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diff --git a/old/13910.txt b/old/13910.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c18366c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13910.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4077 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of Exposition, by Homer Heath Nugent + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Book of Exposition + +Author: Homer Heath Nugent + +Release Date: October 31, 2004 [EBook #13910] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF EXPOSITION *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Schulze and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Team. + + + + +[Transcribers note: subscripts in the text are +represented by _{X} markup] + + + +A BOOK OF EXPOSITION + +EDITED BY + +HOMER HEATH NUGENT + +LAFLIN INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH AT THE RENSSELAER +POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE + + +1922 + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is a pleasure to acknowledge indebtedness to my wife for assistance +in editing and to Dr. Ray Palmer Baker, Head of the Department of +English at the Institute, for suggestions and advice without which this +collection would hardly have been made. + + + + +CONTENTS + + INTRODUCTION + + THE EXPOSITION OF A MECHANISM + THE LEVERS OR THE HUMAN BODY. SIR ARTHUR KEITH + + THE EXPOSITION OF A MACHINE + THE MERGENTHALER LINOTYPE. PHILIP T. DODGE + + THE EXPOSITION OF A PROCESS IN NATURE + THE PEA WEEVIL. JEAN HENRI FABRE. Translated by Bernard Miall + + THE EXPOSITION OF A MANUFACTURING PROCESS + MODERN PAPER-MAKING. J. W. BUTLER PAPER COMPANY + + THE EXPOSITION OF AN IDEA + THE GOSPEL OF RELAXATION. WILLIAM JAMES + SCIENCE AND RELIGION. CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ + + BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTES + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The articles here presented are modern and unhackneyed. Selected +primarily as models for teaching the methods of exposition employed in +the explanation of mechanisms, processes, and ideas, they are +nevertheless sufficiently representative of certain tendencies in +science to be of intrinsic value. Indeed, each author is a recognized +authority. + +Another feature is worthy of mention. Although the material covers so +wide a field--anatomy, zoölogy, physics, psychology, and applied +science--that the collection will appeal to instructors in every type of +college and technical school, the selections are related in such a way +as to produce an impression of unity. This relation is apparent between +the first selection, which deals with the student's body, and the third, +which deals with another organism in nature. The second and fourth +selections deal with kindred aspects of modern industry--the manufacture +of paper and the Linotype machine, by which it is used. The fifth +selection is a protest against certain developments of the industrial +regime; the last, an attempt to reconcile the spirit of science with +that of religion. While monotony has been avoided, the essays form a +distinct unit. + +In most cases, selections are longer than usual, long enough in fact to +introduce a student to each field. As a result, he can be made to feel +that every subject is of importance and to realize that every chapter +contains a fund of valuable information. Instead of confusing him by +having him read twenty selections in, let us say, six weeks, it is +possible by assigning but six in the same period, to impress him +definitely with each. + +The text-book machinery has been sequestered in the Biographical and +Critical Notes at the end of the book. Their character and position are +intended to permit instructors freedom of treatment. Some may wish to +test a student's ability in the use of reference books by having him +report on allusions. Some may wish to explain these themselves. A few +may find my experience helpful. For them suggestions are included in the +Critical Notes. In general, I have assumed that instructors will prefer +their own methods and have tried to leave them unhampered. + + + + +THE EXPOSITION OF A MECHANISM + +THE LEVERS OF THE HUMAN BODY[1] + +_Sir Arthur Keith_ + + +In all the foregoing chapters we have been considering only the muscular +engines of the human machine, counting them over and comparing their +construction and their mechanism with those of the internal-combustion +engine of a motor cycle. But of the levers or crank-pins through which +muscular engines exert their power we have said nothing hitherto. Nor +shall we get any help by now spending time on the levers of a motor +cycle. We have already confessed that they are arranged in a way which +is quite different from that which we find in the human machine. In the +motor cycle all the levers are of that complex kind which are called +wheels, and the joints at which these levers work are also circular, for +the joints of a motor cycle are the surfaces between the axle and the +bushes, which have to be kept constantly oiled. No, we freely admit that +the systems of levers in the human machine are quite unlike those of a +motor cycle. They are more simple, and it is easy to find in our bodies +examples of all the three orders of levers. The joints at which bony +levers meet and move on each other are very different from those we find +in motor cycles. Indeed, I must confess they are not nearly so simple. +And, lastly, I must not forget to mention another difference. These +levers we are going to study are living--at least, are so densely +inhabited by myriads of minute bone builders that we must speak of them +as living. I want to lay emphasis on that fact because I did not insist +enough on the living nature of muscular engines. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Showing a chisel 10 inches long used as a lever +of the first order.] + +We are all well acquainted with levers. We apply them every day. A box +arrives with its lid nailed down; we take a chisel, use it as a lever, +pry the lid open, and see no marvel in what we have done (Fig. 1). And +yet we thereby did with ease what would have been impossible for us even +if we had put out the whole of our unaided strength. The use of levers +is an old discovery; more than 1500 years before Christ, Englishmen, +living on Salisbury Plain, applied the invention when they raised the +great stones at Stonehenge and at Avebury; more than 2000 years earlier +still, Egyptians employed it in raising the pyramids. Even at that time +men had made great progress; they were already reaping the rewards of +discoveries and inventions. But none, I am sure, surprised them more +than the discovery of the lever; by its use one man could exert the +strength of a hundred men. They soon observed that levers could be used +in three different ways. The instance already given, the prying open of +a lid by using a chisel as a lever, is an example of one way (Fig. 1); +it is then used as a lever of the first order. Now in the first order, +one end of the lever is applied to the point of resistance, which in the +case just mentioned was the lid of the box. At the other end we apply +our strength, force, or power. The edge of the box against which the +chisel is worked serves as a fulcrum and lies between the handle where +the power is applied and the bevelled edge which moves the resistance or +weight. A pair of ordinary weighing scales also exemplifies the first +order of levers. The knife edge on which the beam is balanced serves as +a fulcrum; it is placed exactly in the middle of the beam, which we +shall suppose to be 10 inches long. If we place a 1-lb. weight in one +scale to represent the resistance to be overcome, the weight will be +lifted the moment that a pound of sugar has been placed in the opposite +scale--the sugar thus representing the power. If, however, we move the +knife-edge or fulcrum so that it is only 1 inch from the sugar end of +the beam and 9 inches from the weight end, then we find that we have to +pour in 9 lb. of sugar to equalise the 1-lb. weight. The chisel used in +prying open the box lid was 10 inches long; it was pushed under the lid +for a distance of 1 inch, leaving 9 inches for use as a power lever. By +using a lever in this way, we increased our strength ninefold. The +longer we make the power arm, the nearer we push the fulcrum towards the +weight or resistance end, the greater becomes our power. This we shall +find is a discovery which Nature made use of many millions of years ago +in fashioning the body of man and of beast. When we apply our force to +the long end of a lever, we increase our power. We may also apply it, as +Nature has done in our bodies, for another purpose. We have just noted +that if the weight end of the beam of a pair of scales is nine times the +length of the sugar end, that a 1-lb. weight will counterpoise 9 lb. of +sugar. We also see that the weight scale moves at nine times the speed +of the sugar scale. Now it often happens that Nature wants to increase, +not the power, but the speed with which a load is lifted. In that case +the "sugar scale" is placed at the long end of the beam and the "weight +scale" at the short end; it then takes a 9-lb. weight to raise a single +pound of sugar, but the sugar scale moves with nine times the speed of +the weight scale. Nature often sacrifices power to obtain speed. The arm +is used as a lever of this kind when a cricket ball is thrown. + +Nothing could look less like a pair of scales than a man's head or +skull, and yet when we watch how it is poised and the manner in which it +is moved, we find that it, too, acts as a lever of the first order. The +fulcrum on which it moves is the atlas--the first vertebra of the spine +(Fig. 2). When a man stands quite erect, with the head well thrown back, +the ear passages are almost directly over the fulcrum. It will be +convenient to call that part of the head which is behind the ear +passages the _post-fulcral,_ and the part which is in front the +_pre-fulcral._ Now the face is attached to the pre-fulcral part of the +lever and represents the weight or load to be moved, while the muscles +of the neck, which represent the power, are yoked to the post-fulcral +end of the lever. The hinder part of the head serves as a crank-pin for +seven pairs of neck muscles, but in Fig. 2 only the chief pair is drawn, +known as the _complex_ muscles. When that pair is set in action, the +post-fulcral end of the head lever is tilted downwards, while the +pre-fulcral end, on which the face is set, is turned upwards. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2.--The skull as a lever of the first order.] + +The complex muscles thus tilt the head backwards and the face upwards, +but where are the muscles which serve as their opponents or antagonists +and reverse the movement? In a previous chapter it has been shown that +every muscle has to work against an opponent or antagonist muscle. Here +we seem to come across a defect in the human machine, for the _greater +straight_ muscles in the front of the neck, which serve as opposing +muscles, are not only much smaller but at a further disadvantage by +being yoked to the pre-fulcral end of the lever, very close to the cup +on which the head rocks. However, if the _greater straight_ muscles lose +power by working on a very short lever, they gain, in speed; we set them +quickly and easily into action when we give a nod of recognition. All +the strength or power is yoked to the post-fulcral end of the head; the +pre-fulcral end of its lever is poorly guarded. Japanese wrestlers know +this fact very well, and seek to gain victory by pressing up the poorly +guarded pre-fulcral lever of the head, thus producing a deadly lock at +the fulcral joint. Indeed, it will be found that those who use the +jiu-jitsu method of fighting have discovered a great deal about the +construction and weaknesses of the levers of the human body. + +Merely to poise the head on the atlas may seem to you as easy a matter +as balancing the beam of a pair of scales on an upright support. I am +now going to show that a great number of difficulties had to be overcome +before our heads could be safely poised on our necks. The head had to be +balanced in such a way that through the pivot or joint on which it rests +a safe passageway could be secured for one of the most delicate and most +important of all the parts or structures of the human machine. We have +never found a good English name for this structure, so we use its clumsy +Latin one--_Medulla oblongata_--or medulla for short. In the medulla are +placed offices or centres which regulate the vital operations carried +on by the heart and by the lungs. It has also to serve as a passageway +for thousands of delicate gossamer-like nerve fibres passing from the +brain, which fills the whole chamber of the skull, to the spinal cord, +situated in the canal of the backbone. By means of these delicate fibres +the brain dispatches messages which control the muscular engines of the +limbs and trunk. Through it, too, ascend countless fibres along which +messages pass from the limbs and trunk to the brain. In creating a +movable joint for the head, then, a safe passage had to be obtained for +the medulla--that part of the great nerve stem which joins the brain to +the spinal cord. The medulla is part of the brain stem. + +This was only one of the difficulties which had to be overcome. The eyes +are set on the pre-fulcral lever of the head. For our safety we must be +able to look in all directions--over this shoulder or that. We must also +be able to turn our heads so that our ears may discover in which +direction a sound is reaching us. In fashioning a fulcral joint for the +head, then, two different objects had to be secured: free mobility for +the head, and a safe transit for the medullary part of the brain stem. +How well these objects have been attained is known to all of us, for we +can move our heads in the freest manner and suffer no damage whatsoever. +Indeed, so strong and perfect is the joint that damage to it is one of +the most uncommon accidents of life. + +Let us see, then, how this triumph in engineering has been secured. In +her inventive moods Nature always hits on the simplest plan possible. In +this case she adopted a ball-and-socket joint--the kind by which older +astronomers mounted their telescopes. By such a joint the telescope +becomes, just as the head is, a lever of the first order. The eyeglass +is placed at one end of the lever, while the object-glass, which can be +swept across the face of the heavens, is placed at the other or more +distant end. In the human body the first vertebra of the backbone--the +atlas--is trimmed to form a socket, while an adjacent part of the base +of the skull is shaped to play the part of ball. The kind of joint to be +used having been hit upon, the next point was to secure a safe passage +for the brain stem. That, too, was worked out in the simplest fashion. +The central parts of both ball and socket were cut away, or, to state +the matter more exactly, were never formed. Thus a passage was obtained +right through the centre of the fulcral joint of the head. The centre of +the joint was selected because when a lever is set in motion the part at +the fulcrum moves least, and the medulla, being placed at that point, is +least exposed to disturbance when we bend our heads backwards, forwards, +or from side to side. When we examine the base of the skull, all that we +see of the ball of the joint are two knuckles of bone (Fig. 3, A), +covered by smooth slippery cartilage or gristle, to which anatomists +give the name of occipital condyles. If we were to try to complete the +ball, of which they form a part, we should close up the great +opening--the _foramen magnum_--which provides a passageway for the brain +stem on its way to the spinal canal. All that is to be seen of the +socket or cup is two hollows on the upper surface of the atlas into +which the occipital condyles fit (Fig. 3, B). Merely two parts of the +brim of the cup have been preserved to provide a socket for the +condyles or ball. + +[Illustration: Fig. 3.--A, The opening in the base of the skull, by +which the brain stem passes to the spinal canal. The two occipital +condyles represent part of the ball which fits into the cup formed by +the atlas. B, The parts of the socket on the ring of the atlas.] + +As we bend our heads, the occipital condyles revolve or glide on the +sockets of the atlas. But what will happen if we roll our heads +backwards to such an extent that the bony edge of the opening in the +base of the skull is made to press hard against the brain stem and crush +it? That, of course, would mean instant death. Such an accident has been +made impossible (1) by making the opening in the base of the skull so +much larger than the brain stem that in extreme movements there can be +no scissors-like action; (2) the muscles which move the head on the +atlas arrest all movements long before the danger-point is reached; (3) +even if the muscles are caught off their guard, as they sometimes are, +certain strong ligaments--fastenings of tough fibres--are so set as +automatically to jam the joint before the edge of the foramen can come +in contact with the brain stem. + +These are only some of the devices which Nature had to contrive in order +to secure a safe passageway for the brain stem. But in obtaining safety +for the brain stem, the movements of the head on the atlas had to be +limited to mere nodding or side-to-side bending. The movements which are +so necessary to us, that of turning our heads so that we can sweep our +eyes along the whole stretch of the skyline from right to left, and from +left to right, were rendered impossible. This defect was also overcome +in a simple manner. The joints between the first and second +vertebrae--the atlas and axis--were so modified that a turning movement +could take place between them instead of between the atlas and skull. +When we turn or rotate our heads, the atlas, carrying the skull upon it, +swings or turns on the axis. When we search for the manner in which this +has been accomplished, we see again that Nature has made use of the +simplest means at her disposal. When we examine a vertebra in the course +of construction within an unborn animal, we see that it is really made +up by the union of four parts (see Fig. 4): a central block which +becomes the "body" or supporting part; a right and a left arch which +enclose a passage for the spinal cord; and, lastly, a fourth part in +front of the central block which becomes big and strong only in the +first vertebra--the atlas. When we look at the atlas (Fig. 4), we see +that it is merely a ring made up of three of the parts--the right and +left arches and the fourth element,--but the body is missing. A glance +at Fig. 4, B, will show what has become of the body of the atlas. It +has been joined to the central block of the second vertebra--the +axis--and projects upwards within the front part of the ring of the +atlas, and thus forms a pivot round which rotatory movements of the head +can take place. Here we have in the atlas an approach to the formation +of a wheel--a wheel which has its axle or pivot placed at some distance +from its centre, and therefore a complete revolution of the atlas is +impossible. A battery of small muscles is attached to the lateral levers +of the atlas and can swing it freely, and the head which it carries, a +certain number of degrees to both right and left. The extent of the +movements is limited by stout check ligaments. Thus, by the simple +expedient of allowing the body of the atlas to be stolen by the axis, a +pivot was obtained round which the head could be turned on a horizontal +plane. + +[Illustration: Fig. 4.--A, The original parts of the first or atlas +vertebra. B, Showing the "body" of the first vertebra fixed to the +second, thus forming the pivot on which the head turns.] + +Nature thus set up a double joint for the movements of the head, one +between the atlas and axis for rotatory movements, another between the +atlas and skull for nodding and side-to-side movements. And all these +she increased by giving flexibility to the whole length of the neck. +Makers of modern telescopes have imitated the method Nature invented +when fixing the human head to the spine. Their instruments are mounted +with a double joint--one for movements in a horizontal plane, the other +for movements in a vertical plane. We thus see that the young engineer, +as well as the student of medicine, can learn something from the +construction of the human body. + +In low forms of vertebrate animals like the fish and frog, the head is +joined directly to the body, there being no neck. + +No matter what part of the human body we examine, we shall find that its +mechanical work is performed by means of bony levers. Having seen how +the head is moved as a lever of the first order, we are now to choose a +part which will show us the plan on which levers of the second order +work, and there are many reasons why we should select the foot. It is a +part which we are all familiar with; every day we can see it at rest and +in action. The foot, as we have already noted, serves as a lever in +walking. It is a bent or arched lever (Fig. 6); when we stand on one +foot, the whole weight of our body rests on the summit of the arch. We +are thus going to deal with a lever of a complex kind. + +[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Showing a chisel used as a lever of the second +order.] + +In using a chisel to pry open the lid of a box, we may use it as a lever +either of the first or of the second order. We have already seen (Fig. +1) that, in using it as a lever of the first order, we pushed the handle +downwards, while the bevelled end was raised, forcing open the lid. The +edge of the box served as a rest or fulcrum for the chisel. If, however, +after inserting the bevelled edge under the lid, we raise the handle +instead of depressing it, we change the chisel into a lever of the +second order. The lid is not now forced up on the bevelled edge, but is +raised on the side of the chisel, some distance from the bevelled edge, +which thus comes to represent the fulcrum. By using a chisel in this +way, we reverse the positions of the weight and fulcrum and turn it into +a lever of the second order. Suppose we push the side of the +chisel--which is 10 inches long--under the lid to the extent of 1 inch, +then the advantage we gain in power is as 1 to 10; we thereby increase +our strength tenfold. If we push the chisel under the lid for half its +length, then our advantage stands as 10 to 5; our strength is only +doubled. If we push it still further for two-thirds of its length, then +our gain in strength is only as 10 to 6.6; our power is increased by +only one-third. Now this has an important bearing on the problem we are +going to investigate, for the weight of our body falls on the foot, so +that only about one-third of the lever--that part of it which is formed +by the heel--projects behind the point on which the weight of the body +rests. The strength of the muscles which act on the heel will be +increased only by about one-third. + +We have already seen that a double engine, made up of the +_gastrocnemius_ and _soleus_, is the power which is applied to the heel +when we walk, and that the pad of the foot, lying across the sole in +line with the ball of the great toe, serves as a fulcrum or rest. The +weight of the body falls on the foot between the fulcrum in front and +the power behind, as in a lever of the second order. We have explained +why the power of the muscles of the calf is increased the more the +weight of the body is shifted towards the toes, but it is also evident +that the speed and the extent to which the body is lifted are +diminished. If, however, the weight be shifted more towards the heel, +the muscles of the calf, although losing in power, can lift their load +more quickly and to a greater extent. + +We must look closely at the foot lever if we are to understand it. It is +arched or bent; the front pillar of the arch stretches from the summit +or keystone, where the weight of the body is poised, to the pad of the +foot or fulcrum (Fig. 6); the posterior pillar, projecting as the heel, +extends from the summit to the point at which the muscular power is +applied. A foot with a short anterior pillar and a long posterior pillar +or heel is one designed for power, not speed. It is one which will serve +a hill-climber well or a heavy, corpulent man. The opposite kind, one +with a short heel and a long pillar in front, is well adapted for +running and sprinting--for speed. Now, we do find among the various +races of mankind that some have been given long heels, such as the +dark-skinned natives of Africa and of Australia, while other races have +been given relatively short, stumpy heels, of which sort the natives of +Europe and of China may be cited as examples. With long heels less +powerful muscular engines are required, and hence in dark races the calf +of the leg is but ill developed, because the muscles which move the heel +are small. We must admit, however, that the gait of dark-skinned races +is usually easy and graceful. We Europeans, on the other hand, having +short heels, need more powerful muscles to move them, and hence our +calves are usually well developed, but our gait is apt to be jerky. + +[Illustration: Fig. 6.--The bones forming the arch of the foot, seen +from the inner side.] + +If we had the power to make our heels longer or shorter at will, we +should be able, as is the case in a motor cycle, to alter our +"speed-gear" according to the needs of the road. With a steep hill in +front of us, we should adopt a long, slow, powerful heel; while going +down an incline a short one would best suit our needs. With its +four-change speed-gear a motor cycle seems better adapted for easy and +economical travelling than the human machine. If, however, the human +machine has no change of gear, it has one very marvellous +mechanism--which we may call a _compensatory_ mechanism, for want of a +short, easy name. The more we walk, the more we go hill-climbing, the +more powerful do the muscular engines of the heel become. It is quite +different with the engine of a motor cycle; the more it is used, the +more does it become worn out. It is because a muscular engine is living +that it can respond to work by growing stronger and quicker. + +I have no wish to extol the human machine unduly, nor to run down the +motor cycle because of certain defects. There is one defect, however, +which is inherent in all motor machines which man has invented, but from +which the human machine is almost completely free. We can illustrate the +defect best by comparing the movements of the heel with those of the +crank-pin of an engine. One serves as the lever by which the +gastrocnemius helps to propel the body; the other serves the same +purpose in the propulsion of a motor cycle. On referring to Fig. 7, A, +the reader will see that the piston-rod and the crank-pin are in a +straight line; in such a position the engine is powerless to move the +crank-pin until the flywheel is started, thus setting the crank-pin in +motion. Once started, the leverage increases, until the crank-pin stands +at right angles to the piston-rod--a point of maximum power which is +reached when the piston is in the position shown in Fig. 7, B. Then the +leverage decreases until the second dead centre is reached (Fig. 7, C); +from that point the leverage is increased until the second maximum is +reached (Fig. 7, D), whereafter it decreases until the arrival at the +first position completes the cycle. Thus, in each revolution there are +two points where all leverage or power is lost, points which are +surmounted because of the momentum given by the flywheel. Clearly we +should get most out of an engine if it could be kept working near the +points of maximum leverage--with the lever as nearly as possible at +right angles to the crank-pin. + +[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Showing the crank-pin of an engine at: A, First +dead centre. B, First maximum leverage. C, Second dead centre. D, Second +maximum leverage.] + +Now, we have seen that the tendon of Achilles is the piston cord, and +the heel the crank-pin, of the muscular engine represented by the +gastrocnemius and soleus. In the standing posture the heel slopes +downwards and backwards, and is thus in a position, as regards its +piston cord, considerably beyond the point of maximum leverage. As the +heel is lifted by the muscles, it gradually becomes horizontal and at +right angles to its tendon or piston cord. As the heel rises, then, it +becomes a more effective lever; the muscles gain in power. The more the +foot is arched, the more obliquely is the heel set and the greater is +the strength needed to start it moving. Hence, races like the European +and Mongolian, which have short as well as steeply set heels, need large +calf muscles. It is at the end of the upward stroke that the heel +becomes most effective as a lever, and it is just then that we most need +power to propel our bodies in a forward direction. It will be noted that +the heel, unlike the crank-pin of an engine, never reaches, never even +approaches, that point of powerlessness known to engineers as a dead +centre. Work is always performed within the limits of the most effective +working radius of the lever. It is a law for all the levers of the body; +they are set and moved in such a way as to avoid the occurrence of dead +centres. Think what our condition would have been were this not so; why, +we should require revolving fly-wheels set in all our joints! + +[Illustration: Fig. 8.--The arch of the foot from the inner side, +showing some of the muscles which maintain it.] + +Another property is essential in a lever: it must be rigid; otherwise it +will bend, and power will be lost. Now, if the foot were a rigid lever, +there would be missing two of its most useful qualities. It could no +longer act as a spring or buffer to the body, nor could it adapt its +sole to the various kinds of surfaces on which we have to tread or +stand. Nature, with her usual ingenuity, has succeeded in combining +those opposing qualities--rigidity, suppleness, and elasticity or +springiness--by resorting to her favorite device, the use of muscular +engines. The arch is necessarily constructed of a number of bones which +can move on each other to a certain extent, so that the foot may adapt +itself to all kinds of roads and paths. It is true that the bones of the +arch are loosely bound together by passive ties or ligaments, but as +these cannot be lengthened or shortened at will, Nature had to fall back +on the use of muscular engines for the maintenance of the foot as an +arched lever. Some of these are shown in Fig. 8. The foot, then, is a +lever of a very remarkable kind; all the time we stand or walk, its +rigidity, its power to serve as a lever, has to be maintained by an +elaborate battery of muscular engines all kept constantly at work. No +wonder our feet and legs become tired when we have to stand a great +deal. Some of these engines, the larger ones, are kept in the leg, but +their tendons or piston cords descend below the ankle-joint to be fixed +to various parts of the arch, and thus help to keep it up (Fig. 8). +Within the sole of the foot has been placed an installation of seventeen +small engines, all of them springing into action when we stand up, thus +helping to maintain the foot as a rigid yet flexible lever. + +We have already seen why our muscles are so easily exhausted when we +stand stock-still; they then get no rest at all. Now, it sometimes +happens in people who have to stand for long periods at a stretch that +these muscular engines which maintain the arch are overtaxed; the arch +of the foot gives way. The foot becomes flat and flexible, and can no +longer serve as a lever. Many men and women thus become permanently +crippled; they cannot step off their toes, but must shuffle along on the +inner sides of their feet. But if the case of the overworked muscles +which maintain the arch is hard in grown-up people, it is even harder in +boys and girls who have to stand quite still for a long time, or who +have to carry such burdens as are beyond their strength. When we are +young, the bony levers and muscular engines of our feet have not only +their daily work to do, but they have continually to effect those +wonderful alterations which we call growth. Hence, the muscular engines +of young people need special care; they must be given plenty of work to +do, but that kind of active action which gives them alternate strokes of +work and rest. Even the engine of a motor cycle has three strokes of +play for one of work. Our engines, too, must have a liberal supply of +the right kind of fuel. But even with all those precautions, we have to +confess that the muscular engines of the foot do sometimes break down, +and the leverage of the foot becomes threatened. Nor have we succeeded +in finding out why they are so liable to break down in some boys and +girls and not in others. Some day we shall discover this too. + +We are now to look at another part of the human machine so that we may +study a lever of the third order. The lever formed by the forearm and +hand will suit our purpose very well. It is pivoted or jointed at the +elbow; the elbow is its fulcrum (Fig. 9 B). At the opposite end of the +lever, in the, upturned palm of the hand, we shall place a weight of 1 +lb. to represent the load to be moved. The power which we are to yoke to +the lever is a strong muscular engine we have not mentioned before, +called the _brachialis anticus_, or front brachial muscle. It lies in +the upper arm, where it is fixed to the bone of that part--the humerus. +It is attached to one of the bones of the forearm--the ulna--just beyond +the elbow. + +In the second order of lever, we have seen that the muscle worked on one +end, while the weight rested on the lever somewhere between the muscular +attachment and the fulcrum. In levers of the third order, the load is +placed at the end of the lever, and the muscle is attached somewhere +between the load and the fulcrum (Fig. 9 A). In the example we are +considering, the brachial muscle is attached about half an inch beyond +the fulcrum at the elbow, while the total length of the lever, measured +from the elbow to the palm, is 12 inches. Now, it is very evident that +the muscle or power being attached so close to the elbow, works under a +great disadvantage as regards strength. It could lift a 24-lb. weight +placed on the forearm directly over its attachment as easily as a single +pound weight placed on the palm. But, then, there is this advantage: the +1-lb. weight placed in the hand moves with twenty-four times the speed +of the 24-lb. weight situated near the elbow. What is lost in strength +is gained in speed. Whenever Nature wishes to move a light load quickly, +she employs levers of the third order. + +[Illustration: Fig. 9A.--A chisel used as a lever of the third order. W, +weight; P, power; F, fulcrum.] + +We have often to move our forearm very quickly, sometimes to save our +lives. The difference of one-hundredth of a second may mean life or +death to us on the face of a cliff when we clutch at a branch or jutting +rock to save a fall. The quickness of a blow we give or fend depends on +the length of our reach. A long forearm and hand are ill adapted for +lifting heavy burdens; strength is sacrificed if they are too long. +Hence, we find that the laboring peoples of the world--Europeans and +Mongolians--have usually short forearms and hands, while the peoples who +live on such bounties as Nature may provide for them have relatively +long forearms and hands. + +[Illustration: Fig. 9B.--The forearm and hand as a lever of the third +order.] + +Now, man differs from anthropoid apes, which are distant cousins of his, +in having a forearm which is considerably shorter than the upper arm; +whereas in anthropoid apes the forearm is much the longer. That fact +surprises us at first, especially when we remember that anthropoids +spend most of their lives amongst trees and use their arms much more +than their legs in swinging the weight of their heavy bodies from branch +to branch and from tree to tree. A long forearm and hand give them a +long and quick reach, so that they can seize distant branches and swing +themselves along safely and at a good pace. Our first thought is to +suppose that a long forearm, being a weak lever, will be ill adapted +for climbing. But when you look at Fig. 10, the explanation becomes +plain. When a branch is seized by the hand, and the whole weight of the +body is supported from it, the entire machinery of the arm changes its +action. The forearm is no longer the lever which the brachial muscle +moves (Fig. 10), but now becomes the base from which it acts. The part +which was its piston cord now serves as its base of fixation, and what +was its base of fixation to the humerus becomes its piston cord. The +humerus has become a lever of the third order; its fulcrum is at the +elbow; the weight of the body is attached to it at the shoulder and +represents the load which has to be lifted. We also notice that the +brachial muscle is attached a long way up the humerus, thus increasing +its power very greatly, although the rate at which it helps in lifting +the body is diminished. We can see, then, why the humerus is short and +the forearm long in anthropoid apes; shortening the humerus makes it +more powerful as a lever for lifting the body. That is why anthropoids +are strong and agile tree-climbers. But then watch them use those long +hands and forearms for the varied and precise movements we have to +perform in our daily lives, and you will see how clumsy they are. + +[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Showing the action of the brachialis anticus in +the arm of an anthropoid ape.] + +In the human machine the levers of the arm have been fashioned, not for +climbing, but for work of another kind--the kind which brings us a +livelihood. We must have perfect control over our hands; the longer the +lever of the forearm is made, the more difficult does control of the +hand become. Hence, in the human machine the forearm is made relatively +short and the upper arm long. + +We have just seen that the brachial muscle could at one time move the +forearm and hand, but that when they are fixed it could then use the +humerus as a lever and thereby lift the weight of the body. What should +we think of a metal engine which could reverse its action so that it +could act through its piston-rod at one time and through its cylinder at +another? Yet that is what a great number of the muscular engines of the +human machine do every day. + +There is another little point, but an important one, which I must +mention before this chapter is finished. I have spoken of the forearm +and hand as if they formed a single solid lever. Of course that is not +so; there are joints at the wrist where the hand can be moved on the +forearm. But when a weight is placed in the hand, these joints became +fixed by the action of muscles. The fixing muscles are placed in the +forearm, both in front and behind, and are set in action the moment the +hand is loaded. The wrist joint is fixed just in the same way as the +joints of the foot are made rigid by muscles when it has to serve as a +lever. Even when we take a pen in our hand and write, these engines +which balance and fix the wrist have to be in action all the time. The +steadiness of our writing depends on how delicately they are balanced. +Like the muscles of the foot, the fixers of the wrist may become +overworked and exhausted, as occasionally happens in men and women who +do not hold their pens correctly and write for long spells day after +day. The break-down which happens in them is called "writer's cramp," +but it is a disaster of the same kind as that which overtakes the foot +when its arch collapses, and its utility as a lever is lost. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: From _The Engines of the Human Body_, Chapters VI and VII. +J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1920; Williams and Norgate, +London, 1920.] + + + + +THE EXPOSITION OF A MACHINE + +THE MERGENTHALER LINOTYPE[2] + +_Philip T. Dodge_ + + +The Mergenthaler Linotype machine appeared in crude form about 1886. +This machine differs widely from all others in that it is adapted to +produce the type-faces for each line properly justified on the edge of a +solid slug or linotype. + +These slugs, automatically produced and assembled by the machine, are +used in the same manner as other type-forms, whether for direct printing +or for electrotyping, and are remelted after use. + + +GENERAL ORGANIZATION + +The general organization of the machine will first be described. After +this the details will be more fully explained and attention plainly +directed to the various parts which require special consideration. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1.] + +The machine contains, as the vital element, about sixteen hundred +matrices, such as are shown in Fig. 1, each consisting of a small brass +plate having in one edge the female character or matrix proper, and in +the upper end a series of teeth, used as hereinafter explained for +distributing the matrices after use to their proper places in the +magazine of the machine. There are in the machine a number of matrices +for each letter and also matrices representing special characters, and +spaces or quadrats of different thicknesses for use in table-work. There +is a series of finger keys representing the various characters and +spaces, and the machine is so organized that on manipulating the keys it +selects the matrices in the order in which their characters are to +appear in print, and assembles them in a line, with wedge-shaped spaces +or justifiers between the words. The series of matrices thus assembled +in line forms a line matrix, or, in other words, a line of female dies +adapted to mold or form a line of raised type on a slug cast against the +matrices. After the matrix line is composed, it is automatically +transferred to the face of a slotted mold into which molten type-metal +is delivered to form a slug or linotype against the matrices. This done, +the matrices are returned to the magazine and distributed, to be again +composed in new relations for succeeding lines. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2.] + +Fig. 2 illustrates the general organization of the machine. + +_A_ represents an inclined channelled magazine in which the matrices are +stored. Each channel has at the lower end an escapement _B_ to release +the matrices one at a time. Each of these escapements is connected by a +rod _C_ and intermediate devices to one of the finger-keys in the +keyboard _D_. These keys represent the various characters as in a +typewriter. The keys are depressed in the order in which the characters +and spaces are to appear, and the matricies, released successively from +the lower end of the magazine, descend between the guides _E_ to the +surface of an inclined travelling belt _F_, by which they are carried +downward and delivered successively into a channel in the upper part of +the assembling elevator _G_, in which they are advanced by a star-shaped +wheel, seen at the right. + +The wedge-shaped spaces or justifiers _I_ are held in a magazine _H_, +from which they are delivered at proper intervals by finger-key _J_ in +the keyboard, so that they may pass downward and assume their proper +positions in the line of matrices. + +When the composition of the line is completed, the assembling elevator +_G_ is raised and the line is transferred, as indicated by dotted lines, +first to the left and then downward to the casting position in front of +the slotted mold seated in and extending through the vertical wheel _K_, +as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The line of matrices is pressed against and +closes the front of the mold, the characters on the matrices standing +directly opposite the slot in the mold, as shown. The back of the mold +communicates with and is closed by the mouth of a melting-pot _M_, +containing a supply of molten metal and heated by a Bunsen burner +underneath. Within the pot is a vertical pump-plunger which acts at the +proper time to drive the molten metal through the perforated mouth of +the pot into the mold and into all the characters in the matrices. The +metal, solidifying, forms a slug or linotype bearing on its edge, in +relief, type-characters produced from the matrices. The matrices and the +pot are immediately separated from the mold, and the mold wheel rotates +until the slug contained in the mold is presented in front of an ejector +blade, where the slug is ejected from the mold through a pair of knives, +which trim the sides to the required size, into the receiving galley, as +shown in Fig. 4. + +[Illustration: Fig. 3.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 4.] + +After the line of matrices and spaces has served its purpose, it is +raised from the casting position and moved to the right, as shown by the +dotted lines and arrows in Fig. 2. The teeth in the upper ends of the +matrices are engaged with a toothed bar _R_, known as the second +elevator. This elevator swings upward, as shown by dotted lines, +carrying the matrices to the level of the upper end of the magazine, and +leaving the spaces or justifiers behind to be transferred to their +magazine _H_. + +The distributing mechanism consists essentially of a fixed bar _T_, +lying in a horizontal position above the upper end of the magazine, and +having along its lower edge, as shown in Fig. 2, horizontal teeth to +engage the teeth in the upper end of the matrices and hold them in +suspension. The teeth of the matrix for each letter differ in number or +arrangement, or both, from the teeth of matrices bearing other letters, +and the teeth on the lower edge of the distributor bar are +correspondingly varied in arrangement at different points in the length +of the bar. (See Fig. 2.) + +The matrices are moved forward into engagement with the distributor bar +and also into engagement with the threads of horizontal screws _U_, +which are extended parallel with the distributor bar and constantly +rotated so that they cause the matrices to travel one after another +along the distributor and over the mouths of the channels in the +magazines. Each matrix is held in suspension until it arrives over its +proper channel, where for the first time its teeth bear such relation to +those of the bar that it is released and permitted to fall into the +magazine. + +The speed of the machine, which is commonly from four to five thousand +ems per hour, but which has reached ten thousand and upward in +competitive trials, is due to the fact that the matrices pursue a +circulatory course, leaving the magazine at the lower end, passing +thence to the line and to the casting mechanism, and finally returning +to the top of the magazine. This permits the composition of one line, +the casting of another, and the distribution of a third to proceed +simultaneously. + + +ASSEMBLING AND KEYBOARD MECHANISMS + +The matrices pass through the magazine by gravity. Their release is +effected by mechanisms shown in Figs. 5 and 6, which are vertical +sections through the magazine, the keyboard, and intermediate +connections. Under each channel of the magazine, there is an escapement +_B_, consisting of a small lever rocking at its centre on a horizontal +pivot, and carrying at its opposite ends two dogs or pawls _b, b_, which +are projected up alternately into the magazine by the motion of the +lever. The key-rod _C_, suspended from the rear end of the escapement +_B_, tends to hold the lower pawl _b_ in an elevated position, as shown +in Fig. 5, so that it engages under the upper ear of the foremost matrix +to prevent its escape. + +[Illustration: Fig. 5.] + +When the escapement _B_ is rocked, it withdraws the lower pawl _b_, as +shown in Fig. 6, at the same time raising the upper pawl, so that it +engages and momentarily arrests the next matrix. As soon as the first +matrix has escaped, the escapement resumes its original position, the +upper pawl falling, while the lower one rises so as to hold the second +matrix, which assumes the position previously occupied by the one +released. + +[Illustration: Fig. 6.] + +Thus it is that the alternate rising and falling of the two escapement +pawls permits the matrices to escape one at a time. It is evident that +the escapements could be operated directly by rods connected with the +finger-keys, but this direct connection is objectionable because of the +labor required on the part of the operator, and the danger that the keys +may not be fully depressed. Moreover, it is essential that the +escapements should act individually with moderate speed to the end that +the matrices may be properly engaged and disengaged by the pawls. For +these reasons, and to secure easy and uniform action of the parts, the +mechanism shown in Figs. 5 and 6 is introduced between the finger-keys +and escapements. The vertical rods _C_, which actuate the escapements, +are guided in the main frame, and each is urged downward by a spring +_c_. Each rod _C_ terminates directly over one end of a rising and +falling yoke-bar _c2_, turning on a pivot _c3_ at the opposite +end. Each of the yokes _c2_ is slotted vertically to admit an +eccentric _c4_ turning on a pivot therein. A constantly rotating +rubber-covered roll _c5_ is extended across the entire keyboard +beneath the cams, which stand normally as shown in Fig. 5, out of +contact with the roll. When the parts are in this position, the cam-yoke +is sustained at its free end by the yoke-trigger _c8_, and a +cross-bar in the cam engages a vertical pin _c7_ on the frame, +whereby the cam is prevented from falling on to the roller, as it has a +tendency to do. Each of the yoke-triggers _c6_ is connected with a +vertical bar _c8_, which is in turn connected to the rear end of a +finger-key lever _D_. The parts stand normally at rest in the position +shown in Fig. 5, the roll _c5_ turning freely under the cam without +effect upon it. + +When the finger-key is depressed, it raises the bar _c8_, which in +turn trips the yoke-trigger _c6_ from under the cam-yoke _c2_, +permitting the latter to fall, thereby lowering the cam _c4_ into +peripheral engagement with the rubber roll, at the same time disengaging +the cam from the stop-pin _c7_. The roll, engaging frictionally with +the cam, causes the latter to turn on its centre in the direction +indicated by the arrow in Fig. 6. + +Owing to the eccentric shape of the cam, its rotation while resting on +the roller causes it to lift the yoke _c2_ above its original +position, so that it acts upon the escapement rod _C_, lifting it and +causing it to reverse the position of the escapement _B_, to release the +matrix, as plainly seen in Fig. 6. + +While this is taking place, the yoke-trigger _c6_ resumes its first +position, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6, so that as the rotating +cam lowers the yoke, it is again supported in its first position, the +cam at the same time turning forward by momentum out of engagement with +the roll until arrested in its original position by the pin _c7_. + +It will be observed that the parts between each key lever and escapement +operate independently of the others, so that a number of cams may be in +engagement with the rollers at one time, and a number of escapements at +different stages of their action at one time. + +The matrices falling from the magazine descend through the front +channels and are received on the inclined belt _F_, on which they are +carried over and guided on the upper rounding surface of the assembler +entrance-block _f1_, by which they are guided downward in front of +the star-wheel _f2_, which pushes them forward one after another. + +The spaces or justifiers _I_, released from their magazine _H_, as +heretofore described, descend into the assembler _G_ in front of the +star-wheel in the same manner as the matrices. + +The line in course of composition is sustained at its front end by a +yielding finger or resistant _g_, secured to a horizontal assembler +slide _g2_, the purpose of these parts being to hold the line +together in compact form. + +[Illustration: Fig. 7.] + +As the matrices approach the line, their upper ends are carried over a +spring _g3_, projecting through the assembler face-plate from the +rear, as shown in Fig. 7, its purpose being to hold the matrices forward +and prevent them from falling back in such a manner that succeeding +matrices and spaces or justifiers will pass improperly ahead of them. +The descending matrices also pass beneath a long depending spring +_g4_, which should be so adjusted as barely to permit the passage of +the thickest matrix. + +[Illustration: Fig. 8.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 9.] + +After the composition of the line is completed in the assembling +elevator _G_, as shown in Fig. 8, the elevator is raised as shown in +Fig. 9, so as to present the line between the depending fingers of the +transfer-carriage _N_, which then moves to the left to the position +shown by dotted lines in Fig. 9, thereby bringing the line into the +first elevator _O_, which then descends, carrying the line of matrices +downwards, as shown in Fig. 10, to its position in front of the mold and +between the confining jaws _P_, _P_, mounted in the main frame, which +determine the length of the line. + +Figs. 11 and 12 show the casting mechanism in vertical section from +front to rear. When the first elevator _O_ lowers the line, as just +described, the mold and the pot _M_ stand in their rearward positions, +as shown in Fig. 11. + +[Illustration: Fig. 10.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 11.] + +The mold-carrying wheel is sustained by a horizontal slide, and as soon +as the matrix line is lowered to the casting position, a cam at the +rear pushes the slide and mold wheel forward until the front face of the +mold is closed tightly against the rear face of the matrix line, as +shown in Fig. 12. + +[Illustration: Fig. 12.] + +While this is taking place, the pot, having its supporting legs mounted +on a horizontal shaft, swings forward until its mouth is closed tightly +against the back of the mold, as shown in Fig. 12. While the parts are +in this position, the justifying bar _Q_ is driven up and pushes the +spaces or justifiers upward through the line of matrices until the line +is expanded or elongated to fill completely the gap between jaws _P_, +_P_. + +In order to secure exact alignment of the matrices vertically and +horizontally, the bar _Q_ acts repeatedly on the spaces, and the line +is slightly unlocked endwise and relocked. This is done that the +matrices may be temporarily released to facilitate the accurate +adjustment demanded. While the justified line is locked fast between the +jaws, the elevator, and the mold, the plunger _m2_ in the pot +descends and drives the molten metal before it through the spout or +mouth of the pot into the mold, which is filled under pressure, so that +a solid slug is produced against the matrices. The pot then retreats, +and its mouth breaks away from the back of the slug in the mold, while, +at the same time, the mold retreats to draw the type-characters on the +contained slug out of the matrices. The mold wheel now revolves, +carrying the rear edge of the slug past a stationary trimming-knife, not +shown, and around to the position in front of the ejector, as previously +described and shown in Fig. 4, whereupon the ejector advances and drives +the slug between two side trimming-knives into the galley at the front. + + +DISTRIBUTION + +After the casting action the first elevator _O_ rises and carries the +matrix line above the original or composing level, as shown in Fig. 13. +The line is then drawn horizontally to the right until the teeth of the +matrices engage the toothed elevator bar _R_, which swings upward with +the matrices, thus separating the matrices from the spaces or justifiers +_I_, which remain suspended in the frame, so that they may be pushed to +the right, as indicated by the arrow, into their magazine. + +[Illustration: Fig. 13.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 14.] + +When the line of matrices is raised to the distributor, it is necessary +that the matrices shall be separated and presented one at a time to the +distributor bar, between the threads of the horizontal carrier-screws. +This is accomplished as shown in Figs. 14 and 15. A horizontal pusher or +line-shifter _S_ carries the line of matrices forward from the elevator +bar _R_ into the so-called distributor box, containing at its opposite +sides two rails _u_, having near their forward ends shoulders _u2_, +against which the forward matrix abuts so as to prevent further advance +of the line, which is urged constantly forward by the follower or +line-shifter _S_. A vertically reciprocating lifting finger _V_ has its +upper end shouldered to engage beneath the foremost matrix, so as to +push it upward until its upper ears are lifted above the detaining +shoulder _u2_, so that they may ride forward on the upwardly inclined +inner ends of the rails, as shown in Fig. 14. The matrices thus lifted +are engaged by the screws and carried forward, and, as they move +forward, they are gradually raised by the rails until the teeth finally +engage themselves on the distributor bar _T_, from which they are +suspended as they are carried forward, over the mouth of the magazine, +until they fall into their respective channels, as shown in Fig. 15. + +The distributor box also contains on opposite sides shorter rails, +_u4_, adapted to engage the lower ends of the matrices, to hold them +in position as they are lifted. The lifting finger _V_ is mounted on a +horizontal pivot in one end of an elbow lever mounted on pivot _v2_ +and actuated by a cam on the end of one of the carrier-screws, as shown +in Figs. 2 and 15. + + +TRIMMING-KNIVES + +In practice there is occasionally found a slight irregularity in the +thickness of slugs, and thin fins are sometimes cast around the forward +edges. For the purpose of reducing them to a uniform thickness, they are +driven on their way to the galley between two vertical knives, as shown +in Figs. 4 and 16. The inner knife is stationary, but the outer knife is +adjustable in order that it may accommodate slugs of different +thicknesses. This adjustment is made by the knife being seated at its +outer edge against a supporting bar or wedge, having at opposite ends +two inclined surfaces seated against supporting screws in the +knife-block. A lever engages a pin on the wedge for the purpose of +moving it endwise; when moving in one direction, it forces the knife +inward toward the stationary knife, and when moved in the other +direction, it forces it to retreat under the influence of a spring +seated in the block. The wedge is provided with a series of teeth +engaged by a spring-actuated pin or dog, whereby the wedge and the knife +are stopped in proper positions to insure the exact space required +between the two knives. + +[Illustration: Fig. 15.] + +The back knife, secured to the frame for trimming the base of the slug +as it is carried past by the revolving wheel, should be kept moderately +sharp and adjusted so as to fit closely against the back of the passing +mold. Particular attention should be paid to this feature. The edge of +the knife must bear uniformly across the face of the mold. + +[Illustration: Fig. 16.] + +The front knives, between which the slug is ejected, should not be made +too sharp. After being sharpened, the thin edge can be advantageously +removed by the use of a thin oilstone applied against the side face; +that is, against the face past which the slug is carried. + +The stationary or left-hand knife should be so adjusted as to align +exactly with the inner side of the mold. Under proper conditions this +knife does not trim the side face of the slug, but acts only to remove +any slight fins or projections at the front edge. + +The right-hand knife, adjustable by means of a wedge and lever, should +stand exactly parallel with the stationary knife. It trims the side of +the slug on which the ribs are formed, and it serves to bring the slug +to the exact thickness required. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: From Theodore L. De Vinne's _Modern Methods of Book +Composition_, pp. 403-425. The Century Company, New York, 1904.] + + + + +THE EXPOSITION OF A PROCESS IN NATURE + +THE PEA WEEVIL[3] + +_Jean Henri Fabre_ + + +Peas are held in high esteem by mankind. From remote ages man has +endeavored, by careful culture, to produce larger, tenderer, and sweeter +varieties. Of an adaptable character, under careful treatment the plant +has evolved in a docile fashion, and has ended by giving us what the +ambition of the gardener desired. To-day we have gone far beyond the +yield of the Varrons and Columelles, and further still beyond the +original pea; from the wild seeds confided to the soil by the first man +who thought to scratch up the surface of the earth, perhaps with the +half-jaw of a cave-bear, whose powerful canine tooth would serve him as +a ploughshare! + +Where is it, this original pea, in the world of spontaneous vegetation? +Our own country has nothing resembling it. Is it to be found elsewhere? +On this point botany is silent, or replies only with vague +probabilities. + +We find the same ignorance elsewhere on the subject of the majority of +our alimentary vegetables. Whence comes wheat, the blessed grain which +gives us bread? No one knows. You will not find it here, except in the +care of man; nor will you find it abroad. In the East, the birthplace +of agriculture, no botanist has ever encountered the sacred ear growing +of itself on unbroken soil. + +Barley, oats, and rye, the turnip and the beet, the beetroot, the +carrot, the pumpkin, and so many other vegetable products, leave us in +the same perplexity; their point of departure is unknown to us, or at +most suspected behind the impenetrable cloud of the centuries. Nature +delivered them to us in the full vigor of the thing untamed, when their +value as food was indifferent, as to-day she offers us the sloe, the +bullace, the blackberry, the crab; she gave them to us in the state of +imperfect sketches, for us to fill out and complete; it was for our +skill and our labor patiently to induce the nourishing pulp which was +the earliest form of capital, whose interest is always increasing in the +primordial bank of the tiller of the soil. + +As storehouses of food the cereal and the vegetable are, for the greater +part, the work of man. The fundamental species, a poor resource in their +original state, we borrowed as they were from the natural treasury of +the vegetable world; the perfected race, rich in alimentary materials, +is the result of our art. + +If wheat, peas, and all the rest are indispensable to us, our care, by a +just return, is absolutely necessary to them. Such as our needs have +made them, incapable of resistance in the bitter struggle for survival, +these vegetables, left to themselves without culture, would rapidly +disappear, despite the numerical abundance of their seeds, as the +foolish sheep would disappear were there no more sheep-folds. + +They are our work, but not always our exclusive property. Wherever food +is amassed, the consumers collect from the four corners of the sky; they +invite themselves to the feast of abundance, and the richer the food the +greater their numbers. Man, who alone is capable of inducing agrarian +abundance, is by that very fact the giver of an immense banquet at which +legions of feasters take their place. By creating more juicy and more +generous fruits, he calls to his enclosures, despite himself, thousands +and thousands of hungry creatures, against whose appetites his +prohibitions are helpless. The more he produces, the larger is the +tribute demanded of him. Wholesale agriculture and vegetable abundance +favor our rival, the insect. + +This is the immanent law. Nature, with an equal zeal, offers her mighty +breast to all her nurslings alike; to those who live by the goods of +others no less than to the producers. For us, who plough, sow, and reap, +and weary ourselves with labor, she ripens the wheat; she ripens it also +for the little Calender-beetle, which, although exempted from the labor +of the fields, enters our granaries none the less, and there, with its +pointed beak, nibbles our wheat, grain by grain, to the husk. + +For us, who dig, weed, and water, bent with fatigue and burned by the +sun, she swells the pods of the pea; she swells them also for the +weevil, which does no gardener's work, yet takes its share of the +harvest at its own hour, when the earth is joyful with the new life of +spring. + +Let us follow the manoeuvres of this insect which takes its tithe of the +green pea. I, a benevolent rate-payer, will allow it to take its dues; +it is precisely to benefit it that I have sown a few rows of the beloved +plant in a corner of my garden. Without other invitation on my part than +this modest expenditure of seed-peas, it arrives punctually during the +month of May. It has learned that this stony soil, rebellious at the +culture of the kitchen-gardener, is bearing peas for the first time. In +all haste therefore it has hurried, an agent of the entomological +revenue system, to demand its dues. + +Whence does it come? It is impossible to say precisely. It has come from +some shelter, somewhere, in which it has passed the winter in a state of +torpor. The plane-tree, which sheds its rind during the heats of the +summer, furnishes an excellent refuge for homeless insects under its +partly detached sheets of bark. + +I have often found our weevil in such a winter refuge. Sheltered under +the dead covering of the plane, or otherwise protected while the winter +lasts, it awakens from its torpor at the first touch of a kindly sun. +The almanac of the instincts has aroused it; it knows as well as the +gardener when the pea-vines are in flower, and seeks its favorite plant, +journeying thither from every side, running with quick, short steps, or +nimbly flying. + +A small head, a fine snout, a costume of ashen grey sprinkled with +brown, flattened wing-covers, a dumpy, compact body, with two large +black dots on the rear segment--such is the summary portrait of my +visitor. The middle of May approaches, and with it the van of the +invasion. + +They settle on the flowers, which are not unlike white-winged +butterflies. I see them at the base of the blossom or inside the cavity +of the "keel" of the flower, but the majority explore the petals and +take possession of them. The time for laying the eggs has not yet +arrived. The morning is mild; the sun is warm without being oppressive. +It is the moment of nuptial flights; the time of rejoicing in the +splendor of the sunshine. Everywhere are creatures rejoicing to be +alive. Couples come together, part, and re-form. When towards noon the +heat becomes too great, the weevils retire into the shadow, taking +refuge singly in the folds of the flowers whose secret corners they know +so well. To-morrow will be another day of festival, and the next day +also, until the pods, emerging from the shelter of the "keel" of the +flower, are plainly visible, enlarging from day to day. + +A few gravid females, more pressed for time than the others, confide +their eggs to the growing pod, flat and meager as it issues from its +floral sheath. These hastily laid batches of eggs, expelled perhaps by +the exigencies of an ovary incapable of further delay, seem to me in +serious danger; for the seed in which the grub must establish itself is +as yet no more than a tender speck of green, without firmness and +without any farinaceous tissue. No larva could possibly find sufficient +nourishment there, unless it waited for the pea to mature. + +But is the grub capable of fasting for any length of time when once +hatched? It is doubtful. The little I have seen tells me that the +newborn grub must establish itself in the midst of its food as quickly +as possible, and that it perishes unless it can do so. I am therefore of +opinion that such eggs as are deposited in immature pods are lost. +However, the race will hardly suffer by such a loss, so fertile is the +little beetle. We shall see directly how prodigal the female is of her +eggs, the majority of which are destined to perish. + +The important part of the maternal task is completed by the end of May, +when the shells are swollen by the expanding peas, which have reached +their final growth, or are but little short of it. I was anxious to see +the female Bruchus at work in her quality of Curculionid, as our +classification declares her.[4] The other weevils are Rhyncophora, +beaked insects, armed with a drill with which to prepare the hole in +which the egg is laid. The Bruchus possesses only a short snout or +muzzle, excellently adapted for eating soft tissues, but valueless as a +drill. + +The method of installing the family is consequently absolutely +different. There are no industrious preparations as with the Balinidae, +the Larinidae, and the Rhynchitides. Not being equipped with a long +oviscapt, the mother sows her eggs in the open, with no protection +against the heat of the sun and the variations of temperature. Nothing +could be simpler, and nothing more perilous to the eggs, in the absence +of special characteristics which, would enable them to resist the +alternate trials of heat and cold, moisture and drought. + +In the caressing sunlight of ten o'clock in the morning, the mother runs +up and down the chosen pod, first on one side, then on the other, with +a jerky, capricious, unmethodical gait. She repeatedly extrudes a short +oviduct, which oscillates right and left as though to graze the skin of +the pod. An egg follows, which is abandoned as soon as laid. + +A hasty touch of the oviduct, first here, then there, on the green skin +of the pea-pod, and that is all. The egg is left there, unprotected, in +the full sunlight. No choice of position is made such as might assist +the grub when it seeks to penetrate its larder. Some eggs are laid on +the swellings created by the peas beneath; others in the barren valleys +which separate them. The first are close to the peas, the second at some +distance from them. In short, the eggs of the Bruchus are laid at +random, as though on the wing. + +We observe a still more serious vice: the number of eggs is out of all +proportion to the number of peas in the pod. Let us note at the outset +that each grub requires one pea; it is the necessary ration, and is +largely sufficient for one larva, but is not enough for several, nor +even for two. One pea to each grub, neither more nor less, is the +unchangeable rule. + +We should expect to find signs of a procreative economy which would +impel the female to take into account the number of peas contained in +the pod which she has just explored; we might expect her to set a +numerical limit on her eggs in conformity with that of the peas +available. But no such limit is observed. The rule of one pea to one +grub is always contradicted by the multiplicity of consumers. + +My observations are unanimous on this point. The number of eggs +deposited on one pod always exceeds the number of peas available, and +often to a scandalous degree. However meager the contents of the pod, +there is a superabundance of consumers. Dividing the sum of the eggs +upon such or such a pod by that of the peas contained therein, I find +there are five to eight claimants for each pea; I have found ten, and +there is no reason why this prodigality should not go still further. +Many are called, but few are chosen! What is to become of all these +supernumeraries, perforce excluded from the banquet for want of space? + +The eggs are of a fairly bright amber yellow, cylindrical in form, +smooth, and rounded at the ends. Their length is at most a twenty-fifth +of an inch. Each is affixed to the pod by means of a slight network of +threads of coagulated albumen. Neither wind nor rain can loosen their +hold. + +The mother not infrequently emits them two at a time, one above the +other; not infrequently, also, the uppermost of the two eggs hatches +before the other, while the latter fades and perishes. What was lacking +to this egg, that it should fail to produce a grub? Perhaps a bath of +sunlight; the incubating heat of which the outer egg has robbed it. +Whether on account of the fact that it is shadowed by the other egg, or +for other reasons, the elder of the eggs in a group of two rarely +follows the normal course, but perishes on the pod, dead without having +lived. + +There are exceptions to this premature end; sometimes the two eggs +develop equally well; but such cases are exceptional, so that the +Bruchid family would be reduced to about half its dimensions if the +binary system were the rule. To the detriment of our peas and to the +advantage of the beetle, the eggs are commonly laid one by one and in +isolation. + +A recent emergence is shown by a little sinuous ribbon-like mark, pale +or whitish, where the skin of the pod is raised and withered, which +starts from the egg and is the work of the newborn larva; a +sub-epidermic tunnel along which the grub works its way, while seeking a +point from which it can escape into a pea. This point once attained, the +larva, which is scarcely a twenty-fifth of an inch in length, and is +white with a black head, perforates the envelope and plunges into the +capacious hollow of the pod. + +It has reached the peas and crawls upon the nearest. I have observed it +with the magnifier. Having explored the green globe, its new world, it +begins to sink a well perpendicularly into the sphere. I have often seen +it halfway in, wriggling its tail in the effort to work the quicker. In +a short time the grub disappears and is at home. The point of entry, +minute, but always easily recognizable by its brown coloration on the +pale green background of the pea, has no fixed location; it may be at +almost any point on the surface of the pea, but an exception is usually +made of the lower half; that is, the hemisphere whose pole is formed by +the supporting stem. + +It is precisely in this portion that the germ is found, which will not +be eaten by the larva, and will remain capable of developing into a +plant, in spite of the large aperture made by the emergence of the adult +insect. Why is this particular portion left untouched? What are the +motives that safeguard the germ? + +It goes without saying that the Bruchus is not considering the +gardener. The pea is meant for it and for no one else. In refusing the +few bites that would lead to the death of the seed, it has no intention +of limiting its destruction. It abstains from other motives. + +Let us remark that the peas touch laterally, and are pressed one against +the other, so that the grub, when searching for a point of attack, +cannot circulate at will. Let us also note that the lower pole expands +into the umbilical excrescence, which is less easy of perforation than +those parts protected by the skin alone. It is even possible that the +umbilicum, whose organization differs from that of the rest of the pea, +contains a peculiar sap that is distasteful to the little grub. + +Such, doubtless, is the reason why the peas exploited by the Bruchus are +still able to germinate. They are damaged, but not dead, because the +invasion was conducted from the free hemisphere, a portion less +vulnerable and more easy of access. Moreover, as the pea in its entirety +is too large for a single grub to consume, the consumption is limited to +the portion preferred by the consumer, and this portion is not the +essential portion of the pea. + +With other conditions, with very much smaller or very much larger seeds, +we shall observe very different results. If too small, the germ will +perish, gnawed like the rest by the insufficiently provisioned inmate; +if too large, the abundance of food will permit of several inmates. +Exploited in the absence of the pea, the cultivated vetch and the broad +bean afford us an excellent example; the smaller seed, of which all but +the skin is devoured, is left incapable of germination; but the large +bean, even though it may have held a number of grubs, is still capable +of sprouting. + +Knowing that the pod always exhibits a number of eggs greatly in excess +of the enclosed peas, and that each pea is the exclusive property of one +grub, we naturally ask what becomes of the superfluous grubs. Do they +perish outside when the more precocious have one by one taken their +places in their vegetable larder? or do they succumb to the intolerant +teeth of the first occupants? Neither explanation is correct. Let us +relate the facts. + +On all old peas--they are at this stage dry--from which the adult +Bruchus has emerged, leaving a large round hole of exit, the +magnifying-glass will show a variable number of fine reddish +punctuations, perforated in the centre. What are these spots, of which I +count five, six, and even more on a single pea? It is impossible to be +mistaken: they are the points of entry of as many grubs. Several grubs +have entered the pea, but of the whole group only one has survived, +fattened, and attained the adult age. And the others? We shall see. + +At the end of May, and in June, the period of egg-laying, let us inspect +the still green and tender peas. Nearly all the peas invaded show us the +multiple perforations already observed on the dry peas abandoned by the +weevils. Does this actually mean that there are several grubs in the +pea? Yes. Skin the peas in question, separate the cotyledons, and break +them up as may be necessary. We shall discover several grubs, extremely +youthful, curled up comma-wise, fat and lively, each in a little round +niche in the body of the pea. + +Peace and welfare seem to reign in the little community. There is no +quarrelling, no jealousy between neighbors. The feast has commenced; +food is abundant, and the feasters are separated one from another by the +walls of uneaten substance. With this isolation in separate cells no +conflicts need be feared; no sudden bite of the mandibles, whether +intentional or accidental. All the occupants enjoy the same rights of +property, the same appetite, and the same strength. How does this +communal feast terminate? + +Having first opened them, I place a number of peas which are found to be +well peopled in a glass test-tube. I open others daily. In this way I +keep myself informed as to the progress of the various larvae. At first +nothing noteworthy is to be seen. Isolated in its narrow chamber, each +grub nibbles the substance around it, peacefully and parsimoniously. It +is still very small; a mere speck of food is a feast; but the contents +of one pea will not suffice the whole number to the end. Famine is +ahead, and all but one must perish. + +Soon, indeed, the aspect of things is entirely changed. One of the +grubs--that which occupies the central position in the pea--begins to +grow more quickly than the others. Scarcely has it surpassed the others +in size when the latter cease to eat, and no longer attempt to burrow +forwards. They lie motionless and resigned; they die that gentle death +which comes to unconscious lives. Henceforth the entire pea belongs to +the sole survivor. Now what has happened that these lives around the +privileged one should be thus annihilated? In default of a satisfactory +reply, I will propose a suggestion. + +In the centre of the pea, less ripened than the rest of the seed by the +chemistry of the sun, may there not be a softer pulp, of a quality +better adapted to the infantile digestion of the grub? There, perhaps, +being nourished by tenderer, sweeter, and perhaps, more tasty tissues, +the stomach becomes more vigorous, until it is fit to undertake less +easily digested food. A nursling is fed on milk before proceeding to +bread and broth. May not the central portion of the pea be the +feeding-bottle of the Bruchid? + +With equal rights, fired by an equal ambition, all the occupants of the +pea bore their way towards the delicious morsel. The journey is +laborious, and the grubs must rest frequently in their provisional +niches. They rest; while resting they frugally gnaw the riper tissues +surrounding them; they gnaw rather to open a way than to fill their +stomachs. + +Finally one of the excavators, favored by the direction taken, attains +the central portion. It establishes itself there, and all is over; the +others have only to die. How are they warned that the place is taken? Do +they hear their brother gnawing at the walls of his lodging? can they +feel the vibration set up by his nibbling mandibles? Something of the +kind must happen, for from that moment they make no attempt to burrow +further. Without struggling against the fortunate winner, without +seeking to dislodge him, those which are beaten in the race give +themselves up to death. I admire this candid resignation on the part of +the departed. + +Another condition--that of space--is also present as a factor. The pea +weevil is the largest of our Bruchidae. When it attains the adult +stage, it requires a certain amplitude of lodging, which the other +weevils do not require in the same degree. A pea provides it with a +sufficiently spacious cell; nevertheless, the cohabitation of two in one +pea would be impossible; there would be no room, even were the two to +put up with a certain discomfort. Hence the necessity of an inevitable +decimation, which will suppress all the competitors save one. + +Now the superior volume of the broad bean, which is almost as much +beloved by the weevil as the pea, can lodge a considerable community, +and the solitary can live as a cenobite. Without encroaching on the +domain of their neighbors, five or six or more can find room in the one +bean. + +Moreover, each grub can find its infant diet; that is, that layer which, +remote from the surface, hardens only gradually and remains full of sap +until a comparatively late period. This inner layer represents the crumb +of a loaf, the rest of the bean being the crust. + +In a pea, a sphere of much less capacity, it occupies the central +portion; a limited point at which the grub develops, and lacking which +it perishes; but in the bean it lines the wide adjoining faces of the +two flattened cotyledons. No matter where the point of attack is made, +the grub has only to bore straight down when it quickly reaches the +softer tissues. What is the result? I have counted the eggs adhering to +a bean-pod and the beans included in the pod, and comparing the two +figures I find that there is plenty of room for the whole family at the +rate of five or six dwellers in each bean. No superfluous larvae perish +of hunger when barely issued from the egg; all have their share of the +ample provision; all live and prosper. The abundance of food balances +the prodigal fertility of the mother. + +If the Bruchus were always to adopt the broad bean for the establishment +of her family, I could well understand the exuberant allowance of eggs +to one pod; a rich foodstuff easily obtained evokes a large batch of +eggs. But the case of the pea perplexes me. By what aberration does the +mother abandon her children to starvation on this totally insufficient +vegetable? Why so many grubs to each pea when one pea is sufficient only +for one grub? + +Matters are not so arranged in the general balance-sheet of life. A +certain foresight seems to rule over the ovary so that the number of +mouths is in proportion to the abundance or scarcity of the food +consumed. The Scarabaeus, the Sphex, the Necrophorus, and other insects +which prepare and preserve alimentary provision for their families, are +all of a narrowly limited fertility, because the balls of dung, the dead +or paralyzed insects, or the buried corpses of animals on which their +offspring are nourished are provided only at the cost of laborious +efforts. + +The ordinary bluebottle, on the contrary, which lays her eggs upon +butcher's meat or carrion, lays them in enormous batches. Trusting in +the inexhaustible riches represented by the corpse, she is prodigal of +offspring, and takes no account of numbers. In other cases the provision +is acquired by audacious brigandage, which exposes the newly born +offspring to a thousand mortal accidents. In such cases the mother +balances the chances of destruction by an exaggerated flux of eggs. +Such is the case with the Meloides, which, stealing the goods of others +under conditions of the greatest peril, are accordingly endowed with a +prodigious fertility. + +The Bruchus knows neither the fatigues of the laborious, obliged to +limit the size of her family, nor the misfortunes of the parasite, +obliged to produce an exaggerated number of offspring. Without painful +search, entirely at her ease, merely moving in the sunshine over her +favorite plant, she can insure a sufficient provision for each of her +offspring; she can do so, yet is foolish enough to over-populate the pod +of the pea; a nursery insufficiently provided, in which the great +majority will perish of starvation. This ineptitude is a thing I cannot +understand; it clashes too completely with the habitual foresight of the +maternal instinct. + +I am inclined to believe that the pea is not the original food plant of +the Bruchus. The original plant must rather have been the bean, one seed +of which is capable of supporting a dozen or more larvae. With the +larger cotyledon the crying disproportion between the number of eggs and +the available provision disappears. + +Moreover, it is indubitable that the bean is of earlier date than the +pea. Its exceptional size and its agreeable flavor would certainly have +attracted the attention of man from the remotest periods. The bean is a +ready-made mouthful, and would be of the greatest value to the hungry +tribe. Primitive man would at an early date have sown it beside his +wattled hut. Coming from Central Asia by long stages, their wagons drawn +by shaggy oxen and rolling on the circular discs cut from the trunks of +trees, the early immigrants would have brought to our virgin land, first +the bean, then the pea, and finally the cereal, that best of safeguards +against famine. They taught us the care of herds, and the use of bronze, +the material of the first metal implement. Thus the dawn of civilization +arose over France. With the bean did those ancient teachers also +involuntarily bring us the insect which to-day disputes it with us? It +is doubtful; the Bruchidae seem to be indigenous. At all events, I find +them levying tribute from various indigenous plants, wild vegetables +which have never tempted the appetite of man. They abound in particular +upon the great forest vetch (_Lathyrus latifolius_), with its +magnificent heads of flowers and long handsome pods. The seeds are not +large, being indeed smaller than the garden pea; but, eaten to the very +skin, as they invariably are, each is sufficient to the needs of its +grub. + +We must not fail to note their number. I have counted more than twenty +in a single pod, a number unknown in the case of the pea, even in the +most prolific varieties. Consequently this superb vetch is in general +able to nourish without much loss the family confided to its pod. + +Where the forest vetch is lacking, the Bruchus, none the less, bestows +its habitual prodigality of eggs upon another vegetable of similar +flavor, but incapable of nourishing all the grubs: for example, the +travelling vetch (_Vicia peregrina_) or the cultivated vetch (_Vicia +saliva_). The number of eggs remains high even upon insufficient pods, +because the original food-plant offered a copious provision, both in the +multiplicity and the size of the seeds. If the Bruchus is really a +stranger, let us regard the bean as the original food-plant; if +indigenous, the large vetch. + +Sometime in the remote past we received the pea, growing it at first in +the prehistoric vegetable garden which already supplied the bean. It was +found a better article of diet than the broad bean, which to-day, after +such good service, is comparatively neglected. The weevil was of the +same opinion as man, and without entirely forgetting the bean and the +vetch it established the greater part of its tribe upon the pea, which +from century to century was more widely cultivated. To-day we have to +share our peas; the Bruchidae take what they need, and bestow their +leavings on us. + +This prosperity of the insect which is the offspring of the abundance +and equality of our garden products is from another point of view +equivalent to decadence. For the weevil, as for ourselves, progress in +matters of food and drink is not always beneficial. The race would +profit better if it remained frugal. On the bean and the vetch the +Bruchus founded colonies in which the infant mortality was low. There +was room for all. On the pea-vine, delicious though its fruits may be, +the greater part of its offspring die of starvation. The rations are +few, and the hungry mouths are multitudinous. + +We will linger over this problem no longer. Let us observe the grub +which has now become the sole tenant of the pea by the death of its +brothers. It has had no part in their death; chance has favored it, that +is all. In the centre of the pea, a wealthy solitude, it performs the +duty of a grub, the sole duty of eating. It nibbles the walls enclosing +it, enlarging its lodgment, which is always entirely filled by its +corpulent body. It is well shaped, fat, and shining with health. If I +disturb it, it turns gently in its niche and sways its head. This is its +manner of complaining of my importunities. Let us leave it in peace. + +It profits so greatly and so swiftly by its position that by the time +the dog-days have come it is already preparing for its approaching +liberation. The adult is not sufficiently well equipped to open for +itself a way out through the pea, which is now completely hardened. The +larva knows of this future helplessness, and with consummate art +provides for its release. With its powerful mandibles it bores a channel +of exit, exactly round, with extremely clean-cut sides. The most skilful +ivory-carver could do no better. + +To prepare the door of exit in advance is not enough; the grub must also +provide for the tranquillity essential to the delicate processes of +nymphosis. An intruder might enter by the open door and injure the +helpless nymph. This passage must therefore remain closed. But how? + +As the grub bores the passage of exit, it consumes the farinaceous +matter without leaving a crumb. Having come to the skin of the pea, it +stops short. This membrane, semi-translucid, is the door to the chamber +of metamorphosis, its protection against the evil intentions of external +creatures. + +It is also the only obstacle which the adult will encounter at the +moment of exit. To lessen the difficulty of opening it, the grub takes +the precaution of gnawing at the inner side of the skin, all round the +circumference, so as to make a line of least resistance. The perfect +insect will only have to heave with its shoulder and strike a few blows +with its head in order to raise the circular door and knock it off like +the lid of a box. The passage of exit shows through the diaphanous skin +of the pea as a large circular spot, which is darkened by the obscurity +of the interior. What passes behind it is invisible, hidden as, it is +behind a sort of ground-glass window. + +A pretty invention, this little closed porthole, this barricade against +the invader, this trap-door raised by a push when the time has come for +the hermit to enter the world. Shall we credit it to the Bruchus? Did +the ingenious insect conceive the undertaking? Did it think out a plan +and work out a scheme of its own devising? This would be no small +triumph for the brain of a weevil. Before coming to a conclusion, let us +try an experiment. + +I deprive certain occupied peas of their skin, and I dry them with +abnormal rapidity, placing them in glass test-tubes. The grubs prosper +as well as in the intact peas. At the proper time the preparations for +emergence are made. + +If the grub acts on its own inspiration, if it ceases to prolong its +boring directly it recognizes that the outer coating, auscultated from +time to time, is sufficiently thin, what will it do under the conditions +of the present test? Feeling itself at the requisite distance from the +surface, it will stop boring; it will respect the outer layer of the +bare pea, and will thus obtain the indispensable protecting screen. + +Nothing of the kind occurs. In every case the passage is completely +excavated; the entrance gapes wide open, as large and as carefully +executed as though the skin of the pea were in its place. Reasons of +security have failed to modify the usual method of work. This open +lodging has no defence against the enemy; but the grub exhibits no +anxiety on this score. + +Neither is it thinking of the outer enemy when it bores down to the skin +when the pea is intact, and then stops short. It suddenly stops because +the innutritious skin is not to its taste. We ourselves remove the +parchment-like skins from a mess of pease-pudding, as from a culinary +point of view they are so much waste matter. The larva of the Bruchus, +like ourselves, dislikes the skin of the pea. It stops short at the +horny covering, simply because it is checked by an uneatable substance. +From this aversion a little miracle arises; but the insect has no sense +of logic; it is passively obedient to the superior logic of facts. It +obeys its instinct, as unconscious of its act as is a crystal when it +assembles, in exquisite order, its battalions of atoms. + +Sooner or later during the month of August we see a shadowy circle form +on each inhabited pea; but only one on each seed. These circles of +shadow mark the doors of exit. Most of them open in September. The lid, +as though cut out with a punch, detaches itself cleanly and falls to the +ground, leaving the orifice free. The Bruchus emerges, freshly clad, in +its final form. + +The weather is delightful. Flowers are abundant, awakened by the summer +showers; and the weevils visit them in the lovely autumn weather. Then, +when the cold sets in, they take up their winter quarters in any +suitable retreat. Others, still numerous, are less hasty in quitting +the native seed. They remain within during the whole winter, sheltered +behind the trap-door, which they take care not to touch. The door of the +cell will not open on its hinges, or, to be exact, will not yield along +the line of least resistance, until the warm days return. Then the late +arrivals will leave their shelter and rejoin the more impatient, and +both will be ready for work when the pea-vines are in flower. + +To take a general view of the instincts in their inexhaustible variety +is, for the observer, the great attraction of the entomological world, +for nowhere do we gain a clearer sight of the wonderful way in which the +processes of life are ordered. Thus regarded, entomology is not, I know, +to the taste of everybody; the simple creature absorbed in the doings +and habits of insects is held in low esteem. To the terrible +utilitarian, a bushel of peas preserved from the weevil is of more +importance than a volume of observations which bring no immediate +profit. + +Yet who has told you, O man of little faith, that what is useless to-day +will not be useful to-morrow? If we learn the customs of insects or +animals, we shall understand better how to protect our goods. Do not +despise disinterested knowledge, or you may rue the day. It is by the +accumulation of ideas, whether immediately applicable or otherwise, that +humanity has done, and will continue to do, better to-day than +yesterday, and better to-morrow than to-day. If we live on peas and +beans, which we dispute with the weevil, we also live by knowledge, that +mighty kneading-trough in which the bread of progress is mixed and +leavened. Knowledge is well worth a few beans. + +Among other things, knowledge tells us: "The seedsman need not go to the +expense of waging war upon the weevil. When the peas arrive in the +granary, the harm is already done; it is irreparable, but not +transmissible. The untouched peas have nothing to fear from the +neighborhood of those which have been attacked, however long the mixture +is left. From the latter the weevils will issue when their time has +come; they will fly away from the storehouse if escape is possible; if +not, they will perish without in any way attacking the sound peas. No +eggs, no new generation will ever be seen upon or within the dried peas +in the storehouse; there the adult weevil can work no further mischief." + +The Bruchus is not a sedentary inhabitant of granaries: it requires the +open air, the sun, the liberty of the fields. Frugal in everything, it +absolutely disdains the hard tissues of the vegetable; its tiny mouth is +content with a few honeyed mouthfuls, enjoyed upon the flowers. The +larvae, on the other hand, require the tender tissues of the green pea +growing in the pod. For these reasons the granary knows no final +multiplication on the part of the despoiler. + +The origin of the evil is in the kitchen-garden. It is there that we +ought to keep a watch on the misdeeds of the Bruchus, were it not for +the fact that we are nearly always weaponless when it comes to fighting +an insect. Indestructible by reason of its numbers, its small size, and +its cunning, the little creature laughs at the anger of man. The +gardener curses it, but the weevil is not disturbed; it imperturbably +continues its trade of levying tribute. Happily we have assistants more +patient and more clear-sighted than ourselves. + +During the first week of August, when the mature Bruchus begins to +emerge, I notice a little Chalcidian, the protector of our peas. In my +rearing-cages it issues under my eyes in abundance from the peas +infested by the grub of the weevil. The female has a reddish head and +thorax; the abdomen is black, with a long augur-like oviscapt. The male, +a little smaller, is black. Both sexes have reddish claws and +thread-like antennae. + +In order to escape from the pea, the slayer of the weevil makes an +opening in the centre of the circular trap-door which the grub of the +weevil prepared in view of its future deliverance. The slain has +prepared the way for the slayer. After this detail the rest may be +divined. + +When the preliminaries to the metamorphosis are completed, when the +passage of escape is bored and furnished with its lid of superficial +membrane, the female Chalcidian arrives in a busy mood. She inspects the +peas, still on the vine, and enclosed in their pods; she auscultates +them with her antennae; she discovers, hidden under the general +envelope, the weak points in the epidermic covering of the peas. Then, +applying her oviscapt, she thrusts it through the side of the pod and +perforates the circular trap-door. However far withdrawn into the centre +of the pea, the Bruchus, whether larvae or nymph, is reached by the long +oviduct. It receives an egg in its tender flesh, and the thing is done. +Without possibility of defence, since it is by now a somnolent grub or a +helpless pupa, the embryo weevil is eaten until nothing but skin +remains. What a pity that we cannot at will assist the multiplication of +this eager exterminator! Alas! our assistants have got us in a vicious +circle, for if we wished to obtain the help of any great number of +Chalcidians we should be obliged in the first place to breed a +multiplicity of Bruchidae. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: From _Social Life in the Insect World_, translated by +Bernard Miall, Chapter XVIII. The Century Company, New York, 1913.] + +[Footnote 4: This classification is now superseded; the Pea and Bee +Weevils--_Bruchus pisi_ and _Bruchus lenti_--are classed as Bruchidae, +in the series of Phytophaga. Most of the other weevils are classed as +Curculionidae, series Rhyncophora.--(Trans.)] + + + + +THE EXPOSITION OF A MANUFACTURING PROCESS + +MODERN PAPER-MAKING[5] + +_J.W. Butler Paper Company_ + + +Though the steady march of progress and invention has given to the +modern paper-maker marvelous machines by which the output is increased a +thousandfold over that of the old, slow methods, he still has many of +the same difficulties to overcome that confronted his predecessor. While +the use of wood pulp has greatly changed the conditions as regards the +cheaper grades of this staple, the ragman is to-day almost as important +to the manufacturer of the higher grades as he was one hundred years ago +when the saving of rags was inculcated as a domestic virtue and a +patriotic duty. Methods have changed, but the material remains the same. +In a complete modern mill making writing and other high-grade papers, +the process begins with unsightly rags as the material from which to +form the white sheets that are to receive upon their spotless polished +surface the thoughts of philosophers and statesmen, the tender messages +of affection, the counsels and admonitions of ministers, the decisions +of grave and learned judges, and all the + + Wisdom of things, mysterious, divine, that + Illustriously doth on paper shine, + +as was duly set forth in rhyme by the _Boston News Letter_ in 1769. +"The bell cart will go through Boston about the end of next month," it +announced, and appealed to the inhabitants of that modern seat of +learning and philosophy to save their rags for the occasion, and thus +encourage the industry. + +The rags do not come to the mammoth factories of to-day in bell carts, +but by the carload in huge bales gathered from all sections of this +great Republic, as well as from lands beyond the eastern and western +oceans. The square, compact, steam-compressed bundles are carried by +elevators well up toward the top of the building, where they await the +knife of the "opener." When they have been opened, the "feeder" throws +the contents by armfuls into the "thrasher." The novice or layman, +ignorant of the state in which rags come to the mill, will find their +condition a most unpleasant surprise, especially disagreeable to his +olfactory nerves. Yet the unsavory revelation comes with more force a +little farther on, in the "assorting-room." The "thrasher" is a great +cylindrical receptacle, revolving rapidly, which is supplied with long +wooden beaters or arms passing through a wooden cylinder and driven by +power. When the rags have been tossed in, there ensues a great pounding +and thrashing, and the dust is carried off in suction air-tubes, while +the whipped rags are discharged and carried to the "sorting" and +"shredding" room. Here the rags are assorted as to size, condition, and +the presence of buttons, hooks and eyes, or other material that must be +removed. Then those that need further attention are passed on to the +"shredders," these as well as the "sorters" being women. The +"shredders" stand along a narrow counter; in front of each one there is +fastened a long scythe-blade with its back toward the operator and its +point extending upward, the shank being firmly fixed to the table or +operating board. Here buttons, hard seams, and all similar intruders are +disposed of, and the larger pieces of rags are cut into numerous small +ones on the scythe-blades. The rags thus prepared are tossed by the +women into receptacles in the tables. The work in this room is the most +disagreeable and unwholesome in the entire process of manufacture, and +this despite the fact that these rags, too, have been thrashed, and +freed from an amount of dust and dirt beyond belief. + +While one is watching the operations carried on here, it is impossible +to repress the wish that rags might be bought otherwise than by the +pound, for, unfortunately, filth, dust, and dirt weigh, and to wash rags +only reduces the weight. While this is a true reflection of the +condition in the average mill, it is pleasant to know, however, there +are others of the higher class that are decided exceptions as far as +dust and dirt are concerned. Such are the mills making high-grade ledger +and bond papers, as well as the mill manufacturing the paper that is +used for the printing of our "greenbacks," to which further reference +will be made later. In these exceptional mills everything is neat and +perfectly clean, all the stock used being new and fresh from the cotton +or linen mills, or from factories producing cloth goods, like shirt and +corset factories, and others of the same sort. The sorting and shredding +room is always large and light, with windows on all sides, and well +ventilated, offering a decided contrast in many respects to the less +cleanly mills first referred to where the women must wear bonnets or +hoods for the protection of the hair. In either case the process is +certainly an improvement over the old plan of leaving the rags to decay +in a cellar to expedite the removal of the glutinous matter from them. + +From the "sorting" and "shredding" room the rags are conveyed to the +"cutter," where they are cut and chopped by revolving knives, leaving +them in small pieces and much freer from dust and grit. Various +ingenious devices are employed for removing metal and other hard and +injurious matter, magnetic brushes serving this purpose in some mills. +When the "cutter" has finished its work, the still very dirty rags go +for a further cleansing to the "devil," or "whipper," a hollow cone with +spikes projecting within, against which work the spikes of a drum, +dashing the rags about at great speed. Human lives are often freed of +their baser elements and restored to purity and beauty through the +chastening influences of tribulation or adversity; in like manner the +"whipper" carries the rags forward a step in the process of purification +that is necessary before they can be brought to their highest +usefulness. But the cleansing process, which is only a preparation for +what is to follow, does not end with the "whipper," which has served +merely to loosen, not to dislodge, a great deal of dust and dirt. The +final operation in the preliminary cleaning is performed by the "duster" +proper, which is a conical revolving sieve. As the mass of rags is +tossed and shaken about, the loosened dust is carried away by the +suction of the air, which draws the dust particles into tubes furnished +with suction fans. In most modern mills the rags are carried forward +from the "duster" on an endless belt, and a careful watch is kept upon +them as they emerge to detect the presence of unchopped pieces, buttons, +or other foreign substances. The journey of the rags over this endless +belt or conveyor terminates in a receiving-room, in the floor of which +there are several openings, and immediately below these the mouths of +the "digesters," which are in a room beneath. The "digesters," as they +are suggestively and appropriately termed, are huge revolving boilers, +usually upright, which often have as great a diameter as eight feet, +with a height of twenty-two feet and a digestive capacity of upward of +five tons of rags each. The rags that are to be "cooked" are fed in to +the "digesters" through the openings in the floor, and the great movable +manhole plates are then put in place and closed, hermetically sealing +the openings or mouths through which the boilers have been fed, these +having first been charged with a mixed solution of lime and soda and +with live hot steam in lieu of gastric juice as a digesting fluid and +force. In some mills the boilers are placed in a horizontal position, +while in others they are in the form of a large ball or globe, in either +case being operated in the manner described; those of upright form, +however, are most commonly in use. The rags are boiled under steam +pressure of about forty pounds to the square inch, and the cooking is +continued from twelve to fourteen hours. + +It is here that the process of cleaning begins in earnest; and as the +mass of rags is tumbled about in its scalding bath of steam-heated +lime-water, or "milk of lime," the coloring and glutinous matters, as +well as all other impurities, are loosened from the fibers, which are in +the end so cleansed and purified as to come forth unstained and of +virgin purity. Having been sufficiently boiled and digested, the mushy +material, still looking dark and forbidding, is emptied onto the floor +below or into receptacles placed directly beneath the boilers, where the +color and dirt are allowed to drain off. The mass is then conveyed to +the "washers," great tub-like receptacles, which are known as +"Hollanders," from the fact that these rag engines were invented in +Holland about the year 1750 A.D. They are oval-shaped tubs, about twenty +feet long, nine feet wide, and three feet high, varying somewhat +according to the conditions. Each tub is divided for two-thirds of its +length by an upright partition, or "mid-feather," as it is called, which +makes a narrow course around the vat. On one side of the partition, the +tub is raised in a half-circle, close to which revolves an iron roll +about three or four feet in diameter, and covered with knives; in the +bottom of the tub, and directly under the revolving roll, is another set +of knives called a "bed-plate," which is stationary, and against which +the roll can be lowered. But let us not anticipate. When the emptyings +from the boiler have been thrown into the "washer," a continuous stream +of water is turned in at one end, the knife-roll having been adjusted so +as to open up the rags as they are set in motion. These then begin a +lively chase around the edge of the vat, through the race-course formed +by the "mid-feather," and under the rag-opening knives, where the water +is given a chance to wash out all impurities, then on up the incline +over the "back-fall," so-called from the elevation in the tub. A +cylinder of wire-cloth, partly immersed in the moving mass, holds back +the now rapidly whitening fibers, while the dirty water escapes into +buckets inside the wire-cloth drum, and is discharged into and through +an escape-spout. The heavy particles of dirt settle into what is termed +a "sand-trap" at the bottom of the tub. + +As the water clears, the roll is lowered closer and closer to the bottom +of the bed-plate, in order to open up the fibers more thoroughly for the +free circulation of the water among them. When the several agencies of +the "washer" have accomplished their purpose and the water runs clear +and unsullied, a bleaching material is put into the mass, which in the +course of from two to six hours becomes as white as milk. The dirty +offscourings of all ragdom, first seen in the original bales, and +gathered from the four corners of the globe, have endured many +buffetings, many bruisings and tribulations, and having been washed come +forth pure, sweet, and clean. From the washers the rags are precipitated +through a trap into drainers, which are chambers made of stone and +brick, with a false bottom through which the water is allowed to drain. +This rag pulp, now called half stock, is kept in this receptacle until +the water and liquor are thoroughly drained off, when it becomes a white +and compact mass of fibers. + +The rags should stand in the drainers for at least one week, though +better results are obtained if they are left for a period two or three +times as long, as the fibers become more subdued. The process of +paper-making as it has already been described, applies more +particularly to papers made from rags. To-day, a very large proportion +of the cheaper papers are made from wood, either entirely or in part, +and these wood-made papers are subjected to a different treatment, to +which further reference will be made. + +From the drainer the mass is carted to the beating engine, or "beater," +which is very similar in construction to the washer just described. The +knives on the roll in the beater are grouped three together instead of +two, and are placed nearer the bottom or bed-plate in order to separate +more thoroughly the fibers. In the beater are performed many and varying +manipulations, designed not only to secure a more perfect product but +also to produce different varieties of paper. It is the theory of the +beating process that the fibers are not cut, but are drawn out to their +utmost extent. In watching the operations of the "beater," one notices +on the surface of the slowly revolving mass of fibers, floating bluing, +such as the thrifty housewife uses to whiten fine fabrics. This familiar +agency of the laundry is introduced into the solution of fibers with the +same end in view that is sought in the washtub--to give the clear white +color that is so desirable. Many of the inventions and discoveries by +which the world has profited largely have been due primarily to some +fortunate accident, and according to a pretty story upon which +paper-makers have set the seal of their belief for more than one hundred +and fifty years, the use of bluing was brought about in the same way. +About the year 1746, so runs the story, a Mrs. Buttonshaw, the wife of +an English paper-maker, accidentally dropped into a tub of pulp the bag +of bluing, or its contents, which she was about to use in a washing of +fine linen. Frightened at what she had done and considering it the part +of wisdom to keep silence, she discreetly held her peace and awaited +results. But when her husband had expressed great wonder and admiration +over the paper made from that particular pulp, and had sold it in London +at an advance of several shillings over the price of his other paper, +which had not met with any such accident, she realized that the time for +silence had passed. Her account of the happy accident led her grateful +husband to purchase a costly scarlet cloak for her on his next visit to +London town. This accident brought about another result which was to +prove of inestimable value to the future paper-maker--the use of bluing +in paper when especial whiteness is desired. + +Important as the bluing or coloring is, however, it is only one of the +numerous operations or manipulations that take place in the beater. Many +of these, such as engine-sizing and body-coloring, require skill and +constant watchfulness. Here, too, if anywhere, adulteration takes place. +It is sometimes necessary to secure a fine-appearing paper at small +cost, and it is profitable to add to its weight. In such cases a process +of "loading" takes place here, and clay or cheap, heavy fibers are +added. Clay is of value not only to increase the weight but also to +render the paper more opaque, so as to prevent type or illustrations +from showing through, while at the same time it makes possible a +smoother surface by filling the pores in the paper. But while it adds to +the weight, clay must, of necessity, weaken the paper. In engine-sizing, +which is done in the beater, the size is thoroughly incorporated with +the fibers as these revolve or flow around the engine. This sizing +renders the paper more nearly impervious to moisture. The difference +between a paper that is sized and that has a repellent surface which +prevents the ink from settling into it when it is written upon, and an +ordinary blotting-paper with its absorbent surface, is due entirely to +the fact that the former is most carefully treated with sizing both in +the beating engine and in the size tub or vat referred to later, whereas +in the latter paper it is omitted. If the paper is to be tinted or +body-colored, colors made from aniline are generally used. Only in the +highest grade of writing-paper and in some few papers that demand colors +fast to the light is any other order of coloring matter employed. As may +be easily imagined, considerable skill is required to secure exactly the +desired tint, and to get the coloring matter so evenly mixed that each +small fiber shall receive its proper tint, and thus to insure that the +paper when finished shall be of uniform color and not present a mottled +appearance. + +When the operations of the beating engine have been completed, a most +interesting process begins which marks a vast advance over the earlier +method of forming the sheets of paper with mould and deckel, straining +off the water, and shaking the frame with a quick motion to mat the +fibers together. The patient striving toward something better which has +marked all the centuries since man first learned to carve his rude +records, finds its consummation in the process of making paper in a +continuous web. This result is accomplished by a machine first invented +by Louis Robert, a workman in a mill at Enonnes, France, who obtained a +French patent, with a bounty of eight thousand francs for its +development. This he later sold to M. Didot, the proprietor of the mill, +who crossed the Channel into England, where, with the aid of a skilled +mechanic, the machine was in a measure perfected, and then sold to Henry +and Sealy Fourdrinier. They, with the further aid of Bryan Donkin, their +employee and expert engineer, made many additional improvements, and +sank in the enterprise some sixty thousand pounds sterling, for which +their only reward was blighted hopes and embittered lives. In 1847 the +London _Times_ made a fruitless appeal on behalf of the surviving +brother, who was eighty years of age and in great poverty. It is seldom +that the world voluntarily makes return to those who have bestowed upon +it great material or moral benefits, though it is ever ready to expend +its treasure for engines of destruction and to magnify and reward those +who have been most successful in destroying human life. + +The first "machine" mill was started at Frogmore, Hertz, England, in +1803, which was the year of the great Louisiana Purchase by the United +States, and it is not difficult to say which event has been productive +of the greater and more beneficial results to this nation. Through this +invention and its improvements, the modern newspaper and magazine, with +their tens and hundreds of thousands of copies daily, have been made +possible, and men of all classes have been brought in touch with the +best thought of the day. Whatever makes for greater intelligence and +enlightenment throughout a nation makes for the greater stability of +the national life, and gives new emphasis to Bulwer's words: + + Take away the sword; States can be saved without it--bring the pen. + +If to-day the power of the pen over the sword is greater than it has +ever been before, its increased and increasing influence must be +credited in large measure to the inventive genius and the +public-spirited enterprise that has made possible the great output of +our modern paper-mills. So thoroughly did these forces do their work in +the beginning that in the century that has elapsed since the Fourdrinier +brothers sacrificed themselves and their means in the perfecting of +their machine, there have been really no changes in the fundamental +principle. Those that have been made have been in the nature of further +development and improvement, such as increasing the speed and widening +the web, thereby multiplying the product many fold. + +But let us resume the interesting journey of the rags, which had reached +a state of purification and perfection as pulp, and which we left in the +beaters. In some grades of paper the perfected and prepared pulp is +taken from the beaters and passed through what is known as a "refining" +or "Jordan" engine for the purpose of more thoroughly separating the +fibers and reducing them to extreme fineness. The refining engines are, +however, used only in the manufacture of certain grades of paper. The +pulp is next taken from the beater or refining engine, as the case may +be, to what is called a "stuff-chest," an inclosed vat partly filled +with water, in which a contrivance for shaking and shifting, properly +called an "agitator," keeps the fibers in suspension. + +From the stuff-chest the mixture is pumped into what is known as the +"mixing" or "regulating" box. Here the stream first passes over the +"sand-tables" in a continuous flow. These are composed of little troughs +with cross-pieces, and are covered at the bottom with long-haired felt, +to catch any sand or dirt that may still adhere after the numerous +operations to which the pulp has been subjected. The flow is then forced +through the "screen," which is a horizontal piece of metal pierced with +slots. For very fine paper these slots are so small as to be only one +one-hundredth of an inch in width. They are usually about a quarter of +an inch apart. Through these tiny apertures the fibers must find their +way, leaving behind in their difficult passage all lumps, dirt, or +knotted fibers which would mar the perfection of the product toward +which they are tending. A vibrating motion is given to the screen as the +flow passes over it, or revolving strainers may be used. + +When the screen has finished its work, the water carrying the pulp in +solution flows in an even stream, the volume of which varies according +to the width of the web of paper to be produced, through a +discharge-cock onto the Fourdrinier or cylinder machine, as the case may +be, each of which will be duly described. This stream has a filmy +appearance and is of diverse color, depending upon the shade of paper to +be produced. From its consistency, which is about that of milk, it is +difficult to imagine that it floats separate particles of fiber in such +quantities as, when gathered on the wire cloth and passed to a felt +blanket and then pressed between rollers, to form in a second of time a +broad web of embryo paper sufficiently strong and firm to take definite +form. Man's mastery of the process by which this startling and wonderful +change is effected has come as one of the rewards of his long and +patient study. + +The Fourdrinier machine, which preserves at least the name of the +enterprising developers of the invention, takes up the work that was +formerly done by the molder. The wire cloth upon which the fibers are +discharged is an endless belt, the full width of the paper machine. Upon +this the fibers spread out evenly, being aided by a fan-shaped rubber or +oil cloth, which delivers the smooth stream under a gate regulated to +insure perfect evenness and to fix uniformly the fibers of the web now +commencing its final formation. Deckel-straps of india-rubber are +fastened on both sides of the wire screen, and move with it, thus +holding the watery pulp in place. The deckel-straps are adjustable and +fix or regulate the width of the paper. These and the gate, or "slicer," +are attached to what is termed the deckel-frame, which corresponds to +the deckel used by paper-makers in the days when the manufacture was +carried on by hand. As the stream flows onto the endless belt of wire +cloth, the water which has borne the fibers filters into the trough +beneath. Being charged with very fine fibers, size, coloring matter, and +other similar ingredients, it is carried back into the pulp-chest to +save these materials, as well as to contribute again to the extra supply +of water needed. For this reason the trough into which it falls from the +revolving "wire" is called the "save-all." A shaking motion is imparted +to the "wire" from the frame upon which rest the rolls that keep it in +its never-ending round. This aids in draining away the water and mats or +interlaces the fibers together. At the end of the "save-all," where the +fibers are to leave the "wire" for the next stage of their journey, +suction-boxes are placed, provided with an air-pump to take up the +surplus water that has not yet found its way through the meshes. Between +these suction-boxes above the wire is a wire-covered roll which +impresses the newly formed sheet; this impression cylinder is called a +"dandy roll," and it is from this that the web receives the markings or +impressions that characterize different papers. All watermarks, +patterns, and designs which it is desired to have appear in the paper +are put upon this roll and here impressed upon the soft sheet, which is +clarified and left transparent at the point of contact. Thus the +impression is permanently fixed in the fiber, so that it can be seen at +any time by holding the sheet to the light. The power of suggestiveness +is a quality which is highly esteemed wherever it is found, and which +frequently furnishes a standard of judgment. + +Judged by such a criterion, the impression cylinder, or "dandy roll," +has an added value, for in all probability its operation suggested the +idea of printing from cylinders, as in our present web or perfecting +presses. + +The matted pulp, now having sufficient body, passes on between two rolls +covered with felt which deliver the web of damp paper upon an endless +belt of moist felt, while the "wire" passes under and back to continue +a fresh supply. The paper is as yet too fragile to travel alone, and +the web felt carries it between two metal rolls called the first +press-rolls. These squeeze out more water, give a greater degree of +compactness to the fibers, smooth the upper surface, and finally deliver +the web of paper to a second felt apron which carries it under and to +the back of the second press-rolls. In this way the under surface comes +to the top, and is in its turn subjected to the smoothing process. A +delicate scraper or blade, the length of the press-rolls, is so placed +on each roll that should the endless web from any cause be broken, the +blade may operate with sufficient force to prevent the wet paper from +clinging to the rolls and winding about them. From this point the paper +travels alone, having become firm and strong enough to sustain its own +weight; passing above the second press-rolls, it resumes its onward +journey around the drying cylinders, passing over and under and over and +under. The drying cylinders are hollow and heated by steam, their +temperature being regulated according to requirements. These driers, +made from iron or steel, are usually from three to four feet in diameter +and vary in length according to the width of the machine. There are from +twelve to fifty of these cylinders, their number depending upon the +character and weight of the paper to be produced, very heavy sheets +requiring many more drying cylinders than sheets of lighter weight. + +Strange, almost phenomenal, conditions come about in the transformation +from filmy pulp to finished paper. A sheet which, though formed, is at +the first press-roll too fragile to carry its own weight, becomes +possessed of a final strength and power that is almost incredible. The +myriad of minute fibers composing the sheet, upon drying uniformly, +possesses great aggregate strength. A sheet of paper yields readily to +tearing, but the same sheet, when a perfectly even tension is applied, +will demonstrate that it is possessed of wonderful resisting power. In +evidence may be cited an instance that seems almost beyond belief. +Through some curious mishap a web of heavy paper, in fact, bristol +board, which had been thoroughly formed, was suddenly superheated and +then cooled while still on the driers. This was caused by a difference +in temperature of the driers and resulted in the sudden contraction of +the web of bristol; the strain on the machine was so great that not only +were the driving-cogs broken on two of the driers around which the paper +was at the moment passing, but the driers themselves were actually +lifted out of place, showing a resisting power in the paper of at least +several tons. The paper now passes to the upright stack of rolls which +are known as "calenders." The word is derived from calendra; a +corruption of cylindrus, a roller or cylinder. They are simply rollers +revolving in contact, and heated from the interior by steam. These +calenders are used for giving to the paper a smooth and even surface, +and are also employed in the smoothing and finishing of cloth. The speed +with which the paper passes through these cylinders is remarkable, from +one hundred to five hundred feet running through and over the machine in +a minute; and in some of the most recent mills the web is as wide as one +hundred and fifty-six inches (thirteen feet); this is very nearly double +the average machine width of a very few years ago, while the speed has +increased in proportionate ratio; only a few years ago the maximum speed +was from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet per minute; at this +writing (1900) there are machines in operation which run as high as five +hundred feet per minute. But great as has been the increase in the +production of paper, the demand has kept pace steadily. The wonderful +product of the rag-bag holds an invincible position in the world's +economy. + +For machine-finished book and print papers, as well as for other cheaper +grades, the process ends with the calenders, after which the paper is +slit into required widths by disc-knives which are revolving, and so cut +continuously. Paper intended for web newspaper presses is taken off in +continuous rolls of the widths required, varying from seventeen to +seventy-six inches, according to the size of the paper to be printed. +These reels contain from fifteen to twenty-five thousand lineal feet of +paper, or from three to five miles. The amount of paper used in +disseminating the news of the day is enormous; sometimes one or two +mills are required to manufacture the supply for a single metropolitan +daily, while one New York newspaper claims to have used four hundred and +fifty tons of paper in one Christmas edition, which is about four times +the amount of its regular daily consumption. + +After having been slit into the proper widths by the revolving knives, +ordinary flat and book papers are cut into sheets by a straight knife +revolving at proper intervals on a horizontal drum. The paper, in +sheets, is carried by a travelling apron to a receiving table at the end +of the machine, where the sheets as they fall are carefully examined by +experts, usually women, who remove any that may be imperfect. + +The entire length of a paper machine, from the screens to the calenders, +is about one hundred and twenty-five feet, while the height varies, the +average being about ten feet. The machines, while necessarily of the +finest adjustment, are ponderous and heavy, weighing in some cases as +much as four hundred tons, this being the weight of the machine itself, +exclusive of its foundations. The machine-room is of necessity well +lighted and thoroughly ventilated, and should be kept clean throughout, +as cleanliness is an essential factor in the making of good paper. While +the same general process applies to all classes of paper made, the +particular character of any paper that is to be produced determines +exactly the details of the process through which it shall pass and +regulates the deviations to be made from the general operations in order +to secure special results. For example, some papers are wanted with a +rough or "antique" finish, as it is called; in such cases calendering is +omitted. Another special process is that by which the paper is made with +a ragged or "deckel-edge;" this result is obtained in some mills by +playing a stream of water upon the edge of the pulp, crushing and +thinning it, and thus giving it a jagged appearance. At the present time +this "deckel-edge" paper is being quite extensively used in high-class +bookwork. In the case of writing papers, as has already been stated in +the description of the beating engines, a vegetable sizing made from +resinous matter is introduced into the paper pulp while it is still in +solution, and mixes with it thoroughly, thus filling more or less +completely the pores of the pulp fibers. This is found sufficient for +all ordinary book-papers, for papers that are to be printed upon in the +usual way, and for the cheapest grades of writing-paper, where the +requirements are not very exacting and where a curtailment of expense is +necessary. For the higher grades of writing-paper, however, a distinctly +separate and additional process is required. These papers while on the +machine in web form are passed through a vat which is called the +size-tub, and which is filled with a liquid sizing made of gelatine from +clippings of the horns, hides, and hoofs of cattle, this gelatine or +glue being mixed with dissolved alum and made fluid in the vat. Papers +which are treated in this way are known as "animal," or "tub-sized." + +We have duly described machine-dried papers, but these higher grades of +writing-papers are dried by what is known as the loft, or pole-dried +process. Such paper is permitted to dry very slowly in a loft specially +constructed for the purpose, where it is hung on poles several days, +during which time the loft is kept at a temperature of about 100° +Fahrenheit. + +Another detail of considerable importance is that of the "finish" or +surface of the paper. When paper with a particularly high or glossy +surface is desired, it is subjected to a separate process, after leaving +the paper machine, known as supercalendering. + +"Supercalendering" is effected by passing the web through a stack of +rolls which are similar to the machine calenders already described. +These rolls are composed of metal cylinders, alternating with rolls made +of solidified paper or cotton, turned exactly true, the top and bottom +rolls being of metal and heavier than the others; a stack of +supercalenders is necessarily composed of an odd number of rolls, as +seven, nine, or eleven. The paper passes and repasses through these +calenders until the requisite degree of smoothness and polish has been +acquired. The friction in this machine produces so much electricity that +ground wires are often used to carry it off in order that the paper may +not become so highly charged as to attract dust or cause the sheets to +cling together. When the fine polish has been imparted, the rolls of +paper go to the cutting machines, which are automatic in action, cutting +regular sheets of the required length as the paper is fed to them in a +continuous web. In the manufacture of some high grades of paper, such as +linens and bonds, where an especially fine, smooth surface is required, +the sheets after being cut are arranged in piles of from twelve to +fifteen sheets, plates of zinc are inserted alternately between them, +and they are subjected to powerful hydraulic pressure. This process is +termed "plating," and is, of course, very much more expensive than the +process of supercalendering described above. + +From the cutters, the sheets are carried to the inspectors, who are +seated in a row along an extended board table before two divisions with +partitions ten or twelve inches high, affording spaces for the sheets +before and after sorting. The work of inspection is performed by women, +who detect almost instantly any blemish or imperfection in the finished +product as it passes through their hands. If the paper is to be ruled +for writing purposes, it is then taken to the ruling machines, where it +is passed under revolving discs or pens, set at regular intervals. These +convey the ruling ink to the paper as it passes on through the machine, +and thus form true and continuous lines. If the paper is to be folded +after ruling, as in the case of fine note-papers, the sheets pass on +from the ruling machine to the folding machines, which are entirely +automatic in their action. The paper is stacked at the back of the first +folding guide and is fed in by the action of small rubber rollers which +loosen each sheet from the one beneath, and push it forward until it is +caught by the folding apparatus. Man's mechanical ingenuity has given to +the machines of his invention something that seems almost like human +intelligence, and in the case of the folding machine, the action is so +regular and perfect that there seems to be no need of an attendant, save +to furnish a constant supply of sheets. The folding completed, cutting +machines are again brought into requisition, to cut and trim the sheets +to the size of folded note or letter-paper, which is the final operation +before they are sent out into the world on their mission of usefulness. +The finished paper may or may not have passed through the ruling and +folding process, but in either case it goes from the cutters to the +wrappers and packers, and then to the shipping-clerks, all of whom +perform the duties indicated by their names. The wonderful +transformation wrought by the magic wand of science and human invention +is complete, and what came into the factory as great bales of offensive +rags, disgusting to sight and smell, goes forth as delicate, beautiful, +perfected paper, redeemed from filth, and glorified into a high and +noble use. Purity and beauty have come from what was foul and +unwholesome; the highly useful has been summoned forth from the +seemingly useless; a product that is one of the essential factors in the +world's progress, and that promises to serve an ever-increasing purpose, +has been developed from a material that apparently held not the +slightest promise. Well might the _Boston News Letter_ of 1769 exclaim +in quaint old rhyme: + + Rags are as beauties which concealèd lie, + But when in paper, charming to the eye! + Pray save your rags, new beauties to discover, + For of paper truly every one's a lover; + By the pen and press such knowledge is displayed + As would not exist if paper was not made. + +And well may man pride himself on this achievement, this marvelous +transformation, which represents the fruitage of centuries of striving +and endeavor! + +Up to this point the reference has been almost entirely to paper made +from rags, but radical improvements have been made, caused by the +introduction of wood pulp, and these are of such importance that the +account would not be complete without some mention of them. These +changes are mainly in the methods of manipulating the wood to obtain the +pulp, for when that is ready, the process from and including the +"washers" and "beaters," is very similar to that already described. All +papers, whether made from rags or wood, depend upon vegetable fiber for +their substance and fundamental base, and it is found that the different +fibers used in paper-making, when finally subdued, do not differ, in +fact, whether obtained from rags or from the tree growing in the forest. +In the latter case the raw wood is subjected to chemical treatment which +destroys all resinous and foreign matters, leaving merely the cellular +tissue, which, it is found, does not differ in substance from the cell +tissue obtained after treating rags. In either case this cellular +tissue, through the treatment to which the raw material is subjected, +becomes perfectly plastic or moldable, and while the paper made from one +differs slightly in certain characteristics from the paper made from the +other, they are nevertheless very similar, and it might be safe to +predict that further perfecting of processes will eventually make them +practically alike. + +The woods used for this purpose are principally poplar and spruce, and +there are three classes of the wood pulp: (1) mechanical wood, (2) soda +process wood, and (3) sulphite wood pulp. The first method was invented +in Germany in 1844. The logs are hewn in the forest, roughly barked, and +shipped to the factory, where the first operation is to cut them up by +steam saws into blocks about two feet in length. Any bark that may still +cling to the log is removed by a rapidly revolving corrugated wheel of +steel, while the larger blocks are split by a steam splitter. The next +stage of their journey takes these blocks to a great millstone set +perpendicularly instead of horizontally. Here a very strong and +ingenious machine receives one block at a time, and with an +automatically elastic pressure holds it sidewise against the millstone, +which, like the mills of the gods, "grinds exceeding fine," and with the +aid of constantly flowing water rapidly reduces these blocks to a pulpy +form. This pulp is carried into tanks, from which it is passed between +rollers, which leave it in thick, damp sheets, which are folded up +evenly for shipment, or for storage for future use. If a paper-mill is +operated in connection with the pulp-mill, the wood pulp is not +necessarily rolled out in sheets, but is pumped directly from the tanks +to the beaters. + +In the preparation of pulp by the other processes, the blocks are first +thrown into a chipping machine with great wheels, the short, slanting +knives of which quickly cut the blocks into small chips. + +In the soda process, invented by M. Meliner in France in 1865, the chips +from spruce and poplar logs are boiled under pressure in a strong +solution of caustic soda. + +When sulphite wood pulp is to be prepared, the chips are conveyed from +the chipper into hoppers in the upper part of the building. Here they +are thrown into great upright iron boilers or digesters charged with +lime-water and fed with the fumes of sulphur which is burned for the +purpose in a furnace adjoining the building and which thus forms acid +sulphide of lime. The sulphite process was originally invented by a +celebrated Philadelphia chemist, but was perfected in Europe. + +The "cooking," or boiling, to which the wood is subjected in both the +soda and sulphite processes, effects a complete separation of all +resinous and foreign substances from the fine and true cell tissue, or +cellulose, which is left a pure fiber, ready for use as described. In +the case of all fibers, whether rag or wood, painstaking work counts, +and the excellence of the paper is largely dependent upon the time and +care given to the reduction of the pulp from the original raw material. + +Chemical wood pulp of the best quality makes an excellent product, and +is largely used for both print and book paper; it is frequently mixed +with rag pulp, making a paper that can scarcely be distinguished from +that made entirely from fine rags, though it is not of the proper +firmness for the best flat or writing papers. All ordinary newspapers, +as well as some of the cheaper grades of book and wrapping paper, are +made entirely from wood, the sulphite or soda process supplying the +fiber, and ground wood being used as a filler. In the average newspaper +of to-day's issue, twenty-five per cent of sulphite fiber is sufficient +to carry seventy-five per cent of the ground wood filler. The value of +the idea is an economical one entirely, as the ground wood employed +costs less than any other of the component parts of a print-paper sheet. + +The cylinder machine, to which reference was made earlier in the +chapter, was patented in 1809 by a prominent paper-maker of England, Mr. +John Dickinson. In this machine, a cylinder covered with wire cloth +revolves with its lower portion dipping into a vat of pulp, while by +suction a partial vacuum is maintained in the cylinder, causing the pulp +to cling to the wire until it is conveyed to a covered cylinder, which +takes it up and carries it forward in a manner similar to the system +already described. This machine is employed in making straw-board and +other heavy and cheap grades of paper. + +Generous Mother Nature, who supplies man's wants in such bountiful +fashion, has furnished on her plains and in her forests an abundance of +material that may be transformed into this fine product of human +ingenuity. Esparto, a Spanish grass grown in South Africa, has entered +largely into the making of print-paper in England. Mixed with rags it +makes an excellent product, but the chemicals required to free it from +resin and gritty silica are expensive, while the cost of importation has +rendered its use in America impractical. Flax, hemp, manila, jute and +straw, and of course old paper that has been once used, are extensively +employed in this manufacture, the process beginning with the chemical +treatment and boiling that are found necessary in the manipulation of +rags. The successful use of these materials has met demands that would +not otherwise have been supplied. As a result, the price has been so +cheapened that the demand for paper has greatly increased, and its use +has been extended to many and various purposes. + +Many additional items of interest might be described in connection with +the methods of manufacturing paper, but as this work is intended for the +general reader, rather than for the manufacturer, those wishing further +information are referred to technical works on the subject. + +The best linen rags are used for the highest grades of writing and bond +papers, while ordinary note, letter, and flat papers are made from +cotton rags. In some mills, such as the government mill at Dalton, +Massachusetts, where the government paper is made for banknotes, and in +others where the finest ledger papers are manufactured, none but new, +clean rags are used. These come from the remnants left in the making of +linen goods. In the government mill where is made the paper for our +national currency, or "greenbacks," there is a special attachment on the +machine for introducing into the paper the silk threads that are always +to be seen in our paper money. This attachment is just above the "wire" +on the machine, and consists of a little conducting trough, through +which flows, from a receptacle near the machine, a stream of water +holding the silk threads in solution. The trough extends across the +machine, and is provided at intervals with openings through which the +short pieces of silk thread are automatically released, and sprinkled +continuously onto the web of pulp as it passes beneath. The paper is +thus distinguished, and infringement and possible counterfeiting are +made extremely difficult by the fact that the government absolutely +forbids the making of paper by others under a similar process, as well +as the production of any paper containing these silk threads. The laws +of the United States pertaining to anything that borders on infringement +of our various money issues, both metal and currency, are most rigid; +anything approaching a similarity of impression is prohibited, and a +cut, stamp, or impression of any character that approaches in its +appearance any money issue of our government is considered a violation +of the law against counterfeiting, and is dealt with severely. The +government takes the same uncompromising position in regard to the +fabrics used in printing its paper-money issues, and it will be quickly +seen that the silk thread process described above it is so great a +variation from anything required in the mercantile world that it would +be difficult to produce a paper at all similar without an ulterior +purpose being at once apparent. For this reason the silk thread +interspersion is in reality a very effective medium in preventing +counterfeiting, not only on account of its peculiar appearance but also +because of the elaborate methods necessary in its production. + +In those mills making the finest grades of paper, much of the process of +thrashing, beating, dusting, and cleaning necessary in the ordinary mill +is omitted. The cleanliness and brightness which are reached only at the +"washer" and "beater" engines in the process of manufacturing the lower +grades of paper from cheaper rags, prevail at every step in these higher +grade mills. + +One of the first requisites in making good paper, especially the better +grades, is an abundance of pure water, and spring-water, where +available, is preferred. + +The effort has been made in the description given to cover the process +of making paper from the crudest rags. In enumerating the several kinds +of paper in another chapter, brief reference will be made to the varying +methods required in their manufacture. In this chapter, no attempt has +been made to cover more than the principal divisions or varieties of +paper--writing, print, and wrapping papers. + +The United States, with characteristic enterprise, leads the world in +paper-making, supplying about one-third of all that is used on the +globe. The city of Holyoke, in Massachusetts, is the greatest paper +center in the world, turning out each working-day some two hundred tons +of paper, nearly one-half of which is "tub-sized," "loft-dried" +writings. The region in the vicinity of Holyoke is dotted with +paper-mills, and within a few miles of the city is made about one-half +of all the "loft-dried" writings produced in the United States. The tiny +acorn planted two centuries ago has waxed with the years, gaining +strength and vigor with the increasing strength of the nation, till now +it has become a giant oak, whose branches extend to the lands beyond the +seas. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: From _The Story of Paper-making_, Chapter V.J.W. Butler +Paper Company, Chicago, 1901.] + + + + +THE EXPOSITION OF AN IDEA + +THE GOSPEL OF RELAXATION[6] + +_William James_ + + +I wish in the following hour to take certain psychological doctrines and +show their practical applications to mental hygiene,--to the hygiene of +our American life more particularly. Our people, especially in academic +circles, are turning towards psychology nowadays with great +expectations; and, if psychology is to justify them, it must be by +showing fruits in the pedagogic and therapeutic lines. + +The reader may possibly have heard of a peculiar theory of the emotions, +commonly referred to in psychological literature as the Lange-James +theory. According to this theory, our emotions are mainly due to those +organic stirrings that are aroused in us in a reflex way by the stimulus +of the exciting object or situation. An emotion of fear, for example, or +surprise, is not a direct effect of the object's presence on the mind, +but an effect of that still earlier effect, the bodily commotion which +the object suddenly excites; so that, were this bodily commotion +suppressed, we should not so much _feel_ fear as call the situation +fearful; we should not feel surprise, but coldly recognize that the +object was indeed astonishing. One enthusiast has even gone so far as to +say that when we feel sorry it is because we weep, when we feel afraid +it is because we run away, and not conversely. Some of you may perhaps +be acquainted with the paradoxical formula. Now, whatever exaggeration +may possibly lurk in this account of our emotions (and I doubt myself +whether the exaggeration be very great), it is certain that the main +core of it is true, and that the mere giving way to tears, for example, +or to the outward expression of an anger-fit, will result for the moment +in making the inner grief or anger more acutely felt. There is, +accordingly, no better known or more generally useful precept in the +moral training of youth, or in one's personal self-discipline, than that +which bids us pay primary attention to what we do and express, and not +to care too much for what we feel. If we only check a cowardly impulse +in time, for example, or if we only _don't_ strike the blow or rip out +with the complaining or insulting word that we shall regret as long as +we live, our feelings themselves will presently be the calmer and +better, with no particular guidance from us on their own account. Action +seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and +by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the +will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. + +Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous +cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, +and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. If such +conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on that +occasion can. So to feel brave, act as if we _were_ brave, use all our +will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of +fear. Again, in order to feel kindly toward a person to whom we have +been inimical, the only way is more or less deliberately to smile, to +make sympathetic inquiries, and to force ourselves to say genial things. +One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of +heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental +demon of uncharitable feeling. To wrestle with a bad feeling only pins +our attention on it, and keeps it still fastened in the mind; whereas, +if we act as if from some better feeling, the old bad feeling soon folds +its tent like an Arab, and silently steals away. + +The best manuals of religious devotion accordingly reiterate the maxim +that we must let our feelings go, and pay no regard to them whatever. In +an admirable and widely successful little book called _The Christian's +Secret of a Happy Life_, by Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith, I find this +lesson on almost every page. _Act_ faithfully, and you really have +faith, no matter how cold and even how dubious you may feel. "It is your +purpose God looks at," writes Mrs. Smith, "not your feelings about that +purpose; and your purpose, or will, is therefore the only thing you need +attend to.... Let your emotions come or let them go, just as God +pleases, and make no account of them either way.... They really have +nothing to do with the matter. They are not the indicators of your +spiritual state, but are merely the indicators of your temperament or of +your present physical condition." + +But you all know these facts already, so I need no longer press them on +your attention. From our acts and from our attitudes ceaseless inpouring +currents of sensation come, which help to determine from moment to +moment what our inner states shall be: that is a fundamental law of +psychology which I will therefore proceed to assume. + +A Viennese neurologist of considerable reputation has recently written +about the _Binnenleben,_ as he terms it, or buried life of human beings. +No doctor, this writer says, can get into really profitable relations +with a nervous patient until he gets some sense of what the patient's +_Binnenleben_ is, of the sort of unuttered inner atmosphere in which his +consciousness dwells alone with the secrets of its prison-house. This +inner personal tone is what we can't communicate or describe +articulately to others; but the wraith and ghost of it, so to speak, are +often what our friends and intimates feel as our most characteristic +quality. In the unhealthy-minded, apart from all sorts of old regrets, +ambitions checked by shames and aspirations obstructed by timidities, it +consists mainly of bodily discomforts not distinctly localized by the +sufferer, but breeding a general self-mistrust and sense that things are +not as they should be with him. Half the thirst for alcohol that exists +in the world exists simply because alcohol acts as a temporary +anaesthetic and effacer to all these morbid feelings that never ought to +be in a human being at all. In the healthy-minded, on the contrary, +there are no fears or shames to discover; and the sensations that pour +in from the organism only help to swell the general vital sense of +security and readiness for anything that may turn up. + +Consider, for example, the effects of a well-toned _motor-apparatus,_ +nervous and muscular, on our general personal self-consciousness, the +sense of elasticity and efficiency that results. They tell us that in +Norway the life of the women has lately been entirely revolutionized by +the new order of muscular feelings with which the use of the _ski_, or +long snow-shoes, as a sport for both sexes, has made the women +acquainted. Fifteen years ago the Norwegian women were even more than +the women of other lands votaries of the old-fashioned ideal of +femininity, "the domestic angel," the "gentle and refining influence" +sort of thing. Now these sedentary fireside tabby-cats of Norway have +been trained, they say, by the snow-shoes into lithe and audacious +creatures, for whom no night is too dark or height too giddy, and who +are not only saying good-bye to the traditional feminine pallor and +delicacy of constitution, but actually taking the lead in every +educational and social reform. I cannot but think that the tennis and +tramping and skating habits and the bicycle-craze which are so rapidly +extending among our dear sisters and daughters in this country are going +also; to lead to a sounder and heartier moral tone, which will send its +tonic breath through all our American life. + +I hope that here in America more and more the ideal of the well-trained +and vigorous body will be maintained neck by neck with that of the +well-trained and vigorous mind as the two coequal halves of the higher +education for men and women alike. The strength of the British Empire +lies in the strength of character of the individual Englishman, taken +all alone by himself. And that strength, I am persuaded, is perennially +nourished and kept up by nothing so much as by the national worship, in +which all classes meet, of athletic outdoor life and sport. + +I recollect, years ago, reading a certain work by an American doctor on +hygiene and the laws of life and the type of future humanity. I have +forgotten its author's name and its title, but I remember well an awful +prophecy that it contained about the future of our muscular system. +Human perfection, the writer said, means ability to cope with the +environment; but the environment will more and more require mental power +from us, and less and less will ask for bare brute strength. Wars will +cease, machines will do all our heavy work, man will become more and +more a mere director of nature's energies, and less and less an exerter +of energy on his own account. So that, if the _homo sapiens_ of the +future can only digest his food and think, what need will he have of +well-developed muscles at all? And why, pursued this writer, should we +not even now be satisfied with a more delicate and intellectual type of +beauty than that which pleased our ancestors? Nay, I have heard a +fanciful friend make a still further advance in this "new-man" +direction. With our future food, he says, itself prepared in liquid form +from the chemical elements of the atmosphere, pepsinated or +half-digested in advance, and sucked up through a glass tube from a tin +can, what need shall we have of teeth, or stomachs even? They may go, +along with our muscles and our physical courage, while, challenging even +more and more our proper admiration, will grow the gigantic domes of our +crania, arching over our spectacled eyes, and animating our flexible +little lips to those floods of learned and ingenious talk which will +constitute our most congenial occupation. + +I am sure that your flesh creeps at this apocalyptic vision. Mine +certainly did so; and I cannot believe that our muscular vigor will ever +be a superfluity. Even if the day ever dawns in which it will not be +needed for fighting the old heavy battles against Nature, it will still +always be needed to furnish the background of sanity, serenity, and +cheerfulness to life, to give moral elasticity to our disposition, to +round off the wiry edge of our fretfulness, and make us good-humored and +easy to approach. Weakness is too apt to be what the doctors call +irritable weakness. And that blessed internal peace and confidence, that +_acquiescentia in seipso_, as Spinoza used to call it, that wells up +from every part of the body of a muscularly well-trained human being, +and soaks the indwelling soul of him with satisfaction, is, quite apart +from every consideration of its mechanical utility, an element of +spiritual hygiene of supreme significance. + +And now let me go a step deeper into mental hygiene, and try to enlist +your insight and sympathy in a cause which I believe is one of paramount +patriotic importance to us Yankees. Many years ago a Scottish medical +man, Dr. Clouston, a mad-doctor as they call him there, or what we +should call an asylum physician (the most eminent one in Scotland), +visited this country, and said something that has remained in my memory +ever since. "You Americans," he said, "wear too much expression on your +faces. You are living like an army with all its reserves engaged in +action. The duller countenances of the British population betoken a +better scheme of life. They suggest stores of reserved nervous force to +fall back upon, if any occasion should arise that requires it. This +inexcitability, this presence at all times of power not used, I regard," +continued Dr. Clouston, "as the great safeguard of our British people. +The other thing in you gives me a sense of insecurity, and you ought +somehow to tone yourselves down. You really do carry too much +expression, you take too intensely the trivial moments of life." + +Now Dr. Clouston is a trained reader of the secrets of the soul as +expressed upon the countenance, and the observation of his which I quote +seems to me to mean a great deal. And all Americans who stay in Europe +long enough to get accustomed to the spirit, that reigns and expresses +itself there, so unexcitable as compared with ours, make a similar +observation when they return to their native shores. They find a +wild-eyed look upon their compatriots' faces, either of too desperate +eagerness and anxiety or of too intense responsiveness and good-will. It +is hard to say whether the men or the women show it most. It is true +that we do not all feel about it as Dr. Clouston felt. Many of us, far +from deploring it, admire it. We say: "What intelligence it shows! How +different from the stolid cheeks, the codfish eyes, the slow, inanimate +demeanor we have been seeing in the British Isles!" Intensity, rapidity, +vivacity of appearance, are indeed with us something of a nationally +accepted ideal; and the medical notion of "irritable weakness" is not +the first thing suggested by them to our mind, as it was to Dr. +Clouston's. In a weekly paper not very long ago I remember reading a +story in which, after describing the beauty and interest of the +heroine's personality, the author summed up her charms by saying that to +all who looked upon her an impression as of "bottled lightning" was +irresistibly conveyed. + +Bottled lightning, in truth, is one of our American ideals, even of a, +young girl's character! Now it is most ungracious, and it may seem to +some persons unpatriotic, to criticise in public the physical +peculiarities of one's own people, of one's own family, so to speak. +Besides, it may be said, and said with justice, that there are plenty of +bottled-lightning temperaments in other countries, and plenty of +phlegmatic temperaments here; and that, when all is said and done, the +more or less of tension about which I am making such a fuss is a small +item in the sum total of a nation's life, and not worth solemn treatment +at a time when agreeable rather than disagreeable things should be +talked about. Well, in one sense the more or less of tension in our +faces and in our unused muscles _is_ a small thing: not much mechanical +work is done by these contractions. But it is not always the material +size of a thing that measures its importance: often it is its place and +function. One of the most philosophical remarks I ever heard made was by +an unlettered workman who was doing some repairs at my house many years +ago. "There is very little difference between one man and another," he +said, "when you go to the bottom of it. But what little there is, is +very important." And the remark certainly applies to this case. The +general over-contraction may be small when estimated in foot-pounds, +but its importance is immense on account of its _effects on the +over-contracted person's spiritual life_. This follows as a necessary +consequence from the theory of our emotions to which I made reference at +the beginning of this article. For by the sensations that so incessantly +pour in from the over-tense excited body the over-tense and excited +habit of mind is kept up; and the sultry, threatening, exhausting, +thunderous inner atmosphere never quite clears away. If you never wholly +give yourself up to the chair you sit in, but always keep your leg- and +body-muscles half contracted for a rise; if you breathe eighteen or +nineteen instead of sixteen times a minute, and never quite breathe out +at that,--what mental mood _can_ you be in but one of inner panting and +expectancy, and how can the future and its worries possibly forsake your +mind? On the other hand, how can they gain admission to your mind if +your brow be unruffled, your respiration calm and complete, and your +muscles all relaxed? + +Now what is the cause of this absence of repose, this bottled-lightning +quality in us Americans? The explanation of it that is usually given is +that it comes from the extreme dryness of our climate and the acrobatic +performances of our thermometer, coupled with the extraordinary +progressiveness of our life, the hard work, the railroad speed, the +rapid success, and all the other things we know so well by heart. Well, +our climate is certainly exciting, but hardly more so than that of many +parts of Europe, where nevertheless no bottled-lightning girls are +found. And the work done and the pace of life are as extreme in every +great capital of Europe as they are here. To me both of these pretended +causes are utterly insufficient to explain the facts. + +To explain them, we must go not to physical geography, but to psychology +and sociology. The latest chapter both in sociology and in psychology to +be developed in a manner that approaches adequacy is the chapter on the +imitative impulse. First Bagehot, then Tarde, then Royce and Baldwin +here, have shown that invention and imitation, taken together, form, one +may say, the entire warp and woof of human life, in so far as it is +social. The American over-tension and jerkiness and breathlessness and +intensity and agony of expression are primarily social, and only +secondarily physiological, phenomena. They are _bad habits_, nothing +more or less, bred of custom and example, born of the imitation of bad +models and the cultivation of false personal ideals. How are idioms +acquired, how do local peculiarities of phrase and accent come about? +Through an accidental example set by some one, which struck the ears of +others, and was quoted and copied till at last every one in the locality +chimed in. Just so it is with national tricks of vocalization or +intonation, with national manners, fashions of movement and gesture, and +habitual expressions of face. We, here in America, through following a +succession of pattern-setters whom it is now impossible to trace, and +through influencing each other in a bad direction, have at last settled +down collectively into what, for better or worse, is our own +characteristic national type,--a type with the production of which, so +far as these habits go, the climate and conditions have had practically +nothing at all to do. + +This type; which we have thus reached by our imitativeness, we now have +fixed upon us, for better or worse. Now no type can be _wholly_ +disadvantageous; but, so far as our type follows the bottled-lightning +fashion, it cannot be wholly good. Dr. Clouston was certainly right in +thinking that eagerness, breathlessness, and anxiety are not signs of +strength: they are signs of weakness and of bad co-ordination. The even +forehead, the slab-like cheek, the codfish eye, may be less interesting +for the moment; but they are more promising signs than intense +expression is of what we may expect of their possessor in the long run. +Your dull, unhurried worker gets over a great deal of ground, because he +never goes backward or breaks down. Your intense, convulsive worker +breaks down and has bad moods so often that you never know where he may +be when you most need his help,--he may be having one of his "bad days." +We say that so many of our fellow-countrymen collapse, and have to be +sent abroad to rest their nerves, because they work so hard. I suspect +that this is an immense mistake. I suspect that neither the nature nor +the amount of our work is accountable for the frequency and severity of +our breakdowns, but that their cause lies rather in those absurd +feelings of hurry and having no time, in that breathlessness and +tension, that anxiety of feature and that solicitude for results, that +lack of inner harmony and ease, in short, by which with us the work is +so apt to be accompanied, and from which a European who should do the +same work would nine times out of ten be free. These perfectly wanton +and unnecessary tricks of inner attitude and outer manner in us, caught +from the social atmosphere, kept up by tradition, and idealized by many +as the admirable way of life, are the last straws that break the +American camel's back, the final overflowers of our measure of wear and +tear and fatigue. + +The voice, for example, in a surprisingly large number of us has a tired +and plaintive sound. Some of us are really tired (for I do not mean +absolutely to deny that our climate has a tiring quality); but far more +of us are not tired at all, or would not be tired at all unless we had +got into a wretched trick of feeling tired, by following the prevalent +habits of vocalization and expression. And if talking high and tired, +and living excitedly and hurriedly, would only enable us to _do_ more by +the way, even while breaking us down in the end, it would be different. +There would be some compensation, some excuse, for going on so. But the +exact reverse is the case. It is your relaxed and easy worker, who is in +no hurry, and quite thoughtless most of the while of consequences, who +is your efficient worker; and tension and anxiety, and present and +future, all mixed up together in our mind at once, are the surest drags +upon steady progress and hindrances to our success. My colleague, +Professor Münsterberg, an excellent observer, who came here recently, +has written some notes on America to German papers. He says in substance +that the appearance of unusual energy in America is superficial and +illusory, being really due to nothing but the habits of jerkiness and +bad co-ordination for which we have to thank the defective training of +our people. I think myself that it is high time for old legends and +traditional opinions to be changed; and that, if any one should begin +to write about Yankee inefficiency and feebleness, and inability to do +anything with time except to waste it, he would have a very pretty +paradoxical thesis to sustain, with a great many facts to quote, and a +great deal of experience to appeal to in its proof. + +Well, my friends, if our dear American character is weakened by all this +over-tension,--and I think, whatever reserves you may make, that you +will agree as to the main facts,--where does the remedy lie? It lies, of +course, where lay the origins of the disease. If a vicious fashion and +taste are to blame for the thing, the fashion and taste must be changed. +And, though it is no small thing to inoculate seventy millions of people +with new standards, yet, if there is to be any relief, that will have to +be done. We must change ourselves from a race that admires jerk and snap +for their own sakes, and looks down upon low voices and quiet ways as +dull, to one that, on the contrary, has calm for its ideal, and for +their own sakes loves harmony, dignity, and ease. + +So we go back to the psychology of imitation again. There is only one +way to improve ourselves, and that is by some of us setting an example +which the others may pick up and imitate till the new fashion spreads +from east to west. Some of us are in more favorable positions than +others to set new fashions. Some are much more striking personally and +imitable, so to speak. But no living person is sunk so low as not to be +imitated by somebody. Thackeray somewhere says of the Irish nation that +there never was an Irishman so poor that he didn't have a still poorer +Irishman living at his expense; and, surely, there is no human being +whose example doesn't work contagiously in _some_ particular. The very +idiots at our public institutions imitate each other's peculiarities. +And, if you should individually achieve calmness and harmony in your own +person, you may depend upon it that a wave of imitation will spread from +you, as surely as the circles spread outward when a stone is dropped +into a lake. + +Fortunately, we shall not have to be absolute pioneers. Even now in New +York they have formed a society for the improvement of our national +vocalization, and one perceives its machinations already in the shape of +various newspaper paragraphs intended to stir up dissatisfaction with +the awful thing that it is. And, better still than that, because more +radical and general, is the gospel of relaxation, as one may call it, +preached by Miss Annie Payson Call, of Boston, in her admirable little +volume called _Power Through Repose_, a book that ought to be in the +hands of every teacher and student in America of either sex. You need +only be followers, then, on a path already opened up by others. But of +one thing be confident: others still will follow you. + +And this brings me to one more application of psychology to practical +life, to which I will call attention briefly, and then close. If one's +example of easy and calm ways is to be effectively contagious, one feels +by instinct that the less voluntarily one aims at getting imitated, the +more unconscious one keeps in the matter, the more likely one is to +succeed. _Become the imitable thing,_ and you may then discharge your +minds of all responsibility for the imitation. The laws of social +nature will take care of that result. Now the psychological principle on +which this precept reposes is a law of very deep and widespread +importance in the conduct of our lives, and at the same time a law which +we Americans most grievously neglect. Stated technically, the law is +this: that _strong feeling about one's self tends to arrest the free +association of one's objective ideas and motor processes._ We get the +extreme example of this in the mental disease called melancholia. + +A melancholic patient is filled through and through with intensely +painful emotion about himself. He is threatened, he is guilty, he is +doomed, he is annihilated, he is lost. His mind is fixed as if in a +cramp on these feelings of his own situation, and in all the books on +insanity you may read that the usual varied flow of his thoughts has +ceased. His associative processes, to use the technical phrase, are +inhibited; and his ideas stand stock-still, shut up to their one +monotonous function of reiterating inwardly the fact of the man's +desperate estate. And this inhibitive influence is not due to the mere +fact that his emotion is _painful_. Joyous emotions about the self also +stop the association of our ideas. A saint in ecstasy is as motionless +and irresponsive and one-idea'd as a melancholiac. And, without going as +far as ecstatic saints, we know how in every one a great or sudden +pleasure may paralyze the flow of thought. Ask young people returning +from a party or a spectacle, and all excited about it, what it was. "Oh, +it was _fine!_ it was _fine!_ it was _fine!_" is all the information you +are likely to receive until the excitement has calmed down. Probably +every one of my hearers has been made temporarily half-idiotic by some +great success or piece of good fortune. "_Good!_ GOOD! GOOD!" is all we +can at such times say to ourselves until we smile at our own very +foolishness. + +Now from all this we can draw an extremely practical conclusion. If, +namely, we wish our trains of ideation and volition to be copious and +varied and effective, we must form the habit of freeing them from the +inhibitive influence of reflection upon them, of egoistic pre-occupation +about their results. Such a habit, like other habits, can be formed. +Prudence and duty and self-regard, emotions of ambition and emotions of +anxiety, have, of course, a needful part to play in our lives. But +confine them as far as possible to the occasions when you are making +your general resolutions and deciding on your plan of campaign, and keep +them out of the details. When once a decision is reached and execution +is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care +about the outcome. _Unclamp_, in a word, your intellectual and practical +machinery, and let it run free; and the service it will do you will be +twice as good. Who are the scholars who get "rattled" in the +recitation-room? Those who think of the possibilities of failure and +feel the great importance of the act. Who are those who do recite well? +Often those who are most indifferent. _Their_ ideas reel themselves out +of their memory of their own accord. Why do we hear the complaint so +often that social life in New England is either less rich and expressive +or more fatiguing than it is in some other parts of the world? To what +is the fact, if fact it be, due unless to the over-active conscience of +the people, afraid of either saying something too trivial and obvious, +or something insincere, or something unworthy of one's interlocutor, or +something in some way or other not adequate to the occasion? How can +conversation possibly steer itself through such a sea of +responsibilities and inhibitions as this? On the other hand, +conversation does flourish and society is refreshing, and neither dull +on the one hand nor exhausting from its efforts on the other, wherever +people forget their scruples and take the brakes off their hearts, and +let their tongues wag as automatically and irresponsibly as they will. + +They talk much in pedagogic circles to-day about the duty of the teacher +to prepare for every lesson in advance. To some extent this is useful. +But we Yankees are assuredly not those to whom such a general doctrine +should be preached. We are only too careful as it is. The advice I +should give to most teachers would be in the words of one who is herself +an admirable teacher. Prepare yourself in the _subject so well that it +shall be always on tap_: then in the class-room trust your spontaneity +and fling away all further care. + +My advice to students, especially to girl-students, would be somewhat +similar. Just as a bicycle-chain may be too tight, so may one's +carefulness and conscientiousness be so tense as to hinder the running +of one's mind. Take, for example, periods when there are many successive +days of examination pending. One ounce of good nervous tone in an +examination is worth many pounds of anxious study for it in advance. If +you want really to do your best at an examination, fling away the book +the day before, say to yourself, "I won't waste another minute on this +miserable thing, and I don't care an iota whether I succeed or not." Say +this sincerely and feel it; and go out and play, or go to bed and sleep, +and I am sure the results next day will encourage you to use the method +permanently. I have heard this advice given to a student by Miss Call, +whose book on muscular relaxation I quoted a moment ago. In her later +book, entitled _As a Matter of Course_, the gospel of moral relaxation, +of dropping things from the mind, and not "caring," is preached with +equal success. Not only our preachers, but our friends the theosophists +and mind-curers of various religious sects are also harping on this +string. And with the doctors, the Delsarteans, the various mind-curing +sects, and such writers as Mr. Dresser, Prentice Mulford, Mr. Horace +Fletcher, and Mr. Trine to help, and the whole band of schoolteachers +and magazine-readers chiming in, it really looks as if a good start +might be made in the direction of changing our American mental habit +into something more indifferent and strong. + +Worry means always and invariably inhibition of associations and loss of +effective power. Of course, the sovereign cure for worry is religious +faith; and this, of course, you also know. The turbulent billows of the +fretful surface leave the deep parts of the ocean undisturbed, and to +him who has a hold on vaster and more permanent realities the hourly +vicissitudes of his personal destiny seem relatively insignificant +things. The really religious person is accordingly unshakable and full +of equanimity, and calmly ready for any duty that the day may bring +forth. This is charmingly illustrated by a little work with which I +recently became acquainted, "The Practice of the Presence of God, the +Best Ruler of a Holy Life, by Brother Lawrence, being Conversations and +Letters of Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, Translated from the French."[7] +I extract a few passages, the conversations being given in indirect +discourse. Brother Lawrence was a Carmelite friar, converted at Paris in +1666. "He said that he had been footman to M. Fieubert, the Treasurer, +and that he was a great awkward fellow, who broke everything. That he +had desired to be received into a monastery, thinking that he would +there be made to smart for his awkwardness and the faults he should +commit, and so he should sacrifice to God his life, with its pleasures; +but that God had disappointed him, he having met with nothing but +satisfaction in that state.... + +"That he had long been troubled in mind from a certain belief that he +should be damned; that all the men in the world could not have persuaded +him to the contrary; but that he had thus reasoned with himself about +it: _I engaged in a religious life only for the love of God, and I have +endeavored to act only for Him; whatever becomes of me, whether I be +lost or saved, I will always continue to act purely for the love of God. +I shall have this good at least, that till death I shall have done all +that is in me to love Him ..._ That since then he had passed his life in +perfect liberty and continual joy. + +"That when an occasion of practicing some virtue offered, he addressed +himself to God, saying, 'Lord, I cannot do this unless Thou enablest +me'; and that then he received strength more than sufficient. That, when +he had failed in his duty, he only confessed his fault, saying to God, +'I shall never do otherwise, if You leave me to myself: it is You who +must hinder my failing, and mend what is amiss.' That after this he gave +himself no further uneasiness about it. + +"That he had been lately sent into Burgundy to buy the provision of wine +for the society, which was a very unwelcome task for him, because he had +no turn for business, and because he was lame, and could not go about +the boat but by rolling himself over the casks. That, however, he gave +himself no uneasiness about it, nor about the purchase of the wine. That +he said to God, 'It was his business he was about,' and that he +afterward found it well performed. That he had been sent into Auvergne, +the year before, upon the same account; that he could not tell how the +matter passed, but that it proved very well. + +"So, likewise, in his business in the kitchen (to which he had naturally +a great aversion), having accustomed himself to do everything there for +the love of God, and with prayer upon all occasions, for his grace to do +his work well, he had found everything easy during fifteen years that he +had been employed there. + +"That he was very well pleased with the post he was now in, but that he +was as ready to quit that as the former, since he was always pleasing +himself in every condition, by doing little things for the love of God. + +"That the goodness of God assured him He would not forsake him utterly, +and that He would give him strength to bear whatever evil He permitted +to happen to him; and, therefore, that he feared nothing, and had no +occasion to consult with anybody about his state. That, when he had +attempted to do it, he had always come away more perplexed." + +The simple-heartedness of the good Brother Lawrence, and the relaxation +of all unnecessary solicitudes and anxieties in him is a refreshing +spectacle. + + * * * * * + +The need of feeling responsible all the livelong day has been preached +long enough in our New England. Long enough exclusively, at any +rate,--and long enough to the female sex. What our girl-students and +women-teachers most need nowadays is not the exacerbation, but rather +the toning-down of their moral tensions. Even now I fear that some one +of my fair hearers may be making an undying resolve to become +strenuously relaxed, cost what it will, for the remainder of her life. +It is needless to say that that is not the way to do it. The way to do +it, paradoxical as it may seem, is genuinely not to care whether you are +doing it or not. Then, possibly, by the grace of God, you may all at +once find that you _are_ doing it, and, having learned what the trick +feels like, you may (again by the grace of God) be enabled to go on. + +And that something like this may be the happy experience of all my +hearers is, in closing, my most earnest wish. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: From _Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on +Some of Life's Problems_. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1902.] + +[Footnote 7: Fleming H. Revell Company, New York (AUTHOR).] + + + + +SCIENCE AND RELIGION[8] + +_Charles Proteus Steinmetz_ + + +The problem of religion--that is, of the relations of man with the +supernatural, with God and immortality, with the soul, our personality +or the ego, and its existence or nonexistence after death--is the +greatest and deepest which ever confronted mankind. In the present state +of human knowledge, science can give no definite and final conclusions +on these subjects, because of the limitations inherent in science. + +We must realize that all our knowledge and information and the entire +structure of science are ultimately derived from the perceptions of our +senses and thereby limited in the same manner and to the same extent as +our sense perceptions and our intellect are limited. The success or +failure of scientific achievement largely depends on the extent to which +we can abstract--that is, make our observations and conclusions +independent of the limitations of the human mind. But there are +limitations inherent in the human mind beyond which our intellect cannot +reach, and therefore science does not and cannot show us the world as it +actually is, with its true facts and laws, but only as it appears to us +within the inherent limitations of the human mind. + +The greatest limitation of the human mind is that all its perceptions +are finite, and our intellect cannot grasp the conception of infinity. +The same limitation therefore applies to the world as it appears to our +reasoning intellect, and in the world of science there is no infinity, +and conceptions such as God and the immortality of the ego are beyond +the realm of empirical science. Science deals only with finite events in +finite time and space, and the farther we pass onward in space or time, +the more uncertain becomes the scientific reasoning, until, in trying to +approach the infinite, we are lost in the fog of unreasonable +contradiction, "beyond science"--that is, "transcendental". + +Thus, we may never know and understand the infinite, whether in nature, +in the ultimate deductions from the laws of nature in time and in space, +or beyond nature, on such transcendental conceptions as God and +immortality. But we may approach these subjects as far as the +limitations of our mind permit, reach the border line beyond which we +cannot go, and so derive some understanding of how far these subjects +may appear nonexisting or unreasonable, merely because they are beyond +the limitations of our intellect. + +There appear to me two promising directions of approach--first, from the +complex of thought and research, which in physics has culminated in the +theory of relativity; and, second, in a study of the gaps found in the +structure of empirical science and what they may teach us. + +All events of nature occur in space and in time. Whatever we perceive, +whatever record we receive through our senses, always is attached to, +and contained in, space and time. But are space and time real existing +things? Have they an absolute reality outside of our mind, as a part or +framework of nature, as entities--that is, things that are? Or are they +merely a conception of the human mind, a form given by the character of +our mind to the events of nature--that is, to the hypothetical cause of +our sense perceptions? Kant, the greatest and most critical of all +philosophers, in his _Critique of Pure Reason (Kritik der Reinen +Vernunft)_, concludes that space and time have no absolute existence, +but are categories--that is, forms in which the human mind conceives his +relation to nature. The same idea is expressed by the poet-philosopher +Goethe in his dramatic autobiography _Faust_ (in the second part), when +he refers to the "Mütter," to the marriage of Achilles and Helena +"outside of all time." It is found in ancient time. So Revelation speaks +of "there should be time no longer" (hoti chronos ouketi +estai). + +The work of the great mathematicians of the nineteenth century--Gauss, +Riemann, Lobatschefsky, Bolyai--offered further evidence that space is +not an empirical deduction from nature, but a conception of the mind, by +showing that various forms of space can be conceived, differing from one +another and from the form in which the mind has cast the events of +nature (the "Euclidean" space). Finally, physical science, in the theory +of relativity, has deduced the same conclusions: space and time do not +exist in nature by themselves, as empty space and empty time, but their +existence is only due to things and events as they occur in nature. They +are relative in the relation between us and the events of nature, so +much so that they are not fixed and invariable in their properties, but +depend upon the observer and the conditions of observation. + +We can get an idea of how utterly our perception of nature depends on +the particular form of our time conception by picturing to ourselves how +nature would look if our time perception were 100,000 times faster, or +100,000 times slower. + +In the first case, with our sense perceptions 100,000 times faster, all +events in nature would appear to us 100,000 times slower. This would +then be a stationary and immovable world. The only motion which we could +see with our eyes would be that of the cannon ball, which would crawl +slowly along, at less than a snail's pace. The express train going at +sixty miles per hour would appear to stand still, and deliberate +experiment be required to discover its motion. By noting its position on +the track, and noting it again after a period of time as long as five +minutes appears to us now, we should find its position changed by three +inches. It would be a dangerous world, as there would be many +objects--not distinguishable to the senses from other harmless +objects--contact with which would be dangerous, even fatal; and one and +the same object (as the express train) might sometimes be harmless (when +at rest), sometimes dangerous (when in motion), without our senses being +able to see any difference. + +On the other hand, with our sense perceptions 100,000 times slower, all +events in nature would appear to us to occur 100,000 times faster. There +would be little rest in nature, and we should see plants, and even +stones, move. We should observe, in a period of time not longer than a +minute or two appear to us now, a plant start from seed, grow up, +flower, bring fruit, and die. Sun and moon would be luminous bands +traversing the sky; day and night alternate seconds of light and +darkness. Much of nature, all moving things, would be invisible to us. +If I moved my arm, it would disappear, to reappear again when I held it +still. It would be a usual occurrence to have somebody suddenly appear +and just as suddenly disappear from our midst, or to see only a part of +a body. The vanishing and the appearance of objects would be common +occurrences in nature; and we should speak of "vanishing" and +"appearing," instead of "moving" and "stopping." Collisions, usually +harmless, with invisible objects would be common occurrences. + +As seen, nature and its laws would appear to us very different from what +we find them now, with our present time perception. + +Thus philosophy, mathematics, and physical science agree that space and +time cannot be entities, but are conceptions of the human mind in its +relation to nature. But what does this mean, and what conclusions follow +from it? + +The space of our conception is three-dimensional--that is, extended in +three directions. For instance, the north-south direction, the east-west +direction, and the up-down direction. Any place or "point" in space thus +is located, relative to some other point, by giving its three distances +from the latter, in three (arbitrarily chosen) directions. + +Time has only one dimension--that is, extends in one direction only, +from the past to the future--and a moment or "point" in time thus is +located, with reference to another point in time, by one time distance. + +But there is a fundamental difference between our space conception and +our time conception, in that we can pass through time only in one +direction, from the past to the future, while we can pass through space +in any direction, from north to south, as well as from south to +north--that is, time is irreversible, flows uniformly in one direction, +while space is reversible, can be traversed in any direction. This means +that when we enter a thing in space, as a house, we can approach it, +pass through it, leave it, come back to it, and the thing therefore +appears permanent to us, and we know, even when we have left the house +and do not see it any more, that it still exists, and that we can go +back to it again and enter it. Not so with time. On approaching a thing +in time, an event such as a human life, it extends from a point in +time--birth--over a length of time--the life--to an end point in +time--death--just as the house in space extends from a point in +space--say the north wall--over a length of space--its extent--to an end +point in space--say the south wall. But when we pass beyond the end +point of an event in time--the death of a life--we cannot go back to the +event any more; the event has ceased, ended, the life is extinct. + +But let us imagine that the same irreversibility applied to the +conception of space--that is, that we could move through space only from +north to south, and not in the opposite direction. Then a thing in +space, as a house, would not exist for us until we approached it. When +we were approaching it, it would first appear indistinctly, and more and +more distinctly the nearer we approached it, just as an event in time +does not exist until we reach the point of its beginning, but may appear +in anticipation, in time perspective, when we approach it, the more +distinctly, the closer we approach it, until we reach the threshold of +the time span covered by the event, and the event begins to exist, the +life is born. So to us, if we could move only from north to south, the +house would begin to exist only when we reached its north door. That +point would be the "birth" of the house. Passing through the span of +space covered by the house--this would for us be its existence, its +"life," and when we stepped out of the south door the house would cease +to exist for us, we could never enter it and turn back to it again--that +is, it would be dead and extinct, just as the life when we pass beyond +its end point in time. Thus birth and death, appearance and extinction +of an event in time, as our life, are the same as the beginning and end +point of a thing in space, like a house. But the house appears to us to +exist permanently, whether we are in it, within the length between +beginning and end point, or not; while the event in time, our life, +appears to us to exist only during the length of time when we are +between its beginning and its end point in time, and before and after it +does not exist for us, because we cannot go back to it or ahead into it. +But assume time were reversible, like space--that is, we could go +through it in any direction. There would then be no such thing as birth +or origin, and death or extinction, but our life would exist +permanently, as a part or span of time, just as the house exists as a +part or section of space, and the question of immortality, of extinction +or nonextinction by death, would then be meaningless. We should not +exist outside of the span of time covered by our life, just as we do not +exist outside of the part of space covered by our body in space, and to +reach an event, as our life, we should have to go to the part of space +and to the part of time where it occurs; but there would be no more +extinction of the life by going beyond its length in time as there is +extinction of a house by going outside of its door, and everything, like +a human being, would have four extensions or dimensions--three +extensions in space and one in time.[9] + +If space and time, and therefore the characteristics of space and time, +are not real things or entities, but conceptions of the human mind, then +those transcendental questions, as that of immortality after death and +existence before birth, are not problems of fact in nature or outside of +nature, but are meaningless, just as the question whether a house exists +for an observer outside of the space covered by it. In other words, the +questions of birth and death, of extinction or immortality, are merely +the incidental results of the peculiarity of our conceptions of time, +the peculiarity that the time of our conceptions is irreversible, flows +continuously at a uniform rate in the same direction from the past to +the future. + +But if time has no reality, is not an existing entity, then these +transcendental problems resulting from our time conception, of +extinction or immortality, have no real existence, but are really +phenomena of the human mind, and cease to exist if we go beyond the +limitations of our mind, beyond our peculiar time conception. + +It is interesting to realize that the modern development of science, in +the relativity theory, has proved not only that time is not real, but a +conception, but also has proved that the time of our conception does not +flow uniformly at constant rate from past to future, but that the rate +of the flow of time varies with the conditions; the rate of time flow of +an event slows down with the motion relative to the event. + +But the conception of a reversal of the flow of time is no more +illogical than the conception of a change of the rate of the flow of +time. It is inconceivable, because it is beyond the limitations of our +mind. + +Thus we see that the questions of life and death, of extinction and +immortality, are not absolute problems, but merely the result of the +limitations of our mind in its conception of time, and have no existence +outside of us. + +After all, to some extent we conceive time as reversible, in the +conception of historical time. In history we go back in time at our +will, and traverse with the mind's eye the times of the past, and we +then find that death and extinction do not exist in history, but the +events of history, the lives of those who made history, exist just as +much outside of the span of time of their physiological life--that is, +are immortal in historical time. They may fade and become more +indistinct with the distance in time, just as things in space become +more indistinct with the distance in space, but they can be brought back +to full clearness and distinction by again approaching the things and +events, the former moving through space, the latter moving through the +historical time--that is, by looking up and studying the history of the +time. + + +THE ENTITY "X" + +Scientifically, life is a physico-chemical process. Transformations of +matter, with which the chemist deals, and transformations of energy, +with which the physicist deals, are all that is comprised in the +phenomenon of life; and mind, intellect, soul, personality, the ego, are +mere functions of the physico-chemical process of life, vanishing when +this process ceases, but are not a part of the transformations of matter +and of energy. If you thus speak of "mental energy," it scientifically +is a misnomer, and mind is not energy in the physical sense. It is true +that mental effort, intellectual work, is accompanied by transformations +of matter, chemical changes in the brain, and by transformations of +energy. But the mental activity is not a part of the energy or of the +matter which is transformed, but the balance of energy and of matter +closes. + +In the energy transformations accompanying mental activity, just as much +energy of one form appears as energy of some other form is consumed, and +the mental activity is no part of the energy. In the transformations of +matter accompanying mental activity, just as much matter of one form +appears as matter of some other form is consumed, and the mental +activity is no part of either--that is, neither energy nor matter has +been transformed into mental activity, nor has energy or matter been +produced by mental activity. All attempts to account for the mental +activity as produced by the expenditure of physical energy, or as +producing physical energy--that is, exerting forces and action--have +failed and must fail, and so must any attempt to record or observe and +measure mental activity by physical methods--that is, methods sensitive +to the action of physical forces. + +But what, then, is mind? Is it a mere phenomenon, accompanying the +physico-chemical reactions of life and vanishing with the end of the +reaction, just as the phenomenon of a flame may accompany a chemical +reaction, and vanish when the reaction is completed? Or is mind an +entity, just like the entity energy and the entity matter, but differing +from either of them--in short, a third entity? We have compared mind +with the phenomenon of a flame accompanying a chemical reaction; but, +after all, the flame is not a mere phenomenon, but is an entity, is +energy. + +More than once, in the apparently continuous and unbroken structure of +science, wide gaps have been discovered into which new sections of +knowledge fitted, sections the existence of which had never been +suspected. So in Mendelejeff's _Periodic System of the Elements_ all +chemical elements fitted in without gaps--in a continuous series (except +a few missing links, which were gradually discovered and filled in). +Nevertheless, the whole group of six noble gases, from helium to +emanium, were discovered and fitted into the periodic system at a place +where nobody had suspected a gap. + +One of the most interesting of such unsuspected gaps in the structure of +science is the following, because of its pertinency to the subject of +our discussion. + +In studying the transformations of matter, the chemist records them by +equations of the form: + +(1) 2H_{2} + O_{2} = 2H_{2}O, which means: + +Two gram molecules of hydrogen H_{2}(2 X 2 = 4 grams) and 1 gram +molecule of oxygen O_{2}(1 X 32 grams), combine to 2 gram molecules of +water vapor H_{2}O (2 X 18 = 36 grams). + +For nearly a hundred years chemists wrote and accepted this equation; +innumerable times it has been experimentally proved by combining 4 parts +of hydrogen and 32 parts of oxygen to 36 parts of water vapor; so that +this chemical equation would appear as correct and unquestionable as +anything can be. + +Nevertheless, it is wrong, or rather incomplete. It does not give the +whole event, but omits an essential part of it, and now we write it: + +(2) 2H_{2} + O_{2} = 2H_{2}O + 293,000 J., which means: + +The matter _and energy_ of 2 gram molecules of hydrogen, and the matter +_and energy_ of 1 gram molecule of oxygen, combine to the matter _and +energy_ of 2 gram molecules of water vapor and 293,000 joules, or units, +of _free energy_. + +For a hundred years the chemists thus saw only the material +transformation as represented by equation (1), but overlooked and did +not recognize the energy transformation coincident with the +transformation of matter, though every time the experiment was made, the +293,000 J. of energy in equation (2) made themselves felt as flame, as +heat and mechanical force, sometimes even explosively shattering the +container in which the experiment was made. But the flame and the +explosion appeared only as an incidental phenomenon without +significance, as it represents and contains no part of the matter, but +equation (1) gives the complete balance of matter in transformation. It +was much later that the scientists realized the significance of the +flame accompanying the material transformation as not a mere incidental +phenomenon, but as the manifestation of the entity energy, permanent and +indestructible, like matter, and the complete equation (2) appeared, +giving the balance of energy as well as the balance of matter--that is, +coincident with the transformation of matter is a transformation of +energy, and both are indissoluble from each other, either involves the +other, and both may be called different aspects of the same phenomenon. + +But we have seen, when mental activity occurs in our mind, chemical and +physical transformations accompany it, are coincident with it, and +apparently indissoluble from it. Does there possibly exist the same +relation between mental activity and the transformations of energy and +matter, as we have seen to exist between the latter two? Are mental +activity, energy transformation, and transformation of matter three +aspects of the same biochemical phenomenon? + +If for nearly a hundred years equation (1) was considered complete, +until we found that one side was incomplete, and arrived at the more +complete equation (2), the question may well be raised: Is equation (2) +complete, dealing as it does with two entities, matter and energy, or is +it not possibly still incomplete, and a third entity should appear in +the equation, an entity "X," as I may call it, differing from energy and +from matter, just as energy and matter differ from each other, and +therefore not recognizable and measurable by the means which measure +energy or matter, just as energy cannot be measured by the same means as +matter? + +That is, the complete equation of transformation would read: + +(3) 2H_{2} + O_{2} = 2H_{2}O + 293,000 J. + X, involving all three +entities, matter, energy, and mind, pertaining, respectively, to the +realm of chemistry, of physics, and of psychology, or possibly a broader +science of which psychology is one branch. + +There is no scientific evidence whatsoever of the existence of such a +third entity, "X," but all our deductions have been by analogy, which +proves nothing--that is, by speculation, dreaming, and unavoidably +so--since in these conceptions we are close to the border line of the +human mind where logical reasoning loses itself in the fog of +contradiction. But at the same time there is no evidence against the +conception of an entity "X"; it is not illogical, at least no more so +than all such general conceptions, no more so than, for instance, that +of energy or of matter. As empirical science deals with energy and +matter, and entity "X" is neither, it could not be observed by any of +the methods of experimental physics or chemistry. + +If mind is a third entity, correlated with the entities of energy and +of matter, we should expect that mental activity, or entity "X," should +occur not only in the highly complex transformations of energy and of +matter taking place in the brains of the highest orders of living +beings, but that entity "X" should appear in all physico-chemical +reactions, just as energy transformations always occur in +transformations of matter, and inversely. But this seems not so, and in +most of the transformations of energy and of matter entity "X" does not +appear. However, we have no satisfactory means of recognizing entity +"X," no methods of studying it. Therefore, it may well be that it is +noticed only in those rare instances when it appears of high intensity, +but in most reactions entity "X" may be so small or appear in such way +as to escape observation by the means and by the methods now available. +Like energy or matter, entity "X" may have many forms in which it is not +recognized by us, just as for a long time the flame was not recognized +as the entity energy. + +To illustrate, again by analogy: In many transformations of matter, +indeed, in most of the more complex ones of the organic world, the +concurrent energy transformation is of such slowness and of such low +intensity that it appears nonexisting, and can be discovered and +measured only by the delicate experiments devised by science. +Furthermore, the energy may appear in different forms. Thus the 293,000 +J. of energy in equation (2) may appear as heat, or as electrical +energy, or as a combination of heat, light, sound, and mechanical +energy. Now assume that we could observe and notice only one of the +forms of energy--for instance, only electrical energy. We should then +find that in the equation (1) we only sometimes get energy--that is, +electrical energy--under special peculiar conditions, but usually do not +seem to get any of the entity energy, simply because we do not recognize +it in the form in which it appears. Analogously, there might be a term +of entity "X" in all transformations, even such simple ones as equation +(3), but entity "X" may appear in a far different, simpler form. It +would mean that "mind" is only one form of entity "X," perhaps the +high-grade form, as it appears in highly complex reactions. In the +simpler physico-chemical processes of nature, entity "X" also would +appear, but in other, simpler forms. It would mean that things such as +mind and intellect are not limited to the higher living beings, but +characteristics akin thereto would be found grading down throughout all +living and inanimate nature. This does not appear unreasonable when we +consider that some characteristics of life are found throughout all +nature, even in the crystal which, in its mother liquor, repairs a +lesion, "heals a wound," or which, in the colloidal solution, may be +"poisoned" by prussic acid. + +Assume, then, that mind, intellect, personality, the ego, were forms of +a third entity, an entity "X," correlated in nature with the entities +energy and matter. Then, just as energy and matter continuously change +their forms, so with the transformations of energy and of matter, entity +"X" would continuously change, disappear in one form and reappear in +another form. Entity "X" could therefore not exist permanently in one +and the same form, and the permanency of the ego--that is, +immortality--would still be illogical, would not exist within the realm +of science, but would carry us beyond the limitations of the human mind +into the unknowable. Permanency of the ego--that is, individual +immortality--would require a form of entity "X," in which it is not +further transformable. This would be the case if the transformations of +entity "X" are not completely reversible, but tend one definite +direction, from lower-grade to higher-grade forms, and the latter thus +would gradually build up to increasing permanency. There is nothing +unreasonable in this, but a similar condition--in the reverse +direction--exists with the transformations of energy. They also are not +completely reversible, but tend in a definite direction, from higher- to +lower-grade form--unavailable heat energy (the increase of entropy by +the second law of thermodynamics). Thus in infinite time the universe +should come to a standstill, in spite of the law of conservation of +energy, by all energy becoming unavailable for further +transformation--that is, becoming dead energy. If entity "X" existed, +could it not also have become unavailable for further transformation by +reaching its maximum high-grade form and thus become not susceptible to +further change--that is, "immortal"--just as the unavailable heat of the +physicist is "immortal," and not capable of further transformation? Here +we are again in the fog of illogic, beyond the limitations. However, it +sounds familiar to the Nirvana of the Buddhist. + +Physics and chemistry obviously could not deal with entity "X," and the +most delicate and sensitive physical or chemical instruments could get +no indication of it, and all attempts at investigation by physical or +chemical means thus must be doomed to failure. But such investigations +of entity "X" belong to the realm of the science of psychology, or, +rather, a broader science, of which psychology is one branch dealing +with one form of entity "X," mind, just as, for instance, +electro-physics is one branch of the broader science of physics, dealing +with electrical energy, while physics deals with all forms of energy. + +In concluding, I wish to say that nothing in the preceding speculations +can possibly encourage spiritism or other pseudo-science. On the +contrary, from the preceding it is obvious that the alleged +manifestations of spiritism must be fake or self-deception, since they +are manifestations of energy. Entity "X," if it exists, certainly is not +energy, and therefore could not manifest itself as such. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 8: From _Harpers Magazine_ for February, 1922.] + +[Footnote 9: It is interesting to note that the relativity theory leads +to the conception of a symmetrical four-dimensional world space +(Minkowski), in which in general each of the four dimensions comprises +space and time conceptions, and the segregation into three dimensions of +space and one dimension of time occurs only under special conditions of +observation. (AUTHOR.)] + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTES + + +SIR ARTHUR KEITH, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., born in Aberdeen, 1866, was +educated at the University of Aberdeen; at University College, London; +and at the University of Leipzig. From 1899 to 1902, he was Secretary of +the Anatomical Society of Great Britain, and was President of the Royal +Anthropological Institute from 1912 to 1914. At present he is Hunterian +Professor and Conservator of Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, London, +and also holds the Fullerian Professorship of Physiology, Royal +Institution of Great Britain and Ireland. Beginning with his +_Introduction to the Study of Anthropoid Apes_ in 1896, he has produced +some ten volumes. Among them are _Human Embryology and Morphology_ +(1901); _Ancient Types of Man_ (1911); _The Human Body_ (1912); _Menders +of the Maimed_ (1919); and _Nationality and Race_ (1920). He was +knighted in 1921. + +"The Levers of the Human Body" is helpful in illustrating the value of +diagrams and of analogy in the exposition of a mechanism. It may be used +also for teaching the student to adapt his work to the audience, for, +although prepared at first for an immature audience, its material has +since been so adapted that in addition to the general reader it is of +particular interest to the physician and to the engineer. + + +The series of volumes in which _Modern Methods of Book Composition_ +appears, is but one of the distinguished services in improving the +practice of typography rendered by THEODORE LOW DE VINNE (1828-1914). At +his invitation, the chapter, "Mechanical Composition," was contributed +by PHILIP T. DODGE, President of the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. + +"The Mergenthaler Linotype," which is taken from Mr. Dodge's chapter, is +well adapted for teaching the correlation of diagrams and text in the +exposition of mechanisms and machines. + + +Some idea of the length of JEAN HENRI FABRE'S life (1823-1915) may be +obtained when we recall that his place as a scientist was established +early enough for Victor Hugo to refer to him as the "insects' Homer" and +for Darwin to refer to him in _The Origin of Species_ as "that +incomparable observer." By 1841, Fabre had escaped from the poverty of +his boyhood and had qualified as a pupil teacher at the Normal College +at Vaucluse. Later, he became Professor of Physics and Chemistry at the +_lycée_ of Ajaccio and, by 1852, held a similar position at Avignon. The +greater part of his life was spent in the study of insects. The results +are recorded in several volumes. An interesting _Life_, written by the +Abbé Augustin Fabre and translated by Mr. Miall, was published in 1921. + +"The Pea Weevil," which offers an example of the exposition of a process +achieved by impersonal narration, should prove especially helpful in +showing the student how interest may be secured in such work. + + +The J.W. BUTLER PAPER COMPANY, which published the little volume from +which the selection is taken, is recognized as an important factor in +the industry. + +"Modern Paper-making" may be utilized in teaching the emphasis placed on +chronological order in the impersonal narration of a process; the +explanation of machines by generalized description in such narration; +and the methods employed in explaining alternate or parallel steps in +the process. + + +WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910), like his equally distinguished brother, +received his elementary education in New York City and in Europe. From +1861 to 1863, he studied at the Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard +University, leaving to join the Thayer Expedition to Brazil. He was +graduated in 1870 from the Harvard Medical School and, two years later, +was appointed Instructor in Anatomy and Physiology. In 1885, while +Assistant Professor of Physiology at the Medical School, he was +appointed Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. His +later work at the University is well-known. Among his published works +are his _Principles of Psychology_ (1889); _The Will to Believe_ (1897); +_The Varieties of Religious Experience_ (1902); _Pragmatism_ (1907); +_Memories and Studies_ (1911); and _Essays in Radical Empiricism_ +(1912). His _Letters_, edited by his son, appeared in 1920. + +"The Gospel of Relaxation" offers a model in the adaptation of +scientific material to a lay audience, through the way in which the +author makes clear the Lange-James Theory by concrete examples and +practical applications. + + +CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ (1865-), born in Breslau, Germany, was +educated at Breslau, Berlin, and Zurich. For twenty-five years he has +been Consulting Engineer to the General Electric Company, and for twenty +years Professor of Electro-physics at Union University. Besides several +authoritative volumes on subjects within his field, he is the author of +_America and the New Epoch_ (1906) and is a frequent contributor to +literary as well as to technical journals. + +"Science and Religion" may be used to show the student how even so +technical a topic as the Einstein Theory may be rendered concrete for +the general reader through analogy and specific examples. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Book of Exposition, by Homer Heath Nugent + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF EXPOSITION *** + +***** This file should be named 13910.txt or 13910.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/1/13910/ + +Produced by Stephen Schulze and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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