33

1800

4,306,446

44,282

34-14

1810

5,862,073

96,725

20,000

34-79

1820

7,862,166

176,826

33-76

1830

10,537,378

315,830

12,000

32-83

1840

14,195,806

869,202

30-64

1860

19,563,068

2,244,602

90,000

29-10

1860

26,922,537

4,138,697

70,000

31-91

1870

33,589,377

5,507,229

23-37

25-37

Civil war.

1880

43,402,970

6,679,943

31-06

29-05

1890

64,983,890

9,249,547

24-53

The census of 1870 is now generally believed to have been an
underestimate, owing principally to the difficulty of obtaining
returns from the South so soon after the war. The rate of in-
crease for that decade ought therefore to be a little more than
23*37, probably about 25'37 ; and this would lower the percentage
of the next decade to about 29*05, instead of 31*05.

Following down the column of native increase, we find that
from 1750 the rate remains at a little over 33 per cent for twenty
years, until reduced by the Revolution to 28*81. But after the
Revolution it returns again to 33*33 in the next decade, then rises
to 34*14, and then to 34*79. In the next decade, 1810 to 1820, it
fails suddenly about one per cent, ^nd in the next falls one per
cent again ; and in the next, which is 1830 to 1840, falls more than
two per cent to 30*64, which is much lower than it had been at
any time in the previous eighty years, except during the decade

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 247

whicli contained the Revolution. The falling continues, with, one
or two slight revivals, as we follow the column, until in the decade
1880 to 1890 it has reached the very low figure of 24*53 per cent —
more than four per cent lower than during the Revolution.

It is to be observed that the first serious fall begins after the
year 1830, the point which all observers have fixed upon as the
time when the effects of immigration began to be palpably felt.

If we look at the number of foreigners for the year 1830, we
find them to have been 315,830 — almost as many as there had been
in the three previous decades. In the next decade they more than
double, and in the next they almost treble, with the rate of native
increase steadily declining.

It is also rather significant that the first break and decline of
the native rate occurs after the year 1820, when immigration had
begun to attract so much attention that the Government decided
to take statistics of it.

These coincidences of the decline of the native increase with
the increase of immigration are so exact that they can hardly
have been accidental. There is, to say the least, a strong suspicion
of cause and effect. And if it should be asked what is the exact
nature of that relation of cause and effect, the question may be
concisely answered in the words of General Francis Walker,
superintendent of the tenth census and now President of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology :

" The access of foreigners, at the time and under the circum-
stances, constituted a shock to the principle of population among
the native element. That principle is always acutely sensitive
alike to sentimental and to economic conditions. And it is to be
noted, in passing, that not only did the decline in the native ele-
ment, as a whole, take place in singular correspondence with the
excess of foreign arrivals, but it occurred chiefly in just those
regions to which the newcomers most freely resorted."

That the arrival of the foreigners was a shock to the natives is
very clearly shown in the formation of the Native American or
Know- Nothing party, and the riots and violence which followed
for a period of twenty years. The foreigners came to work for
lower wages than the native and drove the native from his place.
For a hundred years the native had been accustomed to a standard
of living which was remarkably high. This was particularly true
of the New England and Middle States, where all classes had every
incentive in their surroundings to produce large families. They
felt that they owned their country, and were proud of it. They
were the creators of their own destinies and the architects of their
own fortunes. They built up homes and families. They were
sure there would always be enough for all, and that their children
would have to enjoy as good, if not better, conditions.

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" Theu came the foreigner, making his way into the little vil-
lage, bringing, small blame to him, not only a vastly lower stand-
ard of living, but too often an actual present incapacity even to
understand the refinements of life and thought in the community
in which he sought a home. Our people had to look upon houses
that were mere shells for human habitations, the gate unhung,
the shutters flapping or falling, green pools in the yard, babes
and young children rolling about half naked or worse — neglected,
dirty, unkempt. Was there not in this sentimental reason some-
thing strong enough to give a shock to the principle of popula-
tion?''

The native of that time was utterly unable to compete in dirt
and degradation with the low Irish and European peasantry. He
lost heart and interest ; in many cases he sank to the level of his
competitor ; and even when he did not actually sink in his per-
sonal habits, he had not the same high incentives as before.

It is a remarkable fact and should be remembered that in New
England, which received scarcely any immigration between 1640
and 1820, the greatest growth of population ever known in Amer-
ica took place. The New-Englanders overflowed their borders,
and settled a large part of western New York, the Western Re-
serve of Ohio, the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, and hun-
dreds of towns and counties in the far West. Some years ago the
number of people of New England origin was estimated at a third
of the whole population. The place of strongest nativism was the
place of the most rapid growth.

Washington was much impressed in 1796 with the overflow of
the New-Englanders. " Their numbers are not augmented by
foreign emigrants ; yet from their circumscribed limits, compact
situation, and natural population, they are filling the western
parts of the State of New York and the country on the Ohio with
their own surplusage." (Works, vol. xii, p. 323.)

Madison was in favor of immigration, but in 1820 he could not
help noticing the wonderful increase of New England without
the aid of the foreigner. ''It is worth remarking that New
England, which has sent out such a continued swarm to other
parts of the Union for a number of years, has continued at
the same time, as the census shows, to increase in popula-
tion, although it is well known that she has received but com-
paratively few immigrants from any quarter." (Works, vol. iii,
p. 213.)

It has been suggested that the correspondence in time between
the increase of immigration and the decrease of the rate of growth
does not necessarily imply a relation of cause and effect, because it
can be accounted for by the fact that advanced civilization always
lessens the rate of childbearing and the rate of increase of popu-

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 249

lation. France is pointed out as an instance where the rate of
growth has become very low because of the fashion the French
have acquired, even in the middle classes, of restricting the size
of their families.

The illustration, however, is not altogether fortunate for those
who use it. The French annual rate of increase, it is true, sank
very low during the four or five years previous to the Prussian
War, being only seven per thousand inhabitants in 1870. But
since then it has steadily risen, and in 1890 was thirty-seven per
thousand.* In fact, France is an excellent illustration to show
how mere ideas and opinions affect the growth of population, and
how the rate of increase may be depressed by discontent or disas-
ter, or raised by the desire to conquer an old enemy or by the suc-
cess of a new form of government.

But is it true as a general proposition that advanced civiliza-
tion decreases the rate of population ? There is a feeling among
many people, who have not thought much on the subject, that the
more animal- like we become, the more we multiply, and that the
lower types of civilization necessarily increase more rapidly than
the higher. But this is very far from the truth.

Savages and uncivilized races are not, as a rule, of very rapid
increase. They often recede and whole tribes of them become
extinct. If we look at the whole world, it is the uncivilized popu-
lations that are disappearing. Before the coming of the English
to the United States the red men had held the country with all its
natural fertility and resources for hundreds of years, and yet had
not been able to increase themselves to a million. During the
middle ages, from the year 500 to 1500, a period of a thousand
years, we find the population of Europe in all stages of barbarism
and low civilization, and yet the increase of population was very
slow. In the year 500 Europe was supposed to have something
over 40,000,000 people. In the year 1500 the highest estimate is
70,000,000. Thus in a thousand years the population had not
doubled. But after the year 1500, under the influence of the Refor-
mation and modern civilization, the population doubled in three
hundred years, f

Another excellent illustration to show the effect of modern
civilization is the growth of the English people.

1480 3,700,000

1580 4,600,000

1680 5,532,000

1780 9,561,000

1880 35,004,000

* Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics (1892), article Population, p. 442.
+ Seaman's Progress of Nations (First Series), p. 550. See also Worcester's Problem of
Religious Progress, passim, and Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics.

250 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The English, it will be observed, never succeeded in doubling
themselves in any hundred years until 1780 to 1880, when they
almost quadrupled.

Civilization, then, does not appear to be a very serious hin-
drance to rapidity of growth ; and the reason is evident. As com-
pared with barbarism, it produces a larger food supply, greater
variety of it, better houses, better sanitary arrangements, better
health, longer life, and stronger reasons for wanting to live and
wanting to enable others to live. The people of the middle ages
lacked skill in producing the comforts and necessaries of life, their
sanitary arrangements were shocking and their lives despondent.
They were visited with plagues and epidemics which have not
now been known for four hundred years. Their minds were
clouded with dreadful delusions, superstitions, and terrors which
produced the "dance of death'* and the continual slaughter of
witches. A large proportion of their children died, and even
adult life was short.

Long living and many who live long is as important an ele-
ment in the increase of population as numerous births. All the
children bom in the United States in the year 1891, who die before
they are eight years old, will not increase the population either in
numbers or effective strength so much as one man born in that
year who lives to be thirty. The man, independently of his greater
usefulness, will be counted as an inhabitant in three censuses ;
the children will be counted in none.

Paupers, savages, and other people of low life are often sup-
posed to multiply very fast because they seem to be so reckless in
the number of children that are born to them. But the same
shif tlessness which brings the children into the world surrounds
them with conditions that destroy them. Negroes are supposed
to be very prolific; but the death-rate among them in cities is
almost double the death-rate among whites ; and the death-rate
among negro children is more than double the death-rate among
white children. The woman of the slums, who was recently re-
ported to have said that she ought to know something about the
nurture of children because she had buried fourteen of her own,
was doubtless a person of excellent intentions ; but she has not
done so well for the republic as some less boastful mother who
has raised one son to maturity.

It is often thoughtlessly asserted that modern city life de-
creases population. But, as compared with ancient city life, it
very much increases it. Previous to the year 1790, in all large
cities, the death-rate always exceeded the birth-rate. In London
the death-rate was often double the birth-rate. Immigration from
the rural districts and not their own power of reproduction kept
these cities from decay. Our modern cities contain certain dis-

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 251

tricts that are called slums. But tlie old cities were all slums.
The great increase of modern city life is due not to the degeneracy
of the race, as is often foolishly supposed, but to improved sanitary
conditions and improved health. The modern city grows by its
own productive force as well as by immigration and has ceased to
be a death trap for the people.

Rapid increase of population is due to cleanliness, thrift, intel-
ligence, prosperity, contentment, and happiness, because these
things preserve and lengthen life. As a rule, civilized people are
apt to be blessed in these particulars even when their birth-rate
is somewhat low. But it is not true, as is often supposed, that the
more civilized have necessarily a low birth-rate. Ireland and
Greece are countries of an inferior order of civilization, and their
birth-rates are respectively 277 and 24 per thousand inhabit-
ants ; while the birth-rate of England is 33 '3 per thousand, and of
Holland 34*8.

But we must not rest the question on mere generalizations.
Civilization includes many things and is a broad term. Increase
of population is accomplished by different causes, and not in every
instance by the same cause. Each instance should be considered
in all its surroundings before any general principles are applied.
Mere sentiment, opinions, and ideas often affect the growth of
population as much as the price of corn and meat. The failure of
the French to increase rapidly is generally believed to be caused
by an almost morbid desire on the part of French parents to
start their sons in life with a fortune and give their daughters a
dowry on their marriage. The size of these portions becomes a
matter of pride, and great importance is attached to them even
among the middle classes. The fewer the children the larger the
portions. This condition is generally believed by modern French
statesmen to have been brought about by the law of 1793 which
restricted the freedom of leaving property by will and compelled
parents to divide their estates evenly among their children.
On the other hand, the English feeling is just the reverse of this.
The Saxon race has always been remarkable for its love of facing
life single-handed, and battling with the chances of the world.
English parents of all classes have seldom any hesitation, and
often a pride, in bringing up more children than their fortune will
enable to live with ease. The thought that the eldest child will
have all their money and the rest have to begin life anew, or
that all will have to make their own way in the colonies, which
would fill a French family with horror, is rather pleasant to Eng-
lish parents.

Any one who will read the history of the Know-!N'othing move-
ment in pamphlets, speeches, and deeds of that time can hardly
fail to be convinced that hundreds of thousands of native Amer-

252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

icans were rendered despondent, hopeless, and desperate by wliat
they saw around them. Men do not fight in mobs and destroy
churches and houses and form themselves into complicated secret
orders for nothing. Whatever we may think of their mistakes
of policy and rashness, there is no question that the native Amer-
icans received a severe shock, not only to their sentiments and
feelings, but to their opinions and principles. The nation that
they supposed was their own seemed to be given over to others.
Their high patriotism, their pride and interest in their country
were wounded and hurt. Nor was the wound any the less severe
because the majority of those who received it were of the class in
life that is not trained to express its feelings in writing.

What else was there in the general condition of affairs in
the United States between the years 1830 and 1860 which would
cause the rate of native growth to decrease ? It could not possibly
have been the growth of luxurious habits of living. There were
none at that time. Any we possess have been acquired within
the last twenty years, and most of them within the last ten years.
The country at that period, so far as concerned room for develop-
ment, was as new as it had been in 1750. Our people still lived in
a fringe along the Atlantic seaboard. The buffaloes were ranging
the prairies east of the Mississippi. The whole valley of that
river was practically unsettled. The West was a great unknown.
There was no crowding; and as for opportunities, they were
greater than ever before. The arts of life and the comfort and
health of living were all improving. Manufacturing industries
were springing up. Commerce was increasing, new inventions
were being perfected, occupations were becoming more numerous
and varied, the people were happy, prosperous, jubilant in their
successful nationality, and in 1830 railroads began. All things
which enable population to increase were present, and population
had been increasing rapidly until suddenly, coincident with the
great increase in immigration, the rate fell, and has been falling
ever since.

From that period down to the present hour all the facilities
of business have improved, new occupations have been created,
the medical and surgical sciences have improved, their improve-
ment is more generally distributed, sanitary conditions are better,
and as a consequence the average human life has been lengthened
by two years.

After the civil war came to an end in 1865 the same condition
existed. The West was still unsettled. The Union Pacific Rail-
road was not finished until 1869. The next ten years, with increas-
ing facilities for reaching all parts of the country, gave the grand-
est opportunity for rapid growth that was ever known. Yet not
only the rate of the native whites kept falling, but the rate of the

HAS IMMIGRATION- INCREASED POPULATION? 253

whole population, with, the greatest immigration added, kept
steadily falling.

What shall be said of the last decade, 1880-'90, when the increase
of the whole population, with a still greater immigration added,
has fallen to a rate which is four per cent lower than the rate of
the native whites during the Revolution ? Is this a crowded coun-
try ? We have sixty-five millions in a territory which every one
admits can easily support four hundred millions. Is this a
luxurious, worn-out, jaded country ? Where, how, and by what ?
Possibly among a fraction of the population in a few great cities.
But they do not constitute the country. Look at the small towns,
the great country districts, the masses of the people, and where
are the signs of the luxury that enervates ? Fashionable society
has grown in recent years ; but even admitting that it has grown
to the fullest possible extent, and that it is guilty of all the folly
with which it is charged, it has not yet become one fortieth part
of the population.

Spain is said to be an old, worn-out nation, but during the ten
years from 1880 to 1890 she increased the annual rate of her
growth from 35 per thousand to 54 per thousand. Even France,
though her rate had fallen very low in 1870, has steadily increased
it in the last twenty years, and raised it from 7 per thousand in-
habitants in 1870 to 37 per thousand in 1890. England has stead-
ily increased her rate in the last twenty years. So has Russia,
whose rate is very high, being 105 per thousand in 1870, 130 in
1880, and 140 in 1890. Holland, a very old and closely settled
country, has increased her rate in almost the same proportions, 80
per thousand in 1870, 118 in 1880, and 135 in 1890. Belgium's rate
is not far behind.*

Of all these countries none are superior to the United States
in natural fertility and resources. Most of them are much infe-
rior, and have a larger proportion of people to the square mile.
The United States has only 21*31 to the square mile ; f but Russia
has 42, Spain 86, Great Britain 184, France 320, Holland 350, and
Belgium 530.

If we are right in believing that the lowering of the rate of
native growth was due to the increase of foreigners, then immi-
gration has not materially increased, but, on the contrary, has
somewhat decreased the American population. If the native
population had kept up an increase per decade of only 34 per
cent, which was less than it had in the twenty years 1790 to
1810, and immigration had ceased, the white population would

♦ Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics, article Population, p. 442.

f The average of 21-31 per square mile for the United States is calculated on the total
land area, exclusive of Alaska and Indian Territory.

2 54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

now be more numerous than it has become with the assistance
of immigration.

If we take the native white population of 5,745,348 in the year
1810 and give it an increase each succeeding decade of 34 per cent,
with 28 per cent for the decade that included the civil war, we
have for the year 1890 57,048,753, which is 3,064,863 in excess of the
54,983,890 total whites as given by the census of that year. In
other words, the natives multiplying at less than their old rate
would outnumber the present native and foreign white population
by over three millions.

The rate of 28 per cent for the decade that included, the civil
war is lower than the rate of native increase during the Revolu-
tion, and the Revolution lasted seven years, while the civil war
lasted only four. The rate of 34 per cent for the other decades is
also quite conservative. For twenty years, when immigration was
at a minimum, the natives had exceeded this rate, and as their rate
was steadily rising there is every probability that they would soon
have exceeded 35 per cent, and reached 36 or more before 1890.
An average rate of 35 per cent, with 28 for the civil war, would
have given 60,098,117 whites in 1890, which is 5,114,227 in excess
of the total whites as reported by the census, and lacks only about
two millions of equaling the whole aggregate population of black,
white, Chinese, Japanese, and civilized Indians.

The estimates of Jefferson and others by which they prophe-
sied a great increase for the future were based on rates much
higher than this. The country was new, with ample room for de-
velopment, and growing more and more prosperous. European
countries with dense populations and inferior natural resources
have increased their rate within that time, and why should not the
United States ?

Some of these old countries increase their rate in spite of the
fact that thousands of emigrants are leaving them every year.
We have a new country, not half developed, with immigrants pour-
ing into us, and yet our rate has been steadily falling for sixty
years. Since 1830 the rate of increase of the whole aggregate pop-
ulation, black, white, Chinese, Japanese, and civilized Indians, to-
gether with all the immigrants that have been poured upon us and
the accessions from the new territories, Louisiana, Florida, Texas,
New Mexico, and California, has seldom been appreciably higher,
and is in most cases considerably lower, than the old rate of in-
crease of the native whites from 1750 to 1830, when immigration
was at a minimum. All the immigrants and all their increase can
not make up for the loss of the old rate of increase of the natives.

The following table shows that in only two decades, 1840 to 1850
and 1850 to 1860, was the rate of increase of the whole population
higher than it had been among the nativ^es alone before 1830. In

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 255

the first of those decades, 1840 i6 1850, the rate was abnormal be-
cause the Mexican War brought us a sudden large accession of
black and white population from the conquered provinces of Texas,
New Mexico, and California. The rate in the second decade, 1850
to 1860, was also abnormal. The people who were not counted in
California in the census of 1850, owing to the burning of part of
the returns, were counted in 1860, and increased the rate for that
decade :

Aggregate popu-
lation.

Per cent of in-
crease.

Correction for
census of 1870.

1830

12,866,020
17,069,453
23,191,876
31,443,321
38,558,371
50,155,783
62,622,250

33-55
32-67
35-86
35-57
22-62
30-07
24-85

1840

1850

1860

1870

24-62

1880

28-07

1890

During the last twenty years immigration has reached enor-
mous proportions. For the decade 1870 to 1880 the arrivals at ports,
without counting those that came in over the Canadian and Mexi-
can borders, were 2,834,040, and for 1880 to 1890 the same sort of
arrivals were 5,246,613.* Added together they make for the twenty
years 8,080,653, which is more than half of the total immigration
since 1820. Yet with this enormous influx the rate of increase of
the whole population has sunk lower and lower ; and the twenty
years which saw this huge immigration saw the lowest rate of
increase since 1750.

From the year 1750 to 1830 the native population without the
assistance of immigration never increased less than 33*17 per cent
each decade except during the Revolution, when it went down to
2881 per cent. But now, with a larger immigration than was ever
known, the increase of our aggregate population is only 24*85 —
almost 4 per cent lower than the rate of increase of the native
whites during the Revolution.

The mopane tree of eastern Mashonaland, Africa, is described by W. A.
Eckersley, of the railroad surveying party, as rarely attaining a height of
more than twenty-five feet. " When first its leaves make their appearance
they are bright red ; this soon changes to a rich autumnal brown ; passing
through some further shades of that color, they finally assume a green of
equal brilliance to the spring leaves of some of our English trees. Masses
of these trees in the various stages of change form a remarkably picturesque
effect; the strong contrast in which the brilliant reds and greens stand out
against the background of the blue-gray granite is particularly striking."

* Report of Superintendent of Immigration (1892), pp. 13, 30.

256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

INSECTS' EGGS.

By M. V. BRANDICOURT.

JOHANNES SWAMMERDAM, a Dutch naturalist, who was
the first to examine insects with a microscope, and whose
investigations were published in 1757, gave some curious details
concerning the eggs of insects.* " Some are oblong," he said,
"others ovoid or round. There are also angular, pyramidal,
striated, and granular eggs, etc. They are no less various as to
colors, and we find them white, yellow, red, blue, green, and pied
with different colors so singularly combined that it is almost im-
possible to describe them exactly. In consistence, some are soft,
others hard ; some membranous, others covered with a coat like
parchment or with a real eggshell ; some are covered with a kind
of froth, others with hairs."

Swammerdam described with many details the eggs of the
Nepa cendrea, a little fresh-water hemipter, which he called the
water scorpion (Fig. 10). They are yellow and nearly of the same
shape as the seed of the blessed thistle, slightly elongated, and
rounded at the lower end. On the upper part they are provided
with seven or eight slender branches, or hard threads, of which
the point is red and the middle whitish. These appendages or
threads, arranged in a circle around the circumference of the sum-
mit of each egg, form a kind of open egg cup, which receives the
end of the next egg in its cavity. Thus these appendages of the
first egg hold the lower end of the second, and so on.

The eggs of the Lepidoptera have considerable resemblance
to the seeds of plants (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4). "Those of the larger
and smaller cabbage butterflies have the shape of a pyramid, of a
height three or four times the diameter of the base, and the base
is stuck to a leaf. The eggs are usually formed by eight rounded
ribs, separated by flutings running from the summit to the larger
end. On each of these sides may be seen an infinite number of
flutings parallel to the base. The eggs of the great tortoise but-
terfly are nearly spherical, and are smaller in diameter at the base,
or the part by which they are attached to the plant, than at the
summit, whence eight equally distant crests descend along the
body of the egg, forming ribs which diminish imperceptibly in
height and disappear before reaching the end." f

These eggs resemble those of a night moth which attaches its

* Histoire naturelle des Inscctes (Natural History of Insects). Translated from the Bihlia
KaturcB of Johannes Swammerdam. Paris, 1758.

f Histoire naturelle des Insectes (Natural History of Insects). By De Tigny. Paris,
1816.

INSECTS' EGGS,

257

eggs to the branches of trees. They hold there with such strength
that they leave a scar on the bark, and even interfere with the
nutrition of the branch. They are remarkable for being shaped
like the stones that are cut for the construction of arches, and,
" being larger at the summit than at the base, so that they join
exactly, they arrange themselves in an arcade.^'

Some butterflies have eggs of very elegant shape, resembling a
kind of little knob, fluted and girt with a small purple circular
band.

The eggs of the dragon fly are elongated ; at the upper end
are a kind of flowerets like those of the louse nit. The gnat's

Figs. 1 and 2, e^gs of the lai^ and of the small cabbage Pieris ; Fig. 8, Qg^ of the Tristan
butterfly {Papillo hyperantus) ; Fig. 4, ef^g of the admiral ( Vanessa atalanta) ; Figs. 5 and
6, eggs of Polyommatus ; Figs. 7 and 8, eggs of Dicranura vinula^ profile and front
views ; Fig. 9, egg of Pygaera tricephala ; Fig. 10, ^gg of water scorpion (after Swammer-
dam); Fig. 11, ^gg of gnat; Fig. 12. nit of the louse (after Swammerdam, greatly
magnified).

Q^g is like a skittle, the larger end of which is rounded, while the
other end terminates in a short neck, like those of some liquor
flasks (Fig. 11). The eggs of the ephemera can be observed only
under the microscope, on black or blue paper. They are plano-
convex and oblong. The membrane that envelops them has a
nebulous appearance under the microscope. The eggs are white,
like the inner coating of thin shell.

The Euryanthus horribilis of New Guinea, on the other hand,
an orthopter of the singular tribe of the phasmids, which is twelve

VOL. ILTUI. — 18

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

or fifteen centimetres in length, lays eggs, it is said, as large as
those of a humming bird.

The blowfly has an oblong, angular egg, with lozenge-shaped
compartments forming a kind of network. They are very white
and composed of two distinct envelopes, of which the outer one is
a real shell like that of a hen's Qgg, and breaks as easily.

The egg of the ant is uniform, smooth, tight and bright, with-
out any division. When the larva has come from it, only a very
thin membrane is left, which rolls up and is reduced to an imper-
ceptible point ; and even if the Qgg does not hatch, it is still so
small ais to escape the eyes. This is why these eggs are so little
known, for what is commonly and improperly called the egg is
really the larva, and is endowed with life and motion. These eggs,
or rather these larvsB, of ants are very much sought after by barn-
yard fowl. An old woman of Paris gained a very comfortable in-
come by selling them at the Jardin d'Acclimatation to feed the
pheasants. She collected them in the woods of the suburbs, indif-
ferent to the bites she received from the old ants. Her trade ex-
tended from June till the end of September. Ants' eggs are con-
sidered a choice dish in some countries. They are spread upon a
slice of bread and butter, and sauces considered excellent are
made with them. They are esteemed as a costly food in Siam,
within the reach only of well-to-do people. They are the object
of an important trade in some countries of northern Europe,
where they are cooked in boiling water, and yield a kind of vine-
gar or formic acid.

The eggs of certain aquatic insects resembling noctonectse
(Corixo femorale and Corixo mannaria,GeoETOj, and Nodonecta
Americana) are eaten in Mexico. They are usually found deposited
on the reeds and rushes of the lakes, especially of Lake Tezcuco.
The egg-laden reeds and rushes are cut, dried, and beaten over
cloths, to detach the myriads of eggs which are fastened on them.
The eggs are very carefully cleansed, and are, after that opera-
tion, winnowed, put up in sacks like flour, and sold as material
for cakes. This novel aliment, which is called hantle, and is
really water-flea bread, is the object of considerable trade in the
markets of Mexico. It has a pronounced fishy flavor, and was
used by the natives prior to the conquest. The eggs of another
species {Corixa esculenta), which resemble manna, are eaten in
Egypt, and form an element of very choice dishes.

The eggs of insects resist considerable variations of tempera-
ture. The most rigorous cold of our winters is fatal to the eggs
only of the most delicate species ; and the eggs can likewise resist
the most intense tropical heats. — Translated for the Popular Sci-
ence Monthly from La Nature.

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN^ 259

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN.

DAVID DALE OWEN was born at Braxfield House, near
New Lanark, Scotland, June 24, 1807. He was the fourth
8on and sixth child in a family of eight children. All but the
first born, a son, lived to adult age. His father, Robert Owen,
the celebrated philanthropist, was a native of North Wales.

Robert Owen, after working in the drapery business in Lon-
don and elsewhere, entered into partnership with a mechanic, at
eighteen years of age, in the manufacture of cotton-spinning ma-
chines. A year later he took a position as superintendent of a
mill employing five hundred hands, and at twenty- two years of
age he became a partner in an old-established spinning concern
of Manchester. Having become attached to Miss Anne Caroline,
the eldest daughter of David Dale, proprietor of large mills at New
Lanark, near Glasgow, he arranged with his partners to buy the
works of the father, and soon after obtained for himself the hand
of the daughter. They were married in 1797. Undertaking the
management of the works ("government" he called it), he steadily
improved the condition of the factory hands, which had been
there as elsewhere bad to a degree now almost incredible. Some
of his measures were opposed by his partners, and led to several
dissolutions of partnership through which he retained the man-
agement, but he was forced to retire in 1829 when fifty-eight years
of age. In spite of what he spent for the workers, Owen always
made the business pay well. For several years beginning with
1815, he worked for the passage of Acts of Parliament beneficial
to factory operatives. Becoming convinced that social reform
could be best secured through communism, he bought from the
Harmony Society a tract of thirty thousand acres, and the build-
ings of their settlement at New Harmony, Ind. The Harmony
Society was prosperous but wished to change its location. Com-
ing to America in the spring of 1825, he organized a community of
about nine hundred persons on a provisional plan. He returned to
Scotland to look after his business, leaving his two oldest sons
at New Harmony.

William Maclure, of Philadelphia, a man of means and de-
voted to philanthropy and the advancement of science, took part
in founding the community. He heard of Owen's scheme on re-
turning to the United States after an attempt to found an agri-
cultural labor school in Spain, and believed that it would afford
favorable conditions for carrying out his cherished idea of an
educational institute founded on rational principles. He accord-
ingly bought a large tract of land in New Harmony and vicinity,
and removed thither his library and collection of minerals, which

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

were extensive, and his valuable scientific apparatus. He induced
Gerard Troost, C. A. Lesueur, and Thomas Say, also Joseph Neef ,
the Pestalozzian, to come into the community with him, to act as in-
structors in the institution proposed. When the society was divided
into a manufacturing and educational, and an agricultural branch,
Maclure became the leading spirit in the educational division.

Owen visited New Harmony a second time in the winter of
1825-'26. His third visit was made in the spring of 1828, and by
that time so many troubles had arisen that the community was dis-
banded. The failure of the undertaking was due to the one great
cause that makes all communistic enterprises impracticable in the
present age — the imperfections of human nature. In the same
year Mr. Owen went to Mexico, on the invitation of the Govern-
ment, to put his ideas into practice there, but effected nothing be-
cause the Government insisted that the state religion of the pro-
posed community should be Roman Catholic. Some experiments
were afterward tried by him in Great Britain, and he continued
to advocate his views with voice and pen until his death, in 1858.
His followers received the name of " Owenites." He published a
considerable number of writings, including an autobiography.

David Dale Owen's early education, which was received from
a private tutor, included the English branches, the rudiments of
Latin, and a course in architectural drawing. He was also trained
in the use of carpenter's tools in the mechanical department con-
nected with his father's mills. He was for a time a pupil in the
grammar school, or academy, at New Lanark. His father, while
traveling on the continent of Europe, had visited the celebrated
educational institution of Emanuel von Fellenberg, at Hofwyl,
Switzerland, and was so much pleased with the system pursued in
it — neither moral, physical, nor intellectual development being
neglected — that he sent there first his two oldest sons — Robert
Dale and William — for a three years' course, and after their return
sent David and his younger brother Richard, in 1824, also for
three years. The studies of the more advanced classes were partly
elective, and David Dale and his brother chose chemistry, draw-
ing, and modern languages in addition to the prescribed mathe-
matical and literary course.

David Dale and Richard returned to Scotland in September,
1826, the former being then nineteen years old. They entered the
classes in physics and chemistry conducted by Dr. Andrew Ure,
author of the Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, at
Glasgow, where their mother then resided. Their father was
absent at New Harmony. For that place the two younger sons
set out in November, 1827, going by a ship from Liverpool to New
Orleans, thence up the Mississippi by steamer, reaching the settle-
ment on the Wabash early in January, 1828.

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN. 261

During the next three years they kept np and increased their
knowledge of chemistry by repeating the experiments of Dr. Ure's
course. Desiring to extend his knowledge of chemistry and geol-
ogy, David Dale Owen in 1831 returned to Great Britain. He
had as a companion Henry D. Rogers, and they both lived at the
house of Owen's father in London while attending the lectures of
Dr. Turner at the London University.

After about a year abroad Owen came back to the United
States. Soon after his return he was stricken with Asiatic chol-
era, which was epidemic in this country in the summer and fall of
1832, but was fortunate enough to survive the attack. Wishing
to increase his knowledge of anatomy and physiology as an aid in
the study of paleontology, he entered the Ohio Medical College,
in Cincinnati, and was graduated in the spring of 1836. He de-
voted the summer following his graduation to gaining practical
experience in field geology. To this end he accompanied at his
own expense Dr. Gerard Troost, who was then engaged on the
State Survey of Tennessee.

Dr. Owen married, March 23, 1837, Caroline C. Neef, the third
daughter of that pioneer of Pestalozzian education in America,
Joseph Neef.

Dr. Owen had been appointed State Geologist of Indiana and
immediately after his marriage he entered upon the duties of this
position. He made a preliminary reconnoissance in 1837 and 1838,
his report upon which was published immediately after its com-
pletion and reissued in 1859. Geological science being little un-
derstood in the West when this document first appeared, a brief
introductory exposition of the leading formations was given in it,
after which the rich deposits of coal, iron, and building stones
within the limits of the State were described.

The Hon. James Whitcomb, then Governor of Indiana, was
soon afterward appointed Commissioner of the General Land Ofiice,
and Congress having ordered a survey of the Dubuque and Mineral
Point districts under the direction of his bureau, he selected Dr.
Owen, with whose ability he was well acquainted, to conduct this
examination. These districts comprised eleven thousand square
miles of the Northwest Territory, now included in the States of
Wisconsin and Iowa, and the object of the examination was to
enable the commissioner to reserve from sale those sections found
to contain mineral wealth. But a short time was allowed for the
work, hence it became necessary to organize a large force. The
difficulties involved in such a rapid prosecution of the survey are
indicated in the report presented by Dr. Owen to the commis-
sioner, April 2, 1840. " In one month from the day I received my
commission and instructions," he says, "(to wit, on September
17th), I had reached the mouth of Rock River ; engaged one hun-

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

dred and thirty-nine snbagents and assistants; instructed my
subagents in such, elementary principles of geology as were neces-
sary to the performance of the duties required of them ; supplied
them with simple mineralogical tests, with the application of
which they were made acquainted ; organized twenty-four work-
ing corps, furnished each with skeleton maps of the townships
assigned to them for examination, and placed the whole at the
points where their labors commenced, all along the line of the
western half of the territory to be examined. Thence the expedi-
tion proceeded northward, each corps required, on the average, to
overrun and examine thirty quarter sections daily, and to report
to myself on fixed days at regularly appointed stations : to receive
which reports and to examine the country in person, I crossed the
district under examination, in an oblique direction, eleven times
in the course of the survey."

It was in the spring of 1840 that William Maclure died. As
administrator of his estate, his brother Alexander engaged Dr.
Owen to assort the very extensive collection of minerals and
fossils which Mr. Maclure had made in the course of his geological
exploration of the United States and his travels in this country,
Europe, and the West Indies. Specific suites were to be distrib-
uted to certain schools and colleges, and the remainder was to be
retained by Dr. Owen as the nucleus of a museum. These direc-
tions were duly carried out. With regard to the portion remain-
ing in Dr. Owen's hands The American Geologist * states : " To
this latter Dr. Owen subsequently added largely, by purchase
from Dr. Krantz, of Germany, illustrative fossils of every period ;
among others an ichthyosaurus, from the Lias of Wiirtemberg,
larger than the one in the British Museum. Another interesting
and valuable specimen was a nearly complete skeleton of a gigan-
tic megatheroid animal (the Megalonyx) which he exhumed near
Henderson, Ky. The entire collection some years after Dr. Owen's
death was purchased by the Indiana University, and unfortunately
nearly all consumed by fire, when the new university building,
including the museum, laboratory, and library, was destroyed."

Dr. Owen was again called into the service of the Government
in 1847, being appointed United States Geologist and directed to
make a survey of the Chippewa land district. His Preliminary
Report, made in the following year to the Hon. R. M. Young, then
Commissioner of the Land Office, was a document of one hundred
and thirty- four octavo pages, and was accompanied by three hun-
dred and twenty-three lithographs from his own sketches, and
numerous maps, diagrams, etc.

* Sketch of the Life of David Dale Owen, M. D., August, 1889, to which source acknowl-
edgment is due for the greater portion of the material entering into the present article.

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN, 263

The scope of his examination was then enlarged so as to em-
brace a fuller survey of portions of the Northwest Territory,
lying mainly within the present States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and
Minnesota. This task required five years of field work and a final
year of laboratory and office work, ending with the year 1852. A
large appropriation was made by Congress for illustrating and
printing Owen's report, all the details of publication being com-
mitted to him. The result was a finely illustrated quarto volume
of six hundred and thirty- eight pages, many of the illustrations
being from the original drawings of Dr. Owen, who had great
facility in sketching. In this volume he applied for the first time
the medal-ruling style of engraving to cuts of fossils.

In an article on Geological Surveys in Missouri Mr. Arthur
Winslow says of Owen's reports up to this time : ** These reports
supplied the guiding lines along which later stratigraphic work
in the Mississippi Valley was done. Without attempting here to
present the history of this work, its bearing upon the future work
in Missouri calls for brief mention. In the Indiana reports Owen
makes a separation of the rocks, in harmony with the English
classification, into — 1. Bituminous coal formations. 2. Mountain
limestone. 3. Grauwacke. 4. Crystalline and inferior stratified
rocks. In the succeeding reports, as the results of wider observa-
tion and more thorough study, the classification was changed and
differentiated until, in the final report, we find a classification
which, not only in its general features, but in many of its details,
is still adhered to in Missouri."

From 1854 to 1859 Dr. Owen was occupied with the geological
survey of Kentucky, having been appointed State Geologist by
Governor Powell. The results of his explorations were published
as the work progressed, and compose four large octavo volumes.
Dr. Robert Peter, of Lexington, Ky., performed the chemical
work of the survey and made a special report upon it.

Toward the close of his labors in Kentucky, in October, 1857,
Dr. Owen was commissioned to conduct a geological survey of the
State of Arkansas. His principal assistant in the Kentucky sur-
vey, Mr. E. T. Cox, filled the same position in the new work. The
chemical assistant on the latter survey was Dr. Elderhorst, author
of a work on the blowpipe. Various incidents in his several sur-
veys prove Dr. Owen to have been a man of indomitable perse-
verance. Once, while on the Red River of the North with a
Canadian voyageur, the fowling-piece used by the latter for pro-
curing game was discharged in such a way as to lodge a number
of shot in Dr. Owen's shoulder. But he did not permit the acci-
dent to delay him an hour. Again, the summer occupied with the
field work of the Arkansas survey, a considerable part of which
was necessarily spent in the rich and malarious bottom lands.

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

proved very detrimental to his health, bringing him home in the
autumn with a hue denoting serious derangement of the liver.
Yet he not only persevered in his explorations, but occupied him-
self in winter with laboratory work, usually until midnight. He
did not desist even when suffering acutely from his last illness,
but dictated the closing portions of his report until within forty-
eight hours of his death. Between Dr. Owen and Governor Con-
way, who had given him the Arkansas appointment, there always
existed the most cordial good feeling, and the latter provided
every facility for the prosecution of the survey. Toward the end
of 1860 postal communication between the North and South was
considerably interrupted, for the breach which culminated in
civil war was already opening. Yet the Governor, at consider-
able pains, succeeded in sending safely to New Harmony several
thousand dollars due from the appropriation, and required for
the publication of the second volume of the report. Dr. Owen
had died, and the issuing of this volume, for which he had left
full instructions, fell to his brother and administrator. Prof.
Richard Owen. The latter also executed a second survey of
Indiana, for which his brother had been appointed in 1859, with
the understanding that Richard should do as much of the work
as might be necessary.

The labors above outlined resulted in undermining the origi-
nally good constitution with which David Dale Owen had been
endowed. Malarial fever, complicated with rheumatic attacks
which threatened the heart, terminated his career of usefulness
November 13, 1860. He left a widow, two sons, and two daughters.
Dr. Owen's character was marked by integrity and amiable sim-
plicity ; his kindness and liberality were well known, and his sci-
entific work was always conscientiously performed. His fondness
for chemistry led him to build at a cost of ten thousand dollars a
laboratory fully equipped, which served as a material evidence of
his good taste in architecture. His architectural taste was further
evinced in the artistic design which he submitted for the Smith-
sonian Institution building. He also tested many varieties of
building stone before the selection of material for that structure
was determined.

His artistic skill enabled him, besides richly illustrating his
reports, as above noted, to leave good portraits in oil of members
of his family. He transmitted to London views of the fossil
SigiUaria found erect in situ twelve miles from New Harmony,
with a description, which were presented to the British Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science by Sir Roderick Murchison.
He subsequently conducted Sir Charles Lyell to the locality while
the latter was his guest at New Harmony in his second visit to
the United States.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 265*

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

Vm.— TEACHER.
By HERBERT SPENCER.

rpE ACHING implies knowledge of things to be taught; and as,
-L for various reasons, the priest comes to be distinguished by
his possession of knowledge, from him more especially is it to be
obtained. Moreover, being released from life-sustaining activities,
he has more time than others for giving information and enforcing
discipline.

A deeper reason for this primitive identity of priest and teacher
may be recognized. Though during early years each youth gath-
ers, in miscellaneous ways, much which is properly to be called
knowledge, and which serves him for guidance in ordinary life,
yet there is a kind of knowledge, or supposed knowledge, particu-
larly precious, which does not come to him through the irregular
channels of daily experience. Equally in savage tribes and among
early civilized peoples, ghosts and gods are believed to be every-
where, and always influencing men^s lives for good or evil ; and
hence of chief importance is information concerning the ways in
which conduct may be so regulated as to obtain their favors and
avoid their vengeance. Evidently the man who knows most about
these supernatural beings, the priest, is the man from whom this
information of highest value is to be obtained. It results that the
primitive conception of the teacher is the conception of one who
gives instruction in sacred matters.

Of course the knowledge thus communicated is first of all com-
municated by the elder priests to the younger, or rather by the
actual priests to those who are to become priests. In many cases,
and for a long time, this is the sole teaching. Only in the course
of evolution along with the rise of a secular cultured class, does
the teacher as we now conceive him come into existence.

Necessarily in early stages of all evolving aggregates the lines
of organization are indefinite. In groups of the uncivilized we
can not expect the function of educator to have become distinctly
marked off. Still we soon detect that inculcation of secret and
sacred things which, as above indicated, constitutes the earliest
kind of teaching : the " mystery men " being the instructors. Says
Bernau concerning the Arawaks : —

" The son of a conjurer, as soon as he enters his twentieth year, or even
sooner, is made acquainted by his father with the art of conjuration, and
enjoined the greatest secrecy concerning it."

And whether the neophyte be a descendant or not, there is always
this injunction of silence respecting the communicated informa-

VOL. XLVIII. — 18*

266* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion, whicli invariably has reference to dealings with supernatural
beings ; so that, from the very first, there is shown the rise of an
esoteric cult such as the priesthoods of early historic peoples
show us.

But in groups of savages we may trace an extension of this sa-
cred teaching, or rather part of it, to all young men on their arrival
at the fit age. The Australians, for example, have everywhere
an initiation ceremony during which the youth, circumcised after
a fashion, or in other cases having a tooth knocked out, is thereby
dedicated to a supernatural being supposed to be present, as in the
case of Daramultin, who is doubtless the hero of the tribe : the
dedications being obviously akin in spirit to those of more civi-
lized peoples. On these occasions the medicine-men are the oper-
ators and instructors.

The more advanced of the uncivilized, whose medicine-men
have gained in some measure the character of priests, furnish
better evidence. We have the case of the New Zealanders, among
whom, according to Thomson, one of the duties of the priests is
to instruct children in the songs and traditions of the people — to
instruct them, that is, in the sacred lore of the tribe. Then in
Africa, where the social organization is more developed, we meet
with a more definite form of priestly tuition. Bastian tells us that
in Congo the fetich-priest yearly collects the boys who have
arrived at puberty, and leads them into the forest, where they
remain six months, forming a sort of colony under the control of
the priest. During this time they undergo circumcision. Then
in Abyssinia and in Madagascar we find the teaching function of
the priest shared in by a non-priestly class — a step in differen-
tiation.

Peoples, past and present, in sundry parts of the world, who
have reached higher stages of civilization, yield fragments of
evidence which I string together in as orderly a way as is practi-
cable. Writing of the Mexicans, Torquemada says that the whole
education was in connection with the temples. Very many boys
were sent there to be educated from the fourth year of their age
until their marriage. Clavigero tells us the same thing. Of the
priests of Yucatan we read : —

" They instructed the sons of other priests, and also the younger sons of the
lords, who were given to them from childhood when they appeared to be in-
clined to that office. The sciences which they taught were the computation
of years, months, and days, festivals and ceremonies, the administration of
their sacraments, etc., etc."

Of existing peoples the Japanese may be first named as supply-
ing us with a relevant fact.

" The secular teacher's vocation can scarcely be said to have existed prior
to the days of the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty. . . . The bonzes

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 267*

[priests] of Japan are to be credited with being mainly instrumental in
spreading a knowledge of the rudiments of education throughout the length
and breadth of the Empire."
In his Embassy to Ava Syme writes : —

" All kioums or monasteries are seminaries, in which boys are taught
their letters and instructed in moral and religious duties."
To like effect, from a work entitled The Burman, by Shway Yeo,
we learn that —

" When a boy has reached the age of eight or nine years he goes as a mat-
ter of course to the Pohngyee Kyoung [Monastic School]. It is open to all
alike — to the poor fisherman's son as well as to the scion of princely
blood."

And the Catholic missionary Sangermano testifies similarly : im-
plying, also, that this education given by the priests is nominally
in preparation for the priesthood, since the students all put on
" the habit of a Talapoin " during the period of their education.
The JMahometans, too, yield evidence. At the present time in
Cairo the university is in a mosque.

Illustrative facts taken from the accounts of extinct and de-
cayed civilizations in the Old World, may be next grouped to-
gether — some of them mere hints and others sufficiently full.

Concerning ancient India, Dutt states that education consisted
of learning the Vedas, and that in the later as in the earlier peri-
ods it was under the priests. He also says : —

" There were Parishads or Brahmanic settlements for the cultivation of
learning . . . andyoungmen went to these Parishads to acquire learning."
To this there must be added the significant fact that in the Epic
Period (ca, b. c. 1400 to 1000)—

"Besides these Parishads, individual teachers established what would be
called private schools in Europe, and often collected round themselves
students from various parts of the country. . . . Learned Brahmans who
had retired to forests in their old age often collected such students round
them, and much of the boldest speculations in the Epic Period has pro-
ceeded from these sylvan and retired seats of sanctity and learning."

Taken in conjunction with the preceding statements this last
statement shows us how teaching was in the beginning exclusively
concerned with religious doctrines and rites, and how there event-
ually began to arise a teaching which, in some measure detached
from the religious institutions, at the same time entered upon
other subjects than the religious.

A kindred, if less elaborated, system existed in ancient Persia.

" It is pretty clear that the special training of boys for future callings
went hand in hand with their religious education, and that it was chiefly
regulated according to the profession of the father. ... It was evidently
also no uncommon practice to commit children to the care of a priest for
training and instruction in the same manner as the Indian Brahmins wei«
wont to do."

268* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Respecting Babylonia and Assyria Professor Sayce, describing
the social life there, says : —

" The libraries were established in the temples, and the schools in which
the work of education was carried on were doubtless attached to them."

" The ' house of males ' into which the young men were introduced,
seems to have been a sort of monastic establishment attached to the great
temples of Babylonia."

Of educational arrangements in Egypt the like is said by vari-
ous authorities — Brugsch, Erman, and Duncker.

" Schools were established in the principal towns of the country ; and
human and divine wisdom was taught in the assemblages of the holy serv-
ants of the gods."

"The high priest of Amon, Bekenkhonsu, tells us, that from his fifth to
his seventeenth year he was ' chief of the royal stable of instruction,' and
thence entered the temple of Amon as an under-priest. "

''The colleges at these temples [Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis] were
the most important centers of priestly life and doctrine."

That absence of a priestly hierarchy in Greece which, as before
pointed out, interfered with the normal developments of other
professions, interfered also with the normal development of the
tutorial profession. The temples and their surroundings were in-
deed places for special culture of one or other kind, mostly having
some relation to religious observances. But this form of priestly
teaching did not grow into any general system taking in the lay
members of the community. Referring, by contrast, to education
in the gymnasia, Mahaffy writes : —

" The older fashion had been to bring up boys very much as we bring
up girls, keeping them constantly under the eye of a special attendant or
teacher . . . teaching them the received religion and a little of the standard
literature, inculcating obedience to the gods and to parents."
As happened in Persia during its phase of militant activity, phys-
ical culture and culture of the mental powers useful in war took
precedence of other culture.

" The old system of advanced education, which ordained that from the
age of eighteen to twenty Athenian youths . . . should remain under State
supervision, and do the duty of patrols round the outlying parts and fron-
tier forts of Attica, receiving at the same time drill in military exercises, as
well as some gymnastic and literary training," became in time modified
to one in which " most of the gymnastics and military training was left
out."

But intellectual culture as it increased fell into the hands not of
the priests but of secular teachers. " Those philosophers who did
not, like the Stoics, despise teaching youths, ... set up their
schools close beside these gymnasia.''

Still more in Rome, where the course of evolution was so much

modified by the intrusion of foreign elements and influences, was

, the normal genesis of the teacher interfered with. Always when

militancy is extremely predominant, mental acquisition, regarded

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 269*

with, no respect, is not provided for : instance the fact that in
Japan, "during many centuries previous to ly^yasii's time, the
very numerous warrior-class like the Knights of Mediaeval Eu-
rope, despised a knowledge of letters as beneath the dignity of a
soldier, and worthy only of the bard and priest." And it was thus
in Rome.

" The economic arrangements of the Romans placed the work of element-
ary instruction in the mother-tongue — like every other work held in little
estimation, and performed for hire — chiefly in the hands of slaves, freed-
men, or foreigners, or in other words chiefly in the hands of Greeks or half-
Greeks."

This condition of things will be comprehended when we remem-
ber firstly that the normal genesis of teachers from priests is due
to the fact that in early stages priests are distinguished by their
superior knowledge ; secondly that the priests in Rome were not
thus distinguished, since the subjugated Greeks were more learned
than they ; and thirdly that all attributes of conquered men are
liable to fall into contempt.

On passing northward to the peoples of pre-Christian days and
to those of early Christian days, we are again shown the primi-
tive identity of priest and teacher and the eventual separation of
the two. Elsewhere saying of the Celts that their training, wholly
military, aimed to produce endurance, agility, and other bodily
capacities, Pelloutier writes : —

'* Pour entretenir les peuples dans la dependance, et pour etre tou jours
consultez comme des Oracles, les Ecclesiastiques vouloient etre les seuls
Savans; et de I'autre, les Celtes, qui regardoient tout travail, tant du corps
que de Tesprit (Procop. Gotth. L. I., cap. 2, p. 311) comme une chose ser-
vile, abandonnoient de bon coeur toutes les Sciences a leurs Druides, qu'ils
consideroient non seulement comme des Savans, mais encore comme de veri-
tables Magiciens. Les etudes des Nations Celtiques se reduisoient done
uniquement a apprendre par cceur certains Hymnes qui renfermoient leurs
Loix, leur Religion, leur Histoire, et en general tout ce qu'on vouloit bien
que le peuple siit.", (To keep the people dependent upon them, and in order
that they might always be consulted as oracles, the Ecclesiastics wished to
be the only men of knowledge ; and, on the other hand, the Celts, who re-
garded all labor, whether of body or mind (Procop. Gotth. L. I., chap. 2,
p. 311), as servile, readily left all the sciences to their Druids, whom they
held to be real magicians as well as men of knowledge. The studies of the
Celtic nations were therefore reduced simply to learning by heart certain
hymns in which were embodied their law, their religion, their history^
and, in general, all that it was desirable the people should know.)
And congruous with this is the statement of Pliny concerning the
British : — The druids " taught their pupils, and harangued to them
concerning their doctrines ; they made public speeches to the peo-
ple, and instructed them in morality."

Almost extinguished during early centuries of our era, such

270* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

CTiltnre as survived was to be found only in ecclesiastical institu-
tions, and out of them grew up afresh. As Hallam says : —

" The praise of having originally established schools belongs to some
bishops and abbots of the sixth century. They came in place of the
Imperial schools overthrown by the barbarians. . . . The cathedral and
conventual schools, created or restored by Charlemagne, became the
means of preserving that small portion of learning which continued to
exist."

Mosheim, describing the Church of the sixth century, further tells
US that in the cathedral schools the clerical teacher " instructed
the youth in the seven liberal arts, as a preparation for the study
of the sacred books ; " and that in the monasteries " the abbot or
some one of the monks instructed the children and youth that
were devoted to a monastic life." These last facts verify the state-
ment, made at the outset, that primarily instruction, whether given
to lay or clerical youth, concerned itself directly or indirectly with
religious propitiation : the avowed purpose, as expressed by the
Council of Vaison, being to make the young " attach themselves
to holy books and to know the law of God."

Subsequent centuries of wars and social derangements wit-
nessed a decay of these ecclesiastical teaching institutions, notwith-
standing efforts from time to time made by popes and bishops to
reinvigorate them. But, as was to be expected, when there began
to arise lay teachers, there arose clerical resistance. Then, as al-
ways, the priestly class disliked to see the instruction of the
young falling into other hands. In France, for example, the
Chancellor of Ste. Genevieve, who granted licenses to teach at the
Paris University, used his power sometimes to exclude able men,
sometimes to extort money, and had repeatedly to be restrained
by papal injunctions. So, too, was it in Germany.

" All the professorial posts in the Universities were in the hands of the
clergy, until the end of the fifteenth, and even into the sixteenth, century."

In Heidelberg, 1482, " a layman was for the first time, after a severe
struggle, allowed to become a professor of medicine."

*' The general admission of lay professors to clerical ofiices did not take
place until 1553."

Our own country presents like evidences. In old English
days " parish churches were often nsed as schools," says Pearson.
And, according to Sharon Turner, —

" The clergy were the preceptors of those who sought to learn ... to
them the moral and intellectual education of the age was intrusted. . . .
Thus the Irish monk Maildurf, who settled at Malmesbury . . . took schol-
ars to earn subsistence."

So it was, too, in subsequent days. "We read in the same two au-
thors that after the Conquest —

" The numerous clergy scattered up and down through England had a

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 271*

direct interest in promoting education. They eked out their scanty sti-
pends as tutors and schoolmasters."

" One of the first fruits of the revival of literature in England, was the
universal establishment of schools. To every cathedral, and almost to
every monastery, a school was appended. . . . Few persons of any note
appear to us among the clergy, during the century after the conquest, who
did not during some part of their lives occupy themselves in instructing
others."

In exemplification may be named, as distinguished teachers belong-
ing to the priesthood during the Anglo-Saxon period, Bede, Al-
cuin, Scotus Erigena, and Dunstan. And after the Conquest, as
teachers sufficiently conspicuous to be specified, come Athelard
of Bath, John of Salisbury, Alexander Neckam, Koger of Hove-
den, Duns Scotus.

But here as elsewhere the secularization of teaching slowly
went on in sundry ways. Early in the fifteenth century laymen
here and there left money for the founding of schools. Warton,
writing of the early part of the sixteenth century, says : — " The
practice of educating our youth in the monasteries growing into
disuse, near twenty new grammar schools were established within
this period." At the same time there was initiated a slow change
in the character of our universities. Beginning as clusters of
theological students gathered round clerical teachers of wide
reputation, they, while growing, long continued to be places for
clerical education only, and afterward simulated it. Almost
down to the present day acceptance of the legally-established
creed has been in them a condition to the reception of students
and the conferring of distinctions ; and they have all along pre-
served a teaching and discipline conspicuously priestly. We
have residence in colleges under a regime suggestive of the mo-
nastic ; we have daily attendance at prayers, also monastic in its
associations ; and we have the wearing of a semi-priestly dress.
But gradually the clerical character of the education has been
modified by the introduction of more and more non-religious sub-
jects of instruction, and by the relaxation of tests which a domi-
nant ecclesiasticism once imposed. So that now the greater part
of those who " go to college," do so without any intention of en-
tering the Church : university teaching has been in a large meas-
ure secularized.

Meanwhile the multiplied minor teaching institutions of all
grades, though they have in the majority of cases passed into the
hands of laymen, still, in considerable measure, and especially
throughout their higher grades, retain a clerical character. The
public schools in general are governed by ecclesiastics ; and most
of the masters are, if not in orders, preparing to take orders.
Moreover, a large proportion of the private schools throughout
the kingdom to which the wealthier classes send their sons, are

272* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

carried on by clergymen ; and clergymen in mnltitndinons cases
take private pupils. Thus tlie differentiation of the teaching class
from the priestly class is even now incomplete.

As significantly bearing on the evolution of the teacher, let us
further note that at the present moment there is going on a strug-
gle to reacquire that clerical control which a secularized system
of public education had in chief measure thrown off. Even when
established a quarter of a century ago, this public education was
not completely secularized, since certain biblical lessons were
given ; and now a strenuous endeavor is being made to add to
these biblical lessons certain dogmas of the Christian creed estab-
lished by law, and so to make the teachers of Board Schools to a
certain extent clerical teachers. Nor is this all. Clerics have
striven and are still striving, to make the public help them to
teach Church dogmas in Church Schools. At the present time
(June, 1895), the Primate and clergy at large are fathering an Act
which shall give them State- funds without State- control. With
an arrogance common to Priesthoods in all times and places, no
matter what the creed they say to the State — " We will say what
shall be taught and you shall pay for it.''

No more here than elsewhere do we meet with an exception to
the segregation and consolidation which accompany differentia-
tion ; though, partly because of the more recent separation of the
teaching class from the clerical class, this change has not been so
conspicuous.

The tendency towards integration of the teaching class, and
marking off of them from other classes, was first shown among
theological teachers. At the University of Paris —
'' half-learned persons, who had scarcely any knowledge of the elements of
theology, took upon themselves the ofiice of public teachers. The conse-
quence was, that the theological teachers of better reputation united them-
selves, and formed a regular society ; and they had sufficient influence to
establish the rule, that no one should be allowed to teach without their
approbation and permission. This of course led to an examination of the
candidates, and to a public trial of their ability, and to a formal ceremony
for their admission to the dignity of teachers or doctors^
In our own universities the like has happened. Knowledge, first
of established Christian doctrine, and then of other things held
proper for teachers of Christian doctrine to know, and then ex-
aminations testing acquisition of such kinds of knowledge, have
served to create a mass of those qualified, and to exclude those
not qualified: so forming a coherent and limited aggregate.
Though dissenting sects have insisted less on qualifications, yet
among them, too, have arisen institutions facilitating the needful
culture and giving the needful clerical authorizations.

Only of late have secular teachers tended to unite. Beyond

WBY THE SEA IS SALT. 273*

the various training colleges wliicli instruct and examine and au-
thorize, there are now sundry professional associations. Of a
general kind come the Teachers' Guild and the Scottish Educa-
tional Institute. Then of more special kinds come the Head Mas-
ters [of Public Schools] Conference; the Association of Head
Masters of Intermediate Secondary Schools; the Association of
Head Mistresses; the College of Preceptors; the Association of
Assistant Masters ; the National Union of Teachers.

So, too, with the appliances for maintaining a general organi-
zation of all concerned in education — schoolmasters, assistants,
colleges, and the various unions above named. This professorial
class, like other professorial classes, has journals weekly and
monthly, some general and some special, representing its inter-
ests, serving for communication among its members, and helping
to consolidate it.

WHY THE SEA IS SALT.

By G. W. LITTLEHALES.

FROM the first chapter of the first book of Moses, called Gene-
sis, we learn that, as between water and land, the ocean had
the first place in terrestrial existence, for it is there stated that
on the third day in the calendar of the creation the waters under
the heavens were gathered together and the dry land appeared.
Both from a chemical and a geological standpoint it appears that
the waters of the ocean were salt from the beginning. Dr. T. S.
Hunt, one of the ablest writers on the physical history of the
globe, in his chemical and geological essays, referring to that pe-
riod when the earth was in a molten state and surrounded by an
envelope of gases and of vapor of water, states : " There would
be the conversion of all the carbonates, chlorides, and sulphates
into silicates, and the separation of carbon, chlorine, and sulphur
in the form of acid gases which, with nitrogen, vapor of water,
and a probable excess of oxygen, could form the dense primeval
atmosphere. The resulting fused mass would contain all the
bases as silicates, and must have resembled certain furnace slags
or volcanic glasses. The atmosphere, charged with acid gases
which surrounded this primitive rock, must have been of great
density. Under the pressure of a high barometric column con-
densation could take place at a temperature much above the pres-
ent boiling point of water, and the depressed portions of the half-
cooled crust would be flooded with a highly heated solution of
hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, whose action in decomposing
the silicates can easily be understood. The formation of the
chlorides and sulphates of the various bases, and the separation of

2 74* ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

silica, would go on until the affinities of the acids were satisfied,
and there would be a separation of silica taking the form of
quartz, and the production of sea- water holding in solution, be-
sides the chlorides and the sulphates of sodium, calcium, and
magnesium, salts of ammonium and other metallic bases. The
atmosphere, being thus deprived of its volatile chlorine and sul-
phur compounds, would gradually approximate to that of our
own time, but would differ in the greater amount of carbonic- acid
gas."

And the meteorologist Abbe, in the course of remarks made
before the Philosophical Society of Washington in 1889, express-
ing the propriety of wholly rejecting the idea that the earth was
once a molten globe, stated : " The study of geological climate
during and since the formation of Azoic metamorphic strata has
led me to adopt the conclusion that surface geology, like volcanic,
does not demand excessive temperatures ; it seems to me most
reasonable to assume that the surface was never much warmer
than 250° F., but to allow that this temperature may have pre-
vailed at the close of the Archaic epoch.

" At this temperature all the water of the ocean would exist
only as vapor and clouds in the atmosphere. The steady, hot rain
from the atmosphere would rapidly disintegrate the surface rocks.
Small seas and lakes of water saturated with alkalies and salts
would at once begin to form the rocks that we know as metamor-
phic and archsean. The covering thus formed would contribute to
diminish the rate of cooling of the interior mass, thus allowing
the atmosphere to cool down to its present condition and deposit
the most of its moisture."

In the rocks formed earliest after Archaean time, to which geo-
logical age only crystalline rocks devoid of fossils belong, there
are found aquatic relics of organisms with calcareous skeletons
which when living bore a close generic relation to organic forms
which are confined to oceanic waters at the present time. Among
these early inhabitants of the sea were corals, crinoids, sea urchins,
and starfishes, and many others there doubtless were which, al-
though they require the saline constituents of the sea to live upon,
had no calcareous skeletons, and consequently have not been pre-
served in a fossil state. The remains are found deposited in the
lower Silurian as well as the Devonian, Carboniferous, Jurassic,
and Cretaceous formations.

But apart from these deductions concerning the saltness of the
primeval ocean there is direct evidence that the waters of the sea
in the early part of Paleozoic time were highly saline, for there
were deposited from the waters of the Silurian sea saliferous
strata which constitute the Onondaga salt group and the Trenton
and Chazy limestone series, in which the relics of marine organ-

WHY THE SEA IS SALT.

275*

isms largely abound, to prove that they result from the sediment
deposited by the ocean in that age.

Throughout all geological time the sea has also received salt
from the continents, for the rain, falling upon the land, filters
through the layers of salif erous soil and, springing to the surface

276* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

througli some natural duct, finds its way to tlie sea with its bur-
den of salt. But when the waters of the ocean are evaporated to
form clouds and rain, the salt is left behind, so that ever more and
more salt is being transferred from the land ; and this ceaseless
transfer has been going on since the first brooks and rills gath-
ered together to form the rivers of the primeval lands. This pro-
cess of salinification, which is identical with that which takes
place in every lake and inland sea, like Great Salt Lake and
the Dead Sea, into which streams flow but from which none
emerge, has often been looked upon as a sufficient cause for the
existing saltness of oceanic waters, for the ocean occupies a great
closed basin into which many thousands of rivers flow, but from
which none take their source. It must not be overlooked, how-
ever, that there is direct evidence to show that in early geo-
logical ages, when the continents were small and before the rivers
were numerous or large, the waters of the vast ocean of those
times were salt.

The salts of the sea have fed, throughout all time, countless
living things which have thronged its water and whose remains
now form the rocks of continents or lie spread in beds of unknown
thickness over 66,000,000 square miles of the 143,000,000 square
miles of the ocean's floor ; they have lent the substance to build
the fringing reefs of the land and all the coral islands of the sea,
and there are at present, on the basis of an average salinity of
three and a half per cent, in the 290,700,000 cubic miles of water
which make up the oceans, 90,000,000,000,000,000 tons, or 10,173,000
cubic miles, of salt. This is sufficient to cover the areas of all the
lands of the earth with a uniform layer of salt to a depth of one
thousand feet.

It seems that the sea was made salt in the beginning as a part
of the grand design of the Creator to provide for the system of
evolution which has been going on since the creation. Many dis-
tinct species of living organisms exist in the sea as a result of its
salinity, and their remains have largely contributed to the growth
of continents. The three great factors in accounting for the sys-
tem of currents in the ocean, by which it becomes the great heat
distributer of the globe, are changes of temperature, the winds,
and salinity. The last mentioned becomes an important factor
through the immediate and essential differences of specific grav-
ity and consequent differences of level that it produces in dif-
ferent parts of the ocean through the action of evaporation and
rainfall.

If, through the fall of rain upon a portion of the ocean or through
the action of evaporation in the surrounding parts, the waters of
that portion become lighter than the rest down to a certain dis-
tance below the surface, two different kinds of motion will imme-

WHY THE SEA IS SALT, 277*

diately occur. The lighter water will be lifted by the surround-
ing heavier waters till there is no difference in pressure between
its lower boundary and the surrounding waters at the same
depth ; but, as its pressure at all levels above this lower boundary
will now have become greater than that of the surrounding heav-
ier waters, it will instantly begin to displace and overflow them.
This movement of the lighter water will require considerably
more time than the movement of the heavier water by which it
was lifted and continues to be lifted as its level sinks by lateral
diffusion, because the sum of the differences of pressure which
caused the lifting of the lighter water was, in the first place,
greater than the sum of the differences that caused its lateral
diffusion. Secondly, the differences of pressure that caused the
first movement must extend all the way to the bottom, whereas
those which cause the latter extend no deeper than the lighter
stratum itself, and, even within the extent of that, have their chief
effect confined to the superficial strata.

On the other hand, when the equilibrium of a mass of water is
disturbed by causes that do not diminish the specific grayity, the
disturbance must extend down to the bottom, and the differences
of pressure at all levels beneath the surface must be equal. The
equilibrium is then restored by a general movement of the whole
mass, which movement is sensible in inverse proportion to the
mass that is set in motion. This is the essential cause for the dif-
ference in strength between the currents observed in salt and fresh
waters, for, of all the current-producing causes which act in fresh
waters, only the one resulting from variations of temperature can
sensibly affect the specific gravity, while the specific gravity of
sea water, besides being much more affected by variation of tem-
perature, is still further influenced by the fresh water which rains
upon the surface of the ocean. If the whole basin of the ocean
were filled with fresh water and exposed to the most extreme
meteorological influences, the currents produced would not be near-
ly equal either in size or strength to those now observed in the
waters of the ocean.

So the saltness of the sea is involved in all the great subjects
into which the ocean currents enter. Having contributed to the
growth of the continents, it has in a like degree peopled them by
influencing human migrations through the streams of the ocean
upon which the race of man was spread to the distant archipelagoes
at a time when there were only rudimentary means for struggling
against the forces of Nature. Besides its influences in geology and
anthropology, it is concerned to a marked extent in the climate of
the earth and of the sea, and in their botany and zoology.

278* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A NATURAL PAPER MILL.

By VIRGIL G. EATON.

DIGGING out here in my back pasture lot, so I may find
water for my cows when next summer's drought comes on,
I have discovered one of the oldest paper mills in the world — a
mill that was in good working order when Alexander went east
for other nations to subdue, and one which had whole quires and
reams in stock when men lived in caves and the human families
exchanged calls with the monkeys. The land here is drift clay,
which, mixed with sand and duly baked, makes fine building
brick, and which raises such fine timothy hay that the new tariff
does not bother me a mite. It is blue clay clear down for twenty
feet, when it strikes an old sea brush of dark gravel plentifully
filled in with clam, quahog, and scallop shells. Below this are
coarser gravel and bowlders, and then comes the ledge, a heat-
scorched, flinty clay slate that is almost crystallized in many
places. For several miles the land is as level as a house floor,
and here the rainfall hesitates so long about choosing a direction
in which to run that the larger part stays where it falls until the
warm sun licks it up to form more clouds to make more rain.
Then such portions of the land as are not covered with sward or
some form of vegetation crack open, and the millions of innocent
tadpoles perish from thirst before they know what fun it is to
wear legs and breathe atmosphere. Draining this land is out of
the question, because in order to do it I should have to dig a ditch
four miles across my neighbor's property before the water could
escape ; and while this might be a very praiseworthy act, it would
most surely take all the money I have, and my fellow- farmers
would reap the reward equally with myself. Wells are also im-
possible here, because the frost throws out the walls in two years ;
and as cattle can not drink out of an artesian- well pipe, I am
digging a small pond to hold the rainfall.

The place I have selected is a gentle depression in the generally
level land. It is about ten rods in diameter and is walled around
by a natural clay embankment varying in height from two to five
feet. An opening in the wall lets the water in from one side,
while a miniature canon allows it to escape in the opposite di-
rection. Rushes, flags, and sedges stand knee deep in the waters
close to the shore, and a few lilies, with leaves like arrowheads,
dot the pool, which is otherwise given over to frogs, newts, and
aquatic insects. Into the bowels of this wizard's caldron I am
digging and scraping in hopes I may keep enough of the surface
water in store so that the suns of August shall not leave my pas-
ture dry. Working here, daubed with the muck and the clay

A NATURAL PAPER MILL, 279*

from whicli tlie race is made, I have found the aged paper mill
about which I started to tell.

This particular paper mill — for there are dozens of them on
my land and thousands of them on the tract— is in the bed of
the rill which feeds the reservoir I am making. The rivulet
soaks down across the pasture at a cripple's gait, going out of its
way to extemporize shallow ponds here and there, and finally,
after swelling up a little to surmount the ring of clay wall, top-
ples over into the pool, which, from its size and conformation, I
think is a scar or dent that still remains from some stranded ice-
berg that grounded here millenniums ago, and dissolving, left
the hole in my field which I am trying to enlarge. The land is
very dry at present, and looking in the bed of the extinct feeding
mill I see it is carpeted with a grayish-brown matting that has a
sheen like gossamer silk, and which crackles like stiff paper when
struck with my spade. It stretches up the channel for rods and
follows the windings very closely. I tear off some from the dead
grass stalks, and when I hold it up to the light I find it is very
good paper, thin, fairly strong, and in places semitranspar-
ent. Under this coat is another, and still another, so when I put
my spade down the full length of its blade I find I can not reach
through it all. A hand glass shows it is full of zigzag and irregu-
lar ribs, like the wings of a fly. These are the coarser portions of
the paper, but the whole fabric is made of the same material,
which is simply the shredded and digested woody fiber of the
coarse grasses and rushes growing by the brookside. For cen-
turies past these have flourished in the summer time until killed
by the frost. The snow came, beating down the dead herbage,
and before spring the whole was bedded in ice. Gradually the
rill gnawed its way through the ice cap and the water began to
sweep past the dead grass, now lying horizontally in the current.
Slowly, atom by atom, the pith, gum, starch, and silex in the
grasses were washed away, leaving only a fine and complexly
mingled meshing of woody fiber where once were rushes, foul
meadow, and blue joint. Then the brooklet receded before the
warmer rays of a gaining sun, and a green scum, composed of in-
fusoria and numberless low-grade microscopic plants, formed
above the slackened water, filling all the spaces in the pulp net-
work already in place. This settled with the water until stopped
by the stumps of the broken grass, and then for a few weeks the
stream ran under the canopy until it dried up altogether, and
spiders hunted their prey concealed by a shade of natural paper.
Again the grasses came up and grew and died. The snow of the
next winter, which beat them down, pressed the underlying paper
flat into the bed of the brook, and again the paper mill was mak-
ing ready for a new output. Year by year this went on, no

28 o* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

matter wlio was President or wliat London bankers charged for
excliange. Shredded by ice and frost all winter, washed from
impurities during the spring, and dried in sunlight in the
early summer, the paper was completed and ready to store away
when the grasses were high enough to shade the ground.

Thus the work went on all the year and all years until the
present large supply is on hand. Before now I have been told,
and indeed I have read in cyclopaedias, that the wasps were the
earliest paper makers, and that wasp nests were the first paper
the world ever saw. This is evidently an erroneous idea. Grasses
and rushes came on this planet long before wasps or bees, and
coarse grasses with water and sunlight have perhaps been in part-
nership in the paper business since long before the coal age in
America. Out here on my farm I can trace the history of this
mill back to a time long before Adam walked in his garden, and
I have every reason to believe there were other and similar mills
in operation eons or cycles previous to the time mine began its
work.

It is an interesting study to take up this latest issue of the
great serial record and glance over the events which it noted right
here during last summer. Of course a full story of the field's do-
ings is not told, but I find enough to keep me busy and cause me
to search for more. The tale is not twisted or distorted by re-
porters' imagination in order to make it read well, neither is it
marred by typographical errors, causing the reader to guess at
what was the writer's intention. The matrix was good and the
impression was perfect all over the sheet. Writers of the realistic
school, like Zola and Howells, can take lessons from this author,
for here are the remains of the conflicts and tragedies narrated
pressed flat upon the paper and terribly in evidence to vouch for
every detail. Modern newspapers, with all their boasted push
and enterprise, can never hope to equal this aged annual which
dates its first number back to two thousand years before Methu-
selah began to grow whiskers.

Records of the whole season are found on this paper, telling
the story of what has been going on in the animal world as
plainly as if it were printed with life photographs and for sale on
the street. Here are a half dozen "wiggler boats" that once
served as skins for mosquito larvae. When the wigglers grew
large and were ready to quit the waters these cases cracked open
along the back, and out stepped the mosquitoes, armed and
equipped to prey upon the summer visitors. Near by are two
legs and portions of the wing cases of a big locust. It is hard to
tell whether he died a natural death or perished from violence.
On looking at the fragments more closely, however, faint threads
may be seen here and there, showing that he succumbed to some

A NATURAL PAPER MILL. 281*

artful spider. The web proper is gone, the spider can not be
found, but there is the story all told inside of half an inch's space.
Farther on are the feathers of a bird, evidently a sparrow, which
were probably torn out by a ravenous hawk. Yes, here is a spat-
ter of blood on the paper that the rains have failed to erase and
will never wash out, though that paper is buried for years.
Across the middle of the sheet is where an earthworm has trav-
eled, and near at hand is the track of a mole, its mortal enemy.
The mole followed the worm, and the footprints mar the straight
channel made by the annelid all the way. A broad wavy line in
one corner shows where a snake has been along, seeking for stray
bugs, and over all the slimy tracks of the slow but industrious
snails shine like mica. In addition to these, I find the fragments
of a cabbage butterfly's wing with the powder still clinging in
places; a few hairs of a muskrat, loosened, perhaps, by a preda-
tory mink ; several dead dragonflies, as stiff as mummies ; the
head of a dead ant, with his big eyes staring at me as if in re-
proach ; the cases of two caddice worms ; and bits of severed twigs
and grass and leaves and bark innumerable. I have found all
these sitting here and looking at the paper I have torn up and
which has not surface enough to cover the top of my desk ; but
the tale it tells is the history of the whole summer with its loves
and hates and mirth and music — simply the story of one sum-
mer printed in pictures on paper, and issued by Nature to file
away in her great library of past events.

Below the top pages are the other books of this valuable col-
lection. Every sheet represents a year. Possibly, in seasons
where two dry spells with an intervening period of continued
rainfall occur, there may be two sheets of paper issued in a year ;
but then, again, there have been very wet years when no paper at
all could be made, so it is safe to count on one sheet a' year. Tak-
ing this as the basis of my calculations, I dig out a bit of the
record on the point of my spade about midway to the bottom and
count up how many sheets I cut through in going down an inch.
The sheets are very fine and closely pressed, so I find trouble in
counting, but after several trials I feel sure the average is fully
three hundred sheets to an inch, which would make thirty-six
hundred sheets to every foot in depth. Now, my spade blade is
a foot long, and below this is as much more, and that takes me
away back of any historical record now extant. So here I have a
paper factory that is more than seven thousand years old, and
the same blue clay and sand and shells were under it then that
are there now. Yet my paper mill was started in modern times
when the glacier works were on the surrounding hills no plainer
than they are to-day.

Beyond doubt this little handful of crumbling, grass-im-

VOL. XLVIII. — 19*

282* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

bedded, peaty pulp I now hold in my hand was made and filed
away at a time when the mastodon came along here for food and
the big American elephant shook the earth with his heavy steps.
If I had time and patience, what a story this old library of primi-
tive paper could tell me ! It would be the tale of the world, who
lived on it, how they lived and how they died, the story of storm
and freshet and tornado, of drought and fire and famine, and the
family record of every insect, mammal, and bird which has vis-
ited this field for the past seven thousand years. The proofs of
the photographer fade and go out to nothing, the images of the
spectroscope die with the light which created them, and the
dormant words in the phonograph lisp and stutter with age and
much using ; but Nature's record book, which is always open and
always getting new additions, holds fast to every fact, no matter
how trivial it may seem, and will keep them all there in evidence
until the senile earth wrinkles up, like a sun-dried lemon, and
floats through space a cold and shriveled husk. This paper mill,
I have found, old as it is, measures but one beat of the pendulum
on the great clock of geologic time, a clock that was wound up
millions of years before man came on earth, and will continue to
run for millions of years after the last human being has gone.

A heavy rainfall came on before I had finished my digging,
and when I visit my paper mill again it is flooded with water.
Both work and study are useless here at present, and I pass an
hour watching the pool, and noting how the added water has
increased the activity of the aquatic animals that make it their
home. All the wigglers in wigglerdom are out zigzagging them-
selves to the top of the water to stick their star- shaped noses up
for a bit of air, and then falling to the bottom again to feed on
the decaying muck. The pond seems alive with them, and the
frogs are having a feast, eating wigglers by the dozen at every
swallow. My ducks come waddling up from the house, and enter
the pond for a swim ; but, catching sight of the frogs, they con-
clude to abandon their bath and have a frog dinner. For the
next ten minutes the water is a splashing, boiling sea, lashed into
waves by fleeing frogs and pursuing ducks.

The report of the British Association's Committee on the Teaching of
Science in Elementary Schools represents that while much improvement
has heen made in the character of the teaching, difiiculty still exists in
getting it done by experiments and in a truly educational way, rather than
as a series of useful but isolated facts. School teachers are generally
enthusiastic in their endeavor to obtain a knowledge of science when
classes are organized for their benefit. Progress is making in the number
of subjects taught in elementary schools and the number of pupils receiv-
ing instruction.

CORRESP ONBENCE,

265

i£jtsxxtsi^t:^xi&txitt.

THE VALUE OF VEGETABLE FOODS.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

IR: I hare just read Dr. Benjafield's leo-
10 ture, in the September number, on Fruit
as a Food and Medicine. I have read the Popu-
lar Science Monthly for twenty-five years, or
rather from the very first number, and have
always found it filled with very valuable and
intensely interesting matter ; but the above
article I consider, from a hygienic standpoint,
rather superior to anything I have read any-
where for a long time.

I am well aware of the great value of
fruits as food and medicine. I prefer a ripe
Baldwin apple to any other fruit grown or
sold in this coimtry. A deep-red Baldwin
is the finest. Its color indicates that it is
grown in the sunlight, which makes it chem-
ically superior to one grown in the shade,
which is more apt to be of green color. As
the doctor says, lemon juice is of gieat value.
My spring medicine for many years has been
the juice of one lemon in as much, or a little
more, water — no sugar — taken every morn-
ing for a week or ten days. I usually take
it fifteen or twenty minutes before breakfast.
It corrects biliary tendencies, and acts as a
fine tonic and appetizer.

I have found apples to have a fine tonic
effect on the stomach ; one good apple will
usually give me a fine appetite in ten min-
utes. I usually eat two or three good- sized
apples at every meal ; they constitute a larffe
part of the meal, not an embellishment at the
end of it.

I have found, since using apples largely,
that the physical power of endurance imder
labor, either mental or physical, is very
much increased ; also a gain in flesh. This

1 attribute largely to the fact that apples
assist the digestion and assimilation of food
of other kinds. Chemists record that ap-
ples contain a larger percentage of nitrates
and phosphates (food for brain and muscle)
than any other fruit.

Care should be taken in the selection of
the fruit to be used. Most of the fruits sold
in the market in the early fall are not well
ripened. Apples, peaches, pears, and other
fruits grown in southern latitudes are gathered
before they are ripe and shipped north, where
they bring a high price before the northern
crop is ripe. This green fruit is ripened
on the cars and boats, and in cellars,
warehouses, and stores, where it is shut out
from the sunlight, and where the air often-
times is not of the purest. Fruit ripened in
such places is very inferior to that ripened
on the tree where it grew. Fruit grown in
northern sections is often gathered quite un-

VOL. XLVIII. — 19

ripe, and, marketed early in the season, it
brings a high price. This green fruit has
not been chemically elaborated in the sun-
light and fresh air on the parent stem, the
only way it can obtain the proper elements
in proper combination.

Of course, this green fruit is better than
none, but fruit can not be perfect unless
ripened as Nature intends it should be.

I was lately reading the reports of apples
exported from this country to England and
other countries. If my memory is not at
fault, 1 think the number of barrels exported
in 1894 and 1896 was in the vicinity of half
a million. We ought not to export a barrel ;
the people of this country are suffering be-
cause they have not consumed them all.

There is another article of food of which
we do not consume enough — namely, baked
beans. Many people complain that they can
not eat them. Well, cooked as they are in
many families, they can not and ought not.
Our physiological text-books have for a good
many years taught that persons of sedentary
habits do not require a diet that feeds and
strengthens the muscles so much as those
who perform muscular work. Well, per-
haps not quite as much, but a great fault
with the majority of people in this country
is, that they do not consume enough food
which feeds the muscles, brain, and nerves
— i. e., nitrates and phosphates. In the first
place, food can not be well chewed without
muscular action ; secondly, the stomach is
required to exercise muscular activity as a
part of the digestive process ; thirdly, the
peristaltic action of the bowels is indispen-
sable ; fourthly, the heart is one of the most
if not the most powerful muscle in the hu-
man body ; it never ceases working from the
moment life begins until it ends. How can
we expect this most important organ to go
on year after year performing hard muscular
work without being nourished by such food
as muscles require ? In my opinion, the many
cases we hear of nowadays of heart failure
are simply cases of heart starvation. We
consume too much fat forming food, and the
result is a shrinking and weakening of the
muscles of the heart and other important
organs. The muscles of the heart shrink
away and fat is substituted in place (fatty
degeneration). Whatever a person's occu-
pation may be, a good supply of muscle-mak-
ing, brain and nerve-making food should be
daily eaten. Baked beans — properly baked
— contain over twenty-five per cent of ni-
trates for muscles, and fully four per cent of
food for brain and bones ; but they must be
thoroughly cooked. I would not care to
eat them cooked less than twelve hours.

266

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Beans should not be eaten unless one is
really hungry — the appetite sharp.

Of course, there ai*e many other articles
of food which are good muscle, brain, and
nerve feeders, and as a people we ought to
consume more of them. I do not say that
all people can eat baked beans as I do, they
act as a tonic and strengthen the digestive
powers in my case. I think most people can
eat more of them than they do, and if prop-
erly cooked would soon find them almost in-
di.-pensable. Baked peas stand next in
value as a muscle and nerve food.

Before closing I wish to allude to apples
again. I like them raw, but sauce is delicious
made in the following way, by which method
the apple loses less of its valuable qualities
than in any other method of cooking them :

First, pare thin and quarter the apples,
place in a stewpan over a hot fire, put in a
few spoonfuls of water, just to keep from
burning on the bottom — more than that in-
jures the flavor ; cook as qmckly as possible ;
cover over when cooking, so that steam will
cook the top. I have found that with a hot
fire from eight to twelve minutes will cook
them. Add a quantity of sugar before quite
done and eat warm. When done ; the apple
will remain in quarters, and hardly have
changed color. A fine red Baldwin apple
cooked in this way and eaten before cold is
delicious and very healthy. C. A. Hoppin.
W0BCE8TBB, Mass., September 2, 1895.

INDIVIDUALITY IN THE NESTS OF
THE ENGLISH SPARROW.

Editor Popular Science Monthly ;

Sir: One of the great factors in natu-
ral selection is individual variation. The
English sparrow in its struggle for existence
has to contend with cats, boys with blow-
guns, and the hostility of a large class of

people who believe it to be a nuisance. The
strength and stability of a nest in which the
young are to be reared are important fea-
tures in the life of the brood, and it is inter-
esting to note the variations in the form,
style, and material of the nests, in this con-
nection. Mr. John Robmson, of Salem, has
communicated to me the following observa-
tions he has made concerning this subject :

" In June, 1893, a sparrow's nest was re-
moved from the vine [Ampelopsis virginicd)
growing on the southern end of East India
Marine Hall, Salem, composed exclusively of
the twigs of Tamariz chinensis, a tree of
which species was growing in the yard below
the nest. The twigs were about five inches
long, and, being young and tender, were
easily bitten off by the birds. Over three
hundred shoots were thus used in this one
nest. A little hay was used as a foundation
in this nest and in each of the others to be
described.

" In May, 1894, all the nests in the vine,
of which there were perhaps twenty, were
taken down about the 1st of the month.
About the 15th of the month four nests, all
made after the cleaning at the 1st of the
month, were taken down. Each had a slight
foundation of hay. One was composed of
feathers, no doubt collected in a neighboring
yard where hens were kept. About a quart
of these feathers were in the nest. A sec-
ond was composed entirely of twine, picked
up in the streets and yards near by. A third
was made exclusively of strippings of fine
bark from cedar posts, and very likely ob-
tained from the lumber dealer's storage yards
on Derby Street, not far away, or perhaps
from some newly set fence nearer at hand.
Another nest was filled with fluify cotton
wool, such as is used in bed puffs. In each
case there was nothing else used except the
hay foundation and the materials named."
Edward S. Morsb.
Salxh, Mass., October 26, 1895.

"g^&itox^s SaMje.

TEE BORDERLAND OF NONSENSE.

THAT mental stimulation may
produce marked physical re-
sults is a proposition which few
would be found to deny or even to
question ; but it is an unfortunate
thing when this simple and limited
truth is converted into a pretext for
virtually denying the laws of phys-

ical causation, where human beings
are concerned. Yet, if there is one
gospel which a large class of persons
hear more gladly than another, it is
that the laws of matter are illusory
and those of mind or spirit alone sub-
stantial and valid. Hence the nu-
merous schools which, under vari-
ous names, and with more or less pe-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

267

cuniary success, are attempting to
make faith, emotion, hallucination
do work which, so far as it is within
the range of possibility, belongs to a
well- devised system of physical, or
combined physical and mental, treat-
ment. It looks sometimes as if, ac-
cording to the well-known Latin
adage, the people really did wish to
be deceived ; and the upholders of
sound doctrine and sane methods are
doubtless tempted at times to be dis-
couraged. The thing to do in such
a case is to look away from the causes
of discouragement and renew the
battle against delusion and imposture
with more energy than before, know-
ing that some good must come of
every manifestation of the true na-
ture of things.

We have no quarrel, as may
already have been gathered, with
those who maintain that some use
may be made of a wise direction of
thought and a healthy stimulation
of mental interest in combating va-
rious forms of physical ailment.
Every competent physician does
what he can to "keep up the spir-
its " of his patient ; and the common
wisdom of mankind has recognized
that mental conditions have in many
cases much to do with questions
of health and disease. A '■'■mens
Sana'"' is, we have not the least
doubt, a powerful aid toward the
maintenance of a " corpus sanum " ;
but, when this has been to the full-
est extent admitted, it remains none
the less true that the body is subject
to the laws of matter, and that a
given affection of our bodily organi-
zation will modify in the most im-
portant manner the action of our
mind. In this respect man has no
superiority over the brute : the phys-
ical causes which affect the latter
affect man equally, and sometimes
in greater measure, the equilibrium
of the human constitution being
perhaps, on the whole, less stable

than that of the lower creatures.
We may say of man and the lower
animals what Shylock says of Jew
and Christian that they are " fed with
the same food, hurt with the same
weapons, subject to the same diseases,
healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and
summer." That man has the higher
mentality does not in the slightest
degree exempt him from the opera-
tion of physical laws, though it does
enable him to surround his life with
safeguards, and in a general way
pursue and secure his well-being by
methods which no other species can
understand or imitate.

All this may seem to most of our
readers very commonplace and ob-
vious, but nevertheless there is need
to repeat even such truths as these
when we find some pages of a scien-
tific periodical* devoted to the advo-
cacy of contrary doctrines. " Man,"
we read, "is a soul which, through
an inherent tendency toward articu-
late manifestation, has picked up a
little plastic material and erected it
into an animated statue. This same
dust has been, and will be, used over
and over again to express other and
different grades and qualities of life ;
and therefore it can have no distinct-
ive character or identity of its own."
It seems a great pity that man being
" a soul " should require the help of
a little characterless " dust " in order
to arrive at "articulate manifesta-
tion." How is it, we feel inclined
to ask, that so poor a quality of dust
should be able to render so mighty a
service to a soul ? It is also a ques-
tion what kind of existence a soul
enjoys, when, for want of what the
dust can supply, '■' pulveris exiqui
munera,'' as Horace hath it, it as yet
possesses no power of "articulate
manifestation." But perhaps, before
we trouble ourselves with such ques-

* See New Science Review, July, 19"5.

268

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tions as these, it mig-ht be well to ask
who stands sponsor for tlie theory
that man is a soul with a power of
"picking up plastic material," and
by what series of observations it is
claimed that the theory has been
proved. To such an inquiry we
hardly think any very satisfactory
answer could be returned. The the-
ory is certainly not entertained by
another writer who contributes an
article on The Brain in the Light of
Science to the same magazine in
which we find the article now com-
mented on, and who pointedly re-
jects the idea that there is '' some-
thing called 'intelligence' inhabit-
ing the brain, but apart and entirely
distinct from its structure."

That such views are fmught with
practical danger is evident on further
examination. The writer to whom
we are referring will not allow that
a draught can cause one to take cold.
It can only be the occasion of taking
cold ; the real cause is the individu-
al's " susceptibility." Continuing, he
says : " A dozen persons are equally
exposed to a contagion or malaria.
Only half of them take it. Subjec-
tive conditions made the wide dif-
ference between opposite results."
Again we are disposed to ask for the
authority for such a statement. It is
very positively made, but that it ad-
mits of any kind of proof we doubt.
What we do know is that physical
conditions affect the result in such a
case. The various forms of inocula-
tion that are constantly being prac-
ticed afford proof that, independently
of all subjective conditions, diseases
can, with a large measure of certain-
ty, be either communicated to, or
warded off from, a given individual
by the infusion of some suitable prep-
aration into the blood. That subjec-
tive conditions have no more to do
with the case than " the flowers that
bloom in the spring " is shown by the
fact that the most precise results can

be obtained from operations on infe-
rior animals such as rabbits and mice.
Diphtheria is being controlled in the
most remarkable manner by the an-
titoxine treatment ; and it has lately
been shown that a transfusion of
serum from an individual w^ho has
shown a lack of susceptibility to a
given disease will tend to produce
immunity to that disease in another.
The writer we have quoted states in
an offhand manner that susceptibil-
ity is a matter of " subjective condi-
tions," but these experiments prove
that it is a matter of physical consti-
tution ; for it will hardly be contend-
ed that '' subjective conditions " are
transferred from one individual to
another with a little serum.

The writer, it is true, does not ad-
vise people to sit in a draught and ' ' re-
solve not to take cold." He says that
" temporary surface thinking, though
good, if in the right direction, can
hardly transform one to a x>ercepti-
ble degree; that radical invigoration
can only come from a sustained and
focalized attitude of mind, which is
attained through the firm holding of
positive ideals." Then, if we firmly
hold positive ideals, and so get a sus-
tained and focalized attitude of mind,
we can sit in as many draughts as we
choose with perfect impunity. This
or nothing is the teaching of these
sentences. But how are we to know
whether our mental attitude is sufii-
ciently sustained and focalized to jus-
tify us in sitting in draughts ? Is there
not danger lest experiments should
be prematurely made ? An old
Scotchman in the last century, when
hard drinking was the rule, said that
he had never known of any man dy-
ing of drink, but that he had known
a good many who had died in train-
ing for it. So it might be in this
matter of training for sitting in
draughts. The supreme adepts might
be immune, but those whose minds
were not yet adequately focalized

EDITOR'S TABLE.

269

might succumb. And then, after all,
why go to all this trouble of focaliza-
tion, etc., when it is just as easy, gener-
ally speaking, not to sit in a draught ?
It seems to us that in point of sim-
plicity materialistic teaching has, in
this matter at least, a decided superi-
ority over the spiritualistic. The be-
liever in the laws of matter says : " If
you sit in a draught, particularly
when you are heated and perspiring,
you will be in danger of catching cold,
which may take the form of pneu-
monia, pleurisy, lumbago, or some-
thing else both dangerous and pain-
ful ; therefore don't sit in a draught if
you can possibly help it." The spir-
itual philosopher says : " Don't sit in
a draught unless you are sure of your
subjective conditions. Draughts do
not cause illness ; it is your suscepti-
bility does that, and it should be your
aim to get rid of such susceptibility by
pursuing ideals and getting your at-
titude of mind properly focalized."
A poet already quoted, who gives us
many a shrewd hint, tells of a philos-
opher who, while gazing at the stars,
walked into a well ; and we should
be inclined to dread some not alto-
gether dissimilar catastrophe for the
devotee of this exalted doctrine.

It is a great mistake, we are told,
to say, "J am cold," "J am ill," "J
have hurt myself." The proper
phrases to use are not given, but it
is implied that, if we would express
the truth, we should say, " The plas-
tic material which I, a soul, have
picked up is cold, ill, etc." The body
is the wicked partner that gets into
these scrapes, and we should remind
ourselves continually that the soul
has no complicity in such misdoings.
A man " may mentally say to him-
self — even mechanically at first until
the habit is formed — I, the real ego^
am well, I am strong, I am pure, I
am perfect, disregarding adverse
physical sensations." Ordinary com-
mon sense tells us that "adverse

physical sensations" ought not to
be disregarded, but on the contrary
ought to be taken as warnings that
we have violated in some way the
laws of our physical nature. If we
have an acute indigestion caused by
taking food excessive in quantity or
unsuitable in quality, we should,
according to the above teaching,
meet the emergency by eulogizing
our soul for its strength, its purity,
and its perfection, for its oneness
"with the divine spirit of whole-
ness." Not occupying so exalted a
plane as the advocate of mental
healing, we should be disposed to
consider the occasion a very unsuit-
able one for eulogizing the soul. If
the soul does not direct or control
the voluntary actions of the body, it
is hard to see what good it is ; and if
our soul has allowed us to make a
beast of ourselves, it would be better,
it seems to us, to tell it some home
truths. It is really almost too ridicu-
lous to say that if a man gets drunk
he is to " disregard adverse physical
sensations," and sing a paean, how-
ever huskily, to his ego\ yet, where
is the line to be drawn ?

But again, what degree of tri-
umph over physical phenomena may
we expect to achieve ? It was prom-
ised to the early believers in Chris-
tianity that they should be able to
take up serpents with impunity, and
that if they drank any deadly thing
it should not hurt them. Is some-
thing like this the goal of the system
we are discussing ? Once take the
position that the material is the un-
substantial, and all the foundations
of our everyday life give way. The
"plastic material" which the soul
appropriated in order to acquire
"articulate manifestation" loses all
definite properties ; and how that
would answer the purposes of the
soul is a very obscure question. As
we have hinted in our headline, the
whole theory under discussion lies

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on the borderland of nonsense except
when it crosses the line. The only
saving truth it contains — and that is
by no means its property — is that
man is a rational creature, that his
mental life is very closely connected
with his physical life, and that the
proper ordering of his thoughts and
aims is, therefore, a matter of prime
importance for his happiness. All
the same, he requires a stable world
to live in — one the laws of which will
not permit him to be wayward or
reckless, but which, while making
ample return for worthy effort, will
visit with penalties not to be averted,
" adverse sensations " not to be con-
jured away by any tricks of self-hyp-
notization, every departure from the
path of knowledge and self-control.

TEE ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEW OF
CIVILIZATION.

We commented in our last num-
ber upon the interesting address de-
livered by the President of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement
of Science, and we have now before
us an address of equal interest and
perhaps of greater practical impor-
tance from the president. Dr. Flinders
Petrie, of the Anthropological Sec-
tion of the British Association. Dr.
Petrie is widely known as one of the
most learned Egyptologists of the
present day, and as professor of that
study at University College, Lon-
don. He has spent many years in
actual research in Egypt, and has
thus been brought into close and
varied contact with different sec-
tions of the Egyptian people. Dur-
ing the period of his stay in that
country systematic efforts were be-
ing put forth to civilize the people
according to European ideas, and, as
a commencement, to teach them how
to read and write; and he has been
able to study the process in its prac-
tical results. In addition to his spe-

cial accomplishments, Dr Petrie is a
man of wide culture and of a vigor-
ous habit of mind, and one therefore
whose views are deserving of careful
and respectful attention.

He discusses for us, in his address,
the meanings which, from the stand-
point of anthropology, should be as-
signed to those often vaguely used
words "race" and "civilization."
We must pass over his remarks on
the first of these terms, though they
are both interesting and original.
In regard to the latter the position he
takes is that wherever there was a
human society there civilization is
to be found. " Civilization," he ob-
serves, " really means simply the art
of livmg in a community, the checks
and counter-checks, the division of
labor, and the conveniences that
arise from common action when a
group of men live in close relation
to each other." In other words, the
term has a relative, not an absolute
meaning; and the practical question
which confronts the so-called higher
races in certain cases is whether it
is desirable to replace, or attempt to
replace, the relative civilization of
a given lower race — or one which
they regard as such — by their own
more advanced modes of life.

This brings us to the most impor-
tant part of Prof. Petrie's discourse.
"Every civilization," he says, "is
the growing product of a very com-
plex set of conditions depending on
race and character, on climate, on
trade, and every minutia of the cir-
cumstances. To attempt to alter
such a system, apart from its condi-
tions, is to attempt the impossible.
No change is legitimate or beneficial
to the real character of a people, ex-
cept what flows from conviction and
the natural growth of the mind."
Such conviction and such mental
growth are not to be had if we pre-
sent unassimilable ideas and ideals.
Our intentions may be excellent, but

EDITOR'S TABLE,

271

the results will be none the less de-
plorable, if we ignore the limits
which Nature and history have
set to our efforts. " We talk
complacently," says the professor,
" about the mysterious decay of sav-
ages before white men." There is
nothing mysterious about it ; we
change their environment, we sub-
ject them to new laws, force them to
adopt new habits, give an unwonted
direction and exercise to their men-
tal faculties, subject them in a hun-
dred ways to a psychological strain
which they are unable to stand, and
the result is that they wither just as
we should do if we were similarly
treated. Of all systems, that which
the Anglo-Saxon race seeks to im-
pose upon the weaker peoples with
which it comes into contact is the
most oppressive. "Scarcely a single
race," the professor emphatically de-
clares, " can bear the contact and the
burden." In regard to the Egyp-
tians, he gives his own experience.
"Some of the peasantry are taught
to read and write, and the result is
that they become fools. I can not
say this too plainly : an Egyptian
who has had reading and writing
thrust upon him is, in every case
that 1 have met with, half-witted,
silly, or incapable of taking care of
himself. His intellect and his health
have been undermined and crippled
by the forcing of education."

Is it impossible, then, for the more
advanced races to lend any real as-
sistance to the less advanced ? It is,
if the only idea of assisting them is
to Europeanize them ; but not, if the
more rational idea is adopted of a
gradual education along wholly nat-
ural lines, with due regard to condi-
tions both present and antecedent.
'* Our bigoted belief," says Prof. Pe-
trie, "in reading and writing is not
in the least justified when we look at
the mass of mankind. The exquisite
art and noble architecture of Myke-

nae, the undying song of Homer, the
extensive trade of the bronze age, all
belonged to people who neither read
nor wrote. The great essentials of a
valuable character — moderation, jus-
tice, sympathy, politeness and con-
sideration, quick observation, shrewd-
ness, ability to plan and prearrange,
a keen sense of the uses and prop-
erties of things — ^all these are the
qualities on which I value my Egyp-
tian friends, and such qualities are
what should be evolved by any edu-
cation worth the name." The most
valuable educative influence is ex-
ample, if only it be of the right kind ;
and if the higher races could, in their
dealings with the lower, show that
they were steadily actuated by a
purer and higher morality, they
would insensibly modify for the bet-
ter the institutions and customs of
the latter.

The words in which Prof. Petrie
describes the characteristic results of
education in the best sense, and also
his remarks on the effect of forcing
education on minds unfitted for it,
may well afford matter for reflec-
tion, not only in connection with
the treatment of lower races, but
with the working out of problems
nearer home. In answer to the
question, " What can be the harm of
raising the intellect in some cases if
we can not do it in all ? " the pro-
fessor says, "The harm is that you
manufacture idiots. ' ' No w, seriously,
are we quite sure that our own edu-
cational methods does not in some,
nay in many, cases tend to the manu-
facture of idiots ? Does every young
man, or every second, or even every
third, young man who goes through
college come out of it intellectually —
to say nothing of morally — stronger
than he went in ? When we read
of the reckless and riotous insubor-
dination that sometimes marks " com-
mencement" days, we can not help
wondering whether the right kind

272

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of material has been gathered within
the college walls, or whether, if the
material is all ri<?ht, the course of
instruction and discipline has been
what it should have been. But, this
consideration apart, has the public
learned to recognize in the average
college graduate a very intelligent,
helpful, and self -helping young man?
Or does just a suspicion of greater
or less silliness and incapacity attach
to the type ? That many bright
young men emerge from college it
would be foolish, even on the general
doctrine of probabilities, to doubt,
seeing that a young man, if he pos-
sesses any brightness, has so good a
chance in this country of being sent
to college ; but what, we ask, is the
effect on those who have no bent
toward learning, but who go to sat-
isfy a social exigency or to fill up
a certain number of vacant years ?
We fear that Prof. Petrie might in
his haste pronounce some of them
manufactured idiots not unlike the
Egyptians he had seen spoiled by
overmuch reading and writing.

But, taking a wider view, are we
sure that even the public-school edu-
cation which we force on all chil-
dren alike is always an aid to true
intelligence and civilization ? Such
as it is, it enfeebles, we greatly fear,
rather than strengthens the brains of
some who are subjected to it, and
who are not intellectually fit for the
abstractions with which it largely
deals. The whole subject requires
to be carefully studied apart from all
prepossession, prejudice, and senti-
ment. We have been forcing edu-
cation for a long time with all the
power of the state, but whether the
average intelligence of the commu-
nity has risen in response to our
efforts is a question which it would
not be safe to answer offhand. We
do not hesitate to say that to us it
appears as if our methods of educa-
tion were being insensibly adapted

to a lower and lower grade of gen-
eral intelligence. In the matter of
arithmetic, particularly, it seems to
be assumed that something like idio-
cy is not only the starting point in
the pupil's mind but a condition of
considerable duration. Forty years
ago no such elaborate means were
resorted to as seem necessary to-day
to get a few elementary principles of
numerical logic into a child's mind;
and it is a grave question whether in
the attempt to devise a system of
teaching adapted to the most de-
graded type of mind we are not run-
ning some risk of impairing the de-
velopment of minds of a higher
order. Exceeding bitter, we know,
has been the cry of many a parent
at the tedious drill and senseless
repetitions imposed upon his chil-
dren and the consequent needless
lengthening by two or three years
at least of the period of school edu-
cation. The philosophy of the whole
thing is apparent in the light of
Prof. Petrie's remarks. The state is,
to a not inconsiderable extent, en-
gaged in the manufacture of idiots.

The discussion which followed
the president's address was remark-
able in one respect, and that was that
among the speakers — all men of dis-
tinction — not one laid any stress, as
would certainly have been done a
generation ago, on the importance of
Christianizing the lower races. It
seemed to be assumed that Christian-
ity, as a doctrine and to some extent
as a moral system, involved too radi-
cal a change of ideas to be profitably
adopted by heathen tribes, unless in
a very gradual manner. The presi-
dent himself pointed out that the
apostle Paul had not seen it neces-
sary to prohibit slavery, polygamy,
or even gladiatorial shows. And yet
the preaching of Paul prepared the
way for " the greatest readjustment
of the moral sense that the world
has ever seen." We should learn

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

273

from tMs to have patience with the
imperfect usages of the heathen of
our day, and not insist on their ris-
ing at once to the full height of an
advanced Christian morality. It is
impossible to douht that the address
of Prof. Petrie will have a powerful
effect in promoting rational views
on the important questions with
which he dealt. It was not the ut-

terance of a partisan, a zealot, or a
narrow specialist, but of a man who
spoke from well-matured conviction
and a broad basis of knowledge.
Had the meeting of the British As-
sociation given us nothing more
than this, it would have made
no slight contribution to the cause
of enlightenment and true civiliza-
tion.

M^titntiiit %ittxvitnxt.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

Man has ever been curious about the origins of things. In the child-
hood of the race he wondered where the wind came from and the water in
the streams, how the sun and moon were made, what caused the thunder
and the lightning, and how the first plants, the first animals, and the first
human beings came to be. Later the origin of arts and customs, the rise
of tribes and peoples, the production of material substances, and a host of
similar problems engrossed his attention. Two ways of answering these
questions have been relied upon by him at different times. The first was
by speculation, and produced beautiful myths, fantastic cosmogonies,
quaint folklore, or pseudo-sciences, according as the genius of one people
differed from that of another. The second way depends upon research,
and has reached its highest development in the investigations of modern
science. Its inquiry into the past has given iis a wealth of archaeological
lore such as is embodied in two volumes now before us. In one of these
Prof. Mason * has set forth the results of a study of industry among prim-
itive peoples, revealing the manner in which the tools, devices, and
processes used in the arts must have originated. The arrow and spear
heads, knives, hammers, and axes of primitive man are the precursors of a
host of striking and cutting implements. Several kinds of drills have been
found in use by savage tribes. The screw, the pulley, and the wheel and
axle are known to savages only in a rudimentary way, but the lever and the
wedge are largely used by them. Modes of kindling and caring for fire
make an interesting chapter, a notable feature in which is the evolution of
the bellows. The use of stone is commonly thought of as characterizing
primitive arts, and this idea is embodied in the name " Stone age." This
is a misconception, for, as Prof. Mason points out, where one tool of stone
was used there were many constructed of the more easily worked materials,
wood, bone, shell, horn, and hide. We do not find them in ancient graves
and mounds, simply because their materials are much more perishable than
stone. Hence, while stone-working furnished wide scope for invention in

* The Origins of Invention. By Otis T. Mason, Curator of the Department of Ethnology in the
United States National Museum. Pp. 419, crown 8vo. London : Walter Scott, Ltd., 3«. 6rf. New
York : Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $1.25.
VOL. XLVIII. — 20

274 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

primitive times, the working of wood did no less. The potter's art origi-
nated early, and the forms of primitive pottery are an ever-pleasing sur-
prise to the archaeologist and the technographer. The same is true of the
textile industry. In producing implements of war and the chase invention
made imi)6rtant advances in primitive times, and material is not lacking to
show how facilities for travel and transportation, both by land and sea
arose. Coming to the end of the volume, we are impelled to query why the
author made his index so scanty, and why he divided it in the inconvenient
German fashion.

The other of the two books referred to above is concerned with the art
of writing.* The important aid which this art gives to man's progress by
preserving the experience of each generation to guide all that follow
makes it well worthy of separate treatment. The art of transmitting in-
telligence proceeds from objects serving as reminders through picture
writing to phonetic writing with an alphabet. The author has presented
this course of development especially as it is shown among the native races
of North America, from the Innuit in the north to the Mayas and ancient
Mexicans in the south, among whom all stages are represented. Illustra
tions are frequently drawn also from the Egyptian and other Oriental
peoples. It is easy to see how objects can be represented by pictures, and
savage races have shown themselves very clever in representing action by
the same means. Thus in many of the Ojibwa records going, or running,
is represented by drawing either the sole of the foot or the lower part of
the legs. In the Mexican codices a distinction between running and walk-
ing is denoted by placing the legs in the correct position in each case. The
sign for eating or food among several peoples consists of a human figure
with the hand placed to the mouth. Lines proceeding from the mouth of
either a human or animal figure denote the use of the voice. Adding the
figure of the heart within the outline of the human body makes the voice
lines mean singing. Similarly wavy lines from the ears denote hearing.
To distinguish an object used as a proper name, a human figure or the
head alone is placed below it with a line from the mouth to the name
object. Such signs gradually become conventionalized and reduced to
simpler forms. When the name or sound suggested by one object comes
to be joined with another such sound to denote a word having only a
phonetic relation to the names of these two objects, then the ideograms
become phonograms. Further progress in this direction converts the
phonograms into alphabetic characters. At the discovery of America the
writing of the Mexicans and Mayas was rapidly approaching the syllabic
stage. The only phonetic alphabet actually devised by aboriginal Ameri-
cans is that of the Cherokee, Sequoya, but this uses the forms of the Eoman
letters variously modified, and hence is not an independent creation. Dr.
Hoffman's volume contains four plates and over a hundred smaller figures,
and is adequately indexed.

The world is beginning to realize that " Peace hath her victories no less
renowned than war," and in consequence its appetite for butchery seems to
be abating. A set of books called the Century Science Series, that has been

<r

* The Beginnings of Writing. By Walter James Hoffman, M. D. Anthropological Series. Pp.
209, 12mo. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.75.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 275

undertaken under the able editorship of Sir Henry E. Eoscoe, will contrib-
ute to this result by showing that the laboratory and the explorer's camp
have their heroes as well as the battlefield. Sir Henry contributes the
opening volume to the series, taking as his subject his eminent British pred-
ecessor in the field of chemistry, John Dalton* Dal ton's great contribu-
tion to chemistry is the atomic theory, and it may be fairly ranked as the
comer stone of the science. He also established important laws concerning
the behavior of gases and made valuable meteorological researches. In
depicting the scientist, Sir Henry does not let us lose sight of the man. He
shows us Dalton as the Cumbrian Quaker lad, with his northern dialect and
mild though unpolished manners ; then as the young schoolmaster and the
tutor, careful of his scanty resources and no less so of his time ; afterward
as the plain and unpretending man of science, ever ready for a pipe and a
chat with the friends of old times, but with no faculty for being agreeable
to persons who did not interest him. Having, when a young man, bought
a pair of silk stockings as a present for his mother, supposing them to be of
orthodox drab, he was greatly astonished to hear them pronounced " Varra
fine stuff, but uncommon scarlety." It was in this way that his eyes were
opened to the defect of his vision, and he at once proceeded to make the
first scientific study of color-blindness. Dalton had the frame of a north-
em yeoman, high but not extraordinary mental powers, and — persever-
ance. To this last quality rather than to genius he ascribed whatever of
value he accomplished, and in this respect he seems to have judged correctly.

Is the story of the Herschels t especially dramatic, or is it Miss Clerhe's
talent as a narrator that makes her contribution to the Century Series a
remarkably fascinating volume ? William Herschel's laying down the
baton of a musical director to become an astronomer is dramatic enough,
and so is his sister's dutiful abandonment of a career as a vocalist to serve
as his assistant. William had been trained in music by his father, who
was bandmaster in a Hanoverian regiment ; he had proved a bright boy at
school, and when he went to England at nineteen years of age was a young
man of pleasant address, " who spoke English perfectly, played like a virtu-
oso, and possessed a curious stock of varied knowledge." Miss Clerke has
made a continuous story of his life, intertwining the thread of his musical
and that of his scientific vocation, where these are contemporaneous, with
that of his personal history. A chapter devoted to Caroline tells of her
early years as a family drudge and her quarter century of retirement after
her brother's death, supplying also some additional details of her co-opera-
tion in his labors. The sketch of Sir John Herschel is given in much the
same style as that of his father. While mainly occupied with his observa-
tions in the southern hemisphere and other astronomical labors, it tells also
of his work in physics and mathematics, and his writings— not omitting
his verse. The volume contains a portrait of each of its subjects.

To those who imagine that the name J. von Liehig X stands merely for
a manufacturer of meat extracts, who may still be conducting his works

♦ John Dalton and the Rise of Modem Chemistry. By Sir Henry E. Roscoe. Pp. 216, 12mo. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.25. London : Cassell & Co. Price, 3*. Qd.

t The Herschels and Modern Astronomy. By Agnes M. Clerke. Pp. 224, 12mo. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.25. London : Cassell & Co. Price, 35. 6^.

X Justus von Liebig : his Life and Work. By W. A. Shenstone. Pp. 219, 12mo. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.25. London : Cassell & Co. Price, 'ds. 6d.

276 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

somewhere in Germany, Mr. Shenstone has a message. He wishes them
to know who Liehig was, what he did, and why all chemists and all those
who are versed in the history of science admire and esteem him so greatly.
To this end our author has taken especial pains to set forth Liebig's
applications of chemistry to the arts, even at the expense, as he concedes, of
doing "something less than justice'' to the great German's labors in pure
science. Liebig was the son of a color-maker, w^ho was able to give him a
university education, but this was of little benefit to him in becoming a
chemist. His private studies, supplemented by admission to Gay-Lussac's
private laboratory, prepared him for his profession. Mr. Shenstone enu-
merates four great departures in which Liebig took the lead. First, he
devised the process now followed in analyzing organic compounds^ and
with this as an implement he determined the composition and discovered
cheaper and safer ways of making many substances important to science
and industry. Second, he showed that plants derive their nourishment not
so much from the humus as from the inorganic salts in the soil and the
carbon dioxide of the air, and went on to formulate rules for the making
and application of fertilizers and for the practical conduct of other agri-
cultural operations. His third great work was closely connected with this.
It related to physiological chemistry, taking up the office of the food of ani-
mals in producing tissue, maintaining the animal heat, etc. Liebig's fourth
great departure was introducing the laboratory method of teaching chemis-
try. This alone would have won him high fame. Mr. Shenstone does not
dwell upon Liebig's private life, but gives an insight into his combative
but generous character when telling of his collaboration with Wohler and
with Dumas, also in the chapter on his later years. Accounts of the
work of Faraday, Maxwell, Lyell, Davy, Pasteur, Darwin, and Helmholtz
are announced as in preparation, and if they are executed as acceptably
as the earlier volumes, this series will be a notably attractive and in-
structive one.

The multiplication of untechnical, familiar books about flowers, whether
of the garden, field, or forest, is a good sign. It shows that more and more
people are growing interested in the subject, and that those who have not
had opportunity to take a course in botany, or whose time, or eyes, or pa-
tience are not sufficient to enable them to plod through the mass of minute
details involved in the technical identifications of the manuals, want to
know what they are and what their relationships. Mr. Mathews^ author
of Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden* enjoys a point of observa-
tion farther north than do most of the others who have given us books of
this kind, writing from Campton, N. H., on the edge of the Franconia
Mountains. There he has a garden in which most of the western and
southwestern wild flowers are cultivated, while the wild flowers of New
Englsind grow in the fields and woods around. With these he spends much
time ; and in this book he attempts to introduce them to the reader by name
and familiar description and picture, and to supplement the introduction
by a little friendly gossip based on personal experience. These flowers are
treated according to the seasons and months in which they appear; while

• Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden, described and illustrated by F. Schuyler Mathews.
Pp 308, 12mo. New York : D- Appleton & Ca Price, $1.75. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trflbner
A Co.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

277

the illustrations — simple portraits, generally reduced as befits the size of
the page— are from drawings made on the spot. The author seems to hesi-
tate when he differs from Dr. Asa Gray, but he need not. If he has seen
the Atamasco lily in bloom in May, while Gray had not the opportunity so
to see it; if he finds a certain aster, supposed to be peculiar to southern New
England, common in New Hampshire; if he finds colors and shadings
which Gray knew not, or has a clearer vision of their distinctions ; or if he
knows other facts or has seen other qualities in flowers which Gray did
not, he is able to add to knowledge, it is his duty to tell of it, and he de-
serves thanks. An alphabetical index at the end of the book gives the
names, colors, and localities of familiar flowers of the United States, with a
floral calendar.

GENERAL NOTICES.

The Haandbog i den Systemaiiske Botanik
of Dr. E. Warming has long been recognized
as an original and important contribution
to the literature of the subject The pres-
ent translation, by Prof. Potter,* from the
third Danish edition and from Dr. Knob-
lauch's German edition, has been enriched by
numerous additional notes kindly furnished by
the author. Besides Dr. Knoblauch's revision
of the fungi, the bacteria have been revised
by Dr. Migula, the Florideae rearranged after
Schmitz, and the Taphrinaceae after Lade-
beck. Instead of rearranging the orders of
the Angiospcrms according to the systems
more familiar to English readers, the se-
quence in the Danish original is retained.
One of the principles of this arrangement is
thus defined by the author : " Each form
which on comparative morphological consid-
erations is clearly less simple or can be shown
to have arisen by reduction or through abor-
tion of another type having the same funda-
mental structure, or in which a further dif-
ferentiation and division of labor is found,
will be regarded as younger, and as far as
possible, and so far as other considerations
will admit, will be reviewed later than the
simpler, more complete, or richer forms."
In an appendix are given an outline of some
of the earlier systems of classification and
a more complete account of that of Hooker
and Bentham. A full index is provided.

• A Handbook of Systematic Botany. By Dr.
E. Wanning, Willi a Eevision of the Fungi. By
Dr. E. Knoblauch. Translated and edited by M.
C. Potter, M. A., F. L. S. With 610 Illustrations.
Pp. 620, 8vo. London : Swan, Sonnenechein &
Co. Price, 15«. New York : Macmillan & Co.
Price, $3.75.

The plan and general character of Prof
Viries's Studenfs Text-book of Botany were ex-
plained in our notice of the first half volume
in the Popular Science Monthly for July,
1894. This work is completed in the second
half volume,* now before us. The subject
of classification is continued, beginning with
Group rV, Phanerogamia (or Spermophytd) —
the preceding groups including the TJiaL
loj>hyta^ Bryophyta^ and Fteridophyta — and
completed, and the physiology of plants is
considered. The province of physiology is
defined by the author as being " the study of
those phenomena which, taken together, con-
stitute the life of the plant ; in other words,
while morphology is concerned with what
plants are, and histology with their struc-
ture, physiology deals with what they do."
The performance of their functions by the
organs of the plant being materially affected
by various external conditions, " the object
of physiology is not only to distinguish and
study the various functions and to determine
the relation between them and their internal
structure and the external forms of the or-
gans performing them, but also to determine
what are the external conditions by which
the performance of the external functions is
affected, and the modes in which these con-
ditions exert their influence." A very com-
plete index is given in two parts, " Classifi-
cation and Nomenclature," and " Morphology,
Anatomy, and Physiology."

* Student's Text-book of Botany. By Sydney
H. Vines, M. A., D. So., F. R. S. With 469 Illus-
trations Pp. xvi + 431-821, 8vo. London : Swan,
Sonnenschein & Co. Price, 7«. %d. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $2.

2/8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The chief features of our strange south
western region — its pueblos and cliff-dwell-
ings, its Zuiii, Navajo, and other native in-
habitants, its plateaus, buttes, and canyons,
and foremost of its natural features the Great
Canyon of the Colorado River — have been
made familiar of late by the reports of many
explorers. To Major J. W. Powell * belongs
the credit of making the first extended ex-
ploration of the Great Canyon and the region
through which it passes. This he did in the
years 1869 to 18Y2. His report of the sci-
entific results then obtained and a brief pop-
ular account of the exploration have been
published. He has now prepared a full his-
tory of the expedition, with descriptions of
the scenery, of the Indians and their cus-
toms, of the ruins and relics, and other sub-
jects of interest in the region traversed. The
volume is fully illustrated, its list of illustra-
tions occupying more than five pages, and it
is printed on heavy paper with wide margins.

Prof. W. 0. Crosby's Tables for the De-
termination of Common Minerals, which ap-
peared in IBSY, has now reached a third and
enlarged edition. In the new issue provision
has been made for the more ready and accu-
rate testing of streak, hardness, and specific
gravity. Twenty-five additional species have
been included with the two hundred in the
original tables, supplementary tables compris-
ing one hundred of the less common minerals
have been added, and a synopsis of the classifi-
cation of minerals has been inserted. These
additions, the author believes, will reduce to
a minimum the necessity of reference to
comprehensive works.

It appears from the Sixth Annual Report
of the Missouri Botanical Garden that the
course of instruction in gardening was com-
pleted by one student in 1894, and another
left before the end of his course to take a
position at the Pennsylvania State College.
In response to many applications it was de-
cided to admit paying pupils in addition to
the six on scholarships. The Shaw School
of Botany and other branches of the garden's
work were carried on as usual. Appended
to the report are five papers on botanical
subjects, illustrated with fifty-six plates, and

♦ Canyons of the Colorado. By J. W. Powell.
Meadville, Pa. : Flood & Vincent. Pp. 400, quar-
to. Price, $10.

the volume contains also several views of at-
tractive spots in the grounds.

The Second Annual Report of the Iowa
Geological Survey embraces an account of
the work done in 1893 by the survey and
is accompanied by several special papers.
Among the subjects specifically treated are
the cretaceous and certain other deposits with-
in the State, glacial scorings, and buried river
channels. The Composition and Origin of
Iowa Chalk is discussed by Samuel Calvin, the
State Geologist. The geology of two coun-
ties is described by the assistant geologist,
Charles R. Keyes, who has also written sev-
eral of the other papers.

The Cause of Warm and Frigid Periods
is discussed by C. A. M. Taber in a little
book of eighty pages (Ellis, Boston). From
an experience of twenty years spent in whal-
ing voyages in early life the author has been
brought to ascribe great influence to winds
and the surface currents of the sea in modi-
fying climate. He has carefully examined
the extant theories concerning the glacial
period, and gives his reasons for not finding
any of them entirely satisfactory.

A Brief Descriptive Geography of the
Empire State, by C. W. Bardeen, consists of
a systematic and concise but attractive de-
scription of the natural and political features
of the State of New York, sadly marred by a
great lot of cheap, smudgy pictures. Teach-
ers who have any regard for the artistic
sense or the eyesight of their pupils will let
this book severely alone. (Bardeen, 75 cents.)

To the series of English classics edited
by A. J. George and published by D. C.
Heath & Co. have been added Webster''s First
Bunker HiU Oration (20 cents) and Burke's
Speech on Conciliation toith America (30
cents). Mr. George is of the opmion that
the annotating of English literature for stu-
dents has often been injudiciously done.
Accordingly, instead of placing a surfeit of
biographical, historical, and critical material
imder the eyes of the pupils, he has shown
where this matter may be found, thus giving
them valuable intellectual exercise in getting
it and preventing mental dyspepsia from bolt-
ing unmasticated facts.

M. Stanislas Meunier, of the Jardin des
Flanies, Paris, has been for many years en-
gaged in the study of what he calls Compara-
tive Geology, which he defines as having the

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

279

same relation to the geology of the earth as
comparative anatomy to the anatomy of man.
His special application of it is to the geology
of the planets compared with that of the earth.
The fruits of his studies are now embodied in
a book bearing that title, which is published
by Felix Alcan, Paris, in the French Interna-
tional Scientific Series. Though the materials
for such a study may at first sight seem lack-
ing, M. Meunier has found enough, in the re-
sults of telescopic and spectroscopic and other
observations, particularly of the moon and
Mars and the examination of meteorites, to
make possible a fairly distinct outline, and
to prompt further inquiry into this field.

In the Report of the Commissioner of
Education for 1891-92 most of the statis-
tics are relegated to the second volume, while
the first volume is devoted mainly to essays
on special subjects. Among the more ex-
tended of these are an account of the modes
of training teachers employed in Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland, by the able educa-
tional writer Dr. L. R. Klemm ; also a de-
scription of German universities translated
from a book prepared for the German
educational exhibit at the Chicago Exposi-
tion, and a suggestive paper on preparation
for the civil service in France and Prussia,
by W. F. and W. W. Willoughby. James
C. Boykin contributes an essay of nearly a
hundred and fifty pages on Physical Train-
ing, half of which consists of a history of
the subject from the siege of Troy to Dio
Lewis, while the rest is of greater practical
value, consisting of descriptions of various
modes of training in present use, with il-
lustrations and statistics. Coeducation is
treated by A. Tolman Smith, who supple-
ments his discussion with a large number of
opinions of educators and a bibliography.
The summer schools have now become so
important that a history of them comes in
very appropriately here. It was prepared by
W. W. Willoughby.

The treatise on Rocks and Soils^ by
Horace Edward Stockhridge^ has come to a
second edition (Wiley). The author, who
held a professorship in the Imperial College
of Agriculture at Sapporo, Japan, when the
first edition appeared, is now President of
the Agricultural College of North Dakota.
Numerous changes and additions have been
made in the new edition, which may be

found by a comparison with the former
edition.

Home Geography for primary grades, by
C. C. Long (American Book Company, 25
cents), is a thoughtfully arranged introduc-
tion to the study of this science. The aim
is to give the child object lessons by the use
of the surrounding landscape ; by directing
his attention to some neighboring hill, im-
press the idea mountain upon him; some
small level space indicates a plain ; a brook
represents a river, a pond or lake the ocean,
etc. The idea is a good one, and is well
carried out.

How the Republic is Governed, by ITbah
Brooks (Scribners, 76 cents), consists of a
brief consideration in small compass of the
fundamental principles which direct our
actions as a nation. Among the special
topics are The Federal Constitution; The
Government of the United States in its Three
Departments — Legislative, Executive, and
Judicial ; National and State Rights ; the In-
dians; Patents and Copyrights; Pensions;
Declaration of Independence, and the Con-
stitution.

Another attempt to solve the problem of
gravitation is made by Mr. Robert Stevenson
in his paper, A New Potential Principle in
Nature — EUisticity a Mode of Motion. His
principle comprises kinetic energy in the
line of motion of a body, and kinetic stabil-
ity tending to prevent displacement trans-
verse to that line. The latter acts partly as
a force of restitution to the original direc-
tion, with the resultant of causing a curvi-
linear motion. The author conceived his
idea while he was a student of Sir William
Thomson.

Notes on the Geology of Hie Island of
Cvha is based upon a reconnoissance made
by the author, Mr. Robert T. Hill, for Alex-
ander Agassiz. Mr. Hill spent about a
month on the island, accompanied by some
American engineers who were familiar with
the country, and who, by reason of their
knowledge, were of great assistance to him.
Going into the interior to Villa Clara, to ac-
quaint himself with that region, he exam-
ined the features of the older nucleal area of
Cuba ; then made a thorough study of the
cut of the Yumuri River at Matanzas, and of
the limestone formations of the vicinity ; in-
vestigated the geology of Havana ; and

28o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

made a north and south section across the
island from Havana to Batabanos. Going
to Baracoa, he examined the country west
of Yunque Mountain and east to Cape Maysi.
Having completed his work of an original
examination of the phenomena, iminfluenced
by preconceived hypotheses, he read what
others had written of Cuba, and was pleased
to find a general agreement between their
views and his. The notes are published by
the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zo-
ology.

Sdf Culture is the name of a monthly
magazine devoted to the interests of the
Home University League, edited by Edward
C. Towixe and published by the Werner Com-
pany, Chicago and New York. Among the
subjects of articles in Vol. I, No. 2, are : Eli

Whitney, a Shakespeare of Invention ; The
Supposed Electrical Character of Vitality;
The Principle of Evolution in Nature ; Primi-
tive Man ; The Story of the Plague in History ;
The Genius of Shakespeare ; Diphtheria and
the Schools ; and Athletic Exercises in Uni-
versities. (Price, 30 cents ; $3 a year.)

Under the title The Ensential Man, an
argument in support of the belief in immor-
tality is presented by George Croswell Cres-
set/ (Ellis, 75 cents). Among the circum-
stances which he deems indicative of a
future life are the great difference between
the mind of man and the material forces,
the fact that no force is ever destroyed, the
eventual cessation of all physical life on the
earth, and the general diffusion of the doc-
trine in one form or another.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIYED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins
and Reports. Delaware College. Tests of Sor-
ghum Varieties. By C. L. Penny. Pp. 24. — Iowa :
Agricultural College. No. 28. Nine articles. Pp.
8. — Nebraska ; The Conservation of Soil Moisture
by Means of Subsoil Plowing. By T. L. Lyon.
Pp. 8, with Plates.— North Dakota : Weather and
Crop Report for September, 1894. Pp. 17.— New
York : Rules concerning Gratuitous Chemical
Analysis. Pp. 3. — Strawberries, Raspberries, etc.
Pp. 20.— Ohio : Report for 1894. Pp. 12 + xlii.

Becker, George F. Reconnoissance of the
Gold Fields of the Southern Appalachians. Wash-
ington : Geological Survey. Pp. 85.

Bolton, H. W., Editor. The Pulpit Herald. A
Monthly Magazine. Vol. I, No. 1, October,
1894. Chicago: F. W. Clement & Co. Pp. 40.
20 cents ; $2 a year.

Baker, Frank Collins. The Naturalist in Mex-
ico. Chicago : David Oliphant. Pp. 145.

Columbia College School of Mines. General
Information, 1895-'96. Pp. 28.

Cornish, Vauphan. Practical Proofs of Chem-
ical Laws. London and New York : Longmans,
Green & Co. Pp. 92. 75 cents.

Correspondence School of Technology, Cleve-
land, O. Announcement for 1895-'96. Pp. 59.

Cramer, Frank. On the Cranial Characters of
the Genus Sebastodes (Rock Fish). Leland Stan-
ford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, Cal. Pp. 38. 35
cents.

Crawford, F. Marion. Constantinople. Tlus-
trated by E. L. Weeks. New York : Charles
Scribner's Sons. Pp. 79. $1.50.

Defender, The. Tariff Facts for Speakers and
Students. New York : American Protective Tar-
iff League. Pp. 158. 10 cents.

Diller, J. S. Mount Shasta a Typical Volcano.
American Bcok Company. Pp. 32. 20 cents.

Dreher, Julius D. Education in the South.
Some Difficulties and Encouragements. Pp. 35.

Eccles, A. Seymour. The Practice of Massage.
Its Physiological Effects and Therapeutic Uses.
London and New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp.
877.

Ethnologisches Notizblatt (Ethnological No-
tices). Published under the Direction of the Royal
Museum ftlr VOlkerkunde of Berlin. No. 2.
lUuBtrated. Pp. 160, with Plates.

Godard, Harlow. An Outline Study of United
States History Syracuse, N. Y.: C. W. Bardeen.
Pp. 146. 50 cents.

Green, Mary E., M. D. Food Products of the
World. Chicago: The Hotel World. Pp. 260.
$1..50.

Guerber, H. A. Myths of Northern Lands-
American Book Company. Pp. 319. $1.50.

Grimes, J. Stanley. Chicago. The Radiate
Theory of the Cause of Gravitation. Pp 9.

Hale, E. M., M. D. Hydrostatic Heart Thera-
peutics. Chicago. Pp. 16.

Holbrook, Dr. M. L. Physical, Intellectual,
and Moral Advantages of Chastity. New York :
M. L. Holbrook & Co. London : L. N. Fowler
&Co. Pp.120. $1.

Iowa Geological Survey. Lemuel Calvin, State
Geologist. Third Annual Report, with accompa-
nying Papers. Dc 8 Moines. Pp. 467, with Maps.

Jordan, David Starr, and others. The Fishes
of Sinaloa. Palo Alto, Cal.: Leland Stanford, Jr.,
University. Pp. 48, with Plates.

Lloyd, John Uri. Etidorhpa, or the End of
Earth. Cincinnati : John Uri Lloyd. Pp. 376.
$4.

Loudon, W. J., and McLennan, J. C. A. Labo-
ratory Course in Experimental Physics. New
York and London : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 302.
$1.90.

MacDowall, Alex. B. Weather and Disease.
London : The Graphotone Company. Pp. 83.

McClatchie, A. C. Flora of Pasadena and Vi-
cinity. Pp. 44. 25 cents.

Morley, Edward W. On the Densities of Oxy-
gen and Hydrogen, and on the Ratio of their
Atomic Weights. Smithsonian Institution. Pp.
117.

New York Academy of Sciences. Transactions,
Vol. XrV, 1894-'95. J. F. Kemp, Recording Sec-
retary; and Catalogue of Exhibits, March 13, 1895.
Pp. 281, with 49 Plates + 54.

Ostwald. Wilhelm. The Scientific Founda-
tions of Analytical Chemistry. Translated by
George McGowan. London and New York :
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 207. $1.60.

Progress in School Reform. New York: Good
Government Club "E," 145 East Eighth Street.
Pp. 53, with Tables.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

281

Progrees of the World. Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1,
October, 1895. New York : Progress of the World
Company, 156 Fifth Avenue. Pp. 156. 10 cents ;
%1 a year.

Richards, Frank. Compressed Air. New
York : John Wiley & Sons. London : Chapman
&HaU. Pp.203.

Pisteen, A. D. Molecules and the Molecular
Theory of Matter. Boston and London : Ginn &
Co. Pp.223. %2.

Romanes, George John. Darwin and after
Darwin. II. Post-Darwinian Questions ; Hered-
ity and Utility. Chicago : Open Court Publish-
ing Company. Pp. 344. $1.50.

Salazar, A. E., and Newman, Q. Estudios
Ijieniquos del Aire (Hygienical Studies of the Air).
Santiago, ChUe. Pp. 20, with Plates.

Scott, E. G. Reconstruction during the Civil
War in the United States of America. Boston
and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp.
482. $2.

Sizer, Nelson. How to Study Strangers, by
Temperament, Face, and Head. New York :
Fowler & Wells Company. Pp. 367. $1.50.

Smithsonian Institution. An Account of its
Origin, History, Objects, and Achievements. Pp.

about 20, with Plates.— The Exhibit of the In-
stitution at th3 Cotton States Expo&iiion, Atlanta,
1895. Pp. about 80.

Stevens, W. Le Conte. Recent Progress in
Optics. Salem, Mass. : The Salem Press. Pp. 22.

Stoddard, Charles Augustus. Cruising among
the Caribbees. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons. Pp. 198. $1.50.

Stuver, E. Asexualization for the Limitation
of Disease, and the Prevention and Punishment of
Crime. Rawlins, Wyoming. I»p. 16.

United States Life-Saving Service, Annual
Report of Operations, 1894. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing Office. Pp. 470.

Whiteley, R. Lloyd. Organic Chemistry. The
Fatty Compounds. New York and London :
Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 285.

Winterburn, Florence Hull. Nursery Ethics.
New York : The Merriam Company. Pp. 241.

Wright, Carroll D., United States Commis-
sioner of Labor, and Gould, E. R. L. The Hous-
ing of the Working People. (Eighth Special Re-
p rtof the Commissioner of Labor.) Washington ;
Government Printing Office. Pp. 461.

"^xviQmtXiis xrf ^titutt.

Constitnents of Ocean Bottoms.— In his

summary of the results of the Challenger
Expedition, Dr. Murray classifies marine de-
posits as littoral, shallow water, and deep
sea. Such deposits are, in origin, either
land-derived or pelagic — that is, of the
ocean. The land-derived deposits edge the
shores, for the finest river mud is rarely met
with as far as three hundred miles from the
coast, and particles so large as to be called
sand remain close to it. Regarded in this
light, the whole ocean beyond the three-hun-
dred-mile belt of " territorial waters " pos-
sesses a distinct individuality, invaded by no
material of land origin except the mud and
boulders carried by drifting ice, the dust
which settles out of the air, and scraps of
floating pumice from volcanic eruptions. In
a few patches less than seventeen hundred
fathoms deep, far from land, the remains of
relatively large and delicate shells which
lived on the surface abound at the bottom,
mixed with innumerable shells of dense,
nearly microscopic foraminifera and a little
clayey matter, the whole receiving the general
name of pteropod ooze, from the characteris-
tic shells of pteropods which occur in it. In
deeper waters no pteropod or other delicate
shells are found, and the calcareous meal of

forammifera, closely resembling softened
chalk, is called globigerina ooze, from the
particular genus of surface-living organ-
ism which occurs in largest proportion. At
greater depths globigerina ooze is found in
which the microscopic shells appear much
corroded ; and finally, in the deeps or areas
more than three thousand fathoms below the
surface, the deposit is almost free from car-
bonate of lime, and forms a stiff red clay
composed of decomposed volcanic or atmos-
pheric dust and those constituents of shells
that are not readily dissolved by sea water.
The process of formation has been clearly
shown. Over the whole surface the same
shell-bearing creatures die in myriads ; their
bodies fall continuously as a gentle calcare-
ous snow shower through the water, which
slowly dissolves them. The large thin shells
vanish first, and only reach the bottom in
shallow water ; the dense spheres of the pin-
head and smaller foraminifera resist longest,
and only the insoluble residue reaches the
greatest depth. Thus the excess of carbon-
ate of lime dissolved in the deepest layers
of the ocean is readily explained. The red
clay forms so slowly that particles of metal-
lic dust from exploded meteorites, which are
covered up by the surface accumulations

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

everywhere else, form an appreciable pro-
portion of its substance. In places where
Bilicious organisms like sponges and radio-
larias are numerous on the surface, their
glassy spicules form a considerable ingredi-
ent in the red clay, which, when the propor-
tion reaches a considerable value, is called
radiolarian ooze. Again, in the cool and less
saline water of the southern ocean, and in
other cases where the water is freshened,
the microscopic, silica-sheathed, self-moving
plants known as diatoms swarm in such vast
numbers that the deposit consists in very
large degree of their shells. When the pro-
portion reaches one half it is described as
diatom ooze. The red clay covers about
fifty-one million square miles of the ocean
floor ; globigerina ooze is spread over about
fifty million square miles ; and diatomooze
occupies a belt encircling the globe in the
southern ocean, with a total area of about
ten million square miles. These three kinds
of deposits are thus believed to spread over
a surface twice as extensive as all the land
of the earth. The terrigenous or land-
derived deposits occupy about nineteen mil-
lion square miles, and one of the strongest
arguments for the existence of an antarctic
continent is the fact that they border the
belt of diatom ooze on the southward wher-
ever it has been passed.

Tenacity of Old Rltnals.— While explor-
ing an ancient cemetery near Cuzco, Peru,
Mr. George A. Dorsey observed a curious
ceremony performed by the Quichua Indi-
ans which illustrated to him the tenacity
with which the old rites are held, and the
manner in which recognition of living spirits
of the dead and sacrifice to them still pre-
vaiL The men had been unwilling to assist
him in disturbing the tombs of the dead,
because they contained the remains of their
ancestors, to remove which would be sacri-
lege, but were drafted into his service by a
peremptory order from the prefect. On ap-
proaching the tombs the men knelt and pro-
nounced in unison an invocation which be-
gan with a recital to the spirits of the chiefs
as sons of the great Pachacamac of the doc-
trine of the Trinity and continued with the
address : " Chiefs, sons of the sun, we have
not come to disturb your tranquil sleep in
this your abode. We have come because

we have been compelled by our superiors ;
toward them may you direct your vengeance
and your curses ! " Then they made offer-
ings of coca, aguardiente, and chicha, and
called on a lofty, snow-capped mountain,
Sancahuara, to witness the truth of their
invocation.

A New Beart — A new bear is mentioned
by William H. Dall, in Science, as having
been observed frequenting the vicinity of
the glaciers of the St. Elias Alpine region.
It is regarded by the Indians and hunters as
distinct from both the black and the brown
bears of Alaska. It is not large, no skin
being more than six feet long, is shy, and
not so fierce as the other bears. Its general
color resembles that of the silver fox. The
fur is not very long, but is remarkably soft ;
and it has a rich bluish-black under fur,
while the longer hairs are often white, at
least in the distal half. The dorsal line, the
back of the ears, and the outer faces of the
limbs are jet-black. The sides, neck, and
rump are black and silver. The under sur-
face of the belly and the sinuses behind the
limbs are grayish white or pure white. The
bright tan color of the sides of the muzzle
and the lower fore part of the cheeks is in-
variable, and has not been seen by Mr. Dall
in any other American bear. The structure
of the claws is adapted to the climbing of
trees. Mr. Dall believes that it is at least
a well-defined local race, and proposes for it
the racial name of Emmonsii. The Sitka
fur dealers call it the glacial or blue bear.
The Indians speak of another animal, un-
known to naturalists, as inhabiting the higher
mountains of the mainland. It is described
as resembling the mountain goat, with horns
nearly as long, but almost straight.

Agrienltnre on City Lots. — A satisfactory
report upon the working of the experiment
tried in Detroit in 1894, of engaging the poor
and unemployed of the city in the cultivation
of vacant lands and lots, is published by the
Sterling Publishing Company, New York.
About four hundred and fifty acres, or seven
thousand city lots, were divided into quarter-
and half-acre tracts, and about three times
as many applications for allotments were re-
ceived as could be granted. The crops were
planted, cultivated, and harvested by the

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

283

people themselves, under the supervision of
the committee ; about nine tenths of the
pieces were well taken care of. The com-
mittee estimate that the potato crop aver-
aged about fifteen bushels per lot, giving
fourteen thousand one hundred and seventy-
five bushels in all ; and large quantities of
beans, turnips, and other vegetables were
raised and daily consumed, of which no rec-
ord was made. The estimated value of the
crops produced was from twelve to fourteen
thousand dollars, to say nothing of the pota-
toes that were eaten before they had attained
any considerable size. The entire cost to
the committee was thirty-six hundred dollars,
a sum that was made up by subscriptions.
" Should the experiment be continued, it is
best to get tracts of as many in a piece as
possible, and, if poor land, to collect the
sweepings of the streets to be put upon the
land in the spring or carry it upon the land
from time to time as collected to enrich the
soil. ... It is believed that with the expe-
rience gained this year, the plan could in
many respects be improved and the cost
greatly reduced by beginning it in time. The
committee finds that about one third of an
acre is sufficient land for a family to raise
enough potatoes to last them through the
winter and furnish vegetables through the
summer." It should be recollected that the
experiment was tried under many disadvan-
tages. It was a step in the dark ; vacant
city lots are in appearance the most unpro-
ductive soil imaginable; the planting was
not begun till late in June, and the season
was one of the worst for garden crops which
the country had had for many years. Yet
the success was great. A like success is
claimed for a similar experiment tried in
Buffalo, N. Y., in 1895. Many problems of
economy, morals, and good taste would be
solved if the system should become general
and permanent.

Onyx Marble. — The stone called onyx
marble, which is much used now in ornamen-
tal articles of furniture, is really a calcare-
ous or lime rock, which has been deposited
as a travertine or tufa from water in which
it was held in solution. Water, while it can
not alone dissolve lime rock, can take up
considerable quantities of it when it holds
carbonic acid in solution, but must drop it

again when the carbonic acid has escaped.
Both these processes are of common occur-
rence, and hence, in the springs where they
are going ©n, tufas or travertines are formed.
We know this much of what takes place, but
we do not know, says Mr, George P. Merrill,
in his paper on this subject, just what are
the conditions governing the compactness
and condition of crystallization of the de-
posit — why in some cases it should be sus-
ceptible of an enamel-like polish, and in
others should be light and tufaceous. Onyx
marble is also found in caves as a constitu-
ent of the stalagmites and stalactites which
grow there, and much in the same way as in
the springs. Water charged with carbonic
acid percolating through the roof of the cave
brings down dissolved limestone, hangs in
drops to the roof, is evaporated or loses its
carbonic acid, and leaves a calcareous deposit
to be enlarged by continuous accretions. It
rarely happens that all the water evapo-
rates from the ceiling of the cave. Some
of it usually falls to the floor, whence it is
in its turn evaporated and leaves there a
continually growing deposit — a stalagmite.
As the water in percolating through the roof
dissolved only the pure lime carbonate, or
took up only a trace of impurity, these sta-
lactitic and stalagmitic deposits are of purer
lime, refined and recrystallized under new
conditions. It follows almost from necessity
from their mode of origin that the beds of
onyx marbles, both spring and cave deposits,
are as a rule far less extensive and regular
in their arrangement than are the ordinary
stratified and imbedded marbles. Spring
action is more or less intermittent, and the
place of discharge, as well as the character of
the deposit, is variable. The deposit usually
takes the form of a comparatively thin crust,
conforming to the contours of the surfaces
on which it lies. The various layers thicken
and thin out irregularly, and are often len-
ticular in cross-section. Sound and homo-
geneous layers of more than twenty inches in
thickness are not common. A marked and
beautiful feature of the onyx marbles in gen-
eral, and particularly of those which originate
as spring deposits, is the fine, undulating par-
allel bands of growth or lines of accretion
shown on a cross-section, which are due to
its mode of origin through successive depo-
sitions upon the surface. The stone owes

284

THJt: POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

its chief value for decorative purposes to
its translucency, fine venation, and color.
Sometimes the original hues have become
enhanced by oxidation and through the de-
velopment of reticulating veins of smal^
size, into which percolating waters have in-
troduced new coloring substances or locally
oxidized the protoxide carbonates which
seem to form the chief colouring constituent.
The finer grades of stone of this type are
obtained from few and scattered localities,
and, except those that are of cave origin,
generally, so far as the author has observed,
the most eminently desirable for ornamental
purposes are from hot and arid countries and
regions not far distant from recent volcanic
activity.

Giant Monntain Plants. — Two Swiss bot-
anists, MM. Sommier and Sevier, who have
recently explored the Caucasus, tell of the
discovery of a mountain flora of giant her-
baceous plants, of which little was known
before, and which they designate as macro-
flora. At the altitude of about fifty-eight
himdred feet some plants reach a size
which they never attain in the valleys. A
campanula, which does not exceed about two
feet below, grows to about six feet at that
height, with an unpliable stem. The large,
kidney-shaped leaves of a valerian are borne
at the end of petioles so rigid that they can
be carried as parasols. These fields resem-
ble the pampas, and the rocks are hidden in
a growth of large plants of different kinds.
The luxuriance of this vegetation is ascribed
by the authors partly to the extraordinary
fertility of the soil, from which the accu-
mulated mold of ages has never been re-
moved ; while, as a second way of accounting
for them, they are regarded as survivals of
the grand flora of some former geological age.

A New Raee of Ancient Egyptians.— The

continued explorations of Mr. W. Flinders
Petrie on the west side of the Nile below
Thebes have resulted in the discovery of
what he regards as a hitherto unknown race
of men, who probably lived in Egypt about
five thousand years ago. In the near neigh-
borhood of sites yielding potteries of the
best known Egyptian dynasties he found
the remains of a town, with cemeteries of
which about two thousand graves were ex-

cavated, in which there was not a single
Egyptian object or the trace of the observ-
ance of any Egyptian custom. The bodies,
instead of being mummified or buried at full
length, were contracted, with heads to the
south and faces to the west. They were of
fine physiognomy, without prognathism ; of
remarkable stature — some being more than
six feet high — and of development of legs
indicating a hill race ; with brown and wavy
but not crisp hair, aquiline nose, and long,
pointed head. No hieroglyphics or char-
acters suggesting writing were found, be-
yond a few scratches on vases. Their ves-
sels were perfect in form — all hand-made —
yet their art was of the rudest. A picture
in monochrome on one of the vases repre-
sents a boat with two cabins, rowed with
oars, bearing the ensign of five hills, with
ranges of hills on either side, and t>striche8
striding along. A game of ninepins was
found, in which the pieces are formed of
stone, with balls of syenite about the size of
peas. The people used green paint made
from malachite for marking their eyes, and
many of the slate palettes on which this
was ground were found. Their funeral rites
appear to have included a kind of ceremonial
cannibalism. They are supposed to have
lived about the time from th6 seventh to
the ninth dynasties. In the same region, in
a spot exactly resembling the river gravels
of England and France, large quantities of
similar palaeolithic remains were found.

Signs of the Times, — In an article under
the above title, by Edward Atkinson, in the
August number of the Engineering Magazine,
is the following comment on the recent cele-
bration of the opening of the ship canal at
Kiel : " There is something rather grotesque
in the picture which the nations have made
at the opening of the ship canal at Kiel.
The object of that canal is mainly to pro-
mote commerce, to facilitate exchange, to
bring to the occupants of a rather poor soil
in middle Europe a necessary supply of food
and fibres from other parts of the world, and
also a necessary supply of the crude products
of the non-machine-using nations for conver-
sion into finished goods for home use and ex-
port. In order to celebrate the opening of
this peaceful way for commerce, there gath-
ered a collection of naval bulldogs, each for

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

285

the time muzzled, but in many instances with
growl barely suppressed. In a rough-and-
ready way one may estimate the cost of this
fleet of one hundred great armor-clad ships
of war, with twenty-five lesser vessels, at ap-
proximately $200,000,000, which is probably
four or five times the cost of the peaceful
water-way, the opening of which they were
called together to celebrate. The United
States was represented by one battle ship
and, I believe, by one of our two ' commerce-
destroyers,' BO called. The two armored
ships so named cost nearly $7,000,000 — a
sum nearly equal to the entire endowment of
Harvard University — while the annual ex-
pense of keeping the two in commission is
nearly aa great as the pay roll of the same
university. The only commerce of any im-
portance upon which these destructive ships
of war could exert their force would be that
of Great Britain and Germany, our two largest
foreign customers for the excess of our farm
products, which would rot upon our fields
if we could not sell them for export. Any
commentary upon these grotesque conditions
would perhaps be superfluous. As time goes
on this waste of preparation for war will be
stopped in more than one way. First, be-
cause no ship can carry armor which will de-
fend it from the latest type of guns. Next,
because no land force can stand in the face
of guns discharging over six hundred shots
per minute, warranted to kill at more than a
mile. But lastly, as to European states, be-
cause the limit of taxation has been reached.
New taxes can not be invented and new
sources of revenue can not be discovered
which will warrant even the maintenance of
existing armies and navies."

Two Wild Vegetables of Merit.— T. W.

Card, of the experiment station at Lincohi,
Nebraska, calls attention, in Garden and
Forest^ to two wild vegetables which he
thinks merit the attention of cultivators.

One of these, which is already gathered
from the fields and used to a considerable
extent in the West, is the wild lettuce ; there
are two species common on the plains, Lac-
tuca canadensis and L. Ludovidana, They
are chiefly used for greens, and fill an im-
portant place for this purpose, as they come
in advance of spinach, and when no other
greens are offered in the market The other

plant is the ground plum or buffalo pea of
the plains {Astragalus crassicarpics). This is
found abundantly in the draws or low
grounds of the unbroken prairie. The
plant is a perennial, apparently perfectly
hardy, and very productive. The fruit re-
sembles gooseberries in size and general
appearance. It is borne in numerous clus-
ters, very early in the season. When cooked
like string beans the fruit forms a very ac-
ceptable dish. The chief point which recom-
mends the plant for cultivation is the time
at which the fruits are ready for use, some
of them ripening as early as May 7th.

Proteetlng Iron and Steel against Rnst.

— Gesner's method, described in La Revue
Scientijique, consists in forming on the sur-
face of the metal a double carbide of hydro-
gen and iron. A bar thus coated can be
bent through an angle of forty-five degrees
without disturbing the layer. The process
is as follows: The surface to be coated is
first thoroughly cleaned from rust. A couple
of gas retorts are placed alongside each other
and raised to a temperature of from 600°
to 700° C. The articles to be treated are
then placed in these retorts for about twenty
minutes, after which a current of hydrogen
is passed through the retorts for forty-five
minutes. A small quantity of naphtha is
then introduced, the supply being main-
tained for ten minutes. It is then stopped,
the current of hydrogen being kept up fif-
teen minutes longer, when it is stopped and
the retorts are allowed to cool to 400° C,
and when this temperature is reached the
doors can be opened and the finished prod-
uct removed. The coating thus given has a
bluish color.

The Microscope in Metallnrgy. — Micro-
metallography — the examination of samples
of iron and steel by looking at etched or
polished sections through a microscope — ^is
rapidly taking its place in the routine work
of metallurgical laboratories. It has been
developed from petrography. Dr. Sorby, an
Englishman, who in 1864 submitted some
photographs of opaque sections of various
kinds of iron and steel to the British Asso-
ciation, seems to have been among the first
workers in this field. The process of pre-
paring the specimens is complicated and

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

somewhat tedious, but the results fully repay
the worker. By means of these methods
steel has been found to contain five main
constituents : Pure iron, ferrite ; carbide of
iron, cementife; sorbite, of uncertain compo-
sition ; marterisite and froostite ; the latter
marks the transition of soft iron into hard-
ened steel. Sorbite, froostite, and martensite
appear to be solidified solutions of various
forms of carbon in divers forms of iron, for
it seems clear that metallographic work on
steel brings into prominence the existence
of allotropic forms of iron. An exhaustive
monograph on the progress of micro-metal-
lography during the past ten years, by M. F.
Osmond, may be found in the Bulletin de la
Societe (T Encouragement^ vol. x, p. 480, 1895.

Audibility of Fog-horn Signals.— Some
time ago there appeared a description of
some experiments which went to prove that
around each siren there is a zone, about one
and a half nautical miles broad, within which
fog signals can not be heard, although they
are distinctly heard outside that zone. These
statements have been recently confirmed by
a series of experiments which are noted in
Nature. In one of these the vessel steamed
with the wind straight toward the lightship
from a distance of four and a half nautical
miles. At a distance of two miles and three
quarters the sound became faintly audible,
and suddenly increased in loudness at two
miles and a half, retaining the same inten-
sity up to two miles distance. From one and
three quarters to one and a half mile the note
was scarcely audible, but then it immediately
increased to such an extent that it appeared
to originate in the immediate neighborhood
of the vessel. The steamer at this point re-
versed its course, and the fluctuation over this
part of the course was found to be the same,
except that it was even more strongly marked.
The vessel was again reversed, and at half a
mile the sovmd disappeared entirely, to reap-
pear at a quarter of a mile from the light-
ship ; after which it gradually and steadily
increased in intensity until the latter was
reached.

The Ideals of Modern Medicine.— We

take the following from President Sir T.
Russell Reynolds's address before the recent
meeting of the British Medical Association

in London : " The outcome of what I have
been saying is this : that the scattered frag-
ments of knowledge and guesses at truth of
many years have been gathered into a focus
during the past twenty -five years ; that the
vegetable life extracting from the mineral
world the materials it needs for growth and
production of powerful agencies for good in
the form of food and medicines, and for evil
in the form of poisons, has given itself up
to the growth of animal life, with its much
more complex organs, and for cure of ills
once thought beyond the reach of human
aid ; but that, thanks to man's scientific ar-
dor and industry, it has again shown itself
to be our servant, our helper, and our pro-
tector. These are not dreams of the study,
they are facts of the laboratory and of daily
life ; and in using that word ' life ' again, I
must endeavor to emphasize still more forci-
bly upon you my urgent belief that it is to
living agencies and their employment that
we must look for help in the care of infancy,
the conduct of education — moral, mental,
and physical — the training up of character,
as well as of limbs ; that it is the guidance
of living functions, in the choice of living
occupations, be they either of hard work or
of amusement. It is to these we must ap-
peal if we would see the mens sana in co-rpore
sano ; and then it will be to these that we
may confidently look for help, when the in-
roads of age or of disease are at hand, often
to cure us of our trouble ; or if not, to give
us rest and peace."

City GoTernment.— The corporation of the
city of London is one of the most ancient
bodies in England, and its record shows a
constant succession of capable men and a
uniform policy. It was in existence before
Parliament, and it has seen the downfall of
more than one royal house. The secret of
its success has lain in the fact that muni-
cipal dignity has always been confided to the
hands of men of business, who had shown
their capacity to manage private affairs of
great msignitude before they were intrusted
with those of their neighbors. Their training
had been such as to remove them as far from
the hide-bound conservatism of the official
as from the destructive reforming energy
of the professional politician. As an in-
I stance of the methods employed may be

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

287

cited the fact that perfect and exact records,
with the exception of three years, of every
penny spent on London Bridge since 1831
are in existence and in splendid preserva-
tion. These facts, which we take from En-
gineering, differ so extremely from those
brought to light by the recent reform investi-
gations in American cities as to seem worthy
of notice.

Pithecanthropns Erectns. — At the recent
meeting of the zoologists at Leyden, an in-
teresting discussion occurred over some bone
fragments (a femur, the upper part of a
skull, and two teeth) upon which Dr. E. Du-
bois, the naturalist, bases his new species

Pithecanthropus eredus, an intermediate stage
between the anthropoid apes and man.
Prof. Virchow contended that the four frag-
ments did not belong to the same animal.
Prof. 0. C. Marsh was inclined to support
many of Dr. Dubois's conclusions. Prof.
Rosenberg thought that the peculiarities by
which Dr. Dubois made his new species oc-
curred in human bones, and in some few
cases all of them combined. Prof. Rosen-
berg acknowledged, however, the great value
of the discoveries, because, even if the bones
were human, they proved that Tertiary man
existed in Java ; the origin of man being
thus pushed further back toward the earlier
Tertiary period.

MINOR PARAGRAPHS.

Tub work of the President White School
of History and Political Science, which was
instituted at Cornell University in 1887 on
the gift of his historical library by ex-Presi-
dent A. D. White, naturally falls into the
two great divisions suggested by its name.
The instruction in history further divides
itself into the subdepartmeats of ancient
and mediaeval, modem European, and Amer-
ican history; and that in political science
into politics, social science and statistics, and
political economy and finance. The teach-
ing corps consists of four professors, an as-
sociate professor, an assistant professor, an
instructor, and an examiner. Five fellow-
ships have been instituted, and degrees are
conferred of Master of Arts, of Philosophy,
of Letters, or of Science.

The system of tests for the detection of
color-blindness described by Dr. William
Thomson in The Popular Science Monthly for
February, 1885, is used on railroads control-
ling 38,786 miles of track, and other systems
are used on roads controlling 15,579 miles —
making 51,798 miles protected. After con-
siderable experience Dr. Thomson proposes
some improvements to be used in connection
with his color-stick or as a substitute for it.
The new test consists of a large green and a
large rose test skein, and forty small skeins,
each marked with a concealed number. The
stick is dispensed with, because it gives a too
fixed arrangement and not enough confusion.
One of the test skeins being laid out, the

candidate is directed to select, from the
twenty skeins of similar color exposed with
it, those having the shades nearest to it ; and
the accuracy of his vision is determined by
the exactness of his selection and his avoid-
ance of the confusion skeins. The red test
skein and its confusion colors are omitted.

The Russian thistle, the latest imported
agricultural pest, is described in a bulletin
of the University of Illinois Agricultural Ex-
periment Station as not a thistle nor looking
like one, but as a tumbleweed. When ma-
ture, its stems are more woody than those
of ordinary tumbleweeds, and the spines or
little thorns are hard. Sometimes the plants
are compact, nearly round ; sometimes, when
growing close together, they fail to have the
rounded form. They may be one, two, or
three feet high, and from eighteen inches to
six feet across. The leaves, flowers, and
seeds are very small. In the later summer
the stems have a purple or rose color. The
seeds mature after the first of September.
The plants and seeds should be destroyed by
burning. A bulletin of the Ohio Agricul-
tural Experiment Station on this subject con-
tains some useful remarks on weeds in gen-
eral.

The Massachusetts Agricultural College
at Amherst had in 1894 the largest number
of students and the largest graduating class
in its history. Gratifying results followed
the introduction of the elective system in the
studies of the senior year, which were shown

288

TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in increased interest in study that was com-
municated also to the other classes. Courses
of lectures were delivered by Sir Henry Gil-
bert, Dr. B. E. Femow, and Major Henry E.
Alvord. The museum has been arranged so
as to present a systematic view of the en-
tire animal kingdom, with especial regard to
the fauna of Massachusetts. Models of the
horse, cow, sheep, pig, and dog, and their
organs, have been supplied in the veterinary
department, and pathological specimens. It
is proposed to devote a part of the grounds
of the college to the growth of the trees and
plants of Massachusetts.

A SUMMARY of the lectures announced for
the last summer semester at the German
universities is interpreted by Charles N.
Judd, in Science, as indicating that logic and
the theory of knowledge are absorbing much
more attention than any form of speculative
metaphysics. Sixteen courses in the nine-
teen universities are devoted to these sub-
jects. Work is also being done in many
places in laboratories and seminaries. Five
courses, besides the seminary work, are given
on Kant's system. The historical work
covers all periods, beginning with Prof.
Deussen's investigations in old Sanskrit and
Greek philosophy, and extending to the phi-
losophy of to-day.

NOTES.

The sudden disappearance of streams in
limestone countries, sometimes to reappear at
the surface farther on, is not uncommon. In
Yorkshire, England, there are many such
streams. The points where they disappear
are called "pots." One of the largest of
these pots, " Gaping Ghyll," was recently ex-
plored by M. Martel of Paris. The stream
being temporarily diverted, M. Martel de-
scended by means of a series of rope ladders.
He took with him a telephone and a supply
of candles. He reached bottom at three hun-
dred and thirty feet, and found a vast chamber
about four hundred and fifty feet in length,
one himdred and twenty feet in breadth, and
ninety to one hundred feet in height.

A MEETING of the friends and admirers of
Mr. Huxley, under the chairmansbip of Lord
Kelvin, was recently held at the rooms of the
Royal Society to consider a national memo-
rial. It was decided to call a general public
meeting in the fall. Sir John Lubbock (15
Lombard Street) will act as treasurer. At a
recent meeting held at the Charing Cross
Hospital Medical School, from which Mr.
Huxley received his M. D., the following reso- '

lution was passed : That there be a memorial
in the form of a Huxley scholarship and
medal to be awarded annually at the Charing
Cross Hospital Medical School, and that, if
funds permit, an annual public lecture dealing
with recent advances in science and their
bearing upon medicine shall be instituted.

A SHORT time ago, in the theater of King's
College Hospital, London, Sir Joseph Lister
was presented with a three-quarter length
portrait of himself, painted by Mr. Lorimer,
A. R. S. A., and also an illuminated and illus-
trated album containing the names of the
subscribers. Dr. W. S. Playfair, who pre-
sided, said that the testimonial was simply an
offering from his old friends, colleagues, and
pupils, as a token of the affection and esteem
which they entertained for him.

Dr. E. H. Wilson, bacteriologist of the
Brooklyn City Board of Health, recently made
some investigations relative to the bacterial
content of graveyard soils. He states that
the soil of cemeteries contains no more bac-
teria than the soil of other places ; that he
found no pathogenic bacteria in the examined
soil ; and that those which he did find were
such as engage in the destructive decomposi-
tion of the body, and were hence beneficent
instead of harmful.

Mr. Joseph Thomson, the African trav-
eler, who died in London early in August,
though not yet forty years old, was one of
the most successful and most famous of the
explorers of the dark continent. He first
went out on the Keith Johnson expedition
to the Great Lakes, and on the death of its
leader took charge and accomplished its ob-
jects. He next had charge of an expedition
to Masailand in 1883 and 1884, where he
showed admirable tact in dealing with the
savage natives and made important discov-
eries. He afterward negotiated treaties in
Sokoto, explored the Atlas Mountains in Mo-
rocco, and in 1891 explored the region be-
tween Lake Nyassa and Lake Bangweolo.
All these things he accomplished without
bloodshed. He was the author of three
books describing his explorations, of a Life
of Mungo Park, and of Ulu, a romance illus-
trative of life in East Africa.

Dr. Joseph Granville Norwood, who
died in Columbia, Mo., May 5th, was engaged
in the Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa,
and Minnesota, under D. D. Owen, from 1847
to 1851, exploring chiefly the region about
Lake Superior ; was afterward State Geologist
of Illinois, and Assistant Geologist of Mis-
souri, and was from 1860 to 1880 a pro-
fessor in the University of Missouri. He
retired in 1880 as professor emeritus, on ac-
count of ill health. In 1847 he described
and figured the MacropetalicMhys rapheido-
labis of the Devonian of Indiana — the first
fossil fish described in the United States.
He was author of some geological reports and
several monographs.

EBENEZER EMMONS.

APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

JANUARY, 1896.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
ITS ORIGIN. GROWTH, AND ACTIVITIES.

By Prof. HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON, Ph. D.

PART I. — ORIGIN OF THE INSTITUTION.

TT7"HEN the packet Mediator, commanded by Captain Chris-
VV topher H. Champlin, sailed into New York harbor on the
28th day of August, 1838, after a stormy voyage of forty-three
days from London, it brought in its hold a legacy from an Eng-
lishman to the United States of America, which was intended and
destined to benefit all mankind. This precious freight consisted of
eleven boxes, containing one hundred and five bags, each bag con-
taining one thousand gold sovereigns. The boxes were carefully
landed and stored for safe keeping in the Bank of America ; a few
days later the gold was sent to the United States Mint at Phila-
delphia, where it was immediately recoined into American money,
yielding $508,318.46. This magnificent sum was the bequest of
James Smithson, Esq., F. R. S., to the United States of America.

We propose in these articles to consider the purpose of this be-
quest, the manner in which the United States administers it, and
the benefits to mankind accruing therefrom.

James Smithson was born in France, in the year 1765, of dis-
tinguished English parentage; as he himself wrote: "The best
blood of England flows in my veins ; on my father's side I am a
Northumberlander, on my mother's I am related to kings."

Of Smithson's early life little is known. At Pembroke Col-
lege, Oxford, the young man was an earnest student and showed
a liking for scientific pursuits; he was especially proficient in
chemistry, and spent his vacations in collecting ores and minerals

VOL. XLVIII. — 21

290

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

for analysis. He was graduated on the 26th of May, 1786 ; and the
impulse for scientific research gained at the university influenced
all his succeeding years. The highest ambition of an English man
of science is to append to his name the honorable initials F. R. S.,
and to enjoy the privileges accorded to Fellows of the Eoyal
Society. Recommended by Richard Kirwan, the Irish chemist.

James Smithson as an Oxford Student, 1786.

Charles Blagden, the Secretary of the Society, Henry Cavendish,
the wealthy and eccentric physicist, and others, Smithson was
elected a Fellow exactly eleven months after leaving the university.
During his residence in London he cultivated the society of
authors, artists, and men of science. " His mind was filled with a
craving for intellectual development, and for the advancement of
human knowledge. To enlarge the domain of thought, to dis-
cover new truths, and to make practical application of these for
the promotion of civilization, were the great ends he had con-
stantly in view.^' Smithson possessed large means ; he never mar-

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 291

ried, and for family reasons preferred to live on the Continent,
spending most of his time in France, Italy, and Germany ; in his
constant journeys he made observations on the climate, physical
features, geology, and industries of the regions visited. He formed
collections of minerals, and, for convenience of analyzing them,
traveled with a portable chemical laboratory.

Living on the Continent, he acquired a cosmopolitan character,
and formed acquaintance with the leading savants of the time ;
among his friends and corrrespondents were Gay-Lussac, the
chemist ; Hatiy, the mineralogist ; Arago, the astronomer ; Biot,
the physicist, of France ; Berzelius, the chemist, of Sweden ; and
Davy, Black, Wollaston, Cavendish, Thomson, Smithson Tennant,
chemical philosophers, of England. If it is " by a man's position
among his contemporaries and competitors that his work may
most ] ustly be appraised," Smithson's scientific attainments must
be rated very highly.

Between the years 1791 and 1825 Smithson published twenty-
seven scientific papers, of which eight appeared in the Philosoph-
ical Transactions of the Royal Society and nineteen in Thomson's
Annals of Philosophy. These memoirs embrace a wide range of
research : the first deals with the curious deposit in bamboo called
tahasheer, which he proved to be " siliceous earth " ; the second
was a " Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines," in which he estab-
lished a new mineral species, afterward named smithsonite by
Beudant (1832). The larger number of his papers deal with
chemistry applied to mineral analysis, but he also discussed the
nature of vegetables and insects, the origin of the earth, the crystal-
line form of ice, and an improved method of making coffee. An
examination of these contributions to knowledge shows that he was
no mere dilettante in science, and that he carried on his researches
in a philosophic spirit for the sake of truth ; all his writings ex-
hibit keen perception, concise language, and accurate expression.

Of Smithson's personal traits and social character very little is
known ; his dislike of publicity, his natural reserve, as well as
his residence in foreign countries, separated him from friends
who might have given us particulars. It is said that he fre-
quently narrated an anecdote of himself which illustrated his re-
markable skill in analyzing minute quantities of substances, an
ability which rivaled that of Dr. Wollaston. Happening to ob-
serve a tear gliding down a lady's cheek, he endeavored to catch
it on a crystal vessel; one half the tear-drop escaped, but he sub-
jected the other half to reagents, and detected what was then
called microcosmic salt, muriate of soda, and some other saline
constituents held in solution.

James Smithson died at the age of sixty-four years, on the 27th
of June, 1829, at Genoa, Italy, and was buried in the Protestant

292

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

cemetery near that city. His death occurred in the same year with
that of Davy, Wollaston, and Young, a fact mentioned by the
President of the Royal Society in announcing the loss of members.
About three years before his death, Smithson made a holo-
graphic will containing provisions of immense importance to

James Smithson. (From a painting by Johnes, 1816.)

American science. After providing for an annuity to one faithful
old servant, and a benefaction to another, his will directed that
the whole of the income arising from his property of every kind
should be paid by his executors to his nephew, Henry James
Hungerford ; and should his nephew have children the whole of
his property was bequeathed to them or their heirs after the
death of their father. In case, however, the nephew should die
without issue, Smithson provided as follows :

" I bequeath the whole of my property to the United States of
America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith-

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 295

sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion
of knowledge among men/^

The motives which prompted James Smithson to bequeath his
fortune to the young republic across the seas are not certainly
known. In the year 1818 (or 1819) he had some misunderstanding
with the Royal Society, owing to their refusal to print one of his
papers, and from that date he published exclusively in Thomson's
Annals of Philosophy ; it is said that prior to this difficulty he
had intended to make the Royal Society his legatee. Having,
however, abandoned that plan, he seems to have perceived with a
prophetic eye the " germs of rising grandeur " in the free Amer-
ican nation, and to have felt a desire to promote the increase and
diffusion of knowledge in the New World.

Whether he was more friendly to republicanism than to mon-
archy, as some have claimed, is not certain ; at all events, by select-
ing the United States of America as the depository of his trust
" he paid the highest compliment to its intelligence and integrity,
and testified his confidence in republican institutions and his faith
in their perpetuity."

In attempting to fathom the thoughts which directed Smith-
son's attention to the United States we are met by the surprising
fact that he had not a single correspondent or scientific friend in
America, nor did he write a line in any of his papers indicating
appreciation of the republic.

Mr. Hungerford survived his uncle only six years, during
which he received the benefits of the will ; he led an aimless, rov-
ing life on the Continent, and died at Pisa, Italy, June 5, 1835,
under the name of Eunice de la Batut, this being the surname of
his stepfather, a- Frenchman whom Hungerford's mother had
married. By this death the United States became entitled to the
estate. The first intimation received by the Government to this
effect arrived in a communication dated July 28, 1835, from the
charge d'affaires of the United States at London to the Secretary
of State, transmitting a letter from the firm of attorneys who rep-
resented the bankers holding the estate in trust. The estate was
estimated at £100,000. In December, President Andrew Jackson
sent to Congress a message setting forth the facts in the case and
asking for authority to accept the trust ; in July, Congress passed
an act authorizing the President to appoint an agent to prosecute
in the Court of Chancery the right of the United States to the
legacy. This simple measure was not, however, secured without
great difficulty, being opposed by several active Congressmen.
Mr. W. C. Preston, of South Carolina, thought the donation had
been made partly with a view to immortalize the donor, and it
was " too cheap a way of conferring immortality " ; and Mr. John
C. Calhoun, of the same State, was of the opinion that it was be-

294

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

neath the dignity of the United States to receive presents of this
kind from any one. The bill was, however, supported by the
Committee of the Judiciary, to which the matter had been re-
ferred, and advocated by Mr. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania,
Mr. Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, and Mr. John Davis, of
Massachusetts.

Under this act President Jackson appointed the Hon. Richard
Rush, of Pennsylvania, agent to prosecute the claims of the United
States. The selection of Mr. Rush was a very happy one : he had
been Comptroller of the Treasury, Attorney-General, minister

to England, and minister to
'"^ France. He displayed integ-

rity and ability, and a per-
sistence which accomplished
the end in view with unex-
ampled dispatch. Beyond the
usual delays incident to court
procedure, Mr. Rush met with
no difficulties save one. Ma-
dame Thdodore de la Batut,
the mother of Mr. Hunger-
ford, presented a claim for a
life interest in the estate of
Smithson ; and to expedite
matters Mr. Rush agreed to a
compromise, granting an an-
nuity, which she enjoyed un-
til her death in 1861.* As
soon as the securities were
transferred to Mr. Rush, he
converted them into gold and
shipped it to New York on
the Mediator ; accompanying the treasure were three boxes con-
taining the personal effects of the testator, including his collection
of minerals, library, etc. The money arising from the Smithson
bequest was at first invested in State stocks, and on December 10,
1838, President Martin Van Buren announced to Congress the
receipt and disposition of the legacy of James Smithson. In 1841,
Arkansas having failed to pay interest, through the efforts of
Hon. J. Q. Adams the funds were transferred to the Treasury of
the United States, to bear interest at six per cent per annum.

Three years had been consumed in securing the legacy, and
seven and a half years more were destined to pass before Congress

Joseph Henry.

* The principal retained in England to meet this annuity was paid over to the Smith-
sonian Institution in 1864. This residuary legacy amounted to $26,210 (gold).

296 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

carried out the wishes of the testator by creating the Smithsonian
Institution. To analyze the legislation during this period, to de-
scribe the many extraordinary schemes proposed, to merely name
the Congressmen who were active in the prolonged discussion,
would occupy more space than can be given to this entire article.
Presidents Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, and Polk came and went,
each urging Congress to action, but the legislators suffered from
the " embarrassment of riches " in a new sense. Among the plans
prominently brought forward and considered at length were the
following : Senator John Quincy Adams advocated an astronom-
ical observatory ; Senator Asher Robbins, of Rhode Island, fa-
vored the establishment of a National University ; Senator Ben-
jamin Tappan, of Ohio, proposed a botanical garden and an agri-
cultural farm ; Senator Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts, urged a
grand library ; Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana, preferred a normal
school with lectureships on scientific subjects ; Mr. Isaac H.
Morse, of Louisiana, wanted the prizes awarded for the best writ-
ten essay on ten subjects ; and some legislators, wise in their own
conceit, opposed every plan suggested. Mr. George W. Jones, of
Tennessee, proposed that the whole fund be returned to any heirs
at law or next of kin of James Smithson ; and a similar disposi-
tion of the fund was advocated by Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee,
and Mr. A. D. Sims, of South Carolina. It is interesting, in the
light of later national events, to note the names of some of those
who took part in these discussions : we find side by side the names
of Jefferson Davis and Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson and
Alexander H. Stephens, Howell Cobb and Stephen A. Douglas.

Meanwhile memorials from persons and institutions outside
of Congress poured in, urging expedition, advocating particular
bills and suggesting new plans. At least two societies of citizens
sought to gain control of the magnificent fund which Congress
was so slow in appropriating ; the Agricultural Society of the
United States, formed in the District of Columbia, memorialized
Congress to apply the Smithsonian fund to its objects ; and the
National Institution for the Promotion of Science, organized in
1840 by representative men in Washington, sought union with or
control of the embryonic establishment bearing Smithson^s name.
Dr. G. Brown Goode, in his Genesis of the United States National
Museum (Report of the United States National Museum, 1891),
points out that the President of this National Institution, Joel R.
Poinsett, of South Carolina (Secretary of the Navy in 1840), de-
serves credit for introducing the feature of a national museum
into the scheme for the Smithsonian Institution. Indeed, the or-
ganization of the Smithsonian Institution finally adopted bears
marked resemblance to that of the National Institution both as
regards the cast of officers and the objects of the establishment.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. zg-j

But all attempts to merge the interests of the two bodies failed,
partly owing to objections to placing the management of the new
institution in the hands of a private corporation ; meanwhile the
National Institution changed its name to National Institute, but
after a flourishing existence of five years it lost its power.

Although much deprecated at the time, the slowness with
which Congress acted in disposing of Smithson's legacy had its
advantages : weak schemes were exposed, public opinion was edu-
cated, and the judgment of Congress itself was elevated by the
prolonged discussions. The broad provisions of the will, open to
the charge of vagueness, gave scope to the variety of views we
have named and furnished ground for the delay. It is interesting
to note that the act creating the Smithsonian Institution, adopted
August 10, 1846, embodies nearly all the best features of the nu-
merous schemes proposed during the ten years which had elapsed.

The act of incorporation was the work of many minds and to
some extent a compromise ; no one person should receive credit
for its provisions, but mention should be made of Senator Benja-
min Tappan, Robert Dale Owen, and William J. Hough, who
drew up the bill eventually agreed upon. Stripped of legal ver-
biage and condensed, the bill is as follows :

Title. — A bill to establish the " Smithsonian Institution " for
the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

Preamble : Rehearses the facts as to Smithson's bequest and
the acceptance by the United States, and directs that the Presi-
dent and Vice-President of the United States, the Secretary of
State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the
Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, the Attorney-
General, the Chief Justice, and the Commissioner of the Patent
QjSice of the United States, and the Mayor of the city of Wash-
ington, during the time for which they shall hold their respect-
ive offices, and such other persons as they may elect honorary
members, be constituted an " establishment " by the name of the
Smithsonian Institution.

Section 2 provides for investment of the Smithson fund and
payment of the interest thereon ; also appropriates a sum for erec-
tion of a suitable building.

Section S provides that the business of said institution shall be
conducted at the city of Washington by a Board of Regents to be
composed of the Vice-President of the United States, the Chief
Justice, and the Mayor of the city of Washington, together with
three members of the Senate and three members of the House of
Representatives, and six other persons, two of whom shall be
members of the National Institute. The act then provides for
the manner of appointment, the time of service, the filling of va-
cancies, the election of a Chancellor and Secretary by the Board of

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 299

Regents and of an executive committee, as well as for the pay-
ment of money needed for conducting the institution; also, an
annual report to be submitted to Congress.

Section Jf provides for the selection of a suitable site for a
building.

Section 5 provides for the erection of a building of plain and
durable materials, of suJBBcient size for rooms to contain objects
of natural history, including a geological and mineralogical cabi-
net, a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and the neces-
sary lecture rooms ; also provides for the expense of this building.

Section 6 enacts that in proportion as suitable arrangements
can be made for their reception all objects of art and of foreign
and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants,
geological and mineralogical specimens, belonging or hereafter to
belong to the United States which may be in the city of Wash-
ington shall be arranged as best to facilitate their examination
and study in the building to be erected ; also new specimens to
be so arranged ; also minerals, books, and other property of James
Smithson to be preserved in the institution.

Section 7 enacts that the Secretary of the Board of Regents
shall take charge of the building and contents, shall discharge the
duties of librarian and of keeper of the museum, and may employ
assistants, and provides for their compensation.

Section 8 provides for meetings at which the President or Vice-
President of the United States shall preside, and appropriates a
sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars annually for the
formation of a library.

Section 9 enacts that moneys accrued as interest upon the fund,
not herein appropriated, may be disposed of by the Board of Re-
gents as they direct.

Section 10 enacts that one copy of all copyrighted books, en-
gravings, maps, etc., shall be sent to the Librarian of the Smith-
sonian Institution, and one to the Librarian of Congress.

Section 11 gives to Congress the right to amend any of the
provisions of this act.

This act was signed by President James K. Polk, August 10,
1846. It embodies the features of a national museum, a library,
with provisions for copyrighted books, an art gallery, and lecture
rooms, presumably for scientific courses though no special provi-
sion for them is made. It places the executive work in the hands
of a Secretary, and the general oversight with care of finances in
the power of a Board of Regents, which board includes the highest
officials in the Government of the United States.

The opponents of this bill, though defeated, still endeavored to
change its character. Eighteen months after its passage, Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, introduced a bill to change the Smith-

300

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Spekckk F. Baikd.

sonian Institution to " Washington University, for the Benefit of
Indigent Children of the District of Columbia," and spoke in

favor of remodeling the en-
tire plan so as to convert the
institution into a university
to include the manual-labor
feature, mechanic arts, and
agriculture. Mr. Embree
wanted at the same time to
graft upon the institution a
department for collecting
and arranging information
on agriculture, common-
school education, political
economy, and the useful arts
and sciences, which infor-
mation shall be published
and circulated gratuitously
among the people.

These attempts to tinker
with the act of incorpora-
tion received their quietus
on August 8, 1848, when the
House of Representatives adopted a resolution to the effect that
it is inexpedient to change and modify the act in the manner pro-
posed. In 1878, and again in 1894, the act of incorporation was
revised and somewhat simplified ; the two Regents were no longer
to be chosen from members of the National Institute, which
meanwhile had died, and other slight changes were made.

Congress having appointed Regents, they organized by electing
a Chancellor and temporary secretary. The act of incorporation
placed great responsibilities in the secretary's office, and the
Regents felt that the advancement of the proper interests of the
trust made it essential that the Secretary of the Smithsonian In-
stitution should be a man possessing weight of character and a
high grade of talent ; that he also possess eminent scientific and
general acquirements ; that he be capable of advancing science and
promoting letters by original search and effort, and well qualified
to act as a respected channel of communication between the insti-
tution and scientific and literary individuals in this and foreign
countries. To this important position the Regents invited Prof.
Joseph Henry, of the College of New Jersey, widely known in
both hemispheres by his splendid discoveries in electro-magnet-
ism and universally respected as a man by all who knew him.
His acceptance of the secretaryship was a most fortunate event
for the institution, insuring its high scientific standard, its wise

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

301

and economical administration, and its superior reputation at
home and abroad. Henry's Programme of Organization, presented
to the Board of Regents December 8, 1847, is a model of skillful
analytical statement, proposing plans for the increase of knowl-
edge and its diffusion among men ; in it he laid down broad lines
of action and established the foundations on which the existing
edifice stands. Henry devoted the rest of his life, thirty-three
years, to the development of this programme, and the institution
owes to him an everlasting debt of gratitude for his enlightened,
pure, and able administration of the trust.

After the plans of Mr. James Renwick, Jr., for a Norman
building, had been accepted, its erection in the Mall was con-
ducted slowly, being completed in 1855, at an expense of about
three hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. Meanwhile pru-
dent economy in expenditures enabled Henry to add one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars of accrued interest to the original fund.
A library was begun by ex-
change and purchase, and
materials for a museum col-
lected and housed. Besides
these interests, the institu-
tion adopted the plan of pro-
moting original research by
assisting men of science in
their labors ; at the same
time series of investigation
were instituted, explorations
conducted, and the results of
all these endeavors were pub-
lished and distributed to all
the learned societies and im-
portant libraries throughout
the world.

Whenever a man was
found capable of adding to
the sum of human knowl-
edge, the institution assisted
him by supplying books not
otherwise attainable, instru-
ments of research, specimens of materials, and objects under in-
vestigation, and in some instances special grants of money were
made for personal expenses. The specimens in all branches of
natural history were not confined to the glass cases of the museum,
but freely loaned to men engaged in special lines of research ; and
if the specimens required were not on hand, the institution under-
took to obtain and to supply them, the only return asked for being

S. p. Langley.

302 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that full credit be given to the name of Smithson. This liberal
policy has never been discontinued.

The institution established systematic meteorological observa-
tions, it instituted the first telegraphic weather service, published
meteorological tables and charts, and became, in fact, the parent
of the present Weather Bureau.

The institution early adopted a policy of doing nothing which
could be accomplished as well by other means, and of relinquish-
ing undertakings causing a draft upon its finances so soon as other
bodies, or the Government, should agree to take them in charge.
In pursuance of this wise plan the Secretary and the Regents in-
duced Congress from time to time to make separate appropria-
tions from the public Treasury in support of the National Mu-
seum, and of certain branches of work directly ordered by the
Government itself. The library soon outgrew its limited quar-
ters, and in 1866 was deposited in the Library of Congress, at a
great saving of expense. The meteorological service was likewise
transferred in 1874 to the Signal Corps of the United States Army.

For many years the institution conducted explorations in re-
gard to the ethnology of the Indians of North America, and this
has developed into an important Bureau of Ethnology, supported
by Government appropriations, yet controlled by the Smithso-
nian.

The botanical collection was transferred to the Department of
Agriculture, and the osteological specimens were placed in the
Army Medical Museum.

The Smithsonian has been exceedingly fortunate in its execu-
tive officers. After the death of Henry, in 1878, Prof. Spencer F.
Baird, the eminent naturalist, was called to the secretaryship.
He had been United States Commissioner of Fishes for seven
years and Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian for twenty-eight
years, and thus brought to the post wide experience as well as ad-
ministrative ability. Under his care the National Museum was
especially augmented, and the publications were issued uniformly
on the lines laid down by his predecessor. Of his distinguished
services to science we can not here take note ; we merely quote
two paragraphs from the resolutions adopted by the Board of
Regents, November 18, 1887, on the occasion of his death :

" Resolved^ That the cultivators of science both in this country
and abroad have to deplore the loss of a veteran and distinguished
naturalist, who was from early years a sedulous and successful
investigator, whose native gifts and whose experience in sys-
tematic biologic work served in no small degree to adapt him to
the administrative duties which filled the later years of his life,
but whose knowledge and whose interest in science widened and
deepened as the opportunities for investigation lessened, and who

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 303

accordingly used his best endeavors to promote the researches of
his fellow-naturalists in every part of the world.

" Resolved, That his kindly disposition, equable temper, single-
ness of aim, and unsullied purity of motive, along with his facile
mastery of affairs, greatly endeared him to his subordinates, se-
cured to him the confidence and trust of those whose influence he
sought for the advancement of the interests he had at heart, and won
the high regard and warm affection of those who, like the members
of this board, were officially and intimately associated with him."

Prof. Baird was succeeded in the office of Secretary by the
present incumbent. Prof. Samuel P. Langley, LL. D., known to
the scientific world by his masterly researches in solar physics.
Under his administration the Smithsonian continues its pros-
perity with undiminished vigor.

In a second article we shall consider the present status and
many activities of this noble institution.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C. L.,

CORRESPONDANT UE l'iNSTITDT DE FRANCE, ETC.

I. — THE COMPARATIVELY RECENT TAX EXPERIENCES OF THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. PART II.

WITH the close of the war a marked change speedily occurred,
in the nature of discontent, in the temper of the people in
respect to taxation. But this discontent at the outset was restrict-
ed almost exclusively to the so-called " internal revenue taxes,"
and extended in little or no degree to the war taxes imposed on
imports ; which last, so long as the internal revenue taxes contin-
ued to be levied upon every manufactured product, and also upon
the separate constituents of such product, were not only wholly
justifiable, but absolutely necessary, if the fiscal burdens of the
war between the domestic producers and their foreign competitors
were to be equalized. In some instances, through oversight or
neglect, the tariff taxation was made actually less upon the im-
ported article than was the internal taxation on the domestic
product manufactured from it; one illustration of which was,
that the charges imposed on the import of Manilla rope were
fifty-six dollars per ton, while the internal taxes on the rope manu-
factured in the United States from the Manilla fiber ranged from
forty-eight to seventy-three dollars per ton.

It soon became evident that the country could not endure for
any great length of time the war system of taxation, and, further-
more, would not, when a return of peace had made its continu-

304 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ance unnecessary.* And, pending its modification for the pur-
pose of reduction, a desire to evade the payment of taxes every-
where manifested itself, until it seemed at one time as if the
whole country and the Government itself were becoming cor-
rupted and demoralized. For example, the revenue receipts
from the income tax, without any change in the law, declined
from $72,982,000 in 1866 to $66,014,000 in 1867; and those from a
uniform tax on distilled spirits, from about $29,000,000 in 1867 to
a little in excess of $14,000,000 in 1868.

It was under such circumstances that the Revenue Commis-
sion entered upon its prescribed duties. The work of investiga-
tion devolved mainly on its chairman, the second member being
debarred by age and feeble health from any active exertion ; while
the third assumed from the outset that the best and most feasible
way of meeting the financial difficulties of the situation was to
abandon the " whole system" (of existing taxation) "in the short-
est time consistent with the general interests of the country," and,
by an amendment to the Federal Constitution, authorize and re-
quire the Federal Government to levy " a duty, payable in lawful
money, of one per centum per annum " on the income of all inter-
est-bearing indebtedness issued by the United States and payable
in lawful money ; and " a duty, payable in specie, of seven tenths
of one per centum on the principal of all indebtedness of the United
States, which shall belong to any person or corporation, and the
interest on which may be payable in specie." He was also of the
opinion that such taxes on the income or principal of the indebted-
ness of the United States, should be " in addition to any ordinary
duty or tax equally imposed upon all incomes, or directly upon
all personal and real property within the United States subject to
taxation."

A subsequent report to this effect was not received with any
marked disfavor by the general public, and had the indorsement of
not a few leading American bankers and capitalists. As the aver-
age annual rate of interest accruing on the market price of the
gold bonds issued by the United States from January, 1862, to Janu-
ary, 1866, was 8'82 per cent, and on investments in the debt of the
United States payable in lawful money, from 1863 to 1866, was
10*68 per cent, the proposition to levy a tax of one per cent on the

* The imperative necessity of a speedy abatement of the internal revenue taxes after
the termination of the war finds striking illustration in the following examples of actual
experience. Thus the tax of six per cent, levied and collected during the fiscal year 1864-
'65, on the value of the products of the woolen industry in Massachusetts alone ($48,430,-
671) was equivalent to nearly twenty per cent on the whole capital ($14,735,671) in-
vested in this business ; while the tax on the value of boots and shoes manufactured in the
same State during the same year ($52,915,243) was equal to thirty per cent on the whole
capital employed ($10,067,474).

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 305

income or principal of the same did not appear unreasonable, espe-
cially in the case where no exemption from taxation was stipu-
lated in the contract for these issues. But neither the author of the
report nor its indorsers could have anticipated that within little
more than five years after it was submitted to Congress, the Fed-
eral Government could have borrowed $185,000,000 at four and a
half per cent interest ; and that twenty-five years afterward would
be able to renew a debt of $25,364,500 at two per cent per annum,
or at a rate fifty per cent less than loans on the best corporate or
private securities would have at the same time commanded.

The method of prosecuting the work contemplated by Con-
gress of the Commission was at the outset a matter of no little
embarrassment. There was practically no material or basis to
work on, except the bare statutes authorizing war taxes, and no
official collection of these was published by the Government
until two years after the commencement of the war. There was
no bureau of statistics in the Treasury, and in this department of
the Government the officials to whom was assigned the duty of
collecting and publishing reliable data relative to the trade and
commerce of the country were untrained. No full and reliable
statistics concerning any branch of trade or industry in the
United States, with possibly a very few exceptions, were then, or
ever had been, available. The Treasury received returns of the
aggregate of revenue collected and the sources whence it was
derived ; but these returns were rarely, if ever, accompanied by
any suggestions, derived from administrative experience, of any
value. The commercial returns from the customs were hardly
worth the paper on which they were written. Thus, for exam-
ple, when the duty on the importation of coffee came up for con-
sideration as a source of revenue, the value of the coffee imported
during the fiscal year 1864-'65 was officially returned at ten and a
half cents per pound, while its average invoice price, according to
the trade of New York for the same period, was not less than
thirteen cents. Again, according to the Treasury statement, the
aggregate imports of coffee for the same year, were 104,316,581
pounds. Of this amount 82,353,000 pounds, which were retained
for domestic consumption, had a returned value of only six and
four tenths cents per pound, while the value of 21,962,000 pounds
of the same imports which were exported during the same year,
had the extraordinary value of nearly twenty-five cents per pound.
For the year 1863 the Treasury reported an aggregate import of
spirits distilled from grain of 1,064,576 gallons, but of this quan-
tity only 45,393 gallons were entered at the ports of Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and San Francisco, leaving an
inferential import of 1,019,183 gallons at other ports of the loyal
States that practically had no foreign commerce.

TOL. XLTIII. — 22

3o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

In the Bureau of Internal Revenue a better system prevailed ;
but this department of the Treasury being always overburdened
with work, and its service largely rendered by assessors and col-
lectors who were destitute of business training, contributed but
little in the way of deductions from experience. It had, more-
over, at one time as its head an official who subsequently in a
higher position refused to allow data to be collected in respect to
certain taxes, on the ground that the less the people knew about
such matters the better it was for the Treasury.

Another great source of difficulty experienced by the Commis-
sion in conducting investigations with a view of arriving at any
correct estimates of the prospective revenue of the country was
the abnormal condition of every branch of trade and industry
after 1861, due primarily to the war disturbances, and next to the
frequent alterations in the rates of taxation. Every advance
made in tariff, or internal revenue taxes, was anticipated to
such an extent by importers, manufacturers, dealers, and specula-
tors that the Government could not fairly test the capacity of any
one of its great and legitimate sources of revenue. Thus, for ex-
ample, the almost incredible profits made by reason of anticipa-
tion of the large and repeated advances in the taxes on distilled
spirits have already been pointed out. Of cigars, in like manner,
it was estimated that above eighty millions had been made and
stored at one time in the city of New York alone, in anticipation
of a higher tax ; and in the case of the comparatively insignificant
article of matches, on which the tax was only one cent per bunch,
the stock accumulated in anticipation of an advance of tax was
so large that it was not entirely exhausted for a subsequent period
of three years.

In the absence of any specific instructions, either from Con-
gress or the Secretary of the Treasury, it was difficult for the
commission to form an opinion as to the best method of entering
upon the comprehension and reform of a scheme of taxation which
embraced almost every form of tax that the ingenuity of man
could devise, and with an incidence on almost every form of prop-
erty, business, profession, or occupation that was capable of yield-
ing to the state a revenue. The conclusion arrived at, after no
little consideration, involved a complete abandonment of any idea
of endeavoring to enter upon and comprehend the whole field of
inquiry at the outset ; and in its place, and in accordance with
the maxim attributed to Emerson, that the eye sees only what it
brings to itself to see, it was determined to take up and study spe-
cifically the sources of public revenue in the order of their impor-
tance ; and give no attention to any other subject, or attempt to
theorize, until everything that domestic experience or the expe-
rience of other countries could teach concerning them had been

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 307

made familiar. In practically carrying ont this idea, tlie chair-
man of the commission put himself in direct and frequent com-
munication with revenue officials and representative business men
from every section of the country ; and availing himself of the
power to take testimony, under oath, he often came into the pos-
session of important facts which in daily life had been screened
from the eye of the public. The result was that the commission
presented to Congress, in January, 1866, a report which gave for
the first time a full, clear, and exact statement of the curious and
complex scheme of internal and customs revenue that had been
evolved, as it were, out of the financial necessities contingent on.
the prosecution of a gigantic war : which involved the raising by
taxation during the war period (and exclusive of loans) of an ag-
gregate of over $2,000,000,000, and a not infrequent daily disburse-
ment (expenditure) of over two millions of dollars ; and in addi-
tion to this feature the report contained special and elaborate ex-
hibits on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, petroleum, cotton,
tea, coffee, sugar, spices, proprietary articles, and patent medicines
as sources of Government income, with estimates of the amount
of revenue which the Treasury might annually expect if taxation
at various rates on the same was to be continued ; the whole being
really the first practical attempt in the United States to gather
and use national statistics for great national purposes.

On the termination by statute of the Revenue Commission, in
January, 1866, its chairman was appointed to an office specially
created by Congress, for a period of four years, with the title of
"Special Commissioner of the Revenue" of the United States;
and the duties of which were thus defined by statute :

''He shall from time to time report through the Secretary of the
Treasury to Congress, either in the form of hill or otherwise, such
modifications of the rates of taxation, or of the methods of collect-
ing the revenues, and such other facts pertaining to the trade, in-
dustry, commerce, or taxation of the country as he may find hy
actual observation of the law to be conducive to public interest."

In this office, and invested with large powers, its incumbent en-
tered upon the work of co-operating with the appropriate commit-
tees of Congress — " Ways and Means " of the House and " Finance "
of the Senate — in reconstructing the then existing and extraordi-
nary system of the United States internal revenue ; and under his
initiation and supervision were originated almost all the reforms in
this department of the Government that were considered or en-
acted by Congress between the close of the war and the year 1870 ;
namely, the redrafting of nearly the whole body of complicated
and often conflicting statutes ; the reduction and final abolition
of the taxes on crude products — especially cotton, salt, lumber, pe-
troleum, and the metals — and most of the taxes on manufactures ;

3o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the creation of supervisory districts and the appointment of
supervisors ; the origination of the use of stamps for the collec-
tion of taxes on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, tobacco, and
the sales of stockbrokers (the last in place of a general tax of one
twentieth of one per cent on sales) ; and the creation and organi-
zation of the Bureau of Statistics as a branch of the national
Treasury. These modifications brought the internal revenue du-
ties within a reasonable compass, introduced systems where the
want of it was working mischief, and by their ready application
in administration reconciled the people to a maintenance of im-
portant sources of revenue and a continuance of taxes, which have
by their stability and steady increase enabled the Government
to meet financial exigencies otherwise awkward and dangerous.
The service thus rendered met with recognition at the time both
in and out of Congress, and was strongly indorsed by those most
interested — the head of the Treasury and the industries taxed.*

The work of taking down the vast and complicated structure
of internal taxation, which had been built up during the war,
having been once seriously entered upon by Congress (in 1866),
it was prosecuted so vigorously that in the comparatively short
space of three years the aggregate annual receipts from such
taxes were reduced from $310,906,000 in 1866 to $160,039,000 in
1869— a reduction of $150,865,000— and to $102,644,000 in 1872, a
further reduction of $57,395,000; while the sources of revenue,
the annual receipts from each one of which were specifically
reported, were reduced from about two hundred and seventy-
five in 1866 to nominally sixty- six in 1872; but practically to
three — distilled spirits, fermented liquors, and tobacco — the re-
ceipts from which alone in 1893 were $150,865,000 as compared
with $91,464,000 in 1872. It should, however, be noted that this
remarkable increase of revenue, coincident with a large reduction
in the number of taxed articles, was due mainly to an increase of
consumption consequent upon an increase of population during
the period under consideration (26,230,000) rather than to any

* " I do not believe that any man appointed by the Government in the civil war has
done for his country more work, and more valuable work, than David A. Wells. Into the
financial chaos resulting from the war he threw the whole weight of a strong, clear mind,
guided by an honest heart, and he has done more, in my judgment, to bring order out of
chaos than any one man in the United States." — (Speech of General James A. Garfield,
Member of Congress, United States House of Representatives, July 13, 1868)

" There are few of my official acts that I look upon with more satisfaction than the ap-
pointment of David A. Wells to be Revenue Commissioner. All the reports that were made
by him exhibited the most careful, painstaking, and intelligent investigation. In clearness
and accuracy of statement, and in logical force, they have not been surpassed on either side
of the Atlantic. Their ability was admitted, even by those who disagreed with the writer
in his conclusions.^^ — [Men and Measures of Half a Century, by Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of
the Treasury during the Administrations of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, and Arthur.)

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 309

increase in the rate of taxes imposed upon the remaining sources
after 1872.

Of many other curious and instructive economic experiences,
consequent upon the rapid and radical changes in the fiscal policy
of the United States during the period under consideration, the
following seem especially worthy of notice : The first abatement or
repeal of internal taxation on various articles after the war — to the
extent of about fifty millions in 1866 — was not attended with any
general and immediate reduction in the prices of the articles re-
lieved, corresponding to the reduction of taxation, but with rather
an increase of prices. The explanation of this circumstance was,
that the continuance of the heavy war taxation, for a period after
the extensive war demands of the Government for various com-
modities had ceased, had diminished their production to a point
below what would have been the normal consumption of the
country ; and that, therefore, prices increased concurrently with
the abatement of taxes and a renewal of demand. Such a result
was, however, but temporary, and the condition of affairs was
soon reversed. The supply of manufactured products quickly be-
came equal to or exceeded demand. The price of products fell
faster than the price of either labor or capital, and taxation, which
formerly had been paid wholly from profit, now fell mainly upon
capital. The general result was a year (1867) of great industrial
and commercial depression.

The enlarged use of stamps as machinery for the collection of
taxes, and their novel application to fermented liquors and dis-
tilled spirits, were attended with very striking results. In the
case of fermented liquors (beer), it was established almost beyond
doubt by the Revenue Commission that previous to 1866 the Gov-
ernment was defrauded of its legitimate revenue to an extent of
forty per cent, involving an absolute annual loss of about $6,400,000.
The adoption, with no little hesitation by Congress in 1866, of the
principle, that the payment of the tax on this commodity should be
effected by the purchase and affixing a stamp to each barrel sold
and removed from the place of manufacture, with the additional
requirement that the stamp should be canceled by the retailer or
consumer at once, increased the revenue from $3,657,000 in 1865 to
$5,115,000 in 1866— the year of first application— and to $5,819,000
in 1867 ; and ever since has proved most effective and satisfactory.

A recommendation to make use of stamps for the collection of
taxes on tobacco was acceded to by Congress in respect to smoking
tobacco and snuff, but was refused in respect to chewing tobacco,
cigarettes, and cigars ; in the latter case on the assumption that
it was impracticable to affix an adhesive paper stamp on the body
of a cigar, while the " trade,'' not long afterward, and at its own
volition, demonstrated its entire feasibility. Had the recommen-

310 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dation in this particular found favor, it would liave resulted in
an accretion of many millions to the national Treasury, a relief
from espionage and other frictions to the trade, and a larger
diminution of administrative expenditures both to the trade and
the Government.

The experience of the Federal Government in its taxation of
distilled spirits is extraordinary, and so replete with instruction
to economists, moralists, and social reformers as to merit a more
extended notice.

The product of distilled spirits in the United States for the
year 1860, as returned by the census, was about 90,000,000 gallons.
It would be an error to assume that all of this immense pro-
duction of spirits was used for intoxicating purposes, or in the
way of stimulants, inasmuch as the extreme cheapness of spirits
or alcohol in the United States during the period under consid-
eration occasioned their employment in large quantities for vari-
ous industrial purposes ; which uses were subsequently in a great
degree discontinued when the price of spirits was enhanced from
one hundred to one thousand per cent and upward by Federal
taxation. For 1860-'61, the year preceding the war, the average
price of proof spirits in Cincinnati was 14*40 cents per gallon.

From 1823 to 1862 distilled spirits, in common with all other
domestic industrial products, were exempt from Federal taxation.
In the latter year, under the necessity for revenue occasioned by
the war. Congress imposed a tax of twenty cents per proof gallon
on all distilled spirits of domestic production. This tax went into
effect on the 1st of September, 1862, and continued in force until
March, 1864. The total revenue derived from this source, includ-
ing the receipts from licenses for rectifying, vending, and the
like, for the fiscal year 1863, was $5,176,530. Tlje receipts from the
direct tax on the spirit itself was $3,229,990, indicating a domestic
production of only 16,149,954 gallons as compared with a produc-
tion of 90,000,000 gallons returned under the census of 1860, three
years previous. The explanation of this result is to be found in
the fact that a large amount of whisky was manufactured in
anticipation of this low tax, and that there were doubtless some
evasions of the tax after it was enacted — conditions that were re-
peated, as will be presently shown, in a greater degree on every
occasion when an advance in the tax was enacted.

The tax of twenty cents continued in force until March 7, 1864,
when the rate was advanced to sixty cents per gallon. The reve-
nue accruing under these two rates for the year ending June 30,
1864, was $28,431,797, and the number of gallons returned as hav-
ing been assessed was 85,295,393. The striking discrepancy be-
tween the number of gallons taxed in 1864 at twenty and sixty
cents and the number taxed the previous year (1863) at twenty

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 311

cents again finds explanation in the fact that when it became evi-
dent to the distillers that the fiscal necessities of the Government
would soon compel an advance in the tax upon their product, and
that such increase would not be made applicable to stocks on hand
on which the lower rates had been assessed and paid, they pushed
their production to the uttermost in order that they might take
advantage of the great increase in the market price of all spirits
after the advanced rates had taken effect ; all which anticipations
were fully realized. Thus, of the 85,295,393 gallons on which the
Internal Revenue Bureau assessed and collected the spirit tax for
1864 — 69,000,000 in excess of the product of the preceding year — at
least 70,000,000 gallons were manufactured prior to the 7th of March
and were released from Government control by the payment of
the twenty-cent tax only ; and as after the 7th of March, 1864, the
market price of the greater part of this increased product, which
had not been allowed to pass into consumption, was advanced in
accordance with the advance in the tax — i. e., forty cents per gal-
Ion — it is clear that $28,000,000 at least were thus at once legislated
into the pockets of the distillers and speculators concerned.

Again, immediately after the imposition of the sixty- cent rate
in March, 1864, nearly all the distilleries once more suspended
operation ; the country was acknowledged to be overstocked with
tax-paid whisky, and the Government almost ceased to collect
taxes upon its manufacture. In May, however, the project for a
further increase in the rates began to be again agitated in Con-
gress, and as soon as its realization became probable, all the dis-
tilleries speedily resumed operations. How great at that time
was the capacity of the loyal States for production may be in-
ferred from the circumstance that the number of distilleries in
the country, which according to the census of 1860 was 1,138, had
increased in 1864 to 2,415.

On the 1st of July, 1864, the tax was again advanced from sixty
cents to a dollar and a half per gallon ; and during that month the
entire product of the country of which the revenue officials could
take cognizance was only 697,099 gallons. How great a " stock on
hand," the result of manufacturing under the twenty and sixty
cent rates of tax, was carried over the 1st of July and experienced
the advance of ninety cents per gallon in market price in conse-
quence of the advance in the tax from sixty cents to a dollar and
a half, can not be accurately known ; but 60,000,000 gallons would
certainly be a low estimate ; and on this amount the profit that
accrued to private interests was at least $50,000,000.

On the 1st of January, 1865 (the succeeding year), the tax was
further advanced to two dollars per proof gallon, when all the
operations above described were repeated, with all the benefits to
private or speculative interests derived from former experiences.

312 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and a consequent very large extension of the sphere of partici-
pants in the resulting profits.

In short, all the available evidence indicates that the profits
realized by distillers, dealers, and speculators, through Congres-
sional legislation having reference to the taxation of distilled
spirits from July 1, 1862, to January 1, 1865 — a period of two and
a half years — and exclusive of any gains accruing from evasions
of taxes, and with every allowance for overestimates, must have
approximated $100,000,000.

After the establishment of the two-dollar rate on the 1st of
January, 1865, there was again a period of inactivity on the part
of those interested in the manufacture of distilled spirits. The
stocks on hand, manufactured in anticipation of the advances in
rates, were very large, and, the markets being over-supplied, there
was little legitimate inducement for activity on the part of dis-
tillers. The profits realized or made prospectively certain had
been, moreover, enormous, and no further advance in the rate of
tax could be anticipated. Under such circumstances there was an
apparent disposition on the part of manufacturers and speculators
to wait and see what developments in legislation and business
would follow the termination of the war in favor of the Union,
which was then everywhere recognized as approximately certain.
These developments were not long in manifesting themselves.

The tax of two dollars per proof gallon (amounting to more
than 1,500 per cent on the average cost of production) and the
enormous profits contingent upon the evasion of the law, coupled
with the abundant opportunity which the law through its imper-
fections, and the vast territorial area of the country, offered for
evasion, created a temptation which it was impossible for human
nature as ordinarily constituted to resist. This view was taken
by the Revenue Commission in a report to Congress through the
Secretary of the Treasury in February, 1866 ; and the chairman of
the commission, after a thorough investigation of the subject and
the collection and presentation of a large amount of evidence, ex-
pressed the opinion that the attempt to collect a two-dollar tax
was utterly impracticable, and that the longer it was retained the
less would be the revenue and the greater the corruption. He also
coupled this opinion with a recommendation that a tax of fifty
cents per proof gallon, with a judicious license system for recti-
fiers and dealers, be substituted as likely to be most productive of
revenue and most efficient for the prevention of illicit distilling
and other revenue evasions.

This report, although attracting much attention by reason of
the singular revenue experiences of the preceding four years
which it detailed (and which the public, with its thought concen-
trated on the results of the war, had in a great degree overlooked).

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 313

found little favor in respect to its recommendation of tax abate-
ment ; and the general sentiment both, in and out of Congress was
expressed by a leading member of the House of Eepresentatives,
who publicly declared that " he was not ready to admit that the
nation which had put down such a great rebellion at the cost of
so much blood and treasure could not collect a tax of two dollars
a gallon on whisky." * The two- dollar tax therefore was allowed
to remain in force, and the tax experiences of the United States
from 1865 to 1869 inclusive, in respect to spirits, viewed from the
standpoint of finance, economics, and morals, constitute one of the
most interesting, instructive, and disgraceful chapters in its his-
tory. Under the strong temptations of large and almost certain
gains, men rushed into schemes for defrauding the revenue with
the zeal of enthusiasts for new gold fields ; and the ingenuity of
the American people has never had more striking illustrations
than was offered in their devices for evading the tax and provid-
ing for security against detection and punishment in so doing.
The parties concerned in these transactions also showed through-
out more ability than Congress and more shrewdness than the
revenue department of the national Treasury; and at a later
period a Secretary of the Treasury was obliged to resort to the
use of a cipher for his telegraphic and written correspondence, in
order to prevent the frustration of his plans for the enforcement
of the laws by Treasury officials who were specially charged with
their administration. The evidence in part confirmatory of these
statements is as follows :

The revenue directly collected during the fiscal year 1866 (the
first full year under the two-dollar tax) from spirits distilled from
other materials than fruits \ was $29,198,000, and in 1867 $28,296,000,
indicating an annual product respectively of 14,599,000 and 14,148,-
000 gallons. But during the succeeding year, 1868, with no ap-
parent reason for any diminution in the national production and
consumption of spirits, and with no increase, but rather a diminu-
tion, in the volume of imported spirits, the total direct revenue
from the same source was but $13,419,092, indicating a production
of only 6,709,546 gallons.

As the consumption of distilled spirits in this latter year was
probably not less than 50,000,000 gallons, and as out of this the
Government collected a tax upon less than 7,000,000, the sale of
the difference at the current market rates of the year, less the

, * Of the then leading members of Congress, only two — the late President Garfield and
Hon, W. B. Allison, both members of the House of Representatives — indorsed the recom-
mendation of the commissioner at the outset.

f The revenue derived from the taxation of spirits distilled from fruite has always been
comparatively small: $283,499 in 1866 ; $868,145 in 1867.

314 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

average cost of production (even if estimated as liigli as fhirty
cents in currency), must have returned to the credit of corruption
a sum approximating $80,000,000.

Another curious feature developed was, that the number of
distilleries in the country increased just in proportion as the tax
on spirits was augmented ; the inducement of the great profit to
be obtained from a high rate of tax — the two-dollar rate especially
— undoubtedly tempting many to engage in illicit manufacturing
who would be unwilling to do so with a certainty of realizing a
much smaller rate of profit. Of many curious examples of evidence
to this effect, the following reference is particularly interesting :
In the eighth collection district of the State of New York there
was, before the internal revenue law went into operation in 1862,
but one distillery. When the first tax of twenty cents per gallon
was imposed, six additional distilleries were started. Under the
sixty-cent rate about one dozen were in operation. But this
number, under the two-dollar tax, increased to about forty. Fur-
thermore, the tax collected at one distillery in the same district
in one month in 1864, under the sixty-cent tax, was one third
more than was paid in the aggregate by thirty distilleries in the
district in the eight months succeeding November, 1865, when the
tax was two dollars ; or, to state it differently, one distillery in
one month, in 1864, paid $58,819, at sixty cents per gallon, while
thirty distilleries in eight months in 1866 paid, at two dollars per
gallon, only $33,664. For the entire country the number of
licensed distilleries, which in 1864 was 2,415, was returned in 1868
at 4,721 — an increase of double in the short space of four years.

Thus confronted with positive evidence of astounding frauds
which the Government that put down a great rebellion virtually
confessed that it could not prevent, and a steadily diminishing
revenue from what ought to have been a steadily increasing source.
Congress finally became thoroughly alarmed, and, acceding to
the recommendation of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue,
reduced (in July, 1868) the direct tax on distilled spirits from two
dollars to fifty cents per proof gallon.*

* The statement that the tax on distilled spirits was reduced from two dollars to fifty
cents per gallon in 1868 has been criticised (see letter of United States Commissioner of Inter-
nal Revenue, embraced in report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1893) as not in ac-
cordance with the statement that the tax imposed in the above-mentioned year was not
fifty but seventy cents per gallon. The only warrant for such criticism to be found in the
circumstance that the statute of 1868, which fixed the direct tax on spirits at fifty cents per
gallon, and none other, also contained separate and independent provisions imposing
licenses, taxes on capacity of stills, and on the sales of dealers, with some modification of
the fees of gaugers and storekeepers ; and that these additional assessments brought up
the tax from fifty to seventy cents per gallon. But this reasoning overlooked two essential
features of the act, namely, that the direct tax on every proof gallon must be paid by the
distiller, owner, or other person having possession thereof, before removal from the distil-

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 315

The results of STich. legislation were immediate and most re-
markable. Illicit distillation practically ceased the very hour
the new law came into operation. Industry and the arts experi-
enced a large measure of benefit from the reduction in the cost of
spirits ; while the Government collected during the second year
of the continuance of the new rate and system, with compara-
tively little friction, three dollars for every one that was obtained
during the last year of the two-dollar tax. Assuming, as is war-
ranted, that with a continuance of the two-dollar tax there would
have been no increase in the revenue from distilled spirits beyond
what accrued in 1868 — the last year of its existence — the gain in
revenue to the Government in the succeeding two years from the
adoption of the fifty-cent rate was at least sixty millions of dol-
lars. Furthermore, but for the injudicious but popular speech
(to which reference has been made) at an opportune moment in
committee by a statesman who had bestowed but little attention
to the subject, the reduction of the tax from two dollars to fifty
cents per proof gallon would undoubtedly have been anticipated
by a year, and attended with like gainful results. The cost of
this speech, therefore, to the national Treasury may be rightfully
estimated as at least ten millions of dollars. The record of this
chapter of the tax experience of the United States also forcibly
illustrates the impolicy and disaster of embodying any fiscal
policy in statute enactments without a previous study and full
comprehension of all the elements involved.

For the first but incomplete fiscal year (1869) under the fifty-
cent tax the revenue increased to the extent of nearly $20,000,000,
or from $14,290,000 in 1868 to $33,735,000 in 1869 ; or, including all
taxes on the manufacture and sale of distilled spirits, licenses, etc.,
from $18,655,000 in 1868 to $45,071,000 in 1869. During the next
fiscal year (1870) there was a further increase in the total revenue
of $10,534,864, or from $45,071,000 in 1869 to $55,606,094 in 1870.

lery or warehouse ; and next, that none of the indirect and supplementary taxes could be
assessed or collected until after the direct tax (of fifty cents) had been paid ; the license
taxes, for example, varying according to the product of the distillery, and payable in block,
at different specified times. A great and novel object here sought for, namely, of dimin-
ishing the inducements to fraud, by directing the collection of the direct and supplementary
taxes on spirits as respects persons, places, and times, was fully achieved ; for, although the
aggregate of the direct and indirect tax on spirits undoubtedly increased their cost to their
final consumers, the largest possible gain to the distiller from the evasion of the separate
and comparatively small indirect taxes which contributed to this increase, even apart from
the risks of punishment involved, were too small to be worthy of his attention. The effort,
therefore, to attempt to minimize by sophistical reasoning the remarkable effect of the
reduction in 1868 of the tax on distilled spirits to fifty cents has no rightful claim for
consideration, and unquestionably was prompted by a very general but unwise public
sentiment, that it is desirable always to subject the manufacture and sale of spirituous and
fermented liquors to exceptionally high rates of taxation.

3i6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The specific tax on distilled spirits of fifty cents per proof gal-
lon remained in force from July, 1868, to August, 1872, a period
of a little more tlian four years. During this period the tax was
assessed and collected on an average production of 67,175,822 proof
gallons per annum, yielding an average annual revenue of about
$34,000,000, and indicating an average annual consumption for all
purposes of the country of about 1*65 proof gallons jper capita.
For the period of four years immediately preceding the fiscal year
1869, under a tax of two dollars per proof gallon for three years,
and a dollar and a half and two dollars for one year (1865), the
tax was assessed and collected on an average annual produc-
tion of only about 13,300,000 proof gallons per annum, yielding
an average annual revenue of about $21,727,000, and indicating
an average annual consumption of only about 0'38 proof gallon
per capita.

But, notwithstanding these satisfactory results, the law au-
thorizing the reduction of the tax from two dollars to fifty cents
per proof gallon had hardly become operative when agitation
commenced for its repeal or modification. Speculators had the
idea that the old scheme of increasing the tax after a little lapse
of time, without making the increase applicable to stocks on hand,
was, with its gainful prospects, again within the range of possi-
bilities ; while very many extreme advocates of temperance, un-
taught by and caring nothing for the record of recent experience,
were inclined to regard the new and comparatively low tax as im-
politic and in the light of the removal of a barrier against the
spread of intemperance. These and other arguments proved suf-
ficiently potent, and in June, 1872, Congress, by an act which took
effect in the following August, increased the gallon tax to seventy
cents, and subsequently, in March, 1875, raised the rate to ninety
cents per gallon, and in August, 1894, further increased it to a
dollar and ten cents, the present rate.

It is not necessary to recall that the experiences which were
attendant upon every advance of the tax on spirits from its first
imposition in 1862 to 1868 were repeated subsequently in 1872 and
in 1875, when the increased rates of seventy and ninety cents were
respectively enacted ; those of the latter date being remarkable from
the circumstance that the frauds upon the revenue, which were
enormous, were more directly brought home to high officials of
the Government than at any former period, and constitute a chap-
ter in the history of government by the people which the people
may well wish forgotten.

The above review of the experiences of the United States prior
to 1869, in attempting to enforce the collection of an excessively
high tax on the production and consumption of distilled spirits, is
mainly valuable in this connection from the economic and moral

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 317

lessons deducible from it, which may in brief be summarized as
follows :

Whenever a government imposes a tax on any product of in-
dustry so high as to sufiSciently indemnify and reward an illicit or
illegal production of the same, then such product will be illicitly
or illegally manufactured ; and when that point is reached, the
losses and penalties consequent upon detection and conviction —
no matter how great may be the one or how severe the other — will
be counted in by the offenders as a part of the necessary expenses
of their business ; and the business, if forcibly suppressed in one
locality, will inevitably be renewed and continued in some other.
It is therefore matter of the first importance for every govern-
ment in framing laws for the assessment and collection of taxes to
endeavor to determine, not only for fiscal but also for moral pur-
poses, when the maximum revenue point in the case of each tax is
reached, and to recognize that in going beyond that point the gov-
ernment " overreaches " or cheats itself.

Obviously those who in the past have shaped the policy of the
United States in respect to the taxation of distilled spirits for the
purpose of revenue have, for the most part, never studied this as-
pect of the case or cared to encourage any one to do so ; but, on
the contrary, as has been somewhat humorously expressed, " they
have held out to the citizen, on the one hand, a temptation to vio-
late the law too great for human nature as ordinarily constituted
to resist, and in the other writs for personal arrest and seizure of
property, and, thus equipped, have announced themselves ready
for business."

The data officially collected and reported by the Internal Rev-
enue Department of the United States Treasury furnish the only
reliable basis for obtaining approximately correct answers to the
following questions : 1. To what extent, through a well-considered
system of taxation, can the manufacture and sale of distilled
spirits be made available as sources of national revenue ? 2. What
has been and is the probable per capita and aggregate annual con-
sumption of this class of spirituous liquors by the people of the
United States ? The first of these questions is eminently perti-
nent to the legislator ; the second, to the student and advocate of
social reform.

The experience derived from the taxation of distilled spirits
previous to 1869 by the Federal authorities was so unnatural and, as
it were, spasmodic as to debar its use for the determination of any
general or average conclusions, and limits inquiry to the results
which followed in subsequent years (1870-1894), under lower and
more rational rates of taxation, and a more efficient and intelligent
fiscal administration. And for the purpose of making a clear ex-
hibit of these, attention is asked to the following table (prepared

318

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from official data), showing (1) the population of the country for
each successive fiscal year from 1870 to 1894, inclusive ; (2) the
quantity of gallons of spirits annually taxed ; (3) the average per
capita consumption for each successive year ; (4) the amount of
revenue annually collected ; (5) the average annual revenue, or
tax per capita ; (6) the annual tax per gallon ; (7) the average tax
per gallon.

Tear ending
June 30.

1870
1871
1872

1873

1874

1876

1876

1877

1878

1879

1880
1881

1882

1883
1884

1885

1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893

1894

Population.

38,558,371
39,555,000
40,596,000

41,677,000

42,796,000

43,951,000

45,137,000

46,353,000

47,598,000

48,866,000

50,155,783
51,316,000

52,495,000

53,693,000
54,911,000

56,148,000

57,404,000
58,680,000
59,974,000
61,289,000
62,622,250
63,975,000
65,520,000
66,826,000

68,000,000

Quantity
taxed.

Quanti-
ty per
capita.

Gallons.

78,490,198
62,314,628

Gallons.

2-03
1-58

66,235,578

1-63

65,911,141

1-68

62,581,562

1-46

64,425,911

1-47

58,512,693

1-30

58,043,889

1-26

50,704,189

1-07

53,026,175

1-09

62,132,416

1-23

69,127,206

1-34

71,976,398

1-37

76,762,063
79,616,901

1-43
1-45

69,158,025

1-23

70,851,355
67,380,391
71,565,486
77,163,529
85,043,336

1-23
1-15
1-19
1-25
1-35

88,473,487
95,045,787
99,145,889

1-38
1-45
1-48

88,777,387

1-33

Revenue.

DoUari.

39,245,099
31,157,314
33,117,788

43,131,064

43,807,093

46,877,938

61,390,490

62,671,291

46,626,533

47,709,464

65,919,119
62,214,127

64,778,756

69,085,856
71,655,211

62,242,221

63,766,219
60,642,351
64,408,937
69,447,175
76,539,002
79,626,093
85,541,209
89,231,300

79,862,647

Rev'nue

per
capita.

Dollars.

1.02
.79

.82

1.03
1.02
1.07

1.14

1.14

.08

1.11
1.24

1.23

1.22
1.30

1.23

1.11
1.03
1.07
1.13
1.22
1.24
1.31
1.34

1.74

Tax per
gallon.

Cents.

.50
.50
.50
.50
.70
.70
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.50
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.90
.90
.70
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
1.10

Average
tax per
gallon.

CenU.
50

50
50

65-14

70
72-76

88-58

89-97

89-99

89-98

90
90

90

90
90

90

90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90

The first point of interest which an examination of the above
table reveals is, that the average per capita consumption of tax-
paid distilled spirits by the people of the United States during the
years 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873, under the tax of fifty cents per
gallon, was greater than it has been at any subsequent period

* Population for 1870, 1880, and 1890 from census; other years calculated by the
actuary of the Treasury Department.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 319

under a seventy and ninety cent rate. Such, a result is undoubt-
edly referable in the main to the economic law that a reduction
in the price of a commodity encourages its consumption (in this
instance for industrial as well as stimulant purposes), and in a
degree to the fact that a fifty- cent tax, with its accompaniment
of stringent penalties, greatly diminished the incentive for illicit
production. A wonderfully striking illustration of the strength
of temptation for the evasion of the revenue created by the pre-
vious high taxation, which had little other reason than mere sen-
timent for its imposition, is also afforded by the fact that while
the Government in 1872, under a tax of fifty cents per proof gal-
lon, took cognizance of an average annual tax-paid consumption
on the part of the people of the United States of 1*63 gallons per
capita, it was only able to recognize in 1868, under a two- dollar
tax, a similar average annual consumption of about 0*38 proof gal-
lon per capita.

The second point of interest in connection with the foregoing
tabular exhibit is the demonstration it affords of the very curious
variations which occurred in the successive years from 1870 to
1894, inclusive, in the quantity of spirits that annually paid taxes
to the Government, and which may be regarded as constituting
an approximately accurate measure of the average annual per
capita consumption of this commodity by the entire population
of the country. The explanation of such changes is not difficult.
They are in general unquestionably referable to immediately
antecedent or contemporary changes in the business condition of
the country, which in turn are determinative in a high degree of
the popular ability to consume an article — ^like distilled spirits —
of comparatively high cost and largely a luxury, popular tastes
and habits and restrictive moral influences remaining constant.
Thus, passing by the year 1870, in which there was a great in-
crease (from altogether abnormal causes) in the number of gal-
lons produced and made subject to taxation, the increase in the
tax-paid product and in the average per capita consumption dur-
ing the succeeding fiscal years 1872 and 1873, when the business
of the country was fairly prosperous, was regular and not incon-
siderable. The commencement of the next fiscal year (1874) was
signalized by one of the most memorable financial panics in
American history and a general prostration of business, from
which last there was no decided recovery until 1879.

During all this period the domestic production of distilled
spirits of which the Government took cognizance continued to
decline, and the average per capita of consumption touched the
exceedingly low proportions of 1*07 and 1*09 gallons in the fiscal
years of 1878 and 1879 respectively. With a renewal of active
and profitable business throughout the country in 1880, the

320 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

animal taxed production of spirits went np from 50,704,189 gallons
in 1878 to 79,616,901 gallons in 1884, and the per capita consump-
tion from 1*07 gallons to 1*45 gallons in the corresponding years.
During the period from 1871 to 1880 there was a decrease both in
the quantity of spirits on which the Government was able to col-
lect a tax and in the apparent per capita consumption of the
people, and this, too, notwithstanding an increase during this
same period of thirty per cent in the population of the country ;
1871 showing a tax on sixty-two and one third millions (1'58 gal-
lons yer capita) ^ while in 1879 the tax was collected on only fifty-
three million gallons (1"09 gallons per capita).

The decade from 1870 to 1879 was further characterized by two
periods of disturbance — which ought to be instructive in view of
future legislation — occasioned by an advance in 1873 of the gallon
tax from fifty to seventy cents, and again in 1875 from seventy to
ninety cents. In both cases these advances in rates were followed
by large annual reductions in the quantity of the spirits taxed
and in an apparent per capita consumption, which in turn indi-
cated extensive revivals of illicit practices which the reduction of
the tax to fifty cents in 1868 had nearly extinguished, and which
indications were also made certainties by abundant direct evi-
dence.

The decade of 1880 to 1889 showed, on the other hand, an in-
crease in the aggregate amount paying taxes from sixty-two and
one eighth million gallons in 1880 (1*23 gallons per capita) to sev-
enty-seven and one eighth million gallons in 1889 (1*25 gallons
per capita), an aggregate increase approximating a concurrent in-
crease of twenty- two per cent in the population of the country.

During the fiscal years from 1888 to 1893, inclusive, under a
uniform and prospectively stable rate of tax, an apparently good
and efficient administration of the law, and a fairly prosperous
condition of the country, the results in this department of our
national revenues were very exceptional and interesting. The
continuous increase in production, in per capita consumption, and
in revenue was remarkable, the average increase in spirits paying
taxes having been nearly 4,600,000 gallons per annum, or in a
ratio greater than any concurrent increase in the population of
the country ; in average per capita consumption, nearly one third
of a gallon; in average increase in revenue of nearly $5,000,000
($4,910,000) per annum, the whole culminating for the fiscal year
(1893) in a product of 99,000,000 gallons, an annual revenue of
$89,000,000, and a per capita consumption of 1*48 gallons. During
the same period the per capita consumption of all spirits, domestic
and foreign, in Great Britain was about 1*063 gallons.

The financial troubles and business depressions in Europe and
other countries during the years 1892 and 1893 do not appear to

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION,

321

have exerted the slightest influence on the production and con-
sumption of distilled spirits in the United States. But the ad-
vent in 1894 of a similar state of affairs in the latter country
speedily manifested itself, reducing the current 'per capita con-
sumption from 1*48 gallons in 1893 to 1*33 gallons; the direct
revenue from $89,231,000 in 1893 to $79,899,000 ; the current per
capita consumption from 1*48 to 1*33 gallons, and the total annual
revenue to the extent of $9,461,008.

The normal consumption of distilled spirits in the United
States in 1894, as indicated by withdrawals from distilleries and
warehouses, was about 8,000,000 gallons a month. The extent to
which the increase in the direct tax on spirits by the act of
August 28, 1894, from ninety cents to one dollar and ten cents per
gallon, was anticipated by speculators is strikingly illustrated by
the fact that an average monthly revenue from the lesser tax
of about $8,000,000 per month during the first six months of 1894
increased during the month of July and the first twenty-seven
days of August to $19,064,000 and $21,470,000 respectively, and
declined in the succeeding month of September to $510,696.

Any review of the comparatively recent tax experiences of the
United States would be incomplete that failed to notice its taxa-
tion (concurrent with that on distilled spirits) of domestic fer-
mented liquors (beer, etc.). The internal revenue tax on this
commodity has been practically uniform since its first authoriza-
tion in 1863, namely, one dollar per barrel, holding theoretically
thirty-one gallons. The tax was originally assessed and collected
on the returns of the brewers, and was largely evaded. After
July, 1866, it was successfully enforced through th^ employment
of stamps, one of which, " denoting the amount of the tax,*' is re-
quired to be affixed upon the spigot hole or tap (of which there
shall be but one) in such a way that the stamp shall be destroyed
upon the withdrawal of the liquor from the barrel or other re-
ceptacle. The following table exhibits in detail the experience
which has characterized each fiscal year since the inception of this
source of revenue in 1863 down to and including 1894 :

Population.

BKEB.

YXABB.

Quantity taxed.

Quantity

per

capita.

Revenue col-
lected from
barrel tax.

Revenue

per
capita.

Tax per
barrel of
31 gallons.

1863

33,365,000

34,046,000

34,748,000
35,469,000
36,211,000
36,973,000

GnlloDt.

62,205,375

97,382,811

113,372,611
158,569,340
192,429,462
190,546,553

G«llon«.

1-86

2-86

3-26
4-47
5-31
5-15

Dollars.

1,558,083

2,223,719

,3,657,181
6,115,140
6,819,346
6,686,663

Dollars.

.05

.07

.11
.14
.16
.16

DoUars.
j 1.00

1864

\ .60
j .60

1865

1 1.00
1 00

1866

1.00

1867

1.00

1868

1.00

TOL. XL VIII. — 23

322

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Population.

BEER.

YSABS.

Quantity taxed.

Quantity

per
capita.

Revenue col-
lected from
barrel tax.

Revenue

per
capita.

Tax per
barrel of
81 gallons.

1869

37,756,000
38,558,371
39,555,000
40,596,000
41,677,000
42,796,000
43,951,000
45,137,000
46,363,000
47,698,000
48,866,000
60,155,783
51,316,000
52,495,000
58,693,000
64,911,000
56,148,000
67,404,000
68,680,000
59,974,000
61,289,000
62,622,250
63,975,000
65,520,000
66,826,000
68,000,000

Galloni.

196,603,705
203,813,127
239,948,060
268,442,237
298,633,018
297,627,807
293,033,607
306,972,912
804,111,860
317,486,601
844,195,604
418,760.441
443.641,868
525,514,636
650,494,652
588,957,189
594,764,543
642,038,923
716,767,306
765,086,789
778,715,443
854,420,264
944,823.952
986,352,916
1,071,183,827
938,873,944

G*ll0D8.

5-21

5-29

6-06

6-61

7-16

6-95

6-66

6-80

6-56

6-67

7-04

8-25

8 66

10-01

10-26

10-73

10-69

11-18

12-21

12-77

12-71

13-64

14-77

15-06

16-03

14-90

Dollars.

5,866,400

6,081,520

7,159,740

8,009,969

8,910,823

8,880,829

8,743,744

9,159,675

9,074,355

9,473,360

10,270,352

12,346,077

13,237,700

15,680.678

16,426,050

17,573,722

17,747,006

19,157,612

21,887,411

22,829,202

23,235,863

25,494,798

28,192,327

29,431,498

31,962,743

30,843,764

Dollan.
.16

.16
.18
.20
.21
.21
.20
.23
.20
.20
.21
.25
.26
.30
.31
.32
.32
.33
.36
.38
.38
.41
.44
.45
.48
.44

Dollars.

1.00

1870

1 00

1871

1.00

1872

1.00

1878

1.00

1874

1.00

1875

1.00

1876

1.00

1877

1.00

1878

1.00

1879

1.00

1880

1.00

1881

1.00

1882

1.00

1888

1.00

1884

1.00

1886

1.00

1886

1.00

1887

1.00

1888

1.00

1889

1.00

1890..

1.00

1891

1.00

1892

1.00

1893

1.00

1894

1.00

The points of interest made apparent in the foregoing tabu-
lar exhibit, and to which attention is especially asked, are as
follows :

(1) The regular and great increase in the quantity of fer-
mented liquors annually made subject to internal revenue taxa-
tion— i. e., from 62,205,375 gallons in 1863 to 1,071,183,827 gallons in
1893, and an increase in per capita consumption very far in excess
of the rate of increase in population — i. e., from 1*86 gallons in
1863 to over sixteen gallons in 1893.

(2) The concurrent regular increase in revenue from this
source— i. e., from $1,558,000 in 1863 to nearly $32,000,000 in 1893.

(3) The variations in the product of fermented liquors which
the Government has been able annually to subject to taxation
since 1863 have been inconsiderable and in remarkable contrast to
those occurring in the case of distilled spirits. Business depres-
sion from 1874 to 1879 and for the year 1884 appears to have been
influential in checking per capita consumption, though in a small
degree, and to have exerted little or no influence in the subsequent
years, that are subject to analysis, down to 1894, when financial
and industrial depression was again operative in the country, re-
sults indicating that similar larger and contemporaneous decre-
ments in consumption and revenue in the case of distilled spirits

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 323

were due to fraudulent practices, rather than to an impairment
of ability to consume on the part of the masses.

(4) The average annual increase in the receipt of internal
revenue from fermented liquors for the ten years from 1883 to
1892 was $1,306,05^, and for the four years ending with the fiscal
year 1893 about $1,617,000. That this latter ratio of annual in-
crease under the present rate of tax is likely to indefinitely con-
tinue is almost demonstrated by the fact that the popularity of
fermented or malt liquors as beverage among the American
people is unquestionably increasing ; and also that large, seem-
ingly, as is their present average per capita consumption — namely,
sixteen gallons — the present per capita consumption of the people
of several other nationalities is much greater ; that of the United
Kingdom being estimated at thirty gallons ; of England and
Wales, thirty-six ; of Belgium, forty ; and of Germany, forty-five.
An important fact pertinent to the prospective consumption of
beer and its permanent value as a source of national revenue
is, that the cost of the materials used in its manufacture has
decreased in comparatively recent years, in the United States,
Great Britain, and probably other countries characterized by its
large consumption, to the extent of at least forty per cent ; and the
advantage from this change which has accrued to British brew-
ers was stated by the British Chancellor of Exchequer, in May,
1895, to have been upward of £2,000,000 ($10,000,000) per annum.
Another point of interest in this connection which is especially
worthy of attention is, that if moral influences have ever materi-
ally affected the general consumption of distilled spirits or fer-
mented liquors in the United States, the tabulated tax experi-
ences of its Government, which constitute the only reliable basis
for forming an opinion, do not afford any indication of it.

Having reformed and radically reduced the war taxes in the
Department of Internal Revenue, it was next in order for Con-
gress to consider the readjustment of the customs system of taxa-
tion, which had also been evolved, as it were, out of the war's fis-
cal exigencies ; and it accordingly in 1867 instructed the Secretary
of the Treasury to present at its next session the draft of a tariff
embodying reductions of war rates. The responsibility of prepar-
ing such a draft having been next intrusted by the Secretary to
the Special Commissioner of the Revenue, the latter, with a view
of qualifying himself for the trust, visited Europe under a Gov-
ernment commission, and investigated under almost unprece-
dented advantages nearly every form of industry then competi-
tive with the United States in Great Britain and on the Conti-
nent. The results of this visit and investigation effected an
enlightenment on his part in respect to two salient and funda-
mental points :

324 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

First, that no country, with, the exception of the United States,
which had adopted in a greater or less degree the policy of protec-
tion through duties or restrictions on imports, had ever regarded
the taxation of the imports of "raw,"* or crude, or partly manu-
factured materials, to be subsequently used for larger manufac-
turing, as an element of protection in its largest sense to its domes-
tic industry, but rather as antagonistic to, and destructive of,
such industry ; and that, while such taxation in the United States
had undoubtedly built up some industries and enriched their
owners, it had been a great restraint on the development of a
much larger and higher class of industries, employing a greater
number of workmen, and paying much higher average wages.
Second, that the countries of Europe in which the average rates
of wages were lowest were the most clamorous for protective du-
ties on imports ; and that high wages in any country, conjoined
with the extensive and skillful use of machinery, instead of being
evidence of industrial weakness, were evidence of great indus-
trial strength ; inasmuch as no employer can continuously pay
high wages unless his product is large, his labor most effective,
and his cost of product, measured on the terms of labor, compara-
tively low.

The announcement of these views, and especially their publica-
tion in a report in 1869, created much antagonism among the ad-
vocates of the policy of extreme protection in the country ; and
Horace Greeley and others publicly charged that the commis-
sioner had been induced to change his views through the corrupt-
ing agency of British gold. Notwithstanding this, a draft for
a complete revision of the tariff of the United States, prepared
under his almost sole supervision, and accompanied with a report
on the existing revenue resources and industrial and financial
condition of the country, was submitted to the Forty-first Con-
gress by Secretary McCulloch, with his indorsement, in Decem-
ber, 1887. This draft, subsequently embodied in the form of a
bill, with slight modifications by the Finance Committee of the
Senate, came very near enactment into law, the Senate passing it
by a vote of twenty-seven to ten. In the House of Representa-
tives it failed in the closing hours of the second session by a
very few votes, and not by a direct vote, but on a motion to sus-

* The definition, or rather determination, of what constituted a " crude " or " raw " ma-
terial for manufacturing purposes has always been a matter of embarrassment to legislators
and economic writers, inasmuch as a confessedly manufactured and often elaborate product
may be relatively a raw or crude material for successively higher grades or processes of
manufacture. A proposition recently proposed by Mr. Lindley Vinton, of New York, to
restrict the application of the above terms in law, commerce, and economics, to the state or
condition in which any product first enters into trade or commerce, would seem to be
BO free from any ambiguity of meaning as to be worthy of consideration.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 325

pend tlie rules, take tlie bill from tlie Committee of the Whole,
and put it upon its passage. This motion, which required a two-
thirds vote, was defeated — one hundred and six in the affirma-
tive to sixty-four in the negative. It was thus made evident
that, could the bill as it came from the Senate have been brought
directly before the House, it would have passed by a large ma-
jority, and probably have quieted for years all difficult and dis-
turbing legislation on this subject.

When the office of Special Commissioner expired by limitation
in 1870, the appointment as chairman of a State commission, spe-
cially created for investigating the subject and laws relating to
local taxation, was tendered to its late incumbent by the Governor
(Hon. John T. Hoffman) of the State of New York, and accepted.
This new position afforded an almost unprecedented opportunity
and facilities for becoming acquainted with a practically new
department of taxation ; the taxes levied by the Federal Govern-
ment being mainly of an indirect character, and subject to con-
stitutional limitations ; while those of the States are mainly di-
rect, and practically subject to no limitations as to object, except
as respects imports, exports, and the property and instrumentali-
ties of the United States. The results of this new field of explora-
tion were laid before the Legislature of the State of New York in
the form of two reports (in 1871 and 1872), with an accompanying
draft of a code of laws. The facts developed on this line of in-
vestigation, and which will be restated with much additional evi-
dence in the following chapters, are generally regarded as antago-
nistic to the theory of taxation as accepted and taught by most
economists, and incorporated into statutes by lawmakers. The
Legislature to which these reports were submitted paid no fur-
ther attention to them than to order their printing. They were,
however, contrary to almost all precedent, reprinted in the United
States and in Europe.

Note. — The writer would take this occasion to acknowledge his great
indebtedness to the late Isaac Sherman, of New York, whose innate mod-
esty and desire to avoid publicity alone prevented a general recognition by
his countrymen of his great intellectual ability ; and that this characteriza-
tion is not unwarranted is proved by the fact that it was fully admitted by
such men of his time as Samuel J. Tilden, Charles O'Conor, and Rev. Dr.
Bellows ; and also by the circumstance that he was the one man of all
others that President Lincoln selected as his adviser in the most critical
periods of the war, and to whom he repeatedly tendered the highest civil
offices in his gift. Mr. Sherman took a deep interest in the work of the
New York State Tax Commission ; participated in its investigations ; con
tributed to its councUs a very thorough knowledge of the views of Eng-
lish, French, and German writers on taxation, and of the cognate opin-
ions and decisions of American and European courts and jurists ; and is
entitled to equal credit for whatever of merit may pertain to its conclu-

326 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

sions. If these conclusions, arrived at and expressed in the following
chapters, do not meet the full concurrence of economists, the writer has
the satisfaction of knowing that they received, in the main, the full indorse-
ment of one so pre-eminently qualified to pass judgment upon them.

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY.

By Pbof. ANGELO HEILPRIN.

IT was my pleasant fortune, a few years back, to have my
name enrolled with a limited few in the registry book of the
Royal School of Mines in London, destined for work at one of the
ten or twelve tables which covered the greater part of the ground
space of Prof. Huxley's laboratory. The building was a compara-
tively new one, having been erected as an adjunct to the new
South Kensington Museum on Exhibition Road, and from the
top floor looked out the various rooms in which we were to re-
ceive our tutorage from the great naturalist. A climbing flight
of stone steps, with landings, wound round to this summit, to
which at times of irregular journey also conducted a box " lift."
On one of my daily upward saunterings I chanced to stumble
upon my master, who, always a rapid walker, overtook me on the
grand "round," and cordially greeted me as a fellow- traveler.
Possibly I allowed myself a little to be overtaken, for, though I
had already been in the workshop aod lecture theater a number
of days, and had answered questions on Torula, Paramcecium, and
other low grades of organisms, and had even swallowed a good-
natured rebuke for attempting to use a compound binocular in
place of the simple, and confessedly clumsy, microscopes which
were furnished gratuitously to the students, the opportunity to
meet the man as man and not as teacher had not yet presented
itself. Prof. Huxley's private rooms almost adjoined the labora-
tory, and frequently on passing the door the temptation grew
strong upon me to knock and allow myself the honor of an inter-
view, but each time a certain Tootsian timidity overcame me, and
directed my course either to the right or to the left. The meet-
ing on the landing was thus a deliverance, and Huxley allowed
me to make the most of it by himself opening the conversation.
It began with a reference to the deficiencies in modern building
construction, particularly applied to the South Kensington annex,
and evoked by the absence of proper mounting appliances. " Our
lifts are not like the grand elevators in your country," remarked
the professor — a thought in which it was not difficult to concur.

This first bit of extra- class conversation impressed itself forci-
bly upon my mind, both for the pleasure that it gave me and the

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 327

surprise it occasioned in the knowledge that I was from American
soil. No reference to foreign studentship had heretofore been
made, and I was a little puzzled to know what kind of informa-
tion had led to the betrayal of my personality. Considerably
later I learned that a close friend of my father's, the late Prof.
Youmans — himself a friend equally to science and to the scientific
student — had addressed a personal note to Prof. Huxley, advising
him of my presence and commending me in the usual way to a
kind consideration and to an equally considerate esteem. It was
characteristic of the justness and fairness of the master that this
letter, while it may have paved the way to a more informal ac-
quaintance outside of the class room, in no way influenced favor-
itism within, or saved me from sound criticism of my work when
it merited it. This was not exactly at long intervals, and particu-
larly do I recall the painful awaiting of judgment on a mangled
dissection of the nerves of the frog. "Your blue papers are
where the red should be, and the sympathetic is gone " — a piece
of information, the basis of a portion of which had already only
too keenly been realized.

At no time was criticism given in a way to hurt, and more
commonly encouragement and commendation took the place of
criticism. But a thing had to be really well done to call out
praise, and an exuberance of it rarely broke an echo from the
laboratory walls. On one occasion I was startled by the inquiry
if my drawing — a drawing of the division lines in the cells of a
certain water plant — was made from the object or from imagina-
tion, an inquiry which threw doubt in my mind as to whether I
was receiving praise or condemnation. The representation was
considered unusually true to Nature, but I was forced to admit
that it was a combined product of the visual and mental eye, and
not a mere transcript of Nature. This explanation was in no way
a satisfaction to Prof. Huxley, who took the opportunity to ad-
monish the class that drawings, however true they may appear
to Nature, are only true when they strictly copy the objects which
they are intended to portray.

Huxley himself was an excellent draughtsman, and it was
frequently remarked of him, as it was also of our own Dr. Leidy,
that had he devoted himself to painting, instead of to science, he
would have forced himself to a position not less prominent as
an artist than that which he occupied as a naturalist. He was
always precise in his drawings on the blackboard, and if he could
not, perhaps, like Prof. Weisbach, of Freiberg, jump to a circle
and punch its middle point with a stub of chalk, he could, appar-
ently without any hesitancy, draw the most complex anatomical
constructions, and in such a way as to make every point clearly
intelligible to the student. It was probably from the father's

328 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

side that Mrs. Thomas Collier, nSe Huxley, who had well earned
her several premiums from the fine-art institutions of London,
inherited her tendencies and capabilities in the direction of paint-
ing. Inspired in a measure, probably, through his love for art,
and with an inborn feeling for mechanical constructions. Prof.
Huxley always held a kindly sympathy for all that pertained
to the science of engineering; and he frequently expressed the
thought, which will doubtless seem strange to many, that he had
missed his vocation, and that the true field of his activities should
have been the field of an engineer. Yet it is singular that with
this proclivity for a branch of study which requires for its suc-
cessful accomplishment a generous supply of mathematical stimu-
lus, the fact that he was in no way a mathematician did not ter-
rify Huxley. He frequently admitted that he had neither a liking
nor an aptitude for figures, and it was a timely forethought in
lecturing, when a condition required a mathematical calculation
for its elucidation, to have the answer written in advance at one
corner of the board. This, as was naively explained by the lec-
turer, was to avoid the easy possibility of an error creeping into
an offhand calculation or problem in sums.

In lecturing to his classes Huxley adhered strictly to business,
and it was rarely that a matter of levity was introduced to give
merriment to his listeners. I recall, in a course of some seventy
lectures, only a single instance of this kind, when, for some rea-
son (no longer in my memory), a reference was made to Chamis-
so's Peter Schlemiel — a book which Prof. Huxley frankly admit-
ted gave him more genuine pleasure than any other in nonscien-
tific literature. Whether it was the refreshing frankness of this
admission, or the fact in itself that was quoted, which on this
occasion brought forth an unbounded merriment from his stu-
dents, was perhaps not fully decided for all of us, but there was
no questioning the spontaneousness of the applause which fol-
lowed the utterance. And this, as I now recall it, was the only
instance of applause greeting the lecturer in the middle of the
lecture during the entire course of my studentship. Huxley, like
Tyndall, was always careful to have his lectures fully prepared.
A few notes jotted down on a fly-sheet of paper or in small note-
books were the only guide for the full hour, which to most of the
students passed very rapidly. There was no display of eloquence,
no attempt to clothe description or explanation in floral verse, but
everything was stated in terse and succinct language, although
with due emphasis on important points, and this it was that made
it easy to follow. These class lectures were naturally very dif-
ferent from public addresses, in which Huxley always maintained
that wonderful dignity of expression and choice rhetoric which
have been the despair of his combatants, scientific no less than

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 329

clerical, and have for all time rendered classical that which he
has chosen to put in print.

Contrary to what is generally supposed, Huxley was not a
ready speaker, or perhaps it would be more true to say that his
deliverances were not unaccompanied by stage fright, or a nervous
uneasiness which frequently required for its subjugation a strong
mental effort. It was this that told heavily on his health, and
more than once the quiet resolve had been made to forever aban-
don the public platform. I was present on one occasion at a rather
extensive gathering where, following a few after-dinner remarks
by Sir Joseph Hooker, Prof. Tyndall, and Sir Wyville Thomson,
Huxley, contrary to previous agreement, was also called upon for
a few words, and with the pleasing introduction (as nearly as I
can now recall the passage), " There is one among us who, by rea-
son of his witty tongue and ever-readiness, it is a pleasure to call
upon.'^

Following the applause which greeted his name — the mention
of which was unmistakably a disagreeable surprise to the one
more particularly concerned, Huxley took occasion to explain in
emphatic language that were it only generally known how much
of an effort it cost him to speak, his friends would willingly allow
him more peace, and save the lingering wreck of his bodily frame.
This admission — which was followed by a short but most happy
ex-tempore utterance — appeared to me so strange that I was deter-
mined on the first proper occasion to obtain at first hand its true
meaning. The opportunity presented itself a few days later, im-
mediately after the conclusion of a stirring public address (read
from manuscript) on " Sunday Opening," if by this name we may
designate the liberty of displaying and using on the Sabbath-day
collections of books and paintings, museum and other treasures,
and of listening to scientific discourses. Dean Stanley and one or
two other speakers had preceded him, but manifestly the audience
was waiting for the speaker of the occasion. A more brilliant
and incisive arraignment of those who by legal process attempted
to forever remove from the workingman his one day of self-im-
provement could hardly have been formulated, and the speaker
was greeted with vociferous applause. Meeting him on the way
homeward from the lecture hall, I asked for a significance of the
explanation made a few evenings before at the dinner table, for it
did not seem possible to me that one gifted with such fluent powers
of speech, and backed by an almost unfathomable fund of knowl-
edge, could feel any fear or hesitancy in speaking, no matter what
the occasion. In his answer. Prof. Huxley repeated in substance
what he had before said, only more clearly emphasizing the nerv-
ous fear with which he mounted the platform. He then assured
me that he might have saved himself an African journey, under-

VOL. XLVIII.— 24

33© POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

taken for liealtli recuperation, liad he abstained from public de-
liverances.

It has been frequently assumed that Huxley cared for little
beyond science, and especially for that side of it which was com-
bative either with the Church or with the State, but nothing
could be further from the truth than the belief that this was in
fact the case. It is perfectly true that Huxley used all the vigor
of speech of which he was capable to emphasize what he consid-
ered to be the proper position of science in any education, and per-
haps he even considered the acquisition of scientific knowledge to
be of more importance than any other form of learning, but he
was always careful to emphasize that education was only such
when it was broad and comprehensive, when it comprised not only
science, but in addition a goodly share of the world's history and
literature. His own resource in th^ fields of literature (English,
French, German, and Italian) and history was prodigious, and he
rarely was at a loss to instantly take advantage of a citation from
some early scholar to demolish at first or second hand an adver-
sary at arms. When I was in London he was reading, with the
assistance of a friend, Russian, and mainly for the purpose of fully
familiarizing himself with the work of the great anatomist, A.
Kovalewski, whose writings he was seemingly the first to bring
to the critical notice of English-speaking naturalists. It was this
thorough familiarity with what one is almost tempted to call uni-
versal knowledge that made Prof. Huxley such a dreaded foe to
his enemies, and it has well been remarked, " Woe be to him who
attempts to measure arms with such an antagonist ! "

Huxley was a firm believer in thorough knowledge, and he took
no stock in brain-stufifing ; to have known a thing once, and to be
able to put your hand upon it when you again want it, was his
maxim. The opening address delivered by him before the Johns
Hopkins University, in 1876, gives the keynote to his position in
the matter of special training. " Know a thing directly," he often
remarked, " and do not assume that you know more of it by know-
ing around it." He had no patience with those who spoke with a
pseudo-authority begotten of chance, and was bitter in his denun-
ciation of officialism as affording a pretext for either defending or
attacking scientific dogma. An interesting anecdote, which Prof.
Huxley himself related to me, shows the occasional happy frame
of mind in which our savant found himself when he, in turn, was
receiving blows. A prominent bishop of the English Church,
whose name it is not here necessary to mention, had been for some
time endeavoring to smash the Darwinian hypothesis through
some actual researches in zoology which he claimed to have under-
taken. Toward the accomplishment of this laudable effort he
used many pages of the current magazines and equally many

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 331

columns of the daily press, in eacli of which the " nndernurse of
Darwinism " came in for an uncommonly large share of ridicule.
Finding that none of these papers brought forth any comment
from Prof. Huxley, their author in a personal letter called his at-
tention to them, at the same time asking to be advised as to what
particular course of reading would most readily enable him to
grapple with the various scientific questions which at that time
agitated the world. Prof. Huxley's full and laconic answer was,
" Take a cockroach and dissect it." No further inquiry came
from that source.

I once found Prof. Huxley much depressed over a small para-
graph which also touched, and in a very depreciatory manner,
the evolutionary hypothesis, which had been contributed to the
daily press by his friend Carlyle. He greatly deplored the reck-
lessness of the utterances contained in the squib, and especially
painful to him was a markedly undignified reference to the one
man for whom Huxley had a greater reverence than for any
other — Charles Darwin. To my interrogatory as to whether he
considered it necessary to reply to the paragraph, he promptly
and emphatically answered, " No ! "

Remorseless -as Huxley occasionally was in the cold exposition
of the blunders of his colaborers in science, he was usually very
lenient to those who pointed out his own mistakes. I remember
one occasion when a post-graduate student of the Royal School of
Mines, Patrick (now Professor) Geddes, intimated to the professor
that his interpretation of the mechanism of the radula in the
common garden snail, as was set forth in the Anatomy of Inverte-
brated Animals, was not supported by the newer laboratory dis-
sections. Prof. Huxley's response was a request of Mr. Geddes to
try a new dissection ; it was done, and it was found that the pupil
was right and the master wrong. Only once do I recall when a
correction was received with a regret a