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diff --git a/old/61795-0.txt b/old/61795-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index bab834e..0000000 --- a/old/61795-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5063 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of From an Easy Chair, by Ray Lankester - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: From an Easy Chair - -Author: Ray Lankester - -Release Date: April 10, 2020 [EBook #61795] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM AN EASY CHAIR *** - - - - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Craig Kirkwood, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text -enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=). - -Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. - - * * * * * - -FROM AN EASY CHAIR - - * * * * * - -BY THE SAME AUTHOR - -EXTINCT ANIMALS - -By SIR E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. With a Portrait of the Author, and 218 -other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. Second Edition, Price =7s. 6d.= net. - - _NATURE._--“We give the book a hearty welcome, feeling sure that its - perusal will draw many young recruits to the army of naturalists, and - many readers to its pages.” - -THE KINGDOM OF MAN - -By SIR E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. With about 60 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. -Second Edition. Price =3s. 6d.= net. - - _DAILY NEWS._--“Forms one of the most stimulating and suggestive - books of recent times. We feel that we cannot praise it too highly.” - - _OUTLOOK._--“This fascinating and inexpensive book ... in which much - knowledge is imparted in a manner that attracts.” - - * * * * * - - - - -FROM AN EASY CHAIR - - - BY SIR RAY LANKESTER, K.C.B., F.R.S. - - “_The world is so full of a number of things, - I am sure we should all be as happy as kings._” - - R. L. STEVENSON - - [Illustration] - - LONDON - - ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO., LTD. - - 1909 - - * * * * * - - RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED - BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND - BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. - - _Published October, 1908._ - _Reprinted January, 1909._ - - - - -PREFACE - - -This little book is a reproduction, with some emendations, of articles -which appeared in the _Daily Telegraph_ in the six months between the -beginning of last October and the end of April. If it should meet with -success, further collections of the same kind will be published from -time to time. - - E. R. L. - -_August, 1908._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - 1. Science and the Study of Nature 1 - - 2. The Desire to Know the World of Nature 3 - - 3. Scares and Wonders 5 - - 4. Work at the Pasteur Institute 9 - - 5. The Sea Serpent 10 - - 6. Giraffes and the Okapi 11 - - 7. The Great Geologists of Last Century 14 - - 8. Experiments with Precious Stones 19 - - 9. Diamonds 23 - - 10. Science and Fisheries 27 - - 11. Discoveries as to Malaria 29 - - 12. Malta Fever 34 - - 13. A Cure for Sleeping Sickness 36 - - 14. Tsetse-Flies and Disease 38 - - 15. Monkeys and Fleas 41 - - 16. The Jigger Flea 42 - - 17. Public Estimate of the Value of Science 43 - - 18. The Common House-fly and Others 45 - - 19. Cerebral Inhibition 48 - - 20. Colour-photography and Photographs of Mars 49 - - 21. Origin of Names by Errors in Copying 50 - - 22. False News as to Extinct Monsters 51 - - 23. Mistletoe and Holly 52 - - 24. The Cattle Show 55 - - 25. The Experimental Method 59 - - 26. Hypnotism and an Experiment on the Influence - of the Magnet 60 - - 27. Luminous Owls and Other Luminous Animals - and Plants 65 - - 28. Reminiscences of Lord Kelvin 68 - - 29. The So-called Jargon of Science 70 - - 30. Rats and the Plague 73 - - 31. Ancient Temples and Astronomy 78 - - 32. Alchemists of To-day and Yesterday 84 - - 33. A Story of Sham Diamonds and Pearls 88 - - 34. The Nature of Pearls 89 - - 35. A King Who was a Zoologist 93 - - 36. The Transmission to Offspring of Acquired - Qualities 97 - - 37. Variation and Selection Among Living Things 103 - - 38. The Movement, Growth, and Dwindling of Glaciers 108 - - 39. Votes for Women 117 - - 40. Tobacco and the History of Smoking 124 - - 41. Cruelty, Pain, and Knowledge 131 - - * * * * * - -FROM AN EASY CHAIR - - - - -1. _Science and the Study of Nature_ - - -This volume consists of brief notes in plain language on a variety of -scientific matters. I speak of new discoveries, real or so-called by -mistake; of old well-established facts and explanations of strange -occurrences which are more familiar to men of science than to people -who have not had the time and opportunity to ascertain what is, and -what is not proved and known about Nature and her ways. I do not -address my reader from the professor’s chair, but from an easy chair. -Just as in the club or my friend’s smoking-room, I might talk of these -things, so do I propose to talk here. My hope is that what I have to -say will interest those who are not experts in science, and yet have -a desire for trustworthy information and opinion on the vast variety -of topics which come up day by day for consideration and discussion, -and can only be explained or rightly understood by the aid of that -systematised knowledge which is called science. - - * * * * * - -Science and the scientific point of view have a very wide, indeed, an -unlimited range. Though the making of discoveries of real importance -and the full understanding of the steps by which they are made -involves, as a rule, long study and special training, yet there is -a vast deal of healthy excitement and pleasure connected with the -progress of science, in which all can share by receiving, as it were, -messages from the front. By contributing true records and observations -of fact which serve, in however small a way, as ammunition and material -of war for the use of the fighting line, we can all help and take part -in the advance of science. - -A great feature of what is called science is that it is true. The -actual result achieved by science is the record of “that which is”--it -can be examined, tested, and proved. But science does not merely -collect accurate records of fact. In order to discover new things, -new relations, and hidden causes she has to make use of guesses and -flights of imagination. The “hypotheses” or guesses are not wild ones, -but reasonable suppositions based on careful consideration of existing -knowledge. They are never mistaken by trained workers in science for -“facts,” nor put forward as such. On the contrary, they are tested and -so confirmed or rejected by experiment or trial. Hence the necessity -of accuracy in observation for the purposes of science; hence the -proverbial “scientific accuracy.” It is of no use to form a guess based -upon erroneous statements. It is mere waste of time to accept and build -theories upon loose wonder-mongers’ gossip. And, further, the evidence -which you obtain in order to confirm or dismiss your “guess” must be -equally beyond suspicion as to its accuracy. It must be an observation -of fact free from prejudice and illusion. - -Your guess, if proved to be true, adds to the solid record of -science new facts and new proofs of relationships, which again lead -on the imagination of men of science to new guesses, and so to new -confirmation or rejection, and to the growth of the vast record of -accurate knowledge. To seek out in the endless whirling complexity -of things which surround us in earth, sky, and sea, the truth, the -knowledge of “that which is,” of the relation of these things to -one another as cause and effect and their action and influence on -ourselves--this is the aim of science. To substitute real understanding -and the power of control of the surrounding world for the misleading -and cruelly harmful conceptions existing in the minds of simple -unskilled mankind--this is the daily achievement of science. - - - - -2. _The Desire to Know the World of Nature_ - - -The practical value of science in securing the happiness of human -communities is not, however, the reason which operates most strongly -in exciting men and women to give themselves to the cultivation and -improvement of this or that branch of it. A rich banker one day was -looking round the Natural History Museum with me. It was his first -visit. After a time he said, “It’s very fine! wonderful! But what’s it -all for? Where does the money come in? That’s what I can’t understand. -Why does the Government spend money on this if it don’t lead to -making money?” I tried to convince him that there exists in us all a -divine “curiosity,” a desire to know regardless of profit or loss, a -thirst which we may cultivate and satisfy, in the full assurance that -whilst its satisfaction is a delight in itself, we are all the while -fulfilling the destiny of man, helping in the conquest of Nature. My -friend had apparently lost that instinctive thirst which is the primary -impulse to the pursuit of science, that capacity for pleasure which -Robert Louis Stevenson truly notes in the words of the child of his -“Garland of Verse”: - - “The world is so full of a number of things, - I am sure we should all be as happy as kings!” - -The existence of that little child and of numberless “grown-ups” who -have become or have never ceased to be, in this matter, even as he, is -the reason why science has its helpers and workers of all ranks, and it -is of them that I chiefly think in writing these notes. - -At a dinner of the Savage Club a year or so ago my friend Dr. Nansen, -the Norwegian Minister, quoted some lines from a Scandinavian poet, -which he translated somewhat as follows: “As you journey through -life do not go too fast, do not press on blindly; there are so many -beautiful things by the way. Turn your head, stay a few minutes. Leave -the dusty road. Take in and enjoy the wonders and delights which are at -your feet.” Motorists, please take note! - -For those who can enter more thoroughly into the pursuit of science -there are even greater joys. To the very few there is the privilege not -merely of realising well-established truths, and of perhaps assisting -in securing their foundations or extending their application, but of -discovering vast unexplored regions, new possibilities, new revelations -of the unfathomed depths of Nature’s workings. Though few can hope to -be leaders in these enthralling adventures, yet we can be close to -those who are, and, holding their hands, sympathise with their soul’s -vision. - - “Then felt I like some watcher from the skies, - Or the stout Cortes, when, with eagle eyes, - He stared at the Pacific.... - Silent, upon a peak in Darien.” - -Such a one need have none of the conventional setting of romantic -enterprise. He may be standing before a much-stained table, covered -with bottles, in an atmosphere of acrid fumes, with a test-tube in his -hand, or he may be just raising his head with a far-off gaze, as he -sits, bent o’er a microscope, in London. - - - - -3. _Scares and Wonders_ - - -There are certain subjects which come within my ken upon which -paragraphs are published in the papers nearly every other day of -a wildly romantic and misleading character. These subjects may be -classified as: (1) Living and extinct monsters. (2) Cures for cancer -and tubercle. (3) Unsuspected dangers of infection by disease-germs. It -would hardly be pleasant for me to quote these paragraphs in order to -deny their statements. They are often headed, “For the Little Ones,” or -“From a Foreign Correspondent.” The old-established and better title -for such announcements is “For the Marines.” I shall endeavour to -mention as they occur to me, among other things, new and duly-certified -facts relating to monsters, and to the investigation of disease. With -reference to reports which have been seriously put forward during the -past year, I may say that the alleged discovery of a mammoth in North -America 71ft. long and 40ft. tall is nonsense. In the announcement to -which I allude, the measurements have been altered from some original -and more correct statement and made to appear astonishing by error or -design. - -No new facts of importance bearing upon the treatment of either cancer -or tubercle have been lately discovered which can be explained to -the general public. Work is proceeding nevertheless. No new source -of danger from disease-germs has been detected since this time last -year. It is true that the dust in railway carriages, and especially -in sleeping-cars, which are not properly cleaned every day after -occupation by travellers, is full of microbes, and, like the dust of -rooms which have been crowded by human beings, may be a source of -disease infection. The remedy for this is careful cleansing after -each journey, and a special construction of the cars like a tiled -bath-room, so as to avoid the accumulation of dirt. At present this is, -and long has been, neglected. - -Another serious and more recent danger is that arising from the -crowding of passengers in underground railway tubes. Both in -Paris and London this has been recognised as a real and pressing -danger. Trouble has been given by the dust raised in the Paris -Tube, but the danger caused by dust has been avoided in London. -It is a definitely-ascertained fact that many bacteria, including -disease-producing kinds, are rapidly killed by exposure to strong -sunlight. Hence underground tubes and the chinks and recesses of -railway carriages are more liable to harbour disease-germs than -the open-air roadways and the carriages which ply on them. Great -cleanliness and the use of germicide washing fluids are the obvious -precautions to be taken in the absence of sunlight. - -As to mammoths and elephants--the former is a misspelling of the word -“mammont,” the name given by the natives of Northern Siberia to the -extinct elephant, hairy, but otherwise closely similar to the Indian -elephant, which within the period of prehistoric man (50,000 to 150,000 -years) was abundant over the whole of the northern part of the Northern -Hemisphere. Mammoths’ tusks (ivory) are still largely imported from -Siberia. The biggest African elephant may, perhaps, stand 13ft. at the -shoulder. No mammoth or other extinct elephant seems to have exceeded -this. The stuffed African elephant in Cromwell road measures 11ft. 2in. -at the shoulder. Mr. Carnegie’s great extinct reptile Diplodocus is -only 12ft. 9in. from the ground at the highest part of its back. The -biggest tusk of a recent elephant ever seen was bought by me for the -Natural History Museum seven years ago. It weighs 228lb., and measures -10ft. 2in. along the curve. It was recognised three years ago by Mr. -Jephson (one of Stanley’s companions) as one of a pair which he had -weighed in Central Africa. It was in the possession of Emin Pasha when -that unfortunate gentleman was “rescued” by Stanley and Jephson. After -the subsequent assassination of Emin, his ivory treasure found its way -to Zanzibar, and this tusk being part of it, was sold and brought to -London. - -A real new monster of great size is the carnivorous reptile described -by Professor Osborne, of New York, as Tyrannosaurus. There is no -mistake or exaggeration about this report. The specimen is in the New -York Museum, and has been described in detail and drawn to scale by -Professor Osborne. The skeleton stands up like that of a huge bird or a -kangaroo on the two hind legs--as does that of the vegetarian reptile -Iguanodon. The Iguanodon and the Tyrannosaurus are of about the same -height, namely 17ft. But the new monster has enormous tiger-like teeth, -twelve on each side of the jaw, above and below, and the jaws are three -feet long, whilst the whole head is broad and short. Iguanodon, on the -other hand, has been long known from English and Belgian rocks, and -can be seen in Cromwell Road. It has a beak like a tortoise, and the -small teeth of a vegetable-feeder. Both animals had very short front -limbs or arms, but in Tyrannosaurus these are really ridiculously out -of proportion, according to more familiar standards, for the whole arm -is not bigger than one of the toes of the hind foot. This new giant -carnivorous reptile is found in rocks of the same age as our greensand -and chalk in Wyoming, U.S.A. It preyed upon huge vegetable-eating -reptiles, the remains of which are found in the same strata, and have -been reconstructed. - -The mere size of these extinct reptiles is a very natural cause of -wonder and admiration. At the same time, it is well to remember that -the body of the largest African elephant is as big, or very nearly as -big, as the body of the biggest of these extinct reptiles. Some of -these giant extinct reptiles had very long tails and necks, which the -elephant cannot boast. No extinct animal is known which approaches in -bulk the great whales of various kinds at present inhabiting the sea. -The striking thing about many huge extinct animals is that they are -represented to-day by similarly constructed animals of much smaller -size. Thus we know giant extinct sloths, which contrast strangely with -the small living sloths of to-day, giant extinct rat-like animals -and giant extinct kangaroos far exceeding the bulk of living rats -and kangaroos. But it is distinctly not true that all recent animals -are degenerate and small as compared with extinct related kinds. The -modern horse is far larger than its extinct ancestors, which we can -trace back in a gradual diminishing series to a little beast no bigger -than a spaniel. So, too, the earliest elephants known are quite small -creatures. - -The interesting point about extinct animals is really not so much -that they were often large of their kind, but that they are often of -kinds quite unknown at the present day among living animals. On the -other hand sometimes (but by no means always) they can be shown to be -connected as ancestors to living animals by a series of intermediate -forms. The remains of the connecting forms are found embedded in -successive rock-strata, intermediate in age between the present day and -the remote period when the earliest members of the series were alive -and flourishing--and we can follow out in many instances (for example, -in the pedigree of the horse, and again of the elephant) the gradual -but very extensive changes by which the descendants of a long extinct -kind of animal have been “transformed” into modern recent animals, -familiar to us. - - - - -4. _Work at the Pasteur Institute_ - - -Professor Elias Metschnikoff was busy, when I saw him at the Institut -Pasteur in Paris last September, with an experimental investigation of -“appendicitis.” He finds that chimpanzees can exhibit this disease, -and he is led by experiments on those animals to believe that a -gas-producing micro-organism--the bacillus aërogenicus--already known -as occurring in the human intestine--is especially active in exciting -the disease. Parasitic worms or other foreign bodies must first wound -the delicate lining of the appendix before the virulent gas-forming -bacillus can penetrate and start inflammation and abscess. Metschnikoff -was also investigating a disease of tropical regions, known as “the -Yaws.” Most people would imagine that this name refers to a disease -like the gapes, but it is quite different, being an ulceration of the -skin caused by a spirillum. - -Spirilla--corkscrew-like threads of excessive minuteness--are -parasitic organisms, like bacteria, bacilli, and micrococci. They are -of different kinds--some harmless, some deadly. One is common in the -mouth of the healthiest of us--another causes one of our most terrible -diseases. They can be distinguished by the microscope, though much -alike. What microscopists call “dark-ground illumination”--that is, -illumination by horizontal rays of light, obtained by a prism attached -below the glass slip on which the object is placed for examination -with the microscope, has been found at the Institut Pasteur to be -a very ready way of showing the spirilla in fresh blood or sputum. -The spirilla are alive, and are seen when highly magnified, shooting -rapidly across the field of view with a corkscrew action, like -brilliant silver threads. The detection of the microbe which causes -an infective disease, is often the first step to the control of -the disease, or to knowledge which enables man to avoid the disease -altogether. Some striking examples of this have occurred of late years. - - - - -5. _The Sea Serpent_ - - -The sea-serpent rarely puts in an appearance now, though a Cornish -“manifestation” was reported last year. A recent account of a strange -marine monster, declared by some to be, of course, the sea-serpent, -seen but to disappear, was that given by Lord Crawford’s companions -two years ago. In that case, and in others in which a huge fin-like -structure, supported by fin-rays, has been seen projecting from the -mysterious animal, it is not improbable that what was seen was a large -seal of the “eared” kind, raising one of its long, webbed hind-feet -from the water, a trick which some of them are known to have. Other -reputed sea-serpents have been, in reality, a school of porpoises, or -a line-like flight of sea-birds, or a mass of seaweed, or a whale in -association with one or other of these--or, again, a real marine snake -5ft. long (such are well known and very poisonous), or a ribbon-fish -12ft. long. There is “no reason why there should not be” a huge and -seldom-seen kind of animal living in the sea--like a serpent in -appearance. No one can say, as the result of observation, that there is -not, since no one has thoroughly explored the dark, unfathomed depths -of ocean. Yet we gain very little when we have admitted our ignorance, -and agreed that there is no reason why something should not be. The -real question is, “Does the thing in question exist?” not “Could it -possibly exist?” Does the great sea-serpent exist? The answer to that -is, There is not much evidence to show that it does. Most persons -who have looked into the matter would be willing to bet 100,000 to 1 -against its being captured, dead or alive, and brought before the -Royal Society within ten years’ time. Unless it be so captured and -“tabled” it matters very little whether it exists or not. It must be -“discovered” in order to become really interesting. - - - - -6. _Giraffes and the Okapi_ - - -The baby giraffe at the gardens in the Regent’s Park is a most -interesting and beautiful creature. In that respect she only resembles -on a small scale her grown-up relatives. Next to elephants, giraffes -take precedence for strangeness, beauty, and imposing size. Certainly -they have done so with me ever since I turned one Sunday afternoon long -ago from the great novelty of the day, the first hippopotamus sent from -Egypt, round whom the world of fashion was crowding, and gazed into the -beautiful eyes that hung over me, supported by a gracefully-curving -neck. My tender regard for the beautiful creature was not shaken even -when I felt a sudden jerk to the elastic band passing under my chin and -saw my new Leghorn straw hat, with its ornamental bunch of Egyptian -wheat and broad pink ribbon, disappear between the lips of the beauty. -A slow right and left movement of the jaw followed, accompanied by a -tranquil kindly look suggestive of a desire for more. That was one of -the old stock of Regent’s Park giraffes, who bred freely at the gardens -and made money for the society. They died out thirty years ago or more. -From time to time since then there have been one or two mis-shapen -giraffes in London, but they did not eat children’s hats nor produce -young of their own. A new dynasty of Kordofan giraffes has now arrived, -and a better spirit prevails. - -The most interesting thing about the giraffe is the okapi. The -remark sounds absurd, but it is true. The okapi is the new animal -from the Congo forest of Central Africa, discovered in 1901 by Sir -Harry Johnston. It is as big as a very large stag, has a neck like a -deer, and is striped on the haunches and legs, not spotted as is the -giraffe. Yet its teeth and its horns prove it to be a close ally, -not of deer, but of the giraffe. Any points of agreement between -giraffes and the okapi are, therefore, important. I have examined the -baby giraffe at the Zoo, and find that she has stripe-like bands of -hair on the face and on other parts of the head. Both her father and -mother are from Kordofan, and have some six or seven strongly-marked -bands of dark hair over the eyes and on the muzzle. It is important to -note any colour-striping in the giraffe’s skin, since the giraffe’s -colour-markings are mostly in the form of great spots, whilst the okapi -is only marked by stripes or bands something like those of a zebra, -but confined to the haunches and the legs, the rest of the body being -dark brown. The tendency to develop colour stripes in the giraffe is -important, since it shows us that the stripes do not separate the -okapi absolutely from the camelopard; they are a common possession or -possibility of the two animals. It was my examination of a half-brother -of the little giraffe now alive at the Gardens which led to the -discovery of striping on the head and face of giraffes. The mother in -that case had died before the birth of her young one, and the dead calf -was given to me by the secretary of the Zoological Society. Sixty-eight -years ago Sir Richard (then Professor) Owen received a new-born giraffe -from the Gardens, and reported on it to the Zoological Society. No one -had examined one since that date; none were obtainable from the Zoo, -and I could get none from African travellers and sportsmen, in spite -of urgent requests. I was accordingly greatly pleased to secure one -from the London Gardens. A great peculiarity of the young giraffe is -that it is born with a pair of well-grown horns, nearly an inch long, -and covered with coarse black hair. No other horn-bearing mammal--no -antelope, buffalo, ox, sheep, goat, stag, or other deer--is born with -horns, so far as we know, and we know a good many of these animals -well. Before birth the young giraffe’s horns are flat from back to -front, and quite soft and flexible. They can be pressed backwards, so -as to be made to lie flat on the head. Directly after birth a hard, -bony deposit commences inside the horn, and after some years’ growth it -becomes firmly fused to the skull. But the hard bony core never breaks -through the hairy skin which covers it. The bony core of the okapi’s -pair of horns, on the contrary, does “cut” or break through the skin, -exposing a sharp, hard point, a quarter of an inch in length. In the -deer tribe, as everyone knows, the point of the bony horn-core spreads -out as a large, branching growth from which all covering is shed, and -forms the “antler.” The deer tribe shed the antlers every year from the -top of the horn-core, and grow a new and larger pair to take the place -of the old ones. Moreover, in them the horn-core itself is a stem-like -upgrowth of the bone of the skull (of the frontal bone). In the okapi -and the giraffe the horn-core is a separate bone, free at first and -fusing with the skull only when the adult condition is reached. The -little antlers or bare-points of the okapi’s horn-cones or cores seem -to be shed in segments as growth goes on, and are only minute things -compared with the antlers of stags. The giraffe’s horns, on the other -hand, always remain covered by skin and hair and have a broad, rounded -top, not a sharp point. - -The real clinching feature in the okapi and giraffe which decides at -once their close affinity to one another is found in the outer tooth on -each side of the group of eight teeth placed in the front of the lower -jaw. In both this particular tooth has a broad, chisel-like crown, -divided into two portions by a deep vertical slit. None of the other -ungulate or hoofed animals have this very curious shape of tooth. It is -a sort of family “mark” or “feature” in okapis and giraffes, as may be -seen in specimens shown in the gallery of the Natural History Museum, -where we have now no less than three fine, well-stuffed okapis and -several varieties of giraffe. - - - - -7. _The Great Geologists of Last Century_ - - -The centenary of the foundation of the Geological Society of London, -celebrated last year, was a genuine festival in the scientific world. -Though geology had its teachers and searchers before 1807 (Hutton and -Werner, and the Neptunian and Plutonic schools, with their theories -as to the origin of rocks on the one hand by marine deposit, or on -the other by igneous agency, flourished before that date), yet it is -true that the adequate conception of the problems of geology and the -proper use of accurate observations and of judicious theory based on -those observations, in relation to the problems of geology, coincided -with the foundation of the society. It was not the first “special” -scientific society founded in London; there was already the Linnean -Society (founded in 1788) for the cultivation of zoology and botany. -Yet it incurred the displeasure of the worthy president of the Royal -Society, Sir Joseph Banks, who at first joined it, and then withdrew -from it, when, in 1809, it ceased to be a dining-club, meeting at a -London tavern, and acquired rooms of its own at No. 4, Garden-court, -Temple. Apparently there was a notion in those days that the “Royal -Society for the promotion of Natural Knowledge,” founded in 1662, -should exercise a sort of paternal control over any society formed for -the special promotion of one branch of science. Independence has, -however, been found to be the healthiest condition, and we now have not -only the Linnean and the Geological, but the Zoological, the Chemical, -and the Physical Societies, vigorous and important corporations, -publishing their “Transactions,” and meeting for discussion. There is, -it is true, a danger that the Royal Society may be left eventually, -owing to these independent establishments, in the sole possession and -control of the doctors and the engineers. It is a curious fact that -the word “physiology,” which in Cicero’s time (he says “Physiologia -naturæ ratio”) and in the Middle Ages meant what we now call “natural -history,” has been abandoned by other sciences, and appropriated by -the medical men. In England, but not abroad, the doctors have even -usurped the words “physician” and “physic.” In France, on the contrary, -and more correctly, Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Crooks are called -distinguished “physicians,” and the theory of the luminiferous ether is -“physic.” - -The Geological Society issued its first volume of Transactions in -1811. The origin of the society is there stated to be due to “the -desire of its founders to communicate to each other the results of -their observations, and to examine how far the opinions maintained by -the writers on geology are in conformity with the facts presented by -nature.” A more exact and intelligible statement of the attitude of -scientific men, then and now, could not be formulated. - -There are few, if any, among us now who knew many of the original -members of the Geological Society, but I remember meeting, when I -was a youth, Leonard Horner, the first secretary of the society, and -father-in-law of Sir Charles Lyell. I also knew Dr. Peter Mark Roget, -an original member, who was the oldest fellow of the Royal Society -when he died in 1869. Sir Henry Holland, the father of the present -Lord Knutsford, became a member in 1809, and published a paper on -the rock-salt district in the first volume. He was an eminent medical -man, and a great traveller. He wrote, amongst other things, upon the -turquoise mines of Persia and upon longevity. He was a friend of my -father’s, and I had the advantage of talking the latter subject over -with him before I wrote a little book on “Comparative Longevity” in -1869. - -It was not until 1825 that the Geological Society obtained a charter, -and was incorporated. Two great names appear in the first council of -the newly-incorporated society--Murchison and Lyell. Murchison became -the Director of the Geological Survey, and as “Sir Roderick” was a -familiar and picturesque figure in the scientific world of the second -and third quarters of last century. He wore an Inverness cape and a -tall hat with a large and much-curled brim, an old-fashioned stock, and -a tail-coat. In his hand he always grasped a large, handsome cane, with -which he expressed his applause during the discussions at the society, -or emphasised his own remarks. He was fond of alluding to himself -as “an old soldier of the hammer,” and almost always entered into a -discussion with these words, “It is now, sir, a quarter of a century -since, in company with my illustrious friend, Sir Somebody Something, -I had the privilege and pleasure of showing that”--whatever it might -be. Discussions at the Geological in the sixties and seventies were -real, animated, almost violent discussions. I need hardly say that they -were perfectly delightful. Godwin Austen was a fine, incisive speaker, -who seemed ready to back his statements and views with his fists, if -need be. Lyell, the greatest of all, was most modest, and almost timid -in pressing an opinion, but full of personal experience and minute -knowledge of facts. John Phillips, the nephew of the father of English -geology, William Smith, was mellifluous and persuasive; Jukes, robust -and defiant; Huxley (secretary and then president), clear, trenchant, -and uncompromising. I remember an occasion when Sir Roderick, with -tears in his voice, if not in his eyes, declared he would not stay in -the room to hear that fossil fishes were discovered in his own special -domain--the Silurian rocks, where he had long since shown that they did -not occur--and he left the meeting. Many Silurian fishes have now been -found, but we all loved Sir Roderick for the heart and feeling which he -threw into his work and his public utterances. - -The aim of geology is to describe accurately the long succession of -changes in the crust of “this cooling cinder,” the earth, and to assign -them in an orderly way to their causes. Hence, it calls upon nearly -all other branches of science for help--astronomy, physics, chemistry, -mineralogy, botany, and zoology. At the same time, it is essentially a -recreative pursuit, for, as Mr. Horace Woodward says in his _History -of the Geological Society of London_--published by the society--“the -fulness of the science can never be attained without the vivifying -influence of mountain and moor, of valley and sea coast.” It is owing -to this that the soldiers of the hammer, from Murchison, Sedgwick, -Lyell, Ramsay, Etheridge, Salter, onwards to the present generation of -“stone-crackers,” are amongst the happiest, most genial, and mentally -alert of our men of science. - -That word “stone-cracker” I take from a letter addressed to me -when I was a boy of twelve by the Rev. J. S. Henslow, Professor of -Mineralogy and later of Botany at Cambridge, founder, with Adam -Sedgwick, the great Woodwardian Professor of Geology, of the now -flourishing Cambridge Philosophical Society, and the teacher, guide, -and fateful friend of Charles Darwin. It was he who sent Darwin on -the voyage of the _Beagle_. I had met this wonderful old naturalist -at Felixstowe when exploring the marshes for rare plants and insects -with my father. My father was a first-rate man at a country walk, -and could tell you all the time about the flowers, flies, stones, -and bones you might encounter. But Henslow surpassed him. I remember -to this day nearly every word Henslow said, and everything he did on -that memorable afternoon nearly fifty years ago. Amongst other things -he explained how the rough flint implements recently discovered in -river gravels--proving man’s great antiquity--could be shown to owe -their shape to blows, each blow causing a “conchoidal” fracture. And -he struck with his hammer some very large flints which were lying -in a heap in the meadow, and produced the most perfect dome-like -broken surface or bulb of percussion. He promised to give me a real -palæolithic flint implement and also a geological hammer. The letter -which reached me later in London ran as follows: “Dear incipient -Stonecracker--Enclosed you will find a draft for 10_s._ with which, -at the shop in Newgate-street, you can obtain a geological hammer -identical in all respects with my own.... In a separate parcel I send -you a flint implement which I obtained myself in the gravel pit at St. -Acheuil....” The hammer, the flint-axe, and the letter are to this -day treasured with deep affection and reverence for the giver, by -the boy who was thus so kindly initiated in the “art and mystery” of -Stone-crackers. Henslow died in 1861 at the age of 65. His daughter was -the first wife of Sir Joseph Hooker, the great botanist and traveller, -who celebrated his ninetieth birthday in July, 1907, and is still in -full mental and bodily health and vigour. - - - - -8. _Experiments with Precious Stones_ - - -A man of science cannot say a word about experiments with precious -stones nowadays, but he is liable to be misunderstood and represented -as having discovered how to make valuable gems out of dirt, or of -enormous size, and in vast quantity. Last year the production of a -few small crystals by the electrical decomposition of bisulphide of -carbon was announced as something to affect the stock market instead of -as a matter of interest to a few learned chemists. The crystals were -supposed--erroneously as it turned out--to be diamond. We were also -gravely told that a competent French chemist had discovered, and that -the distinguished geologist, Professor Lapparent, had communicated -the fact to the Academy of Sciences, that the radiation of radium -acting on “corindon,” or, as we should prefer to write it in England, -“corundum”--a base, dull, colourless crystal--converts that dull -substance into sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and topazes--and that the -dealers attest the value of the precious stones so produced. This is -really great nonsense, and arises from a little confusion in the use -of the names of precious stones, and ignorance of what the substances -indicated by those names are--defects which we cannot attribute -to the French chemist, but must suppose to have “crept in” to the -reports which crossed the Channel. Corundum is a colourless crystal, -opaque or translucent. In chemical composition it is the oxide of -aluminium--standing in the same relation to that light, white metal -as rust or hematite ore does to the metal iron. It would not be at -all astounding if by simple treatment we could convert corundum into -sapphire or into ruby, since sapphire and ruby have precisely the -same chemical constitution as corundum--are, in fact, only coloured -varieties of corundum. Sapphire is blue, transparent corundum; green -and yellow “sapphires” are also common. The Oriental ruby is similarly -only red, transparent corundum--like it only oxide of aluminium or -alumina. - -Diamonds are pure crystalline transparent carbon. Commonly they are -colourless and transparent, but are sometimes black or white and -opaque. Transparent diamonds are often found of a straw colour, rarely -of a deep blue (the Hope Diamond), more rarely green (the Dresden -Diamond), and rarest of all red. - -If radium were really able (as some people have wrongly inferred from -the French experiments) to change the chemical nature of corundum and -convert it into topaz and emerald, the case would be very different -from that of merely changing the colour of the corundum. What is to-day -called “topaz” is a sherry-yellow crystal consisting of silicate of -alumina and of fluoride of alumina. It turns pink when heated, and is -also known of a blue colour and colourless. The topaz of the ancients -from the coasts of the Red Sea is of a different chemical nature, and -is now called peridot. Yellow corundum is sometimes wrongly called -Oriental topaz, and the yellow-brown quartz crystals properly known as -cairngorms are sometimes wrongly called Scotch topaz. So that the word -“topaz” is used loosely as well as strictly, and confusion results. -Emerald is widely distinct from corundum, sapphire, and ruby. It is a -silicate of alumina and beryllium, and in its coarse and pale-coloured -variety is known as beryl. - -From all this it appears that some names of precious stones indicate -substances quite distinct from one another chemically, built of -differing elements, and also _per contra_ that what is actually one -and the same kind of precious stone in chemical composition and native -crystalline form may present examples possessing various colours and -degrees of transparency, each variety being called by a distinct name, -and regarded popularly as a distinct kind of stone. Radium rays can -convert colourless alumina or corundum into blue alumina (sapphire) or -red alumina (ruby), but they cannot change alumina into beryllia (that -is into emerald), nor into fluoride (that is into topaz). - -One naturally asks, “To what is the colour of these precious stones -due?” The answer is difficult, because very minute traces of chemical -impurity, such as iron, cobalt, manganese, or chromium may suffice to -tint an otherwise transparent, colourless crystal with the brightest -red, yellow, blue, violet, or green. Moreover, it is certain from -what we know of traces of metallic impurity in artificial glass that -it may exist in such a state of chemical combination as to give no -tint whatever to the glass, but after prolonged exposure to light -or other agencies, the minute impurity may combine chemically with -oxygen present in the glass and develop colour. Thus, for instance, -old window-glass often assumes a violet or amethystine tint after -long exposure. This varying colour of the combinations of metals -according to whether they are oxidised or not, and the degree of -oxidation, or the special salt which they may form, is in itself an -unexpected thing to those who are not chemists. The metal chromium, for -instance, gives rise to colourless, to yellow, red, green, and blue -combinations. Manganese, a metal commonly associated with iron, gives -rise to brilliant green, to violet, and to wine-red combinations, and -if scattered as microscopic particles of black oxide in glass would -produce no colour effect at all. From what we know of glass and the -ease with which it is coloured to every shade of the rainbow by the -admixture of traces of metallic impurities--so that “paste” or glass -gems of all colours can be manufactured--it is not surprising to find -that natural crystals, transparent and often devoid of colour (such -as corundum, diamond, quartz, and topaz), are yet also found more or -less frequently coloured in various tints. Nevertheless, it is the fact -that in very few cases have chemists been able to prove by analysis -what precisely is the cause of the colour in any given crystal or -precious stone, although they may strongly suspect this or that as the -colour-giving impurity. The actual quantity of a metallic impurity -sufficient to give a tint is so excessively minute that the chemist -finds it impossible to determine what it is by examining one small -precious stone. He has not a sufficient bulk of material to operate on. - -Having reached this point, we can see that such potent disturbing -agents as the rays of radium--penetrating a colourless, or -faintly-coloured, crystal--may determine oxidation or other chemical -combination within the crystal of traces of metal (iron, cobalt, -manganese, chromium) already present there, and so give it an increased -colour or an altogether new tint. In 1905 (therefore long before the -recent French experiments had shown that the radium rays will act -in this way on corundum, the “base variety” of sapphire and ruby), -Sir William Crookes published an account of his experiments as to -the action of the radium rays on the diamond. “Some fine colourless -crystals of diamond,” writes Sir William Crookes in 1905, “were -embedded in radium bromide, and kept undisturbed for more than twelve -months. At the end of that time they were examined. The radium had -caused them to assume a beautiful bluish-green colour, and their value -as ‘fancy stones’ had been materially increased.” On another occasion -Sir William found that a yellowish “off colour” diamond had its tint -changed to a pale blue-green when embedded for six weeks in a tube -with radium bromide. (I have seen this stone.) He also has succeeded -in improving the clearness of diamonds by exposing them to radium -rays. Everyone who has experimented with radium knows that it causes -the glass which may be used to keep it covered to develop a brown or -purple tint. This, then, is the explanation of the results obtained -by the French observer with corundum, as reported a few months ago. -There was no “transformation” of one substance into another, nor did he -himself suggest that there was. The radium rays merely acted chemically -on minute impurities present in colourless or pale-coloured crystals, -and so produced colour as they do in diamonds or in glass. - - - - -9. _Diamonds_ - - -His Majesty King Edward was presented with the great Cullinan diamond -from the Transvaal in November 1907. This diamond weighs one pound and -one-third (avoirdupois)--more than 21 oz. I have placed a good glass -model of it in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum; in the -case with it is a glass model of another big diamond, the “Excelsior,” -as now cut, and also models of the “Pitt” diamond, in the rough and in -the cut condition. Diamonds lose enormously in the process of cutting. -The Excelsior, like the Cullinan, is a Cape diamond of fine quality, -and free from colour. It was the biggest diamond known until the giant -Cullinan was found: in the rough it weighed 7 oz., or less than a third -of the Cullinan. As now cut, it only weighs 1-3/4 oz. It is reduced to -a quarter of its original size. - -In the same way, the Pitt diamond, an Indian one, named after General -Pitt, of Madras, weighed originally 3 oz., and is now (it is in -Paris, in the Louvre, and is called “The Regent”) less than an ounce -in weight. The biggest Indian diamond known--the Nizam--is not quite -twice this size, whilst the Kohinoor, which is probably a fragment (a -third) of the “Great Mogul”--a diamond which has disappeared, leaving -only tradition and surmises as to its history--weighs no more than -three-quarters of an ounce. This seems a small affair by the side of -the twenty-one ounces of the Cullinan. - -No one can guess what will happen to the Cullinan in cutting it. At -the best, it may be reduced to something between four and five ounces -in weight, and it may “fly” into fragments. It would be necessary -deliberately to cut it up into smaller stones in order to obtain the -full result of flashing of light and colour which twenty-one ounces -of diamond can produce. And the operation of cutting and polishing is -enormously expensive. One would have hoped that Sir William Crookes and -other men of science would have been asked to examine this wonderful -mass of transparent carbon by means of polarised light, Röntgen rays, -and radium, and to determine exactly its specific gravity before it -was broken up. Indeed, it would probably have retained its greatest -interest and value if never cut at all. - -Glass or “paste,” as it is called, is made which cannot when new be -distinguished from diamond by anyone but an expert, armed with the -necessary tests. And the same is true as to paste imitations of all -precious stones excepting the emerald (whose beautiful green tint -cannot be exactly obtained), the cat’s-eye, which has a peculiar -fibrous structure, and the opal. The real value and quality of precious -stones, as compared with glass, depends on their durability, their -hardness, their resistance to scratching, and “dulling” of face and -edge. Even our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, as may be seen in the fine -collection recently dug up at Ipswich by Miss Layard, and placed in the -old house serving as the municipal museum there, made gems of glass and -paste. In modern times the art of making artificial “precious stones” -has reached a degree of perfection which, so far as decorative purposes -are concerned, leaves the natural stones no claim to superiority. - -Gigantic as the Cullinan diamond is, it represents only about half the -daily output of the De Beers mines. By the end of 1904 ten tons of -diamonds, valued at £60,000,000 sterling, had been removed from the -Kimberley mines. It is difficult to imagine what has become of them -all, and since they are, unlike paste, durable and permanent, how the -demand for additions to those in use, keeps up. Twelve years ago about -four million pounds was spent annually by the public on the purchase of -diamonds. It is stated that the annual demand and expenditure are now -even larger. - -Diamond is a peculiar form or variety of the chemical element carbon--a -very peculiar form most people will say who remember that charcoal -and lamp-black are the common form of carbon. That one and the same -unchangeable chemical element can exist as an amorphous black lump or -powder, and also without addition or loss of chemical constituents, as -the clearest, hardest, and most brilliant of crystals, is a paradox. -The same strange capacity for existing in two totally different forms -is exhibited by other fairly familiar elements. Sulphur is found in -tertiary water-deposited clays in Sicily (it has nothing to do with -Etna or Vesuvius) in the form of clear, lemon-coloured crystals half -an inch or more in length. If you take some commercial stick-sulphur -and melt it in a porcelain spoon, and pour half the melted stuff like -treacle into a jar of water, you will find that it cools as translucent -threads which are pliable and soft. The other half which you leave in -the spoon to cool shoots out into the form of long brittle crystals -of a needle-like shape. These two varieties of sulphur are nearly as -different as lamp-black and diamond. - -Diamonds are found at the Cape in a “blue ground” which is of volcanic -origin, formed by the action of steam under enormous pressure. The -blue volcanic mud has been thrust up from great depths in the earth’s -surface in the form of “pipes” 100 yards to half a mile in diameter. -It has long been known that at very high temperatures (4,000 deg. -Centigrade) the metal iron dissolves carbon. The late Professor -Moissan, of Paris, obtained artificial diamonds by suddenly cooling -the iron in which carbon was dissolved by plunging the crucible into -water. The outer shell of iron cools and forms a tightly closed shell -enclosing the still liquid core. As this core cools it tends to expand, -and thus produces an enormous pressure. The melted carbon cooling under -this pressure assumes the crystalline colourless form known as diamond. -There is good reason to believe that diamonds are formed, or have been -formed, in association with metallic iron in a similar way, on a large -scale, in great depths of the earth’s crust, and are shot up to the -surface with other débris in the volcanic steam mud which is the “blue -ground.” - -A few diamonds of small size have been found in the Ural Mountains, -otherwise they are not natural products of the northern hemisphere. It -is in India, Australia, South America, and South Africa that they are -picked up, either in beds of streams, or in peculiar volcanic mud, or -embedded in even harder rock. Many are in a condition of severe strain -when found, and contain minute cavities filled with liquid carbonic -acid. They are liable, in consequence, to break or even fly into -powder when warmed by the hand or struck. Though usually colourless, -diamonds may be yellow, green, blue, or red, and the rays of radium -cause colourless diamonds to become coloured. Some diamonds, but not -all, are phosphorescent--that is to say, like the well-known luminous -paint--after exposure to strong light they acquire the power of shining -themselves for a certain time when removed to a dark chamber. And the -curious thing is that, though themselves colourless, some give out -blue, some green, some yellow, and some red light. The most wonderful, -however, in this respect are the rare diamonds which become luminous -merely by rubbing, and leave phosphorescent streaks on the cloth with -which they are rubbed. This property is similar to the phosphorescence -shown by other kinds of crystals when heated or when simply fractured. - -Diamonds are readily distinguished from paste by the Röntgen rays, -since they are transparent to those rays, whilst paste (or glass) -is opaque to them. Radium also causes diamonds, but not paste, to -phosphoresce. All diamonds are not equally hard, though they are the -hardest of stones, and harder than steel, but not harder than the metal -tantalum. Some Australian diamonds are known (from Inverel, New South -Wales) which are so hard that at one time they could not be cut and -polished; but only four years ago the rapidity of the wheels used in -these processes was greatly increased, and these terribly hard diamonds -were brought into subjection. - -Thus it is clear that there are many extraordinary features of interest -about the diamond, and that its brilliance and high price constitute -only a small part of its fascination. - - - - -10. _Science and Fisheries_ - - -Science, the knowledge of the vast system of orderly, inexorable -activities under which we exist, and of which we, and all that we -can apprehend, are but more or less significant parts, is not only -to be regarded as a gratification of our curiosity, as food for our -imagination, and the basis of our philosophical theories. It is, in -addition to these, a thing of unparalleled importance to the immediate -daily welfare of every man, woman, and child, and upon its due -cultivation and use depend the future welfare, even the existence, of -whole races of mankind. It is a startling fact that so few of those -who undertake to lead and to legislate for the people of this country -have any real conviction, or even a dim understanding of this truth. - -In November 1906 a Committee appointed by the Government took evidence -as to the desirability of continuing the international investigation -of the North Sea, upon which Great Britain entered five years ago -in conjunction with other Northern States. Only a few weeks before, -a number of scientific experts engaged in this study of the North -Sea, with a view to gaining such knowledge of that great “waste of -waters” as may help the nations of adjacent lands to draw from it -stores of food without destroying the source or recklessly injuring -the supply, were entertained at dinner, at the Guildhall, by the City -Fathers, and treated to speeches by hereditary legislators. The view -expressed by these speakers was that the interests of the great fishing -industry and of the fish trade were best understood by the practical -fisherman. Science was a “handmaid,” useful in her place, but not to -be permitted to undermine established interests and the hoary wisdom -of the practical man, her employer. A German expert of high official -position, one of the guests, took a different line. He was astonished, -even shocked, that Great Britain, the State most largely concerned in -the North Sea fisheries, should be hesitating about continuing to take -part in the international investigation. In Germany, he said, they -took a different course in such matters. Men of business and practical -legislators, when called upon to deal with an important problem, sought -first of all for scientific knowledge of the conditions in question, -as complete and thorough as possible, and then proceeded to act upon -the sure foundation gained. More knowledge, much more knowledge as to -the causes and conditions at work in regard to the life and movements -of fishes in the North Sea was needed. The work of the International -Committee must be continued, and his (the German) Government would -certainly continue to do its share of the work. - -The contrast in the British and the German attitude towards science is -what is interesting in this episode. It is true that men of science -in this country have to be content to take a very modest part in -public affairs, and to allow politicians and self-styled “practical” -men to treat science as “a handmaiden”--thankful when science is -not regarded as an enemy. But they know well enough, and those who -are really “practical men” know, that science is no handmaiden, but -in reality the master--the master who must be obeyed; who alone can -give true guidance; who alone can save the State. The sooner and -the more thoroughly the people of this country have recognised this -fact, and insist upon its unqualified acceptance in practice by their -representatives and governors, the better for them and their posterity. - - - - -11. _Discoveries as to Malaria_ - - -Recent scientific work, discovery, and application to practical affairs -of the results of discovery, in regard to three great obstacles to -human life and prosperity illustrate the vital importance to the state -of scientific research. The obstacles in question are the diseases -known as malaria, yellow fever, and Mediterranean, or Malta fever. -It is now twenty-five years since Dr. Laveran, of Paris, discovered -that malaria, or ague, is caused by a very minute parasite which -exists in the red blood corpuscles of those stricken with the fever, -and suggested that it is probably carried from victim to victim by -blood-sucking mosquitoes (gnats). Major Ross, of the Indian Army, who -has been rewarded for his discovery by the Nobel prize, determined to -find out what gnat it is which carries the malaria-germ from man to -man, and by most persevering experiment and microscopic examination -showed that it is not the commoner gnat or mosquito (Culex), but the -spot-winged kind (Anopheles), which alone can spread the malarial -infection. But Major Ross is, before everything else, a medical man, -and his great purpose has been to apply his discovery to the prevention -of disease. - -Whole regions of the earth’s surface are rendered dangerous, or even -uninhabitable, for civilised men by malaria; in other words, by -the Anopheles mosquito. Accordingly, Ross set to work to find the -best means of destroying these agents of disease. He found that the -Anopheles gnat breeds in natural collections of water lying upon -the surface of the ground in open country, and not as many common -varieties of gnats do, in vessels and cisterns in houses. The pools -frequented by the malaria-carrying gnat are small and easily drained. -The obvious direction of science, therefore, was to remove or to cover -up these pools wherever they were found in the neighbourhood of human -habitations. Although Major Ross made his discoveries in India, and -although he opened a campaign against malaria by removal of surface -pools in the Colonies of West Africa--“the white man’s grave”--twice -visiting the chief British settlements--only half-hearted, incomplete -measures have been taken, insufficient funds have been expended, and -a supine executive and half-incredulous officials have failed to do -more than partially reduce the prevalence of malaria in those regions. -On the other hand, where intelligent officials have understood and -accepted the clear results of science in regard to malaria, the most -striking and satisfactory consequences have followed. - -At Ismailia, on the Suez Canal, malaria was almost universal; in 1866 -there were in a population of eight thousand, 2,300 cases. In 1897 -there were over 2,000, and in 1902, when Ross was asked by the Prince -d’Arenberg to visit the place and advise as to measures to be taken, -there were 1,551 cases. Ross directed the filling up of the breeding -pools. The marshes were filled up with sand, the irrigation channels -were deepened or treated with kerosene oil (which spreads as a fine -film, and chokes the gnat larvæ), and the cess-pits were rendered -uninhabitable by chemical treatment. In one year the cases of malaria -fell to 214, in 1905 they were only thirty-seven, and now the Suez -Canal Company officially reports, “all trace of malaria has disappeared -from Ismailia.” The same satisfactory results have been obtained in -Port Said, in Khartoum, in Port Swettenham of the Federated Malay -States, in Havannah City, in Panama, and, in fact, wherever intelligent -conviction has led to the active and complete employment of the -methods necessary for the destruction of the gnats. Under the British -Government of India and the African and West India Colonies, little has -been done. Why? Because of the handmaiden theory and the ostrich-like -refusal of our officials to face and accept the master. - -An even more wonderful and beneficent result has been obtained in the -case of that terrible disease “Yellow Jack,” or “Black Vomit”--the -yellow fever. Owing to the discoveries and definite proof by Ross as -to the part played by gnats in malaria, the able medical men in the -public service of the United States of America have thoroughly examined -experimentally the mode of infection of human beings with the germ of -yellow fever, and have conclusively proved that infection is solely -and entirely due to the bite of one species of gnat--the Stegomyia -fasciata. They have proved to absolute certainty that yellow fever -is not carried through the air, nor by food or drink, nor by contact -with infected persons or their cloths or emanations, but only by the -fasciate gnat, a house-frequenting species, which sucks the blood of -a yellow fever patient, and after twelve days, and not till then, -becomes capable of imparting the infection to those whom it may stab or -“bite.” The firm demonstration of this fact was not made without great -devotion, courage, and self-sacrifice. In the ardour of their pursuit -not a few of the experimenters risked and lost their lives. Among these -the name of Dr. Lazear, of the United States Army, is prominent. He -deliberately permitted himself to be bitten by a stray mosquito in a -yellow fever hospital, in order to show that the insect could convey -the infection. He was bitten on Sept. 13, 1900, and died on Sept. 25, -having proved his point. - -The actual germ, microbe, or minute parasitic organism which causes -yellow fever, and is carried by the fasciate gnat, has not yet been -detected. Nevertheless, without seeing and isolating the microbe, the -medical men of America (Sternberg, Finlay, Carroll, and others) have, -by destroying the gnat and preventing its access to men--especially to -patients already infected, and, therefore, certain to infect the gnats -and cause them to spread the disease--practically made an end of yellow -fever in many great cities of the New World, where it was only six -years ago an ever-present horror, striking men down with a suddenness -and with a deadliness which paralysed human activity. Here, as in other -cases, intelligent appreciation of the results of science by a governor -or a municipality has saved thousands of lives. On the other hand, in -Rio de Janeiro, “the opposition encountered by the sanitary authorities -of the city from political factions and the ridicule to which they -were subjected by the local Press” were insuperable (I quote from an -official report), and so a few more thousand lives were sacrificed -before the master was recognised and the proffered safety accepted. In -Vera Cruz, in New Orleans, and in Panama yellow fever has been reduced -to a vanishing quantity by removing the pools and tanks in which the -fasciate gnat can breed, and by making use of wire-gauze to prevent -the access of mosquitoes to houses, bed-chambers, drains, and baths, -and especially to prevent not only their access to, but their egress -from, the rooms and beds of patients already infected with disease. - -In the city of Havannah, during the American occupation of Cuba -(1900-1903), Colonel Gorgas reduced the death-rate due to yellow fever -from an annual average of 751 to so small a figure as six. The same -energetic and faithful administrator has been at work, with even more -remarkable results, in the canal zone of the Isthmus of Panama since -1904. The attempt of the French to cut the canal was foiled chiefly by -yellow fever and malaria. It is estimated that their effort cost quite -50,000 lives. Assisted by an able and enthusiastic staff, and charged -with the task by a Government which comprehends the fact that the -really “practical men” are the men who recognise science as the master -(not as the negligible eccentric handmaid), Colonel Gorgas has banished -the mosquito from his zone of occupation. As a consequence there is -neither malaria nor yellow fever on the Panama works. In 1906 the total -death-rate amongst 5,000 white employés on the Panama Canal works was -only seven in the thousand. Further, in last April the daily sick-rate -of the total force of about 40,000 people was only seventeen in the -thousand. Colonel Gorgas declares that there is but little sickness of -any kind among the Americans in the employ of the Panama Commission, -and that they and their wives and children are fully as vigorous -and robust in appearance and in fact, as the same number of people -in the United States. There is no reason why the centres of wealth, -civilisation, and population should not again be in the tropics, as -they were in the dawn of man’s history. - - - - -12. _Malta Fever_ - - -Mediterranean or Malta fever was for long confused with typhoid and -other fevers. Our soldiers and sailors at Malta, Gibraltar, and -Cyprus, as well as many frequenters of the African and Asiatic shore, -were subject to this disease, and often incapacitated by it. In 1887 -Colonel David Bruce discovered in the blood of patients the minute -Micrococcus melitensis, which is its cause, and established the fact -that it is a definite independent disease. The hospital at Malta has -received as many as 624 patients in a year suffering from Malta fever -from among the 8,000 soldiers on the island and the 12,000 sailors on -the Mediterranean Station. And as they stay in hospital on an average -for four months, this means 74,880 days of illness. This means a -considerable loss to the State, as well as a large amount of personal -suffering terminated, in some cases after two years’ sickness, by death. - -The War Office, Admiralty, and Colonial Office applied in 1904 to -the Royal Society of London to undertake a further investigation of -this disease. The society sent out a small commission, which has -been at work for three years, and has published seven volumes of -reports. The problem before the commission was to discover the mode of -infection by the Malta-fever germ (the Micrococcus melitensis), and -thus, if possible, to arrive at a means of arresting the infection. -Various hypotheses, guesses as to probable and possible methods of -dissemination, were entertained and examined. As the germ occurs in the -blood, it was naturally considered possible that gnats or other insects -were the carrying agent. But negative results followed all experiments -in this direction. Then it was found that the “germ” passes out of the -body in large quantities by the renal secretion, and it was thought -that it might be conveyed in a dried form with dust in the air. This -also proved to be an incorrect supposition. - -Next a very important discovery was made. The germ was found in the -blood and the excretions of 10 per cent. of the goats which are kept in -Malta as the sole source of milk, and are driven through the streets to -supply customers, whilst 50 per cent. of the goats were found to have -been infected at some time. Then the germ was found in the milk itself, -and it only remained to prove by experiment that it was from the goats’ -milk that human beings acquire the infection. A monkey fed with the -milk of an infected goat acquired the fever. - -The next step was to stop the consumption of goats’ milk by the -soldiers and sailors in the hospital and barrack. Actually we were -carefully feeding our invalid soldiers and sailors in the great -hospital at Valetta with a highly poisonous infected fluid--the milk -of the Maltese goat! The preventive measure--the stoppage of goats’ -milk--only came into operation in July, 1906. In the first six months -of that year there were thirty-one cases of Malta fever in every -thousand of the garrison (numbering about 8,000 men). In the preceding -six months there had been forty-seven cases per thousand. Now when the -goats’ milk was stopped after July, 1906, what was the result? From -July to December, 1906, there were only ten cases per thousand of the -garrison. In actual numbers there were in July, August, and September -in 1905 as many as 258 cases, whilst in the same months in 1906, after -removal of goats’ milk from the dietary of the troops, there were -only twenty-six cases, and these were probably due to the independent -purchase of goats’ milk by soldiers outside the barracks. In the naval -hospital until 1906 almost every patient who remained in the hospital -a few weeks took the disease. Since the exclusion of goats’ milk not a -single case has occurred. - -The Director-General of the Medical Department of the Navy reports -that there has been no case of Malta fever during the year among the -sailors, and only seven cases among the soldiers up to the end of -September, 1907. - -Gibraltar had a fever of its own, identical with Malta fever. It has -now been shown that it was probably introduced by the importation of -goats from Malta for the supply of milk. This is likely, because the -importation of Maltese goats ceased in 1883, and the fever began to -disappear from Gibraltar in 1885, and finally vanished altogether in -1905. - -In South Africa Malta-fever is common amongst the white population. -It is probable, according to Colonel Birt, that it was introduced by -means of infected goats imported from the Mediterranean. The soldiers, -however, in South Africa are free from this disease, excepting those -who have already contracted it in the Mediterranean, since in South -Africa goats’ milk does not enter into the dietary of the soldier. It -is the civilian population which suffers. - - - - -13. _A Cure for Sleeping Sickness_ - - -Diamonds and sleeping sickness are both special African problems. It -was owing to the proposal to employ natives from Uganda in the South -African diamond mines that the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Chamberlain -at that date) asked the Royal Society to say whether the sleeping -sickness which had broken out with terrible violence in Central Africa -constituted an obstacle to that employment, on account of the danger of -introducing the disease into South Africa. The Royal Society advised -the Government not to allow the transport of natives from the infected -districts of Uganda, and sent out a commission to Central Africa to -study the disease. The result was the discovery by Colonel Bruce of -the parasite of sleeping sickness called Trypanosoma--a kind previously -known in some other diseases--and of the fact that it is a tsetse-fly -which carries it. A quarter of a million natives have died in Central -Africa within the last six years from sleeping sickness. The Tropical -Diseases Committee of the Royal Society has started an inquiry into the -action of drugs on the parasites (known as trypanosomes) which cause -sleeping sickness and the horse and cattle disease of the “fly-belts” -of South Africa. - -The minute parasites which cause Malta, yellow, and malarial fever, -and other infections, are no doubt best dealt with by excluding them -from access to the human body when that is possible. But once they -have effected a lodgment and commenced to multiply in the blood or -tissues, it is still possible to get at them by means of drugs, which -poison them without injuring their human victim. Thus quinine has been -of enormous service in checking the ravages of the malaria parasite, -and really in Great Britain has exterminated “ague,” which is the -English name for malaria. Many experiments have been made during the -last two years, with the view of finding some drug which will, in like -manner, destroy the trypanosomes which have established themselves in -the blood and lymph-passages of the human body, and are slowly killing -their victim with sleeping sickness. An arsenic compound, “atoxyl,” -has been found effective when injected into the patient’s body, and -according to Dr. Koch, who returned last year from Uganda, he has -found nothing better than this treatment, discovered by Dr. Thomas -and Dr. Breinl, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, three -years ago. Dr. Plimmer and Dr. Thomson, who have been experimenting -in London for the Royal Society, have found a drug which is more -effective than atoxyl in destroying certain trypanosomes which attack -rats, and is now being tried in the treatment of sleeping sickness. -This is the tartrate of sodium and antimony--a salt corresponding to -the well-known tartar emetic, with this difference, that it contains -sodium instead of potassium. It seems that this sodium variety of -tartar emetic is very destructive to trypanosomes in the blood and -lymph, and has no injurious effect of a lowering nature, such as occurs -when the potassium salt is used. As the antimony drug is far cheaper -than atoxyl, it will be possible to apply it freely to horses and -cattle suffering from “nagana” and “surra,” which are diseases due to -trypanosomes of a special kind. Two white men who had become infected -by the trypanosome of sleeping sickness in West Africa have been -treated with the new drug in London, and the parasites have completely -disappeared from their blood in consequence, though it remains to be -seen whether a permanent cure has been effected. One cannot imagine a -situation of more thrilling interest than that existing in the nursing -home where those two victims were given a strong hope of escape from -what seemed to be certain death, whilst the fate of thousands of -African natives, similarly infected, was hanging in the balance! After -six months from the date of treatment the report is satisfactory. The -parasites have not yet re-appeared (July, 1908) in the two patients -treated in November. - - - - -14. _Tsetse-Flies and Disease_ - - -Dr. Koch appears to have been questioned on his return to Europe by -some journalists as to the results of his study of sleeping sickness -during the past year and a half in Uganda. It was already known (three -years ago), from the observations of Professor Minchin, Dr. Gray, -and Dr. Tulloch (the Royal Society’s observers in Uganda), that the -tsetse-fly in Uganda sucks the blood of crocodiles, also of fishes -and of hippopotami. Dr. Koch confirms this observation. Minchin also -observed a trypanosome in the blood of the crocodile differing from -that of sleeping sickness. Whether crocodiles help, in an important -degree, to keep tsetse-flies alive in the regions where they occur, -by offering them a ready meal of blood, is uncertain. So far as the -facts are known, they do not lead to the belief that the crocodile is a -“reservoir host” for the trypanosome of sleeping sickness. - -“Reservoir-host” is a very useful and expressive name for animals -which can tolerate or support a parasite in their blood which is -deadly to other animals. The parasite flourishes in abundance in the -reservoir-host with entire satisfaction to both host and guest. But -a blood-sucking fly or gnat, of promiscuous tastes in the matter -of blood, comes along, sucks the reservoir-host a bit, and then -goes off for another meal to a susceptible animal, into which it -introduces the parasite now adhering to its already blood-smeared -proboscis or beak. Such a history was first established by Bruce in -regard to the trypanosome parasite which causes the deadly nagana -disease in the “fly-belts” of South Africa. The big game animals are -reservoir-hosts to this parasite, from which they are carried by the -tsetse-fly to horses, mules, and dogs, which, being of foreign origin, -are not tolerant of it, but are killed by the poison to which its -multiplication in their blood gives rise. Thus, too, native children, -both in Africa and the East Indies, appear to be tolerant of the -malaria parasite, and act as reservoir-hosts from which the spot-winged -gnats suck and distribute the parasite to the non-tolerant, susceptible -adult natives and white men. - -The tsetse-flies are little bigger than the common house-fly, and -bite, or rather stab, very rapidly after alighting on the skin. The -study of flies and gnats, and other blood-sucking insects, has -become extremely important, and has been carried on with great energy -by many specialists since it became known that these insects play -such a terribly important part in the causation of disease. At the -Natural History Museum I received (in response to a circular issued -at my request by H.M. Government) thousands of specimens of gnats -(mosquitoes) from all parts of the world, and some hundreds of new -species have been described in a series of volumes by Professor F. V. -Theobald, published by the trustees. Other volumes are in preparation -illustrating the blood-sucking flies of various regions of the world, -and one concerning those of the British Islands has already appeared. -The common gnat, the spot-winged gnat, and the tsetse-fly--as well as -the microscopic parasites causing malaria and sleeping sickness--are -illustrated by greatly enlarged models--very carefully executed under -my direction, which are exhibited in the central hall of the museum. - -It is a curious fact that the coloured races of men--especially those -of Africa--have little or no objection to being bitten by flies. They -seem to accept the attention of flies and ticks with indifference. -The men sleep in the day under trees, and are willing food-supply to -the insects. The eyelids of children are literally inhabited by flies -in some countries, and the folds of the skin of fat adults hide whole -rows of fast-holding ticks. But the white man does not willingly permit -either fly, flea, or gnat to settle on him. He is (or has been), -nevertheless, unwisely tolerant of house-flies in his habitations, and -the poorer and less cleanly population are in large proportion infested -with wingless insects. The newly established knowledge that certain -flies (glossina or tsetse-fly) are the carriers of sleeping sickness, -that gnats are the carriers of malaria and of yellow fever, that fleas -are the carriers of the plague, and that certain kinds of ticks are the -carriers of cattle-fevers and dog-fevers, and probably of some obscure -fevers of man, must make us all more anxious than we were about contact -with insect life. For ages popular tradition has ascribed diseases of -one kind and another in various parts of the world to the bites of -flies. But actually it is little more than fifty years ago since it -was really shown that deadly germs or parasites existed which could -be, and actually are, carried by flies from one animal to another, and -introduced into the blood by the flies’ stab. This was first shown in -regard to the bacterium of splenic fever (or anthrax, or wool-sorters’ -disease), a blood-disease of cattle which is transferred by the big, -fiercely-biting “horse-flies” (tabanus), from animals to man, and is -invariably fatal. Another bacterial disease, “pernicious œdema,” is -inflicted on man in the same way. These cases were exceptional, and -it is only quite recently that the agency of flies and fleas in great -epidemics, and in diseases causing thousands of deaths every year in -well-known regions, has been discovered. - - - - -15. _Monkeys and Fleas_ - - -The wingless parasites known as pediculi are not known as active -agents in spreading disease germs, probably because they do not -readily transfer themselves from one animal to another. It is in this -connection a really remarkable fact that monkeys are not infested by -fleas, and that only in few cases and not in many kinds have pediculi -or acari been observed. In this respect the lower races of men (and -even the higher) seem to have fallen away from a grade of excellence -attained by their despised quadrumanous cousins. When this fact as -to the freedom of monkeys from insect parasites is mentioned, those -who have watched monkeys in captivity will immediately say, “Surely I -have seen monkeys carefully picking insects from one another’s fur.” -The fact is that it is this very habit of “picking” which prevents -monkeys from harbouring fleas. Whereas a dog or a cat can only scratch, -the monkey has an opposible thumb and delicately sensitive fingers. -That which has become the hand of man, with all its marvellous skill -and efficiency, has been elaborated in its early stages as a means -for keeping the hair clean. When monkeys are seen carefully removing -something with finger and thumb from their own or their companion’s -hair, it is not an insect but a little piece of fatty secretion and -scurf which is thus removed. The habit, which seems to be general in -all kinds of monkeys, even with the anthropoids, such as the chimpanzee -and the orang, has of course been efficient in removing any parasitic -insects which may at one time have infested monkeys--all other furry -animals are liberally supplied with them, as also are birds--but is -now preventive of any re-establishment of such visitors. The popular -judgment of the monkey’s habit is similar to that of the Japanese Aino, -who remarked to a traveller who arranged to have a bath in his room -every day that he must be a very dirty man to require it. - - - - -16. _The Jigger Flea_ - - -One flea is recorded as having been once taken on an anthropoid ape (a -gorilla), and is the “jigger,” Pulex penetrans. This is a very serious -pest, the history of which shows how man himself opens up the path -by which dangerous diseases spread. The jigger-flea was originally -known only in the South American tropics. It spread from there to the -West Indies in the last century. It burrows into the skin, usually -between the toes, but elsewhere also, and causes an abscess and sore -as big and deep as a hazel-nut. Several such cavities at a time are -dangerous, and often lead to blood-poisoning and death. Europeans avoid -the burrowing of the jigger by having their toes carefully examined -every morning, but black men are less careful. From the West Indies, -about thirty years ago, the jigger was carried in ships to West Africa. -There it flourished and spread from village to village across Central -Africa, decimating the population. It appears to have been carried to -a large extent by dogs, in whose skin it flourishes. It has now passed -through Africa to India, and we shall no doubt soon hear of its having -completed the circuit of the globe. - -A great many kinds of fleas are known, many furry animals having their -own special species, which does not leave them to take up its dwelling -on other kinds of animal. The common rat has a large flea of its own, -which apparently is not the flea which carries the plague from rats -to men. It is a “wandering” flea which does this, namely, the Cheops -flea. This flea, common in the East but unknown in colder regions, does -not stay as one could wish it to do--on the rat; but travels about -visiting human beings and dogs, and so carries the plague bacillus -from rats to men. In the absence of these fleas plague would be a -rat-disease unknown in men. It is probable that we do not nowadays live -so thoroughly cheek-by-jowl with rats in Western Europe as formerly, -so that even if rats infected with plague and harbouring the Eastern -Cheops flea arrive in our docks, the wandering flea is too far off to -reach us in our modern houses. - - - - -17. _Public Estimate of the Value of Science_ - - -The Royal Society, the full title of which is The Royal Society of -London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge, has its anniversary -meeting and dinner on St. Andrew’s Day. The health of the medallists -of the year 1907 was given from the chair by Lord Rayleigh, and they -replied one by one to the toast. Professor Michelsen, of Chicago, -received what is considered the greatest honour the society has to -bestow--the Copley Medal (founded more than two hundred years ago) for -his researches on light. He related in his speech how he had tried -to interest a wealthy business man in the experiments going on in -his laboratory, in the hope that his friend might be moved to give -pecuniary aid for the provision of new apparatus. One by one, he showed -his delicate instruments and explained their uses; no impression was -produced. At last he explained how the bright lines of the spectrum of -flame, coloured by incandescent elements (such as theatre-goers know -as red fire, green fire, blue fire, &c.), can be recognised by means -of the spectroscope in the light of the sun--proving the presence of -the metals and other elements of this earth in that remote body. He -especially explained and showed his friend the experiments by which -sodium, the metal of which caustic soda is the “rust,” is thus proved -to be present in the sun. At last his friend spoke. He said: “Who the ----- cares if there is sodium in the sun?” Professor Michelsen did not -tell the fellows of the Royal Society how he replied to that abrupt -inquiry. - -A more encouraging speech was that of Lord Fitzmaurice, the -Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who replied to the toast -of the guests. He declared, in so many words, “It is every day becoming -more and more certain that science is the master.” He said that in -his own business as a diplomatist he found that the chief matters -which he had to discuss and decide depended on scientific knowledge -and the information and guidance given to him and his colleagues by -scientific men. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the British -Government had sent a bishop and a poet to negotiate the Treaty of -Utrecht. But neither would be of any use in modern diplomacy. What they -always had to seek at the present day was the aid of the scientific -departments of the Navy or the Army, or of the Royal Society. Such -matters as the relative merits of a Channel tunnel or a Channel ferry, -the limitations of territory by land, by sea, or above the land in -the air, the international agreements as to measures for checking the -spread of disease or of insect pests, and, indeed, most matters which -had come before him since he had been in office, had to be decided by -the scientific experts. He did not propose that diplomatists should at -once vacate their posts and endeavour to secure the occupation of them -by men of science, but he thought that at no distant date such a course -would be considered not only reasonable, but necessary! - - - - -18. _The Common House-fly and Others_ - - -The common house-fly is not so innocent as he looks, but really a dirty -little thing. He has not a sharp beak-like proboscis, and cannot stab, -but he has a soft, dabbing proboscis, which he pushes on to every kind -of filth as well as walking with his six legs on such matter. Then he -comes and wipes off minute particles and germs on to our food, our -lips, our fingers, and faces. It is quite certain that he, and others -allied to him, are thus the means of spreading typhoid fever in camps -where there are open latrines and open larders and mess tables. The -house-fly breeds from a maggot, just as the blue-bottle or blow-fly -does, but very few people have ever seen or recognised the maggot of -the house-fly. The reason is that it lays its eggs in horse dung, and -the grubs are hatched in the muck-heaps of stables. That is also the -reason why it is much less numerous in London than it used to be, -since stables and mews are now fewer and cleaner than they were. It is -also the reason why the house-fly abounds in ill-kept country inns and -farmhouses. Its breeding ground is just outside the window. - -There is not only one common house-fly in this country: there are -three kinds, in addition to the blue-bottle or blow-fly, which is -distinguished at once by its great size and blue colour, and lays its -eggs in carrion. Late in the year you may often see what would pass for -young or starveling house-flies going about among the others. This is -a distinct species, the Homalomyia canicularis of entomologists. The -third kind only to be distinguished by careful examination with the aid -of a magnifying glass, is Anthomyia radicum. Both these are much less -abundant than the common house-fly (Musca domestica), with which they -almost always occur. Their breeding habits are similar to those of the -common house-fly. - -A fourth kind of fly is invariably mistaken for the common house-fly -when it is noticed, as it sometimes is, in consequence of the sharp -stab which it inflicts. As recently as the beginning of November last -year I was “bitten” or pricked by one of this fourth kind in a London -club. They are common enough on the sea shore in autumn, and may be -a severe nuisance. People generally take them for common house-flies -which have lost their temper in the hot weather and give way to the -bad habit of “biting” out of sheer exasperation. Really, of course, -a house-fly could not stab or prick with its broad-ended proboscis. -The fly in question, which looks almost exactly like a well-grown -house-fly, but possesses a sharp and business-like beak or proboscis, -is known to scientific men as Stomoxys calcitrans. There are many -kinds of Stomoxys scattered all over the world, and it is probable, -though not actually proved, that they carry parasites such as the -trypanosomes of horse and cattle diseases from one animal to another, -as do the species of Glossina or tsetse-fly. - -But we have yet to learn more about these flies and the parasites -they transfer. In the case of the gnat, it has been discovered that -the malaria parasite is swallowed by the gnat, and multiplies in -it, producing thousands of spores in its blood, and it is these -spores which the gnat hands or rather “mouths” on to man. No such -multiplication of the trypanosome in the tsetse-fly (Glossina) is -known. The tsetse-fly passes on the trypanosome as it received it, and -yet it seems as though it is not any and every biting fly which can -pass on the trypanosome of nagana, or of sleeping sickness, but only -the particular species of tsetse-fly. Perhaps it is a case of greater -abundance, the tsetse-flies being the obvious and dangerous carriers of -trypanosome disease where they occur, on account of their abundance and -the fierceness and celerity of their attack. It is almost certain that -in India, Burma, and South America some other flies must transfer the -trypanosomes from animal to animal, causing the diseases known as surra -and mal de caderas, because no tsetse-flies--that is to say, no flies -of the genus Glossina--occur in those countries, and no other mode of -transference, except by some blood-sucking insect, seems probable. - -Ants in Africa are carriers of infection, and possibly also in London -kitchens, where a little red ant sometimes abounds. The black beetle or -cockroach is a creature to be got rid of, as it is very probable that -it spreads certain kinds of infection over food and dishes during the -hours of “revelry by night” which kind-hearted people allow it to enjoy -in their kitchens. - - - - -19. _Cerebral Inhibition_ - - -The best golf-player does not think, as he plays his stroke, of the -hundred-and-one muscular contractions which, accurately co-ordinated, -result in his making a fine drive or a perfect approach; nor does the -pianist examine the order of movement of his fingers. His “sub-liminal -self,” his “unconscious cerebration,” attends to these details without -his conscious intervention, and all the better for the absence of -what the nerve-physiologists call “cerebral inhibition”--that is to -say, the delay or arrest due to the sending round of the message or -order to the muscles by way of the higher brain-centres, instead of -letting it go directly from a lower centre without the intervention -of the seats of attention and consciousness. The sneezing caused in -most people by a pinch of ordinary snuff can be rendered impossible by -“cerebral inhibition,” set up by a wager with the snuff-taking victim -that he will fail to sneeze in three minutes, however much snuff he -may take. His attention to the mechanism of the anticipated sneeze, -and his desire for it, inhibit the whole apparatus. So long as you can -make him anxious to sneeze and fix his attention on the effort to do -so, by a judicious exhortation at intervals, he will not succeed in -sneezing. When the three minutes are up, and you both have ceased to -be interested in the matter, he will probably sneeze unexpectedly and -sharply. I was set on to this train of thought by a recent visit to an -exhibition of photographs. - -There were many very interesting illustrations of the application of -photography to scientific investigation. Among others I saw a fine -enlarged photograph of the common millipede (Julus terrestris), and my -desire was renewed to have a bioscopic film-series of the movements -of this creature’s legs. Some years ago I attempted to analyse, and -published an account of, the regular rhythmic movement of the legs -of millipedes. I found that the “phases” of forward and backward -swing are presented in groups of twelve pairs of legs, each pair of -legs being in the same phase of movement as the twelfth pair beyond -it. But instantaneous photography would give complete certainty about -the movement in this case, and in the case of the even more beautiful -“rippling” movement of the legs of some of the marine worms. Some -kindly photographer might take up the investigation and prepare a -series of films. The problem is raised and the effects of “cerebral -inhibition” described in a little poem which I am told we owe to the -author of “Lorna Doone.” As it is not widely known, I give it here as a -record of “cerebral inhibition”: - - “A centipede was happy ’til - One day a toad in fun - Said, ‘Pray which leg moves after which?’ - This raised her doubts to such a pitch - She fell exhausted in the ditch, - Not knowing how to run.” - -The point, of course, is that she could execute the complex movement of -her legs well enough until her brain was set to work and her conscious -attention given to the matter. Then “cerebral inhibition” took place -and she broke down. - - - - -20. _Colour-photography and Photographs of Mars_ - - -There were admirable photographs of wild birds and their nests, and of -insects and plants in this exhibition. I saw the new Lumière coloured -transparent photographs thrown by a lantern on the screen, and could -distinguish the dots of red, green, and violet colour on what, at -a little distance, appeared to be a brilliantly white part of the -picture (the shirt collar of a “sitter”), just as one sees a mosaic of -coloured dots in the blazing sunlight of the pictures painted by the -French school of so-called “vibristes” (Monod and others). Perhaps the -most remarkable of these photographs was a set of prints from untouched -photographs of the planet Mars, executed in July 1907 by Professor -Perceval Lowell at his observatory in Arizona. - -The Mars photographs are each about as big as a dried pea (that is -the biggest size possible with the feeble light reflected by Mars), -but “several of the canals,” says Mr. Lowell, “are distinctly visible -on the photographs, and one has been photographed double.” I should -have liked to examine these photographs in a good light with a lens. -The statement quoted means that the canals in Mars can no longer -be regarded as due to errors of eyesight and imagination, and that -the annual doubling or formation of a second canal parallel to what -was earlier in the year a single canal, is actually recorded by a -disinterested, impartial photographic plate. Are these canals the work -of intelligent inhabitants of Mars? I will not venture to say in reply -more than this, that I have never heard any other explanation of their -occurrence. But that, of course, still leaves the matter open. - - - - -21. _Origin of Names by Errors in Copying_ - - -A curious illustration of a mistake perpetuated by a clerical error is -the title of Viscount Glerawly. The title was intended to have been -Glenawly, but the bad writing of a clerk converted the “n” into an “r,” -and the name having been so entered in the patent of nobility, or some -such document, could not be altered. The same thing has happened to -the mammoth. His proper native name is “mammont,” but “mont” became -“mout,” and then “moth.” A similar clerical error is responsible for -the name Gavial, which is applied to the long, narrow-nosed crocodile -of India, both as a scientific name (Gavialis) and colloquially. -Really the “v” is due to a misreading of an “r,” the creature’s native -name being Garial. It was so written down and sent home by an early -explorer, but his handwriting being wanting in clearness, the word was -copied as Gavial and the scientific patent issued in that name. - - - - -22. _False News as to Extinct Monsters_ - - -The tendency of English newspapers to bedeck themselves every now -and again with rank absurdities copied from American rubbish-sheets -is a disease. On no subject outside the field of natural history and -medicine would any editor dream of printing the stuff which does duty -as “news” in regard to these departments--stuff which has not even the -semblance of being carefully concocted, but yet is found “good enough” -to circulate as serious information. - -Another antediluvian monster, much larger than the mammoth, was -reported in a London evening paper at the end of November 1907. The -article devoted to it is a mass of absurdity, a burlesque of a genuine -note on the subject. It appears that the most ordinary thing happened -at Los Angeles, California, namely, that some workmen, in driving a -tunnel, unearthed some fossil bones. We are not surprised to learn -(though it is announced as a marvel) that the bones were those of a -mastodon (of which you may see a whole skeleton in Cromwell-road), -and those of the extinct American elephant called Elephas columbi. -This very commonplace occurrence was certainly not worth recording in -a London daily paper. So it is elaborately dressed up with details -intended to “fetch” the innocent reader. The writer says Elephas -columbi is as much larger than the Siberian mammoth as that is larger -than the horse of to-day. The truth is that Elephas columbi and the -mammoth are as nearly as possible of the same size. To writer goes on -to tell of a “fossil horse,” found at the same place, “a wonderful -two-toed animal marked by his cloven hoof.” That is cool impudence; it -is precisely “the double hoof” which none of the horse tribe possess, -but all the deer, cattle, and sheep do. He next tells us that elephants -and mastodons were never found together before, but supposed to have -shunned each other’s company. This is an invention; their remains -are found side by side all over Europe. Then suddenly the surprising -statement is made, like a bolt from the blue, “England ceases to be the -Mother Country and Germany the Fatherland to us,” and the pre-eminence -of America in providing the biggest thing on earth is declared to -have been already manifest “when the world rose out of chaos.” It is -satisfactory to be told that England is not the Mother Country of this -silliness; but whether the world which solemnly prints and reads it can -be said to have yet “risen out of chaos” must be regarded as doubtful. - - - - -23. _Mistletoe and Holly_ - - -Christmas things and customs comprise much that has great interest -from a scientific point of view. Our modern celebration of Christmas -in England is a combination of the Christian festival of the Nativity -with that of the Epiphany, and that of St. Nicholas, who long ago -was substituted for the sea god Neptune, of classical mythology, by -sea-faring folk. Santa Claus--or Saint Nicholas--has his festival at -the beginning of December, but he has been carried over to Christmas -Day, and appears as “Father Christmas” in modern celebrations. There -is no great antiquity about this part of the tradition which we try to -keep alive at Christmas. The making of Christmas Day and Christmastide -into a special children’s festival is, on the other hand, a moving back -of the festival of the Epiphany, when gifts were brought to the child -Christ by wise men of the East. In Rome I have assisted in celebrating -our Twelfth Night under the name “Befani,” at a great illuminated -public fair, near the Pantheon, where children are taken to buy toys. - -There has been in England also a similar moving back of the very -ancient--even prehistoric--celebrations of the New Year to Christmas, -and hence it is that the mysterious and sacred “mistletoe” of the -Druids is mingled in our houses with the less significant but beautiful -holly as a decoration. The Christian Church, however, did not, and does -not, sanction the introduction of mistletoe into the sacred edifice, -and not many years ago those who loved and truly understood tradition -would not permit mistletoe to be mixed with holly even in the private -house at Christmastide. Mistletoe, it was held, could not be rightly -introduced until the new year. The new year, however, of the Druids -differed in date from that of the later calendar, and fell in what is -to us the second week of March. - -The holly tree, with its splendid red berries and shining, prickly -leaves, is a beautiful decorative plant, very hardy and abundant: it -was used by the old Romans in their “Saturnalia,” a feast which nearly -coincided with the Christmas of the new religion. There is a species -of holly in South America the leaves of which are made into tea by the -Indians, the Paraguay tea or matté. This tea is an unpleasant, bitter -decoction, devoid of aroma, if I may judge from samples which I have -tasted in London. “Ilex” is the botanical name of the genus to which -both our holly-tree and the Paraguay tea belong, but it must not be -confused with the evergreen oak to which the name Quercus ilex is given -on account of the resemblance of its leaves to those of a holly. - -The mistletoe (or mistil-tan, the pale branch, in Anglo-Saxon) is a -pale-coloured, small-flowered member of a great family of parasitic -plants, the Loranthaceæ. They all live upon trees, and draw a part -of their nourishment from the juices of the tree into which their -rootlets penetrate. The tropical allies of the mistletoe are very -beautiful plants, with fine bunches of brilliantly-coloured flowers -and broad handsome green leaves. Our mistletoe is most commonly found -parasitic on apple trees and poplar trees. It occurs on nearly all our -trees, but is very rare on the oak. A careful inquiry some time ago -resulted in the discovery of only seven oaks in all England on which -mistletoe was growing. The Druids took their sacred mistletoe from -the sacred oak tree on account of its rarity. To them it was a charm -against infertility and sterility, and, according to Pliny, was cut and -distributed at the new year with great ceremony and the sacrifice of -heifers. Its paired white berries contain a viscid fluid which gives it -its botanical name Viscum album--and causes the seeds to adhere to the -beaks of birds--and thus to be transported to a distance and introduced -by the birds’ attempts to wipe their beaks into the cracks of the bark -of trees, in which the seeds germinate. - -The white-berried mistletoe is the only English kind, and red mistletoe -seems altogether out of character. But a red-berried species (Viscum -cruciatum) is parasitic on the olive tree in Spain, North Africa, -and Syria. Curiously enough, though the white-berried mistletoe is -excommunicated by the Western Christian Church on account of its use in -pagan worship, the red-berried mistletoe was gathered from olive trees -in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the enclosure of the Holy Sepulchre -at Jerusalem by Sir Joseph Hooker, the great botanist. The red-berried -mistletoe was successfully raised from seed on young olive trees six -years ago in this country by the Hon. Charles Ellis, of Frensham, near -Haslemere, and was figured at that time by Hooker. - -The mistletoe has an evil name in Scandinavian mythology. Baldur, the -beautiful, the Sun-god, was made, like Achilles, invulnerable to spears -and arrows cut from whatever tree grows on earth. All things had taken -an oath not to hurt him, and the gods of Walhalla amused themselves by -throwing all sorts of darts and clubs at him--none could hurt him. At -last the blind god Höder, who loved the beautiful Baldur none the less -because he himself was weakly and sightless, also ventured to throw a -dart at his invulnerable friend. It sped home, pierced Baldur’s heart, -and killed him. The dart was made of mistletoe, a tree that does not -grow on earth, but lives as a parasite high up on other trees, and had -taken no oath to spare Baldur. It had been put into the blind god’s -hand in a friendly helpful sort of way by a designing female, who was -really the evil spirit Loki in disguise. What is the allegory? Does -the mistletoe dart stand for calumny? Is the mistletoe associated with -calumny because it is a parasite in high places? If one must choose -between the mistletoe myth of Norsemen and Briton--the latter, which -survives in the power accorded to the mistletoe to license, even to -command, by its mere overhead existence, the giving and taking of -unexpected kisses and of expected ones, too, is certainly the more -cheerful and suitable to the hopeful enterprise of New Year. - - - - -24. _The Cattle Show_ - - -I always look upon the Christmas Cattle Show of the Smithfield Club -as a scientific delight. Breeding is a most serious branch of -scientific knowledge, held by many people (of whom I am one) to be -of more importance to statesmen, politicians, and philanthropists -than any other kind of knowledge, and yet almost absolutely neglected -and completely ignored except by our farmers and horticulturists. -When examining in turn the splendid animals at Islington I have felt -indignant that it should be not improbable that, owing to ignorance -and neglect in official quarters, the long matured traditions and -built-up skill of our cattle-breeders will be destroyed, crushed out of -existence by huge, devastating capitalist “combines.” Soon we shall not -get the beef we wish for, but we shall have to take whatever inferior -stuff the giant monopolist chooses to force on us--or go without! Our -wonderful stock, so patiently and happily bred, the envy of the world, -will disappear, and our breeders forget their art. We shall none of us -in Britain know more about prime beef, roasts, grills, and marrow-bones -than do the people of Europe or the eaters of terrapin and soft-shelled -crabs. - -It is wonderful that man, by deliberate choice in selecting the sires -and dams, has been able to produce such widely-different races as the -short-horn, the Highland and the Sussex breed, and not only to produce -them, but to keep them there generation after generation. In Nature, -no such deviations are allowed--her motto is “One species, one shape,” -which is only relaxed so as to allow a few geographical varieties. It -is man who makes all these strange breeds, just as he has made such -a queer, irregular, varied lot of creatures from the human stock. -Withdraw once and for all man’s guiding “intelligence,” or perversity, -if you choose so to call it, and all these cattle would in a few -hundred years revert to one form, nearly (but not quite) the same as -that they came from. So, too, the Sheep; so, too, the Pigs. And man -himself, if one could poison him universally with a mind-destroying -microbe, would become a beautiful, healthy, silly creature, dying -at first by millions annually, and at last represented by a hundred -thousand unvarying specimens, inhabiting the warm but healthy corners -of the earth, aimlessly happy, free from disease, neither increasing -nor decreasing in number. It is legitimate, and is a means of examining -the whole problem of man’s history, to inquire whether we have reason -or not to suppose that, were intelligent man thus removed arbitrarily -and completely from the scene, a new “lord of the world” would arise, -by normal evolutionary process. A bird, an elephant, a rat, might give -rise to the new line of progressive development, and, unchecked by man, -once jealous and repressive, but now down-fallen, this new stock might -acquire such brains and wits as we men now boast of, and people the -earth. You never can tell! But it is not the business of science to -expatiate on such possibilities. - -The domesticated cattle of Europe are of very ancient prehistoric -origin. They are for convenience called “Bos taurus,” and seem to be -derived from the huge Bos primigenius or Aurochs, the Urus of Cæsar, -which was wild in Central Europe in his time, and from the Indian -Bos indicus--which is represented by the Indian and African native -breeds of “humped” cattle. It is, however, very difficult to trace -most of man’s domesticated animals or his cultivated plants to their -original wild forms and original habitation. At the Cattle Show we -only see British and Irish breeds, and only those cattle bred as -meat-makers--the Highland, the Welsh, the Shorthorns, the polled Angus, -the South Devons, the Hereford, the Sussex, the Galloway, the Dexter. -But there are other British breeds famous for their milk-producing -quality, such as the Guernseys and Jerseys, whilst in Hungary, Italy, -and Spain they have magnificent breeds of great size, and often with -truly splendid spirally-turned horns (e.g. the Spanish), which are -used for ploughing and carting, and are fattened, killed, and eaten -after doing ten years’ good work. These fine creatures are not seen in -England. They come nearest to the extinct Aurochs, which was, however, -bigger than any of them. It, too, existed in prehistoric times in -England, and we find its bones in the gravel of the Thames Valley. The -last aurochs, or wild bull of Europe, was killed in Poland near the -end of the seventeenth century. The wild Chillingham cattle are Roman -cattle run wild. Many of these breeds and the bones of the aurochs to -compare as to size may be seen in the north hall of the Natural History -Museum, where I commenced a collection of domesticated breeds of -cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, &c., eight years ago. Chillingham cattle -are to be seen in the Zoological Gardens. - -An interesting fact in this connection is that the splendid bull which -is kept in half-wild herds in Spain for the purpose of “bull-fights,” -is of a totally different race from that of the big, long-horned -agricultural cattle. It may be seen at Cromwell-road, a specimen -killed in the ring having been procured at my request and presented -to the museum through the kindness of the British Consul at Seville. -The Spanish fighting bull is, curiously enough, more like our Channel -Island milk-producing cattle than any other. It probably came to -Spain from North Africa--but there seems to be no record or history -concerning it--and if there were it would probably be a fantastic -invention. It seems that only the bulls of this special breed can be -played with and dazzled by the matador’s red cloak. A Scotch bull was -once brought by sea to Seville and introduced to the arena. He paid no -attention to cloaks, red or otherwise, but always went straight for his -man. It is stated that he was soon left quite alone in the ring! The -native African cattle (of Indian origin) at Ujiji and in Damaraland -have the biggest horns of any true Bos--as much as 13-1/2 ft. along the -curve from point to point. We have to distinguish from our own cattle, -for which there is no name except “Bos taurus,” for neither ox, bull, -cow, heifer, nor steer will do--the other bovines--the buffaloes, the -yak, and the bison--besides those great beasts the gayal and the gaur -of India and the banting of Malay. All these may be seen and studied -either in the Museum or the Zoological Gardens. - - - - -25. _The Experimental Method_ - - -The observations lately made by a Chancellor of the Exchequer about an -attempt to put salt on a bird’s tail remind me of my first attempt to -deal experimentally with a popular superstition. I was a very trustful -little boy, and I had been assured by various grown-up friends that if -you place salt on a bird’s tail the bird becomes as it were transfixed -and dazed, and that you can then pick it up and carry it off. On -several occasions I carried a packet of salt into the London park where -my sister and I were daily taken by our nurse. In vain I threw the salt -at the sparrows. They always flew away, and I came to the conclusion -that I had not succeeded in getting any salt or, at any rate, not -enough on to the tail of any one of them. - -Then I devised a great experiment. There was a sort of creek eight feet -long and three feet broad at the west end of the ornamental water in -St. James’s Park. My sister attracted several ducks with offerings of -bread into this creek, and I, standing near its entrance, with a huge -paper bag of salt, trembled with excitement at the approaching success -of my scheme. I poured quantities--whole ounces of salt--on to the -tails of the doomed birds as they passed me on their way back from the -creek to the open water. Their tails were covered with salt. But, to -my surprise and horror, they did not stop! They gaily swam forward, -shaking their feathers and uttering derisive “quacks.” I was profoundly -troubled and distressed. I had clearly proved one thing, namely, that -my nursemaid, uncle, and several other trusted friends--but not, I am -still glad to remember, my father--were either deliberate deceivers or -themselves the victims of illusion. I was confirmed in my youthful wish -to try whether things are as people say they are or not. Somewhat early -perhaps, I adopted the motto of the Royal Society, “Nullius in verba.” -And a very good motto it is, too, in spite of the worthy Todhunter -and other toiling pedagogues, who have declared that it is outrageous -to encourage a youth to seek demonstration rather than accept the -statement of his teacher, especially if the latter be a clergyman. -My experiment was on closely similar lines to that made by the Royal -Society on July 24, 1660--in regard to the alleged property of powdered -rhinoceros horn--which was reputed to paralyse poisonous creatures such -as snakes, scorpions, and spiders. We read in the journal-book, still -preserved by the society, under this date: “A circle was made with -powder of unicorne’s horn, and a spider set in the middle of it, but it -immediately ran out several times repeated. The spider once made some -stay upon the powder.” - - - - -26. _Hypnotism and an Experiment on the Influence of the Magnet_ - - -A more interesting result followed from an experiment made in the same -spirit twenty-five years later. I was in Paris, and went with a medical -friend to visit the celebrated physician Charcot, to whom at that time -I was a stranger, at the Salpêtrière Hospital. He and his assistants -were making very interesting experiments on hypnotism. Charcot allowed -great latitude to the young doctors who worked with him. They initiated -and carried through very wild “exploratory” experiments on this -difficult subject. Charcot did not discourage them, but did not accept -their results unless established by unassailable evidence, although his -views were absurdly misrepresented by the newspapers and wondermongers -of the day. - -At this time there had been a revival of the ancient and fanciful -doctrine of “metallic sympathies,” which flourished a hundred years -ago, and was even then but a revival of the strange fancies as to -“sympathetic powders,” which were brought before the Royal Society -by Sir Kenelm Digby at one of its first meetings, in 1660. In the -journal-book of the Royal Society of June 5 of that year, we read, -“Magnetical cures were then discoursed of. Sir Gilbert Talbot promised -to bring in what he knew of sympatheticall cures. Those that had -any powder of sympathy were desired to bring some of it at the next -meeting. Sir Kenelm Digby related that the calcined powder of toades -reverberated, applyed in bagges upon the stomach of a pestiferate -body, cures it by several applications.” The belief in sympathetic -powders and metals was a last survival of the mediæval doctrine of -“signatures,” itself a form of the fetish still practised by African -witch-doctors, and directly connected with the universal system of -magic and witchcraft of European as well as of more remote populations. -To this day, such beliefs lie close beneath the thin crust of modern -knowledge and civilisation, even in England, treasured in obscure -tradition and ready to burst forth in grotesque revivals in all classes -of society. The Royal Society put many of these reputed mechanisms -of witchcraft and magic to the test, and by showing their failure -to produce the effects attributed to them, helped greatly to cause -witches, wizards, and their followers to draw in their horns and -disappear. The germ, however, remained, and reappears in various forms -to-day. - -Thirty years ago some of the doctors in Paris believed that a small -disc of gold, or copper, or of silver, laid flat on the arm could -produce an absence of sensation in the arm, and that whilst one person -could be thus affected by one metal another person would respond -only to another metal, according to a supposed “sympathy” or special -affinity of the nervous system for this or that metal. This astonishing -doctrine was thought to be proved by certain experiments made with the -curiously “nervous” (hysterical) women who frequent the Salpêtrière -Hospital as out-patients. That the loss of sensation, which was real -enough, was due to what is called “suggestion”--that is to say, a -belief on the part of the patient that such would be the case, because -the doctor said it would--and had nothing to do with one metal or -another, was subsequently proved by making use of wooden discs in -place of metallic ones, the patient being led to suppose that a disc -of metal of the kind with which she believed herself “sympathetic” was -being applied. Sensation disappeared just as readily as when a special -metallic disc was used. - -The old hypothesis of the influence of a magnet on the human body -was at this time revived, and Charcot’s pupils found that when a -susceptible female patient held in the hand a bar of iron surrounded by -a coil of copper wire leading to a chemical electric cell or battery -nothing happened so long as the connection was broken. But as soon as -the wire was connected so as to set up an electric current and to make -the bar of iron into a magnet, the hand and arm (up to the shoulder) -of the young woman holding the bar, lost all sensation. She was not -allowed to see her hand and arm, and was apparently quite unconscious -of the thrusting of large carpet-needles into, and even through, them, -though as long as the bar of iron was not magnetised she shrunk from a -pin-prick applied to the same part. I saw this experiment with Charcot -and some others present, and I noticed that the order to an assistant -to “make contact,” that is to say, to convert the bar of iron into a -magnet, was given very emphatically by Charcot, and that there was an -attitude of expectation on the part of all present--which was followed -by the demonstration by means of needle-pricking that the young woman’s -arm had lost sensation, or, as they say, “was in a state of anæsthesia.” - -Charcot went away saying he should repeat the experiment before some -medical friends in an hour or two. In the meantime, being left alone -in the laboratory with my companion as witness, I emptied the chemical -fluid (potassium bichromate) from the electric battery and substituted -pure water. It was now incapable of setting up an electric current -and converting the bar into a magnet. When Charcot returned with his -visitors, the patient was brought in, and the whole ritual repeated. -There was no effect on sensation when the bar was held in the hand so -long as the order to set the current going, and so magnetise the bar, -had not been given. At last the word was given, “Make!” and at once -the patient’s arm became anæsthetised, as earlier in the day. We ran -large carpet-needles into the hand without the smallest evidence of the -patient’s knowledge. The order was given to break the current (that is, -to cease magnetising the bar), and at once the young woman exhibited -signs of discomfort, and remonstrated with Charcot for allowing -such big needles to be thrust into her hand when she was devoid of -sensation! My experiment had succeeded perfectly. - -It would not have done to let Charcot, or anyone else (except my -witness) know that when the order “Make” was given, there was no -“making,” but that the bar remained as before un-magnetised. The -conviction of everyone, including Charcot himself, that the bar became -a magnet, and that loss of sensation would follow, was a necessary -condition of the “suggestion” or control of the patient. It was thus -demonstrated that the state of the iron bar as magnet or not magnet had -nothing to do with the result, but that the important thing was that -the patient should believe that the bar became a magnet, and that she -should be influenced by her expectation, and that of all those around -her, that the bar, being now a magnet, sensation would disappear from -her arm. With appropriate apologies I explained to Charcot that the -electric battery had been emptied by me, and that no current had been -produced. The assistants rushed to verify the fact, and I was expecting -that I should be frigidly requested to take my leave, when my hand was -grasped, and my shoulder held by the great physician, who said, “Mais -que vous avez bien fait, mon cher Monsieur!” I had many delightful -hours with him in after years, both at the Salpêtrière and in his -beautiful old house and garden in the Boulevard St. Germain. - -There are few “subjects” in this country for the student of hypnotism -to equal the patients of the Salpêtrière and other hospitals in -France--and very few amongst those who read, and even write, about -“occultism” and “super-normal phenomena” know the leading facts which -have been established in regard to this important branch of psychology. -The study of the natural history of the mind, its modes of activity, -and its defects and diseases is of fundamental importance--but its -results are often either unknown or greatly misunderstood by those -who have most need of such knowledge, namely those who, mistaking the -attitude of an ignorant child for that of “a candid inquirer,” try -to form a judgment as to the truth or untruth of stories of ghosts, -thought-transference, spirit-controls, crystal-gazing, divining-rods, -amulets, and the evil eye. - - - - -27. _Luminous Owls and Other Luminous Animals and Plants_ - - -A correspondent lately described in a letter to a London newspaper -what he believed to have been “a luminous owl,” which was seen flying -about at night in Norfolk. He mentioned the well-known fact that the -dense greasy patch of feathers on the breast of the heron is said to -be luminous by many trustworthy observers. It is very probable that -it was some carnivorous or fish-eating bird, which was thus seen in a -luminous condition at night. The occurrence is much more in accordance -with known facts than most people would suppose to be the case. -Light, even strong light, is produced by many natural objects without -the accompaniment of heat. We usually expect not merely fire where -there is smoke, but heat--in fact, great heat, where there is light -or flame. Yet there are many instances to the contrary, and the word -“phosphorescence” is used to indicate a production of light without -heat in reference to the fact that phosphorus is luminous, even when -covered with water, although no appreciable heat accompanies the light -such as we are accustomed to observe in ordinary “combustion” or -burning. - -There is more than one kind of phosphorescence. We separate the -phosphorescence which is due to the oxidation of peculiar fatty matters -in the bodies of plants and of animals (such as glow-worms) from that -which is caused by the breaking or heating of crystals (white arsenic -and apatite), or by longer or shorter exposure to the sun’s rays -(luminous paint), or by radio-activity, or by electrical discharges in -vacuum tubes. - -The “luminous owl” of the above-mentioned correspondent and the -luminous breast of the heron probably owe their strange appearance -to the birds having smeared themselves with phosphorescent carrion or -dead fish, the luminosity of which is due to bacteria. The simplest -case of phosphorescence in living things is that of the almost -ubiquitous phosphorescent bacteria, minute microbes like those which -cause putrefaction. They can be obtained and cultivated from almost -any sample of sea water. A thin slice of meat placed in a shallow dish -of salt water, so as to be barely covered by the liquid, will in cool, -damp weather, almost certainly become covered with the growth of this -phosphorescent germ and appear brilliantly luminous. The populations -of seaside towns have often been terrified by all the meat in the -butchers’ shops suddenly becoming thus phosphorescent. The growth may -be cultivated in flasks of salt broth. I have prepared such flasks, -which, when shaken so as to introduce oxygen, give out a heatless -blaze of light of a greenish colour, brilliant enough to light up a -room. I once found a bone in a dog’s kennel which was brilliantly -phosphorescent owing to this bacterium. I kept it for several days -and showed it to Huxley as well as to other friends. A certain kind -of phosphorescent bacteria are parasitic in the blood of sandhoppers, -causing a disease which kills them. The diseased sandhoppers shine like -glow-worms. I have found them abundantly on the sea shore near Boulogne -and near Trouville, but not yet on the English coast. The bacteria -can be seen with the microscope and inoculated from diseased luminous -sandhoppers into healthy ones by using a needle to prick first the -diseased and then the healthy creature. - -The animals of the sea are often provided with secreting organs, -producing a fatty body which can be oxidised and made luminous at the -pleasure of the animal. Thus many marine worms and minute sea-shrimps -give out brilliant flashes of light. Jelly-fish of many kinds, and the -minute noctiluca, no bigger than a pin’s head, and the three-horned -animalcule Ceratium tripos are the usual cause of the phosphorescence -of the sea on our own coast. Deep-sea fishes are provided with large -phosphorescent discs or plates on the surface of the body, which are -sometimes furnished with lenses like a bull’s-eye lantern. Glow-worms -and fire-flies and some tropical beetles are examples of insects which -have fatty phosphorescent organs which they can illuminate (oxidise) -at pleasure, under the control of the nervous system. Some of the West -Indian phosphorescent beetles are remarkable for having “lights” of -two different colours. In the marshes around Mantua the fire-flies -are so abundant at the end of June that the air for miles is full of -them, and the sight so extraordinary and beautiful as to be worth a -long journey to see. I have seen fire-flies as far north as Bonn on -the Rhine. Once I was nearly upset by a horse shying at a glow-worm on -a bank in Worcestershire. Some moulds and well-grown toadstools are -phosphorescent, and a phosphorescent earthworm, a peculiar species, -now well known, was first of all discovered in the South of Ireland -by the late Professor Allman. In the autumn I have often picked up -the phosphorescent centipede, which is remarkable for the fact that -the phosphorescent material is a kind of slime which exudes from the -body--the creature leaving thus a luminous trail behind it as it -crawls. The piddock, or pholas--a boring sort of mussel--has brilliant -phosphorescent glands, and the boys at Naples love to munch these -shell-fish at night, and then to alarm the passer-by by opening their -mouths, and showing a brilliant green light within. Cases are recorded, -but not recently, of persons suffering from tuberculosis becoming -phosphorescent; a possible, but certainly a rare, occurrence. Animal -and vegetable phosphorescence is varied in colour. The light emitted -is blue-green, green, yellow, orange, and even red in different cases. -It is always due to the oxidation of a separate fatty chemical body, -which can in many instances be extracted, then dried, and subsequently -made luminous by moistening with ether, in consequence of which -oxidation by the oxygen of the atmosphere is facilitated. - - - - -28. _Reminiscences of Lord Kelvin_ - - -The late Lord Kelvin was one of the most fascinating personalities -in the learned world. He uttered with a delightful simplicity the -thoughts, however romantic and fanciful, which bubbled up in his -wonderful brain. It was because he was so much of a poet that he was -so great a man of science. Atoms and molecules and vortices, and the -vibrations and gyrations of ether, and “sorting demons” were all -pictured in his mind’s eye, and used as counters of thought to give -shape and the equivalent of tangible reality to his conceptions. By -such conceptions he was able to present to himself and his listeners -the complex mechanisms of crystals, of liquids, of gases, of electrical -and magnetic currents, and the endless astounding proceedings of rays -of light unsuspected by the ordinary man. - -I think the last occasion on which he spoke in public was after Sir -David Gill’s brilliant address to the British Association at Leicester -last August. Lord Kelvin was sitting close to me on that occasion, and -I noticed that he never moved his gaze from the speaker. He followed -Sir David’s account of stars, whose distance is stated by the number -of years it takes for their light to travel to this earth, like an -enraptured schoolboy, and cheered when the evidence for the existence -of two great streams of movement of the heavenly bodies, in opposite -directions, going no one knows whither, coming no one knows whence, -was sketched to us by the lecturer. In proposing a vote of thanks to -Sir David Gill, Lord Kelvin burst into a sort of rhapsody, in which, -with unaffected enthusiasm, he declared that we had been taken on -a journey far more wonderful than that of Aladdin on the enchanted -carpet; we had been carried to the remotest stars and well-nigh round -the universe, and brought back safely to Leicester on the wings of -science, and the most marvellous thing about it all was that it is true! - -A few weeks before this Lord Kelvin was at the dinner in celebration of -the jubilee of the foundation of the Chemical Society. In the speech -which he then made he referred to the painful accident of a year or -so ago which we had all so much regretted, when he had burnt his hand -accidentally in some experiments with phosphorus, and had had to carry -his arm in a sling for some weeks. “Lord Rayleigh, the president of -the Royal Society,” he said, “has just told us how, as a boy, he gave -proof of his devotion to chemical science by burning his fingers with -phosphorus--but I think my devotion must be considered greater than -his, for I burnt my fingers very badly with phosphorus only last year, -when I was 83 years old. It was at the end of April. My friends said -I was old enough to know better, and it should have happened, not at -the end of April, but on the first day, of that month.” Lord Kelvin -was associated in work in the sixties and seventies with another -splendid man, Tait, of Edinburgh, who, besides being a great professor -of “Natural Philosophy,” and joint author of the celebrated treatise -known as _Thomson and Tait_, was a great athlete--a golfer of the first -class, a first-rate billiard player, and a wise lover of good ale, -which he drank and gave to his friends to drink, whilst he discoursed -as few, if any, to my knowledge, can now do, of things philosophical, -mathematical, and humane. - - - - -29. _The So-called Jargon of Science_ - - -It is often discussed as to whether science fails to obtain the -attention of the public and to excite intelligent interest, owing to -the obscure language which lecturers and writers use when attempting -to expound scientific views and discoveries to “the ordinary man,” or -whether the fault lies with the “ordinary man” himself, who is too -frivolous to bother about following carefully the words addressed to -him, and, moreover, has never learnt even the A B C of science at -school. It is certainly the case, as Professor Turner, the Oxford -professor of astronomy, has pointed out, that a popular lecturer could -tell his auditors a good deal more in an hour if they already had the -elements of his subject at their fingers’ ends than he can under the -existing state of neglect of school education in the natural sciences. -That, however, seems to be obvious enough, and does not touch the real -question. - -I have had a long experience, both in lecturing myself and in -assisting in the training of others to lecture and also to inform -the uninstructed public by means of museum-labels and popular notes. -It seems to me that there are a large number of men who, even though -capable of expressing themselves clearly under usual circumstances, -yet fail to do so when trying to expound or to teach, in consequence -of three distinct faults, any one of which is enough to render their -discourse or writing hopelessly obscure to “the man in the street.” -These are, first, a kind of pride in using special terms and modes of -expression which infatuates the lecturer or writer, and leads him, -without reflection, to an attitude of mind expressed by saying, “That -is the correct statement about this matter, short and true. If you -don’t understand it, there are others who can. You can leave it alone; -it is not worth my while to spend time and trouble to explain further; -it is for you to give yourselves the trouble to find out what I mean.” -The second fault is a real incapacity (which occurs in many learned -men) to realise the state of mind of the uninstructed man, woman or -child who eagerly desires to be instructed: this is want of imagination -and want of sympathy. There is no cure for those who fail as teachers -for either of these two reasons. - -The third fault is much more widely at work, and the most kindly -sympathetic lecturers and writers--but more especially lecturers--often -suffer from it and could easily amend their practice. It consists -in the attempt to tell the audience or reader too much--vastly -too much--in the limit of one hour, or within the space of a few -lines or pages. This failure is well-nigh universal. I have heard -a distinguished discoverer, an eloquent and able man, try to tell -a completely ignorant audience in one hour the results of years of -experiment and work by many men on the electrical currents observed -in nerves. The audience did not know what is meant by an electrical -current, nor anything about nerves, nor a single one of the technical -terms necessarily used by the lecturer. The task was an impossible one. -In six lectures it might have been accomplished, and great delight -and increase of understanding afforded to the listeners instead of -perplexity and a sense of their own incapacity and the hopeless -obscurity of science. That, I am convinced, is the real trouble, viz., -the attempt to tell too much in a short time, the failure by the -lecturer to arrange his exposition in a series of well-considered, -definite steps, each exciting the desire to know more, and each -given sufficient time and experimental illustration or pictorial -demonstration to lodge its meaning and value safely and soundly in -the tender brain of the ignorant but willing listener. I am convinced -that there is in very many lecturers a tendency to try to crowd and -compress into one lecture what should occupy ten--if the willing and -intelligent but ignorant listener is to feel happy and is really -to understand what is said and done for his instruction. A special -difficulty also arises from the fact that the lecturer often feels -himself called upon to address and to say something to those among the -audience who already know a good deal about his subject, as well as to -make things clear to those who are absolute novices. - -Some people have made this discussion the opportunity for attacking -on the one hand the English language, and on the other the use of -special names applied by men of science to special things and special -processes. We cannot at once change the English language, even did we -wish to do so. But the creation of special names to distinguish things -not distinguished from one another in common speech is a necessity. It -cannot be avoided. It is mere impatience and temper to call the names -and terms which are necessary as counters of thought “jargon.” No doubt -there may be in some lecturers and writers a tendency to excessive use -of special terms and names, but the real trouble in the matter arises -from the too rapid thrusting of a large number of such unfamiliar words -upon an untrained audience. If new words are introduced in moderation -they can be assimilated. They cannot be dispensed with altogether. -A correspondent lately complained to me that I wrote of the minute -creature which causes the sleeping sickness as a Trypanosome, whereas, -had I called it “a blood-parasite” he would have known what I meant, -and been able to follow my statement more easily. I am sorry to say -that I cannot agree with him. There are many kinds of blood-parasites; -there are the worms known as Filariæ, there are the vegetable microbes -known as bacteria and bacilli and spirilla, and there are minute -creatures of an animal nature called pyroplasma and trypanosoma -(beside some others). These must be distinguished from one another -if we are to understand anything about the causation of disease by -microbes. It would be mere muddling and confusion to simply call them -all by the same name, simply “blood parasite.” That would cause the -same sort of confusion as would occur if the Smiths or Browns of our -acquaintance had no Christian names by which we can separate each -member of the class from the others and assign to him his own special -qualities, opinions, and property. What some people call “scientific -jargon” is assuredly not a thing to be proud of or to mouth with a -sense of superiority. Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary, and -must be introduced gently and considerately to the stranger who can -and will, if reasonably handled, appreciate the immeasurable advantage -of having distinct words to signify distinct things. That, after all, -is an elementary feature in all language. And just as the “jargon” of -a game, a sport, or a profession has a fascination for those who use -it, and forms a bond of union or special understanding between them, -so inevitably does the jargon of a branch of science flourish in the -thought and on the lips of those who devote themselves to that branch, -and bind them in a sort of freemasonry. We do not expect cricketers -or golfers to talk in plain English; why should we expect chemists or -naturalists to do so? After all, it is a question of moderation and of -gradually increasing the dose. The beginner must not be terrified by an -array of outlandish words. - - - - -30. _Rats and the Plague_ - - -Rats! Who said rats? That is an important question, because the word -means different things to different people. To some persons “rats” -means simply “nonsense”! To Sir James Crichton Browne it means the -devastator of stores and the dread carrier of bubonic plague. To the -naturalist it means a group or natural cohort of small mammals similar -to our common rat and mouse, representatives of which are found in -every quarter of the globe and in almost every island of the sea. The -distinct “kinds” or “species” are numbered by the hundred. They are -extraordinarily alike, and can only be distinguished and classified -into proper “species” by careful examination and measurement. Mr. -Oldfield Thomas, of the Natural History Museum, has made a special -study of them. To give an idea of his work, it may be mentioned that -ninety different names had been given by previous writers to as many -apparently distinct kinds of rat occurring in India. But by careful -measurement and study of the relations to one another of these rats, -Mr. Thomas has reduced the number of really distinct Indian species of -rats and mice (for a mouse is only a smaller rat) to nineteen. What -we call in English water-rats, or water-voles, field-voles, and such -little foreign beasts as the lemming and the hamster, are very close to -rats in appearance, but are separated on account of clear differences -of structure from true rats and mice. - -At a meeting in London the total destruction of “rats” was advocated. -Whether it was affirmed at the meeting, or was merely an error of -those who wrote and commented on the matter afterwards, I do not -know, but it was very generally stated in this connection that the -old Black rat (known to naturalists as Mus rattus) is quite extinct -in England, and that its place has been taken by the Norwegian, or -Grey rat (Mus decumanus), also called the Hanoverian rat, because it -became noticeable by its abundance in this country at the time of the -accession of the Hanoverian kings. The Black rat is not extinct in -England, not even very rare. Mr. Stendall lately sent me specimens -caught in his warehouse in the City of London, where they are -abundant. In many localities, _e.g._ Great Yarmouth, and in isolated -dwelling-places they occur, and even outnumber the Norwegian rat. A -most important and remarkable fact is that the rats which infest ships -are often all Black rats. The Black rat, or Alexandrine rat (as Mr. -Thomas calls it), lives in our houses, in the roof, in recesses of -woodwork. It is a house rat, whereas the Grey, or Norwegian rat, lives -in the sewers and the banks of ditches, and only comes up into the -basement of houses through defective building. The Grey rat has driven -out the water-voles from many river banks near towns, just as he has -to a great extent taken the place of the Black rat in houses where the -kitchen and food stores are close to and in communication with the -sewer! - -The Black rat cannot be really distinguished by his blackness. That is -why some naturalists call him the Alexandrine rat, so as to avoid a -misleading implication. He is often of a bright yellowish-brown colour -along the back--with longer dark-brown hairs and a good deal of grey -elsewhere--quite like the Norwegian or Grey rat in colour. At the same -time he is often blackish, and frequently very black. The colour of -all these kinds of rats and mice can vary, according to the conditions -and colour surroundings in which they live. Black, white, sandy-brown, -or a mixture of spots of all three colours, or a uniform “mouse-brown” -tint, are (as most boys know) the possibilities revealed by allowing -them to breed in captivity. Nature selects accordingly the particular -tint which affords protection from observation by enemies in a given -locality. - -The real distinction between the Black (Alexandrine) rat and the Grey -(Norwegian) rat is that the Black rat is smaller, has a tail longer -than its body (125 per cent.), and long and wide ears, which stand out -from the head. The Grey (Norwegian) rat is a larger, heavy-bodied rat, -with a tail shorter than its body (90 per cent.), and short ears. Both -these rats are common in India, but there is a third kind, which is -the commonest of the three in Calcutta, and is probably the one most -concerned in the dissemination of plague. It differs in some definite -features from both the Black rat and the Grey rat, although it is -very much like the latter in general appearance. It is called Nesokia -Bengalensis, or Mole-rat. It is a big rat--its tail is only 70 per -cent. the length of its body; the pads on the soles of its feet differ -from those of the two other rats; its fur is thin and bristly, and when -it is put into a cage it erects its bristles and spits! It is, like -the Black rat, a stable and granary rat, and makes burrows in which it -stores grain. - -The rats of Calcutta have been carefully studied lately by Dr. Hossack, -in consequence of their connection with the bubonic plague. In the -older native parts of Calcutta, the Mole rat is twice as common as the -Norwegian Grey rat, and the Black rat not so abundant as the latter. -In the central European part of the town the Grey rat is commoner than -the Mole rat--because, apparently, the better-built houses do not -afford such facilities for burrowing. The Black rat is here also by a -good deal the most uncommon of the three. All these rats suffer from -the plague, die from it, and the fleas which lived in their fur leave -them as they get cold, and make their way on to human beings, whom -they consequently infect with the plague bacillus. This has now been -quite conclusively proved by the Indian doctors charged by Government -with the study of the causes of the plague. The plague bacillus--a -minute, rod-like organism, which grows in the blood and lymph, once -it has effected a lodgment, and there produces deadly poison--was -discovered some fourteen years ago, but it is only recently that the -plague bacillus has been shown to live in the intestine of the flea, -which sucks it up with the blood or other fluids of the rat on which it -lives. The flea, which readily goes to man, does not suffer from the -plague bacilli which it has gorged, but conveys them to man either by -its bite or by its excrement. - -This being so, it becomes important to know all about the fleas of -rats. Quite unexpected facts have been discovered in regard to them. -In Europe a very large flea is found on the grey and the black rat. -This kind has not, I believe, ever been found on human beings or been -known to bite them. But in India, in the Philippines, and in the ports -of the Mediterranean, this northern rat-flea is rare, and its place is -taken by a smaller and more actively vagrant flea, which Mr. Charles -Rothschild (who is the great authority on fleas) found upon several -different kinds of small animals in Egypt. He named it “Pulex cheopis.” -This is the flea (and not our big northern rat-flea) which acts as -the carrier of plague-germs from rats to man in India. It appears -from experiments that the common flea of man (Pulex irritans) and the -cat-and-dog flea (Pulex felis), as well as the big northern rat-flea -(Ceratophyllus fasciatus), can harbour the plague-bacillus if fed on -plague-stricken animals, but there are no observations to show (as -there are about the “Cheops flea”) that they pass habitually from man -to rats and rats to men. - -It is happily so long (200 years) since we had a real outbreak of -plague in Europe that we are still in doubt as to whether the Grey -rat or the Black rat is the more susceptible to the disease--and what -flea, if any, acts, or has acted, as the carrier from rat to man in -this part of the world. The suggestion has been made that the Grey -Norwegian rat takes plague less easily than the Black rat, or than -the Indian Mole-rat (Nesokia), and that the multiplication of the -Grey rat in England and France and consequent decrease in Black rats, -is, therefore, an advantage, so far as plague is concerned. Possibly -with the Grey rat has come the big rat-flea, which does not attack -man as does the Cheops flea. The disappearance of plague in Western -Europe seems to correspond in date with the arrival of the Grey rat. -But, on the other hand, an alteration in the character of our houses -and their greater “accommodation” for the new rat rather than the old -black species may account both for the increase of the latter and for -the absence of dirt and vermin in the dwelling-rooms and bed-chambers -which formerly enabled the plague-bacillus to flourish amongst us, -and to reach the human population--as it does now in India and China. -All this shows how necessary it is to have accurate true knowledge of -such despised creatures as rats and fleas, if we are to live in great -crowded cities closely packed together. And it should also make us try -to gain further knowledge as to these creatures, so that we may form -a reasonable anticipation of the consequences we are bringing down on -our heads when we set about exterminating this or that race of animals. -We are not yet sure that the Norwegian Grey rat is not a blessing in -disguise. - - - - -31. _Ancient Temples and Astronomy_ - - -Janssen, the French astronomer, who died about the same time as Lord -Kelvin, acquired celebrity by his discovery of a method for seeing -and studying the great flames or prominences which surround the sun. -The glare of the great fiery ball is such that the eye is blinded in -ordinary circumstances to the light of these prominences. They were -only known from their coming into view during the total eclipse of -the sun’s disc by the moon. Then they were seen as a great fringe of -pointed, tongue-like flames around the darkened disc. But at other -times no use of smoked glass or telescope could bring them into view. -Janssen went to India in 1868 to study these prominences of the sun -during the total eclipse of that year. His purpose was to examine with -a spectroscope the light given out by the prominences. The day after -the eclipse Janssen found that he could still examine the prominences -and make out their shape and the chemical elements present in them by -looking at them through the spectroscope, although the sun’s disc was -now uncovered, and it was impossible to see the prominences with the -unaided eye or with the telescope. - -A young English astronomer, hundreds of miles apart from Janssen, on -the same day, Aug. 18, 1868, made the same discovery in the same way, -independently. The English astronomer was Norman Lockyer, and the -French Academy of Sciences caused a medal to be struck in commemoration -of this discovery. The medal is before me as I write. It shows the -heads of Janssen and of Lockyer side by side, as they were forty years -ago. - -Each has carried on his researches and discoveries with unabated -vigour since that happy conjunction. Sir Norman Lockyer has for many -years added to his constant study of the sun, fixed stars, and nebulæ -by means of the spectroscope and photographic record of spectra, an -inquiry into the evidence afforded by astronomical facts first as to -the age of Greek and Egyptian temples, and latterly as to that of the -mysterious avenues and circles of stones (such as Stonehenge) scattered -about the British Islands, of the history and use of which we have -only vague traditions and no actual records. These stone circles and -avenues are very numerous in Great Britain. The chief are Stonehenge, -Avebury, and Stanton Drew in the middle South of England; the Hurlers, -Boscawen-Un, Tregaseal, the Merry Maidens, and the Nine Maidens in -Cornwall; Merrivale Avenue and Fernworthy Avenue in Devon; many circles -in Aberdeenshire, in Cumberland, Derbyshire, and Oxfordshire, as well -as monuments of the same kind in Wales. Sir Norman Lockyer has obtained -measurements of most of these and plans showing the relations of the -principal lines of their ground plan to the points of the compass, and -so to the position occupied by the sun and by certain stars on given -days of the year at the rising or setting of those heavenly bodies. It -may well be asked what is Sir Norman’s object in doing this? - -The explanation is as follows: The builders of Christian churches in -Europe have, as a rule, set out the ground plan of the church shaped -like a Latin cross, so that the arms of the cross run north and -south--the head points to the east, or Orient, and the base to the -west. In consequence of this custom the word “orientation” has come -into use, to signify the direction purposely given to the main length -of a temple or church. Now it appears that many, if not all, ancient -temples (including the ancient stone circles and avenues of Britain) -were purposely so “oriented” by their builders that a particular -star, or the sun itself, should at a fixed day and hour in the year -be seen during its movement across the heavens through an opening in -the building especially designed for this purpose, so as to allow the -light of the star to fall into the most sacred part of the temple, the -“Naon,” or Holy of Holies. At the moment of its appearance special -ceremonies were performed by the priests and worshippers in the temple. -The temple was dedicated to and carefully “oriented to” that particular -star. Thus, in ancient Greece, the Pleiades, Sirius (the dog star), -Spica, and other stars were thus used; in Egypt, Capella, Canopus, and -Alpha Centauri; in Britain, Arcturus, as well as those used by the -Greeks. - -These temples were really astronomical observatories, and were meant -always to remain “oriented” to their special star, which must, if the -earth were steady in its position, although spinning like a top, and -also circling round the sun, duly appear each year at the expected -day and minute in the special “window” or aperture designed so as to -allow the star--then, and then only--to shine into the temple. But the -astronomers have discovered that the earth is not steady! It “wobbles” -very slowly and regularly as a top wobbles. The position of the axis -of rotation--corresponding in position to the stem of a top--does not -remain one and the same, but is pulled aside by the attraction of the -sun and moon, and moves round as one may often see in the spinning of -a top. The earth takes about 26,000 years for its poles to complete -the cycle of its wobble. Moreover, in addition to this, there is the -fact that the earth’s axis (stem of the top) is not nearly upright, -but inclined at a considerable angle (23 deg.) to the horizontal or -plane of its orbit round the sun, and that this inclination very slowly -changes, in addition to the wobbling movement. The amount and rate of -these changes in the inclination of the axis of the earth have been -definitely ascertained by astronomers. - -I mention the nature of these movements because they clearly enough -must upset altogether the desired result of the orientation of temples. -The last-mentioned slow increase of obliquity affects solar temples -chiefly, and the more rapid wobbling affects the star temples--both to -such a degree that temples oriented two or three thousand years ago -are now quite out of line, and no longer “catch,” so to speak, their -particular star or the sun on the appointed day. They no longer point -truly, because the “pitch” of the earth has altered since they were set. - -The next point is that astronomers are able to calculate with -surprising accuracy from other observations how much exactly at this -moment the “pointing,” or “alignment,” must be “out” as compared with -a thousand, fifteen hundred, two, three, four, or more thousand -years ago. Accordingly, if you know the star to which an ancient -temple was set or aligned, the day of the solar year which was the -festival or critical moment of the appearance of the star in the sacred -aperture--and how much the temple is to-day out in its pointing, that -is to say, the exact amount of swinging which would bring the temple -back into its original relation to the star--you have a means of -measuring the age of the temple; you have a measure of the time which -has elapsed since it acquired this amount of departure from correct -orientation. Astronomy tells you how much it must get out of line in -every hundred years. - -Mr. F. C. Penrose, F.R.S., investigated this matter in regard to -several Greek temples; others besides Sir Norman Lockyer have written -on the aberration and calculable age of Egyptian temples. It has, for -instance, actually been found that the temple of Ptah was aligned to -the sun in the year 5200 B.C. The alignment is no longer correct, and -it appears that the Egyptians themselves discovered that some of their -most ancient temples had lost correct alignment, and erected new and -corrected buildings in connection with them, and re-dedicated them. -Now Sir Norman is making a vigorous effort to procure all the possible -measurements and indications concerning the prehistoric circles and -avenues of Britain before it is too late. They are being more and more -rapidly destroyed. Stonehenge has been carefully measured and its -present alignment determined by various surveyors. Its age is discussed -by Sir Norman Lockyer in an interesting book, but we may soon expect a -further discussion of the whole subject of these prehistoric British -monuments from his pen. In some cases, as in that of Stonehenge, the -relation of the temple to the sun is obvious and confirmed by tradition -and existing custom. But in many cases investigation is rendered very -difficult by the absence of any immediate indication of what precisely -is the heavenly body to which the temple was at its foundation oriented. - -In the case of Stonehenge, the conclusion at which Sir Norman Lockyer -arrives is that there was an earlier circle of small stones (still -represented), but that the temple was rededicated, and the larger -trilithons (each consisting of two uprights and a cross-piece) erected, -and the main opening of the circle aligned to the midsummer rising sun -about 1700 B.C., with a possible error of 200 years, more or less. This -is arrived at by measurements showing the exact amount by which the -alignment is “out” at the present day. This date is confirmed by the -recent discovery of numerous stone hammers when one of the big stones -was dug under and restored to the upright position from which it had -slipped. The stone age is believed to have given place in Britain to -the use of metal before 1700 B.C., and no metal tools were found at -Stonehenge. - -Stonehenge--the most wonderful, mysterious, and complete of the great -astronomical temples of Western Europe--has come down to us from the -absolute darkness of prehistoric ages. Its secrets are still buried in -the ground around and under its huge monoliths. This prodigious relic -of the past is actually the private possession of one happy man, Sir -Edmund Antrobus. Only two years ago he earned the gratitude of all men -by employing workmen and machinery, at considerable expense, to restore -one of the great stones to its upright position. The extraordinary -thing is that whatever money is needed for the purpose is not at once -offered to enable him to examine and replace with scrupulous care every -stone, big and small, every scrap of soil, within an area of many -hundred yards, embracing Stonehenge and all around it. I understand -that he is willing to sell this great possession to the nation. It -surely ought to be acquired as national property, and reverently -excavated and preserved, whilst every fragment of significance found -in the excavations should be placed in a special museum at Amesbury -or Salisbury, under unassailable guardianship. Year by year it has -crumbled away. We owe the sincerest thanks to Sir Edmund Antrobus -for having placed a light wire fence around the venerated relics, -and for putting a guardian in charge so as to arrest, even at this -latest moment, the final desecration and destruction of this splendid -thing by heedless ruffians. The protection afforded is, nevertheless, -insufficient. The delay in examining everything on the spot and in -making all that remains absolutely secure is a national disgrace. - - - - -32. _Alchemists of To-day and Yesterday_ - - -The claim to have devised a secret process in virtue of which sugar -or charcoal placed in an iron crucible and heated to a tremendous -temperature is found on subsequent cooling to contain large marketable -diamonds has a close similarity to the pretensions of the alchemists. -It differs in the fact that very minute diamonds have actually been -formed by a scientific chemist (M. Moissan) in such a way, whilst the -alchemists’ search was for a substance--the “philosopher’s stone,” as -it was called, which was never discovered, but was supposed to have -the property, if mixed and heated in a crucible with a base metal, -of converting the latter into gold. From time to time those engaged -in this search honestly thought that they had succeeded; others were -impostors, and others laboured year after year, led on by elusive -results and dazzling possibilities. - -In England, after the true scientific spirit had been brought to bear -on such inquiries by Robert Boyle and the founders of the Royal -Society in the later years of the seventeenth century, little was heard -of “alchemy,” and the word “chemistry” took its place, signifying -a new method of study in which the actual properties of bodies, -their combinations and decompositions, were carefully ascertained -and recorded without any prepossessions as to either the mythical -philosopher’s stone or the elixir of life. But as late as 1783--only a -hundred and twenty-five years ago--we come across a strange and tragic -history in the records of the Royal Society associated with the name -of James Price, who was a gentleman commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford. -After graduating as M.A., in 1777 he was, at the age of twenty-nine, -elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In the following -year the University of Oxford conferred on him the degree of M.D. in -recognition of his discoveries in natural science, and especially for -his chemical labours. Price was born in London in 1752, and his name -was originally Higginbotham, but he changed it on receiving a fortune -from a relative. - -This fortunate young man, whose abilities and character impressed -and interested the learned men of the day, provided himself with a -laboratory at his country house at Stoke, near Guildford. Here he -carried on his researches, and the year after that in which honours -were conferred on him by his university and the great scientific -society in London, he invited a number of noblemen and gentlemen to his -laboratory to witness the performance of seven experiments, similar to -those of the alchemists--namely, the transmutation of baser metals into -silver and into gold. The Lords Onslow, Palmerston, and King of that -date were amongst the company. Price produced a white powder, which -he declared to be capable of converting fifty times its own weight of -mercury into silver, and a red powder, which, he said, was capable -of converting sixty times its own weight of mercury into gold. The -preparation of these powders was a secret, and it was the discovery -of them for which Price claimed attention. The experiments were made. -In seven successive trials the powders were mixed in a crucible with -mercury, first four crucibles, with weighed quantities of the white -powder, and then three other crucibles with weighed quantities of the -red powder. Silver and gold appeared in the crucibles after heating -in a furnace, as predicted by Price. The precious metal produced was -examined by assayers and pronounced genuine. Specimens of the gold -were exhibited to his Majesty King George III., and Price published a -pamphlet entitled “An Account of Some Experiments, &c.,” in which he -repudiated the doctrine of the philosopher’s stone, but claimed that he -had, by laborious experiment, discovered how to prepare these composite -powders, which were the practical realisation of that long-sought -marvel. He did not, however, reveal the secret of their preparation. -The greatest excitement was caused by this publication appearing under -the name of James Price, M.D. (Oxon.), F.R.S. It was translated into -foreign languages, and caused a tremendous commotion in the scientific -world. - -Some of the older Fellows of the Royal Society, friends of Price, now -urged him privately to make known his mode of preparing the powders, -and pointed out the propriety of his bringing his discovery before the -society. But this Price refused to do. To one of his friends he wrote -that he feared he might have been deceived by the dealers who had sold -mercury to him, and that apparently it already contained gold. He was -urged by two leading Fellows of the society to repeat his experiments -in their presence, and he thereupon wrote that the powders were -exhausted, and that the expense of making more was too great for him -to bear, whilst the labour involved had already affected his health, -and he feared to submit it to a further strain. The Royal Society now -interfered, and the president (Sir Joseph Banks) and officers insisted -that, “for the honour of the society,” he must repeat the experiments -before delegates of the society, and show that his statements were -truthful and his experiments without fraud. - -Under this pressure the unhappy Dr. Price consented to repeat the -experiments. He undertook to prepare in six weeks ten powders similar -to those which he had used in his public demonstration. He appears -to have been in a desperate state of mind, knowing that he could not -expect to deceive the experts of the society. He hastily studied the -works of some of the German alchemists as a forlorn hope, trusting -that he might chance upon a successful method in their writings. He -also prepared a bottle of laurel water, a deadly poison. Three Fellows -of the Royal Society came on the appointed day, in August, 1783, to -the laboratory, near Guildford. It is related (I hope it is not true) -that one of them visited the laboratory the day before the trial, and, -having obtained entrance by bribing the housekeeper in Price’s absence, -discovered that his crucibles had false bottoms and recesses in which -gold or silver could be hidden before the quicksilver and powder were -introduced. Dr. Price appears to have received his visitors, but -whether he commenced the test experiments in their presence or not -does not appear. When they were solemnly assembled in the laboratory -he quietly drank a tumblerful of the laurel water (hydrocyanic acid), -which he had prepared, and fell dead before them. He left a fortune -of £12,000 in the Funds. It has been discussed whether Dr. Price was -a madman or an impostor. Probably vanity led him on to the course of -deception which ended in this tragic way. He could not bring himself to -confess failure or deception, nor to abscond. He ended his trouble by -suicide. He was only thirty-one years of age! Not inappropriately he -has been called the “Last of the Alchemists,” though a long interval -of time separates him from the last but one and the days when the old -traditions of the Arabians’ al-chemy were really treasured and the -mystic art still practised. - - - - -33. _A Story of Sham Diamonds and Pearls_ - - -It has been recently declared by a dealer in precious stones that -though diamonds and other stones can be very well imitated, yet pearls -cannot be. This is hardly correct, as artificial pearls so well made -as to defy detection by the casual glance of any but a professional -expert are common enough. Who does not know the pathetic story by the -greatest of French writers, Guy de Maupassant, of the wife of a poor -Government clerk, who borrowed a necklace from another lady to wear at -a reception at the “Ministry”? She lost the necklace (I forget whether -it was of pearls or of diamonds, or both); but she and her husband -were too proud to confess the fact, and purchased another necklace -exactly like the lost one, for a sum the outlay of which reduced them -for the rest of their lives to a state of penury and social exile. They -returned the new necklace in place of the lost one without a word, -and accepted their fate. By chance, the poor ruined lady, fifteen -years afterwards, met her old friend, who had long since passed from -her acquaintance, together with other prosperous people. Moved by her -former friend’s kind reception, she related the true history of the -pearl necklace of long ago. “Great heavens!” exclaimed the prosperous -lady. “The necklace I lent you was made with imitation gems! It was -not worth five pounds!” Too late! Nothing now could give back to the -high-minded, self-respecting little couple the lost years of youth -passed in privation and bitterness. - - - - -34. _The Nature of Pearls_ - - -Pearls have been lately studied by zoologists, and their true history -made known. They are a disease, caused, like so many other diseases, -by an infecting parasite. It is common knowledge that they are found -much as we see them in jewellery, as little lustrous spheres embedded -in the soft bodies of various shellfish, such as mussels, oysters, and -even some kinds of whelks. They are not found in the shellfish like -crabs and lobsters, called Crustacea, but only in those like snails, -clams and oysters, called Mollusca. Pink pearls are found in some kinds -of pink-shelled whelks. A pearl-mussel or pearl-oyster has a pearly -lining to its shell, which is always being laid down layer by layer by -the surface of the mussel’s or oyster’s body, where it rests in contact -with the shell, which consequently increases in thickness. If a grain -of sand or a little fish gets in between the shell and the soft body -of its maker, it rapidly is coated over with a layer of pearl, and so -a pearly boss or lump is produced, projecting on the inner face of the -shell, and forming part of it. These are called “blister-pearls,” and -are very beautiful, though of little value, since they are not complete -all round, but merely knobs of the general “mother-of-pearl” surface. -These blister-pearls can be produced artificially by introducing a hard -body between the shell and the living oyster or mussel. - -It used to be thought that the true spherical pearls were caused by a -hard granule of some kind pressing its way into the soft substance of -the shell-fish, pushing a layer of the pearl-producing surface like -a pocket in front of it. But it is now known that this “pushing in” -is the work, not of an inanimate granule, but of a minute parasitic -worm, which becomes thus enclosed by a pocket of the outer skin. The -pocket closes up at its neck, and lays down layer after layer of pearl -substance around the intrusive parasite, the dead remains of which can -be detected with the microscope in sections of the pearl forming there -a central kernel or nucleus. These parasitic worms were first detected -in the small pearls formed by the common edible sea-mussel. - -Though they are very small, sea-mussel pearls are collected for the -market at Conway, in North Wales, and also on the coast of France. The -parasitic worm is the young of a worm which, when adult, lives in the -intestine of carnivorous fishes. It appears that it has to pass from -and with the mussel into shellfish-eating sea fishes, where, although -the mussel is digested, the parasite is not, but grows in size and -alters its shape considerably. Then after a time the worm is swallowed, -with the fish in which it has fixed itself, by sharks, dogfish, and -such fish-eating fishes. In these at last it becomes adult and of some -size, an inch or so long, varying according to the particular kind, and -produces many thousands of eggs, which hatch out as minute creatures -swimming in the sea-water, and fortunate if they fall upon a bed of -mussels. They enter the mussel’s shell and make their way into its -soft substance. A certain number (very few) get encased in the skin -and covered up by pearl-layers, which is the mussel’s way of killing -them and putting them out of mischief. The others which have entered -other regions of the mussel’s body thrive, and have a chance of being -swallowed by a mussel-eating fish, and then a further chance of that -fish being eaten by a shark. If this happens the lucky worm--like the -Italian who gets a winning number in three successive drawings of a -lottery--gains the big prize. He becomes adult and produces innumerable -young, who in their turn enter upon the chanceful career of a mussel -parasite. - -Thus we see that a pearl is not only a disease or abnormal growth -caused by a parasite, but is actually an elaborately formed tomb -or sarcophagus, in which the parasite is enclosed layer upon layer. -This mode of disposing of parasites and other intrusive bodies is not -unusual in animals. The terrible little flesh-worm--the Trichina--which -causes the death of rats, pigs, and men who eat raw meat, is sometimes -conquered in this way. It is found in the muscles (flesh) of man -and animals enclosed in little pearl-like sacs, half the size of a -hempseed, and it dies there, unless the invaded animal should die, and -its flesh be eaten (as raw ham for instance) by another animal. The -burying of inconvenient corpses in plaster of paris, corresponding -to pearls as we now know them, has been a method of concealment -occasionally adopted by criminals. On the whole, pearls have not very -pleasant associations. - -The history of the special parasitic worm which invades the beautiful -little pearl-oyster of Ceylon has recently been followed out by skilful -naturalists. There, too, a smaller oyster-eating fish of a peculiar -kind, and a larger fish which eats the first fish, are necessary for -the reproduction and multiplication of the pearl-producing parasites. -The new Ceylon Pearl-Fishing Company has, therefore, to see to it that -both these kinds of fish are encouraged to live in the sea near where -the pearl oysters are found, and it is their object to increase the -parasitic disease by which pearls are formed, and ensure an abundance -of parasites. - -An interesting new method has been recently applied to the examination -of pearl oysters for pearls. The Rontgen rays are used to produce a -skiagraph (such as surgeons use in searching for a bullet) of the pearl -oysters when brought into harbour. They are thus rapidly examined one -by one, without injury, and the shadow-picture shows the pearl or -pearls inside those oysters which are infected. The pearlless oysters -are returned to the depths of the sea, whence they came--those with -small pearls only are kept in special reserves or sea-lakes, in order -that the pearl may grow in size, whilst only those with good-sized -pearls are opened at once, in order that the pearl may be extracted and -sent to market. - -There were great findings of pearls in the fresh-water pearl mussels -of the Scotch rivers in former days. In the last forty years of the -eighteenth century these pearls were exported from Scotland to France -to the value of £100,000. - -In the eighteenth century not only did they get their pearls from -European rivers instead of from the East; but, instead of being -excited about the artificial production of diamonds, they were driven -wild with astonishment by the demonstration of the volatilisation of -these stones--the disappearance of diamonds into invisible vapour -when sufficiently heated. That the hardest stone in nature could be -thus dissipated into thin air seemed incredible. On Aug. 10, 1771, a -chemist named Rouelle invited to his laboratory to witness this wonder -a company comprising the Margrave of Baden and the Princess his wife, -the Dukes of Chaulne and of Nivernois, the Marchionesses of Nesle and -of Pons, the Countess of Polignac, and some members of the Academy of -Sciences, including the great chemist Lavoisier. Four diamonds--the -largest belonging to the Count Lauraguais--were submitted before the -eyes of all to the heat of a furnace, and in three hours had completely -evaporated. There was, no doubt, room here for a mystification and for -the abstraction of the diamonds with a view to dishonest appropriation. -But no such purpose existed. The experiment was a genuine one, and -Rouelle and his brother were honest investigators. They established the -fact, now demonstrated as a lecture experiment, that the diamond is -volatilised at very high temperatures. A more celebrated “evaporation” -of diamonds--that which is known as “the affair of the Queen’s -necklace”--took place a few years later in Paris, when no scientific -investigation was connected with the embarrassing disappearance of the -Royal trinket. - - - - -35. _A King Who was a Zoologist_ - - -The King of Portugal, Carlos di Braganza, who was assassinated in the -spring of 1908, was one of the most gifted and vigorous men of his age, -fearless and intelligent to a rare degree, good-hearted, and devoted to -the welfare of his people. If any man were justified in having no fear -of outrage because he was conscious that his uprightness was proved and -known to all men, his benevolence experienced by all, his ability and -vast knowledge recognised by all, Dom Carlos was that man. Fanaticism, -however, takes no account of the virtues of its victims. Until society -has invented a method for keeping instruments of destruction out of -the reach of dangerous, more or less maniacal individuals, all those -who excite the fanatic’s brain, even by the excellence and nobility of -their lives, risk death whenever they trust themselves to the tender -mercies of a crowd. Psychology may one day enable us to detect, and -improved supervision of children enable us to segregate before it is -too late, the latent assassins in our midst. If they have not a king as -their quarry their reason is palsied by a president, and were there no -presidents, they would become homicidal in the presence of a prefect or -a policeman--even of a professor. - -Some four years ago I had the honour of conducting Dom Carlos round the -Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road. He arrived without attendant -or escort, and I passed two hours alone with him. I had been told that -he was a great shot and fond of natural history, that he played every -athletic game, rode, and swam better than the best, that he was a -fine water-colour painter, a real artist--and a first-rate musician -and singer. I was astonished at his knowledge and personal experience -in natural history. His burly form and bright, honest face gave me a -most agreeable impression, and when he said (as I had been told he -would) to each explanation of a specimen upon which I ventured for -his edification, “I know! I know!” felt that it was true, and that -he really did know. “I have shot thirty of them in the south of my -country,” he said of some rare bird. “I know! I know! I have described -a new species like that in my book on the birds of Portugal. I shall -send it to you!” was his comment on another. When we came to some -wonderful coral-like specimens--sea-pens and sea-feathers, dredged in -the deep sea and preserved in spirits, for exhibition in the Museum--he -said, to my astonishment, “Those are very bad. I get much better than -those in my yacht off the Portuguese coast. I preserve them myself; -it is a real art. I shall send you some.” I said they would be a very -welcome addition. “Yes, I know! I know!” he said. “Would you like some -fishes, too? The Prince of Monaco has some fine things, and he led -me to collect also myself. I have now many things better than his. I -shall send you some fishes, too.” And he did. A few months after his -return to Portugal he sent to the Museum a large collection, preserved -in spirit, which included many very fine and interesting specimens of -deep-water Atlantic fishes; also his work, with coloured plates, on -the Birds of Portugal, and a most remarkable publication on the tunny -fisheries of the South Coast of Portugal--giving a careful survey of -the waters, sea bottom, currents, fauna, and flora in correct, expert -form, such as might issue from a Government Fisheries Board, but in -this case done, as modestly indicated on the title-page, by the Head -of the State himself, “Dom Carlos di Braganza.” He went into the -work-rooms of the Museum, where some new fishes were being drawn, and -conversed with the naturalist in charge, and criticised the drawings. -He saw everything, appreciated everything, and then looking at his -watch, said, “I have only five minutes to get to a lunch party. Thank -you very much for the most delightful time. I should like to stay all -the day; it is a splendid place,” and was off in his brougham. - -I exhibited the specimens and books sent by his Majesty for some weeks -in the Central Hall of the museum, before they were incorporated in -the great collection, for I felt that it was a rare and interesting -thing that a king should not merely take a sportsman’s pleasure in -birds, beasts, and fishes, but actually be, so to speak, “one of us”--a -zoologist who discovers, describes, and names new things. The Prince of -Monaco is the only other head of a State who is a serious scientific -naturalist. He has built and endowed a magnificent museum and -laboratory at Monaco, where his skilled assistants carry on researches -and look after the extremely valuable and important collections which -he has himself made in a series of cruises in the Atlantic extending -over many years. He has not only employed capable naturalists to help -him, but is himself the chief authority and an original discoverer in -“oceanography,” the science of the great oceans. - -A year or so ago, when Dom Carlos visited Paris, a special fête and -reception was organised in his honour at the “Muséum d’Histoire -Naturelle,” in the Jardin des Plantes. The “Museum” of the Jardin des -Plantes is a very remarkable institution, including a zoological and -botanical garden, laboratories of chemistry, physics, and physiology, -besides the great collections of minerals, fossils, skeletons, and -preserved specimens of animals and plants. It is governed by the -professors and the director who are in charge of the garden, the -laboratories, and the collections, and owes its dignity and its -celebrity to the distinguished men of science who for a century and a -half have made discoveries and taught there. They are not subject to a -board of eminent and wealthy persons, nor is the administration of the -antiquities at the Louvre and of the National Library muddled up with -that of the great scientific workshop of Natural History. - -When the President of the Republic conceived the plan of entertaining -the King of Portugal at the Museum of Natural History there were -those who supposed that the Minister of Education would, as a great -State official, be called upon to arrange the proceedings. Nothing of -the sort was done. It was found that the Minister had no authority -in regard to the Museum, which, as an independent State institution, -organised and carried out the reception through its own officers. The -director and professors received President Fallières and the King, -escorted by the troops of the Republic. The garden and buildings -were ablaze with light and colour, and a large company assembled to -take part in the fête. In the great hall of the museum Becquerel, -Moissan, and others showed their most recent discoveries as to radium, -artificial diamonds, and such matters to the King; others exhibited -new birds and fishes, the okapi and newly-discovered fossils, and -briefly explained their history and significance. The King conferred -decorations on the scientific staff, and gave friendly acknowledgments -to all who had thus sought to gratify his special tastes, and prepared -for him a really exceptional gala-demonstration of scientific -discovery. The official “middle-men,” who in other countries contrive -to divert the honour and emoluments due to men of science, to their own -profit, were on this occasion happily kept at a distance. - - - - -36. _The Transmission to Offspring of Acquired Qualities_ - - -The cruel fate of Dom Carlos of Portugal naturally enough produced -philosophic and thoughtful articles in some of the journals of the -day. An able writer told his readers that the “kingly caste” has -characteristics peculiar to itself, “which illustrate the Darwinian -law.” He does not say what Darwinian law, and I am afraid he would find -it difficult to do so. He says that people who for centuries have had -their own way (how many kingly families have done so?), who have always -lived on good food and never tasted bad wine, and have constantly -conversed with interesting people (not usually the chance of princes!) -must certainly, if subject to “the laws which govern animal and plant -life,” produce well-marked characteristics in their offspring--and he -goes on to speak of a fine appetite for food (what he describes is -really a morbid condition connected with indigestion) as indigenous -to Royalty, and declares that the gift of recognising faces and -remembering names is “a faculty cultivated by generations of practice.” - -One must recognise with satisfaction the desire to explain the facts -and varieties of human life and character by reference to “the laws -which govern animal and plant life.” It is by faithfully and truly -carrying out the inquiries suggested by that desire that the knowledge -which is the sole and absolutely essential condition for the safe -conduct of human life and the increased happiness of human communities, -can be obtained, and by such inquiries only; and, further, only -upon the condition that the investigation is conducted in the true -scientific spirit with accuracy and without prejudice. The remarks upon -the kingly caste which I have quoted above show with what “legerity -and temerity” a clever and respected writer will formulate phrases and -conclusions which are, in face of what Darwin and his successors have -demonstrated, absurdly erroneous, in fact, topsy-turvy as compared with -the reality. - -The main doctrine which Darwin and his followers have established is -that neither castes nor families of higher or lower living things, -including man, acquire any new characteristics by exposure to special -circumstances or by consuming finer or coarser food, which can or do -become innate or fixed in the race. The individual may be improved or -depraved, enlarged or enfeebled, by the conditions of his individual -life, but he cannot transmit the qualities--the improvement, the -depravity, the enlargement, or the dwindling--which have been thus -attained by him to his offspring. The race cannot be changed in this -way. All the parents can transmit is the quality which they themselves -have inherited of resisting or of collapsing, of becoming enfeebled, -or of showing strength and vigour, under certain given conditions. The -characteristics of Royalty are not characteristics brought about by the -Royal state, any more than the characteristics of English race-horses -are brought about by the racing state or by life in a breeder’s -stable. The characteristics of Royalty are like those of other living -things, the characteristics of a certain family or blend of families -or strains. Whatever characteristics distinct Royal families have in -common with one another are not due to the existence of a natural law -in virtue of which the occupations and opportunities of the Royal state -produce “faculties” or “characteristics” in the “blood” or “stock.” -Such similarity of characteristics is due either to the similarity of -the demands and conditions of Court life in all parts of Europe, acting -as an educating force on the individual, or to the intermarrying and -consequent blending of family characteristics among a large proportion -of the Royal Houses at present existing. - -It is very difficult--indeed impossible until much more is written -and read on the subjects of breeding and of psychology--to persuade -people to abandon the notion that a man who has drunk good wine and -conversed with interesting people will, as a direct result, transmit -something which he has “taken up” or absorbed from the good wine and -the clever people to his offspring, and that a faculty for this or -that art or accomplishment cultivated by generation after generation -is increased thereby, and transferred as it were into the very vitals -of the race--the reproductive germs which each individual has within -him. There is no truth whatever in these fancies. They are popular and -very natural delusions, which are not only devoid of direct proof by -simple observation and experiment, such as that made by all breeders of -stock and by medical men, but are also contrary to the great general -principles which have been found to explain the varied and most -important facts known as to breeding, inheritance, and variation. The -same erroneous theory of inheritance now applied to royalty has been -put forward in regard to the feeble-minded, the ill-grown, and the -incapable at the other end of the social scale. - -The only way in which a quality, good or bad, desirable or undesirable, -is intensified, made inherent and dominant in a race or strain or -family, is by selective breeding--selection due to natural rejection -of those individuals not possessing the quality, or to artificial -rejection of such individuals by the stock owner and breeder. No human -maker of breeds--whether of cattle, horses, birds, or plants--ever yet -proceeded by exercising, feeding, educating, or otherwise manipulating -his sires and dams; he simply selects those as parents which by natural -variation have the quality, more or less, which he desires, and he -destroys or sterilises those which fail to satisfy his requirements. -He is perfectly confident that in this way he can ensure the -reproduction and exaggeration or dominance of the characteristics which -he desires; he knows that he cannot obtain a “strain” or “breed” by any -treatment, any feeding, or education of those which are born without -the natural, innate possession of the desired quality, in a more or -less marked degree. Once the characteristic turns up as a congenital -variation, it can be intensified by coupling its possessor with a mate -of like quality; but both sire and dam have to be rigidly selected with -this purpose in view. Such methods are not adopted in human families, -even royal ones. - -In considering these questions as to characteristic qualities or want -of qualities in groups and classes of human communities, we see then -that we have in the first instance to distinguish very broadly between -the body or structure of the individual, and the “stirps” or germ of -the race which he carries within him. The former may be vastly changed -for the better or worse as compared with average individuals, without -affecting in any way the latter. The germ is carried by the individual -member of the race in an almost complete state of isolation or safety -from the influences which affect the individual’s structure generally -(his body as distinct from his germinal or reproductive substance) -injuriously or beneficially. The germ varies also, but independently. -That is a matter of primary importance. Equally important in the case -of man is a peculiarity which affects his manifestation of qualities in -a way unknown in any other living thing. - -Human society, in more marked and dominating form, in proportion as -it is what we call “civilised,” has created for itself an inheritance -which is not dependent on the variations of strains and the laws -of actual breeding. Over and above--very much above--what each man -inherits in the form of qualities and characteristics of his special -family and stock--is the enormous mass of accumulated experience, -knowledge, tradition, custom, and law--which pervades and envelops, -as it were, the mere physical generations of this or that pullulating -crowd of human individuals. Tradition, at first conveyed by gesture and -imitativeness from parents to offspring, then by word of mouth, then -by writing, and finally by printed record, sanctioned and enforced by -all kinds of persuasion and compulsion--has culminated in an educative -discipline which affects every individual in the community in the -most powerful way--and constitutes an inheritance of a significance -and activity altogether transcending, and independent of that due -to the physical transmission of bodily and mental qualities. Public -opinion, law, knowledge, belief, custom, and habit exist, and pursue -their own course of change, as it were, outside the successive -bodily generations of a population. Yet they determine in very large -measure the characteristics which each class, and the community as a -whole, exhibit. We have to distinguish those results which are due to -physical heredity, similar in man and in animals--from results due -to this all-powerful education peculiar to man--education, which for -civilised man proceeds from almost innumerable sources--from parents, -nurses, playfellows, companions, social, professional, and political -organisations, as well as from the professed teacher, and from the -local peculiarities of the simplest conditions of life. Hence it is -that man inherits very little in the way of ready-made instincts, -tricks of his nervous mechanism--but, on the contrary, has an -enormously long period of individual growth and education, and inherits -“educability” to a degree which varies in every family and race. - -To estimate correctly, and so to deal with these various factors -in human life, we require to know in detail the laws of breeding, -heredity, variation, and selection in animals, and, further, the -laws or formulated results of enquiry as to the “educability” of the -human being, the range and the limits of “education,” the relation of -hereditary quality to education, the causes of mental aberration and -defect, of mental qualities of all kinds, the value and the dangers -of all kinds of educational influences, whether physical, social, or -intellectual. These are matters in regard to which there must be in the -future more and more of common knowledge and agreement; at present they -are lightly touched by politicians and journalists in a way which is -inconsistent with a knowledge of the facts or of their importance. - -When publicists airily declare that the virtues of kings and the vices -of paupers are both due to the hereditary transmission of characters -acquired by the peculiarities of diet and exercise of the progenitors -of these classes it is time to protest. To cite the name of Darwin -and “the laws which govern animal and plant life,” in support instead -of in condemnation of such baseless fancies, is, one must suppose, an -evidence, not of a desire to mislead, but of a regrettable indifference -to the conclusions of that branch of human knowledge which is of more -importance than any other to the statesman and the philanthropist. - -“Selection,” whether due to survival in the struggle for existence or -exercised by man as a “breeder” or “fancier,” is the only way in which -new characteristics, good or bad, can be implanted in a race or stock, -and become part of the hereditary quality of that race or stock. This -applies equally to man and to animals and plants. And this selection is -no temporary or casual thing. It means “the selection for breeding” of -those individuals which spontaneously by the innate variability which -all living things show (so that no two individuals are exactly alike) -have exhibited from birth onwards, more or less clearly, indications -of the characteristic which is to be selected. Nothing done to them -after birth, and not done to others of their family or race, causes the -desired characteristic; it appears unexpectedly, almost unaccountably -as an in-born quality. It may be a slight difference only, not easy -to take note of; but if it enables those who possess it to get the -better of their competitors in the struggle for life, they will survive -and mate and so transmit their characteristic to the next generation, -whilst those who do not possess it and are beaten in life and fail to -obtain food, safety, and mates, will perish and disappear, and their -defective strain will perish with them. - - - - -37. _Variation and Selection Among Living Things_ - - -Selection is not a thing once done and then dropped--natural -selection is continuous and never-ending, except in rare and special -circumstances, such as man may bring about by his interference, -and then it does not really cease but only changes its demand. The -characteristics of a race or species are maintained by natural -selection, just as much as they are produced by it. Cessation of a -previously active selection (which is sometimes brought about by -exceptional conditions) results in a departure of the individuals of -the race, no longer subject to that selection, from the standard of -form and characteristics previously maintained. To understand this, we -must consider for a moment the great property of living things, which -is called “variation.” - -No two animals, or plants even, when born of the same parents, are -ever exactly alike. Not only that, but if we look at a great number of -individuals of a race or stock, we find that some are very different -from the others, in colour, in proportion of parts, in character, and -other qualities. As a rule it is difficult to look at such a number, -because in Nature only two on the average out of many hundreds, -sometimes thousands, born from a single pair of parents, grow up to -take their parents’ place, and these two are those “selected” by -natural survival on account of their close resemblance to the parents. -But if we experimentally rear all the offspring of a plant or animal to -full growth--not allowing them to perish by competition for food, or -place, or by inability to escape enemies--then we see more clearly how -great is the in-born variation, how many and wide are the departures -from the favoured standard form which are naturally born and owe their -peculiarities to this birth-quality--called innate or congenital -variation--and not to anything which happens to them afterwards -differing from what happens to their brothers and sisters. - -Of course, we are all familiar with this “congenital or innate -variation,” as shown by brothers and sisters in human families. How and -why do innate variations arise? They arise from chemical and mechanical -action upon the “germs” or reproductive cells contained in the body of -the parents, and also sometimes from the mating in reproduction of two -strains or races which are already different from one another. When -an animal or plant is given unaccustomed food or brought up in new -surroundings (as, for instance, in captivity) its germs are affected, -and they produce variations in the next generation more abundantly. The -best analogy for what occurs is that of a “shaking up” or disturbance -of the particles of the germ or reproductive material, somewhat as -the beads and bits of glass in a kaleidoscope are shaken and change -from one well-balanced arrangement to another. And the same analogy -applies to the crossing or fertilising of “strain” or “race” by another -differing from it. A disturbance is the consequence, and a departure -in the form and character of the young from anything arrived at -before often takes place. These variations have no necessary fitness -or correspondence to the changed conditions which have produced them. -They are, so to speak, departures in all and every direction--not -very great, but still great enough to be selected by survival if -occurring in wild extra-human nature, and obvious enough when produced -in cultivated animals and plants to be seen and selected by man, the -stock-breeder or fancier. - -Indeed the stock-breeder and horticulturist go to work in this way -deliberately. Though when they have fattened an animal or fed up a -plant they cannot make it transmit its fatness or increased size -to its offspring, yet they can, by special feeding and change of -conditions of life--or by cross-breeding--break up the fixed tendency -or quality of the germs within the parents so treated. Thus they get -offspring produced which show strange and unexpected variations of -many kinds--new feathers, new colours, new shapes of leaf, increased -size of root, length of limb--all kinds of variations. From the -congenital varieties thus produced by “stirring up,” “breaking down,” -or disturbing the germ-matter (germ-plasm) of the parents, the breeder -next proceeds to select and mate those which show the character which -suits his fancy, whilst he destroys or rejects the others. Thus he -establishes, and by repeated selection in every generation maintains, -and if he desires increases, the characteristics which he values. - -Birth-variation is then an inherent property of living things -(including man) as much as heredity, which is the name for the -property expressed in the resemblance of offspring to parent. And -birth-variation, or congenital variation--that is to say, the being -born with a power to grow into something different (not greatly, but -still obviously, different) from their parents or ancestry, and from -their brethren and cousins, though not subjected after birth to any -treatment or conditions differing from those common to all of them--is -a quality of living things which must be distinguished altogether from -the power of the individual itself, though not born with qualities -differing from those of its brothers and sisters, to vary or change in -some respects as compared with other individuals when it is specially -fed or exposed to special treatment. The first is change, or variation, -of the “stirps,” or germ plasm; the second is change, or variation, of -the transient body of the individual. The first is indefinite and may -be of almost any kind or form; once it has appeared, it is a permanent -possession of the race descended from its owner. The second is definite -and a direct reaction to the environment. Such an individually induced -or stimulated change is often called an “acquired character.” It does -not affect the stirps, the inner reproductive germs, and cannot be -handed on by inheritance to a new generation. - -What happens, then, when there is a cessation of selection? All -sorts of birth-variations appear and grow up. The fine adjustment of -form--maintained by natural selection carried on unceasingly--no longer -obtains. The characteristics of the race become less emphasised. All -sorts of birth-variations have an equal chance, and the tendency must -be for those characteristics which have most recently been established -and maintained by severe selection to dwindle and then to disappear -altogether. The majority of birth-variations will--when selection is -prevented--always tend to present a lessened, rather than an increased, -development of any one characteristic--the excelling minority will -no longer be selected, but all will have an equal chance in mating -and reproducing. Hence, bit by bit, all salient features, all the -characteristics of the race previously maintained by selection, will, -as a result of survival of all variations and general crossing and -interbreeding--dwindle and disappear. It is to this process that the -term “degeneration” has been applied by biologists. How far it may go, -and what are its limits and various outcomes, I cannot now discuss. -It is sometimes spoken of as “retrogression”--which implies wrongly a -return to a previous state. From some points of view it might be called -“simplification.” - -The point to which I have been making is this--that civilised mankind -appears to be very nearly in regard to most points of structure -and quality in a condition of “cessation of selection.” It is the -better-provided and well-fed, well-clothed, protected classes of the -community, in which this cessation of selection is most complete. -Racial degeneration is, therefore, to be looked for in those classes -quite as much as in the half-starved, ill-clad, struggling poor, -if, indeed, it should not be expected to be more strongly marked in -them. There are facts which tend to show that such anticipations are -well-founded. - -This is a matter requiring further discussion. It is probable, I may -say in anticipation, that whilst natural selection in the struggle for -existence is only obscurely operative (except as to alcoholism and -some diseases) in civilised man, yet what Mr. Darwin called sexual -selection--the influence of preference in mating--has an important -scope, and it may be that hereafter it will be of enormous importance -in maintaining the quality of the race. - -Meanwhile, it seems that the unregulated increase of the population, -the indiscriminate, unquestioning protection of infant life and -of adult life also--without selection or limitation--must lead to -results which can only be described as general degeneration. How -far such a conclusion is justified, and what are possible modifying -or counteracting influences at work which may affect the future of -mankind, are questions of surpassing interest. In any case, it is -interesting to note that the cessation of selection is more complete, -and the consequent degeneration of the race would, therefore, seem -to be more probable in the higher propertied classes than in the -bare-footed toilers, whose ranks are thinned by starvation and early -death. One may well ask, “Is this really so?” - - - - -38. _The Movement, Growth, and Dwindling of Glaciers_ - - -Last summer we were watching the gradual change of the brilliant -sunlight on the snows of Mont Blanc as the shadows crept up the -pine-covered sides of the valley of Chamonix. We noted how the highest -peak--the true summit of Mont Blanc--remained almost white and -brilliant when the somewhat lower and nearer Dome de Gouter (so often, -when clouds are about, mistaken for the true summit by tourists) had -assumed a marvellous shade of saffron-rose colour. The crevasses of -the glaciers were marked by an unearthly pale-green tint and delicate -purple hues of weird beauty were spreading over the evanescent forms -of the great snow-field, when one of the hotel guests--a citizen of -Geneva--said, “Ah, yes! Look at them whilst you may, and wonder at -them, those glaciers of the Alps. They are but the remnants, the -roots, as it were, of the vast glacier which once filled the whole of -this vale of Chamonix and spread down into the valley of the Rhone, -and ploughed out with the slow movement of its huge mass the deep -rock basin of the Lake Leman. Every year they dwindle, as they have -dwindled for ages past, and soon--perhaps not more than another 100 -years hence--they will have disappeared utterly from human sight and -knowledge.” I continued to gaze at the scene, and as the night fell -and the distant details were lost to view I felt as though a venerable, -but decrepit, friend had passed from my sight, never to return. I was -rejoiced to see the glaciers still there when the morning sun showed -forth their strange opaque white and faintly green masses on the -mountain sides--stupendous outpourings, as it were, of whipped cream -tinted with pistachio-nut. - -But was it true, that lament of the Genevese savant? Undoubtedly the -glaciers in many parts of the Alps have been shrinking for the last -thirty years. It is longer than that since I first saw the glaciers of -the Chamonix valley, and there is no doubt that they have shrunk up -since then, leaving acres of boulders and bare polished rock where was -the ice I formerly climbed. The glacier of Argentière, near the upper -end of the valley, is a mile or more shorter than it was; the ice caves -which we used to visit at the foot of the Mer de Glace have melted -away, and the end of the glacier is now high up above a precipitous -surface of polished rock far from the site of the little pavilion, with -its gay flag and amiable guardian, who used to exhibit the marvellous -ice cavern. - -I find on looking into the matter that it is true that there has, -during the latter half of the past century, been a great dwindling -of the lower end or “snout,” a drawing back, as it were, not only of -Swiss glaciers, but of glaciers in other parts of the world--as, for -instance, in Alaska and in the Himalayas. But I cannot avoid a feeling -of satisfaction in recording the opinion of geological authorities -that, contrary to the assertion of the Swiss pessimist, there is not -any ground for believing that the present noticeable shrinking is -due to a continuous process by which the enormous glaciers of remote -ages have been incessantly reduced until now they are but rootlets or -stumps of the former masses, destined to evaporate completely under -the continued remorseless operation of increasing temperature. On the -contrary, it appears that, though there are not accurate records and -measurements as to past centuries as there will be as to present and -future years, yet there is abundant evidence that Alpine glaciers -have grown longer in some centuries and retreated in others. The -period of alternate extension and retraction has not been ascertained -with accuracy, but by some geologists it is supposed to be about -fifty years. The retraction or shrinking is not due to a continuous -increase of the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere--or of this -hemisphere--but to contending causes which operate alternately towards -increase and towards decrease when one or two hundred years are -considered. Such are the greater or less rainfall and snowfall over a -very large area, and the formation and persistence of clouds, concerned -with which are probably those varying quantities--the spots on the sun. - -The simple proof that glaciers have extended and again retreated within -historic times is furnished by the fact that in some parts of the -Alpine range the retreat of a glacier has uncovered ancient miners’ -excavations, which must have been worked when the glacier did not -reach the spot excavated. Subsequently the glacier advanced, and now -after some hundreds of years it has again retreated and exposed the -ice-covered borings and workings. The tradition of a glacier-enclosed -village in the Zermatt mountains, shut off from the world by the -advance of glaciers, lost and mysterious, is evidence that such advance -has been observed by the native population. - -The natives who live near glaciers know that they advance and retreat, -but the fact that the whole glacier is really a slowly flowing viscous -mass--a sort of frozen but not immobile river--was only established -by scientific observation in the last century. The frozen river is -fed by the snow which falls on the higher mountain ridges, and is -squeezed into the form of ice instead of snow powder by its own weight -as it slips down the inclines, warmed by the unclouded sunshine. The -big glaciers move much more rapidly (or perhaps one should say less -slowly) in the middle than at the sides. The measurements which have -been made differ in different glaciers and in different parts of the -same glacier, and show smaller movement in winter than in summer. The -advance of the sides is retarded, as in the case of an ordinary river -of flowing water, by friction against the rocks, which enclose the -glacier as its banks enclose a river. A good average case shows a flow -downwards in summer of half a foot a day at the sides and a foot and -a half in the middle. The distance below the snow-line to which the -flowing glacier descends down a mountain gorge--before it melts away -and becomes a river of liquid water--depends, as does the rate at which -it moves, in the first place, on the temperature of the region and on -the sharpness of the slope. A glacier will flow downwards (as will a -lump of pitch) along a scarcely perceptible incline, but more slowly -than down a steeper incline, and it will, consequently, get further -down into the warm valley without altogether melting away when the -slope is steep. - -But apart from these considerations, the bigger and thicker (or deeper) -the glacier, that is to say, the more snow which each year falls at -its starting-place and goes to making it, the further down will it -flow before melting away; and it is the heavy snowfall of many years -ago or of a series of years long past which has to-day reached in the -form of ice the lower end of the glacier. So, though the lower end of -the glacier may melt more quickly if the valley has become hotter, -yet the heavy snowfalls of fifty years ago may only now have reached -the valley, and may quite counterbalance the melting action of the -warmer summers. Or reverse conditions, namely, less snow and lower or -unchanged temperature in the valley, may prevail. - -The Government of India has lately established a definite survey -and record of the movement of several Himalayan glaciers and of the -variation in the distance to which their “snouts” descend into the -valleys. Twelve glaciers were examined last year, and will be properly -watched in future. The Yengutsa glacier has gained about two miles in -length since Sir Martin Conway visited it in 1892; the great Hispar -glacier has slightly retreated. The Hassanabad glacier three years -ago increased its length by a rapid progress of the free “snout” of -as much as six miles in three months, and is now no longer increasing -or advancing! Many years ago it had reached its present position, and -then retreated. The rock masses carried on the ice and left in great -heaps at the point where the glacier melted away are known as terminal -“moraines,” and often serve to show the position to which the snout of -a glacier once extended--far below its present limit. A curious fact as -to the increase and shrinkage of glaciers is that of two neighbouring -glaciers, as in the case of the glacier Blanc and the glacier Noir in -Dauphiné (France), one may be advancing whilst the other is in retreat. -Further study and knowledge of the causes of these variations will -throw important light on questions of general meteorology. - -Although there is no evidence to lead us to suppose that existing -glaciers are now actually in a condition of general retreat, leading -to their ultimate disappearance, yet it is one of the most certain and -interesting results of geological study that some hundred and fifty -thousand years ago the northern hemisphere was far colder than it is -now, owing partly to the same change in the inclination of the earth’s -axis to which I alluded on a former page (p. 81) as affecting the -orientation of ancient astronomical temples--a change which diminished, -when at its extreme, the effective amount of heat received from the -sun in these regions of the earth. The peculiar scratching, polishing, -and erosion of rocks, the existence of moraines, and other evidence, -prove that enormous glaciers covered the north of Europe, that England -and Scotland were in large part covered by a great ice-sheet or -glacier, and that the great valleys of Switzerland such as the Rhone -Valley and the basin of the Lake of Geneva, were filled by enormous -glaciers, which helped to mould and deepen the valleys. The present -glaciers are truly the remnants or rootlets of those enormous masses of -the glacial epoch. On such of the land surface as was not then covered -by ice, existed the hairy elephant or Siberian mammoth, the woolly -rhinoceros, wild cattle, lions, bears, hyenas, and other animals now -extinct in this part of the world. Man had made his appearance, hunted -these animals, and lived in caves. His weapons and carvings and their -bones tell us the story in no uncertain terms. - -The biggest Swiss glaciers of to-day, compared to the great glacier of -the Rhone Valley, of which they are but the highest tributaries, still -surviving unmelted among the mountain-tops, are in size as a mountain -freshet is to the great stream of Loch Lomond, or as the Serpentine in -Hyde Park to the neighbouring Thames. Vast as was the great glacier of -the Rhone Valley, and immense as has been the work done by water and -ice in carving the great highway in the mountain-mass of Switzerland, -it has all been effected since the date of the formation on the -sea-bottom and the subsequent elevation of the strata which we call -“the chalk”--a deposit which comes not very far down in the series -of strata of the earth’s crust. Only 3,000ft. of deposit exist above -it, whilst below it are more than 60,000ft. of water-deposited or -“sedimentary” rocks. The huge Alps have risen since the date of the -“chalk,” for we find strata containing marine shells of the Tertiary -period at a height of 10,000ft. in those mountains. Where those shells -now are was the bottom of the sea at a comparatively recent date, -probably not more than fifty million years ago! And not only have the -Alps been raised since then from the sea level to 15,000ft. (the height -of Mont Blanc), but the huge mountain valleys and the great chasm of -the Rhone Valley many miles wide, with its floor thousands of feet -below the mountain ridges, have been scoured out. Deeper and wider it -has gradually become as it has taken shape, whilst the mountain sides -have been removed first by water and later by ice--by the great glacier -consisting of solid ice, miles wide and a thousand and more feet in -thickness. The water no longer fills the valley in solid form, but once -again rushes along as an irresistible torrent, tearing and wearing the -rock without rest or mercy, carrying it off by thousands of tons day by -day, year by year, to the plains of Provence and the deep floor of the -Mediterranean Sea. - -The blue colour of the glacier ice--like that of pure water--is now -known to be due to no impurity or admixture of other substances. It -does not, as was supposed by Tyndall, owe its blueness to a dust of -finest colourless particles as do blue smoke, the blue sky, and as -do the blue eyes which have attracted the observation of naturalists -(and others) in Ireland and the North of Europe. Water, whether liquid -or solid, is blue, just as “blue copperas” is, or as “Prussian blue” -is; but light must pass through some ten or twenty feet thickness of -it to make the colour evident to our eyes. The green tint is due to -an admixture of yellow, the exact cause of which is not quite easy to -discover. Probably it is due to minute quantities of earthy matter -mixed with the surface snow. - -The pressing of the high-lying snow, so as to form solid ice or -“glacier,” is concerned with the same property of snow as that -which enables us to make snow “bind” into a snowball. You cannot -make snowballs during very hard frost--the snow must be in air of a -thawing temperature at the moment it is squeezed by the hand. The hand -itself will not be warm enough to produce that temperature when the -thermometer is below freezing-point. The snow commences to melt in -the hand when one squeezes it, and then when the squeezing is stopped -the water formed quickly freezes again and cements the snow particles -together to form ice, enclosing innumerable minute bubbles. The heat -of the sun and the pressure of the weight of the snow itself take the -place in the mountains of the warmth and pressure of the human hand. -The minute air bubbles make the newest glacier-ice white and opaque, -especially when seen in a great mass; but gradually they get squeezed -together, and the glacier ice becomes first “fibrous” in appearance, -and then, after long years of pressure by its own weight, fairly clear. -Ice in great masses has the properties of a viscous body, like pitch -or soft sealing-wax, owing to the fact that wherever the solid mass -breaks its particles melt a very little and then freeze again. Under -increased pressure ice melts at a lower temperature than when it is not -subjected to pressure. When the pressure is removed the water freezes -again. Thus crushed ice or snow can be put into a “squeeze-mould” and -pressed, so as to form a solid mass of ice of any shape you may choose. -Four or five slabs of ice, placed one over the other, very soon become, -owing to this property, one continuous solid mass. White glacier ice -is so full of air bubbles as to be comparable in structure to sponge, -or, more closely, to cork. A cube of such ice exposes, owing to its -rough air-hole pitted surface, a much larger surface of contact to the -atmosphere than does a cube of perfectly smooth clear ice. Consequently -in a warm room or chamber the white ice melts much more quickly than -does the clear, and hence you should choose clear ice rather than -white ice if you wish for a block which will last. - -Before leaving the glaciers, let me briefly relate an incident arising -from their slow but regular downward flow to the region where they -melt away and deposit, as a terminal moraine, the burden of rocks -they have received years before in regions far above. A young man of -five-and-twenty, on his honeymoon, visited the Alps, and ventured -alone on to a glacier. He fell into a deep “crevasse,” or ice-fissure, -and his body was not recovered. The exact spot where he fell into the -ice-chasm was recognised, and the mountain-folk, who knew their glacier -and its rate of movement well, told the broken-hearted young widow that -it would take thirty years before that region of the glacier would -have moved so far downwards as to reach the lowest limit, and in due -course melt away. She haunted the glacier in which her young husband -was entombed year after year, and at last, when she was now grey-headed -and withered by time, that special tract of ice had descended so far, -and was so near the thawing, thinned-out margin of the glacier that -they were able to break into it with axe and pole. Then she, an old -woman, had a wonderful experience. They led her to the glacier’s edge. -Her young husband, preserved these thirty years in the ice, which had -melted around him and re-frozen, lay there unchanged. His features were -not marred by the lapse of years, nor was his clothing rent or injured. -He seemed as one asleep, resting after a long day’s climb, and she, -poor soul, had, during a blissful interval, the conviction that all -those weary years of waiting were but a long, bad dream, that she, too, -still was young, and was waking, as she had loved to do long years ago, -in time to see him lift his lids and smile. - - - - -39. _Votes for Women_ - - -Now that so many people placidly accept the notion that women are to -have votes in the election of members of Parliament, one is tempted -to ask whether science has any facts to put forward which should be -considered before so great a change in our national organisation is -made. There are various interesting facts as to the relations of males -and females in the animal world and as to the relative strength and -activity of the sexes--which are sometimes cited as arguments in the -matter. Speaking generally, it is clear enough that among animals -the female is endowed with qualities which bear exclusively upon her -function as the guardian of the eggs or germs of a new generation. She -nourishes those germs at the expense of her own substance before birth, -feeds them, tends them and protects them--after birth. The male in -many cases contributes to the feeding and protection of the young, but -is as often as not quite unconcerned with such matters. In the higher -animals the male is far more powerful than the female, and fights with -other males both for the possession of a mate or a harem, and for the -undisturbed occupation of feeding grounds for himself and family. - -Among lower animals there are curious cases of the greater strength and -size of the female. Thus, among spiders, the female is nearly twice -as bulky as the male. She makes, in many cases, a nest ready for her -young, and is visited there by the wandering irresponsible male, who, -in spite of great danger to himself, is irresistibly attracted to seek -a brief caress from the terrible spideress. She is terrible, not only -on account of her bulk, but because she makes a rule of killing, and -sucking the blood of, her infatuated admirer unless he is sufficiently -alert and agile to escape from her side more quickly than he came -to it. The courtship of spiders is a very interesting bit of natural -history. The males execute a sort of dance, and are strangely excited -by the vibrating note of a tuning fork. Two American naturalists, Mr. -and Mrs. Peckham, and also Dr. McCook, have studied this subject in -great detail. - -A strange-looking, dark green worm, as big as a walnut, with a -ribbon-like trunk six or eight inches in length attached to its mouth, -lives in holes in the rocks in the Mediterranean. A similar worm -has been found off the Norwegian coast. Fanciful names are given by -zoologists to these two worms--the first is called Bonellia, the second -Hamingia. It does no harm to cite their names, and I do so with an -apology to those who do not like names. These goodly sized worms are -females, only females. For years the corresponding male was unknown. -At last a minute creature one-eighth of an inch in length, like a -tiny fragment of green thread, was found crawling about on and into -these big green Bonellias. Its structure when it was examined with -the microscope proved it to be the adult male of the worm on which -it was crawling. It was so insignificant and minute as to escape all -observation except that of a trained naturalist searching for it with -a magnifying glass. Some seven or eight of these diminutive males are -found on one female, infesting her as fleas infest a mouse, and of -about the same relative size. The microscopic husband of the Norwegian -Hamingia it was my good fortune to discover many years ago, when I was -dredging marine animals in the deep waters of the Stavanger Fjord. - -So there is nothing in the eternal fitness of things proclaiming the -male as the necessary superior of the female throughout Nature. The -fact is that the question of equality and of general superiority -and inferiority has no place in regard to male and female from a -naturalist’s point of view. It is true that women are so very much -less endowed with muscular strength than men that practically every -woman is inferior to every man in this respect. It is also true that -woman’s brain is smaller than man’s, and that apart from mere size, -the intellectual activity and capacity of women, by whatever test -you examine it, is less than that of man. When exceptional cases on -both sides are excluded, the definite intellectual inferiority of the -average woman, as compared with the average man, is established as a -fact. The observations of those concerned in the education of young -men and young women side by side confirm this, and it is further -demonstrated by a consideration of the intellectual performances of -average men and average women. That, at any rate, is my own experience -as a University teacher. But women, on the other hand, fill a place in -human life as mothers, and administrators of detail, and as companions, -in which man, by the nature of things, cannot compete with them at all. - -At the house of the late Sir James Knowles, some twenty-five years ago, -when discussing the relative value of the physical and intellectual -capacities of the men as compared with the women of the English working -class, Mr. Gladstone (at that time the head of the Government) said to -me, “I am of opinion that the relative value of a man and a woman is -in all classes of society about the same as it was in my grandfather’s -time in Jamaica when they purchased slaves. They gave £120 for a man -and £80 for a woman, and that is a fair measure of their relative value -all the world over.” It is necessary to remember that Mr. Gladstone -was not estimating the ultimate value of woman in human life when he -said this. He would, I think, have considered, as I do, that it is -absurd to attempt to estimate that or to raise a discussion as to -general superiority and inferiority in reference to the male and the -female of the human species. They are creatures as necessary one as -the other, differing from one another profoundly and excelling one -another in diverse qualities and capacities. Without this complementary -division of fitness and quality our life would be a monotone robbed -of the infinite variety which characterises humanity. What Mr. -Gladstone estimated as being less by one-third in women than in men -is power--work-value--whether physical or intellectual. I think Mr. -Gladstone’s estimate must be admitted as true. - -But I do not for a moment say that when this inferior intellectual -and physical capacity of woman is admitted the question is settled -as to whether women should vote for the election of representatives -to carry on the affairs of the country. The affairs of the country! -They are, in the first place, the protection of person and property -by the law, which must be upheld by force if necessary; then defence -against foreign aggression, also a matter of force; and, further, the -education and training not only of children but of the ripe youth of -the country--a matter of intellect--which also has a weighty influence -in the making of wise laws. Then there is the devising of weapons and -means of defence by land and by sea, as well as the discovery and -application of knowledge in regard to disease, both of mind and body, -for the benefit of the community. And there will soon be a good deal -more! - -It does not necessarily follow, because women cannot themselves do some -of these things at all, and for the others are less able than men, that -they should not give a vote in electing the men who are to attend to -them. The only question is, Would it make life better for both women -and men were they allowed to do so? - -The argument that the paying of taxes on men’s property qualifies men -to give a vote, and therefore the paying of taxes on women’s property -should, _ipso facto_, entitle women to give a vote, is fallacious, -because the paying of taxes is not the reason or determining cause of -men having a vote, but only a subsidiary test or qualification which -might be abolished or modified. The property of minors pays the tax, -but it is not proposed on that account that children should vote. The -property qualifications in use at present are merely a method for -excluding certain men, and we might have an intellectual qualification -or a muscular qualification for the same purpose. Indeed, we do at -present exclude male imbeciles and those who are immature. The reason -for extending the Parliamentary vote to a larger and larger body of -the male population has been to secure the assent of the strength and -manhood of the country to the laws and public acts of the Government, -and to ensure its willing participation in that maintenance of the -central Government’s decisions by physical force, which is the ultimate -and by no means very remote method by which they are maintained. It -does not seem to be likely to be an improvement on our present system -that women, who must always be regarded as specially privileged because -of their physical weakness, should nevertheless be allowed to influence -by the mere number of their votes the decision of questions in which -the employment of the physical strength of men acting as defenders of -our territory, guardians of the peace, or ministers of the law, is the -essential condition of an effective result following on such decision. - -To a naturalist human population does not appear as a number of units -of which a few more are female than male--but rather as a series of -families, consisting of men, women, and children, bound together by a -variety of reciprocal services, dependent one on another, ordered and -disciplined to a distribution of functions and duties by the tradition -and experience of ages. The notion that the paterfamilias is the -rightful chief of his wife and children, and that through him they are -represented, and should be content to be represented, in the local and -greater State Government--is one of long standing in civilised Europe. -The powers of the paterfamilias have been gradually limited in the -course of the development of social life since the young men and the -old bachelors, too, have been given a share of power in the State: but -the recent proposal to break the fabric of his household by giving the -Parliamentary franchise to women is so sudden and strange a notion that -he seems not to have realised what it means. - -The apathy which many men exhibit in regard to this proposal is as -remarkable as the amiable courtesy with which others assent to it -rather than “disoblige a lady.” Looking at the proposal not as a -question of justice, which really has nothing to do with it, but in -reference to the inquiry as to whether it is likely, if carried, to -increase the happiness and prosperity of the community, I must say -that, so far as the natural history of man gives indications, it seems -to me that if women acquired the Parliamentary franchise and made -active use of it, they would be led into a new attitude of independence -and separation from the men and from the family group to which they are -by birth or alliance attached. I fear that the great business of making -the nest beautiful, producing and tending the young, nursing the sick, -helping the aged, consoling the afflicted, rewarding the brave, of -dancing and singing and creating gaiety within the charmed circle where -political contests and affairs of State are of no account, would be -neglected and without honour. In the end these amenities of life would -probably fall into the hands of commercial companies and be sent out at -so much a head--imported from Germany. Woman would not be the gainer, -for she can only gain by continuing to astonish man by all she does for -his enchantment and delight, to serve him and to crown his life--she -will only suffer by becoming “independent.” The movement which is -supposed to lead to a higher development of womanhood, and consists in -women mobbing people on their doorsteps, waving flags and shouting -at other people’s meetings, and struggling in the arms of policemen, -seems to be inconsistent with a development in the direction which -has hitherto been popular and successful in the progress of man from -savagery to decency. It is difficult to suppose that men will really be -so blind to the facts of the real importance and true value of women -as to allow this movement to succeed whilst they look on with vague -incredulity as to its being anything more than a huge joke. - -There is, too, finally, one serious warning to be derived from the -ascertained facts of human physiology and psychology. The immutable -task, the sacred destiny, of women is to become the mothers of new -generations. Nothing which is likely to interfere with or lessen the -respect and veneration due to women in view of this tremendous natural -determination of their instincts and aspirations should be lightly -sanctioned by men so long as they have the power of deciding the -matter. There is good and sufficient ground for fearing that the new -status of women which would be established by their entry on an equal -footing with man into the arena of political struggle and public life, -would injuriously affect in a majority or large minority of cases that -mode of life and economy of strength which is necessary for those who -must give so much to the great and exacting demands of maternity. -The gratification of the whim of a few earnest but injudicious women -would be an altogether insufficient justification for the injury of -the “physique” of women in general by the strain of public competition -with men, and for the widespread development in women of an increased -habit of self-assertion and self-sufficiency--habits which must make -them unwilling to accept their natural duties as wives and mothers--and -must make men equally unwilling to promote them to these honours and -privileges. - - - - -40. _Tobacco and the History of Smoking_ - - -A proposal is before Parliament to prevent little boys from “smoking” -in public places. Little girls are, as the bill at present stands, not -to be interfered with. Perhaps this is because they are not to have -votes when they grow up, and so they may do as they like. - -Apart from the question as to whether the smoking of tobacco is -injurious to the health or not, there are many curious questions which -arise from time to time as to the history and use of tobacco. I have -no doubt that for children the use of tobacco is injurious, and I am -inclined to think that it is only free from objection in the case of -strong, healthy men, and that even they should avoid any excess, and -should only smoke after meals, and never late at night. The strongest -man, who can tolerate a cigar or a pipe after breakfast, lunch, and -dinner, may easily get into a condition of “nerves” when even one -cigarette acts as a poison and causes a slowing of the heart’s action. - -A curious mistake, almost universally made, is that of supposing that -the oily juice which forms in a pipe or at the end of a cigar is -“nicotine,” the chief nerve-poison of tobacco. As a matter of fact, -this juice, though it contains injurious substances, contains little -or no “nicotine.” Nicotine is a colourless volatile liquid, which is -vapourised and carried along with the smoke; it is not deposited in the -pipe or cigar-end except in very small quantity. It is the chief agent -by which tobacco acts on the nervous system, and through that on the -heart--the agent whose effects are sought and enjoyed by the lover of -tobacco. A single drop of pure nicotine will kill a dog. Nicotine has -no aroma, and has nothing to do with the flavour of tobacco, which is -due to very minute quantities of special volatile bodies similar to -those which give a scent to hay. - -Most people are acquainted with the three ways of “taking -tobacco”--that of taking its smoke into the mouth, and more or less -into the lungs, that of chewing the prepared leaf, and that of snuffing -up the powdered leaf into the nose, whence it ultimately passes to the -stomach. A fourth modification of the snuffing and chewing methods -exists in what is called the “snuff stick.” According to the novelist, -Mrs. Hodgson Burnett, the country women in Kentucky use a short stick, -like a brush, which they dip into a paperfull of snuff; they then -rub the powder on to the gums. Snuff-taking has almost disappeared -in “polite society” in this country within the past twenty years, -but snuffing and chewing are still largely practised by those whose -occupation renders it impossible or dangerous for them to carry a -lighted pipe or cigar--such as sailors and fishermen and workers in -many kinds of factories and engine-rooms. - -One of the most curious questions in regard to the history of tobacco -is that as to whether its use originated independently in Asia or was -introduced there by Europeans. It is largely cultivated and used for -smoking throughout the East from Turkey to China--including Persia -and India on the way--and special varieties of tobacco, the Turkish, -the Persian, and the Manilla are well known, and only produced in the -East, whilst special forms of pipe, such as the “hukah” or “hooka,” the -“hubble-bubble,” and the small Chinese pipe are distinctively Oriental. -Not only that, but the islanders of the Far East are inveterate smokers -of tobacco, and some of them have peculiar methods of obtaining -the smoke, as, for instance, certain North Australians who employ -“a smoke-box” made of a joint of bamboo. Smoke is blown into this -receptacle by a faithful spouse, who closes its opening with her hand -and presents the boxful of smoke to her husband. He inhales the smoke -and hands the bamboo joint back to his wife for refilling. The Asiatic -peoples are great lovers of tobacco, and it is certain that in Java -they had tobacco as early as 1601, and in India in 1605. The hookah -(a pipe, with water-jar attached, through which the smoke is drawn in -bubbles) was seen and described by a European traveller in 1614. Should -we not, therefore, suppose that in Asia they had tobacco and practised -smoking before it was introduced from America into the West of Europe? -It seems unlikely that Western nations should have given this luxury -to the East when practically everything else of the kind has come from -the East to Europe--the grape and wine made from it, the orange, lemon, -peach, fig, spices of all kinds, pepper and incense. Yet it is certain -that the Orientals got the habit of smoking tobacco from us, and not we -from them. - -Incredible as it seems, the investigations of the Swiss botanist, -De Candolle (see his delightful History of Cultivated Plants--a -wonderful volume, published for 5s., in the International Scientific -Series) and of Colonel Prain, formerly in India, now Director of Kew, -have rendered it quite certain that the Orientals owe tobacco and -the habit of smoking entirely to the Europeans, who brought it from -America, as early as 1558. In the year 1560 Jean Nicot, the French -Ambassador, saw the plant in Portugal, and sent seeds to France to -Catherine de’ Medici. It was named Nicotiana in his honour. But the -introduction into Europe of the practice of smoking is chiefly due to -the English. In 1586 Ralph Lane, the first Governor of Virginia, and -Sir Francis Drake brought over the pipes of the North American Indians -and the tobacco prepared by them. The English enthusiasm for tobacco -smoking, “drinking a pipe of tobacco,” as it was at first called, was -extraordinary both for its sudden development, its somewhat excessive -character, and the violent antagonism which it aroused, and, as we -learn from Mr. Frederic Harrison, still arouses. It was at once called -“divine tobacco” by the poet Spenser, and “our holy herb nicotian” by -William Lilly, and not long afterwards denounced as a devilish poison -by King James. The reason why the English had most to do with the -introduction of smoking is that the inhabitants of South America did -not smoke pipes, but chewed the tobacco, or took it as snuff, and less -frequently smoked it as a cigar. From the Isthmus of Panama as far as -Canada and California, on the other hand, the custom of smoking pipes -was universal, and wonderful carved pipes of great variety were found -in use by the natives of these regions, and also dug up in very ancient -burial grounds. Hence the English colonists of Virginia were the first -to introduce pipe-smoking to Europe. - -The Portuguese had discovered the coasts of Brazil as early as 1500, -and it is they who carried tobacco to their possessions and trading -ports in the Far East--to India, Java, China, and Japan, so that in -less than a hundred years it was well established in those countries. -Probably it went about the same time from Spain and England to Turkey, -and from there to Persia, and rapidly developed not only special new -forms of pipe (the hookah) for its consumption, but also within a few -years special varieties of the plant itself. These were raised by -cultivation, and have formerly been erroneously regarded as native -Asiatic species of tobacco plant. - -The definite proof of the fact that tobacco was in this way introduced -from Western Europe to the Oriental nations is, first, that Asiatics -have no word for it excepting a corruption of the original American -name tabaco, tobacco, or tambuco: it is certain that it is not -mentioned in Chinese writings nor represented in their pottery before -the year 1680. In the next place, it appears that careful examination -of old herbariums and of the records of early travellers who knew -plants well and recorded all they saw, proves that no species of -tobacco is a native of Asia. There are fifty species of tobacco, but -all are American excepting the Nicotiana suaveolens, which is a native -of the Australian continent, and the Nicotiana fragrans, which is a -native of the Isle of Pines, near New Caledonia. - -Forty-eight different species of tobacco (that is to say, of the genus -Nicotiana) are found in America. Of these Nicotiana tabacum is the only -one which has been extensively cultivated. It has been found wild in -the State of Ecuador, but was cultivated by the natives both of North -and South America before the advent of Europeans. It seems probable -that all the tobaccos grown in the Old World for smoking or snuffing -are only cultivated varieties--often with very special qualities--of -the N. tabacum, with the exception of the Shiraz tobacco plant, which, -though called N. persica, is of Brazilian origin, and the N. rustica, -of Linnæus, a native of Mexico, which has a yellow flower, and yields -a coarse kind of tobacco. This has been cultivated in South America -and also in Asia Minor. But tobaccos so different as the Havannah, the -Maryland and Virginian, the incomparable Latakia, the Manilla, and the -Roumelian or Turkish--all come from culture-varieties of the one great -species, Nicotiana tabacum. - -The treatment of tobacco-leaf to prepare it for use in smoking, -snuffing, and chewing requires great skill and care, and is directed -by the tradition and experience of centuries. As is the case with -“hay,” the dried tobacco-leaf undergoes a kind of fermentation, and, -in fact, more than one such change. The cause of the fermentation is a -micro-organism which multiplies in the dead leaf and causes chemical -changes, just as the yeast organism grows in “wort” and changes it -to “beer.” It is said that the flavour and aroma of special tobaccos -is due to special kinds of ferment, and that by introducing the -Havannah ferment or micro-organism to tobacco-leaves grown away from -Cuba, you can give them much of the character of Havannah tobacco! A -very valuable kind of tobacco is the Roumelian, from which the best -Turkish cigarettes are made. It has a very delicate flavour, and very -small quantities of an aromatic kind prepared from a distinct variety -of tobacco plant grown near Ephesus and on the Black Sea (probably -a cultivated variety of Nicotiana rustica) are judiciously blended -with it. This blending, and the use of the very finest qualities of -tobacco-leaf, are essential points in the production of the best -Turkish cigarettes. The so-called “Egyptian” cigarettes are made from -less valuable Turkish tobacco, with the addition of an excess of the -aromatic kind. It is a mistake to suppose that opium or other matters -are used to adulterate tobacco. The only proceeding of the kind which -occurs is the mixing of inferior, cheap, and coarse-flavoured tobaccos -with better kinds. Water and also starch are used fraudulently to -increase the weight of leaf-tobacco. But skilful “blending” is a -legitimate and most important feature in the manufacture of cigars, -cigarettes, and smoking mixtures. - -The first “smoking” of tobacco seen by Europeans was that of the Caribs -or Indians of San Domingo. They used a very curious sort of tubular -pipe, shaped like the letter Y. The diverging arms were placed one up -each nostril, and the end of the stem held in the smoke of burning -tobacco-leaves, which was thus “sniffed up” into the nose. The North -American Indians, on the other hand, had pipes very similar to those -still in use. The natives of South America smoked the rolled leaf -(cigars), chewed it, and took it as snuff. - -It has been suggested that in Asia smoking of some kind of dried -herbs may have been a habit before tobacco was introduced--since even -Herodotus states that the Scythians were accustomed to inhale the -smoke of burning weeds, and showed their enjoyment of it by howling -like dogs! But investigation does not support the view that anything -corresponding to individual or personal “smoking” existed. “Bang” or -“hashish” (the Indian hemp) was not “smoked,” but swallowed as a kind -of paste before the introduction of tobacco-smoking in the East--as -we may gather from the stories of the “Arabian Nights”--although the -practice of smoking hemp (which is the chief constituent of “bang”) and -also of smoking the narcotic herb “henbane,” has now been established. -Opium was, and is, eaten in India, not “smoked.” The “smoking” of opium -is a Chinese invention of the eighteenth century. - -The Oriental hookah suggests a history anterior to the use of tobacco, -but nothing is known of it. The word signifies a cocoanut-shell, and is -applied to the jar (sometimes actually a cocoanut) containing perfumed -water, through which smoke from a pipe, fixed so as to dip into the -water, is drawn by a long tube with mouthpiece. It seems possible that -this apparatus was in use for inhaling perfume by means of bubbles of -air drawn through rose-water or such liquids, before tobacco-smoking -was introduced, and that the tobacco-pipe and the perfume-jar were -then combined. But travellers before the year 1600 do not mention -the existence of the hookah in Persia or in India, though as soon as -tobacco came into use this apparatus is described by Floris, in 1614, -and by Olearius, in 1633, and by all subsequent travellers. - -The conclusion to which careful inquiry has led is that though various -Asiatic races have appreciated the smoke of various herbs and enjoyed -inhaling it from time immemorial, yet there was no definite “smoking” -in earlier times. No pipes or rolled-up packets of dried leaves--to -be placed in the mouth and sucked whilst slowly burning--were in use -before the introduction of tobacco by Europeans, who brought the -tobacco-plant from America and the mode of enjoying its smoke, and -passed on its seeds to the people of Turkey, Persia, India, China, and -Japan. - - - - -41. _Cruelty, Pain and Knowledge_ - - -It is difficult to write or to read or even to think about “cruelty” -and preserve one’s sober judgment and reason. Most people are upset -by emotion when torture and the details of the infliction of pain are -discussed. All the more must we remember that emotion is a powerful -driving force, but a bad guide. Only true knowledge and sound reasoning -can guide us aright. - -An awful fact about the emotional state produced by witnessing or -hearing about the agonies of human beings or of sentient animals is -that to some people (actually very few and diminishing in number -among civilised races) it is distinctly a source of pleasure, though -to most of us it is intolerably painful. This fact forms one of the -most difficult problems of psychology. It seems that just as there -are people who enjoy seeing dangerous acrobatic performances or -climbing themselves among ice and rocks at the risk of their lives, -or reading of hairbreadth escapes, of bloody murders, of ghosts, -and other horrors--all of which are repulsive to the majority--so -there are some people who experience delicious shudderings--“des -frissons exquis”--when they see a man or an animal in torture or read -a description of such things. In the eighteenth century it was not -unusual for a country cousin on a visit to London to be taken as a -treat to see half a dozen men and boys hanged at Newgate, and then -to complete the happy day by a visit to Bedlam to see the madmen -flogged! Fortunately, public opinion and education seem to have been -able actually to alter the operation of the emotions excited by these -brutalities--so that to-day practically everyone in the Western States -of Europe regards the unnecessary infliction of pain with horror and -indignation, and is anxious to avoid witnessing pain, even in cases -where it is a necessary evil. - -It is a mistake to suppose that there is any tendency on the part of -scientific men or medical men to be callous or indifferent to the -infliction of pain. The surgeon sometimes has to inflict pain in order -to prevent greater future pain or death--but he is not indifferent to -the pain he causes. He is not even “cruel only to be kind”--but appears -cruel to the unthinking because he has to give pain which he knows will -save his patient from far greater pain, and he has to maintain a calm -and determined attitude in order to help those around him to exercise -self-control. The medical art is, above all things, an art of removing -and abolishing pain, and its practitioners are all the more sensitive -concerning pain because they know more and see more of it than other -people, and make it their chief business to alleviate suffering. - -Charles Darwin took a prominent part twenty-five years ago in urging -the Government of the day not to make a law which would prevent -physiologists and medical men from obtaining knowledge as to animal -life and disease by experiment. The great naturalist was a great lover -of animals and a most gentle and tender-hearted man. He wrote to me -in 1870: “Experiment must, of course, be allowed for the progress of -physiology and medicine, but not for damnable and detestable curiosity. -I will write no more about it, or I shall not sleep to-night.” Mr. -Darwin was alluding to horrible so-called “experiments” which in former -days--especially in the latter part of the eighteenth century--were -made by utterly irresponsible and ignorant amateurs, witnessed by -fashionable ladies, and reported in the newspapers and letters of the -day. It is these reckless and useless “experiments” which rightly -excited horror and opposition a century ago, and were described by the -name “vivisection.” We have to thank these blundering philosophers -of the salons of a past age for the mistaken feeling with which some -people regard the really valuable and careful investigations which -are made by medical men at the present day, with the use of every -precaution to prevent pain to the animals used. - -The testing of drugs, the inoculation of parasitic disease, and the -trial of different modes of removing or controlling the disease -so inoculated, carried on by highly trained and learned men, who -thoroughly know what they are about, and who communicate with one -another from all parts of the world as to the progress they are making -in curing or even abolishing diseases, such as diphtheria, cholera, -sleeping sickness, and phthisis are very different from the impudent -unscientific “experiments” of the days of Horace Walpole. The inquiries -carried on in the modern laboratories of our great universities should -not for a moment be confused with the horrors performed to glorify -and show the superior cold-bloodedness of drawing-room pretenders to -science, in those strange times. - -I believe that most sensible people feel as Mr. Darwin felt, and I -myself would certainly subscribe to what he wrote to me in the letter -which I have quoted above. Amongst those who feel thus strongly on -the subject there are some who can control their emotion and calmly -consider whether the pain inflicted under any given circumstances is -justifiable as leading to a great ultimate diminution of pain by the -knowledge obtained. There are others who are constitutionally incapable -of controlling their emotion in this matter. They hear dreadful stories -of cruelty, and are so upset that they are incapable of ascertaining -whether the stories are true or not. They are quite unfit to weigh the -question as to whether the pain given in the case they hear of may or -may not be a necessary step towards avoiding far greater pain in the -future for thousands of human beings and sentient animals. Far be it -from me to think harshly of these tender-hearted people, though their -mistaken outcry may tend to stop the discovery of pain-saving and -life-saving knowledge. I feel more sympathy with them than with those -(happily rare) individuals who are really indifferent to seeing or -giving bodily pain to men or to animals. - -There is reason to hope that careful and well-considered statement -of the facts will eventually enable many of those who are mentally -unhinged by descriptions of pain and bloodshed to recognise that they -have been deceived, partly by their own fancies and partly by the false -statements of professional agitators. Unfortunately, there are always -present in human society individuals who find it to their advantage -to excite the minds of their more emotional fellow-citizens by tales -of horror. The lust of such power--the power to lead or urge a large -body of men driven by emotional excitement into violent action--has led -from time to time to exaggeration, misrepresentation, and elaborate -plot and perjury directed against a group of innocent or worthy people, -whose proceedings were mysterious or misunderstood by the community -at large. Thus, from time to time, the crowd has been infuriated and -led to the murder of the Jews by agitators, who started the baseless -story that the Jews had slain a Christian child, and used its blood at -their feast of the Passover. Titus Oates and Lord George Gordon made -use of the unreasoning emotion of the crowd in the same way. To a less -serious extent the emotional unreasonableness of a number of men and -women is being played upon at the present day by quite a large variety -of agitators, would-be leaders of crusades and campaigns against the -beneficent work of the physiological and medical laboratories of our -universities and medical schools. - -There are one or two other features about “cruelty” and the mental -conditions leading to and arising from it, which, however uncanny and -troubling, should be carefully considered when public opinion is roused -in regard to its repression. Among these is the fact that the word is -freely applied to the mere infliction of pain without consideration -of the question as to whether there is a guilty mind determining it. -Storms and frosts are called “cruel” by poetic license; but it is -probably quite wrong to call a cat or a tiger cruel. These animals take -pleasure in playing with their prey, as they would with an inanimate -ball or mechanical toy. There is no reason to suppose that they are -conscious of the infliction of pain or take pleasure in pain as pain. -And so it must happen sometimes with thoughtless human beings who -disregard the pain which they cause, when eagerly engaged in “sport” or -in the pursuit of some all-absorbing and consuming purpose. The whole -subject of cruelty is a distressing one, but should not on that account -be misapprehended or dealt with wildly and blindly. - -Twenty-five years ago a Royal Commission sat which was appointed to -inquire as to what restrictions, if any, it was desirable to place upon -the practice of making experiments on animals for physiological and -medical purposes. As a result of its labours an Act of Parliament was -passed which made definite regulations for the purpose of preventing -unqualified persons from indulging in reckless experiments on animals. -There were stories circulated by the agitators then--as there are -now--to the effect that medical students perform horrible and painful -operations (vivisections, as the agitators term them,) on live animals -in secret or with the connivance of their teachers. It was proved -twenty-five years ago that these stories were false. At the same time -an elaborate law was passed to satisfy the emotional persons misled -by the agitators, which made it necessary for an experimenter (1) to -have a licence (dependent on a certificate as to his competency); (2) -that he should use anæsthetics; and (3) that experiments should only be -carried out in licensed laboratories. - -The agitators of the present day have by heart-rending stories, similar -to those told twenty-five years ago, produced a similar excitement and -a similar result, namely, a Royal Commission on Vivisection, which has -been occupied for a year and a half in listening to the statements and -delusions of those who declare that the law made twenty-five years -ago is insufficient, and that all sorts of cruelties are committed by -the physiologists and doctors. The Commission has also questioned the -leading physiologists and medical men in the country, and listened to -their voluntary statements. I have seen the very voluminous report of -the evidence thus given on both sides. The various accusations made -against the medical men in the conduct of their laboratories have been -carefully gone into. It is contended, on their side, that these charges -are based on misunderstanding--the misunderstanding which one would -expect from an ignorant person with a strong feeling or prejudice in -the direction of the misunderstanding. For instance, the fact that -chloroform is administered and the animal rendered insensible when -operated on, has been overlooked in some of the accounts which excited -the so-called “antivivisectors”--notably in the misleading account of -“the brown dog.” The whole of the evidence should be read by those who -are really in doubt on the matter. Probably it will not be long before -the Commission reports, and its conclusions will command the very -greatest respect, not only because its members include eminent lawyers, -medical men and independent representatives who were ready to give an -impartial mind to the inquiry, but also because it is obvious that the -very greatest care has been taken to obtain the fullest evidence from -both sides. - -Sir James Fletcher Moulton, one of the Lords Justices of the Court of -Appeal, has made a statement to the Commission in defence of scientific -experiment which is a masterpiece of persuasive reasoning and lucid -exposition. It is somewhat remarkable that there have been and are -persons in high judicial office who have shown active hostility to the -cause of science and knowledge in this matter owing to their want of -acquaintance with the facts and their readiness to be carried away by -blind emotion. Lord Justice Moulton, on the other hand, is a scientific -man by education and early training, and has come forward to state in a -plain and reasonable way what is the view of the matter which commends -itself to him. There is reason to hope that his view will be approved -by those who read what he says calmly and without bias. His chief point -is that many people are willing to admit that it is right to destroy -animals (even by methods which inflict great pain on them) when an -immediate result of a good and useful kind is to be obtained--as when -we kill animals to serve as food or in order to prevent them from -injuring us or destroying our crops and stores. Yet these same persons, -he points out, by some defect of imagination are unable to see that the -gaining of pain-saving or disease-preventing knowledge as the result -of inflicting pain and death on a small number of animals justifies -us in permitting that pain and death. They are unable to admit the -justification because the knowledge and its practical application -does not directly and at once follow upon the first commencement of -the search for it, and they have not sufficient acquaintance with -the matter to enable them to realise and confidently believe that the -beneficent result will ensue. The knowledge has to be built up step -by step, and the infliction of pain on the animals is separated by an -appreciable lapse of time from the beneficent result--which is none the -less the result which was aimed at, and the true consequence of the -pain inflicted. Putting aside for the moment the fact that in these -inquiries the pain is reduced to a minimum by the use of anæsthetics, -it would seem that we ought to be able to recognise that the causing of -a certain amount of pain to many hundreds of rabbits, and even dogs, -is justified by the consequent removal of a far greater amount of pain -from thousands of men and animals who are saved from suffering at a -later date by the knowledge so gained. - -Lord Justice Moulton suggests two cases of the infliction of pain on -animals for comparison. Suppose, he says, a ship to arrive in port -which (as might easily happen to-day) is infested by plague-stricken -rats; there are, perhaps, ten or twenty thousand rats on board. If -the rats escaped and landed they might (not certainly, but probably) -infect a whole city, even a much larger area, with plague, and cause -death and disaster to thousands of human beings. Everyone will agree -that the owner of the ship would be justified in destroying all the -rats on the ship by sulphur fumes, or whatever other painful method -might be necessary to prevent even one from escaping. A vast amount -of suffering would be inflicted on the rats in order to prevent a far -greater contingent amount of suffering. Now suppose that a man, by -infecting some hundreds of rats and other animals with plague, and by -trying various experiments on these animals with curative drugs, and -by other operations upon them, can in all probability arrive at such -a knowledge of plague and how to check it as to enable us to arrest -its propagation, and so to save thousands, or even millions, of human -beings from this painful and deadly disease, are we to say that this -investigator must not carry on his studies, must not find out how -to stop plague in future because to do so he will have to give some -amount of pain to a hundred or more animals? Clearly, if we justify -the shipowner we must justify the inquiries and experiments of the -medical discoverer. In both cases we must hold--every sane man really -does hold--that it is right to inflict pain with the expectation (not -a certainty in either case, but only a reasonable probability) of -preventing a far larger and more serious amount of pain in the future. -It is the choice of the lesser of two evils. - -And thus we are led to admit that it is right that experiments and -studies attended with some pain to animals should be carried on, on -condition that competent and serious persons make them, for the purpose -of gaining increased knowledge of the processes of life and disease. -Such studies have already yielded great results--the pain in the wards -of hospitals and in sick rooms is not a tenth of what it was a hundred -years ago. The death-rate of great cities is a third less than it was -fifty years ago. Modern medicine and modern surgery are really and -demonstrably immense agencies for preventing pain and the anguish and -misery which is caused by untimely death. - -A Society for the Defence of Research has been established this year -(1908) with the Earl of Cromer as its president. The Society has -issued some valuable pamphlets showing what improvements in medical -knowledge have been recently effected by means of inoculations and -other experiments in which animals have been used though subjected to -as little pain and discomfort as consistent with the enquiries made. -Ignorant opponents of medical research assert that the scientific -study of the processes of life and disease in laboratories has not -helped in the great progress in medical practice which marks the -last fifty years. But the medical men who are the leaders of their -profession unanimously assert, and prove by detailed accounts of the -discoveries made, that such study has been essential to the progress -established, and is essential for further progress. Lord Lister, who -by his antiseptic method of treating surgical wounds has saved more -pain to present and future generations of men than all the torturers -of the Inquisition ever inflicted or dreamed of inflicting, has been -the leader in declaring the inestimable value to humanity--in fact, -the absolute necessity--of physiological experiments on animals. Whose -judgment on this question can be considered of greater value than his? - -The anti-vivisection agitators, for the purpose of exciting the -emotions of those who listen to them, use the word “torture” as -describing the action of such men as Pasteur and Lord Lister. To -torture is to inflict an ever-increasing amount of pain, with the view -of “extorting” a submission, a confession, or treasure from a victim. -To suggest that scientific and medical men apply pain in this way, and -to spread the word “torture” among the ignorant, emotional public, in -connection with their inquiries, is dishonest as well as ungrateful. - -One valuable result of the work of the present Royal Commission on what -is called “Vivisection,” but should be called “the use of animals in -the discovery of means of controlling disease and alleviating pain,” -is that it is made quite clear that there is very little pain at all -inflicted in this beneficent work, owing to the fact that anæsthetics -and narcotics are administered to the animals when anything which might -cause pain is done. I do not hesitate to say that there is in this -country less pain caused in a whole year in all the laboratories where -this great work for the public good is carried on than in a single -day’s rabbit-shooting. - -It is important to correct, if possible, the misunderstanding which -very naturally exists as to what physiologists and doctors mean by -“experiment.” In ordinary language an “experiment” suggests a haphazard -venture, the doing of something blindly and in ignorance, just “to see -what will happen.” It is true that long ago in the eighteenth century -there were men callous enough and ignorant enough to make such “fool’s -experiments” on living animals. But when scientific men speak of “the -experimental method” and the acquisition of knowledge by experiment, -they do not allude to haphazard attempts to see what will happen when -something extraordinary is done. The experiment of the experimental -method is arranged so as to provide a definite answer to a definite -question, and the question has been thought out by a man who knows the -whole record of previous experiment and knowledge in regard to the -subject which is under investigation. - -Thus in the inquiry as to the possible prevention of the deadly effect -of snake poison introduced into the human body by the bite of snakes, -the first question asked was, “Is it true, as sometimes stated, that a -poisonous snake is not poisoned by having its own poison injected into -its flesh?” The experiment was tried. The answer was, “It is true.” -Next it was asked, “Is this due to the action of very small doses of -the poison which pass constantly from the poison gland into the snake’s -blood, and so render the snake ‘immune,’ as happens in the case of -other poisons?” The experiment was tried. Snakes without poison glands -were found to be killed by the introduction of snake’s poison in a -full dose into their blood. Then it was found that a horse could be -injected with a dose of snake poison, or half the quantity necessary -to cause death, and that it recovered in a few days. The question was -now put, “Is the horse so treated rendered immune to snake poison, -as the snake is which receives small doses of poison into its blood -from its own poison gland?” Accordingly the experiment was made. -The horse was given a full dose of snake poison, and did not suffer -any inconvenience. At intervals of two days it was given increasing -injections of snake poison without suffering in any way, until at last -an injection in one dose of thirty times the deadly quantity of snake -poison--that is, enough to kill thirty unprepared horses--was made into -the same horse, and it did not show the smallest inconvenience. The -question was thus answered: Immunity to snake-bite can be conferred by -the absorption of small quantities (non-lethal doses) of snake poison. -The next question was this: “If something has been formed in the -horse’s blood by this process, which is an antidote to snake poison, -should it not be possible, by removing some of the horse’s blood and -injecting a small quantity of it into a smaller animal, to protect -that animal from snake bite?” The experiment was accordingly made. -Rabbits and dogs received injections of the blood of the immune horse. -An hour after they received full doses of snake poison. They suffered -no inconvenience at all; they were “protected,” or “rendered immune.” -The next question was, “Will the antidote act on an animal after it has -already been bitten by a snake?” The experiment was made. Rabbits were -injected with snake poison. After a quarter of an hour they were on the -point of death. A dose of the immune horse’s blood was now injected -into each--in ten minutes they had completely recovered and were -feeding. The means was thus found of preventing death from snake-bite. -The protective horse-blood was properly prepared, and sent out at once -to Cochin China and to India. It was there tried upon human beings who -had been accidentally bitten by deadly snakes, and it proved absolutely -effective; it saved the men’s lives. It is now used (wherever it can be -obtained in time) as the sure antidote to snake-bite, though it is not -at present possible to supply it whenever and wherever it is needed. -That is an example, briefly told, of the experimental questioning of -Nature--such as is pursued in the laboratories of medical men and -physiologists. They do not perform haphazard experiments; but each -experiment is so arranged as to give a definite answer to a definite -question, leading to a large result. By no other process can knowledge -of many things, which it is urgent for us to have, be obtained. We -should have to wait centuries if we merely watched Nature, and hoped -for some accidental circumstance to reveal the facts. - -What, after all, do we understand and mean by “pain”? It is not -merely the sharp sting, and consequent shrinking caused by wounds and -violence. That, we know well enough, is a beneficent arrangement by -which men as well as animals are prevented from knocking themselves -to pieces, and are driven into avoiding danger to life and limb. But -“pain” includes, besides this, the anguish arising from the weary, -fruitless struggle against disease and starvation, from the disaster to -the household caused by the untimely death of its mainstay, from the -slaughter of children by poisonous foods, and from the neglect of the -laws of health of body and mind. - -Ignorance, the “curse of Hell,” is the cause of all suffering. -Knowledge is the wing which takes us heavenward, and frees us from -misery. I cannot put it better than in Shakespeare’s words. It is -man’s destiny to diminish pain on this earth, and that not by timidly -shrinking from and emotionally raving about the horrors of pain, but by -facing them and deliberately accepting the responsibility of producing -a small and brief suffering to a few animals as the price of the -salvation of his fellow-creatures from the far greater pain which is -the assured and fatal companion of ignorance--accursed ignorance! - -A recent writer has told us that he cannot believe that good will -follow from the wilful destruction by man of Nature’s greatest and most -beautiful production--a living thing. He poses as a sentimentalist and -seems to regard it as the indication of a superior and gentle mind to -refuse to sanction the removal or even the temporary discomfort of what -Nature has called into life. I, too, claim to be a sentimentalist, -but the sentiment which thrills me is one of revolt against the -needless and remediable suffering of all humanity--suffering which man -has brought on himself by his stumbling, half-hearted resistance to -Nature’s drastic method of purifying and strengthening the race, her -remorseless slaughter of the unfit. It is this suffering which some -would allow their fellow-men still to endure, now and for generations -to come, rather than have their own tranquillity disturbed by the -record of that modicum of immediate pain and sacrifice of animal -life which is the price of freedom for mankind from far greater pain -hereafter. We have to learn to mitigate and to minimise pain, not -to run away from it. It is childish to weep over the distortion and -destruction of Nature’s products by man’s violence and ignorance. What -we can and should do is to see that our dealings with this fair earth -and its living freight are guided not by vain regret, but by knowledge -and foresight. - -THE END - -R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BREAD ST. HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. - - * * * * * - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Punctuation has been made consistent. - -Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in -the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have -been corrected. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From an Easy Chair, by Ray Lankester - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM AN EASY CHAIR *** - -***** This file should be named 61795-0.txt or 61795-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/7/9/61795/ - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Craig Kirkwood, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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