{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_46710/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_46710","id":"gutenberg_46710","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46710","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sociology","Science -- Periodicals","Technology -- Periodicals"],"text":"Established by Edward L. Youmans\n\n              APPLETONS'\n           POPULAR SCIENCE\n               MONTHLY\n\n              EDITED BY\n         WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS\n\n              VOL. LV\n\n        MAY TO OCTOBER, 1899\n\n              NEW YORK\n       D. APPLETON AND COMPANY\n                1899\n\n\n\n\n          COPYRIGHT, 1899,\n     BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: WILLIAM PEPPER.]\n\n\n\n\nAPPLETONS' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.\n\nOCTOBER, 1899.\n\n\n\n\nTHE HELP THAT HARMS.\n\nBY THE RIGHT REVEREND HENRY C. POTTER.\n\n\nThe analogies between the life of an individual and that other\norganism which we call civilized society are as interesting as for any\nother reason because of their inexhaustible and ever-fresh variety.\nThe wants, the blunders, the growth, the perils of the individual are\nmatched at every step by those other wants and dangers and\ndevelopments which rise in complexity and in variety as the individual\nand the social organism rise in intelligence, in numbers, and in\nwealth. It ought to interest us, if it never has, to consider from how\nmuch that is mischievous and dangerous we should be delivered if we\ncould revert from the civilized to the savage state; and it is\nundoubtedly true that serious minds have sometimes been tempted to\nquestion whether civilization is quite worth all that it has cost us\nin its manifold departures from a simple and more primitive condition.\n\nSuch a question may, at any rate, not unnaturally arise when we ask\nourselves the question, What, on the whole, is the influence upon\nmanhood--by which I mean, here and for my present purpose, the\nqualities that make courage, self-reliance, self-respect, industry,\ninitiative--in fact, those independent and aggressive characteristics\nby which great races, like great men, have climbed up out of earlier\nobscurity and inferiority into power, leadership, and distinction;\nwhat is the influence upon these of conditions which tend, apparently\nby an inevitable law, to beget or to encourage indolence, inertia,\nparasitic dependence?\n\nOne can not but be moved to such a question by either of two papers\nwhich have recently appeared in these pages: I mean that entitled\nAbuse of Public Charity, by Comptroller Bird S. Coler; and that by\nProf. Franklin H. Giddings, of Columbia University, on Public Charity\nand Private Vigilance. The community whose capable and efficient\nservant he is has reason to be thankful that, in the person of a\npublic official intrusted with such large responsibilities, it has a\nthoughtful and far-seeing student of problems whose grave importance\nhe has so opportunely pointed out. It needs the courage and the\nknowledge of such a one to affirm that \"it is easier for an\nindustrious and shrewd professional beggar to live in luxury in New\nYork than to exist in any other city in the world,\" which, if any\nsocial reformer or minister of religion or mere critic of the social\norder had said it, would probably have been denounced as an\natrabilious and unwarranted exaggeration.\n\nConcerning the comptroller's indictments of certain charitable\nsocieties and organizations as expensive mechanisms for the\nconsumption of appropriations or contributions largely spent upon\ntheir salaried officials, I am quite willing to recognize the force of\nProfessor Giddings's demurrer to the effect that a so-called\ncharitable society may now and then rightly exist, and expend its\nincome largely, if not wholly, upon the persons whom it employs as its\nagents, since these agents are the vigilant committees whose office it\nis to detect, discourage, and expose unworthy objects, whether of\npublic or private charity. But that, besides such agencies, there are\nconstantly called into being wholly spurious organizations, which\nprofess to exist for the relief of certain classes of sufferers or of\nneedy people; that these succeed, sooner or later, in fastening\nthemselves upon the treasury of the city and of the State; and that\nthey are, in a great many cases, monuments of the most impudent and\nunscrupulous fraud, there can be no smallest doubt.\n\nWell, it may be asked, What are you going to do about it? Will you\naccept the inevitable evils that march in the rear of all public or\nprivate charity, or will you sweep all the various agencies, which\nhave relieved such manifold varieties of human want and alleviated to\nsuch an incalculable degree human misery, out of existence? Will you\ncare to contemplate what a great city like New York or London would be\nif to-morrow you closed the doors of all the hospitals, _cr\u00e8ches_,\nhomes of the aged, asylums for the crippled, the blind, the insane,\nand the like, and turned their inmates one and all into the street?\n\nThat is certainly a very dramatic alternative to present; but suppose\nthat we look at it a little more closely. And, in order that we may, I\nshall ask my reader to go back with me, not to that primitive or\nbarbaric era to which I began by referring, but only to a somewhat\nearlier stage in our own social history, with which many persons now\nliving are abundantly familiar. One of the interesting and startling\ncontrasts which might be presented to one anxious to impress a\nstranger with our American progress would be to take only our present\ncentury, and group together, out of its statistics, the growth and\ndevelopment, in its manifold varieties, during that period in any\ncity, great or small, of institutional charity. But if such a one were\njust he would have, first of all, to put upon his canvas some\ndelineation of that situation which, under so many varying conditions\nand amid such widely dissimilar degrees of privilege or of\nopportunity, preceded it. I listened the other day to the story of a\ncharming woman, of marked culture and refinement, as she depicted,\nwith unconscious grace and art, the life of a gentlewoman of her own\nage and class--she was young and fair and keenly sympathetic--on a\nSouthern plantation before the civil war. One got such a new\nimpression of those whom, under other skies and in large ignorance of\ntheir personal ministries or sacrifices, we had been wont to picture\nas indolent, exclusive, indifferent to the sorrow and disease and\nignorance that, on a great rice or cotton or sugar plantation in the\nold days, were all about them; and one learned, with a new sense of\nreverence for all that is best in womanhood, how, in days that are now\ngone forever, there were under such conditions the most skillful\nbeneficence and the most untiring sympathies.\n\nBut, in the times of which I speak, the service on the plantation for\nthe sick slave (which, an ungracious criticism might have suggested,\nsince a slave was ordinarily a valuable piece of property, had\nsomething of a sordid element in it) was matched in communities and\nunder conditions where no such suspicion was possible. No one who\nknows anything of life in our smaller communities at the beginning of\nthe century can be ignorant of what I mean. There was no village or\nsmallest aggregation of families that had not its Abigail, its \"Aunt\nHannah,\" its \"Uncle Ben,\" who, when there was sickness or want or\nsorrow in a neighbor's house, was always on hand to sympathize and to\nsuccor. I do not forget that it is said that, even under our greatly\nchanged conditions, in modern cities this is still true of the very\npoor and of their kindness and mutual help to one another; and I thank\nGod that I have abundant reason, from personal observation, to know\nthat it is. But, happily, neither great cities nor small are largely\nmade up of the very poor, and the considerations that I am aiming to\npresent to those who will follow me through these pages are not\nconcerned with these. What I am now aiming to get before my readers is\nthat there was a time, and that it was not so very long ago, when that\nvast institutional charity which exists among us to-day, and which I\nbelieve to be in so many aspects of it so grave a menace to our\nhighest welfare, did not exist, because it had no need to exist. The\nordinary American community, East or West, had, as distinguishing it,\nhowever small its numbers and narrow its means, two characteristics\nwhich our modern systems of institutional charity are widely\nconspiring to extinguish and destroy. One of these was that resolute\nendurance of straitness and poverty of which there is so fine and true\na portraiture in Miss Wilkins's remarkable story Jerome. I venture to\nsay that the charm of that rare book, to a great many of the most\nintelligent and appreciative of its readers, lay in the fact that they\ncould match it, or something like it, in their own experience; that\nthey had known silent and proud women, and brave and proud boys, to\nwhom, whatever the hard pinch of want that they knew, to accept a dole\nwas like accepting a blow, and who covered their poverty alike from\nthe eye of inquisitive stranger or kin with a robe of secrecy that was\nat once impenetrable and all-concealing. Life to them was a battle,\nand they could lose it, as heroes have lost it on the tented field,\nwithout a murmur; but to sue for bread to some other, even if that\nother were of the same blood, would have smitten them as with the\nstain of personal dishonor.\n\nAnd over against such, in the days and among the communities of which\nI speak, were those whose gift and ministry it was--without an\nintrusive curiosity, without a vulgar ostentation, without a word or\nlook that implied that they guessed the sore need to which they\nreached out--yet somehow to discover it, to succor it, and then to\nhelp, finest and rarest of all, to hide it.\n\nNow, then, behind such a condition of things there was a sure and wise\ndiscernment, even if it was only instinctive, of a profound moral\ntruth, which was this: that you can not help me, nor I you, without\nrisk. For the most sacred thing in either of us is our manhood or\nwomanhood--that thing which differentiates us from any mere mechanism,\nthat thing in us which says, _I can, I ought, I will_. Take that out\nof human nature and what is left is not worth considering, save as one\nmight consider any other clever mechanism. But the power to choose,\nthe power to act, and the consciousness that choice and action are to\nbe dominated by something that answers to the instinct of loyalty to\nGod, to self-respect, to the ideals of honor and righteousness--that\nis what makes life worth living, and any conceivable thing worth\nseeking or doing. Now, the moment that the question of our mutual\nrelations enters we have to be concerned with the way in which they\nwill act on this power, quality, characteristic--call it what you\nwill--that makes manhood. It is not enough, for example, that my\nimpulse to give you a pint of gin is a benevolent impulse, if certain\ntendencies in you make it antecedently probable that a pint of gin\nwill presently convert you from the condition of a rational being into\nthat of a beast. And so of any impulse of mine in the direction of\nbeneficence which, in its gratification, threatens manhood--that is,\nself-reliance, self-respect, independence, the right and faithful use\nof powers in me.\n\nAnd here we come to the problem which lies at the basis of the whole\nquestion of charitable relief, for whatever class and in whatever\nform. The wholesome elements in that earlier situation, to which I\nhave just referred, were threefold, and in our modern situation each\none of them is sorely attenuated, if not wholly absent:\n\n1. In the first place, there was a relative uniformity of condition.\nIn other words, at the beginning of the present century in almost all\ncommunities, whether industrial or agricultural, the disparities of\nestate were inconsiderable. There was perhaps the rich man of the\nvillage or town, or two or three or half a dozen of them; but they\nwere rich only relatively, and they were marked exceptions. The great\nmajority of the people were of comparatively similar employments and\ncircumstances. Among these there were indeed considerable varieties of\ntask work, but work and wage were not far apart; and, what was of most\nconsequence, a certain large identity of condition brought into it a\ncertain breadth of sympathy and mutual help, out of which came the\noutstretched hand and the open door for the man who was out of work\nand was looking for it.\n\n2. Yes, _who was looking for it_. For here again was a distinguishing\nnote of those earlier days of which I am speaking. Idleness was a\ndistinct discredit, if not dishonor. In communities where everybody\nhad to work, an idler or a loafer was an intolerable impertinence, and\nwas usually made to feel it.\n\n3. And yet, again, there was the vast difference in those days from\nours that the industries of the world had not taken on their immensely\norganized and _mechanized_ characteristics. A mechanic--e. g., out of\na job--then could turn his hand to anything that ordinary tools and\nmuscle and intelligence could do. But an ordinary mechanic now must be\na skilled mechanician in a highly specialized department, and when he\nis out of a job there, he is ordinarily out of it all along the line.\n\nI might, as my reader will have anticipated me in recognizing, go on\nalmost indefinitely in this direction; but I have said enough, I\ntrust, to prepare him for the point which I want to make in connection\nwith our modern charities and their mischief. Our modern social order,\nin a word, has become more complex, more segregated, more\nspecialized. A whole class of people in cities--those, I mean, of\nconsiderable wealth--with a few noble exceptions (which, however, in\nour greater cities, thank God, are becoming daily less rare), live in\nprofound ignorance of the condition of their fellow-citizens. Now and\nthen, by some sharp reverse in the financial world or some national\nrecurrence of \"bad times,\" they are made aware that large numbers of\ntheir neighbors are out of work and starving. And, at all times, they\nare no less reminded that there is a considerable class--how\nappallingly large it is growing to be in New York Mr. Coler has told\nus--who need help, or think they do, and who, at any rate, more or\nless noisily demand it in the street, at the door, by begging letter,\nor in a dozen other ways that make the rich man understand why the\nprayer of Agur was, \"Give me neither poverty nor riches.\"[1]\n\n     [Footnote 1: Proverbs xxx, 8.]\n\nWell, something must be done, they agree. What shall it be? Shall the\nState do it, or the Church, or the individual? If only they could, as\nto that, agree! But it has been one of the most pathetic notes of our\nheedless and superficial treatment of a great problem that, here,\nthere has not been from the beginning even the smallest pretense of a\ncommon purpose or any moderately rational course of action.\nUndoubtedly it is true that there is no imaginable mechanism that\ncould relieve any one of these agencies from responsibility in the\nmatter of relief to the unfortunate, nor is it desirable that there\nshould be. Sometimes it has been the Church that has undertaken the\nrelief of the poor and sick, sometimes it has been largely left to the\nindividual, and sometimes it has been as largely left to the State.\nBut, in any case, the result has been almost as often as otherwise\nmischievous, or corrupt and corrupting. For, in fact, the ideal mode\nof dealing with the problems of sickness, destitution, and disablement\nshould be one in which the common endeavor of the State, the Church,\nand the individual should be somehow unified and co-ordinated. But,\nincredible as it ought to be, the history of the best endeavors toward\nsuch co-ordination has been a history of large inadequacy and of\nmeager results. As an illustration of this it is enough to point to\nthe history of the Charity Organization Society in New York, which, I\npresume, is not greatly different from that of similar societies\nelsewhere. Antecedently it would have seemed probable that such a\nsociety, which aims simply to discourage fraud, to relieve genuine\nwant, and to protect the community from being preyed upon by the idle\nand the vicious, would have the sympathy of that great institution,\nsome of whose teachings are, \"If any man will not work, neither shall\nhe eat\"; \"Stand upright on thy feet\"; \"Provide things honest in the\nsight of all men\"; \"Not slothful in business\"; and the like. But, as a\nmatter of fact, such societies have had no more bitter antagonists\nthan the churches, and no more vehement opponents than ministers of\nreligion. In a meeting composed of such persons I have heard one of\ntheir number denounce with the most impassioned oratory any agency\nwhich undertook, by any mechanism, to intrude into the question of the\ncircumstances, resources, or worthiness of those who were the objects\nof ecclesiastical almsgiving. Who, he demanded, could know so well as\nthe clergy all the facts needed to enable them wisely and judiciously\nto assist those worthy and needy brethren who were of their own\nhousehold of faith? Nothing could sound more plausible or probable;\nbut in a little while it happened that a woman who had for years been\na beneficiary of this very pastor died, leaving behind her, among her\neffects, sundry savings-bank books which showed her to be possessed of\nsome thousands of dollars, which she bequeathed to relatives in a\ndistant land. Still more recently a case of a similar character has\noccurred in which a still larger amount having been paid over in small\nsums through a long series of years by a church, the whole, with\ninterest, has been found to have been hoarded, the recipient having\nbeen a person entirely capable of self-support, and, as a matter of\nfact, during the whole period self-supporting, and the large\naccumulations are at present the subject of a suit in which the church\nis endeavoring to recover what it not unnaturally regards as its own\nmisappropriated money.\n\nAnd yet, as any one knows who knows anything of the delicacy,\nvigilancy, and thoroughness with which a well-organized society\nconducts its work, any such grotesque and deplorable result would,\nwith a little wise co-operation between the Church and such a society,\nhave been rendered impossible. I know how impatient many good people\nare of the services of any such association, and we have all heard _ad\nnauseam_ of their protests against a \"spy system which invades the\nsacred privacy of decent poverty,\" and the rest; but, in fact, such\npersons never seem to realize that, in one aspect of it, the Church\nstands, or, as a matter of common honesty, as the administrator of\ntrust funds, ought to stand, on the same equitable basis, at least, as\na life-insurance company. Now, when I seek the benefits of a\nlife-insurance company I am asked certain questions which affect not\nonly my physical resources but my diseases, my ancestry and their\ndiseases, my personal habits, infirmities, and the like. If the\ncompany has the right, in the just interests of its other clients, to\nask these questions, as administering a large trust, has not the\nChurch, which is also the administrator of a trust no less in the\ninterest of other clients?\n\nBut, indeed, this is the lowest aspect of such a question, and I\nfreely admit it. The title of this paper points to that gravest aspect\nof it, with which I am now concerned. The largest mischief of\nindiscriminate almsgiving is not its wanton waste--it is its\ninevitable and invariable degradation of its objects. I have spoken of\nthe grave antagonism of the Church to wisely organized charity, but it\nis but the echo of the hostility of the individual, and often of the\nbest and wisest men and women. Elsewhere (but not, I think, in print)\nI have related an incident in this connection of which one is almost\ntempted to say _ex uno disce omnes_. Approaching one day, when I was a\npastor in a great city, the door of one of my clerical brethren, I\nobserved a woman leaving it who, though she hastily turned her back\nupon me, I recognized as a member of my own congregation. On entering\nmy friend's study I said to him:\n\n\"I beg your pardon, but was not that Mrs. ---- whom I saw leaving your\ndoor a moment ago?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"What was she after, may I ask?\"\n\nMy friend--now, alas! no longer living--was a man distinguished by\nsingular delicacy and chivalry of character and bearing, and he turned\nupon me with some surprise and _hauteur_ and said:\n\n\"Well, yes, you may ask; but I do not know that, in the matter of the\nsad and painful circumstances of one of my own parishioners, I am\ncalled upon to answer.\"\n\n\"Precisely,\" I replied; \"but, as it happens, she isn't your\nparishioner.\"\n\n\"What do you mean, sir?\" he exclaimed, with some heat. \"Do you suppose\nthat I don't know the members of my own flock?\"\n\n\"On the contrary,\" I said, \"I have no doubt that you know not only\nthem but the members of a great many other flocks, as in the instance\nof the person who has just left your door, who, as it happens, has\nbeen a member of the church of which I am rector for some fifteen\nyears.\"\n\nThe remark and the abundant evidence with which I was able to\nre-enforce it at last persuaded my friend to institute further\ninquiries, which resulted in the discovery that the subject of those\ninquiries maintained similar relations with some seven parishes, from\nevery one of which she was receiving, as a poor widow, a monthly\nallowance! And yet my reverend brother was one of the most strenuous\nopponents of any system or society, any challenge or interrogation\nwhich, as he said, came between him and _his_ poor. Alas! though in\none sense they were his poor, in another they were as remote from him\nas if they and he had been living in different hemispheres. With every\nsympathy for their distresses, he had not come to recognize that,\nunder those complex conditions of our modern life, to which I have\nalready referred, a real knowledge of the classes upon whom need and\nmisfortune and the temptations to vice and idleness press most heavily\nhas become almost a science, in which training, experience, most\nsurely a large faith, but no less surely a large wisdom, are\nindispensable.\n\nIn this work there is undoubtedly a place for institutional charity,\nand also for that other which is individual. The former affords a\nsphere for a wise economy, for prompt and immediate treatment or\nrelief, and for the utilization of that higher scientific knowledge\nand those better scientific methods which the home, and especially the\ntenement house, can not command. But over against these advantages we\nare bound always to recognize those inevitable dangers which they\nbring with them. The existence of an institution, whether hospital,\nalmshouse, or orphanage, to the care of which one may easily dismiss a\nsick member of the household, or to which one may turn for gratuitous\ncare and treatment, must inevitably act as strong temptations to those\nwho are willing to evade personal obligations that honestly belong to\nthem. In connection with an institution for the treatment of the eye\nand ear, with which I happen to be officially connected, it was found,\nnot long ago, that the number of patients who sought it for gratuitous\ntreatment was considerably increased by persons who came to the\nhospital in their own carriages, which they prudently left around the\ncorner, and whose circumstances abundantly justified the belief that\nthey were quite able to pay for the treatment, which, nevertheless,\ntheir self-respect did not prevent them from accepting as a dole. Such\nincidents are symptomatic of a tendency which must inevitably degrade\nthose who yield to it, and which is at once vicious and deteriorating.\nHow widespread it is must be evident to any one who has had the\nsmallest knowledge of the unblushing readiness with which\ninstitutional beneficence is utilized in every direction. A young\nmarried man in the West, I have been told, wrote to his kindred in the\nEast: \"We have had here a glorious revival of religion. Mary and I\nhave been hopefully converted. Father has got very old and helpless,\nand so we have sent him to the county house.\" One finds himself\nspeculating with some curiosity _what_ religion it was to which this\nfilial scion was converted. Certainly it could not have been that\nwhich is commonly called Christian!\n\nAnd at the other end of the social scale the situation is often little\nbetter. In our greater cities homes have been provided for the aged,\nand especially for that most deserving class of gentlewomen who,\nhaving been reared in affluence, come to old age, after having\nstruggled to maintain themselves by teaching, needlework, and the\nlike, with broken powers and empty purses. But it has, I am informed,\nbeen often impossible to find places for them in institutions\nespecially created for their care, because its lady managers have\nfilled their places with their own worn-out servants, who, having\nspent their years and strength in their employer's service, are turned\nover in their old age, with a shrewd frugality which one can not but\nadmire, to be maintained at the cost of other people. It is impossible\nto confront such instances, and they might be multiplied indefinitely,\nwithout recognizing how enormous are the possibilities of mischief\neven in connection with the most useful institutional charity.\n\nAnd yet these are not so great as those which no less surely follow,\nas it is oftenest administered, in the train of individual\nbeneficence. In an unwritten address, not long ago, I mentioned an\nillustration of this which I have been asked to repeat here. While a\nrector in a large city parish, I was called upon by a stranger who\nasked for money, and who, as evidence of his claims upon my\nconsideration, produced a letter from my father, written some\ntwenty-five years before, when he was Bishop of Pennsylvania. The\nwriter had, when this letter was placed in my hands, been dead for\nsome twenty years, but, in a community in which he had been greatly\nloved and respected, his words had not, even in that lapse of time,\nlost their power. The letter was a general letter, addressed to no\none, and therein lay its mischief. When read, it had in each instance\nbeen returned to its bearer, and he soon discovered that he had in it\na talisman that would open almost any pocket. He was originally a\nmechanic who had been temporarily disabled by a fit of sickness; when\nI saw him, however, he was obviously, and doubtless for years had\nbeen, in robust health. But he had discovered that if he were willing\nto beg he need not work, and he had long before made his choice on the\nside of ease and indolence. After reading the letter which he\nproduced, and looking at its date and soiled condition, both revealing\nthe long service that it had performed, I said to him, \"No, I will not\ngive you anything, but I will pay you ten dollars if you will let me\nhave that letter.\" It would not be easy to describe the leer of\ncunning and contempt with which he promptly took it out of my hand,\nfolded it, placed it in his pocketbook, and left the room. He was not\nso innocent as to surrender his whole capital in trade!\n\nNow, here was a man to whom a well-meaning but inconsiderate act of\nkindness had been the cause of permanent degradation. The highest\nqualities in such a one--manhood, self-respect, frugal and industrious\nindependence--had been practically destroyed, and an act of charity\nhad made of one who was doubtless originally an honest and\nhard-working young man, a mendicant, a loafer, and a fraud.\n\nAnd yet for a sincere and self-sacrificing purpose to help our less\nfortunate fellow-men there were never so many inspiring and\nencouraging opportunities. Along with the undeniably increasing\ncomplexity of our modern life there have arisen those attractive\ninstrumentalities for a genuine beneficence which find their most\nimpressive illustrations in the improvements of the homes of the poor\nin college settlements, in young men's and young girls' clubs in\nconnection with our mission churches, in the kindergartens and in the\ncooking schools founded by these and other beneficent agencies, in\njuvenile societies for teaching handicrafts and encouraging savings,\nand, best of all, in that resolute purpose to know how the other half\nlive, of which the noble service of Edward Denison in England; of\ncollege graduates in England and in America, who have made the college\nand university settlements their post-graduate courses; of such women\nhere and in Chicago as Miss Jane Addams, and the charming group of\ngentlewomen living in the House in Henry Street, New York, maintained\nwith such modest munificence by Mr. Jacob Schiff; of such laborious\nand discerning scrutiny and sympathy as have been shown in the studies\nand writings of my friend Mr. Jacob Riis--are such noble and\nenkindling examples.\n\nThese and such as these are indicating to us the lines along which our\nbest work for the relief of ignorance and suffering and want may\nto-day be done, and the more closely they are studied, and the more\nintimately the classes with which they are concerned are known, the\nmore abundantly they will vindicate themselves. For these latter have\nin them, far more commonly than we are wont to recognize, those higher\ninstincts of self-respect and of manly and womanly independence that,\nin serving our fellow-men, we must mainly count upon. There are\ndoubtless instinctive idlers and mendicants among the poor, as, let us\nnot forget, there are chronic idlers, borrowers, \"sponges,\" among the\nclasses at the other end of the social scale. But the same divine\nimage is in our brother man everywhere, and the better, more truly,\nmore closely we know him, the more profoundly we shall realize it.\nDuring some six weeks spent, a few years ago, in the most crowded ward\nin the world, among thousands of people who lived in the narrowest\nquarter and upon the most scanty wage, I gave six hours every day to\nreceiving anybody and everybody who came to me. During that time I\nhad visits from dilapidated gentlemen from Albany and Jersey City and\nPhiladelphia and the like, who supposed that I was a credulous fool\nwhose money and himself would be soon parted, and who gave me what\nthey considered many excellent reasons for presenting them with five\ndollars apiece. But, during that whole period, not one of the many\nthousands who lived in the crowded tenements all around me, and to\nhundreds of whom I preached three times a week, asked me for a penny.\nNot one! They came to me by day and by night, men and women, boys and\ngirls, for counsel, courage, sympathy, admonition, reproof, guidance,\nand such light as I could give them--but never, one of them, for\nmoney. They are my friends to-day, and they know that I am theirs;\nand, little as that last may mean to the weakest and the worst of\nthem, I believe that, in the case of any man or woman who tries to\nunderstand and hearten his fellow, it counts for a thousandfold more\nthan doles, or bread, or institutional relief.\n\n\n\n\nTHE HOPI INDIANS OF ARIZONA.\n\nBY GEORGE A. DORSEY.\n\n\nAs one approaches the center of Arizona, along the line of the Santa\nF\u00e9 Railroad, whether he come from the east or from the west, his\nattention is sure to be arrested by several tall, spire-like hills\nwhich are silhouetted against the sky to the far north. These peaks\nare the Moki Buttes, and to the north of them lies the province of\nTusayan, the land of the Mokis, or the Hopis, as they prefer to be\ncalled. That country to-day contains more of interest to the student\nof the history of mankind than any other similar-sized area on the\nAmerican continent. But very few of the great throng that roll by on\nthe Santa F\u00e9 trains every year in quest of pleasure, of recreation, of\nnew scenes and strange, stop off at Holbrook or Winslow to take the\njourney to the Hopis, and very few even know of the existence of these\ncuriously quaint pueblos of this community, which to-day lives pretty\nmuch as it did before Columbus set out on his long voyage to the\nunknown West.\n\nThe term _pueblo_, a Spanish word meaning town, is by long and\ncontinued use now almost confined to the clusters of stone and adobe\nhouses which to-day shelter the sedentary Indians of New Mexico and\nArizona. Not only are these Indian towns called \"pueblos,\" but we\nspeak of the Indians themselves as the Pueblo Indians, and of the\nculture of the people--for they all have much in common--as the pueblo\nculture. This similarity of culture is not due to unity of race or\nof language, but is the resultant of a peculiar environment. In recent\ntimes, the limits of the pueblo-culture area have contracted to meet\nthe demands of the white man; we know also that before the advent of\nthe Spaniard many once populous districts had been abandoned, and as a\nresult there came to be fewer but larger villages. We know also, both\nfrom tradition and from arch\u00e6ological evidence, that in former days\nthe pueblo people inhabited many of the villages of southern Colorado\nand Utah, and that the Hopis and their kin were numerous in many parts\nof Arizona. The silent houses of the cliffs, the ruins of central\nArizona, and the great crumbling masses of adobe of the Salt and Gila\nRiver valleys and in northern Chihuahua are all former habitations of\nthe Pueblo Indian. To-day there are no representatives of these people\nin Utah or Colorado, while the seven Hopi towns of Tusayan alone\nremain in Arizona. But there are still many pueblos scattered along\nthe Rio Grande, Jemez, and San Juan Rivers in New Mexico. Alike in\nculture, we may divide the existing pueblos into four linguistic\ngroups--namely, the Hopis of Arizona, the Zu\u00f1is of New Mexico, the\nTehuas east of the Rio Grande, and the Queres to the west of the Rio\nGrande. Of the earlier home of the last three stocks we know but\nlittle. The ancestors of the Hopis we know came from different\ndirections--some from the cliff dwellings of the north, others from\ncentral Arizona. To-day, however, they form a congeries of clans\nunited and welded into a unit by similarity of purpose and by the more\npowerful influence of a peculiar environment.\n\nThe opinion was held until within a very few years that the Hopis\nrepresented a small branch of the Shoshonean division of the\nUto-Aztecan stock, but Dr. Fewkes, our greatest authority on the Hopi,\nhas questioned the accuracy of this classification, and it can be\nstated that the true affinities of the Hopi have not yet been\ndiscovered.\n\nThe province of Tusayan, or the Moqui Reservation, as it is officially\nknown to-day, contains about four thousand square miles and about two\nthousand Indians. It is in the northeastern part of Arizona, and its\ntowns are about eighty miles by trail from the railroad. The present\ninhabitants are grouped in seven pueblos, located on three parallel\n_mesas_, or table-lands, which extend southward like stony fingers\ntoward the valley of the Little Colorado River. The first or east mesa\ncontains the pueblos of Walpi, Sitcomovi, and Hano; on the second or\nmiddle mesa are Miconinovi, Cipaulovi, and Cu\u00f1opavi; and on the third\nor west mesa stands Oraibi, largest and most ancient of all Hopi\npueblos, and in many respects the best preserved and most interesting\ncommunity in the world. A community without a church, separated by a\nbroad, deep valley from its nearest neighbor, with but a single white\nman within twenty miles, removed nearly thirty-five miles from a\ntrading post, isolated, proud, spurning the advances of the\nGovernment, Oraibi could maintain its independence if every other\ncommunity on the earth were blotted out of existence.\n\nThe journey from Winslow to Oraibi is not without great interest. The\nbeautiful snow-capped peaks of the San Francisco Mountain are always\nin sight far away to the west, and when the eye tires of the rigid and\nimmovable desert their graceful outlines check the often rising\nfeeling of utter helplessness. Then there is a sweep and barrenness of\nthe plain which is impressive and often awe-inspiring, and which at\ntimes produces a feeling similar to that created by the sea. Save for\nthe stunted cottonwoods along the Little Colorado River, there is\nscant vegetation to relieve the bright reds, yellows, and blues of the\npainted desert over which the sun's heat quivers and dances, revealing\nhere and there mirages of lakes and forests of wonderfully deceptive\nvividness. Arising out of the plain here and there are brief expanses\nof table-lands, with the soft under strata crumbled away and the\nhigher strata having fallen down the sides, producing often the\nappearance of a ruined castle. At the foot of the mesas are clumps of\nsagebrush and grease wood, while the plain is dotted here and there\nwith patches of cactus and bright-colored flowers. Foxes and wolves\nare common enough, and we are rarely out of sight or sound of the\ncoyote, bands of which make night hideous with their shrill, weird\ncry.\n\nAlthough the Navajo country proper is to the north and east of\nTusayan, their _hogans_, or thatched-roofed dugouts, are met with here\nand there along the valley of the river. The Navajos are the Bedouins\nof America. We often see the women in front of the hogans weaving, or\nthe men along the trail tending their flocks of sheep and goats, for\nthey are great herders and produce large quantities of wool, part of\nwhich they exchange to the traders; the remainder the women weave into\nblankets, which are in general use throughout the Southwest and which\nfind their way through the trade to all parts of the relic-loving\nworld. They raise, in addition, great quantities of beans, which they\nalso send out to the railroad. They are better supplied with ponies\nthan the Hopi, and with them make long journeys, for the Navajos do\nnot live a communal life as do the pueblo people, but are scattered\nover an extensive territory, each family living alone and being\nindependent of its neighbors.\n\nAfter a long and tiresome journey of four days we arrive at the foot\nof the mesa and begin the long, upward climb, for Oraibi is eight\nhundred feet above the surrounding plain and seven thousand feet above\nthe level of the sea. Just before the crest is reached the trail for\nfifty or more feet is simply a path along and up the base of a rocky\nprecipice, its steps worn deep by the never-ending line of Indians\npassing to and fro. Once upon the summit we have an unobstructed view\nover the dry, arid, sun-parched valleys for many miles--a view which,\nin spite of its desolation, is extremely fascinating.\n\n[Illustration: STREET SCENE, ORAIBI.]\n\nWe often speak of this or of that town as the oldest on the continent.\nBut here we are in the streets of a town which antedates all other\ncities of the United States--a pueblo which occupied this very spot\nwhen, in 1540, Coronado halted in Cibola and sent Don Pedro de Tobar\non to the west to explore the then unknown desert. Imagine seven\nrather irregularly parallel streets about two hundred yards long, with\nhere and there a more open spot or plaza, lined on each side with\nmud-plastered, rough-laid stone houses, and you have Oraibi. The\nhouses rise in the form of terraces to a height of two or three\nstories. As a rule there is no opening to the ground-floor dwellings\nsave through a small, square hatch in the roof. Leading up to this\nroof are rude ladders, which in a few rare instances are simply steps\ncut in a solid log, differing in nowise from those found leading into\nthe chambers of the old cliff ruins of southern Colorado. The roof of\nthe first row or terrace of houses forms a kind of balcony or porch\nfor the second terrace, and so the roof of the second-story houses\nserves a similar useful purpose for the third-story houses.\n\n[Illustration: TERRACE SCENE, STREETS OF ORAIBI.]\n\nTwo things impress one on entering a Hopi home for the first time--the\nsmall size of the rooms, with their low ceilings, and the cleanness of\nthe floors. Both floors and walls are kept fresh and bright by\noft-renewed coats of thin plaster, which is always done by the woman,\nfor she owns the house and all within it; she builds it and keeps it\nin repair. The ceiling is of thatch held up by poles, which in turn\nrest on larger rafters. Apart from the mealing bins and the _piki_\nstones, to be described later, there is no furniture--no table, no\nchairs, no stools, simply a shelf or two with trays of meal or bread,\nand near the wall a long pole for clothing, suspended by buckskin\nthongs from the rafters. Their bed is a sheepskin rug and one or two\nNavajo blankets spread on the floor wherever there may be a vacant\nspace. In one corner may be a pile of corn stacked up like cordwood,\nand in another corner melons or squashes and a few sacks of dried\npeaches or beans. Between the thatch and rafters you will find bows\nand arrows, spindles, hairpins, digging-sticks, and boomerangs, and\nfrom the wall may hang a doll or two, children's playthings. Such is\nan Oraibi home; but it always seems a happy home, and the traveler is\nalways welcome.\n\n[Illustration: STREET SCENE, ORAIBI.]\n\nA prominent feature of almost every pueblo plaza is a squarish,\nboxlike elevation which extends about two feet above the level of the\nearth and measures about six feet in length, with a two-foot hole in\nthe center, from which projects to a considerable height the posts of\na ladder. If you descend this ladder you will find yourself in a\nsubterranean chamber, rectangular in shape, and measuring about\ntwenty-five feet in length by about fifteen feet in breadth, with a\nheight from the floor to the ceiling of about ten feet. This\nunderground room is the _kiva_, or the _estufa_ of the Spaniards. Here\nare held all the secret rites of religious ceremonies, and here the\nmen resort to smoke, to gossip, to spin, and weave. The floor, to an\nextent of two thirds of the entire length, except for a foot-wide\nspace extending around this portion, is excavated still farther to a\ndepth of a foot and a half. The remaining elevated portion is for the\nspectators, while the banquette around the excavation is used by the\nless active participants in the ceremonies. Just under the hatchway\nand in front of the spectators' floor is a depression which is used as\na fire hearth. The walls are neatly coated with plaster, and the\nentire floor is paved with irregularly shaped flat stones fitted\ntogether in a rough manner. There is sometimes inserted in the floor,\nat the end removed from the spectators, a plank with a circular hole\nabout an inch and a half in diameter; this hole is called the\n_sipapu_, and symbolizes the opening in the earth through which the\nancestors of the Hopi made their entrance into this world. The roof of\nthe kiva is supported by great, heavy beams, which are brought from\nthe San Francisco Mountain with infinite trouble and labor. In Oraibi\nthere are thirteen kivas, each probably in the possession of some\nsociety, one of which belongs to women, who there erect their altar in\nthe _mamzrouti_ ceremony. Oraibi has the largest number of kivas of\nany of the Hopi pueblos; in a single plaza there are no less than four\nkivas. This plaza is on the west side of the village, and one of the\nkivas is of special interest, for in it are held the secret rites of\nthe weird snake ceremony. A little to the west of this plaza is a\nsmall bit of the mesa, standing apart and separated from the main mesa\nby a depression. This is known as \"Oraibi rock,\" whence the pueblo\ntakes its name. The etymology of this name \"Oraibi\" is lost in a misty\npast, but the rock is still held in great veneration. On it stands a\nrude shrine, where one may always find sacrificial offerings of\nprayer-sticks, pipes, sacred meal, cakes, etc.\n\n[Illustration: ORAIBI ROCK, UPON WHICH STANDS KATCIN KIKU, THE\nPRINCIPAL ORAIBI SHRINE.]\n\nThe roof of a Hopi house is always of interest. Here we may see corn\ndrying in the sun or loads of fagots ready for use, women dressing\ntheir hair or fondling their babies, or groups of children playing or\nroasting melon seeds in an old broken earthenware vessel which rests\non stones over a fire. From the projecting rafters are ears of corn\nhung up to dry, or pieces of meat placed there to be out of reach of\nthe dogs, or bunches of yarn just out of the dye pot. When a ceremony\nis being performed in some one of the plazas the roofs near by present\na scene which is animated in the extreme, every square foot of space\nbeing occupied by a merry, good-natured throng of young and old. As\none looks from one group to another it is impossible not to notice the\nstunted and dwarfed appearance of the women, which is in marked\ncontrast to that of the men, who are beautifully formed, of medium\nheight, and of well-knit frames. There is not, however, the same\npowerful ruggedness or splendid development among these pueblo\ndwellers which we find among the plains Indians, for the days of the\nHopi women are spent in carrying water and grinding corn, while the\nmen in summer till their fields and in winter spin and weave.\n\nIn considering the routine life of the Hopi it is hard to draw a sharp\nline between what we may call his regular daily occupations and his\nreligious life, for they are closely interwoven. He is by nature a\nreligionist, and he never forgets his allegiance and obligations to\nthe unseen forces which control and command him.\n\n[Illustration: AN ORAIBI MOTHER AND CHILDREN.]\n\nIn nothing is the primitiveness or the absence from contamination of\nthe Hopi better revealed than in the children, for here, as elsewhere,\nis it shown that they are the best conservators of the habits and\ncustoms of ancestral life. What utter savages the little fellows are!\nStark naked generally, whether it be summer or winter, dirty from head\nto foot, their long black hair disheveled and tangled and standing out\nin every direction, their head often resembling a thick matted bunch\nof sagebrush. They are never idle; now back of the village behind tiny\nstone ramparts eagerly watching their horsehair bird snares, or\nengaged in a sham battle with slings and corncobs, or grouped in\nthrees or fours about a watermelon, eagerly and with much noise\ngorging themselves to absolute fullness, or down on the side of the\nmesa playing in the clay pits. A not uncommon sight is that of two or\nthree little fellows trudging off in pursuit of imaginary game, armed\nwith miniature bows and arrows or with boomerangs and digging-sticks.\nIn their disposition toward white visitors they are extremely shy and\nreticent, but they are also very inquisitive and curious, and,\nfurthermore, they have a sweet tooth, and one only need display a\nstick of candy to have half the infantile population of the pueblo at\nhis heels for an hour at a time. If perchance one of the little\nfellows should die, he is not buried in the common cemetery at the\nfoot of the mesa, but he is laid away among the rocks in some one of\nthe innumerable crevices which are to be found on all sides near the\ntop of the mesa, for the Hopis, in common with many other native\ntribes of America, believe that the souls of departed children do not\njourney to the spirit land, but are born again.\n\n[Illustration: GRAVE OF CHILD IN ROCK CREVICE.]\n\nAs the girls reach the age of ten or twelve they distinguish\nthemselves by dressing their hair in a manner which is both striking\nand absolutely unique on the face of the earth. The hair is gathered\ninto two rolls on each side of the head, and then, at a distance of\nfrom one to two inches, is wound over a large U-shaped piece of wood\ninto two semicircles, both uniting in appearance to form a single\nlarge disk, the diameter of which is sometimes as much as eight\ninches. After marriage the hair is parted in the middle over the\nentire head, and is gathered into two queues, one on each side, which\nare then wound innumerable times by a long hair string beginning a few\ninches from the head and extending about four inches. The ends of the\nqueues are loose. Hopi maidens are, as a rule, possessed of fine,\nregular features, slender, lithe, and graceful bodies, and are often\nbeautiful. But with the early marriage comes a daily round of\ndrudgery, which prevents full development and stunts and dwarfs the\nbody. But to old age she is generally patient, cheerful, nor does she\noften complain. Lines produced by toil and labor may show in her face,\nbut rarely those of worry or discontent. Even long before marriage she\nhas not only learned to help her mother in the care of her younger\nbrothers and sisters, but she has already trained her back to meet\nthe requirements of the low-placed corn mills. From her tenth year to\nher last it has been estimated that every Hopi woman spends on an\naverage three hours out of every twenty-four on her knees stooping\nover a _metate_, or corn-grinder, for corn forms about ninety per cent\nof the vegetable food of the Hopis.\n\nIn every house you will find, in a corner, a row of two, three, or\nfour square boxlike compartments or bins of thin slabs of sandstone\nset on edge. Each bin contains a metate set at an angle with its lower\nedge slightly below the level of the floor. There is a clear space\naround each stone to permit of a better disposition of the corn and\nmeal. The texture of the metates is graduated from the first to the\nlast, the final one being capable of grinding the finest meal.\nAccompanying the metate is a crushing or grinding stone about a foot\nin length and from three to four inches wide. Its under surface is\nflat, while its upper surface is convex to a slight extent, so as to\npermit of its being grasped firmly by the thumb and fingers of both\nhands. The corn is ground between these two stones, the upper one\nbeing worked up and down the metate by a motion of the operator not\nunlike that of a woman washing clothes on a washboard. The favorite\nposition assumed by the woman while working is to sit on her knees,\nher toes resting against the wall of the house behind her. Of the many\ncolors of corn used by the Hopis, blue is the most common, and corn of\nthis color is ordinarily employed in the making of bread; other\ncolors, however, are used for the piki consumed in ceremonial feasts.\n\nThe stone used by the Oraibians for making piki is from a sandstone\nquarry near Burro Springs. It is about twenty inches long by fourteen\nbroad, and is three inches thick. The upper surface is first dressed\nby means of stone picks, and is polished by a hard rubbing-stone, and\nthen finally treated with pitch and other ingredients until its\nsurface is as smooth as glass. It is mounted on its two long edges by\nupright slabs, so that it stands about ten inches from the level of\nthe floor, the floor itself being usually excavated to a depth of two\nor three inches beneath the stone. At a height of about four feet\nabove this primitive griddle is a large rectangular hood which is\nextended above the roof in the form of a chimney made of bottomless\npots, one resting on the other. Kneeling in front of the stone and\nsupporting her body with her left arm, the woman coats the stone with\nthe thin batter of corn and water with the fingers of her right hand.\nAfter a few seconds' time she lifts the waferlike sheet from the stone\nand transfers it to a mat which is made for this special purpose. For\nsome time the piki remains soft and pliable, and while in this\ncondition she rolls or folds the sheets according to her custom--some\nfolding, others rolling it. It is a curious sight on the feast days of\ncertain ceremonies to see women gathering from all quarters of the\nvillage at an appointed house, each carrying a tray heaped high with\nrolls of this paper bread.\n\n[Illustration: WOMAN OF ORAIBI MAKING COILED POTTERY.]\n\nThe Hopis are among the foremost potters in North America, when we\ntake into consideration the fineness of the clays used and the\ncharacter of the decoration. But in many respects, especially in form,\ntheir ware is much inferior to that of the ancient Mexicans and\nPeruvians. They make pottery to-day as they did hundreds of years ago,\nbut the quality of the work has greatly deteriorated and the\nearthenware now produced is not to be compared with that found in\nnear-by Hopi ruins. It should be kept in mind, however, that the\nspecimens found in the ancient graves are to a certain extent\nceremonial, and consequently better made and more ornate in their\ndecoration than those which were made simply for household purposes.\nStill, there are a fineness of texture and a delicacy of coloring in\nthe ancient ware which can not now be produced. It is to be noted,\nalso, that the Hopi woman of to-day can not decipher the designs on\nthe earlier pottery, although she often copies them. The demand for\nearthenware vessels, however, is nearly as great at present as it was\nin prehistoric days, for you may search the homes of Oraibi for a long\ntime without finding a tin pan or an iron pot. Thus it is that every\nHopi woman must be a worker in clay, and one of the occasional sights\nis that of a woman on her \"front porch\" surrounded by vessels of all\nsizes and in varying degrees of completeness. The process of\npottery-making is somewhat as follows: After the clay has been worked\ninto a plastic mass she draws out from it a round strip the size of\none's finger and about five inches in length. This is coiled flat in\nthe bottom of the tray, and forms the base of the vessel. Other clay\nstrips are kneaded out of the mass, and these are coiled in a\ngradually increasing spiral, the desired shape and proportion being\nacquired at the same time, until the vessel has reached its proper\nheight. The sides of the vessel are then thinned down, and both inside\nand outside are made smooth by means of small bits of gourds and\npolishing-stones. The vessel is then ready for a coat of wash, after\nwhich it is painted and fired. This method of making pottery is not\npeculiar to the pueblos, but is found among some of the tribes of\nSouth America.\n\nThe art of basketry was never brought to a high state among the Hopis,\nfor they confine themselves chiefly to the manufacture of large\nshallow trays and rough baskets made of the long, pliable leaves of\nthe yucca or of some other fiber. These answer all ordinary domestic\nrequirements. From the reddish-brown branches of a willowlike bush\nwhich grows near, the Hopi mother interweaves a cradle board for her\nchildren. This cradle is peculiar in its shape, and especially so in\nits construction, and differs greatly from that in use among the\nplains Indians. Another singular point to be noted is the fact that\nthis cradle board is not often strapped to the back, but is usually in\nthe arms, or, more often still, is placed on the floor by the side of\nthe mother as she works. The Oraibi mesa, like other table-lands of\nTusayan, is destitute of water. The nearest spring is in the valley at\nthe foot of the mesa nearly a mile away. From before sunrise to ten\no'clock of every day there is an almost unbroken line of water\ncarriers going and coming from the spring, bending under the weight\nof a large jar which they carry on their back by means of a blanket,\nthe ends of which are tied in a knot on their forehead. No wonder\nthese women grow prematurely old. Winter for them, however, has its\nadvantages, for they have an ingenious way of utilizing the snow to\nsave them from the necessity of going down the mesa for water. One of\nthe most extraordinary sights I saw was that of a Hopi woman and her\nlittle girl trudging along, each bent almost to the ground under the\nweight of an immense snowball. These they were carrying home on their\nbacks, enveloped in a blanket. About half a mile from the pueblo, back\non the mesa, reservoirs have been scooped out in the soft sandstone,\nwhich are often partially filled by the spring rains, but the water\nsoon becomes brackish and is not potable, but is used for washing\nclothes.\n\nThe costume of the woman consists ordinarily of four pieces--a\nblanket, dress, belt, and moccasins. The blanket is of wool, and is\nabout four feet square. It is blue in color, with a black border on\ntwo sides. These two edges are usually bound with a heavy green or\nyellow woolen thread. To make the dress, this blanket is once folded\nand is sewn together with red yarn at the long side, except for a\nspace sufficiently large to accommodate one arm. The folded upper\nborder is also sewn for a short space, which rests on one of the\nshoulders. The other shoulder and both arms are bare, except as they\nmay be partially covered by the blanket. The belt or sash is of black\nand green stripes, with a red center, ornamented with geometric\ndesigns in black; it is about four inches wide, and is long enough to\npermit of being wound around the waist two or three times. The\nmoccasins are of unpainted buckskin, one side of the top of which\nterminates in a long, broad strip, which is wound round the leg\nseveral times and extends up to the knee, thus forming a thick\nlegging. More than half the time the Hopi woman is barefooted. The\ngirls wear silver earrings, or suspend from the lobe of the ear small\nrectangular bits of wood, one side of which is covered with a mosaic\nof turquoise. This custom is of some antiquity, as ear pendants\nexactly similar to these have been found in the Hopi ruins of\nHomolobi, on the Little Colorado River.\n\nIn addition to this regulation costume, worn on all ordinary\noccasions, each Hopi woman is supposed to own a bridal costume and two\nspecial blankets, which are worn only in ceremonies, and hence need\nnot here be described. The bridal costume consists of a pair of\nmoccasins, two pure white cotton blankets, one large and the other\nsmall, both having large tassels of yellow and the black yarn at each\ncorner, and a long, broad, white sash, each end of which terminates in\na fringe of balls and long thread. All three garments, before being\nused, are covered with a thick coat of kaolin, so that they are quite\nstiff. With these garments belongs a reed mat sufficiently large to\nenvelop the small blanket and the sash.\n\nSo far as I am able to learn, the three pieces of this remarkable\ncostume are never worn except on a single occasion, and at only one\nother time does the bride formally appear in any of them. About a\nmonth after the marriage ceremony has been performed, during which\ntime she has been living with the family of her husband, she completes\nthe marriage ceremony by returning to the house of her mother. This is\ntermed \"going home,\" and this will be her place of abode until she and\nher husband own a dwelling of their own. For this ceremony she puts on\nthe larger of the two blankets, which reaches almost to the ground and\ncomes up high on the back of the head, covering her ears. The smaller\nblanket and the sash are rolled up in the mat, and with this in front\nof her on her two arms she begins her journey \"home.\" This white\ncotton costume is probably a survival from times which antedate the\nintroduction of wool into the Southwest.\n\nWho makes all these garments, blankets, etc.? Not the women, as you\nmight expect, but the men. A Hopi woman doesn't even make her own\nmoccasins. If you will descend into one of the kivas on almost any\nday of the year, except when the secret rites of ceremonies are being\nheld, you will behold an industrious and an interesting scene. You\nwill find a group of men, naked except for a loin cloth, all busy\neither with the carding combs, the spindle, or the loom; and to me the\nmost interesting of these three operations is that of the spinning of\nwool. The spindle itself is long and heavy, and the whorl, in the\nolder examples, is a large disk cut from a mountain goat's horn. There\nis no attempt at decoration, nor do the spindles compare with those\nfound in Peru and other parts of America for neatness and beauty. An\nunusual feature of the method employed by the Hopi spinner is the\nmanner in which the spindle is held under one foot while he\nstraightens out the thread preparatory to winding it.\n\nFor weaving, two kinds of looms are used. One is a frame holding in\nplace a fifteen-inch row of parallel reeds, each about six inches long\nand perforated in the center. This apparatus is used solely for making\nbelts, sashes, and hair and knee bands. These are not commonly woven\nin the kiva, but in the open air on the terrace, one end of the warp\nbeing fastened to some projecting rafter. The other loom is much\nlarger, and is used for blankets, dresses, and all large garments. It\ndiffers in no essential particular from other well-known looms in use\nby the majority of the aborigines of this continent. The method of\nsuspending the loom is perhaps worth a moment's notice, as in nearly\nevery house and in all kivas special provision is made for its\nerection. From the wall near the ceiling project two wooden beams, on\nwhich, parallel to the floor, is a long wooden pole, and to this is\nfastened, by buckskin thongs, the upper part of the loom. Immediately\nunder this pole is a plank, flush with the floor, in which at short\nintervals are partially covered U-shaped cavities in the wood, through\nwhich are passed buckskin thongs which are fastened to the lower pole\nof the loom. The sets of thongs are long enough to permit of the loom\nbeing lowered or raised to a convenient height. While at work the\nweaver generally squats on the floor in front of his loom, or he\noccasionally sits on a low, boxlike stool. It is no uncommon sight to\nsee, at certain times of the year, as many as six or eight looms in\noperation at one time in a single kiva. The men also do all the sewing\nand embroidering. Practically all the yarn consumed by the Hopis is\nhome-dyed, but the colors now used are almost entirely from aniline\ndyes and indigo. Cotton is no longer used except in the manufacture of\ncertain ceremonial garments, all others being made of wool. They own\ntheir own sheep, which find a scant living in the valleys; for the\nbetter protection of the sheep from wolves they also keep large\nnumbers of goats.\n\nAlthough the men do all the weaving, they do but little of it for\nthemselves. For the greater part of the year their only garment is the\nloin cloth--a bit of store calico. In addition, they all own a shirt\nof cheap black or colored calico, which is generally more or less in\nrags, and a pair of loose, shapeless pantaloons, made often from some\nold flour sack or bit of white cotton sheeting. It is a rather\nincongruous sight to see some old Hopi, his thin legs incased in a\ndirty, ragged pair of flour-sack trousers, on which can still be\ntraced \"XXX Flour, Purest and Best.\"\n\nNeither sex scarifies, tattoos, or paints any part of the body except\nin ceremonies, when colored paints are used as each ceremony requires.\nThe men often wear large silver earrings, and suspend from their neck\nas many strands of shell and turquoise beads as their wealth will\nallow. Some of the younger men wear, in addition, a belt of large\nsilver disks and a shirt and pantaloons of velvet. Most of their\nsilver ornaments, it should be noted, however, have been secured in\ntrade from the Navajos, who are the most expert silversmiths of the\nSouthwest.\n\nWhen the Hopi isn't spinning or weaving, he is in his kiva praying for\nrain, or he is in the field keeping the crows from his corn. I was\nonce asked if the Hopis plow with oxen or horses. They use neither;\nthey do not plow. When they plant corn they dig a deep hole in the\nearth with a long, sharp stick until they reach the moist soil. When\nthe corn is sprouted and has reached a height of a few inches there\nis always the possibility of its being blown flat by the wind or\noverwhelmed in a sand storm. To provide against this the Hopi incloses\nthe exposed parts of his little field with wind-breakers, made by\nplanting in the earth thick rows of stout branches of brush. These\nhedges even are often overwhelmed by the sand and completely covered\nup.\n\nAnd the crows, and the stray horses, and the cattle! Surely the poor\nIndian must fight very hard for his corn. For nearly two months he\nnever leaves it unguarded, and that he may be comfortable he makes a\nshelter behind which he can escape the burning rays of the July and\nAugust sun. The shelters are occasionally rather pretentious affairs,\nat times consisting of a thick brush roof, supported by stout rafters\nwhich rest on upright posts. More often, however, they simply consist\nof a row of cottonwood poles, five or six feet high, set upright at a\nslight angle in the earth.\n\nAlthough corn is by far the most important vegetable food, the rich\nthough sun-parched soil yields large crops of beans and melons of all\nkinds.\n\n[Illustration: VALLEY SCENE; FIELDS AND PEACH TREES. ORAIBI ON MESA TO\nTHE RIGHT.]\n\nPeach orchards also thrive in the sheltered valleys near the mesa, and\nin the fall great patches of peaches may be seen spread out to dry on\nthe rocks of the mesa to the north of the village. Of both beans and\npeaches the Hopis generally have large quantities for the outside\nmarket, which they take over to the railroad on the backs of burros or\nponies.\n\nBefore leaving the subject of the daily life of the male portion of\nOraibi I have still to mention a curious weapon of which they make\noccasional use. This is the throwing-stick, or so-called boomerang,\nwhich differs only slightly from that used by the aborigines of\nAustralia; the Hopi stick, however is better made, and is ornamented\nby short red and black lines. This is the weapon of the young men, and\nwith it they work havoc with the rabbits which infest the valleys. But\nalthough they have good control over it, as can often be seen on their\nreturn from a hunt, they are not able to cause its return as can the\nAustralians. At first thought it seems rather strange that the\nboomerang should have been evolved by two groups of mankind dwelling\nin parts of the world so remote, but we must look for the explanation\nof this phenomenon in the fact that the natural conditions of the two\ncountries have much in common--a generally level, sandy country, with\nhere and there patches of brush, a peculiar condition which would\nreadily yield itself to the development of an equally peculiar and\nspecialized weapon.\n\n[Illustration: ORAIBI MAN TRANSPORTING FIREWOOD WITH BURROS.]\n\nFor fire the Hopi depends almost entirely on the rank growth of brush\nwhich is found along the ravines. This suffices to supply heat to the\npiki stone and the boiling pot, and enough to keep a fire on the\nhearth in the kiva. But now and then he must make a distant journey to\nthat part of the mesa where the supply of stunted and scrubby pines\nand pi\u00f1ons has not already been exhausted; for by custom four kinds of\nfuel are prescribed for the kivas, and to keep the hearth replenished\nwith these often necessitates long journeys. As the woman bends under\nher water jar, so the man staggers along under his load of fagots,\noften carried from a distance of several miles.\n\n\n\n\nREFORM OF PUBLIC CHARITY.\n\nBY BIRD S. COLER,\n\nCOMPTROLLER OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.\n\n\nAbuse of municipal charity in New York city has reached a stage where\nimmediate and radical reform is necessary in order to prevent the\napplication of public funds to the payment of subsidies to societies\nand institutions where professional pauperism is indirectly encouraged\nand sustained. More than fifty years ago the city began to pay money\nto private institutions for the support of public charges. The system\nhas grown without check until to-day New York contributes more than\nthree times as much public money to private or semiprivate charities\nas all the other large cities in the United States combined. The\namounts so appropriated in 1898 by some of the chief cities were:\nChicago, $2,796; Philadelphia, $151,020; St. Louis, $22,579; Boston,\nnothing; Baltimore, $227,350; Cincinnati, nothing; New Orleans,\n$30,110; Pittsburg, nothing; Washington, $194,500; Detroit, $8,081;\nMilwaukee, nothing; New York city, $3,131,580.51.\n\nNo serious attempt has heretofore been made to reform this system of\nusing public funds for the subsidizing of private charities. One\nreason for this has doubtless been the fact that until recently the\nlocal authorities were powerless to avoid or modify the effects of\nmandatory legislation which has disposed of city moneys without regard\nto the opinions entertained by the representatives of the local\ntaxpayers. It has always been easier to pass a bill at Albany than to\npersuade the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the propriety of\nbestowing public funds on private charities, and the managers of\nprivate charities seeking public assistance have therefore generally\nproceeded along the line of least resistance. The effect of this\nsystem was to make beneficiaries the judges of their own deserts, for\nthe bills presented by them to the Legislature were usually passed\nwithout amendment or modification, and gross inequalities in\ndisbursing public funds have arisen, different institutions receiving\ndifferent rates of payment for the same class of work.\n\nIn 1890 the city paid for the support of prisoners and paupers in city\ninstitutions the sum of $1,949,100, and for paupers in private\ninstitutions the sum of $1,845,872. In 1898 these figures had\nincreased to $2,334,456 for prisoners and public paupers, and\n$3,131,580 for paupers in private institutions. Private charity, so\ncalled, has prospered at the expense of the city until in some cases\nit has become a matter of business for profit rather than relief of\nthe needy. The returns made by institutions receiving appropriations\nin bulk from the city treasury show that many of them are using the\npublic funds for purposes not authorized by the Constitution. The\nConstitution authorizes payments to be made for \"care, support, and\nmaintenance.\" The reports of a large number of institutions show the\nmoney annually obtained from the city carried forward wholly or in\npart as a surplus. Different uses are made of this surplus, none of\nthem, however, authorized by law or warranted by a proper regard for\nthe interests of the taxpayers. In some cases this surplus is used to\npay off mortgage indebtedness, in others for permanent additions to\nbuildings, or for increase of investments and endowment. In one case\nthe manager of an institution frankly explained a remarkable falling\noff in disbursements (so great that its charitable activities were\nalmost suspended) by stating that it was proposed, by exercising great\neconomy for a number of years, to let the city's annual appropriations\naccumulate into a respectable building fund. The flagrant nature of\nthis abuse is so apparent that comment is unnecessary.\n\nAppropriations for dependent children have reached enormous\nproportions. Out of a total of $3,249,623.81 appropriated for private\ncharities in 1899, no less than $2,216,773, or sixty-nine per cent, is\nfor the care and support of children. In no city in the United States\nwill the number of children supported at the public expense compare,\nin proportion to the population, with the number so cared for in the\ncity of New York. This may be partly accounted for by the extremes of\npoverty to be met with in the metropolis, especially among the\nforeign-born population, where the struggle for existence is so severe\nas to weaken the family ties; partly by the rivalry and competition\nwhich have existed between the several institutions devoted to this\nkind of work; partly by reason of the fact that the rate paid by the\ncity for the care of these children is such as to enable the larger\ninstitutions, in all probability, to make a small profit; but, to a\nconsiderable extent, also from an insufficient inspection by public\nofficers for the purpose of ascertaining whether children are the\nproper subjects of commitment and detention. In the city of New York\n50,638 children in private institutions are cared for at the public\nexpense. This is one to every sixty-eight of the estimated population\nof the city.\n\nSo much for the abuse and extent of public charity. Now for the\nreforming of the system that was fast approaching the condition of a\ngrave scandal. The last Legislature passed a bill placing in the hands\nof the local Board of Estimate absolute power over all appropriations\nfor charitable purposes, and for the first time in many years reform\nis possible. The discretion conferred by this act upon the Board of\nEstimate and Apportionment carries with it a large responsibility. If\nhereafter the city, in its relation to private charitable\ninstitutions, should either, on the one hand, be wasteful of public\nfunds, or, on the other hand, should fail to perform the duties owed\nby the community to the dependent classes, the blame can not be\nshifted to the Legislature, but will rest squarely upon the shoulders\nof the local authorities.\n\nIn treating a condition which has been allowed to exist for many years\nalmost without challenge from the local authorities, and which has\ngrown upon the passive or indifferent attitude of the public, sweeping\nand immediate reforms can be instituted only at the cost of serious\ntemporary injury to certain charitable work of a necessary character.\nI believe that the best results will be obtained if the city\nauthorities first decide clearly the relations to be established\nbetween the city treasury and private charitable institutions, and\nthen move toward that end by gradually conforming the appropriations\nin the budget to that idea, in such a manner that progress shall be\nmade as rapidly as may be consistent with the desire to avoid\ncrippling excellent charities which have been led to depend for many\nyears upon public assistance. By this, of course, I do not mean to\nsuggest that we should approach the subject with excessive timidity,\nfor the evils that exist have assumed such proportions that a more or\nless severe use of the pruning knife must be made in dealing with\nappropriations, else the effect will be scarcely perceptible. I am\nconvinced that ultimately the cause of charity will benefit rather\nthan suffer from this course, for it is a serious objection to the\nwhole subsidy system that it tends to dry up the sources of private\nbenevolence.\n\nIn making up the budget for 1900 I shall urge my associates in the\nBoard of Estimate to agree with me to limit the appropriations for\ncharity to actual relief work accomplished. The giving of public money\nin lump sums to private societies and institutions for miscellaneous\ncharitable work, of which there is no public or official inspection,\nshould be discontinued at once. It has been the practice for some\nyears past, both in Brooklyn and New York, to donate annually lump\nsums of money to such organizations. In New York these amounts have\nbeen for the most part comparatively small, and principally derived\nfrom the Theatrical and Concert-License Fund. In Brooklyn the amounts\nhave been larger, and were obtained originally from the Excise Fund,\nand later directly from the budget. This practice should be wholly\ndiscontinued. The charter itself contains stringent prohibitions\nagainst the distribution of outdoor relief by the Department of Public\nCharities, and the spirit of these provisions would certainly seem to\ndisfavor accomplishing the same result in an indirect manner. Many of\nthese recipients of public funds devote themselves exclusively to\noutdoor relief, and an examination of the purposes of some of these\norganizations shows that, however proper these may be as the result of\nprivate benevolence, they are extremely improper objects of the public\nbounty. The immediate and permanent discontinuance of appropriations\nto all such societies and institutions will correct one of the gravest\nabuses of the present system. If the persons conducting these\nmiscellaneous charities are really sincere, and believe that they are\ndoing good, they can readily obtain from private sources the funds\nnecessary to carry on the work.\n\nI shall urge that all appropriations to institutions of every kind not\ncontrolled by the city be limited to per-capita payment for the\nsupport of public charges, and that a system of thorough inspection be\nat once established to ascertain if present and future inmates are\nreally persons entitled to maintenance at public expense. In addition\nto this precaution, the comptroller should have full power to withhold\npayments to any institution after an appropriation has been made if in\nhis judgment, after examination, the money has not been earned. The\npayment of city money to dispensaries should be discontinued, except\nin special cases where the work done is clearly a proper charge\nagainst the public treasury. No money should be paid for the treatment\nof dependent persons in any private hospital while there is unoccupied\nroom in the city hospitals.\n\nThe city maintains its own hospitals, while at the same time\nsubsidizing private institutions which compete with them. During the\nlast few years great improvements have been made in the city\nhospitals, but their condition is still capable of considerable\nfurther improvement. While sometimes overcrowded, it frequently\nhappens that the city hospitals are not filled to the limits of their\ncapacity, and it would seem as though the city should not deal with\nprivate hospitals except as subsidiary aids or adjuncts to the public\ninstitutions. It stands to reason that so long as there are vacant\nbeds in the city hospitals and the city is at the same time\nsubsidizing private hospitals at a cost greater than the expense of\ncaring for patients in its own institutions, a wrong is being done to\nthe taxpayers. If private hospitals are to receive public assistance\nat all, payments should be made only at some uniform rate,\napproximately the same as the cost per capita of maintenance in the\npublic institutions.\n\nThe gravest problem of public charity is the support and training of\ndependent children, because that has to do with the making of future\ncitizens of the republic as well as the relief of immediate suffering.\nThis work is entirely in the hands of private societies and\ninstitutions. The rearing of large numbers of children in either\nprivate or public institutions is in itself an evil--a necessary\nevil--and likely to continue as long as there is extreme poverty, but\nstill an evil, and not to be fostered by subventions of public money\nin unnecessary cases, when parents are really able to provide for\ntheir support.\n\nTo build, equip, and maintain public buildings for the care of\ndependent children seems to me entirely impracticable. Regardless of\nthe matter of expense, which would be enormous, all the disadvantages\nof the \"institutional system\" would continue, and it is not likely\nthat public employees could be obtained who would rear children as\neconomically, as efficaciously, or with the same devotion and\nself-denial as is the case with the religious orders and associations\nnow performing this work--in many respects so successfully. The care\nof these children by direct governmental agencies being therefore\npractically impossible, in the city of New York at least, and it being\nrecognized that the present system is likely to continue for many\nyears, if not permanently, the most should be made of it. With the\nreligious training of children the city has nothing to do. Their moral\ntraining may also be left safely to those now responsible therefor. On\nthe other hand, the State is vitally concerned with their mental and\nphysical development, and visitation and control for the purpose of\nmaintaining a proper standard in these respects is essential. This\nform of public charity, like many others, has been abused, and many\nchildren are now supported in institutions who probably should not be\nthere. For the rearing of a child into a possible useful man or woman\na poor home is better than a good institution, and it is the duty of\nthe city authorities to extend the work of inspection and\ninvestigation of such cases until they make it impossible for fraud in\nthe commitment and retention of children to escape detection.\n\nThe reduction and regulation of appropriations as outlined can not be\nclassed as a radical reform, and will work no hardship upon any\ndependent person who is a proper charge upon the city. The saving to\nthe taxpayers, if the plan I have suggested is adopted, will\napproximate one million dollars in 1900, and a steady reduction of\nexpenditures for charitable work should continue for several years to\ncome.\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTIAN SCIENCE FROM A PHYSICIAN'S POINT OF VIEW.\n\nBY JOHN B. HUBER, A. M., M. D.\n\n\nChristian science is stated to be a religious system which was\n\"discovered,\" in 1866, by Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, a lady now living\nin the vicinity of Boston, Mass., who has passed her eightieth year,\nand who is called by her followers the \"Mother of the Christian\nScience Church,\" or \"Mother Mary.\" Mrs. Eddy has formulated Christian\nScience in a book entitled Science and Health, with Key to the\nScriptures, in which book are to be found the principles upon which\nthis system rests. We are told that to him who studies this book\nreverently and conscientiously there will be revealed \"the Truth,\" for\nwhich man has been searching without avail since the beginning of his\nexistence; that the faithful student will find in Christian Science an\ninfallible guide for the conduct of life in all its phases; and that\nthe Christian Scientist has the power to heal without any therapeutic\nmeans, other than that of the influence of mind upon mind, all\nimaginable ills, surgical or medical, which afflict mankind and the\nlower animals. Mrs. Eddy tells us that she and her followers have had\nthis power transmitted to them from Jesus Christ, and that they are\nable to heal the sick and to perform miracles as He is said to have\ndone. In Science and Health all religious systems other than\n\"Christian Science\" are held to have been erroneous and pernicious in\ntheir influence upon mankind, and the practice of medicine, as it is\ntaught in the medical colleges, is considered to be hurtful rather\nthan helpful to humanity, and to have increased disease rather than\nameliorated human suffering.\n\nIt is said that in 1898 there were in the Greater City of New York\nthree thousand Christian Scientists and seven Christian Science\nchurches. The whole number of Christian Scientists is declared to be\none million, of whom one hundred thousand, it is said, are engaged in\nthe business of \"healing,\" and are called \"healers.\" The movement has\nbeen and is spreading day by day.\n\nIn religious matters Christian Science has divided many homes, and has\ndestroyed not a few through the mischief produced by its propaganda.\nIt is claimed that Christian Science has cured many who have not been\nbenefited by the efforts of regular practitioners of medicine. On the\nother hand, many have died during the exclusive ministrations of\nChristian Scientists. Moreover, Christian Science considers itself\nentitled to disregard such sanitary laws, including those concerning\ninfectious diseases, as have been found effectual to preserve intact\nthe general health of communities and peoples.\n\nChristian Science, then, is a cult unusually powerful and far reaching\nin its influence, and it is therefore entitled to and should invite\ncorrespondingly careful investigation of all its various aspects.\n\nI have been interested in Christian Science from the view-point of the\nmedical man, and I have felt quite unaffected, for the reason which I\nshall presently give, by Mrs. Eddy's stricture that \"a person's\nignorance of Christian Science is a sufficient reason for his silence\non the subject.\" The system of medicine, as it is taught in the great\nmedical colleges of to-day, is an epitome of the accumulated study and\nexperience of mankind from the time human beings first became ill up\nto the present day. All systems of cure, or of alleged cure, have been\nexamined by men who have made it the work of their lives to treat the\nsick. Whatever has been found curative has been retained, and\nunsubstantiated claims to cure have been discarded; so that the\nregular degree of doctor of medicine states that its recipient has\nacquired a knowledge of the system of treating disease which is a\ncrystallization of the world's best medical thought, study, and\nexperience.\n\nAs the possessor of such a degree, I have been engaged during several\nmonths in an investigation of the cures which Christian-Science\nhealers are said to have accomplished.\n\nBefore beginning this work I reflected that mental suggestion, or the\ninfluence of the mind of the physician upon that of the patient, is a\npotent factor in the treatment of such diseases as are not\ncharacterized by permanent pathological changes in the tissues, and I\nremembered that when judiciously influenced by the physician's mind,\nthe mind of the patient can affect his body favorably both in\nfunctional disorders and in disorders which may result from nervous\naberration--such as hysteria in all its protean forms, the purely\nsubjective, as headache and hyper\u00e6sthesia, and also those exhibiting\nobjective manifestations, as hysterical dislocations and paralyses.\n\nI knew that medical men, in their own unadvertised work, employ\nmental suggestion as a therapeutic means, rely upon it as a part of\ntheir armamentarium, and use it in appropriate cases, either alone or\ncombined with other means of cure, as electricity, hydrotherapy, and\ndrugs--which last, despite Mrs. Eddy's foolish denunciation, are quite\nas much entitled to be considered divinely appointed therapeutic\nagents as is mental suggestion.\n\nWhat I did want especially to discover was whether the Christian\nScientist could cure such diseases as are considered by the medical\nman to be incurable--as cancer, locomotor ataxia, or advanced\nphthisis--and also what were the results of their treatment of typhoid\nfever, pneumonia, diphtheria, malaria, etc. And I wanted also to\ninvestigate the claims of Christian Science concerning the alleged\ncure of surgical conditions, such as necrosis or h\u00e6morrhage from\nsevered arteries, by no other means than the sole exercise of thought.\nIf the Christian Scientist could have healed in such cases, I for my\npart would have declared him a worker of miracles. Therefore I\nsearched diligently for such cases.\n\nIn the beginning I had the honor to meet Mrs. Stetson, the \"pastor,\"\nor the \"first reader,\" of the \"First Church of Christ, Scientist,\" at\n143 West Forty-eighth Street, New York city. I had prepared a number\nof questions concerning Christian Science which I wished to ask Mrs.\nStetson. She preferred, however, not to answer them herself, but told\nme that she would be pleased to forward them to Mrs. Eddy. I then\nwrote out these questions and put them, together with a letter to Mrs.\nEddy, very respectfully requesting her consideration of them, in Mrs.\nStetson's hands. Mrs. Stetson then very kindly forwarded them to Mrs.\nEddy. Among the questions which I asked were the following:\n\nIs the treatment of the sick a part of Christian Science?\n\nUpon what principles is the Christian Scientist's method of treatment\nfounded?\n\nHow do you define health?\n\nHow do you define disease?\n\nWhen a patient presents himself to you, do you inquire concerning the\ncauses of his illness?\n\nDo you investigate symptoms? (Symptoms, I stated, are the signs of\ndisease.)\n\nDo you make diagnoses? (A diagnosis, I stated, is a consideration of\nsymptoms by which one disease is distinguished from another or\nothers.)\n\nIn what does your treatment consist?\n\nIn treating a patient, do you administer any material substance, and\nrequire that it be taken into the body as one would food?\n\nDo you consider cleanliness, good order, and the attainment of\n\u00e6sthetic effects in a patient's environment a part of treatment?\n\nDo you take any steps to isolate the patient sick of an infectious\ndisease, or to protect those about the patient from the disease?\n\nDo you treat structural diseases, as cancer or locomotor ataxia? Do\nyou consider you have cured such diseases? If so, how do you know you\nwere treating a structural disease, such as cancer or locomotor\nataxia?\n\nWould you treat cases of fracture of bones or violent injury? If so,\nwhat would you do in such cases?\n\nWill you give me the names of patients whom you have treated, with\npermission to inquire concerning their illnesses, your treatment of\nthem, and the effects of your treatment upon them--upon the distinct\nunderstanding that their names are not to be published?\n\nDo you deny the existence of matter? In Science and Health it is\nstated that \"all is mind, there is no matter.\" How is it possible, in\ntreating disease, for you to separate mind from matter?\n\nAnimals sometimes become sick; could they be cured by\nChristian-Science methods?\n\nFrom Mrs. Eddy I received no answer nor any communication whatever.\nBut, some time afterward, Mrs. Stetson informed me that the matter had\nbeen turned over to Judge Septimus J. Hanna, Mrs. Eddy's \"counsel.\"\nJust here I reflected how Jesus Christ, whose representative Mrs. Eddy\ndeclares herself to be, would have acted under those circumstances,\nand I wondered how he would have appeared in this odd atmosphere\nhedged about by \"counsel\" and other legal paraphernalia. Presently\nthereafter I had the honor to receive a note from Mrs. Stetson,\nappointing a time for me to call. When I did this, Mrs. Stetson gave\nme a letter which had been sent her by Judge Hanna, and which she\npermitted me to use as I should see fit. This is the letter:\n\n\n                                  \"BOSTON, MASS., _November 18, 1898._\n\n  \"_Editorial Office of The Christian Science Journal, Mrs. A. E.\n  Stetson, New York City_:\n\n     \"DEAR SISTER: Mr. Metcalf handed me the questions submitted by\n     Dr. Huber. I have also received and carefully read your letters.\n     As I think Mr. Metcalf has informed you, this matter was referred\n     to me from Concord. I have been so very busy that I have not had\n     time to give this matter the thorough attention it needs until\n     now.\n\n     \"I have carefully read and considered the entire paper. My\n     conclusion is that it will be wholly impractical--indeed, I may\n     say impossible--to answer these questions in such a manner as to\n     make an entire paper fit for publication in a medical journal,\n     or in any other magazine or periodical. The questions submitted\n     touch the entire subject of Christian Science, both in its\n     theology and therapeutics. These questions can be answered only\n     in one way so that they can be understood, and that is by just\n     such study of the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the\n     Scriptures as the earnest, sincere Christian Scientists are\n     giving them every day of their lives, and have been for years.\n     When we think of the helps provided by our leader, the Rev. Mary\n     Baker Eddy, for her own students in arriving at a correct\n     interpretation and putting in practice the teachings of these\n     text-books, such as the publications established by her, the\n     Bible Lessons made up of selections from the Bible and our\n     text-book, constituting the sermons for our service in all the\n     Christian-Science churches; the many auxiliaries she has\n     published and is publishing in further illucidation of the\n     text-books--when we stop to consider that even those of her\n     students who may be considered the most advanced are as yet\n     infants in the understanding and ability to demonstrate the truth\n     contained in these text-books, can we not easily see, and will\n     not your friend the doctor at a glance see, the utter futility of\n     attempting to answer his questions so as to make the answers\n     intelligible to the medical profession and their readers? I\n     admire greatly the kindly spirit manifested by the doctor and\n     those for whom he is acting,[2] and the entire fairness, from\n     their standpoint, of the questions submitted, but this does not\n     relieve the difficulty of the situation. I therefore return the\n     doctor's questions, with many thanks in behalf of our leader and\n     the cause for the impartial spirit manifested.\n\n                                              \"Yours in Truth,\n                                                      \"S. J. HANNA.\"\n\n     [Footnote 2: I had arranged with the editor of the New York\n     Medical News for the publication in that journal of a paper on\n     Christian Science, and had so informed Mrs. Stetson.]\n\nI wrote Judge Hanna a note of thanks, and in reply received a letter\nin which he stated: \"I should have been very glad if I could have seen\nmy way clear to answer your questions in such a way as could have been\nintelligible and satisfactory. But it was impossible for me to do so.\"\n\nNow, all this seems to me much worse than preposterous. I fail utterly\nto see why he who asks the question, \"Do you isolate a patient\nsuffering from an infectious disease?\" would have to spend months or\nyears in Nirvana-like abstraction before he would be able to\nappreciate an answer to it. No doubt Judge Hanna, who is evidently a\nlawyer, could, if he chose, tell the reason why.\n\nTo all who had been \"healed in Christian Science\" whom I met I stated\nplainly my object--to investigate how they had been \"healed.\" I stated\nthat my findings would be published, but that no names would be\nprinted. The cases were to be numbered. I stated that I did not wish\nto examine nervous manifestations of a hysterical sort or purely\nfunctional disorders. I wished to see cases of disease in which the\nstructure of the organs was likely to be or to have been involved,\nsuch as Bright's disease or cancer. Having, to begin with, explained\nthis fully, I took the subject's history and ascertained whenever\npossible the name of any physician who may have treated the patient\nbefore he or she went \"into Christian Science.\" Almost all these\nphysicians who live in New York I visited; to the others residing in\nNew York and to those living out of town I wrote, the form of the\nletter being generally as follows:\n\n     \"DEAR DOCTOR: I am investigating Christian Science from the\n     physician's view-point, and am examining a number of people, in\n     the hope of presenting some twenty histories. These histories\n     would, I think, be valuable only in so far as they are\n     scientifically accurate. Therefore, whenever possible, I request\n     a medical account from any physician who may formerly have been\n     in attendance. I have now under observation the case of Mr.\n     X----, who believes himself to have been cured 'in Christian\n     Science.' I would thank you very kindly if you would send me\n     whatever medical information you can concerning this case, with\n     records of examinations if possible. The cases will be numbered,\n     not named.\"\n\nIn each case, having set down the subject's statements and the\nphysician's statement, I recorded my own observations of the subject's\ncondition.\n\nI examined in succession _and without exception_ the case of every\nwilling Christian Scientist up to the number of twenty.[3] All these\ncases were of their own choosing; no doubt, then, they would be\nconsidered to be among their \"good\" cases. Their \"failures\" I had no\nopportunity to examine. There were many others who refused to testify,\nno doubt justifiably. Others refused for reasons not easily\ncomprehended, considering the fact that these people hold weekly\n\"experience meetings,\" in which they \"rejoice to testify to the power\nof Christian Science.\" It is difficult to see, therefore, why such\ncases should not invite scientific investigation.\n\n     [Footnote 3: These medical histories are a part of my serial\n     paper in the New York Medical News of January 28, 1899, _et\n     seq._]\n\nI could find in all these twenty cases no \"cure\" that would have\noccasioned the medical man the slightest surprise. What did surprise\nme was the vast disproportion between the results they exhibited and\nthe claims made by Christian-Science healers. One of these cases may\nbe cited as an example of the loose generalization upon which many of\nthe claims of these healers rest. A lady stated that she had had\npneumonia. I asked how she knew she had had pneumonia. She declared\nshe knew, because her nurse \"could tell at a glance she had\npneumonia.\" No medical examination had been made. I asked what\nsymptoms she had had--how she had suffered. She told me she had\npurposely forgotten--she had tried to dismiss from her mind all\nrecollection of this distressing illness. Well, this is no doubt\ncommendable enough; but how do we know, then, if she really had\npneumonia, or anything more than an ordinary cold?\n\nI heard during my investigation of cases of yellow fever, phthisis,\ncancer, and locomotor ataxia which had been \"healed in Christian\nScience.\" But truth compels the statement that my efforts to examine\nthese cases were defeated by the cheapest sort of subterfuge and\nelusion. To be explicit: On November 2, 1898, a man arose in an\n\"experience meeting\" which I attended and stated that he had been one\nof a party of twelve who, while in Central America, contracted yellow\nfever, he having suffered with the rest. All took medicine but\nhimself; instead, he read Science and Health. Among his companions\nseven died; he recovered completely. Several days later I called at\nthe church and asked for the name and address of this gentleman, and\ntwice, on this and a subsequent visit, the clerk promised to send me\nhis address. Not having received it, I called a third time, on\nNovember 21st. The clerk told me he could not find this eel-like\nspecimen, and could not get his address. This man was, however, a\nmember of that church, and had, on the evening I was present, a number\nof acquaintances in the congregation.\n\nAgain, I had been told that a young lady living out of town had been\n\"healed\" of consumption. I wrote her mother, who sent me a kind note,\ninviting me to call several evenings later, and inclosing a\ntime-table. She stated, \"I shall be happy to give you any information\nin my power, as Christian Science has been a great blessing in my\nfamily.\" Before the appointed evening I received a note, breaking the\nengagement. Again, at an \"experience meeting\" a man arose and declared\nhe had cured a case of locomotor ataxia, \"so that the patient's two\nformer physicians had been lost in amazement at the change.\" I learned\nalso that his wife, another \"healer,\" had cured a case of cancer of\nthe tongue. I wrote this gentleman, and he sent me an answer, kindly\ninviting me to call at his house. He lived out of town. I went to his\nhouse, and spent the greater part of an evening trying to prevail upon\nthese two people to show me or to introduce me to these subjects of\nlocomotor ataxia and cancer of the tongue. They utterly refused to do\nso. Their line of argument was quite of the same sort as that\ncontained in the letter of their better-known \"brother in the church,\"\nwhich appears earlier in this paper. I was not investigating in the\nright way. What I ought to do was to study Science and Health and the\nother elucidatory works--above all with an obedient spirit, and \"the\ntruth\" would come to me in time. Or it may be this pair of \"healers\"\nhad in mind this reasoning, not new in my observation of this odd\ncult: In the mind of the Christian Scientist the locomotor-ataxia\npatient was healed, but he was withheld from inspection by the\ndeceptive senses of those outside the Christian-Science pale, to which\nsenses the patient might appear to stagger about and be as ill or more\nill than ever before. Following is this \"healer's\" letter to me:\n\n     \"MY DEAR DR. HUBER: I received your letter with Joy, and name\n     next Monday eveng as a time to give you for your enquiry into the\n     workings of Truth as it has come under my notice. Our field is a\n     broad one coverig several towns, and we have not lately had an\n     eveng free for discussin the subject coverig this sublime and\n     stately Science That leads into all Truth even to the solving of\n     the problem of Being. The healing of the sick is only the primary\n     steps this step however is an important one as its demonstration\n     with proof attests its divine origen even God--Good, its\n     principle source and ultimates in Eternal Life. For the Life is\n     in his Son and Divine Science reveals this son Even our own\n     Christ our spiritual Individuality God being our Father and\n     mother,\n\n                                                   \"Yrs. in Truth\n                                                             \"----.\"\n\nThe writer of this letter is the leader of that Christian-Science\nchurch in New Jersey a member of which was a woman who died, in June\nof this year, of consumption,[4] and this woman's \"healer\" was the\nwriter's wife. The woman who died left the Episcopalian Church and\nbecame a Christian Scientist in January, 1899. In April she contracted\na heavy cold, to which she gave no attention. Her husband remonstrated\nwith her, and wished her to consult a physician, but she would not do\nso. She declared she could not be ill, but that she was well and\nhappy. The services of her \"healer\" were the only ministrations she\nreceived. In the beginning of June her condition was so bad that her\nhusband prevailed upon her to see a physician, who examined her and\nfound her hopelessly ill with consumption. Another physician examined\nher and reached the same conclusion. She then turned \"longingly and\nearnestly to the religion in which she had been brought up.\" Two weeks\nafter, she died, \"asking the prayers of her co-religionists in behalf\nof herself, her husband, and her children.\"\n\n     [Footnote 4: New York Times, June 24, 1899.]\n\nMrs. Eddy declares that she \"healed consumption in its last stages,\nthe lungs being mostly consumed\"; that she \"healed carious bones which\ncould be dented with the finger\"; and that she \"healed in one visit a\ncancer that had so eaten the flesh of the neck as to expose the\njugular vein so that it stood out like a cord.\" Judge Hanna has\npublished statements to the effect that \"cancer, malignant tumors,\nconsumption, broken bones, and broken tissues have been healed in\nChristian Science, without the assistance of any material means\nwhatever.\" Mr. Carol Norton, a Christian-Science lecturer, has\npublicly announced that Christian Science has healed \"locomotor\nataxia, softening of the brain, paresis, tumor, Bright's disease,\ncancer,\" etc. And many other Christian Scientists have made like\nclaims. Very well, then. Who are these people that have thus been\ncured? What are their names? Where do they live? How can they be\nfound? Will Mrs. Eddy and her followers submit these cases for\nscientific examination? I and other investigators are asking, and have\nfor years been asking, these questions, and we are all of us still\nwaiting for answers.\n\nThe importance of all this is no doubt manifest. The healing of\ndisease is, we are told, the outward and visible evidence upon which\nChristian Science expects to be judged and accepted. Therefore the\ncult must stand or fall upon the results of an investigation of the\nhealer's claims. \"By their fruits ye shall know them.\"\n\nThere are Christian Scientists who will say that these statements of\nMrs. Eddy and her associates must be taken upon faith and as _ipse\ndixit_ utterances. This is in the last degree silly. With such\nstatements faith has absolutely nothing to do. They are solely matters\nfor scientific inquiry.\n\nEvery Christian Scientist may be a healer. A little child may be a\nhealer in Christian Science. The treatment is said to consist in\nthinking, speaking, and writing. It is declared that no material\nsubstances are used. The following oddity in mental processes is here\nto be noted: A healer told her patient to take a certain drug during\nher illness, and that she would then demonstrate the power of\nChristian Science _over this drug_.\n\nThe healer does not need to see his patient. He may, if he will, treat\n\"absently,\" by a species of thought transference. He would consider\nhis treatment effectual if he were in New York and his patient were in\nHong Kong.\n\nI have rheumatism, let us say, and at midnight my swollen and inflamed\njoint gives me pain. I send for a Christian-Science healer. In all\nprobability my messenger will call upon a person who has had no\npreliminary medical education whatever. He is likely to find some one\nwho is quite illiterate, as witness the letter last presented. He may,\nas I have, come upon some one who has been engaged in the occupation\nof amusing the _habitu\u00e9s_ of beer saloons by playing upon the zither\nbefore he took up the more remunerative business of Christian-Science\nhealing. Or he may, as I have, come upon some one who is engaged\nsimultaneously both in the business of selling drugs and in the\npractice of healing by mental therapeutics alone.\n\nHaving been found, the healer, first requiring a fee from my\nmessenger, treats me \"absently,\" while lying abed in his own home. His\ntreatment consists in sending me word that I only imagine I am ill,\nthat my joint is really not swollen, that it is really not inflamed,\nand that it really does not pain me, but that, on the contrary, I am\nreally very well and very happy indeed.\n\nSome diseases are in Christian Science considered to take longer to\nheal than others; I have not understood why. If \"all is mind, and\nthere is no matter,\"[5] as the Christian Scientist holds, and if,\ntherefore, the varying densities of tissues need not be considered,\nwhy should not cancer or locomotor ataxia be healed as easily and as\nrapidly as a headache or a hysterical manifestation? Christian Science\ndespises bodily cleanliness, the use of baths, and the most ordinary\nsanitary regulations. \"To bow down to a flesh-brush, bath, diet,\nexercise, and air is a form of idolatry.\"[6] We learn, finally, that\n\"the heart, the lungs, the brain, have nothing to do with life.\"[7]\n\n     [Footnote 5: Science and Health.]\n\n     [Footnote 6: Ibid.]\n\n     [Footnote 7: Ibid.]\n\nChristian Science has stood by the bedside of an infant sick with\ndiphtheria, has prevented interference with its incantations, and has\nseen this infant choke, grow livid, gasp, and expire, without so much\nas putting a drop of water to its lips.\n\nMost Christian Scientists are well to do. Their tenet is that \"no one\nhas any business to be poor.\" In New York their churches are in the\nneighborhood of the wealthy, and there are no missions by means of\nwhich the professed blessings of Christian Science may be disseminated\namong the poor. Christian Science is demonstrably a powerful\norganization for the accumulation of wealth, and by easy calculation\none may see that her propaganda has made Mrs. Eddy, who is said to\nhave been at one time very poor, conspicuously rich even in these\ndays of enormous fortunes. When we consider that this woman claims to\nbe actuated by the spirit of the poor Nazarene, has hypocrisy ever\ngone to greater length?\n\nMrs. Eddy despises all metaphysical systems, yet her writings display\nher inability to think logically through half a dozen consecutive\nlines.\n\nMrs. Eddy declares that \"no human being or agency taught me the truths\nof Christian Science, and no human agency can overthrow it.\"[8] But\nthere are published statements,[9] of the truth of which the writer\noffers to give legal proof, in which it is shown, by means of the\n\"deadly parallel,\" that the essential ideas underlying her system are\nall plagiarized from the writings of an irregular practitioner to\nwhom, many years ago, she went for treatment. Published accounts of\nher illness at that time present a picture of hysteria pure and\nsimple.\n\n     [Footnote 8: Science and Health.]\n\n     [Footnote 9: The Arena, May, 1898.]\n\nMrs. Eddy claims to possess healing powers nothing short of\nmiraculous, yet the writer just mentioned declares that she has\nprobably not been a well woman these forty years past. Certain it is\nshe almost never appears in public, and only a few of her followers\nhave ever seen her face except in copyrighted photographs.\n\nThe medical profession is most stupidly reprobated by Mrs. Eddy and\nher associates, especially for its \"mercenary motives.\" A specific\nstatement may here be not malapropos. In the year 1895 there were\n1,800,000 inhabitants in the lesser city of New York, and on the rolls\nof its hospitals and dispensaries were more than 793,000 names of\npeople for the treatment of whom New York's medical men received\npractically no pecuniary reward whatever.\n\nIt is declared that Christian Science is a religious system, that the\ntreatment of the sick is a part of this system, and that, as the\nConstitution forbids interference by the States with religion, no laws\ncan be enacted which could compel the healer to desist from his work.\nBut there is a sharp distinction between religious liberty and license\nto commit, in the name of religion, unlawful acts. A man would not be\njustified in killing his child in obedience to a fanatical belief, as\nAbraham was about to do; but Christian Science has sacrificed the\nlives of little children upon the altar of its pseudo-religion. Had\nnot these children rights which ought to have been safeguarded? If the\nChristian Scientist's position be admitted, a thug might, upon the\nsame principles, be justified in committing murder, on the ground that\nmurder is a practice required by his religion; and a Mormon might, on\nthe same basis, practice polygamy. When a healer treats for hire a\nsufferer from typhoid fever, is he acting in a religious capacity?\n\nThe observer will find in Christian Science much charlatanry (by which\nmany honest fanatics are deceived), much to surprise reason and common\nsense, to offend good taste and the proprieties, to outrage justice\nand the law, and to mortify the pious.\n\nAnd in the last degree reprehensible will appear this cult's ghastly\nmasquerade in the garb of Him that prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane,\n\"the pale, staggering Jew, with the crown of thorns upon his bleeding\nhead,\" the tenderest, the divinest, the most mankind-loving\npersonality the world has ever known.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WHEAT LANDS OF CANADA.\n\nBY SYDNEY C. D. ROPER.\n\n\nWhen Sir W. Crookes, in his inaugural address as President of the\nBritish Association, startled a large number of people by stating\nthat, unless some radical change was made in the present system of\nwheat cultivation, there would be a bread famine in 1931, because the\nworld's supply of land capable of producing wheat would have been\nexhausted, there was undoubtedly a considerable feeling of uneasiness\nengendered, and more attention was paid to the address than is usual\neven to so valuable a contribution as the inaugural address of the\nPresident of that Association must always be. It was, therefore, with\na feeling of relief that we found one person after another, well\nqualified to speak, coming, as it were, to the rescue, and pointing\nout that Sir W. Crookes's conclusions were not warranted; and in the\nminds of the majority, no doubt, the last feeling of uneasiness was\ndispelled by the able letter in The Times, in December last, in which\nSir John Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert, who are _facile principes_ as\nscientific agriculturists, and whose opinions carry greater weight\nthan even those of the President of the British Association, gave most\nsatisfactory reasons for being unable to believe in Sir W. Crookes's\npredictions.\n\nIt is true that, in a subsequent letter, Sir W. Crookes stated that\nhis remarks were intended more as a serious warning than as a\nprophecy; but, seeing that his conclusions were based on definite\nstatements of definite facts and figures, it is difficult to treat\nthem as other than prophetic.\n\nIn order, however, to establish the probability of a wheat famine in\nthe near future it became necessary for Sir W. Crookes to seriously\nmisrepresent and underestimate the wheat resources of some of the\nprincipal countries most interested in producing that cereal, and it\nis to a large extent by exposing the magnitude of these\nmisrepresentations that the validity of his conclusions is called in\nquestion and disproved. The two countries which, with perhaps the\nexception of Russia, are most concerned in the wheat production of the\nfuture, and therefore in the correction of these misstatements, are\nCanada and the United States.\n\nMr. Atkinson, the well-known writer on economic subjects, took up the\ncudgels for the United States, and their case could hardly have been\nin better hands; but so far no champion has appeared on behalf of\nCanada; and while Sir W. Crookes may not have been alone in his views\nabout the possible exhaustion of the wheat area in the United States,\nhe certainly stood quite alone when he committed himself to the\nremarkable statements that are to be found in the address, in order to\ndecry the capabilities of the Canadian wheat fields. I did not\nimmediately reply to them myself, thinking that some one better\nqualified would do so, but this has not been done, and as I feel that\nthey can not be allowed any longer to remain unanswered, I propose to\ndeal with them in the present article.\n\nMr. Atkinson's defense has been criticised, in the March number of The\nForum, by Mr. C. Wood Davis, who naturally upholds Sir W. Crookes's\nviews, seeing that they appear to have been largely induced by his own\nfigures and agree with his own ideas, but his argument in that article\nis more one of fault finding with the statements of others than an\nattempt to justify his own position. As a specimen of his style of\ncriticism, Mr. Davis takes Mr. Atkinson to task for saying that \"the\npresent necessities of the world are computed by Sir W. Crookes at\n2,324,000,000 bushels,\" and says that in no part of his address was an\nestimate of the whole world's requirements so much as mentioned; and\nyet, on turning to the address, we find that Sir W. Crookes said: \"The\nbread eaters of the whole world share the perilous prospect.... The\nbread eaters of the world at the present time number 516,500,000....\nTo supply 516,500,000 bread eaters will require a total of\n2,324,000,000 bushels for seed and food.\" The requirements of the\nwhole world are distinctly stated here, for bread is required only for\nthe bread-eating population, and therefore the requirements of that\npopulation are, as far as bread is concerned, the requirements of the\nwhole world. Mr. Atkinson, however, is well able to take care of\nhimself, and he and Mr. Davis can fight out for themselves the\nquestion as to when, or if ever, the United States will cease to\nexport wheat; but it is amusing to find Mr. Atkinson charged by Mr.\nDavis, of all men, with dealing in \"purely speculative computations,\"\nfor if there is any one who has freely indulged in these same purely\nspeculative computations it is Mr. Davis himself, as we shall\npresently see.\n\nThe value of the various calculations that statisticians indulge in is\nlargely discounted by the fact that allowance is rarely made for\nchanging conditions. Such has been the ratio, such is the ratio, and\ntherefore in so many years' time such will be the ratio, is the burden\nof their calculations, so that while their figures for the past and\npresent may be both correct and instructive, their calculations for\nthe future are frequently of little practical utility; and it is this\nfailure to allow for any variation in conditions that renders Mr.\nDavis's figures of so little value, and Sir W. Crookes's conclusions,\nwhich are based on them, of no greater importance.\n\nIt is surprising to find how much value Sir W. Crookes attaches to Mr.\nDavis's figures, and it leads one to the conclusion that he has either\nnot examined them very closely, or shares with Mr. Davis a fondness\nfor \"purely speculative computations\"; and while it is not seemly to\naccuse, as has been done, a man of Sir W. Crookes's standing and\nreputation of resorting to \"bucket-shop\" methods to support his\nconclusions, it is difficult to avoid thinking that the anxiety to\nestablish those conclusions has not only led him to accept Mr. Davis's\ncalculations without proper examination, but has also influenced the\npreparation of some of his antecedent data and led him to subordinate\nfacts as a means to a required end. Since Sir W. Crookes thinks so\nhighly of Mr. Davis's figures and upon them has based some of the most\nimportant conclusions of his address, and as Mr. Davis himself is so\nready to find fault with the calculations of others, it might be well\njust here to see how some of Mr. Davis's own calculations have been\nverified and what amount of dependence should be placed upon his\nfigures or on deductions from them.\n\nIn An Epitome of the Agricultural Situation, published by Mr. Davis in\n1890, he predicted an annually increasing deficit in the world's wheat\nsupply and the almost immediate inability of the United States to do\nmore than grow enough wheat for home consumption, and, as a\nconsequence, that \"After 1895 we (United States) must either import\nbreadstuffs, cease to export cotton, or lower the standard of living,\"\nthis latter prophecy being emphasized by being printed in capital\nletters. These predictions were made ten years ago--ample time,\nsurely, for at least some evidence of their fulfillment to be\napparent. But what are the facts? The Chief of the Bureau of\nStatistics, in his report on the foreign commerce of the United States\nfor 1898, says: \"The total exportation of meats and dairy products\namounted in the last fiscal year (1898) to $167,340,960, against\n$145,270,643 in the highest year prior to that date (1894), while the\nvalue of animals exported in 1898 was greater than that of any\npreceding year; of wheat the exports of the year were the largest in\nvalue, save the exceptional years of 1880, 1881, and 1892. Of cotton\nthe exports of the year were the largest in quantity in the history of\nthe country.... Thus, in the great agricultural products--breadstuffs,\nprovisions, and cotton--the exports have been phenomenally large,\nwhile the total of products of agriculture exceed by $54,000,000 the\nexports of agricultural produce in any preceding year of our history.\"\nSo much for exports; now for the imports of breadstuffs. The total\nvalue of breadstuffs, both dutiable and free, entered for consumption\nin 1898 was $957,455, of which $628,775 were for imports of macaroni,\nvermicelli, etc., articles not in any case manufactured in the\ncountry. I have not seen any explanation by Mr. Davis of the failure\nof his predictions, but it is probable that he had them in mind when\nhe wrote in The Forum (March, 1899), \"Had not the herds of hay- and\nmaize-eating animals shrunk greatly since 1892, thus rendering vast\nareas of hay and maize lands available for wheat production, we should\nprobably have reduced the wheat area, instead of adding ten million\nacres to it since 1895.\" This, however, is a purely arbitrary\nassumption, unsupported by anything more substantial than Mr. Davis's\npersonal opinion. In the same article he says: \"But herds being\ninsufficient for present needs must be added to in the measure of the\nexisting deficit, as well as in that of the animal products and\nservices required by all future additions to the population. This will\nnecessitate and force a restoration to other staples of acres recently\ndiverted to wheat.\" But, in the face of the figures quoted above, the\nevidence is clear that herds are not only ample for present needs, but\nafford a larger margin than ever of exportable surplus. If herds were\ninsufficient, there would have been a curtailment of exports and an\nincrease in the consumption of breadstuffs, but neither have happened;\nneither has there been any reduction in the standard of living. Is not\nthe inference irresistible that the country was carrying a larger\nnumber of animals than conditions absolutely required, since farm\nanimals have declined from 169,000,000 in 1892 to 138,000,000 in 1898,\nwithout in any way disturbing the conditions of food supply or\nreducing the exports of provisions? In 1890, Mr. Davis assumed that\n44,800,000 acres of hay would be required in 1895 and 49,200,000 acres\nin 1900, yet in 1898, 42,800,000 acres were found to be ample for the\nneeds of the country.\n\nDo not the foregoing figures clearly indicate that it is not safe to\nassume that the area employed in the cultivation of certain staples\nat any given time, or the average of that area for any given period,\nmust necessarily be the proportion always to be required for the\ncultivation of those articles, and that any calculations or\npredictions made on that assumption are liable to be completely upset\nby events unforeseen and unprovided for? Does it not seem probable\nthat if Sir W. Crookes had examined Mr. Davis's figures more closely\nthan apparently he did, he would have found that \"average acre yields\nfor long periods\" are not \"essential factors\"; that \"unit requirements\nfor each of the primary food staples of the temperate zones\" can not\nbe so easily determined; that \"the ratio existing during recent\nperiods between the consuming element and acres employed in the\nproduction of each of such primary food staples\" are not necessarily\nindicative of the ratio that will require to exist in the years to\ncome; and that Mr. Davis's \"scientific method\" does not \"enable him to\nascertain the acreage requirements of the separate national\npopulations and of the bread-eating world as a whole\"?\n\nIn order to insure a famine in 1931 it was necessary for Sir W.\nCrookes to assume a given increase of population during the\nintervening period and no change in the existing conditions of wheat\ncultivation and consumption, and also to limit by hard-and-fast lines\nthe sources of supply. It is to the manner in which Sir W. Crookes has\nlimited and underestimated the wheat resources of Canada that we now\npropose to take exception; and it is difficult to understand how, with\nample means of information available, he could have committed himself\nto the statements he has made. What does he say about Manitoba? \"In\nthe year 1897 there were 2,371,441 acres under cultivation in\nManitoba, out of a total of 13,051,375 acres. The total area includes\nwater courses, lakes, forests, towns and farms, land unsuitable for\nwheat growing, and land required for other crops.\" Now, the facts are\nthat the total area of Manitoba is 73,956 square miles, and if from\nthat area 9,890 square miles of water surface are deducted there\nremain 64,066 square miles, or 41,002,240 acres of land, so that even\nafter making due allowance for forests, towns, etc., there are nearly\nthree times the number of acres available than are given by Sir W.\nCrookes. Attempts have been made in vain to find out whence these\nfigures were obtained, but there is apparently no clew; and while it\nis not to be supposed for a moment that the figures were purposely\nmisstated, surely the important conclusions drawn from them deserved\nthat some attempt at least should have been made to ascertain their\naccuracy. Sir W. Crookes claims to be indebted to the official\npublications of the Government of Canada, but it is certain that none\nof them ever contained the figures used by him.\n\n\"The most trustworthy estimates,\" says Sir W. Crookes, \"give Canada a\nwheat area of not more than six millions of acres in the next twelve\nyears, increasing to a maximum of twelve millions of acres in\ntwenty-five years.\" Who prepared these estimates, and upon what are\nthey based? Were they prepared by the same authority that supplied Sir\nW. Crookes with the figures of the area of Manitoba? If so, we may\nwell dismiss them at once; but supposing that these estimates are, as\nfar as the rate of increase is concerned, perfectly correct, and that\nthe wheat area of Canada will be only twelve million acres in\ntwenty-five years, there would still remain at least twelve million\nacres in Manitoba alone available for wheat. It is no exaggerated\nestimate to say that from sixty to seventy per cent of the land\navailable for cultivation in Manitoba is well adapted for the\nproduction of wheat. Sir W. Crookes says that his area of Manitoba of\n13,051,375 acres includes water courses, lakes, forests, towns, etc.\nNow, the water area alone of Manitoba is 6,329,600 acres, so that\nafter deducting this area and the 1,630,000 acres already under wheat\nand making due allowance for the other conditions mentioned, he would\nhave us believe that wheat-growing in Manitoba has already nearly\nreached its limit, which all who know anything about the province will\nunite in saying is absurd.\n\nNow let us turn to the Northwest Territories, where, according to Sir\nW. Crookes, there is practically no amount of land of any consequence\navailable for wheat, and let us remember that the same authority\nlimits the wheat area of Canada to a maximum of twelve million acres.\nThe area of the three provisional districts, with which alone we will\ndeal, is as follows, viz.: Assiniboia, 57,177,600 acres; Saskatchewan,\n69,120,000 acres; and Alberta, 63,523,200 acres (these figures being\nexclusive of water surface), making a total of 189,820,000 acres. Some\nof this large area is possibly not particularly well adapted for\nagricultural purposes, but a careful examination of all available data\non the subject justifies one in saying that fully one half is suitable\nfor successful wheat cultivation, while in eastern and southern\nAssiniboia there are some 20,000,000 acres, in the valley of the\nSaskatchewan 14,000,000 acres, and in northern Alberta 15,000,000\nacres that are especially adapted for the production of wheat as a\nstaple crop. The area is so large and settlement at present so sparse,\nthat it is impossible to do more than give its capabilities in general\nterms, founded on the opinions of experienced men who have traveled\nover it. Professor Saunders, Director of the Experimental Farm at\nOttawa, than whom there is no better authority on the subject in the\nDominion, told me that, from what he saw of the country in driving\nover it, he became more and more impressed every year with the vast\narea of good land in the Northwest, and no practical man has ever\ntraveled through those regions but has been amazed at the prospect of\ntheir capabilities.\n\nBut we have not yet reckoned with the rich and fertile province of\nOntario. This province has a land area of 140,576,000 acres, of which\n11,888,853 acres were under cultivation in 1898, and of this latter\nquantity 1,437,387 acres, or twelve per cent, were in wheat, being an\nincrease of 163,860 acres over the wheat area of 1897, and of 62,573\nacres over the average of 1882-'98. According to the census of 1881\nthere were nearly 2,000,000 acres in wheat in 1880, but, under the\ninfluence of an unremunerative market, the area declined year by year\nuntil in 1895 there were but 967,156 acres so employed; since then,\nhowever, stimulated by a more profitable price, the area has increased\nby 470,471 acres, and an increase of twenty per cent upward is\nreported in the area for 1899. Fall wheat in this province is a very\nsuccessful crop, having averaged in the last two years twenty-five\nbushels and twenty-four bushels per acre respectively, while the\naverage for the period 1882-'98 has been 20.5 bushels per acre, so\nthat nothing but a continuance of good prices is needed to largely\nincrease the production of wheat in Ontario. In no part of the\nprovince, where agriculture is possible, has wheat failed to grow, but\nthe area is so large that it would be unwise to put into figures the\nextent available for wheat cultivation, it being sufficient to show\nthat a very large portion, if not indeed the whole, of the twelve\nmillion acres to which Sir W. Crookes has limited Canada could, other\nconditions being favorable, be supplied by Ontario alone.\n\nThe \"trustworthy estimates\" quoted by Sir W. Crookes limit, as has\nbeen stated, the wheat area of Canada to a maximum of twelve million\nacres under cultivation in twenty-five years; whence the estimates\nwere derived or on what grounds they are entitled to be considered\ntrustworthy there is no information; but is it of any consequence? Let\nthem come from whatever source they may, are they not perfectly\nuseless? The progress of wheat cultivation during the next twenty-five\nyears does not depend upon any mathematical ratio of progression, but\non the course of certain events absolutely unknown at the present\ntime. The point is that Sir W. Crookes adopts these estimates and\ngives out to the world a statement, on the strength of them, that, in\naddition to the 3,500,000 acres at present in use, there are not more\nthan 8,500,000 acres in Canada available for wheat cultivation--a\nstatement calculated, if believed, to seriously damage Canada's\nprospects of settlement, and a statement that is as much at variance\nwith the actual facts as it is possible for such things to be. Is it\nfair to the country for a man of such high standing and reputation to\nmake such unfounded assertions? Five minutes' real consideration of\nthe question would have convinced him that there are more than that\nnumber of acres in the province of Manitoba alone. The figures already\ngiven, which have been prepared from the most reliable available\ninformation, go to show that there are upward of seventy-five million\nacres of land in Canada especially adapted for the production of\nwheat, and this estimate is confined to those portions of the country\nwhich may be considered as essentially wheat-producing areas; and no\naccount has been taken of the vast extent of land, not only in the\nprovinces of Ontario and Manitoba and in the Northwest Territories,\nbut also in the otherwise unnoticed provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia,\nNew Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia, that is not\nonly suitable for the production of wheat, but on which a large\nquantity of wheat will undoubtedly be grown, which, entering into home\nconsumption, will increase the exportable surplus.\n\nI am well aware that there are a number of people who will say that my\nfigures underestimate the resources of the country, but I would rather\nthat it were so than indulge in figures that seem too extravagant to\nbe realized; and if, in the future, it appears that the wheat area is\nlarger than I have stated, then so much the better for Canada. I do\nnot mind how much evidence can be brought to increase my figures, as\nlong as I am satisfied that they can not be truthfully reduced.\n\nIt is not intended to accuse Sir W. Crookes of deliberately\nmisrepresenting Canada, but rather of almost criminal carelessness in\nthe preparation of his case; but it is intended to accuse Mr. C. Wood\nDavis of the former offense and of intentionally garbling extracts\nfrom an official handbook issued by the Canadian Minister of the\nInterior in order to decry that country's wheat-bearing capabilities.\nBy taking a line here and there which seems to serve his ends, and by\nleaving out everything that would have a contrary tendency, Mr. Davis,\nin his article in The Forum, makes it to appear that, according to the\nMinister of the Interior, the greater part of the Canadian Northwest\nis not only incapable of producing wheat, but is actually unfit for\nsettlement, and summarizes his extracts by saying, \"Available data do\nnot show that any part of the Canadian districts named, except\nsouthern Manitoba and the eastern half of Assiniboia, is adapted to\nwheat culture, while they do show that over the greater part of these\nvast regions neither summer heats nor rainfalls are sufficient.\" This\nstatement is false in every particular. The official handbook from\nwhich Mr. Davis professes to quote says of Manitoba that there are\nthirty-seven million acres available for active farm cultivation,\ngiving therefore no warrant for the limiting of the wheat area to the\nsouthern part of the province. Mr. Davis quotes a line here and there\nabout southern Alberta in order to convey the impression that that\npart of the country is good for nothing, whereas, while it is\nessentially a ranching and dairying country, producing a most\nluxurious and nutritious growth of native grasses, with a bountiful\nsupply of water for irrigation purposes, by which means most\nsatisfactory crops of grain and fodder are produced, it has never been\ncontended that it is particularly well adapted for wheat-growing; but,\non the other hand, Mr. Davis carefully omits all mention of northern\nAlberta, and has no room for the following remarks about it which\nappear on the same page of the handbook: \"Northern Alberta is\nessentially an agricultural district; ... the principal advantages of\nthe district will insure settlement by immigrants who desire to engage\nin grain farming.... The rainfall in northern Alberta during the\nsummer months is sufficient to insure good crops.\" Concerning the\ndistrict of Saskatchewan, Mr. Davis quotes a remark about some of the\nwooded portion being unsuited to the immediate requirements of\nsettlement, as if it applied to the whole district, and deliberately\nomits the following: \"The southern half of the district\"\n(Saskatchewan) \"is traversed from east to west by the Saskatchewan\nRiver, and the valley of this important stream, with the country\nimmediately adjacent thereto, has long been famed as a desirable field\nfor immigration.\" With reference to precipitation, Mr. Davis has so\ngarbled his extracts as to convey the impression that the handbook\nstates that over the greater part of the Northwest the rainfall is not\nsufficient for the pursuit of agriculture, whereas what the book\nreally says is, \"So far as the Canadian Northwest is concerned, out of\nabout two hundred million acres of land between the Red River of the\nNorth to the Rocky Mountains, available for agricultural and pastoral\npurposes, not more than about one fourth, or fifty million acres in\nall, require the artificial application of water.\"\n\nMr. Davis's attempts to prejudice the interests of the Northwest by\nremarks on the severity of the climate do not need serious attention;\nthe experience of the inhabitants and the annual production of the\ncountry speak for themselves, and it is well understood that mere\nthermometer readings afford little indication in themselves of the\nnature of a climate, and that temperatures unendurable in some\ncountries are enjoyable, salubrious, and advantageous in others. It\nseems difficult to believe that Mr. Davis ever wrote the following\nsentence, but having written it, it would be well if he would take it\nto heart: \"Truly 'honesty is the best policy' in the employment of\nstatistics, whether by scientists, by plain people, or by\nprofessional statisticians; while the ability to eschew bucket-shop\nmethods, to read correctly, to state facts and to state them clearly,\nand to criticise with intelligence and entire fairness, is especially\ndesirable.\"\n\nSir W. Crookes is not content with reducing Canada's wheat resources\nto an insignificant minimum, but he must also retard as much as\npossible the development even of the small area that he admits to\nexist, for he says: \"The development of this promising area\nnecessarily must be slow, since prairie land can not be laid under\nwheat in advance of a population sufficient to supply the needful\nlabor at seed time and harvest. As population increases so do home\ndemands for wheat.\" To say that prairie land can not be laid under\nwheat in advance of population, and that as population increases so do\nhome demands for wheat, are mere truisms, but it is incorrect to say\nthat therefore the development must be slow. The rate of development\ndepends entirely upon the rate of increase of population, and that\nincrease depends upon the price of wheat, and the area of production\nwill increase concurrently with the demand. According to Mr.\nDavis--and we will assume that his figures are in this case\ncorrect--the population in the United States in fourteen years from\n1871 increased forty-four per cent and the cultivated area one hundred\nand twelve per cent, and, if that was the case, no estimates, however\ntrustworthy, could have provided for such results.\n\nIt has been perfectly true, as Sir W. Crookes says, that as the wheat\narea of Manitoba and the Northwest increased, the wheat area of\nOntario and the eastern provinces decreased, but this was in\nconsequence of the continued low price of wheat, which led the farmers\nof Ontario to turn their attention more and more to dairy and mixed\nfarming, substituting hay and root crops for wheat and barley, until\nthe province became a dairying rather than a cereal-producing country;\nbut that this was a movement to suit the times, and that the area\navailable for wheat is no less in consequence, is evidenced by the\nrapid increase in the wheat acreage in the last two years. The farmer\nproduces what pays him best, and it is certain that before Sir W.\nCrookes's failure of the wheat supply comes to pass prices will have\nbeen such that every acre of land suitable for wheat and that can be\nspared from other uses will have been taken advantage of; and if this\nis not the case, then some other staple for food will have been\nsubstituted, which will necessarily change the whole economic\nsituation as viewed at present.\n\nIt is also true that \"thus far performance has lagged behind promise,\"\nbut the reasons for this are the same, and in the low values we find\na ready explanation of the apparent lack of progress. What inducement\nhas the immigrant had of late years to take up land for, or the farmer\nto grow, wheat that he could hardly sell for the actual cost of\nproduction? And yet Sir W. Crookes would argue that because the land\nhas not been utilized for this particular purpose the land can not be\nthere, and that land upon which wheat once was grown, but which is now\nemployed for other purposes, can never again be included in the\nwheat-bearing area.\n\nProgress may appear to have been slow, but it has kept pace with the\ndemand, and in any case has been considerably more rapid than Sir W.\nCrookes allows. He says, \"The wheat-bearing area of all Canada has\nincreased less than 500,000 acres since 1884,\" whereas the actual\nincrease since 1880 has been over 1,100,000 acres, and since 1890\nupward of 760,000 acres. The area under wheat in Canada in 1898 was\n3,508,540 acres, so that Sir W. Crookes only allows for an increase of\n2,500,000 acres in the next twelve years. Perhaps it will not be as\nmuch, but if it is not, it will only be putting the predicted day of\nfamine still farther away, and will prove nothing more than the fact\nthat the state of the market has not warranted any more extended\ncultivation.\n\nThe statements made by Sir W. Crookes about the wheat acreage in the\nStates are as incorrect as those about Canada, for he says, in his\nletter to The Times of December 8, 1898, that \"the whole wheat acreage\nin the United States is less than it was fifteen years ago,\" whereas\nthe official figures for 1897 and 1898, which were before him at the\ntime, told him that the wheat acreage in 1897 was 3,000,000 acres in\nexcess of the average of the preceding fifteen years, and in 1898 was\nin the neighborhood of 5,000,000 acres in excess of any year in the\nhistory of that country. Do not the fluctuations in the wheat acreage\nof the United States in recent years prove conclusively that they were\nsolely the result of the movement of prices, and had no bearing\nwhatever on the question of exhaustion of land? Under the depressing\ninfluence of an unprofitable market, the wheat area fell from\n39,900,000 acres in 1891 to 34,000,000 acres in 1895, but, under the\nstimulus of a substantial appreciation, increased again, in three\nyears, to 44,000,000 acres. If, in spite of a rising and remunerative\nmarket, the area had remained stationary or shown signs of decrease,\nit would have been in order to call attention to the fact as\nindicating exhaustion; but when, in immediate response to a rising\nmarket, the area increases by leaps and bounds, the question of\nexhaustion becomes less and less one of actual probability, and more\nand more one of theoretical possibility. A precisely similar line of\nreasoning is applicable to the fluctuations in the province of\nOntario, and goes to show just as clearly that the decrease in area\nhas had absolutely no bearing on the wheat-producing capabilities of\nthe province.\n\n\"A permanently high price for wheat is, I fear, a calamity that ere\nlong must be faced,\" says Sir W. Crookes; but, with due deference to\nso great an authority, I believe that the day of a permanent high\nprice for wheat is yet far distant. There will be appreciations\nundoubtedly, but the sources of supply as yet undrawn upon are so\ngreat that it will be long before those appreciations are of any\nprolonged duration; but in the meantime they mean periods of great\nprosperity to the farmer and therefore to the world. Is a higher price\nfor wheat such an unmixed calamity, after all? Has the average\nconsumer of wheat benefited by the low price of wheat of late years in\nproportion to the hardships endured by the producer? I think not. Let\nthose who are qualified by literary and scientific knowledge point out\nif they will the possibility, or even perhaps the probability, of at\nsome period in the future the time coming when there may be, if\npresent conditions continue to exist, a scarcity in the wheat supply,\nand urge as strongly as they like the advisability of taking steps in\ngood time to prevent such a calamity; but nothing is to be gained by\nfrightening the world with predictions of evil based only on a series\nof unfounded assertions, mathematical calculations, and \"purely\nspeculative computations.\" When, if ever, the day of scarcity will\ncome is unknown. That it is yet far off appears to be tolerably\ncertain; but it is sufficient for the purposes of this article that it\nshould be understood that Sir W. Crookes's statements concerning the\nwheat area of Canada are absolutely unreliable and incorrect, and that\nthere are millions of acres of good wheat land waiting for occupation\nby the surplus population of the world, which, when under cultivation,\nwill assist in deferring for many years the threatened day of famine.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     Dr. Sven Hedin, in his account of travel through Asia, mentions\n     as the most remarkable feature in the central region of internal\n     drainage (in which the rivers drain into inland lakes) \"the\n     process of leveling which goes on unceasingly. The detritus which\n     results from the disintegrating action of the weather, and the\n     more or less mechanical agency of the wind and water and gravity,\n     is constantly being carried down from the mountains all round its\n     borders toward the lower parts of its depressions, and being\n     deposited there. In this way the natural inequalities in the\n     configuration of the ground are being gradually smoothed away.\"\n     Mr. Curzon refers to the same phenomenon in the central districts\n     of the Pamirs--the process being the exact reverse to that where\n     the streams hew out deep ravines in their course to the sea-going\n     river.\n\n\n\n\nBEST METHODS OF TAXATION.\n\nBY THE LATE HON. DAVID A. WELLS.\n\nPART III (_concluded_).\n\n\nThe universal and admitted failure of the general property tax to\nattain good results and the great difficulty, indeed the\nimpossibility, of reducing it to a form in which it can operate with\nefficiency and an approach to justice, must lead to its abolition and\nthe gradual substitution of other and more simple taxes. However well\nadapted to a community in which the taxable property was in evidence\nand easily assessed for purposes of taxation, it becomes antiquated,\nunequal, and inquisitorial in a people where credit and credit\ninvestments have been highly developed, and where the greater social\nactivities, whether in commerce or industry, transportation or\nproduction, are conducted by corporations issuing various kinds of\nsecurities, none of which can easily be reached by a taxing authority\naway from the center of incorporation. To undertake to include these\nsecurities, evidences of debt, or obligations in a general property\ntax is to invite evasion, put a heavy inducement on concealment, and,\nwhenever effective, to give rise to shocking inequalities of burden.\nThe widow and orphan, whose property is in the hands of a trustee, pay\nthe full tax; in any other direction the holder of stocks or bonds,\nmoney or notes, escapes according to the elasticity of his conscience.\nThe very exemptions recognized by law give an opportunity for new\nevasions, based upon analogy or upon some technicality under which the\nbusiness is conducted. Bonds of the United States, the legal-tender\nnotes, or money are beyond the reach of State authorities for the\npurpose of taxation. In the same category come also all imported goods\nin original packages, in the possession of the importers, and all\nproperty in transit. These exemptions alone amount to thousands of\nmillions of dollars, and the tendency has been to increase the number\nof items exempted. But every such exception under the law adds to the\nburdens of the honest taxpayer, and every evasion of taxation also\nrenders his charge the greater. Here is not distributive justice, but\nconcentrated injustice.\n\nAnother large proportion of the personal property owned by the\ncitizens of the State is of the most intangible character, and in\ngreat part invisible and incorporeal, such, for instance, as\nnegotiable instruments in the form of bills of exchange, State,\nmunicipal, and corporate bonds, and, if actually situated in other\nStates, exempt from taxation where they are held; acknowledgments of\nindividual indebtedness, and a number of similar matters. All property\nof this character is, through a great variety of circumstances,\nconstantly fluctuating in value; is offset by indebtedness which may\nnever be the same one hour with another; is easy to transfer, and by\nsimple delivery is, in fact, transferred continually from one locality\nto another, and from the protection and laws of one State to the\nsovereignty and jurisdiction of some other. It is not to be wondered,\ntherefore, that all attempts to value and assess this description of\nproperty have proved exceedingly unsatisfactory, and that nearly every\ncivilized community, with the exception of the States of the Federal\nUnion, have long ago abandoned the project as something wholly\ninexpedient and impracticable.\n\nThe differences among the States in the interpretation of residence,\nof the _situs_ of the property taxed, are also an objection to this\nsystem and an obstacle to its application. The want of uniformity can\nnot be abolished by enactments of law, because absolute uniformity of\nlaws would not insure as uniform interpretation of their provisions.\nThe rules for assessment are uniform for the officers of a State, but\nthe returns made involve such differences in the application of the\nrules that one is forced to the conclusion that a misunderstanding of\nthe spirit of the law exists, coloring differently the view of each\nreturning officer. Discrimination against the county or municipality\nand discrimination against the individual are to be met at every turn.\nNo wording of the law can eliminate this personal judgment of each\nassessing authority, and the supervision of the returns by State\nboards of equalization has introduced an even greater departure from\njustice, as a majority, based upon selfish interests, may be had, and\nits decision may readily be defended as based upon good and sufficient\nreasons. An appeal to the last resort, the higher courts, may produce\nredress against unjust assessments, but each case must be decided upon\nits merits, and only under very exceptional circumstances--as in the\nrecent case at Tarrytown, New York, where striking and general, even\npersonal, spite had been shown in the tax levy--can a number of\ntaxpayers find it their interest to combine and carry the question\ninto the courts for adjudication.\n\nImperfect in theory, the machinery of the general property tax is\nimperfect. With at present fully two thirds of the personal property\nof the State exempted from taxation by law or by circumstances growing\nout of its condition, or the natural depravity and selfishness of the\naverage taxpayer, and with a large part of the other third exempted by\ncompeting nations or neighboring States, what becomes of the theory so\ngenerally accepted in the United States that in order to tax equitably\nit is necessary to tax everything? A very slight examination leads to\nthe conclusion that it is the most imperfect system of taxation that\never existed; that, with the exception of moneyed corporations, it is\na mere voluntary assessment, which may be diminished at any time by an\noffset of indebtedness which the law invites the taxpayers to increase\n_ad infinitum_, borrowing on pledge of corporate stocks, United States\nbonds, legal-tender notes, etc., all exempt from taxation; that its\nadministration in respect to justice and equity is a farce and more\nuncertain and hazardous than the chances of the gaming table; and that\nits continuance is more provocative of immorality and more obstructive\nof material development than any one agency that can possibly be\nmentioned. A stringent enforcement only leads to greater perversions\nand a wider evasion. A lax enforcement does not reduce its\ninequalities and general want of application to actual conditions.[10]\n\n     [Footnote 10: The commissioners \"have no confidence in any system\n     of inquisition or system which requires assessors to be\n     clairvoyants; to ascertain things impossible to be ascertained by\n     the agencies provided in the law; to ascertain the indebtedness\n     of the taxpayer; to ascertain or know who is the owner of\n     property at a given time that can be and is transferred hourly\n     from owner to owner by telegraph or lightning, and that may be\n     transported into or out of the jurisdiction of the assessor with\n     the rapidity of steam, or that requires assessors or taxpayers to\n     make assessments on evidence not admissible in any court, civil\n     or criminal, in any civilized country where witches are not tried\n     and condemned by caprice or malice on village or neighborhood\n     gossip.\"]\n\nThe problem, then, is what taxes to introduce in place of this\nconfessed failure of the general property tax.\n\nThere can be little doubt that the desire for greater simplicity in\ntaxation is generally felt, and in part put into practice. The mass of\nvarious kinds of imposts, added without any system or real connection\nor relation one to another, has often resulted in so large a number of\ncharges on Government account as to defeat itself. The French taxes at\nthe end of the last century, with their added fault of inequality and\ninjustice in distribution, led naturally to the theory of a single\ntax--the _imp\u00f4t unique_ of the physiocrats--which did not become a\nfact, yet registered the protest against the multiplicity and crying\noppressiveness of the remains of feudal dues and fiscal experiments\nundertaken under the stress of an empty treasury. So it has been noted\nat the present time that where an opportunity has offered there is a\ntendency in European countries to simplify their taxes, and, as in the\ncase of Switzerland, prepare the way for income and property taxes. It\nis a greater dependence on such direct taxes in place of indirect\ntaxes that has distinguished the great fiscal changes in recent years.\nGermany may have wished to establish a brandy monopoly, and Russia may\nresort to a monopoly of the manufacture and sale of distilled spirits.\nBut England increases her death duties, France and the United States\nseek to frame acceptable taxes on income, and Switzerland succeeds in\nmodifying her system in the line of direct taxes.\n\nThere is an earnest movement in favor of a single tax on the value of\nland, exclusive of other real property connected with it. As involving\na question of abstract justice the proposition has much in its favor,\nbut it can not be denied that practical obstacles oppose its adoption.\nThe recent commission on taxation in Massachusetts thus treats of it:\n\"It proposes virtually a radical change in the ownership of land, and\ntherefore a revolution in the entire social body. In this form of\ntaxation all revenue from land alone is to be appropriated--that is,\nthe beneficial ownership of land is to cease. Whether or not this\nsystem, if it had been adopted at the outset and had since been\nmaintained, would have been to the public advantage may be an open\nquestion, but it would certainly seem to be too late now to turn to it\nin the manner proposed. In any event, it involves properly not\nquestions of taxation, but questions as to the advantage or\ndisadvantage of private property in land.\"[11]\n\n     [Footnote 11: Report of the Massachusetts Commission, 1897, p.\n     74.]\n\nIf securities are to be taxed, the methods adopted should avoid a\ndouble taxation, and an attempt to reach capital outside of the State.\nIt is evident that a State, like Massachusetts, which taxes the\nforeign holder of shares in its corporations as well as the shares of\nforeign corporations held by its own citizens, is inviting a dangerous\nreprisal from other States. \"Wherever the owner may be, if the\ncorporation is chartered within the State the Commonwealth collects\nthe tax on the shares. Wherever the corporation may be, if the owner\nis within the State the Commonwealth also collects the tax (in theory\nof law at least).\" If this be the best possible system, and it is\nsupposed Massachusetts assumes it to be, general double taxation would\nfollow its adoption by the other States. The effort to carry this rule\ninto practice proves its injustice as well as futility. The most\nsearching and inquisitorial methods of seeking such property will not\navail to reach a good part of it, and this results in adding\ninequality of burden to its other difficulties. Evasion is too simple\na process to be unused, and the heavier the rate of tax the greater\nwill be the resort to evasion and even to perjury, express or implied.\nThe fundamental cause of the failure lies in this, \"the endeavor to\ntax securities, which are no more than evidences of ownership or\ninterest in property, and which offer the easiest means of concealment\nand evasion, by the same methods and at the same rate as tangible\nproperty situated on the spot.\"\n\nThis inherent difficulty can be cured only by abandoning the attempt\nto tax directly securities or evidences of debt, representing\nownership or interest in property beyond the limits of the taxing\nauthority. In the case of the securities of home companies they may be\nreadily taxed at the source, but in the case of foreign corporations\nit is only by methods almost revolting in their injustice and\ntreatment of the taxpayer that even a partial success can be secured.\nThe dependence upon the sworn statement or declaration of the taxpayer\nis known to be extremely faulty and to offer a premium on\nuntruthfulness. So long as this dependence is retained in whole or in\npart in a system for taxing personal property, the results must be\nunsatisfactory. The most judicious, even if it seems the most radical,\nremedy is to abandon the taxation of securities. Certainly it would be\nwell to put an end to the Massachusetts plan of taxing securities\nrepresenting property outside of the State, for that involves double\ntaxation wherever it has been possible to impose the tax. What can be\nreached only by methods at all times trying and difficult, and\nsometimes very demoralizing, should not be permitted to remain a\npermanent feature of the revenue system of a State.\n\nThe New York commission of 1870 proposed to limit the State taxes to a\nvery few number of objects. That they be \"levied on a comparatively\nbroad basis--like real estate--with certainty, proportionality, and\nuniformity on a few items of property, like the franchises of all\nmoneyed corporations enjoying the same privileges within the State,\nand on fixed and unvarying signs of property, like rental values of\nbuildings\"--such was the scheme proposed. The leading object to be\nattained was equality of burdens, and a second object of quite as\ngreat importance, was simplicity in assessment and collection.\nGranting that real estate, lands, and buildings were taxed on a full\nand fair market valuation, and that corporations contributed their\nshare toward the expenses of the State, it remained to devise a tax\nthat should reach all other forms of property that could be\nproperly and easily assessed. This tax was to be known as the\n\"building-occupancy\" tax, and was to be levied on an additional\nassessment of a sum equal to three times the annual rent or rental\nvalue of all the buildings on the land.[12] Nearly thirty years later\nthe Massachusetts commission proposed a modified form of this tax. An\nannual rental value of four hundred dollars was to be exempt from\ntaxation, but ten per cent was to be levied on all rental values in\nexcess of that amount.\n\n     [Footnote 12: The New York commission of 1870 submitted two\n     propositions on this point:\n\n     1. Tax the house or building as real estate separately, at the\n     same rate of valuation as the land--that is, fifty per cent--and\n     then assuming that the value of the house or building,\n     irrespective of its contents, be such contents furniture,\n     machinery, or any other chattels whatsoever, is the sign or index\n     which the owner or occupier puts out of his personal property,\n     tax the house or building on a valuation of fifty per cent\n     additional to its real estate valuation, as the representative\n     value of such personal property; or, in other words, tax the land\n     separately on fifty per cent of its fair marketable valuation,\n     and tax the building apart from the land, as representing the\n     owner's personal property, on a _full_ valuation, as indicated by\n     the rent actually paid for it or its estimated rental value. Or--\n\n     2. Tax buildings conjointly with land as real estate at a uniform\n     valuation; and then as the equivalent for all taxation on\n     personal property, tax the occupier, be he owner or tenant of any\n     building or portion of any building used as a dwelling, or for\n     any other purpose, on a valuation of three times the rental or\n     rental value of the premises occupied. Tenement houses occupied\n     by more than one family, or tenement houses having a rental value\n     not in excess of a fixed sum, to be taxed to the owner as\n     occupier.--_Report_, p. 107.]\n\n\"The advantages of a tax on house rentals,\" said the commission, \"can\nbe easily stated. It is clear, almost impossible of evasion, easy of\nadministration, well fitted to yield a revenue for local uses, and\ncertain to yield such a revenue. It is clear, because the rental value\nof a house is comparatively easy to ascertain. The tax is based on a\npart of a man's affairs which he publishes to all the world. It\nrequires no inquisition and no inquiry into private matters; it uses\nsimply the evidence of a man's means which he already offers.\"[13] If\nthis tax were to be given it would be possible to wipe out all the tax\non incomes from \"profession, trade, or employment,\" to abolish the\nexisting assessments on personal property. The effects would be\nfar-reaching. If loans of money are free from taxation, the purchasing\npower of money in the same degree must diminish, which simply means\nthat the purchasing power of farms and products of farms for money\nmust to the same extent increase; hence, the borrower on bond and\nmortgage will not be subject to double taxation--first, in the form of\nincreased rate of interest, and then in taxation of his real\nestate--and hence the farmer or landowner who is not in the habit of\neither lending or borrowing money will find his ability to meet\nadditional taxation on his land increased in additional value of land\nand products of land in proportion as the tax is removed from money at\ninterest. Also, the exemption of the products of farms and things\nconsumed on farms from taxation will give a corresponding increased\nvalue to compensate for the \"building-occupancy\" tax. Tenants\ncontrolled by all-pervading natural laws can and will give increased\nrents, if their personal property is exempt primarily from taxation.\nThe average profits of money at interest or of dealings in visible\npersonal property free from taxation can not exceed, for any\nconsiderable length of time, the average profits of real estate, risk\nof investment and skill in management taken into consideration; and\ntherefore the real pressure of taxation under the proposed system will\nfinally be, like atmospheric pressure or pressure of water, on all\nsides, and by a natural uniform law executed upon all property in\nevery form used and consumed in the State. Persons must occupy\nbuildings and business must be done in buildings, and through these\nvisible instrumentalities capital can be reached by a rule of\nfractional uniformity, and by a simple, plain, and economical method\nof assessment and collection.\n\n     [Footnote 13: Massachusetts Report, p. 106.]\n\nThis building-occupancy tax, or tax on rental value, does not preclude\na supplementary tax on corporations.\n\nMuch has been said of the onerous burdens of taxation endured by\nindividuals compared with those of corporations, and especially\ncorporations enjoying certain rights or franchises in public streets\nand highways or corporations of a more or less public character. The\nphenomenal growth of municipalities has been one of the notable social\nmovements of the last twenty-five years. The drift of population from\nthe country districts to cities has increased with each year, and\nfinds an explanation in many causes. The opportunities offered in a\ncity for advancement are greater and more numerous; the monotony of\nthe farm life does not keep the young at home, but drives them for\nexcitement and profit to the great centers of population. The economic\nchanges of a half century also have their influence. The competition\nof new regions, better adapted for certain cultures on a commercial\nscale, has reduced the profitableness of older and more settled\nlocalities, where comparatively costly methods must be resorted to if\nthe fertility of the land is to be maintained. The wheat fields of the\nWest narrowed the margin of profit in New England farming, while the\nsheep and cattle ranges of the West made it impossible for the same\nquality of live stock to be raised for profit in the East. Farms were\nabandoned, and the younger blood went West to grow up with the\ncountry, or into the cities to struggle for a living. Further, the\nadvances in agriculture, the application of more productive methods,\nand the introduction of machinery have reduced the demand for labor in\nthe rural districts, and this has led to a migration to the cities.\n\nThe result of this has been an immense development of city life, and\nwith it an ever-increasing field for investment in corporate\nactivities. The supply of water is usually in the city's control, but\nthe manufacture and sale of gas, the production and distribution of\nelectricity, the street railways, telegraph, and telephone interests\nare private corporations formed for profit and using more or less the\npublic highways in the conduct of their various enterprises. A grant\nof a street or highway for a railway or electric-wire subway generally\ninvolves a monopoly of that use, and the privilege or franchise may\nbecome more valuable with the mere growth in the population of the\ncities. Assured against an immediate competition, there is a steady\nincrement in the value of the franchise, and in the case of a true\nmonopoly there seems to be no limits to its possible growth.\n\nAn instance of this nature is so striking in its relations and so\npertinent to the present discussion that attention is asked to it. In\nthe reign of James I water was supplied by two or three conduits in\nthe principal streets of London, and the river and suburban springs\nwere the sources of supply. Large buildings were furnished with water\nby tapping these conduits with leaden pipes, but other buildings and\nhouses were supplied by \"tankard bearers,\" who brought water daily. A\njeweler of the city, Hugh Myddleton by name, believed something better\ncould be done, and he proposed to bring water from Hertfordshire by a\n\"new river.\" He embarked in the undertaking, sank his fortune in its\nconduct, and appealed to the king for assistance. James granted this\naid, taking one half of the shares of the company--thirty-six out of\nthe seventy-two shares into which it was divided. The shares that\nremained received the name of \"adventurer's moiety.\" The work was\ncompleted in 1613, and water was then let into the city.\n\nSo little was the measure appreciated that its first years were\ntroublous ones for the shareholders. The squires objected to the\nriver, believing it would overflow their lands or reduce them to\nswamps and destroy the roads. The city residents adopted the use of\nthe water slowly. The shares were nominally worth \u00a3100 apiece, but for\nnearly twenty years the income was only 12_s._, or $3, per share. In\n1736 a share was valued at \u00a3115 10_s._, and by 1800 it had risen to\n\u00a3431 8_s._ With the first years of this century the company prospered,\nand its benefits were widely applied, reflecting this change in the\nvalue of its capital. In 1820 a share was worth \u00a311,500 and in 1878\nthe fraction of a share was sold at a rate which made a full share\nworth \u00a391,000. In 1888 the dividend distributed to each share was\n\u00a32,610. Eleven years later, in July, 1889, a single share was sold for\n\u00a3122,800, or nearly $600,000. The nominal capital of the company in\n1884 was \u00a33,369,000, and besides its water franchise it holds large\nestates and valuable properties. While the actual real estate\ncontrolled by the corporation accounts for some of this remarkable\nrise in the value of the shares, a greater and more lasting cause was\nthe possession of an almost exclusive privilege or franchise which\nassured a handsome and ever-increasing return on the investment. Had\nall the other property been deducted from the statement of the\ncompany's assets, there would have remained this intangible and\nimmeasurable right created and conceded by its charter and long\nusance.\n\nA definition of a franchise has been given by the Supreme Court in\nterms of sufficient general accuracy to be adopted: \"A franchise is a\nright, privilege, or power of public concern which ought not to be\nexercised by private individuals at their mere will and pleasure, but\nwhich should be reserved for public control and administration, either\nby the Government directly or by public agents acting under such\nconditions and regulations as the Government may impose in the public\ninterest and for the public security.\"[14] A necessary condition,\nthen, is a public interest in the occupation or privileges to be\nfollowed. The good will of a person or individual trader is not a\nfranchise in this sense, though a franchise may be enjoyed by an\nindividual as well as by a corporation, and good will may rest upon\nthe privilege implied in the franchise.\n\n     [Footnote 14: California vs. Southern Pacific Railroad, 127 U.\n     S., 40.]\n\nThe recognition of franchises, a species of property \"as invisible and\nintangible as the soul in a man's body,\" as a proper object for\ntaxation is now beyond any dispute. It is peculiarly appropriate as a\nsource of revenue for the exclusive use of the State, inasmuch as the\ngrant of franchises emanates from the State in its sovereign capacity.\nIn the case of Morgan _vs._ the State of Louisiana, Justice Field, of\nthe Supreme Court of the United States, said: \"The franchises of a\nrailroad corporation are rights or privileges which are essential to\nthe operation of the corporation and without which its roads and works\nwould be of little value, such as the franchise to run cars, to take\ntolls, to appropriate earth and gravel for the bed of its road, or\nwater for its engines, and the like. They are positive rights or\nprivileges, without the possession of which the road or company could\nnot be successfully worked. Immunity from taxation is not one of\nthem.\"[15] Further, the extent to which this taxation of franchises\nmay be carried rests entirely in the discretion of the taxing power,\nsubject only to constitutional restrictions.\n\n     [Footnote 15: 93 U. S. Reports, pp. 217, 224.]\n\nThe great difficulty in applying such a tax lies in the methods of\nreaching an understanding on the value of the franchise. How can this\nindefinite something be made visible on the tax books? In many\ninstances the franchise may be regarded as inseparable from the real\nproperty of the corporation. The rails of a tramway, the poles and\nwires of a telegraph company, the pipes and conduits of a gas company,\nare real and tangible things, necessary to a proper conduct to the\nrespective functions of the corporations. But the right to lay tracks\nin the public streets, to sink pipes under the streets, or to string\nwires overhead is as necessary a possession and as essential to the\nperformance of what the corporation was created to accomplish. Whether\nthis permits the franchise to be regarded as \"real estate\" and so\noffers it for taxation is a question of some theoretical interest, but\nof little practical importance.[16] Unless the franchise is regarded\nin this way, as belonging to real estate, or as forming a taxable\nentity apart from other property, it would be simpler to reach it\nthrough a corporation tax in one of the many ways open for applying\nthat tax.\n\n     [Footnote 16: A recent law of New York is very full on this\n     point:\n\n     \"The terms 'land,' 'real estate,' and 'real property,' as used in\n     this chapter, include the land itself above and under the water,\n     all buildings and other articles and structures, substructures,\n     and superstructures, erected upon, under, or above, or affixed to\n     the same; all wharves and piers, including the value of the right\n     to collect wharfage, cranage, or dockage thereon; all bridges,\n     all telegraph lines, wires, poles, and appurtenances; all\n     supports and inclosures for electrical conductors and other\n     appurtenances upon, above, and underground; all surface,\n     underground, or elevated railroads, including the value of all\n     franchises, rights or permission to construct, maintain, or\n     operate the same in, under, above, on, or through streets,\n     highways, or public places; all railroad structures,\n     substructures, and superstructures, tracks, and the iron thereon,\n     branches, switches, and other fixtures permitted or authorized to\n     be made, laid, or placed on, upon, above, or under any public or\n     private road, street, or grounds; all mains, pipes, and tanks\n     laid or placed in, upon, above, or under any public or private\n     street or place for conducting steam, heat, water, oil,\n     electricity, or any property, substance, or product capable of\n     transportation or conveyance therein, or that is protected\n     thereby, including the value of all franchises, rights,\n     authority, or permission to construct, maintain, or operate in,\n     under, above, upon, or through any streets, highways, or public\n     places, any mains, pipes, tanks, conduits, or wires, with their\n     appurtenances, for conducting water, steam, heat, light, power,\n     gas, oil, or other substance, or electricity for telegraphic,\n     telephonic, or other purposes; all trees and underwood growing\n     upon land, and all mines, minerals, quarries, and fossils in and\n     under the same, except mines belonging to the State. A franchise,\n     right, authority, or permission, specified in this subdivision,\n     shall for the purposes of taxation be known as a 'special\n     franchise.' A special franchise shall be deemed to include the\n     value of the tangible property of a person, copartnership,\n     association, or corporation, situated in, upon, under, or above\n     any street, highway, public place, or public waters, in\n     connection with the special franchise. The tangible property so\n     included shall be taxed as a part of the special franchise.\" The\n     reason for classing franchises as real estate was that under the\n     existing laws of New York a franchise could not be assessed as\n     personal property, as the bonded debt could then be deducted,\n     leaving little or nothing to be taxed.]\n\nEnough has been said to demonstrate the extremely faulty condition of\ntax methods in the United States. Uniformity is highly desirable, but\nequality of burden is even more to be desired. The advances in this\ndirection have been few, and accomplished only partially in a few\nStates. The machinery for making assessments is only a part of the\nproblem, as the intention of the law, the spirit of the act, is of\neven higher importance in securing justice and moderation. If these\nessays, incomplete as they must of necessity be, have led to a better\ncomprehension of the chaotic condition existing now and of the\ndifficulties to be overcome, their object will have been attained. The\nremedy may be left for time to effect.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     In connection with the celebration of the centenary of the death\n     of the naturalist Lazaro Spallanzani, at Reggio, Italy, in\n     February last, a booklet has been published containing articles\n     on various aspects of the life and work of Spallanzani and\n     matters associated with him. Among the authors represented are\n     Mantegazza, Ferrari, and others well known in Italian science.\n\n\n\n\nBACON'S IDOLS: A COMMENTARY.\n\nBY WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON,\n\nPROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR\nUNIVERSITY.\n\n\nIn the first book of the _Novum Organon_ the great leader of the new\nphilosophy undertook to set forth the dangers and difficulties which\nstand always in the way of clear and fruitful thought. Conscious that\nhe was breaking entirely with the schools of the past, and ambitious\nof laying the firm foundations on which all future inquirers would\nhave to build, it was natural that Bacon should pause on the threshold\nof his vast enterprise to take stock of the mental weaknesses which\nhad rendered futile the labors of earlier thinkers, and which, if not\ncarefully guarded against, would jeopardize the efforts of times to\ncome. That the understanding may direct itself effectively to the\nsearch for truth it is necessary, he insisted, that it should have a\nfull apprehension of the lapses to which it is ever liable, the\nobstacles with which it will constantly have to contend. A vague sense\nof peril is not enough. As a first condition of healthy intellectual\nactivity we must learn to know our frailties for what they really are,\nestimate their consequences, and probe the secrets of their power.\n\nBacon's statement of the sources of error and vain philosophizing is\nregarded by him as merely the _pars destruens_ or negative portion of\nhis work--as it were, \"the clearing of the threshing floor.\" But his\naphorisms are packed close with solid and substantial thought, and\nwell deserve the attention of all who would seriously devote\nthemselves to the intellectual life. \"True philosophy,\" as he\nconceived it, \"is that which is the faithful echo of the voice of the\nworld, which is written in some sort under the direction of things,\nwhich adds nothing of itself, which is only the rebound, the\nreflection of reality.\" To reach for ourselves, as nearly as we may, a\nphilosophy which shall meet the terms of this exigent definition is,\nor should be, one chief purpose of our study and our thought. We may\nvery well ask, then, what help so great and suggestive a thinker may\ngive us on our way.\n\nWith his characteristic fondness for fanciful phraseology, Bacon\ndescribes the causes which distort our mental vision as _Idola_--idols\nor phantoms of the mind.[17] Of such he distinguishes four classes,\nwhich he calls, respectively: Idols of the Tribe (_Idola Tribus_);\nIdols of the Cave (_Idola Specus_); Idols of the Market Place (_Idola\nFori_); and Idols of the Theater (_Idola Theatri_). It is not to be\nclaimed for Bacon's analysis that it is exhaustive or always\nscientifically exact. In many places, too, it opens up difficult\nphilosophic questions, which for the present must be disregarded. But,\nas Professor Fowler has said, there is something about his diction,\n\"his quaintness of expression, and his power of illustration which\nlays hold of the mind and lodges itself in the memory in a way which\nwe can hardly find paralleled in any other writer, except it be\nShakespeare.\"[18] Moreover, though he often deals with matters of\nmerely technical and temporary interest, his leading thoughts are of\npermanent and universal applicability. Let us see, then, what\nsuggestions we can gather from a brief consideration of his Idols, one\nby one.\n\n     [Footnote 17: _Idola_ ([Greek: eid\u00f4la]), though commonly rendered\n     idols, would here undoubtedly be more correctly translated\n     phantoms or specters. With this explanation, however, I shall\n     usually employ the more familiar word.]\n\n     [Footnote 18: Novum Organon, edited by Thomas Fowler,\n     introduction, p. 132.]\n\nIdols of the Tribe are so called because they \"have their foundation\nin human nature itself\"; in other words, they are the prepossessions\nand proclivities which belong to men as men, and as such are common to\nthe whole race or tribe. \"Let men please themselves as they will,\"\nsays Bacon, \"in admiring and almost adoring the human mind, this is\ncertain: that as an uneven mirror distorts the rays of objects\naccording to its own figure and section, so the mind, when it receives\nimpressions of objects through the sense, can not be trusted to report\nthem truly, but in forming its notions mixes up its own nature with\nthe nature of things.\" In many lines of thought there is no more\npregnant source of fallacy and confusion than the tendency, innate in\nall and seldom properly checked, to accept man as the measure of all\nthings, and to translate the entire universe into terms of our own\nlives. Theology, though it is slowly outgrowing its cruder\nanthropomorphism, still talks about the \"will\" of God, an\n\"intelligent\" First Cause, the \"moral governor,\" and \"lawgiver\"; and\noutside theology we have ample evidence of the persistency with which\nwe humanize and personify Nature by endowing it with attributes\nbelonging to ourselves. Darwin confessed that he found it difficult to\navoid this tendency.[19] It is a pitfall into which men constantly\nstumble in their attempts to interpret the processes at work about\nthem.\n\n     [Footnote 19: Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. i, p.\n     6.]\n\nOne important result of our habit of thus forcing the universe to\nbecome \"the bond-slave of human thought\" is to be found, as Bacon\nnotes, in our proneness to \"suppose the existence of more order and\nregularity in the world\" than is actually to be discovered there.\nWhile we read design and purpose into the phenomena of Nature because\nwe are conscious of design and purpose in our own activities, thus\nallowing ourselves to drift into the metaphysical doctrine of Final\nCauses, we also do our best to bring Nature's multitudinous\noperations into such definite formulas as will satisfy our love of\nplan and symmetry. We are not content till we can systematize and\ndigest, whence our continual recourse to loose analogies and fanciful\nresemblances. We start from an imagined necessity of order, or from\nsome conception of things attractive because of its apparent\nsimplicity, and then reason out from this into the facts of Nature.\nMill furnishes some telling examples. \"As late as the Copernican\ncontroversy it was urged, as an argument in favor of the true theory\nof the solar system, that it placed the fire, the noblest element, in\nthe center of the universe. This was a remnant of the notion that the\norder of the universe must be perfect, and that perfection consisted\nin conformity to rules of procedure, either real or conventional.\nAgain, reverting to numbers, certain numbers were _perfect_, therefore\nthese numbers must obtain in the great phenomena of Nature. Six was a\nperfect number--that is, equal to the sum of all its factors--an\nadditional reason why there must be exactly six planets. The\nPythagoreans, on the other hand, attributed perfection to the number\nten, but agreed in thinking that the perfect numbers must be somehow\nrealized in the heavens; and knowing only of nine heavenly bodies to\nmake up the enumeration, they asserted 'that there was an\n_antichthon_, or counter-earth, on the other side of the sun,\ninvisible to us.' Even Huygens was persuaded that when the number of\nheavenly bodies had reached twelve it could not admit of any further\nincrease. Creative power could not go beyond that sacred number.\"[20]\nDo these concrete illustrations of perverse reasoning strike us as\nludicrous? It is because they are taken from an order of ideas long\nsince outgrown. The tendencies they exemplify have not been outgrown.\nWe have only to keep a vigilant eye on our own mental conduct to be\nconvinced that we are very apt to begin with some general notion of\n\"the fitness of things,\" or what \"ought to be,\" and to argue thence to\nconclusions not a whit less absurd essentially than those just\nreferred to.\n\n     [Footnote 20: Logic, ninth edition, Book V, chapter v, \u00a7 6.]\n\nWhile these universal mental habits are conspicuous enough in the\nhigher regions of thought and begin to play tricks with us the moment\nwe undertake on our own accounts any serious speculation, there are\nother Idols of the Tribe whose influence is perhaps more commonly\nfatal. We all jump at conclusions, the mind feigning and supposing\n\"all other things to be somehow, though it can not see how, similar to\nthose few things by which it is surrounded\"; we all allow ourselves to\nbe unduly \"moved by those things most which strike and enter the mind\nsimultaneously and suddenly, and so fill the imagination.\" Hasty\njudgments are thus daily and hourly passed on men and things, and rash\ngeneralizations permitted to circulate untested. Even more\ndisastrous, perhaps, in the long run, is the power of prepossessions.\nWhen once, says Bacon, the human understanding has \"adopted an opinion\n(either as being the received opinion, or as being agreeable to\nitself)\" it straightway \"draws all things else to support and agree\nwith it.\" Illustrations may be found in every direction. Note, for\ninstance, the vitality, even in the teeth of positive disproof, of\nmany long-accepted and often-challenged ideas--belief in dreams,\nomens, prophecies, in providential visitations and interpositions, in\nthe significance of coincidences, in popular saws about natural\nphenomena, in quacks and quackery, in old wives' tales, vulgar and\npseudo-scientific. The story of witchcraft is only another example of\nthe same kind, though written large in the chronicles of the world in\nletters of fire and blood; the human understanding had \"adopted\" a\nbelief in witches, and drew \"all things else to support and agree with\nit.\" In all such cases of prepossession the mind obstinately dwells on\nevery detail that favors its accepted conclusions, while disregarding\nor depreciating everything that tells against them; it is always, in\nBacon's phrase, \"more moved and excited by affirmatives than by\nnegatives.\" Thus, we hear much of the one dream that is fulfilled, and\nof the ninety and nine that are unfulfilled--nothing. Bacon\nillustrates this perversity by the well-known anecdote of the ancient\ncynic, which may be left to convey its own moral: \"And therefore it\nwas a good answer that was made by one who, when they showed him\nhanging in a temple a picture of those who had paid their vows as\nhaving escaped shipwreck, and would have him say whether he did not\nnow acknowledge the power of the gods--'Ay,' asked he again, 'but\nwhere are they painted that were drowned after their vows?'\"\n\nFinally, among these Idols of the Tribe we must include the\ndisturbance caused by the play of feeling upon the mind. \"The human\nunderstanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will\nand affections, whence proceed sciences which may be called 'sciences\nas one would.'\" We all know, to our cost, how passion will warp\njudgment; how difficult it is to see clearly when the emotions are\nthoroughly aroused; how tenaciously men cling to opinions they are\nfamiliar with, or would fain have to be true; how fiercely they\ncontest ideas that are unfamiliar or repugnant. Had it been contrary\nto the interest of authority, observed shrewd old Hobbes, that the\nthree angles of a triangle should be equal to two angles of a square,\nthe fact would have been, if not disputed, yet suppressed.[21]\nSimilarly, if the passions of men had been called into play over the\nmost clearly demonstrable of abstract mathematical truths, we may be\nsure that furious controversy would have attended the issue, and some\nway found to overthrow the demonstration. That two and two make four\nwould have been denied had any strong emotion been excited against the\nproposition. \"Men,\" said Whateley, \"are much more anxious to have\ntruth on their side than to be on the side of truth.\" And the danger\nis greater because we are frequently not aware of the bias given by\nfeeling. There are cases in plenty where men more or less consciously\nand deliberately espouse \"sciences as one would,\" but there are many\nothers in which the emotional interference is insidious and obscure.\n\"Numberless, in short, are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in\nwhich the feelings color and infect the understanding.\"\n\n     [Footnote 21: Leviathan, Part I, chapter xi.]\n\nThese Idols of the Tribe are of course inherent in our intellectual\nconstitution, and are ineradicable. The simple consideration that all\nknowledge is relative--that by no effort and under no circumstances\ncan we escape beyond the conditions and limitations of our own\nminds--suffices to show that intelligence must ever mix up its own\nnature with the nature of things, though this fact need not make us\ndoubt the validity of knowledge as is sometimes hastily inferred. For\nthe rest, clear recognition of these common obstacles to thought\nshould put us in the way of anticipating and withstanding their more\nserious effects. In practice it must be our object to maintain\nwatchfulness and a careful skepticism; to test evidence and check\npassion; to cultivate candor, flexibility, and alertness of mind; to\navoid loose generalizations; and to be ever ready to accept, revise,\nreject. Above all must we steadily resist the seductions of what is\ncalled common sense, and overcome that mental inertness which too\noften leads us to drift unthinking along the current of popular\nopinion.[22]\n\n     [Footnote 22: It is well to remember that if common sense had\n     said the last word about the matter, the Ptolemaic theory of the\n     universe would still stand unshaken.]\n\nBut, in addition to errors arising from the common intellectual nature\nof men, there are others, the sources of which are to be found in the\nidiosyncrasies of the individual mind. These Bacon calls Idols of the\nCave;[23] for every one, he says, \"has a cave or den of his own, which\nrefracts and discolors the light of Nature, owing either to his own\nproper and peculiar nature; or to his education and conversation with\nothers; or to his reading of books, and the authority of those whom he\nesteems and admires; or to the differences of impressions, accordingly\nas they take place in a mind preoccupied and predisposed, or in a mind\nindifferent and settled; and the like.\" This summary is comprehensive\nenough to indicate the character and point to some of the causes of\nindividual aberrations of judgment; that it does no more than this is\ndue to the simple fact that the personal bias is as varied as humanity\nitself, and that the deflecting impulses in any given case are to be\nreferred to a complex of factors almost eluding analysis. To follow\nthis part of the subject into detail would, therefore, manifestly be\nimpossible. But certain of the larger and more widely influential of\nthese disturbing forces may be roughly marked out by way of\nillustration.\n\n     [Footnote 23: The metaphor is taken from the opening of the\n     seventh book of Plato's Republic.]\n\nIn the first place, there is what we may call the professional bias.\nExclusive devotion to separate lines of activity, study, or thought\ninevitably gives the mind a particular set or twist. Bacon complains\nthat Aristotle, primarily a logician, made his natural philosophy the\nslave of his logic. Few specialists can escape the insulation\nconsequent upon living too continuously in a confined area of problems\nand ideas. Their intellectual outlook is necessarily circumscribed,\nfacts are seen by them out of proper perspective, and one-sidedness of\ntraining and discipline renders their judgment of things partial and\nincomplete. The lawyer carries his legal, the theologian his\ntheological, the scientist his scientific bent of mind into every\ninquiry; with what grotesque results is only too frequently apparent.\nAccustomed to move in a single narrow groove, and wholly absorbed in\nthe contemplation of certain isolated classes of phenomena, they\nunconsciously allow their particular interests to dominate their\nthought, and impose disastrous restrictions upon their view of\nwhatever lies outside their own chosen field.\n\nSecondly, we have the bias of nation, rank, party, sect. Here the\nmental disturbances are too numerous to permit and too obvious to\nrequire special exemplification. Intellectual provincialism of any\nkind is fatal to large and fertile thought, alike by limiting the\nrange of our knowledge and sympathies and by inducing mental habits\nand implanting prejudices which prevent us from seeing things in wide\nrelations and under a clear light. So long as our point of view is\nsimply that of our country, our class, our party, or our church, so\nlong, it is evident, our minds will lack the breadth and flexibility\nnecessary for free inquiry, fruitful comparisons, sane and balanced\njudgments.[24]\n\n     [Footnote 24: _Cf._ Spencer's Introduction to the Study of\n     Sociology, chapters viii-xii.]\n\nFinally, among the Idols of the Cave \"which have most effect in\ndisturbing the clearness of the understanding,\" mention must be made\nof the temperamental bias. Every man, it has been said, is born\nPlatonist or Aristotelian; it is certain that the great divisions in\nthought--religious, philosophical, political--answer roughly to\nfundamental differences in human nature, and that every one not\nchecked or turned aside by extraneous influences will spontaneously\ngravitate in one or another direction. Bacon is only recording a fact\nof the commonest experience when he says that \"there are found some\nminds given to an extreme admiration of antiquity, others to an\nextreme love and appetite for novelty, but few so duly tempered that\nthey can hold the mean, neither carping at what has been well laid\ndown by the ancients nor despising what is well introduced by the\nmoderns.\" Many instinctively brace themselves against authority and\ntradition; by others again, whatever is handed down to us by authority\nand tradition is for this reason alone treated with contempt. That the\ncrowd believes a thing is enough to convince this man of its truth,\nand that of its falsehood.\n\n      \"The vulgar thus through imitation err;\n      As oft the learned by being singular.\"\n\nThese and similar congenital differences in men's intellectual\nconstitutions might be illustrated indefinitely if it were necessary.\nA further remark of Bacon's must, however, be quoted, for it goes\ndeeper in mental analysis and touches a less obvious point. \"There is\none principal and, as it were, radical distinction between different\nminds in respect of philosophy and the sciences, which is this: that\nsome minds are stronger and apter to mark the differences of things,\nothers to mark their resemblances. The steady and acute mind can fix\nits contemplations and dwell and fasten on the subtlest distinctions;\nthe lofty and discursive mind recognizes and puts together the finest\nand most general resemblances.\" Men belonging to the former class we\nshould call logical and critical; those belonging to the latter,\nimaginative and constructive. Each class tends to the excesses of its\nown predominant powers, and in each case excess interferes with calm\nreasoning and sound judgment.\n\nTo correct the personal equation it is imperative that we should study\nourselves conscientiously, consider dispassionately the natural\ntendencies of our birth, early surroundings, education, associations,\nand interests, and do our utmost to conquer, or at least to make\nallowance for, every individual peculiarity, temperamental or\nacquired, likely to turn the mind aside from the straight line of\nthought. Such self-discipline every one must strenuously undertake on\nhis own account if he would wish to see things as they really are.\nStated in more general terms, our aim must be to rise above all kinds\nof provincialism and personal prejudice, and to overcome our natural\nproneness to rest content in our own particular point of view. Bacon\nquotes with approval the words of Heraclitus: \"Men look for sciences\nin their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.\"\nWe must strive to escape from our own lesser world, and to make\nourselves citizens of the greater, common world. For this we need the\nwidest and most generous culture--the culture that is to be found in\nbooks, in travel, in intercourse with men of all classes and every\nshade of opinion. Left to ourselves we only too sedulously cultivate\nour own insularity; we mingle simply with the people who agree with\nus, belong to our own caste, and share our own prejudices; we read\nonly the papers of our own party, the literature of our own sect; we\nallow our own special interests in life to absorb our energies, color\nall our thoughts, and narrow our horizon. In this way the Phantoms of\nthe Cave secure daily and yearly more despotic sway over our minds.\nSelf-detachment, disinterestedness, the power of provisional sympathy\nwith alien modes of thought and feeling, must be our ideal. \"Let every\nstudent of Nature,\" says Bacon, \"take this as a rule, that whatever\nhis mind seizes and dwells on with particular satisfaction is to be\nheld in suspicion, and that so much the more care is to be taken in\ndealing with such questions to keep the understanding even and clear.\"\nA hard saying, truly, yet one that must be laid well to heart.\n\nWhile the Idols of the Tribe, then, are common human frailties in\nthought, and the Idols of the Cave the perturbations resulting from\nindividual idiosyncrasies, there are other Idols \"formed by the\nintercourse and association of men with each other,\" which Bacon calls\n\"Idols of the Market Place, on account of the commerce and consort of\nmen there.\" By reason of its manifold and necessary imperfections--its\nlooseness, variability, ambiguity, and inadequacy--the language we are\nforced to employ for the embodiment and interchange of ideas plays\nceaseless havoc with our thought, not only introducing confusion and\nmisconception into discussion, but often, \"like the arrows from a\nTartar bow,\" reacting seriously upon our minds. A large part of the\nvocabulary to which we must perforce have recourse, even when dealing\nwith the most abstruse and delicate subjects, is made up of words\ntaken over from vulgar usage and pressed into higher service; they\ncarry with them long trains of vague connotations and suggestions; the\nsuperstitions of the past are often imbedded in them; no one can ever\nbe absolutely certain of their intellectual values. While, therefore,\nthey may do well enough for the rough needs of daily life, they prove\nsadly defective when required for careful and exact reasoning. And\neven with that small and comparatively insignificant portion of our\nlanguage which is not inherited from popular use, but fabricated by\nphilosophers themselves, the case is not much better. Every word, no\nmatter how cautiously employed, inevitably takes something of the tone\nand color of the particular mind through which it passes, and when put\ninto circulation fluctuates in significance, meaning now a little\nmore and now a little less.[25] What wonder, then, that \"the high and\nformal discussions of learned men\" have so often begun and ended in\npure logomachy, and that in discussions which are neither high nor\nformal and in which the disputants talk hotly and carelessly the\nrandom bandying of words is so apt to terminate in nothing beyond the\ndarkening of counsel and the confusion of thought?\n\n     [Footnote 25: The need of a language of rigid mathematical\n     precision for the purposes of philosophic thought and discussion\n     has long been the subject of remark. Hence Bishop Wilkins's Essay\n     toward a real character and a philosophic language (1668), and\n     the earlier Ars Signorum of George Dalgarno--boldly presented by\n     its inventor as a \"remedy for the confusion of tongues, as far as\n     this evil is reparable by art.\" We may give these ingenious\n     authors full credit for the excellent intentions with which they\n     set out on impossible undertakings. A philosophic language may\n     perhaps be attained in the millennium, but then probably it will\n     be no longer needed. Meanwhile readers interested in the history\n     of the mad scheme called Volap\u00fck may find some curious matter in\n     these rare works.]\n\nBacon notes two ways particularly in which words impose on the\nunderstanding--they are employed sometimes \"for fantastic suppositions\n... to which nothing in reality corresponds,\" and sometimes for actual\nentities, which, however, they do not sharply, correctly, and\ncompletely describe. The eighteenth century speculated at length on a\nstate of Nature and the social contract, unaware that it was deluding\nitself with unrealities, and we have not yet done with such\nabstractions as the Rights of Man, Nature (personified), Laws of\nNature (conceived as analogous to human laws), and the Vital\nPrinciple. The more common and serious danger of language, however,\nlies in the employment of words not clearly or firmly grasped by the\nspeaker or writer--words which, in all probability, he has often heard\nand used, and which he therefore imagines to represent ideas to him,\nbut which, closely analyzed, will be found to cover paucity of\nknowledge or ambiguity of thought. Cause, effect, matter, mind, force,\nessence, creation, occur at once as examples. Few among those who so\nglibly rattle them off the tongue have ever taken the trouble to\ninquire what they actually mean to them, or whether, indeed, they can\ntranslate them into thought at all.\n\nAmong the Idols of the Market Place we must also class the evils\narising from the tendency of words to acquire, through usage and\nassociation, a reach and emotional value not inherent in their\noriginal meanings. This is what Oliver Wendell Holmes happily\ndescribed as the process of polarization. \"When a given symbol which\nrepresents a thought,\" said the Professor at the Breakfast Table, \"has\nlain for a certain length of time in the mind it undergoes a change\nlike that which rest in a certain position gives to iron. It becomes\nmagnetic in its relations--it is traversed by strange forces which\ndid not belong to it. The word, and consequently the idea it\nrepresents, is _polarized_.\" The larger part of our religious and no\nsmall portion of our political vocabulary consist of such polarized\nwords--words which, on account of their acquired magnetism, unduly\nattract and influence the mind. We can never hope to think calmly and\nclearly while the very symbols of our thoughts thus possess a kind of\nthaumaturgic power over us, which in turn readily transfers itself to\nour ideas.\n\nIf, then, \"words plainly force and overrule the understanding and\nthrow all into confusion and lead men away into numberless empty\ncontroversies and idle fancies,\" it behooves us to watch closely the\ninterrelations of language and thought. To put it in the vernacular,\nwe must at all times make sure that we know what we are talking about\nand say what we mean. To this end the study of language itself is\nuseful, but the habits of precise thought and expression will never be\nacquired by linguistic exercise alone. To use no word without a\ndistinct idea of what it means to us as we speak or write it; to\ncheck, when necessary, the process of thought by constant redefinition\nof terms; to depolarize all language that has become, or threatens to\nbecome, magnetic, thus translating familiar ideas into \"new, clean,\nunmagnetic\" phraseology, these may be set down as first among the\nrules to which we should tolerate no exception.\n\nWe now come to the last group of Idols--those \"which have immigrated\ninto men's minds from the various dogmas of philosophies, and also\nfrom wrong laws of demonstration.\" These Bacon calls Idols of the\nTheater, \"because in my judgment all the received systems are but so\nmany stage-plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an\nunreal and scenic fashion.\" And perhaps this conceit carries further\nthan Bacon himself intended, for it not only suggests the\nunsubstantial character of philosophic speculations, but also reminds\nus how, in the world's history, these airy fabrics have succeeded each\nother as on a stage, some to be hissed and some applauded, but all\nsooner or later to drop out of popular favor and be forgotten.\n\nDealing with these Idols of the Theater, or of Systems (of which there\nare many, \"and perhaps will be yet many more\"), Bacon takes the\nopportunity of criticising, briefly but incisively, the methods and\nresults of ancient and medi\u00e6val philosophers. His classification of\nfalse systems is threefold: The sophistical, in which words and the\nfinespun subtilties of logic are substituted for \"the inner truth of\nthings\"; the empirical, in which elaborate dogmas are built up out of\na few hasty observations and ill-conducted experiments; and the\nsuperstitious, in which philosophy is corrupted by myth and\ntradition. Under the first head, Bacon again instances Aristotle, whom\nhe accuses of \"fashioning the world out of categories\"; under the\nsecond he glances especially at the alchemists; and under the third he\nrefers to Pythagoras and Plato. To follow Bacon into these historic\nissues does not belong to our present purpose. Suffice it to notice\nthe continued vitality of these three classes of speculative error.\nBacon's judgment of Aristotle--that \"he did not consult experience as\nhe should have done, in order to the framing of his decisions and\naxioms; but, having first determined the question according to his\nwill, he then resorts to experience, and, bending her into conformity\nwith his placets, leads her about like a captive in a procession\"--is\nat least equally applicable to thinkers like Hegel and his followers.\nEmpiricism has by no means been eliminated from the scientific or\nwould-be scientific world. And as for the philosophy which is\ncorrupted by myth and tradition, the countless attempts that are still\nmade to \"reconcile\" the facts of science with the data and\nprepossessions of theology are enough to prove that, _mutato nomine_,\nthe methods of Pythagoras and Plato and of those who in Bacon's day\nsought \"to found a system of natural philosophy on the first chapter\nof Genesis, on the book of Job, and other parts of the sacred\nwritings,\" are as yet far from obsolete.\n\nIt is hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that there is a\nclose similarity between systematic empiricism and some of the dangers\nbrought out in connection with the Idols of the Tribe, for in each\ncase stress must be laid on the tendency to generalize hastily, depend\non scattered and inadequate data, and seek for light in the\n\"narrowness and darkness\" of insufficient knowledge. This matter is\nimportant only as showing how a common weakness may be caught up and\ndignified in a philosophic system and rendered more dangerous by the\nadventitious weight and influence which it gains thereby. Another\npoint, not distinctly dealt with by Bacon, calls, however, for special\nremark. While the various Idols of the Theater, or of Systems,\nexercise their own peculiar and characteristic influences for evil,\nthey all tend to the debasement of thought by reason of the authority\nwhich they gradually acquire. Associated with great names, promulgated\nby schools, officially expounded by disciples and commentators, they\nfinally settle into a creed which is regarded as having oracular and\ndogmatic supremacy. The formula \"Thus saith the Master\" closes\ndiscussion. Not the fact itself, but what this or that teacher has\nsaid about the fact, comes at last to be the all-important question.\nIn the condition of mind thus engendered there is no chance for\nintellectual freedom, self-reliance, growth. Lewes related an anecdote\nof a medi\u00e6val student \"who, having detected spots in the sun,\ncommunicated his discovery to a worthy priest. 'My son,' replied the\npriest, 'I have read Aristotle many times, and I assure you that there\nis nothing of the kind mentioned by him. Go rest in peace, and be\ncertain that the spots which you have seen are in your eyes, and not\nin the sun.'\"[26] Such an incident forms an admirable commentary on\nthe saying of the witty Fontenelle that Aristotle had never made a\ntrue philosopher, but he had spoiled a great many. The position\nassumed is simple enough: Aristotle _must_ be right, therefore\nwhatever does not agree with the doctrines of the Stagirite must be\nwrong. Are your facts against him, then revise your facts. Come what\nmay of it, you must quadrate knowledge with accepted system. Here is\nthe theological method in a nutshell. And the theological method has\nonly too often been the method also of the established philosophic\nschools.\n\n     [Footnote 26: History of Philosophy, vol. ii, pp. 95, 96.]\n\nIn our own relations with these Idols of the Theater the first and\nlast thing to remember is that all systems are necessarily partial and\nprovisional. \"They have their day and cease to be,\" and at the best\nthey only mark a gradual progress toward the truth. There can be no\nfinality, no closing word authoritatively uttered. Our attitude toward\nthe systems of the past and the present, toward long-accepted\ntraditions, and dogmatically enunciated conclusions, must be an\nattitude of firm and steady--of respectful, it may be, but still firm\nand steady--independence. We must resist the tendency to passive\nacquiescence, and endeavor to combine with generous hospitality to all\nideas the habit of not accepting anything merely because it is stated\n_ex cathedra_, or is backed by an influential name, or can \"plead a\ncourse of long observance for its use.\" Perhaps to wean ourselves from\nthis particular form of idolatry there is nothing so helpful as a wide\nand constant study of the history of thought. The pathway of\nintellectual development is strewn with outgrown dogmas and exploded\nsystems. How fatuous, then, to accept, whole and untested, the\ndoctrine of any master, new or old, believing that his word will give\nus complete and undiluted truth!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSo much, then, we may say with Bacon \"concerning the several classes\nof Idols and their equipage, all of which must be renounced and put\naway with a fixed and solemn determination, and the understanding\nthoroughly freed and cleansed; the entrance into the kingdom of man,\nfounded on the sciences, being not much other than the kingdom of\nheaven, whereinto none may enter except as a little child.\" It may\nperhaps be urged that the result of such a survey as we have taken of\nthe obstacles to clear thought is to leave the mind dazed and\ndiscouraged, partly because the suggestions made for the conquest of\nthese obstacles, though easily formulated in theory are difficult and\nsometimes impossible in practice, and partly because the general if\nnot expressed tendency of our analysis is (it may be said) in the\ndirection of that Pyrrhonic skepticism which \"doomed men to perpetual\ndarkness.\" To the former objection I have only to reply that it is one\nto which all discussions of the principles and problems of conduct are\nnecessarily open. \"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to\ndo, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes'\npalaces.\"[27] None the less, to state as lucidly as we can what were\ngood to do under certain circumstances is properly regarded as part of\nthe business of ethics. The other point is touched upon by Bacon\nhimself in words which it would be impertinent to seek to better: \"It\nwill also be thought that by forbidding men to pronounce and set down\nprinciples as established until they have duly arrived through the\nintermediate steps at the highest generalities, I maintain a sort of\nsuspension of the judgment, and bring it to what the Greeks call\n_acatalepsia_--a denial of the capacity of the mind to comprehend\ntruth. But in reality that which I meditate and propound is not\n_acatalepsia_, but _eucatalepsia_; not denial of the capacity to\nunderstand, but provision for understanding truly; for I do not take\naway authority from the senses, but supply them with helps; I do not\nslight the understanding, but govern it. And better surely it is that\nwe should know all that we need to know, and yet think our knowledge\nimperfect, than that we should think our knowledge perfect, and yet\nnot know anything we need to know.\"\n\n     [Footnote 27: This quotation is _not_ from Bacon.]\n\n\n\n\nMATHEMATICS FOR CHILDREN.\n\nBY M. LAISANT.\n\n\nExcept with persons having specially favorable surroundings, I believe\nthat the vast majority of parents have a feeling of dread at the\nthought of putting their children to the study of mathematics. They\nknow that the child must learn something about it in order to pass his\nexaminations; but with this knowledge goes an apprehension of loading\nhis mind with those ideas which are so complicated and hard to\nacquire, and we put off the dreaded moment of setting him to work as\nlate as possible.\n\nWhile I believe it is wise to spare the child all useless overwork, I\nam persuaded also that the best way of sparing him is not to shrink\nfrom initiating him into hard work, if that can be done in a rational\nway.\n\nI regard all the sciences as, at least to a certain extent,\nexperimental, and, notwithstanding the views of those who would regard\nthe mathematical sciences as a series of operations in pure logic,\nresting upon strictly ideal conceptions, I believe that we may affirm\nthat there does not exist a mathematical idea that can enter our brain\nwithout the previous contemplation of the outer world and the facts it\noffers to our observation. This affirmation, the discussion of which\nnow would carry us too far, may help to a clear idea of the way we\nshould try to convey the first mathematical ideas to the mind of the\nchild.\n\nThe outer world is the first thing the child should be taught to\nregard and concerning which he should be given as much information as\npossible--information which he will have no trouble in storing, we may\nwell believe, and from this outer world the first mathematical notions\nshould be borrowed; to these should succeed later an abstraction,\nwhich is less complicated than it seems.\n\nOur primary teaching of arithmetic now follows in the tracks of that\nof grammar, as we might as well say that the teaching of grammar\nfollows in the tracks of that of arithmetic. That is, in either case\nwe teach the child a number of abstract and confusing definitions\nwhich he can not comprehend, imposing on him a series of rules to\nfollow under the pretext of giving him a good practical direction, and\nwe force him to learn and memorize these rules whether they are good\nfor anything or not.\n\nWhen the child has grown older he is given two or three short lessons\na week in science, nine tenths of which, with his fleeting memory, he\nforgets before the next week's lessons come on. He can not relish\nanything that is taught him in that way, and it would be vastly better\nto give him no scientific ideas at all than to scatter them around in\nsuch a way, for all teachers agree that a fresh pupil is more easily\ndealt with and can be taught more satisfactorily and thoroughly than\none who has been mistaught.\n\nWhen the student has passed through it all and has established himself\nin life he is apt to look back upon his experiences under such\nteachings in no very amiable mood, and to regard such matters in the\nlight of barriers that were set up to prevent his getting his diploma\nwith too little work; and even if his profession is one that calls for\napplications of mathematics he prepares himself with sets of formulas\nthat enable him to dispense with the imperfect instruction he has\nreceived.\n\nWhen we think of giving a child a mathematical education we are apt to\nask whether he has special aptitudes fitting him to receive it. Do we\nask any such questions when we talk of teaching him to read and write?\nOh, no! we all acknowledge that reading and writing are useful,\npractical, and indispensable arts, which every human being not infirm\nor defective should learn. Now, elementary mathematics, which\nrepresents a tolerably extended equipment, is no less useful and\nindispensable than the knowledge of reading and writing, and I assert\nfurther, what may seem paradoxical to many, that it can be assimilated\nwith much less fatigue than the earliest knowledge of reading and\nwriting, provided always that instead of proceeding in the usual way\nand giving lessons bristling with formulas and rules, appealing to the\nmemory, imposing fatigue, and producing nothing but disgust, we adopt\nthe philosophical method of conveying ideas to the child by means of\nobjects within reach of his senses. The teaching should be wholly\nconcrete and applied only to the contemplation of external objects and\ntheir interpretation, and the instruction should be given continually,\nespecially during the primary period, under the form of play. Nothing\nis easier than this, then, in arithmetic; for instance, to use dice,\nbeans, balls, sticks, etc., and by their aid give the child ideas of\nnumbers.\n\nDo we do anything of this kind? When I was taught to read and write I\nknew how to write the figure 2 before I had any idea of the number\ntwo. Nothing is more radically contrary to the normal working of the\nbrain than this. The notion of numbers--up to 10, for example--should\nbe given to the child before accustoming him to trace a single\ncharacter. That is the only way of impressing the idea of number\nindependently of the symbol or the formula which is only too ready to\ntake the place in the mind of the object represented by it.\n\nWhen a child has learned to count through the use of such objects as I\nhave mentioned he may be taught what is called the addition table.\nThis table can be learned by heart easily enough, but when we reach\nthe multiplication table we come upon one of the tortures of\nchildhood. Would it not be simpler and easier to make the children\nconstruct these tables, instead of making them learn them?\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 1.]\n\nLet us first take the addition table, and suppose that we trace ten\ncolumns on suitably ruled paper, at the top of which we write the\nfirst ten numbers, for example, and then write them again at the\nbeginning of a certain number of horizontal lines (Fig. 1). Let us\nsuppose, too, that we have a box divided into compartments arranged\nlike the squares in our table, into which we put heaps of balls,\nbeans, or dice corresponding to the numbers indicated in the table.\nThe child will take, for example, two balls from one compartment and\nthree from another, will put them together and place his five balls in\nthe case corresponding with the point where the lines of two and three\nwill meet, and will thus gradually accustom himself to the idea that\ntwo added to three are equal to five, four and two to six, etc.,\nbefore he knows how to write the corresponding figures. As soon as he\nhas learned how to write them he can himself make the table with\nfigures (Fig. 2), showing that one and one make two, one and three\nfour, etc.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 2.]\n\nThis will be all the easier for him because he will only have to write\nthe figures in their order in the lines and the columns. This\nfurnishes an excellent writing exercise after the children have begun\nto write figures, and affords besides a certain method of teaching\nthem the addition table up to nineteen at least. I insist that all\nthis can be done even before the child knows how to write the figures\nby means of an arrangement like a printer's case, and that it will be\nas a play, rather than a study, to the child. Hardly anything more\nwill be required than to bring the toy to the child's notice and leave\nhim to himself after he has been started with it, and he will get\nalong the faster the less he is bothered.\n\nA similar process may be adopted with the multiplication table. With a\ncase like the other, it is only necessary to tell the child that if he\nwants to know how much are three times four he has only to make heaps\nof four things each, take three of them and put them in the box at the\nintersection of the line three and the column four. If he can write\nthe figures he will write 12, instead of gathering up the twelve\nobjects that represent the product. When he has played at this for\nsome time he may become acquainted with all the products up to ten\ntimes ten or beyond without having to make any abnormal effort of\nmemory.\n\nThe idea of numeration, which is usually put off till a later period,\nshould also be given at the beginning. Children soon understand the\ndecimal numeration and learn to write 10 for ten, and other numbers\ncomposed of one of the nine ciphers and zero. But the fact which,\nhowever, though quite essential to know, receives very little\nattention is that there is nothing particular about this number ten,\nand that systems of numeration can be devised resting on any basis\nthat may be taken; that the principle of every system of numeration\nconsists in taking a certain number of units and grouping them. Take,\nfor example, a system having five as its basis. All the numbers of\nsuch a system can be represented with the figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, the\nsymbol 10 standing in this case for five. To construct a number we\nhave only to group the units by fives and observe the result.\n\nTo learn decimal numeration by this process we put tens of objects\ninto little boxes, tens of little boxes into larger ones, and so on.\nThe child can in this way acquire an exact idea of the units of\nsuccessive order in any system that may be desired.\n\nThis method of teaching was developed in a remarkable way about\nthirty years ago by Jean Mac\u00e9 in a little book entitled\n_L'Arithm\u00e9tique du Grand-Papa_--Grandpa's Arithmetic--which made some\nimpression when it appeared, but has been substantially forgotten.\n\nIn this method I attach much importance to giving these exercises a\nform of play. I believe that nothing in primary instruction should\nsavor of obligation and fatigue. It would, on the other hand, be\nbetter to try to induce the child to desire himself to go on, and it\nwould always be well to try to give him the illusion, in all stages of\ninstruction, that he is the discoverer of the facts we wish to impress\nupon his mind.\n\nWe need not stop with arithmetic, but may go on and give the child a\nlittle geometry. To accomplish this we should give him the idea of\ngeometrical objects, and to some extent their nomenclature, and this\ncan be done without causing fatigue. To accomplish this he should be\ntaught to draw, however rudely. He can begin with straight lines, of\nwhich he soon learns the properties; then, when he has drawn several\nlines side by side, he will learn that they are parallels and will\nnever meet. He will learn, too, after he has drawn three intersecting\nlines, that the figure within them is called a triangle, that the\nfigure formed by two parallel lines meeting two other parallels is a\nparallelogram, and he can go on to make and learn about polygons, etc\n(Fig. 3). All this nomenclature will get into his head without giving\nabstract definitions, but in such a way that when he sees a\ngeometrical object of definite form he will recognize it at once and\ngive it the name that belongs to it.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 3.]\n\nIn the practical matter of the measurement of areas we convey\nimmediate comprehension as to many figures without special effort,\nprovided we do not present the demonstration in professional style,\nlimiting ourselves to making the pupil comprehend or feel things so\nclearly and definitely that it shall be equivalent, as to the\nsatisfaction of his mind, to an absolutely rigorous demonstration. At\nany rate, he will be better provided for the future than by rigorous\ndemonstrations that he does not understand. Taking the parallelogram,\nfor example, let us suppose a figure made like Fig. 4, and we saw\nthrough it along the lines _A A'_ and _B C_. It does not need a very\ngreat effort of attention to recognize, experimentally if need be,\nthat the two triangles _A A' D_ and _B B' C_ may be placed one upon\nthe other and are identical. If, from the figure thus formed, we take\naway the right-hand triangle the parallelogram will remain; if we take\naway the other triangle a rectangle will be left, or a peculiar\nparallelogram, of which also we give the idea to the child as a figure\nin which the angles are formed by straight lines perpendicular to one\nanother. Here, then, the child gains the notion of the equivalence of\na parallelogram and a rectangle of the same base and height; and this\nnotion, obtained by cutting up a piece of board or pasteboard, he will\ncarry so seriously and firmly in his head that he will never lose it.\nBy cutting the same parallelogram in two, along a diagonal _A C_, it\nmay be easily shown that the two triangles can be placed exactly one\nupon the other, and that, consequently, they have equal areas. These\nlessons constitute a series of classical theorems in geometry which\nthe child can try with his fingers and learn without even giving them\nthe form of theorems. I might show the same as to the area of the\ntrapeze and with many other theorems, but my purpose is only to\npresent as many examples as will make my idea understood, without\ngoing into details.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 4]\n\nYet I can not leave this subject without showing how we can make a\nvery child understand some of the geometrical theorems that have\nacquired a bad reputation in the world of candidates for degrees,\nincluding even such as the _pons asinorum_ of Pythagoras; the\ndemonstration, that is, that if we construct the triangles _B_ and _C_\non the sides of a right-angled triangle, their sum will be equal to\nthe square _A_ constructed on the hypotenuse. The usual demonstration\nof this theorem is not very complicated, but there is something\ntiresome, artificial, and hard in it. The demonstration I propose is\nalmost intuitive, and the reasoning of it is both simple and rigorous.\n\nSuppose we take two equal squares, and, making equal lengths on the\nfour sides of one of them, join the points so obtained as indicated in\nthe first of the two figures (Figs. 5 and 6) so as to form four\nright-angled triangles, and then place four other squares in the\ncorners of the original square. These right-angled triangles are of\nsuch sort that the sum of their sides is equal to the side of the\nsquare. This can be demonstrated, but it strikes the eyes without\nthat. We see, too, that the interior figure is a square, and that it\nis constructed on the hypotenuse of the triangles in question.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 5.]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 6.]\n\nIt is easy to see in the other figure, which is formed after the same\nmeasures as its alternate, that the triangles 1, 2, 3, 4 can be\narranged so as to occupy the positions 1', 2', 3', 4' in such way as\nto leave in the main square two smaller squares constructed on the\nsides of one of the right-angled triangles. It follows that the square\nA is equivalent to the sum of the squares _B_ and _C_. The theorem\nthus becomes a kind of intuition, a thing evidently indisputable.\n\nIt is a curious fact that the origin of this demonstration is lost in\nthe obscurity of the past; it probably goes back to thirty or forty\ncenturies, at least, before the Christian era, and apparently to\nIndia. Bhascara, in his _Bija Ganita_, after tracing a figure, a\nsimple combination of these two, says, \"There you see it.\" I remark\nthat such a demonstration, even if dressed with geometrical terms,\nassuming a character that conforms to existing ways of teaching, would\nbe vastly superior, even in secondary schools, to the demonstrations\nof Legendre and others, which are much harder. The return to what was\ndone very long ago in this case constitutes a great advance upon what\nwe are doing now.\n\nHaving given our little one an initiation into the mysteries of\narithmetic and geometry, we introduce him to algebra, a branch which\npasses in the majority of families as the hardest, most complicated,\nand most abstruse that can be imagined. I do not pretend that\nalgebraic theories enter easily into the child's delicate brain;\nrather the contrary; but I declare that some ideas in algebra can be\nmade comprehensible to children without fatigue. We can, for instance,\nmake them understand, in the way of amusement and without great\ndifficulty, the formula that gives the sum of the first numbers. We\ntake a sheet of paper ruled in squares and shade the first square of\nthe first line, then the first two squares of the second line, the\nfirst three of the third, etc. (Fig. 7). The whole number of squares\nshaded in this manner represents visibly the sum of the first whole\nnumbers up to any one we may choose--to 7 in the figure. If we give\nthis paper to the child and ask him to return it, he will very easily\nperceive that the figures formed by the white and the black squares\nare alike. The number sought for will therefore be equal to half the\nsum of the squares--that is, in the present example\n\n      1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = (7 X 8) : 2 = 28,\n\nwe can prove by reasoning that if n be taken to represent the last\nnumber we shall have for the sum\n\n          n (n + 1)\n      S = ----------\n              2\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 7.]\n\nI introduce this formula to define my thought better, but one can make\nthe child perceive the numbers that are wanted without writing down a\nsingle character.\n\nSomewhat similar is the method of finding the sum of the odd numbers.\nFor this it will be enough to take our square-ruled sheet of paper and\nshade the first square on the left, then the three squares around it,\nwhich will form with it a square (1 + 3 = 4); continuing thus we\nobtain, as the figure readily shows (Fig. 8), a square formed of a\nseries of shaded zones, representing the series of odd numbers, the\nexamination of which will illustrate the property to the child.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 8.]\n\nIn another direction it is possible to give the child algebraic ideas\nmuch beyond anything we would imagine. Suppose, for example, we want\nto give him a conception of addition. He easily realizes that\nobjects--material bars, for example--can be selected so as to\nrepresent numbers by their length. He can be readily made to\nunderstand that if he has one bar three and another five inches long\nhe can obtain the sum of these lengths, in what we might call a\nmaterial way, by placing them lengthwise, one at the end of the\nother--an essentially practical notion and easily carried into effect.\nIf we take a line and mark a starting point on it, calling it zero,\nthen measure off segments on it representing the bars we have been\ntalking about one after another, we can get the sum represented by the\nlength of the two segments. If, instead of measuring three plus five\ninches I measure three plus two I reach another point. If, instead of\nadding two and three, I wish to take one of the bars or numbers away\n(3-2), or subtract, the operation will be easily performed by\nmeasuring the two in the opposite direction. The difference will be\nrepresented by the length that is left. If we try to form the quantity\n3-5 in arithmetic we can not do it; but in proceeding in this method\nand measuring back on the bar we get to a point back of the original\nstarting point which represents this difference--say two inches behind\nwhere we began. Here we have in the germ the whole theory of negative\nquantities, concerning which thousands and thousands of pages have\nbeen written. Yet we find that by carefully graduating our lines we\ncan make it intuitive and accessible to a child who has learned that\nthe common operations of addition and subtraction can be represented\nwith material objects. The generation of negative and positive\nquantities follows quite naturally.\n\nThese examples, I think, are sufficient to show that we might\nconsiderably enlarge the field of the investigations within reach of\nthe child. For this purpose a small amount of very simple material,\nwhich we can vary as we please, is needful. The first element of this\nmaterial is paper ruled in squares, a wonderful instrument, which\neverybody dealing with mathematics or with science generally should\nhave. It is of special pedagogic use in giving children their first\nideas of form, size, and position, without which their early\ninstruction is only a delusion. Add to this paper dice, buttons,\nbeans, and match-sticks--things always easy to get--and we have all\nthe material we need.\n\nThere is no amusement, however puerile it may appear, not even a play\nof words, that can not be utilized in teaching of this sort. For\ninstance, when your child has learned his addition table, if you put\nhim to a demonstration, assuming to prove to his comrades that six and\nthree make eight, his curiosity will be excited, and you may be very\nsure that, once his attention has been given to this amusement, he\nwill never forget that six and three make nine and not eight. To make\nthe demonstration, we have only to group the nine match-sticks as in\nthe figure (Fig. 9) below. We might demonstrate in a like way that\nhalf of twelve is seven by cutting the Roman numeral XII in two,\nleaving the upper part visible. Such pleasantries have a pedagogical\nvalue, because the paradox is precisely of a kind to attract the\nattention of the child, and he will always afterward be sure not to\nfall into the trap.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 9.]\n\nThe side of this kind of instruction on which I insist most is that,\ngiven under the form of play, it is free from every sort of dogmatic\ncharacter. No truth should be imposed on the child; on the contrary,\nhe should be allowed to discover it as a fruit of his own activity. He\nwill be thoroughly impressed with the truths which he has thus found\nout himself. They had better be few at first; the important thing is\nfor him to know them completely.\n\nThe instruction should also be essentially objective and free from all\nabstraction. The absence of abstraction should, however, be rather\napparent than real. Abstraction is indeed one of the elements that\ncontribute most to give mathematical science a fearful air to\noutsiders, and yet it is most usually a simplification of\nmatters--quite the contrary of what is generally supposed. It is, in\nfact, such a simplification and so necessary that we all make it as if\nby instinct, and the child makes it, not in mathematics only, but in\nall the considerations of life.\n\nThus, when I want to give the child his first idea of the number two I\nput two beans in his hand and let him contemplate them. He gets a\nperfect notion of the collection two. Yet, if you look at them a\nlittle closer and he himself looks at them closer he will find that\nthe two beans, whatever else they may be, are not identical, for there\nexist no two objects in Nature that are not different. So when the\nchild introduces this idea of collection into his mind in a wholly\ninstinctive way, by identifying the things he sees, he begins to\nperform abstraction. This abstraction delivers him from all the\ncomplications and all the annoyances that come to him from the\ncontemplation of real objects. By the philosophic process of\nabstraction it has been possible to construct all the sciences, and\nespecially the science of magnitudes.\n\nThe ideas I have been setting forth in outline are not mine, and are,\nunfortunately, not recent. They may be found in somewhat different\nform, but substantially the same in principle, in _l'Essai d'education\nnationale_, published by Le Chalotais in 1763. The paper furnishes a\nprogramme of studies and education which, if put into execution,\nwould, I believe, constitute a long advance over the present\nconditions. At a later period Condorcet was occupied with the subject.\nAt the close of the nineteenth century the name of Jean Mac\u00e9, which I\nhave already cited, should be held among those of men who have tried\nto infuse sound and just views concerning the pedagogy of mathematics.\nAnother man, from whom I have borrowed a considerable part of the\nexamples I have cited, is Edouard Lucas, who, in his _R\u00e9cr\u00e9ations\nmath\u00e9matiques_, of which one volume was published during his lifetime\nand two others after his death, and in his lectures before the\nConservatoire des Arts et M\u00e9tiers, strove to develop views concerning\nthe primary mathematical education of childhood--views which\ndid not differ, except in form, from those which I have\npresented.--_Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue\nScientifique._\n\n\n\n\nPRESENT POSITION OF SOCIOLOGY.\n\nBY F. SPENCER BALDWIN.\n\n\nThe present condition of sociological thought is confused, if not\nchaotic. It needs only a brief examination of the writings of\nprofessed sociologists to discover the want of agreement among them.\nThere is no consensus of opinion regarding either the scope and method\nof the new science, so called, or its fundamental laws and principles.\nThe name sociology stands for no definite body of systematic\nknowledge. It is applied to an inchoate mass of speculation, often\nvague and conflicting, which represents the thought of various\nthinkers about social phenomena.\n\nA few years ago a student of sociology in Chicago wrote to \"all the\nteachers of sociology in the United States, and to others known to be\ndeeply interested in the subject and entitled to express an opinion,\"\nasking them to answer a number of pertinent questions regarding the\nnature and function of the \"science.\"[28] About forty replied; of\nthese, three discreetly pleaded knowledge insufficient to entitle them\nto an opinion. Comparison of the views expressed in the remaining\ntwenty-seven replies led the investigator to conclude that the science\nis in a more or less undefined and tentative position. So little\nprogress toward unanimity of opinion has been made by sociologists\nsince the date of this census that its results may be taken as typical\nof present conditions. Among the questions asked were these: \"Do you\nthink the study is entitled to be called a science?\" \"In what\ndepartment does it belong?\" \"What is its relation to political\neconomy, history, political science, ethics?\"\n\n     [Footnote 28: Present Condition of Sociology in the United\n     States. Ira W. Howarth. Annals of the American Academy,\n     September, 1894.]\n\nThe question whether sociology is entitled to be called a science is\nanswered by \"fully three fourths\" of the correspondents in the\naffirmative. Some hedge, by affirming that it is \"becoming a science.\"\nProf. John Bascom, of Williams College, appears to have entered into\nthe humor of the situation; he writes, \"It will do no harm to call it\na science if we do not abate our effort to make it one.\"\n\nThe opinions regarding the department in which sociology belongs are\nentertainingly diverse. Prof. John Dewey, of the University of\nChicago, is frank enough to admit that he doesn't \"feel at all sure\"\nwhere it belongs. \"It would seem well,\" he adds, \"to have it a\nseparate branch, in order to make sure that it received proper\nattention.\" This feeling of uneasiness lest the claims of sociology be\nslightingly treated appears to be general among the representatives of\nthe new study. Most of the teachers of sociology are of the opinion\nthat it ought to form a department by itself. Some would place it in\nthe department of the social sciences, along with politics, economics,\njurisprudence, and the like. Others would change the order, making all\nthe social sciences divisions of sociology. On the other hand,\nProfessor Giddings, of Columbia University, says: \"General sociology\ncan not be divided into special social sciences, such as economics,\nlaw, and politics, without losing its distinctive character. It should\nbe looked on as the foundation or groundwork of these sciences, rather\nthan as their sum or as their collective name.\" Scattering replies\nplace it under psychology, moral and political science, political\neconomy, and anthropology. One teacher thinks it belongs under the\n\"humanities\"; while two say it has no natural boundaries, and is\ntherefore not included in any one department. Altogether the\nimpression left by the replies to this question is that the teachers\nof sociology are quite at a loss to know where to put the study in the\nuniversity curriculum. They appear to realize confusedly that they\nhave on their hands a pedagogical white elephant, which defies\nclassification.\n\nThe opinions concerning the relation of sociology to political\neconomy, history, political science, and ethics are almost delphic in\ntheir vagueness. Says one, \"History is its material, ethics its guide,\npolitical economy its interpreter, and a rational system of political\nscience its proposed end.\" Says another, \"Sociology is political\neconomy in practice, history in the making, political science as an\nart, and ethics applied.\" After worrying over these oracular epigrams\nit is refreshing to be told by another teacher that \"the relation of\nsociology to political economy, history, etc., is _close_.\"\n\nIt would be superfluous to cite further illustrations of the unsettled\nstate of sociological thought. The quotations that have been made show\nconclusively that the accredited representatives of the new \"science\"\nare at loggerheads upon fundamental questions. This fact the\nsociologists themselves readily admit. The author of a recent treatise\non sociology speaks of the \"confusion and perplexity among its\nteachers, and declares that its forms are as yet varied, and perhaps\nwould suggest a series of pseudo-sciences instead if one genuine\nscience.\"[29] Even Professor Giddings confesses in the preface of his\nPrinciples of Sociology that \"much sociology is as yet nothing more\nthan careful and suggestive guesswork.\" Professor Small, of the\nUniversity of Chicago, in his Introduction to the Study of Society,\nspeaks of sociology as an \"inchoate science,\" and remarks that \"only\nignoramuses, incompetent to employ the method of any science, could\nclaim for sociology the merit of a completed system.\"\n\n     [Footnote 29: Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology, p. 1.]\n\nSociologists themselves, then, confess that differences of opinion\nexist among them. Let us look more carefully at the nature of these\ndifferences. They relate to the scope, the method, the object, and the\nground-principles of the \"science.\"\n\nThe province of sociology is defined by some very broadly, to include\nthe whole range of the phenomena of human association. By others the\nscope of the study is limited to a narrower range of social phenomena.\nAmong the latter, again, there are some who would identify sociology\nwith the study of social origins, or the genesis of social\ninstitutions. Others would restrict sociology to a study of the\nhistory and function of the family. Still others understand by\nsociology merely the pathology of society, devoting themselves to the\ndiagnosis of social diseases, as crime and pauperism.\n\nProfessor Giddings has called attention to the natural tendency on the\npart of each social philosopher to create a sociology in the image of\nhis professional specialty. \"To the economist,\" he says, \"sociology is\na penumbral political economy--a scientific outer darkness--for\ninconvenient problems and obstinate facts that will not live peaceably\nwith well-bred formulas. To the alienist and the criminal\nanthropologist it is a social pathology. To the ethnologist it is that\nsubdivision of his own science which supplements the account of racial\ntraits by a description of social organization. To the comparative\nmythologist and the student of folklore it is an account of the\nevolution of culture.\"\n\nThe narrower conceptions of sociology, however, have been discarded\nby the best-known sociologists of the present time. There is a general\ntendency to adopt a broad definition of the province of sociology, to\ninclude in the field of investigation all the phenomena of social\nstructure and growth.\n\nBut what is the relation of this general social science to the special\nsocial sciences--that is, the sciences dealing with special groups of\nsocial phenomena, as economics, politics, and jurisprudence? Is\nsociology anything more than a convenient collective name for the sum\nof all these? Touching this point opinions differ.[30]\n\n     [Footnote 30: See for the following: H. H. Powers. Terminology\n     and the Sociological Conference, in Annals of the American\n     Academy, March, 1895.]\n\nAt least three different conceptions of the relation of sociology to\nthe various special social sciences may be distinguished. Sociology\nhas been defined as (1) the \"inclusive,\" as (2) the \"co-ordinating,\"\nand as (3) the \"fundamental\" science of society. 1. The first\nconception is that of Spencer and De Greef. Spencer defines sociology\nas \"the science of society,\" and defends his adoption of the term on\nthe ground that \"no other name sufficiently comprehensive existed.\"\nThis implies that he conceives of sociology as an inclusive science.\nDe Greef, the Belgian sociologist, makes the science all\ncomprehensive; his scheme of classification \"includes everything, from\nthe husbanding of corn and wine to electioneering contests in the\nInstitute of France.\"[31] 2. The second conception is that of\nProfessor Small, of Chicago. He defines sociology as \"the synthesis of\nall the particular social sciences.\" It does not include, it\ncoordinates these sciences. It concerns itself with the relations\nwhich the various special groups of social phenomena hold to each\nother and to society as a whole, leaving to special social sciences\nthe study of each group in minute detail. The conclusions won by these\nspecial sciences are taken by sociology and worked over into a body of\ncorrelated social principles. Sociology is, therefore, subsequent to\nthe particular social sciences and dependent upon them. 3. The third\nconception is that of Professor Giddings, of Columbia University. He\ndefines sociology as \"the science of social elements and first\nprinciples.\" It is \"not merely the sum of the social sciences; it is\nrather their common basis.\" It undertakes to analyze the general\ncharacteristics of social phenomena and to formulate the laws of\nsocial organization and evolution. Sociology furnishes a body of\nfundamental principles which make a common basis for the special\nsocial sciences. The latter rest on sociology, which is the antecedent\nand fundamental social science.\n\n     [Footnote 31: See Giddings. Principles of Sociology, p. 29.]\n\nNow a little reflection will show that these three conceptions of\nsociology do not conflict, but harmonize. There is no real opposition\nbetween them, rightly understood. Each emphasizes correctly one phase\nof the relation between sociology and the special social sciences.\nSociology is both an inclusive, a co-ordinating, and a fundamental\nscience. In the first place, sociology is a general science, having as\nits subject-matter social phenomena of all kinds. Therefore it\ncomprehends all the sciences dealing with special kinds of social\nphenomena. These particular sciences are, in the nature of things,\nclosely related to each other. They must possess in common certain\nlaws and principles. These it is the task of sociology to formulate;\nfor as the inclusive social science it should exhibit the mutual\nrelations of the included social sciences. Thus sociology becomes a\nco-ordinating as well as an inclusive science. Furthermore, the laws\nand principles of the special social sciences, which sociology, as the\nco-ordinating science, undertakes to formulate, are necessarily\nfundamental. And in this respect sociology may be regarded as the\nfundamental social science. The three rival conceptions of sociology\nmust be combined in the correct view. As Mr. Arthur Fairbanks remarks\nin his admirable Introduction to Sociology: \"Sociology may embrace all\nthe sciences dealing with society, but it does not destroy the partial\nindependence of any of these branches. It includes economics,\npolitics, and the like, but, instead of supplanting them, its sphere\nis to lay the foundation of these particular social sciences.\"\n\nIt appears, then, that the disagreement among the leaders of\nsociological thought regarding the scope of their \"science\" is more\napparent than real. The same may be said regarding the contention\nabout method. The debate here is over the question whether deduction\nor induction is the proper method of investigation in the social\nsciences. One party holds that the only legitimate method is the\nabstract-deductive, the investigator arriving at his conclusions by\nreasoning _a priori_ from certain fundamental assumptions regarding\nthe nature of man in general. What these thinkers aim at is a\nsubjective interpretation of social phenomena in terms of human\nmotives, principles, and ideals. Another party maintains that the only\nfruitful method is the concrete-inductive, the investigator reaching\nhis conclusions by observing the facts of social life and reasoning\nfrom them to general laws and principles. The aim here is to give an\nobjective interpretation of society in terms of race, environment, and\nhistorical conditions. The controversy has been especially violent\namong the economists. The English classical school of political\neconomy made exclusive use of the deductive method; economic laws were\ndeduced from the fundamental postulate of human selfishness. The\nGerman historical school employed the inductive method; economic laws\nwere inferred from a study of the concrete facts of industrial life.\n\nThis academic discussion over method is tiresome and futile. Neither\nmethod will ever drive the other from the field. The exclusive\nemployment of either deduction or induction will yield only half\nresults in the social sciences. The two methods effectually supplement\neach other and should be used together. They are not rivals, but\nallies. Induction without deduction is blind; deduction without\ninduction untrustworthy. This fact is recognized by recent writers on\nsociology. So Professor Giddings remarks that \"history without\ndeductive illumination is chaos. Deduction without verification is\nundoubtedly the very light that never was on sea or land!\"\n\nThe principal method in the social sciences must undoubtedly be the\ninductive. The nature of the subject-matter determines this. The\nsocial sciences deal with the facts of social structure and growth.\nThe task of the investigator is the explanation of these facts. He has\nfirst, then, to observe and compare the facts. But his observation\nmust be guided and his conclusions verified by deduction.\n\nConcerning the purpose of sociology, as touching its method, there are\ntwo conflicting opinions. But here again the seeming disagreement is\nnot absolutely irreconcilable. It is held by some that the purpose of\nthe sociologist should be merely the acquisition of knowledge, without\nfurther thought of the practical use to which the results of his\nresearches might be put. He should aim to discover and formulate the\nlaws of social forces, not to propose ideals of social reform.\nSociology is a pure science and has no utilitarian end. By others it\nis held that the purpose of the sociologist should be the regulation\nof social forces in the interest of human progress. The object of\nsociology is the betterment of society, the acceleration of social\nevolution. It is an applied science and has a practical end.\n\nBoth these views are tenable. In fact, sociology, like all sciences,\nhas a double purpose. The primary purpose is to acquire knowledge; the\nsecondary purpose is to apply that knowledge to the attainment of\npractical ends. This duality of purpose is clearly set forth by Mr.\nLester F. Ward in a recent essay.[32] \"Sociology,\" he says, \"has both\na pure and an applied stage.\" It \"should be studied first for the sake\nof information relating to the laws of human association and\nco-operative action, and finally for the purpose of determining in\nwhat ways and to what extent social phenomena may, with a knowledge of\ntheir laws, be modified and directed toward social ideals.\"\n\n     [Footnote 32: Lester F. Ward. Purpose of Sociology. American\n     Journal of Sociology, November, 1896.]\n\nModern society is a complex of difficult problems. And this fact\nfurnishes a background of motive for the studies of the sociologist.\nNot even the veriest stickler for pure science can deny the imperative\nneed of established knowledge of the laws of social activity. The\npeople perish for lack of wisdom. To enlighten the public mind on\nvital social questions and thus to promote an intelligent direction of\nsocial conduct toward rational ends is the high function of sociology.\nThis practical purpose, however, should be kept always secondary to\nthe pursuit of knowledge. \"The knowledge is the important thing. The\naction will then take care of itself.\"[33] The discussion of the\nwhat-ought-to-be must wait on the investigation of the what-is. The\nneglect of this caution has been responsible for much false doctrine\nand foolish counsel. Sociologists have allowed their enthusiasm for\nideals to blind the eye and bias the judgment. Panacea hawkers of all\nsorts have attempted to prescribe for social diseases, without making\nany study of social structure and function. Communistic quackery has\nmasqueraded as sociological wisdom. The wild-cat sociology of the\npresent day is a result of the over-addiction to social reform which\nbesets students of society. It can not be too strongly emphasized that\nthe primary object of the sociologist is the impartial investigation\nof facts. The man who forgets this becomes dangerous. He is liable to\nrun amuck.\n\n     [Footnote 33: Ward. Ibidem.]\n\nThe differences of opinion as to the scope, method, and purpose of\nsociology have been found upon examination to be less serious than\nthey at first sight appeared. But in regard to the fundamental\nprinciples of sociology, the confusion is hopeless. The student will\nsearch in vain in the systematic treatises on sociology for any\ndefinite body of established doctrine which he can accept as the\nground-principles of the science. He finds only an unmanageable mass\nof conflicting theories and opinions. Each treatise contains an\nexposition of what the author is pleased to label the Principles of\nSociology. But the \"principles\" are not the same in any two treatises;\nand by no process of analysis and synthesis can they be brought into\nharmony. They are fundamentally contradictory. It is impossible, I\nbelieve, to discover a single alleged ground-principle of sociology\nthat has commanded general assent.\n\nSome of the recent writers on sociology have devoted themselves\nparticularly to the task of establishing one basal principle which may\nbe applied to the interpretation of all social phenomena. At least\nhalf a dozen claims to the discovery of such a principle have been put\nforward. Prof. Ludwig Gumplowicz finds the elementary social fact to\nbe conflict; Prof. Guillaume De Greef finds it to be contract; M.\nGabriel Tarde contends that the fundamental principle of society is\nimitation; Prof. Emile Durkheim argues that it is \"the coercion of the\nindividual mind by modes of action, thought, and feeling external to\nitself.\" Professor Giddings criticises all these explanations of\nsociety, as either too special or too general, and undertakes to\nprove that \"the original and elementary fact in society is the\nconsciousness of kind.\" This is the determining principle to which all\nsocial phenomena are to be referred.[34] But Professor Giddings's\nsociological postulate has been promptly rejected by his American\ncolleagues, Prof. Albion W. Small and Mr. Lester F. Ward. The former\nspeaks contemptuously of the consciousness of kind as a remote\nmetaphysical category, and declares that the whole system of sociology\nbased on the principle is \"an impossible combination of\ncontradictions.\"[35] This opinion is approved by Ward, who riddles\nGiddings's book with criticism, and complains of the author's\ninability to handle principles correctly.[36]\n\n     [Footnote 34: See Giddings. Principles of Sociology, chap. i.]\n\n     [Footnote 35: In American Journal of Sociology, September, 1896.]\n\n     [Footnote 36: In Annals of the American Academy, July, 1896.]\n\nIt is hardly necessary to penetrate further into this debate over\nfirst principles. The most exhaustive examination of the writings of\nthe leaders in sociological thought would fail to discover any\nfundamental unity of opinion. The so-called principles of the science\nare multiform. They represent merely the unsupported conclusions of\nindividual thinkers. If we except the barest commonplaces, no truths\nhave been established; no scientific laws have been agreed upon. The\ncontent of the science of sociology, as expounded in treatises bearing\nthis name, varies with the particular bias of the writer. In fine,\nthere are systems of sociology galore, but there is hardly a\nsociology.\n\nOf the various systems of sociology that have been developed since the\nnew \"science\" was first outlined by Auguste Comte, that of Herbert\nSpencer is undoubtedly the most coherent and self-consistent. But even\nthe genius of Mr. Spencer has been unequal to the task of working out\na body of firmly grounded principles which should furnish a basis for\nthe convergence of opinion on social questions. He has not succeeded\nin giving permanent form and content to sociology. His work is\ndisparagingly criticised by other living sociologists. Small declares\nthat \"Spencer's sociology ends precisely where sociology proper should\nbegin,\" and quotes approvingly De Greef's assertion that \"Mr. Spencer\nnot only fails to show that there is a place for sociology, but his\nown reasoning proves more than anything else that there is no social\nscience superior to biology.\"[37] Ward, while commending the logical\nconsistency of Mr. Spencer's work, pronounces him \"unsystematic,\nnonconstructive, and nonprogressive.\"[38]\n\n     [Footnote 37: See Giddings. Principles of Sociology, chap. i.]\n\n     [Footnote 38: Small and Vincent. Introduction to the Study of\n     Society, p. 46].\n\nThere is much justice in these criticisms of Mr. Spencer's system. His\nsociology is almost entirely descriptive; and his description of\nsocial phenomena has taken the form of an elaborate analogy between\nsociety and the animal organism. The utility of this biological\nanalogy has rightly been called in question. The particular\nresemblances traced by Mr. Spencer between a society and a living body\nare these: both grow and increase in size; while they increase in size\nthey increase in structure; increase in structure is accompanied by\nprogressive differentiation of functions; and differentiation of\nfunctions leads to mutual interdependence of the parts. Furthermore,\nin the case both of a society and of a living body the lives of the\nunits continue for some time if the life of the aggregate is suddenly\narrested; while if the aggregate is not suddenly destroyed by violence\nits life greatly exceeds in duration the lives of its units. Since,\ntherefore, the permanent relations among the parts of a society are\nanalogous to the permanent relations among the parts of an organism,\nsociety is to be regarded as an organism.\n\nNow the trouble with this clever analogy is that it breaks down\ncompletely when the comparison is carried beyond a certain point. Mr.\nSpencer himself notices some differences between the social body and\nthe animal body, but declares that they are not of such fundamental\ncharacter as to weaken the force of his analogy. One of these\ndifferences, however, can not be so lightly dismissed. If we compare a\nhigh type of animal organism with a high type of society, this\nstriking unlikeness is discovered. In the former there is but one\ncenter of consciousness; in the latter there are many. \"In the one,\"\nto quote Mr. Spencer's own words, \"consciousness is concentrated in a\nsmall part of the aggregate. In the other it is diffused throughout\nthe aggregate.\" The animal body has one brain, one center of thought,\nfeeling, and life; the social body has numberless such centers.\n\nWhen we go back and compare the course of development in the two cases\nthe difference noted comes into even greater prominence. The evolution\nof animal life is characterized by progressive centralization, the\nevolution of social life by progressive decentralization. In the\nlowest form of animal, the amoeba, there is no single center of life.\nThe life is in all the parts; reproduction takes place simply by\ndivision. But with each successive advance above this lowest form\nthere is developed more and more definitely a single center of\nconsciousness. One part becomes distinctly differentiated as the sole\nseat of life. If that part is destroyed, the organism dies. Thus,\n\"animal development has meant a concentration of the more important\nnervous elements and a merging of their separate activity in the\ncommon activity of a single consciousness.\"[39]\n\n     [Footnote 39: Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology, p. 44.]\n\nThe law of progress is quite the reverse in social development. At a\nprimitive stage there is a marked subjection of the individual\nelements of society to a central authority, whether that of the\npatriarch, the tribal head, or the tribal assembly. The individual has\nno economic, legal, or moral independence. But as society develops,\nthe control which the whole exerts over the parts through authority\nand custom is gradually diminished. The individuality of the members\nof the social body becomes more and more marked. Individual freedom\nand responsibility are definitely recognized. Thus, the development of\nsociety has meant \"the development of individuality in each of its\nmembers.\" It is a development of persons; the \"social consciousness\nexists only in the discrete social elements which have become\nindividual.\"[40]\n\n     [Footnote 40: Fairbanks. Ibidem.]\n\nIn a word, social evolution is accompanied by a growing\nindividualization of the component elements of society, whereas animal\ndevelopment leads to ever-stronger concentration of the life of the\norganism in a single part.\n\nThis difference between the physical organism and society is\nfundamental and essential. It is far more striking than the\nsuperficial likenesses ingeniously adduced by Mr. Spencer. His analogy\ntends to obscure the real nature of social relations. Unless used with\ncautious qualifications it \"suggests false and one-sided views\" and\nthus hinders the progress of sociology. The biological analogy has, it\nmay be conceded, a certain value as a convenient way of describing\nsome of the aspects of social structure and growth. It may aid the\nstudent to comprehend certain facts, but, if followed blindly, it will\nlead him to overlook other facts of even greater importance.\n\nThe biological analogy has been carried to absurd lengths by some\nwriters. There is wearisome enumeration of social aggregates and\norgans, and exhaustive description of the social nervous system. We\nlearn that the individual may be either a communicating cell or a\nterminal cell, otherwise known as an end organ. The girl in the\ncentral telephone office acts as a communicating cell when she\ntelephones to Mr. Smith a message from Mr. Brown. \"But when, Mr. Smith\nhaving asked her the exact time by the chronometer in the exchange,\nshe looks at the dial and reports her observation to him, she is\nprimarily a terminal cell or end organ.\"[41] The lookout man at sea,\non the other hand, is invariably an end organ. This is far-fetched and\nfanciful. To clothe mere commonplaces in the borrowed rags and tags of\nbiological terminology is not social science, nor does it aid one to\nget a correct conception of social reality.\n\n     [Footnote 41: Small and Vincent. Introduction to the Study of\n     Society, p. 218.]\n\nThe unsettled state of sociological thought which has been here set\nforth is a natural result of the peculiar difficulties that stand in\nthe way of the social sciences. These have been described by Mr.\nSpencer with great fullness of illustration.[42] They arise from three\nsources--namely, (1) from the intrinsic nature of the facts dealt\nwith; (2) from the natures of the observers of these facts; and (3)\nfrom the peculiar relation in which the observers stand toward the\nfacts observed.\n\n     [Footnote 42: Herbert Spencer. Study of Sociology, chaps. iv to\n     xii.]\n\n1. In the first place the peculiar nature of social phenomena is such\nas to render scientific observation difficult. They are not of a\ndirectly perceptible kind like the phenomena which form the\nsubject-matter of the natural sciences. Quantitative measurement and\nexperiment are not possible. Social facts \"have to be established by\nputting together many details, no one of which is simple, and which\nare dispersed, both in space and time, in ways that make them\ndifficult of access.\"\n\n2. Again, to these objective difficulties are added the subjective\ndifficulties resulting from the intellectual and the emotional\nlimitations of the investigators. There is, very generally, a lack of\nintellectual faculty sufficiently complex and plastic to comprehend\nthe involved and changing phenomena of society. The scientific\njudgment is disturbed by a variety of emotional prejudices, which Mr.\nSpencer classifies as the educational bias, the bias of patriotism,\nthe class bias, the political bias, and the theological bias.\n\n3. And, finally, the peculiar position which the sociological observer\noccupies with reference to the phenomena puts further obstacles in the\nway of trustworthy observation. The sociologist has to study an\naggregate in which he is himself included. He is a member of society\nand can not wholly free himself from the beliefs and sentiments\ngenerated by this connection.\n\nThese peculiar difficulties which beset sociology have naturally\nimpeded the development of the department compared with other branches\nof knowledge. They furnish adequate explanation of the unsettled\ncondition of sociological thought which has been described in this\npaper.\n\nIn conclusion, it is hardly necessary to state that in the writer's\nopinion sociology is not, at present, entitled to be called a science.\nIn order to establish the right of a body of knowledge to the title of\nscience, the claimants must be able to show that they have a\ndefinitely bounded field of investigation, that they employ recognized\nscientific methods, and that they have established certain truths of\nunquestioned value. Sociology in its present state fails to meet these\nconditions. Its province is not yet agreed upon, its methods have been\noften unscientific, and its first principles are yet to be formulated.\nIt is not, therefore, a science.\n\n\"Sociology,\" says one of its critics, \"no more demonstrates its claim\nto existence as a science than astronomy would if we found some\nastronomers insisting that the sun went around the earth and others\ncontending that the earth went around the sun.\"[43]\n\n     [Footnote 43: The Nation, vol. lx, p. 351. Review of Small and\n     Vincent's Introduction to the Study of Society.]\n\nAfter all, the question whether sociology deserves to be called a\nscience or not is one of merely academic interest. It has received far\nmore attention than it really deserves. Nor will any amount of\ndiscussion upon this point help to make sociology a science. \"It is\nsafe to say,\" remarks the critic from whom we have just quoted, \"that\nno great scientific work was ever done by a man who was fretting over\nthe question whether he was a scientist or not. The work is the thing\nand not what it is called. On the other hand, no name can dignify a\nwork which is petty and futile.\"\n\nIt is not by talking about it, but by working over it, that a body of\nknowledge is developed into a science. And sociologists would do well\nto heed the advice of Tarde, the French writer: \"Instead of\ndiscoursing upon the merits of this infant--sociology--which men have\nhad the art to baptize before its birth, let us succeed, if possible,\nin bringing it forth.\"[44]\n\n     [Footnote 44: Quoted by Vincent in American Journal of Sociology,\n     January, 1896, p. 487.]\n\n\n\n\nA FEATHERED PARASITE.\n\nBY LEANDER S. KEYSER.\n\n\nNothing could more clearly prove that a common law runs through the\nwhole domain of Nature than the fact that in every division of her\nrealm there seems to be a class of parasites. In the vegetable world,\nas is well known, there are various plants that depend wholly upon\nother plants for the supply of their vital forces. And in the human\nsphere there are parasites in a very real and literal sense--men and\nwomen who rely upon the toil and thrift of others to sustain them in\nworthless idleness.\n\nIn view of the almost universal character of this law it would be\nstrange if these peculiar forms of dependence did not appear in the\navian community. We do find such developments in that department of\ncreation. Across the waters there is one bird which has won an\nunenviable reputation as a parasite, and that is the European cuckoo,\nwhich relies almost wholly on the efforts of its more thrifty\nneighbors to hatch and rear its young, and thereby perpetuate the\nspecies. Strangely enough, our American cuckoos are not given to such\nslovenly habits, but build their own nests and faithfully perform the\nduties of nidification, as all respectable feathered folk should.\nHowever, this parasitical habit breaks out, quite unexpectedly it must\nbe conceded, in another American family of birds which is entirely\ndistinct from the cuckoo group.\n\nIn America the cowbird, often called the cow bunting, is the only\nmember of the avian household that spirits its eggs into the nests of\nother birds. The theory of evolution can do little toward accounting\nfor the anomaly, and even if it should venture upon some suggestions\nit would still be just as difficult to explain the cause of the\nevolution in this special group, while all other avian groups follow\nthe law of thrift and self-reliance.\n\nThe cowbird belongs to the family of birds scientifically known as\n_Icterid\u00e6_, which includes such familiar species as the bobolinks,\norioles, meadow larks, and the various kinds of blackbirds, none of\nwhich, I am glad to say, are parasites. The name _Molothrus_ has been\ngiven to the genus that includes the cowbirds. They are confined to\nthe American continent, having no analogues in the lands across the\nseas. The same may be said, indeed, of the whole _Icterid\u00e6_ family. It\nmay be a matter of surprise to many persons that there are twelve\nspecies and subspecies of cowbirds in North and South America, for\nmost of us are familiar only with the common cowbird (_Molothrus\nater_) of our temperate regions. Of these twelve species only three\nare to be found within the limits of the United States, one is a\nresident of western Mexico and certain parts of Central America, while\nthe rest find habitat exclusively in South America. A fresh field of\ninvestigation is open to some enterprising and ambitious naturalist\nwho wishes to study several of these species, as comparatively little\nis known of their habits, and indeed much still remains to be learned\nof the whole genus, familiar as one or two of the species are. Their\nsly, surreptitious manners render them exceedingly difficult to study\nat close range and with anything like detail.\n\nAre all of them parasites? It is probable they are--at least to a\ngreater or less degree--except one, the bay-winged cowbird of South\nAmerica, which I shall reserve for notice later on in this article. We\nmight assert that our common cowbird is the parasite _par excellence_\nof the family, for, so far as I can learn from reading and\nobservation, they never build their own nests or rear their own young,\nbut shift all the duties of maternity, save the laying of the eggs,\nupon the shoulders of other innocent birds.\n\nThese avian \"spongers\" have a wide geographical range, inhabiting the\ngreater part of the United States and southern Canada, except the\nextensive forest regions and some portions of the Southern States. The\ncenter of their abundance is the States bordering on the upper\nMississippi River and its numerous tributaries. They occur only as\nstragglers on the Pacific coast west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada\nMountains. The most northern point at which they have been known to\nbreed is the neighborhood of Little Slave Lake in southern Athabasca.\nIn the autumn the majority of these birds migrate to southern Mexico,\nalthough a considerable number remain in our Southern States, and a\nfew occasionally tarry for the winter even as far north as New England\nand southern Michigan.\n\nThe male cowbird looks like a well-dressed gentleman--and may have\neven a slightly clerical air--in his closely fitting suit of glossy\nblack, with its greenish and purplish iridescence, and his cloak of\nrich metallic brown covering his head, neck, and chest. He makes a\npoor shift as a musician, but his failure is not due to lack of\neffort, for during courtship days he does his level best to sing a\nvariety of tunes, expanding and distorting his throat, fluffing up his\nfeathers, spreading out his wings and tail, his purpose evidently\nbeing to make himself as fascinating as possible in the eyes of his\nlady love. One of his calls sounds like the word \"spreele,\" piped in\nso piercing a key that it seems almost to perforate your brain.\n\nOne observer maintains that the cowbirds are not only parasitical in\ntheir habits, but are also absolutely devoid of conjugal affection,\npracticing polyandry, and seldom even mating. This is a serious\ncharge, but it is doubtless true, for even during the season of\ncourtship and breeding these birds live in flocks of six to twelve,\nthe males almost always outnumbering the females. However, if their\nsexual relations are somewhat irregular, no one can accuse them of\nengaging in family brawls, as so many other birds do, for both males\nand females seem to be on the most cordial terms with one another, and\nare, to all appearances, entirely free from jealousy. Who has ever\nseen two cowbirds fighting a duel like the orioles, meadow larks, and\nrobins? Their domestic relations seem to be readily adjusted, perhaps\nall the more so on account of their lax standards of sexual virtue.\n\nIn obtruding her eggs into the nests of other birds Madame Cowbird is\nsly and stealthy. She does not drive the rightful owners from their\nnests, but simply watches her opportunity to drop her eggs into them\nwhen they are unguarded. No doubt she has been on the alert while her\nindustrious neighbors have been constructing their domiciles, and\nknows where every nest in the vicinity is hidden. Says Major Charles\nBendire: \"In rare instances only will a fresh cowbird's egg be found\namong incubated ones of the rightful owners. I have observed this only\non a single occasion.\" From one to seven eggs of the parasite are\nfound in the nests of the dupes. In most cases the number is two, but\nin the case of ground builders the cowbird seems to have little fear\nof overdoing her imposition. Major Bendire says that he once found the\nnest of an ovenbird which contained seven cowbird's eggs and only one\nof the little owner's.\n\nIf parasitism were the only crime of the cowbird one would not feel so\nmuch disposed to put her into the avian Newgate Calendar; but she not\nonly inflicts her own eggs upon her innocent victims, but often\nactually tosses their eggs out of the nests in order to make room for\nher own. Nor is that all; she will sometimes puncture the eggs of the\nowners to prevent their hatching, and thus increase the chances of her\nown offspring. Whether this is done with her beak or her claws is\nstill an open question, Major Bendire inclining to the belief that it\nis done with the claws.\n\nHer finesse is still further to be seen in the fact that she usually\nselects some bird for a victim that is smaller than herself, so that\nwhen her young hopefuls begin to grow they will be able to crowd or\nstarve out the true heirs of the family. In this way it is thought\nthat many a brood comes to an untimely end, the foster parents having\nno means of replacing their own little ones when they have been\nejected from the nest. However, I am disposed to think that the\ncowbird's impositions are not usually so destructive as some observers\nare inclined to believe. I once found a bush sparrow's nest containing\none cowbird and four little sparrows, all of which were in a thriving\ncondition. The sparrows were so well fed and active that as soon as I\ntouched the nest they sprang, with loud chirping, over the rim of\ntheir cottage and scuttled away through the grass. They were certainly\nstrong and healthy, in spite of the presence of their big foster\nbrother. Before they flitted away I had time to notice how the little\nfamily were disposed. The cowbird was squatted in the center of the\nnest, while his little brothers and sisters were ranged around him,\npartly covering him and no doubt keeping him snug and warm. They were\nfurther advanced than he, for while they scrambled from the nest, he\ncould do nothing but snuggle close to the bottom of the cup, where he\nwas at my mercy.\n\nA wood thrush's nest that I found contained two young thrushes and two\nbuntings. All of them were about half fledged. Being of nearly the\nsame size, the queerly assorted bantlings lived in apparent peace in\ntheir narrow quarters. I watched them at frequent intervals, but saw\nno attempts on the part of the foundlings to crowd out their\nfellow-nestlings. The cowbirds were the first to leave the roof-tree.\nThus it appears that the intrusion of the cowbird's eggs does not\nalways mean disaster to the real offspring of the brooding family, but\nof course it always prevents the laying of the full complement of eggs\nby the builders themselves.\n\nEven after the youngsters have left the nest the mother cowbird does\nnot assume the care of them, but still leaves them in charge of the\nfoster parents. It is laughable, almost pathetic, to see a tiny\novenbird or redstart feeding a strapping young cowbird which is\nseveral times as large as herself. She looks like a pygmy feeding a\ngiant. In order to thrust a tidbit into his mouth she must often stand\non her tiptoes. Why the diminutive caterer does not see through the\nfraud I can not say. She really seems to be attached to the hulking\nyoungster. By and by, however, when he grows large enough to shift for\nhimself, he deserts his little parents and nurses and seeks\ncompanionship among his own blood kindred, who will doubtless bring\nhim up in the way all cowbirds should walk.\n\nIt is surprising how many species are imposed on successfully by the\ncowbird. The number, so far as has been observed, is ninety, with\nprobably more to be added. Among the birds most frequently victimized\nare the phoebes, the song sparrows, the indigo birds, the bush\nsparrows, and the yellow-breasted chats. Even the nests of the\nred-headed woodpecker and the rock wrens are not exempt. Some species,\nnotably the summer warblers, detect the imposture and set about\ndefeating the purposes of the interloper. This they do by building\nanother story to their little cottage, leaving the obtruded eggs in\nthe cellar, where they do not receive enough warmth to develop the\nembryo.\n\nWhile it is surprising that acute birds should allow themselves to be\nimposed on in this way, perhaps, after all, they look upon the cowbird\nas a kind of blessing in disguise; at least, he may not be an unmixed\nevil. They may act on the principle of reciprocity--that \"one good\nturn deserves another.\" What I mean is this: In my rambles I have\noften found the cowbirds the first to give warning of the approach of\na supposed danger. Having no domestic duties of their own, they can\nwell secrete themselves in a tall tree overlooking the entire\npremises, and thus play the useful r\u00f4le of sentinel. This, I am\ndisposed to believe, is one of the compensating uses of this parasite,\nand may furnish the reason for his being tolerated in birdland. And he\n_is_ tolerated. Has any one ever seen other birds driving the cowbird\naway from their breeding precincts, or charging him with desperate\ncourage as they do the blue jays, the hawks, the owls, and other\npredatory species? He evidently subserves some useful purpose in the\navian community, or he would not be treated with so much\nconsideration.\n\nA young cowbird that I purloined from the nest and reared by hand did\nnot prove a very pleasant pet. He was placed in a large cage with\nseveral other kinds of young birds. At first he was quite docile,\ntaking his food from my hand and even allowing some of his feathered\ncompanions to feed him; but in a few weeks he grew so wild and\nmanifested such a fierce desire for the outdoor world that I was glad\nto carry him out to the woods and give him his freedom. A young\nred-winged blackbird and a pair of meadow larks developed a different\ndisposition.\n\nThe dwarf cowbird (_Molothrus ater obscurus_) is similar to his\nrelative just described, except that he is smaller and his\ngeographical range is more restricted. He is a resident of Mexico,\nsouthern Texas, southwestern Arizona, and southern California. His\nhabits resemble those of the common cowbird. Another bunting, having\nalmost the same range, although a little more southerly, is the\nred-eyed cowbird, which is larger and darker than our common cowbird\nand has the same parasitical habits.\n\nIn South America three species have been studied by Mr. W. H. Hudson,\nwho, in collaboration with Mr. P. L. Sclater, has published a most\nvaluable work on Argentine ornithology. One of these is called the\nArgentine cowbird (_Molothrus bonariensis_). It is a _bona fide_,\nblue-blooded parasite, and has been seen striking its beak into the\neggs of other birds and flying away with them. The males, it is said,\nshow little discrimination in pecking the eggs, for they are just as\nlikely to puncture the cowbird eggs as those of other birds. Every egg\nin a nest is frequently perforated in this way. These buntings lay a\nlarge number of eggs, often dropping them on the ground, laying them\nin abandoned nests, or depositing them in nests in which incubation\nhas already begun, in which cases all of them are lost. However, in\nspite of this wastefulness the birds thrive, thousands of them being\nseen in flocks during the season of migration.\n\nAnd, by the way, a description of their habits by Mr. Hudson has\nthrown an interesting light on the subject of migration in the\nsouthern hemisphere. South of the equator the recurrence of the\nseasons is the exact reverse of their recurrence north of the equator,\nand therefore the breeding season of the birds is in the autumn\ninstead of the spring; the flight from winter cold occurs in the\nspring instead of in the autumn, and is toward the north instead of\ntoward the south. Thus, in February and March the Argentine cowbirds\nare seen flying in vast battalions in the direction of the equatorial\nregions--that is, northward--in whose salubrious clime they spend the\nwinter. As our northern autumn draws near and the southern summer\napproaches these winged migrants take the air line for their breeding\nhaunts in the Argentine Republic and Patagonia. At the same time the\nmigrants of the northern hemisphere are pressing southward before the\nblustering mien of old Boreas. It all seems wonderful and solemn, this\nworld-wide processional of the seasons and the birds.\n\nNaturally, one would expect to find some other eccentricities in this\naberrant family besides that of parasitism, and in this expectation\none is not disappointed. There are two other species of cowbirds in\nthe Argentine country--the screaming cowbird (_Molothrus\nrufoaxillaris_) and the bay-winged cowbird (_Molothrus badius_). The\nlatter is only partly a trencher on the rights of other birds--that\nis, it is only half a parasite. Indeed, it sometimes builds its own\nnest, which is quite a respectable affair; but, as if to prove that it\nstill has some remnants of cowbird depravity in its nature, it\nfrequently drives other birds from their rightful possessions,\nappropriates the quarters thus acquired, lays its eggs into them, and\nproceeds to the performance of its domestic duties like its\nrespectable neighbors. Its virtue is that it never imposes the work of\nincubation and brood rearing on any of its feathered associates, even\nthough it does sometimes eject them from their premises.\n\nBut what is to be said of the screaming cowbird? Instead of inflicting\nits eggs on its more distant avian relatives it watches its chance and\nslyly drops them into the domicile of its bay-winged cousins, and\nactually makes them hatch and rear its offspring! This seems to be\ncarrying imposture to the extreme of refinement, or possibly\ndeveloping it into a fine art, and reminds one of those human\ngood-for-naughts who \"sponge\" off their relatives rather than go among\nstrangers. One can scarcely refrain from wondering whether grave\nquestions of pauperism and shiftlessness ever enter into the\ndiscussion of \"the social problem\" in the bird community.\n\n\n\n\nTHE COLUMBUS MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.\n\nBY PROF. D. S. MARTIN.\n\n\nThe Columbus meeting of the American Association for the Advancement\nof Science was looked forward to with considerable interest as the\nfirst in the new half century of that body. Would the impression and\nstimulus of the great semicentennial gathering at Boston last year be\nfound to continue, or be followed by a reaction? The meetings west of\nthe Alleghanies are always smaller than the eastern ones, and the\nbrilliancy of the Boston meeting could not be looked for in any\ninterior city. The general expectation was for an \"off-year\"\ngathering.\n\nBut only in point of attendance was this impression verified. The\nregister of those present showed three hundred and fifty-three\nnames--a good number for an interior meeting, very few of the Western\ngatherings having exceeded it. In all other respects the general\nfeeling of the members indicates that the meeting was notably\nsuccessful and enjoyable, and the remarks made by the writer a year\nago as to the real value of the smaller and less conspicuous meetings\nhe feels to have been well exemplified. It was a scientific working\nmeeting, with enough of social intercourse and attentions to be\ndelightful, but not distracting. In these aspects the \"golden mean\"\nwas markedly preserved.\n\nThe arrangements of the local committee for the convenience of the\nmembers and the success of the meeting in general were remarkable in\ntheir completeness. Nothing seems to have been overlooked, and some\nadvances were made upon any previous year. The daily programmes were\nwell printed and on hand early every morning--a most important point,\nnot always heretofore attained. A complete telephone service between\nthe section rooms and the central hall was a feature of special\nadvantage, each section reporting to headquarters every paper as it\nwas taken up. This was then posted on a bulletin, so that any one\ncould know at any time what was going on in each section. A great\namount of delay and disappointment, that has often been felt by\nmembers anxious to hear certain papers in different sections, was thus\nentirely obviated. Columbus has set an example in this feature that\nmust be followed in the arrangements for all future meetings. The\nentire service on these telephones was rendered not by professional\noperators, but by young lady students of the university, and it was\nwell and gracefully done.\n\nIt is fitting also that recognition should be given to some who have\nbeen less prominent in the local arrangements, but have had a large\nshare in their preparation. While the public resolutions of thanks\nhave made well-deserved mention of the local committee and its\nofficers, especially Prof. B. F. Thomas, the indefatigable secretary,\nit is known in Columbus that much of the planning and arranging was\nthe work of Prof. Edward Orton, Jr., the son of the president of the\nmeeting, and that very much is owing to his laborious activity in the\nperfection of the local adjustments.\n\nThe place of meeting was eminently pleasant and suitable--the wide\ncampus and fine buildings of the Ohio State University. To members\nfrom the East it was a matter of great interest to see this noble\ninstitution, one of the best examples of the great educational\nenterprises of the central States. In his address of welcome at the\nopening of the association the president of the university, Dr.\nWilliam O. Thompson, outlined the history of public education in the\nWest as dating back to provisions in the \"Ordinance of 1787,\" looking\nto educational advantages for the great \"Northwest Territory.\" The\nState University of Ohio is one of the youngest of its kind, but now\none of the most important, among the States formed from that great\nregion, although Ohio was the first to be organized into Statehood.\n\nAmong the numerous fine structures scattered over the broad area of\nthe campus, one of the most interesting is Orton Hall, containing the\ncollections in geology and arch\u00e6ology, which are very extensive, as\nwell as the laboratories, workrooms, and classrooms of the geological\ndepartment, and at present the University Library. Here the meetings\nof Section E (Geology and Geography) were held. In the adjacent\nBotanical Hall, with its greenhouses, etc., Section G held its\nmeetings. But most of the sections met in Townshend Hall, where the\ntelephone service above described connected all the rooms.\n\nThe Ohio State University not only welcomed and accommodated the\nassociation, but had a strong representation among the officers of the\nmeeting. The venerable president, Dr. Orton, has long been professor\nof geology in the university, and his collections are displayed in the\nhall that so appropriately bears his name. Section C (Chemistry) and\nSection G (Botany) both had secretaries from the university\nfaculty--Professors Weber and Kellerman, respectively--while the\narrangements for the meeting have been already spoken of as largely\ndue to Professor Thomas and Professor Orton, Jr.\n\nThe ladies' reception committee did everything for the comfort and\nconvenience of the visiting ladies. Their musicale and garden party in\nthe grounds were described as extremely enjoyable, and the provision\nof private carriages to convey ladies and aged members across the\nbroad spaces of the campus to and from the entrances was a very\ndelicate and highly esteemed convenience, especially on warm days. The\nassociation was favored in the weather, which, though somewhat hot out\nof doors, was not severe, and the rooms were pleasant and airy.\n\nThe excursions given to the members were all of them scientific; they\nwere not merely pleasure trips. This point was a marked feature of the\nColumbus meeting, and one well worthy of future imitation as far as\nmay be. Not every place, however, has such marked facilities in this\nrespect. On Saturday, August 26th, three free excursions were provided\nto points of geological or arch\u00e6ological interest. They were about\nequally shared by the members, together with representatives of the\nlocal committee. One party left on Friday evening, passing the night\nat Sandusky, and going by boat thence to the celebrated islands of\nLake Erie, there to see the wonderful glacial furrows in the\ncorniferous limestone on Kelley's Island and the recently opened\nstrontia cave on Put-in-Bay Island. These islands are also favorite\npleasure resorts for the whole neighborhood, and the trip was one of\ngreat interest and enjoyment. Another party, on Saturday morning, went\nto points of special importance in the coal region of the Hocking\nValley, under the direction of Mr. R. M. Haseltine, chief mine\ninspector of Ohio. At Corning the party went down into Mine No. 8,\nowned by the Sunday Creek Coal Company, which has recently been\nequipped with electric power generated by utilizing the waste gas from\nneighboring gas-wells. This is said to be the first mine in Ohio to\nimprove this natural source of power. At a depth of sixty-five feet\nthe visiting party were taken by mine cars to a point where a\nremarkably fine exposure has been made of a carboniferous \"forest,\"\nwith upright trunks of _Sigillaria_ and associated forms of coal\nvegetation finely displayed. At a point somewhat nearer the entrance,\nbut at a lower level, lunch was served by the company, in a chamber\nlighted by electricity, two hundred feet underground and a mile from\ndaylight! Another mine was visited later, and the machinery and\nappliances examined; this was No. 16, at Hollister, owned by the\nCourtright Coal Company.\n\nThe third party went to Fort Ancient to examine the great aboriginal\nearthworks at that place, owned by the State, and in charge of the\nOhio Arch\u00e6ological Society. Here, on a hill widely overlooking the\nLittle Miami Valley, are some of the most extensive prehistoric works\nin the country. The State has purchased two hundred and eighty-seven\nacres, and of these about one hundred acres are included within the\nwalls. These ramparts, overgrown with large trees, follow closely the\ncontour of the hills, and show that, whatever their age, there has\nbeen no change and little erosion since they were built. Their form is\nvery irregular, consisting of two main areas--a northern one, called\nthe \"new fort,\" rudely square, and a southern one, called the \"old\nfort,\" rudely triangular--connected by a narrow portion, called the\n\"isthmus,\" with crescent-shaped transverse walls crossing it, and high\nconical mounds at the entrance to the \"old fort.\" From the main\ngateway of the \"new fort,\" starting from two mounds, two parallel\nwalls can be traced, exactly eastward, for half a mile or more.\nIrregular as these works are, from the contour of the hills and the\ncourse of the ravines that bound them, yet there is also seen at times\nin their shaping a singular exactness of orientation that is striking\nand suggestive. Their use is problematical, but they must have been\ndefensive, although an enormous force would be required to hold them,\nas their entire circumference is three miles and a half. At one point\nwithin the \"old fort,\" in front of the gateway to the \"isthmus,\" was\nfound a burial place where a number of skeletons lay as though thrown\ntogether, not carefully and separately buried. The suggestion is\nstrongly made that this spot marks an unsuccessful attack by enemies,\nwho were roughly buried where they fell. At other points graves have\nbeen found, some containing copper implements and overlaid with plates\nof mica. Great regret was felt that Mr. W. K. Moorehead, who has\nexplored so extensively here and in the vicinity and has published\nsuch interesting accounts of Fort Ancient and similar remains, was\nunable to be at the meeting on account of severe illness.\n\nThe public spirit that has secured this spot for the State, and the\nwork of the Ohio Arch\u00e6ological Society in caring for it properly, are\nmatters for pride and congratulation, and evidences of the highest\ntype of civilization. The society is clearing away the dense\nundergrowth so as to display the works and the trees upon them; is\nguarding and repairing the walls at points where injury has occurred\nby \"washing\"; has sunk a well in the \"old fort,\" with fine water; and\nbuilt a pavilion for visitors. Here lunch was served to the party, and\naddresses given by arch\u00e6ologists present and officers of the\nArch\u00e6ological Society.\n\nOn Thursday a large number of the geologists spent most of the day in\nexamining moraines and glacial phenomena near Lancaster, and in the\nevening nearly the entire association was taken by special train to\nsee the gas-wells in the same neighborhood, at Sugar Grove, which were\nlighted and \"blown off\" for their benefit. The city of Columbus itself\nis to a considerable extent supplied with natural gas.\n\nTurning to the proceedings of the meeting, there may be noted in the\ncharacter of the papers certain tendencies which are independent of\nthe association and belong to the general line of thought of the\npresent, and doubtless yet more of the future. The papers presented\nmay be roughly grouped into two classes: those relating to technical\ndetails, and those involving or seeking practical results and\napplications. Of course, there is no conflict between these two lines\nof thought and work--the latter, to be really attained being dependent\nupon the former--but there is this tendency distinctly shown, to\nconsider scientific questions in their bearing on the welfare or the\nneeds of humanity. Naturally, this aspect appeared more clearly in\nsome of the sections than in others, but no one who looks over the\ntitles in the daily programmes can fail to note it. The whole work of\nSection I (Social and Economic Science) is of this character, and it\nis marked in Sections G (Botany), D (Mechanics and Engineering), and\nH (Anthropology). It would be impossible to mention all the papers\nbearing upon such relations; a very few only can here be noted, even\nof those that were important. In Section I no more suggestive title\nhas ever been presented to such a body than that of Miss Cora A.\nBenneson, of Cambridge, Mass., on Federal Guarantees for Maintaining\nRepublican Government in the States. Miss Benneson is a graduate in\nlaw, and has already achieved distinction in her profession in\nsubjects relating to questions of government. In Section G, Prof. H.\nA. Weber, the secretary, read a paper on Testing Soils for the\nApplication of Commercial Fertilizers--the outcome of twelve years'\nintercourse with farmers' institutes and many more years of\nexperimentation--aiming to avoid unwise and unprofitable use of\nfertilizers on soils to which they are not adapted, and to provide\nready and accurate methods of determination as to the needs and the\ncapacities of soils. Sections D and I united to hear a paper before\nthe former, by Principal Morrison, of the Manual Training High School,\nof Kansas City, Mo., on Thermal Determinations in Heating and\nVentilating Buildings, with special reference to schools. These are\nmerely given as instances. Agriculture, electrical appliances,\neducational methods, and social conditions, all received important\nattention.\n\nAnother paper of great practical moment was read before Section C by\nProf. H. W. Wiley, chemist to the United States Department of\nAgriculture, and Mr. H. W. Krug, on New Products from Maize Stalks.\nCareful analyses of the pith and stalks of corn, and important\nsuggestions as to their great utility in various ways, were presented.\nSome of these were very surprising, not only pointing out the value of\nthese substances as fodder, when properly prepared and used, but in\nthe realm of war as well as in peace, for protecting the sides of\nnaval vessels as a light and most effective armor, and in the\nmanufacture of smokeless powder of a superior quality. Professor Wiley\nclaimed that from these hitherto almost waste products of American\nfarms immense results may be obtained.\n\nVery naturally, the recent war and questions connected with it called\nforth some striking contributions. Prof. William S. Aldrich, of the\nUniversity of Illinois, addressed Section D and a large proportion of\nmembers from other sections on Engineering Experiences with Spanish\nWrecks, and the story of the Maria Teresa. Professor Aldrich was\nconnected with the United States repair-ship Vulcan, and described the\nremarkable character of that vessel--an entire novelty in naval\nwarfare--with her complete outfit of engineering tools and machinery,\neven to brass and iron furnaces of large capacity. Never before, he\nsaid, had such castings been made on board ship, or a foundry operated\non the ocean. The effects of the American rapid-fire guns on Admiral\nCervera's ships were fully described and illustrated, and the paper\nclosed with a vivid and detailed account of the floating of the Maria\nTeresa, her repairing by the crew of the Vulcan through five weeks of\nmost difficult work, and the unsuccessful attempt to bring her to\nNorfolk, ending in her abandonment and loss. The public lecture of\nWednesday evening was by Prof. C. E. Monroe, of Washington, D. C., on\nthe Application of Modern Explosives, very fully illustrated. Detailed\naccounts were given of the manufacture of gun cotton and various\nrecent forms of high explosives and smokeless powders. In regard to\nthe use of the latter, Professor Monroe emphasized the fact that\nFrance and Germany had adopted smokeless powders in 1887, and Italy\nand England a year or two later, and characterized as \"unpardonable\"\nthe fact that our own service was unprovided with any such material\nwhen we began the war with Spain. He further discussed recent and very\nimportant experiments in the matter of throwing from ordinary guns\nshells charged with high explosives, especially that known as Joveite,\nwith which tremendous effects have been produced in penetrating the\nheaviest plating.\n\nVery different in character was the interesting and pleasing programme\ncarried out by the Section of Botany in memory of two eminent workers\nin bryology who were long identified with Columbus--Dr. William S.\nSullivant and his colaborer, Prof. Leo Lesquereaux, who was eminent\nalso in fossil botany. Wednesday was set apart as \"Sullivant day,\" and\nwas marked by an extensive display of portraits, books, and specimens,\nand a series of memorial addresses, with notes on the progress of\nbryology. Twelve North American species of mosses have been named for\nDr. Sullivant, and specimens of all these, with drawings made by him,\nwere loaned for this occasion from his collection, now at the museum\nof Harvard University. Sets of duplicates of these species, from the\nherbarium of Columbia University, were prepared and presented as\nsouvenirs to the botanists in attendance. Some members of Dr.\nSullivant's family were present, and naturally felt a very deep sense\nof gratification at such a tribute to his name and fame.\n\nThe address of the retiring president, Prof. F. W. Putnam, had a\nspecial interest in that it was the last official appearance of one\nwho has been for so many years closely and prominently identified with\nthe association as its permanent secretary, and whose presence and\npersonality have seemed an essential element in every meeting.\nProfessor Putnam, in opening, paid an especial tribute to the late Dr.\nD. G. Brinton, of Philadelphia, a former president and leading member\nof the association, devoted to the same branch of research with\nhimself--North American ethnology--although holding different theories\ntherein. Professor Putnam dealt with the prehistoric peoples of this\ncontinent, and argued for distinct racial types as expressed in the\nremains that they have left, and for resemblances as due to\nintercourse and mingling of tribes, and not to autochthonous\ndevelopment of arts and customs as the result of corresponding stages\nof evolution without contact or outside influence--the view maintained\nby Dr. Brinton.\n\nThere is not space here to dwell further upon many valuable papers and\ndiscussions. The Section of Geology had a full and interesting\nsession, in which glacial phenomena, especially as displayed in Ohio,\nbore a considerable part. One of the papers had a very wide and\npainful interest for all Americans--that of Mr. E. H. Barbour, on the\nRapid Decline of Geyser Activity in the Yellowstone Basin. Careful and\nextended comparison of the present state of the geysers and hot\nsprings with that to be seen a few years ago shows that these\nwonderful and impressive phenomena have greatly decreased in both the\namount and the frequency of their manifestations, and Mr. Barbour\nwarned all who desire to witness anything of their grandeur to visit\nthe region without delay, as the indications point to their speedy\ncessation as probable if not inevitable.\n\nIn reference to the future of the association, it is gratifying to\nobserve that the various special societies, whose relations to the\nassociation were considered in the article by the present writer a\nyear ago, have not only continued to hold their summer sessions in\nconnection with that of the association, but have shown a very cordial\nspirit of co-operation, and that some others are proposing to\naffiliate in a similar way. This is as it should be; but there is in\nit also the suggestion of a broader and more definite relationship of\nall these special societies to each other through the medium of the\nassociation. The tendency is apparently toward affiliation and\nco-operation among them, and the American Association for the\nAdvancement of Science could have no more fitting or useful function\nthan as a sort of federative or representative body for all the\nothers.\n\nThe next meeting is to be held in New York, two months earlier than\nusual--at the end of June. Both the place and the time were determined\nby the Paris Exposition. It was thought best to arrange the meeting so\nthat it might easily be attended by the large number of scientists\nfrom all over the country who will be going abroad next summer. This\nplan is doubtless wise, although it is much to be regretted that the\ntime--the last week in June--will cut off from attendance almost all\nthe members who are teachers in public schools, who will be just then\nin the pressure of their closing days and examinations. The peculiar\ncircumstances of the year, however, justify what would otherwise be a\nmost unfortunate time. New York will do her best, and give the\nassociation a welcome worthy of the great metropolis of America.\n\n\n\n\nSKETCH OF DR. WILLIAM PEPPER.\n\nBY LEWIS R. HARLEY.\n\n\nPhiladelphia has long been regarded as the home of medical science in\nAmerica. Here was founded the first medical school in the United\nStates, among whose alumni are numbered some of the most brilliant\nnames in the profession. The spirit of scientific research has always\nbeen most active in Philadelphia. Here Franklin made his experiments\nin electricity, and Rittenhouse observed the transit of Venus; while\nRush, Morgan, Williamson, and Physick gave the city a name abroad as a\ngreat medical center. Each generation has contributed something to her\nfame as the abode of scientific culture.\n\nIn recent times no name has been so closely associated with the\nintellectual progress of the city as that of the subject of this\nsketch. Dr. William Pepper was reared in a scientific atmosphere. His\nfather, William Pepper, the elder, was born in Philadelphia, January\n21, 1810. He graduated with first honors at Princeton in 1829. He\nafterward studied medicine for a time with Dr. Thomas T. Hewson, and\nin 1832 graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He\nthen spent two years in study in Paris, and in 1834 he entered upon\nhis profession in Philadelphia, where he rose rapidly in reputation.\nHe was physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital for twenty-six years. In\n1860 he was elected Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine\nin the University of Pennsylvania. He held this position until the\ntime of his death, October 15, 1864. Dr. Pepper had two sons, who\nbecame distinguished in the medical profession. The eldest son,\nGeorge, was born April 1, 1841, and died September 14, 1872. He\ngraduated from the college department of the University of\nPennsylvania in 1862, and completed the course in the Medical School\nin 1865. He served with distinction in the civil war, and died at the\nbeginning of a successful professional career. Another son, Dr.\nWILLIAM PEPPER, the subject of this sketch, was born in Philadelphia,\nAugust 21, 1843.\n\nDr. Pepper received his educational training solely in the city of his\nbirth, having graduated from the college department of the University\nof Pennsylvania in 1862, in the same class with Provost Charles C.\nHarrison, Thomas McKean, Dr. Persifor Fraser, and many other men\nprominent in university circles. He graduated from the Medical School\nin 1864, and at once began the practice of medicine. His connection\nwith the University of Pennsylvania began in 1868, when he was\nappointed lecturer on morbid anatomy. From 1870 to 1876 he was\nlecturer on clinical medicine. In 1876 Dr. Pepper was given a full\nprofessorship of clinical medicine, in which he continued until 1887,\nwhen he succeeded Dr. Alfred Still\u00e9 in the chair of the Theory and\nPractice of Medicine.\n\nDuring this early period of his career Dr. Pepper labored with\nuntiring zeal in the practice of his profession, and he also became\neminently successful as a teacher. In 1877 he set forth his views on\nhigher medical education in an address at the opening of the one\nhundred and twelfth course of lectures in the University Medical\nSchool.[45] At that time a very low standard existed in the medical\nschools of our country, and Dr. Pepper, in his address, urged the\nfollowing reforms:\n\n1. The establishment of a preparatory examination.\n\n2. The lengthening of the course to at least three full years.\n\n3. The careful grading of the course.\n\n4. The introduction of ample practical instruction of each student\nboth at the bedside and in laboratories.\n\n5. The establishment of fixed salaries for the professors, so that\nthey may no longer have any pecuniary interest in the size of their\nclasses.\n\n     [Footnote 45: Higher Medical Education. The True Interest of the\n     Public and of the Profession. By William Pepper, M. D., LL. D.\n     Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1894.]\n\nIt was a source of gratification to Dr. Pepper that he lived to see\nall these reforms in medical education adopted. On the extension of\nthe medical course to four years he subscribed $50,000 toward a\npermanent endowment of $250,000. As early as 1871 he began to urge the\nestablishment of a university hospital, the subject being first\ndiscussed in a conversation with Dr. H. C. Wood and Dr. William F.\nNorris. An appeal was made to the public, and Dr. Pepper was made\nchairman of a finance committee. By May, 1872, a splendid site and\n$350,000 for building and endowment had been secured. Dr. Pepper was\nselected as chairman of the building committee, and work on the\nhospital was pushed so rapidly that it was ready for patients on July\n15, 1874.\n\nWhen Dr. Charles J. Still\u00e9 resigned the provostship of the university\nin 1881, Dr. Pepper was elected as his successor. The executive\nabilities which he had displayed in connection with the founding of\nthe new hospital made him the natural choice of the trustees. Although\nhis private practice had increased to immense proportions, besides\nbeing occupied with his duties as a clinical professor, Dr. Pepper\naccepted the provostship. To the duties of this office he devoted the\nbest years of his life. The extent of his practice and the demands\nmade upon his time by the university would have appalled an ordinary\nman, but his capacity for labor appeared to be without limit, his\nworking day often exceeding eighteen hours. His administration was\ncharacterized by the unification of the various schools of the\nuniversity, besides the founding and equipment of several new\ndepartments. In one of his annual reports Dr. Pepper defined the broad\npolicy of the university in the following appropriate language: \"The\nuniversity is truly the voluntary association of all persons and of\nall agencies who wish to unite in work for the elevation of society by\nthe pursuit and diffusion of truth.\"[46] In other words, Dr. Pepper\nregarded the functions of the university as not simply an institution\nof instruction, but also of research. To this end every effort was\nmade to open up new fields of investigation and to widen the scope of\nthe university. During his provostship thirteen new buildings were\nerected, and the following departments, or schools, were organized:\n\n  1. The Department of Finance and Economy.\n  2. The Department of Philosophy.\n  3. The Department of Veterinary Medicine.\n  4. The Department of Biology.\n  5. The Department of Physical Education.\n  6. The Department of Arch\u00e6ology and Paleontology.\n  7. The Department of Hygiene.\n  8. The Graduate Department for Women.\n  9. The School of Architecture.\n  10. The School for Nurses in the University Hospital.\n  11. The Veterinary Hospital.\n  12. The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.\n\n     [Footnote 46: Report of the Provost of the University of\n     Pennsylvania, from October, 1892, to June, 1894. Philadelphia,\n     1894.]\n\nDr. Pepper took particular interest in the Department of Arch\u00e6ology\nand Paleontology connected with the university. For a number of years\nhe was president of its board of trustees, while it was largely\nthrough his efforts that the Babylonian Exploration Fund was\nformed.[47] It was Dr. Pepper's ambition to have at the university\nwell-equipped laboratories that would offer an opportunity for\noriginal investigation in medical science. The establishment of the\nLaboratory of Hygiene, in 1892, was the first step in this direction,\nsoon to be followed by Dr. Pepper's gift of the Laboratory of Clinical\nMedicine. This laboratory was founded in memory of his father, the\nlate Dr. William Pepper. The gift is unique in that it is made for the\npurpose of promoting and stimulating original research, and improving\nthe methods of diagnosing and treating the diseases of human beings.\nAnother field of work in the laboratory is that of giving advanced and\nspecial instruction to men who have already obtained the degree of\nDoctor of Medicine. At the opening of the laboratory in 1895 Dr.\nWilliam H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins University, said, \"To the small\nnumber of existing clinical laboratories the William Pepper Laboratory\nof Clinical Medicine is a most notable addition, being the first\nlaboratory of the kind in this country, and it is not surpassed by any\nin foreign countries.\"[48]\n\n     [Footnote 47: See the article on Science at the University of\n     Pennsylvania, in Popular Science Monthly for August, 1896.]\n\n     [Footnote 48: Proceedings at the Opening of the William Pepper\n     Laboratory of Clinical Medicine, December 4, 1895. Philadelphia,\n     1895.]\n\nDr. Pepper realized more and more every year that the vast extent of\nthe university interests demanded the undivided activity of its head.\nIn 1894 he resigned the office of provost, stating at the time that,\nas it became necessary for him to choose between administration work\nand medical science, his devotion to the latter determined his choice.\nHis administration was an eventful one, during which the university\nevolved from a group of disconnected schools to a great academic body.\nIn 1881 its property in land amounted to fifteen acres, while in 1894\nit controlled fifty-two acres in a continuous tract. In 1881 the\nuniversity property was valued at $1,600,000; in 1894 it exceeded\n$5,000,000. The teaching force in 1881 numbered 88 and the students in\nall departments 981; in 1894 the former were 268, and the attendance\nhad reached 2,180, representing every State in the Union, as well as\nthirty-eight foreign countries.\n\nDr. Pepper became well known as an author on medical subjects. He\nfounded the Philadelphia Medical Times, and was its editor for two\nyears. In 1885 he edited a System of Medicine by American Authors, a\nwork that has been considered a leading authority on medical subjects.\nHe also edited a book of medical practice by American authors, and,\nwith Dr. J. F. Meigs, issued a work on Diseases of Children. He was\nMedical Director of the Centennial Exposition in 1876, and for his\nservices he received from the King of Sweden the decoration of Knight\nCommander of the Order of St. Olaf.\n\nDr. Pepper showed an unbounded interest in behalf of any movement that\nwould benefit the community in general. He was one of the first to\nrealize the advantage that would accrue to Philadelphia should she\nbecome a museum center. The Philadelphia Commercial Museum was\nestablished in October, 1893, with Dr. Pepper as president of the\nboard of trustees. The old offices of the Pennsylvania Railroad\nCompany were leased, and exhibits were secured from the Latin-American\ncountries, Africa, Australia, Japan, and India, forming the largest\npermanent collection of raw products in existence. Referring to the\ngreat value of the museum, Dr. Pepper spoke as follows in his address\nof welcome at the first annual meeting of the advisory board:\n\n\"It would seem clear, however, that no method of studying industries\nand commerce can be scientific and complete which does not include the\nmuseum idea as now comprehended. The museum aims to teach by object\nlesson the story of the world, past and present. The Biological Museum\npresents the objects of human and comparative anatomy, arranged\nscientifically and labeled so fully as to constitute the best\ntext-book for the study of those subjects. The Museum of Natural\nHistory does the same in its field. The Museum of Arch\u00e6ology shows the\nprogress of the race from the most archaic times, the different types\nof human beings, their mode of living, their forms of worship, their\ngames, their weapons, their implements, the natural products which\nthey used for subsistence, in their industries, and in their arts, the\nobjects of manufacture or of art which they produced, and the manner\nin which they disposed of their dead.\n\n\"The natural products and manufactured articles, which constitute the\nmaterial of commerce, come necessarily into such a scheme, and the\nlong-looked-for opportunity of establishing a commercial museum upon a\ntruly scientific basis presented itself when, at the close of the\nColumbian Exposition at Chicago, it was possible, through the\nenlightened liberality of the municipal authorities of Philadelphia\nand the invaluable services of Prof. W. P. Wilson, to secure vast\ncollections of commercial material, which was so liberally donated to\nthe Philadelphia museums by nearly all the foreign countries of the\nglobe.\"\n\nIt was Dr. Pepper's idea to have the University Museum and the\nCommercial Museum situated near each other, on the plan of the South\nKensington Museum. To this end the City Councils, in 1896, passed an\nordinance giving over to the trustees of the Commercial Museum sixteen\nacres of land for the erection of suitable buildings. When all the\nplans are carried out the city will have unrivaled facilities for the\nstudy of civilization, past and present.\n\nOne of the most enduring monuments to Dr. Pepper's zeal and generosity\nis the Free Library of Philadelphia. In 1889 his uncle, George S.\nPepper, bequeathed the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars\n\"to the trustees of such Free Library which may be established in the\ncity of Philadelphia.\" From the beginning Dr. Pepper took a warm\ninterest in the Free Library movement. It was under his leadership\nthat the library was organized, and he was made the first president of\nits board of trustees. Speaking of his activity in this direction, the\nlibrarian, Mr. John Thomson, said: \"No detail was too small for his\npersonal attention. No plan for its future growth was too large for\nhis ambitious hope of both public and private support. The remarkable\nand rapid increase in the circulation of the Free Library, the\nmultiplication of its branches, the organization of all its\ndepartments on a broad and generous plan, his success in enlisting a\nlarge number of able fellow-workers, his clear, plain statements to\nCouncils and the city authorities, his activity in securing needed\nlegislation at Harrisburg, were some of the results of that\nintelligent energy which enabled him to do so much and to do it so\nwell.\" The bequest of the Pepper family has been supplemented by ample\nappropriations by the City Councils, and the Free Library is now one\nof the most important institutions in Philadelphia. The library at\npresent has twelve flourishing branches, while the combined\ncirculation of the system for the year 1898 was 1,738,950 volumes.\n\nDr. Pepper was also connected with many scientific bodies. He was\nVice-President of the American Philosophical Society, and President of\nthe first Pan-American Medical Congress in 1893. He was a Fellow of\nthe College of Physicians; President of the Philadelphia Pathological\nSociety from 1873 to 1876; Director of the Biological Section, Academy\nof Natural Sciences; President, in 1886, of the American\nClimatological Association; President of the Foulke and Long Institute\nfor Orphan Girls; President of the First Sanitary Convention of\nPennsylvania; and in 1882 he was a member of the Assay Commission of\nthe United States Mint. He received the degree of LL. D. from\nLafayette College in 1881, and from the University of Pennsylvania in\n1893.\n\nIn 1873 Dr. Pepper married Miss Frances Sargeant Perry, a lineal\ndescendant of Benjamin Franklin, and a granddaughter of Commodore\nOliver Hazard Perry. Four sons were born, of whom three survive--Dr.\nWilliam Pepper, Jr., Benjamin Franklin Pepper, and Oliver Hazard Perry\nPepper. Failing in health, Dr. Pepper went to California early in the\nsummer of 1898, where he died of heart disease on July 28th of that\nyear. His body reached Philadelphia on August 6th. Funeral services\nwere held in St. James's Protestant Episcopal Church, after which the\nbody was cremated, and the ashes interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery. The\nAmerican Anthropometric Society received, by the conditions of his\nwill, Dr. Pepper's brain. Among the members of this society were Dr.\nJoseph Leidy, Phillips Brooks, and Prof. E. D. Cope. The articles of\nmembership of the Anthropometric Society require that each member\ncontribute his brain in the interests of science.\n\nDr. Pepper's death was followed by many expressions of sorrow from\nlearned societies in various parts of the world. One of the most\nbeautiful tributes was the memorial meeting held in the city of Mexico\non September 12th. The leading medical and scientific societies of\nMexico assembled in the hall of Congress to do honor to the work and\ncharacter of Dr. Pepper. President Diaz occupied the chair, and about\nhim were gathered the leading citizens, officials, and scientists of\nMexico. Representatives of the National Medical School and the Board\nof Health eulogized Dr. Pepper, while Hon. Matias Romero spoke of him\nnot as a physician, but as an \"altruist who had consecrated himself to\ndoing good for his fellow-men.\"\n\nIn Philadelphia, steps have been taken to erect a substantial memorial\nto Dr. Pepper. At a memorial meeting, held on March 6th last, a\nproposition was made to place a statue of the deceased scientist on\nthe City Hall plaza, after the style of the Girard Monument. A\ncommittee was appointed with power to raise funds for the proposed\nstatue, the cost not to exceed ten thousand dollars.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     One of the letters of William Pengelly, geologist, of Torquay,\n     England, printed in the memoir published by his daughter, gives\n     this sketch of Babbage, the mathematician and inventor of the\n     calculating machine: \"I then called on Babbage, and could not get\n     away until after one. He is a splendid talker. He seemed much\n     pleased to see me, and complimented me very much on my lecture\n     (at the Royal Institution), in which he was evidently much\n     interested. He is the most marvelous worker I ever met with. I\n     never saw anything like the evidence of multifarious and vast\n     labor which his 'workshop' presents; he sticks at nothing. One\n     drawer full of riddles, another of epigrams, one of squared\n     words, etc.... It is appalling! And then the downright fun of the\n     fellow; it is almost intoxicating to be with him!\"\n\n\n\n\nCorrespondence.\n\n\n\"DO ANIMALS REASON?\"\n\nDR. EDWARD THORNDIKE'S interesting account, in our August number, of\nhis investigations touching the reasoning power of animals has brought\nus a large number of letters questioning some of the main conclusions\nset forth in the article, and criticising the method of the inquiry.\nNot having room for all these communications, we print one of them,\nand add extracts from two others. These represent the principal\nobjections urged by the various writers against the conclusions drawn\nby the author of the article from his experiments.\n\n  _Editor Popular Science Monthly:_\n\nSIR: The first reading of Dr. Thorndike's article Do Animals Reason?\nin the August Popular Science Monthly, gave the impression, which has\nbeen deepened by subsequent perusal, that his experiments were not\nonly inadequate to solve the question, but unfairly chosen.\n\nA dog or a cat, utterly hungry, is placed in a box, from which it can\nescape \"by performing some simple (?) action, such as pulling a wire\nloop, stepping on a platform or lever, clawing down a string, or\nturning a wooden button.\"\n\nIn the first place, what tends to destroy the reasoning power more\nthan utter hunger? This intense physical craving begets frenzy rather\nthan reason. The more intense this primeval desire, the greater the\ndemand upon primitive instinct for its satisfaction. In the open the\ncat will jump at a bird, the dog at a bone. If the bird be up a tree,\nthe cat will climb; if the bone be buried, the dog will burrow.\nClimbing and burrowing are deep-rooted developments of the feline and\nthe canine nature.\n\nPut a dog or a cat, utterly hungry, in a box and hang a piece of meat\noutside. Instinct prompts a jump through the bars of the box at the\nmeat, and the greater the number of unsuccessful attempts the less the\nlikelihood of the animal with a gnawing stomach sitting down to\nscrutinize the mechanical construction of the box to the point of\nperceiving that by stepping on a lever it will open a door. How many\nmillions of years did it take two-legged man to arrive at the\nperception of the use of the lever? Did the shaggy biped arrive at\nthat perception by sitting down when utterly hungry and looking at a\nlever; or did he, through countless generations, by some such chance\nas lifting a stone with a stick, come to the knowledge of weight and\nfulcrum?\n\nPut an anthropoid ape, some several degrees nearer man in intelligence\nthan a cat, in a modern office elevator that moves by the push of an\nelectric button, suspend the elevator between two stories, and what do\nyou suppose that anthropoid ape will do?\n\nPut a schoolgirl fresh from belles-lettres and matin\u00e9es in the cab of\na locomotive and tell her to run it to the next station. She can not\nbut know that steam will make the wheels go round, but what will she\ndo in the maze of throttles, handles, disks, and rods that confronts\nher? What will she do if utterly hungry?\n\nTake a laborer from his pick and shovel on the railway embankment and\nput him at the desk of the general manager. He can read and write. Let\nthe messenger boys and clerks shower him with the letters and\ntelegrams that bombard that desk every day, and let him try to settle\nthe questions to which they give rise.\n\nNow, why can not the schoolgirl run the locomotive, the laborer the\nrailroad? Because the relations of things necessary to the tasks have\nnever been imprinted upon their registering cells; because, in the\nlatter case at least, of the lack of power of co-ordination--that is,\nthe lack of the power of abstract reasoning that the task involves.\n\nWhy can not anybody do anything as well as anybody else? Because\ncertain relations have been more deeply impressed upon certain brains\nthan upon others; because of the greater power of certain brains to\nco-ordinate certain relations, their greater ability to give concrete\nmanifestation of the result of such co-ordination through the efferent\nnerves. Otherwise any one of us could design a bridge, compose a\nsymphony, or organize a trust.\n\nThe oftener relations are impressed upon the registering cells, the\nmore readily are those relations co-ordinated, provided the brain\nstructure be of the requisite caliber. Reiterated impression through\nthe ages of the relations between their needs and surrounding things,\ntogether with the development of structural capacity, has led the\nbeaver to build his dam, the bee the honeycomb, the ant its village,\nthe bird its nest. In each case the registered impressions have led to\naction made possible by long-continued contact between structure and\nenvironment; the actions are the result of development that has\nproceeded mite by mite through unknown time. The brain of neither bird\nnor beast nor man will immediately co-ordinate radically new\nimpressions received in a radically new environment into coherent\naction that leads to definite result.\n\nHere is an example within the writer's immediate knowledge: At the age\nof seventeen a boy entered the service of one of the large railway\nsystems as a clerk in the passenger department. Through eleven years\nof enthusiastic and concentrated endeavor to master the details of the\nservice he rose to the head of the clerical force--that is, the\nreiterated impression upon his brain cells of the functions of the\npassenger service led to that co-ordination which resulted in\nefficient action. Then he became employed in the office of a large\ncoal-mining company. For several days it was with the utmost\ndifficulty that he could bring his attention to bear upon the new\ntasks. While seated at the desk in the coal office the old railway\nproblems would chase through his mind; when he began to write the\ninitials of the Pittsburg Consolidated Coal Company, he would find\nthat he had written the initials of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago\nand St. Louis Railway Company; instead of the initials of the\nPittsburg, Fairport and Northwestern Dock Company, the initials of the\nPittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway Company. The latter initials\nin each case would appear upon the paper before he knew it, actually\nwithout his knowing that he had written them. The entirely unfamiliar\nroutine entailed by the custody of bank accounts, coal leases, deeds\nand contracts, reports of coal shipments, and the handling of\nvouchers, became adjusted in his brain bit by bit through many weeks,\nand it was months before he could co-ordinate the new impressions into\nbroad and well-defined reasoning. If he had been utterly hungry\nthrough all the period of the new service, it might have taken years.\n\nNow, what can be expected of a dog or a cat, whose mental processes\nhave been adjusted by inheritance and experience to life in the fields\nand jungles, when placed in a box, utterly hungry, to study mechanical\ncontrivances? It is manifest that if the brain of a dog or a cat would\nbecome adjusted to the radically unfamiliar steps necessary to release\nit from such a radically unfamiliar environment, that adjustment could\nonly come by extremely slow degrees. Voluntary perception is almost\nbeyond the limits of expectation, and the leading of the animal\nthrough the necessary steps would have to be repeated time after time\nbefore the impressions upon its brain would reach any degree of\npermanence, especially as its brain would be lacking in attention, and\nthe repeated handling be an annoyance to it. But that by such tutelage\nthe animals, or a proportion of them, arrived at a knowledge of the\nmeans necessary to escape from the box is shown by Dr. Thorndike\nhimself. \"If one repeats the process, keeps putting the cat back into\nthe box after each success, the amount of useless action gradually\ndecreases, the right movement is made sooner and sooner, until finally\nit is done as soon as the cat is put in.\" But he says: \"This sort of a\nhistory is not the history of a reasoning animal. It is the history of\nan animal who meets a certain situation with a lot of instinctive\nacts.... Little by little the one act becomes more and more likely to\nbe done in that situation, while the others slowly vanish. This\nhistory represents the wearing smooth of a path in the brain, not the\ndecisions of a rational consciousness.\"\n\nWherein, however, does this differ from the manner in which hundreds\nof clerks in offices finally learn routine work and mechanically go\nthrough the motions necessary to its performance? Do not the actions\nof thousands of laborers in field and factory seem to proceed from a\nwearing smooth of a path in the brain, rather than from rational\nconsciousness? Yet they can not be said to be devoid of reason. Is not\na great proportion of the daily actions of any one of us gone through\nfrom force of habit, almost by instinct?\n\nThe word reason does not apply alone to the mental processes of a\nHelmholtz, but to the co-ordination, however slight, of relations that\nresult in definite action even of a humble organism. Herbert Spencer\nhas clearly shown that instinct and reason differ in degree and not in\nkind.\n\nDr. Thorndike lays stress upon the fact that a \"cat which, when first\nput in, took sixty seconds to get out, in the second trial eighty, in\nthe third fifty, in the fourth sixty, in the fifth fifty, in the\nsixth forty,\" etc., and remarks: \"Suppose the cat had, after the third\naccidental success, been able to reason? She would then have, the next\ntime and all succeeding times, performed the act as soon as put in.\"\nNot long ago the writer and a man whose high intelligence can not be\nquestioned, in moments of relaxation were trying to do one of the\nfamiliar ring puzzles--endeavoring to separate a ring from two others\nof peculiar shape and then to join the three. After repeated trials,\none would loosen it, but could not replace it; the other finally\nsucceeded in replacing it, but could not loosen it. Then the one could\nreplace it, but not loosen it; the other loosen, but not replace it,\nand each was closely watching the other all the time. It was half an\nhour or more before either could both loosen and replace the ring,\noccasional successful attempts not being repeated until after several\nsucceeding failures. Contrast the relation of the brain of the dazed\nand indifferent and peculiarly bedeviled cat to the puzzle presented\nto it by the inside of the box with the earnest effort of the two men\nto solve the ring puzzle. Who has not found a task more difficult the\nfifth or sixth time than the second or third, and has only performed\nit with ease after repeated attempts of varying degrees of success and\nfailure?\n\nIn conclusion, the writer begs leave to relate an incident, which has\nnot before appeared in print, that profoundly impressed him with the\nbelief that at least in one instance one particular animal displayed\nreason. One Sunday morning, a dozen years or more ago, he was standing\non the bank of the Ohio River at the Sewickley Ferry. A family group,\naccompanied by a large Newfoundland dog, hailed the ferryman and got\nin his boat, leaving the dog, which persuasively barked and wagged his\ntail, on the bank. As the boat pulled out into the stream the dog\nwhined, and then made ready to leap in after it. Then he stopped at\nthe water's edge, and, with head down, gazed intently at the river for\nseveral seconds--it seemed a minute or more. Then he ran up the bank\nmore than a hundred feet, stopped, looked at the receding boat,\nplunged into the stream, and swam vigorously. The current, bearing him\ndown, made his course diagonal to the bank. A boy standing by my side\nsaid: \"Isn't that a smart dog? If he'd been a crazy dog he'd have\njumped in where he was, but he ran up the bank so the current wouldn't\nwash him down away from the boat.\"\n\nBut the dog, swimming with all his vigor, was borne past the boat when\nwithin twenty feet or so of it; he endeavored to straighten his course\nwithout success, and then, in a long semicircle, swam around to the\nnear bank, landing two or three hundred feet below the place whence\nthe ferryboat had started.\n\nWhat this dog would have done if placed, utterly hungry, in a box from\nwhich he could only liberate himself by stepping on a platform or\nturning a wooden button, I do not know.\n\n                                                 LOGAN G. MCPHERSON.\n  PITTSBURGH, _August 3, 1899._\n\n\nMR. FREDERIC D. BOND, of 413 South Forty-fourth Street, Philadelphia,\nwrites: Of the accuracy of Dr. Thorndike's experiments I have no\ndoubt, but certain facts connected with them seem to deprive the\nobservations of much of their relevance.\n\nDr. Thorndike states that he arranged his experiments to give\nreasoning every chance to display itself, if it existed, and to\nobserve those in which the acts required and the thinking involved\nwere not far removed from the acts and feelings of ordinary animal\nlife. Of these experiments one of the chief was to determine whether\nand in what way a cat would escape from a box opening by turning a\nbutton. Now, I submit that in this and the succeeding experiments the\nconditions Dr. Thorndike fancied to exist by no means did so. Simple\nas the release of a door by a button seems to us, the apparent\nsimplicity arises merely from our empirical knowledge of what does\nhappen in such a situation. Actually to think out the rationale of the\nmatter, as an animal having no experience either personally or from\nheredity would have to do, involves very complex mental processes. The\nenvironment of a human being is vastly different from an animal's,\nthough of this fact we constantly lose sight in reasoning; of\nmechanical appliances and principles, for example, an animal knows\nnothing, and yet we are too apt to suppose it regarding the world with\na store of ancestral and individual experiences utterly foreign to it;\nand then, on its failing to do what, in the light of such experience,\nseems to us easy, we proceed to call into question its possession of\nreason....\n\nThat the cats did finally learn to escape shows, according to Dr.\nThorndike, \"the wearing smooth of a path in the brain, not the\ndecisions of a rational consciousness.\" May I ask Dr. Thorndike what\npossible reason could a cat have to suppose that what happened once\nmust needs happen again? Does Dr. Thorndike fancy his own knowledge of\na million like matters was acquired by reason, and not empirically\nelaborated by processes of exactly the same sort as the cats went\nthrough? Let this experiment be tried on a healthy infant of two\nyears, and I am of the opinion that the results would be the same as\nwith the cat; yet the infant undoubtedly carries on \"thinking\nprocesses similar, at least in kind, to our own,\" which Dr. Thorndike\nimplicitly denies to his cats.\n\nThe chief cause of the inability of students to reach concordant\nresults in this matter of animal intelligence appears to lie in a\ncertain uncritical assumption often made. That all consciousnesses\nhave a certain field of presentations, that to this field they attain,\nthat because of it they feel and will, are fundamental facts; but the\nbelief that attention or feeling or will differs per se in different\nconsciousnesses, other than as the field to which they are at the\nmoment related, differs--this is an utterly unwarranted assumption.\nAccording to the action of its environment, each conscious being must\nknow the world just so far as is needed to conform its existence\nthereto, or else it must perish; but whether such knowledge, which is\nacquired by experience only, be quite small, as with animals, or\nsomewhat larger, as with man, there is no reason to suppose that the\nattention, feeling, or will of the animal differs in itself from the\nsame psychological state in man.\n\n\nMR. ANDREW VAN BIBBER, of Cincinnati, Ohio, says: Animals, and\nespecially wild ones, have no bank account or reserve, and have to\nface new conditions daily, and yet they make a living where man would\nstarve.\n\nWhen I was out in Colorado and Utah, years ago, I used to know of\nanimals removing the bait nicely from dangerous traps without\nspringing the trap. I knew of a dog who went over a mile to call his\nowner to the aid of a boy who had broken his leg, and who would not be\nrefused till understood. This is brutish \"instinct,\" is it?--something\nthat Dr. Thorndike can't define. Will \"instinct\" teach a tired,\nhalf-starved horse to eat oats if you set them before him? Dr.\nThorndike would say \"Yes,\" but Dr. Thorndike would be wrong unless\nthat horse knew from personal past experience what oats were. What\nanimals learn (like the human animal) they learn chiefly by\nexperience. They accumulate facts in their minds and use them.\n\nI served in the cavalry of the Armies of the Tennessee and the\nCumberland, and I know that instinct will not cause a hungry horse to\ntouch oats unless he knows from his own experience what oats are. We\nused to capture horses in Mississippi which had never seen oats. It is\nall corn down there. We would bring them into camp tired out and\nhungry, and would pour out our oats for them. Not one of them would\ntouch the oats. You could leave the hungry horses hitched for\ntwenty-four hours before oats, and not one grain would they touch.\nThey would stand there and starve. We had to throw up their heads and\nfill their mouths full of oats. If we stopped there, they would spit\nthem out. We had to grab their jaws and work them sideways until they\nhad a good taste. Then they understood, and ate oats right along.\nPlenty of such horses in Mississippi to-day....\n\nIf Dr. Thorndike tried his intelligent \"Experiment No. 11\" with a\ntwo-year-old cat, why didn't he try it with a two-year-old human? I\nguess he would have found an equal amount of ignorance of the\nmechanism of door fastenings, which comes only with teaching, and\nwould have produced only struggles and screaming.\n\n\nTHE TREND OF POPULATION IN MAINE.\n\n  _Editor Popular Science Monthly:_\n\nSIR: In the article contributed to your magazine for the month of\nAugust on Recent Legislation against the Drink Evil, I notice what\nappears to me to be a misstatement of fact. The writer speaks of the\nresults of prohibition in the State of Maine, and says, \"In\nsixty-three years Maine has seen her commerce disappear and her\npopulation dwindle.\"\n\nI have not investigated the matter of Maine's commerce, but I find\nthat her population has not dwindled in any possible sense of the term\nduring the period indicated above.\n\nIt is, perhaps, a common impression that Maine has had such an exodus\nof her people to other States of the Union that she has suffered a\nloss in population. What are the real facts of the case? The census\ntaken by the Government in 1840 gave the State 501,000 people, and\nthat taken in 1890, 661,000, which shows, during the interval between\n1840 and 1890, an increase of 160,000. The increase in population\neven during the decade 1880-'90 was 13,000. Whether there has been a\ndecrease since 1890 nobody at present knows, and will not know until\nthe decennial census is taken next year.\n\nIn view of these facts, I feel justified in challenging the\ncorrectness of the gentleman's statement, quoted above.\n\nThere can be no room for doubt that Maine has sustained considerable\nlosses in population from farm desertion, but no statistics can be\npresented to show that the State has, during the time stated above,\nbeen dwindling in the number of people living within her borders.\n\n                                                     J. EARLE BROWN.\n  WOONSOCKET, R. I., _August 17, 1899._\n\n\n\n\nEditor's Table.\n\n\n_EDUCATION AND CHARACTER-BUILDING._\n\nIt is many years ago now since Mr. Spencer, in his Study of Sociology,\nremarked upon the exaggerated hopes commonly built upon education.\nWith the courage that is characteristic of him, he went counter to a\ncurrent of opinion which was then running with perhaps its maximum\nforce. He said that the belief in the efficacy of education to remold\nsociety had taken so strong a hold of the modern world that nothing\nbut disappointment would avail to modify it. This was in the year\n1872; since then the disappointment has in a measure come, and many\nare prepared to accept his views to-day, who, twenty-seven years ago,\nthought they proceeded from a mind fundamentally out of sympathy with\nmodern progress. Facts indeed are accumulating from year to year to\nprove the soundness of the philosopher's contention that \"cognition\ndoes not produce action,\" and that a great variety of knowledge may be\nintroduced into the mind without in the least inclining the individual\nto higher modes of conduct.\n\nWe are reminded of Mr. Spencer's line of argument by an article lately\npublished in the London Spectator, entitled Influence on the Young.\nThe writer sees clearly that enthusiastic educationists undertake far\nmore than they can perform. \"The character forms itself,\" he says,\n\"assimilating nutriment or detriment, as it were, from the air, which\nthe parents or teachers, for all their pains, can in no way change.\"\nThere seems indeed to be in the young, he remarks, a distinct tendency\nto resist influence. Father and son will be opposed in politics; very\npious people too often find, to their sorrow, their children growing\nup far otherwise than they could wish. The man who is very settled in\nhis habits is as like as not to have a boy who can not be persuaded to\ntake a serious view of life. The most unexceptionable home lessons\nseem to be of no avail against the attractive power of light\ncompanions. Evidently, Nature is at work in ways that men can not\ncontrol. If there is a law of \"recoil,\" as the writer in the Spectator\nhints, we may be pretty sure it serves some good purpose. It\nintroduces, we can see at once, a diversity which makes for the\nprogress, and perhaps also for the stability, of society. Two\npractical questions, however, suggest themselves: (1) What can we\nreasonably hope from education? and (2) What can we do to make a\nwholesome _milieu_ for the rising generation?\n\nWith regard to education, it is evident that we can not know the best\nit can do until it has been reduced to a science--until, that is to\nsay, as a result of the joint labors of practical educators and\npsychologists, we can claim to possess a reasonable degree of\ncertainty as to the best arrangement and sequence of studies and the\nbest methods of stimulating the mind and imparting knowledge. Upon\nthese important questions there is still considerable diversity of\nopinion. Some educators think we should be very sparing of\nabstractions in the instruction of younger pupils. Others are of a\ncontrary opinion. Professor Baldwin, for example, in his little work\non The Mind, says that \"grammar is one of the very best of\nprimary-school subjects.\" He also recommends mathematics. These are\nquestions which, it seems to us, admit of being finally settled.\nAllowance must of course be made for the varying capacities of\nindividual children, but this need not stand in the way of the\nestablishment of some general doctrine as to the law of development of\nthe human mind. We shall then further require a true theory of method\nin education, so that we may know by what means the best results in\nthe imparting of knowledge and the development of the capacities of\nthe individual mind may be obtained. Assuming that these vantage\npoints have been gained, education should be for every mind an\neminently healthful and invigorating process, which is more than can\nbe said for the forms of education that have prevailed in the past.\nThese, while developing certain faculties, have, to a great extent,\nstunted others--have indeed, in too many cases, fatally impaired the\nnatural powers of the mind. A notable paper, which appeared in the\nfirst number of this magazine, was one by the late Dr. Carpenter on\nThe Artificial Cultivation of Stupidity in Schools. Professor Baldwin,\nin the work already cited, seems to be of the opinion that the process\nof cultivating stupidity, or at least mental shiftlessness, is in full\nblast to-day in many of our secondary schools owing to the prominence\ngiven to language studies. The science of education must at least put\nan end to this, and insure that the youths who are committed to the\npublic schools shall not be subjected to any mind-destroying\nexercises. We can hope, however, that it will do much more. The mind,\nlike the body, grows by what it feeds upon; and it is hard to conceive\nthat suitable kinds of knowledge could be imparted in a natural\nmanner, so as to awaken interest and develop the perceptive and\nreasoning powers, without at least preparing the mind for the\nreception of right sentiments.\n\nSo much the science of education, when it is fairly established, may\nreasonably be expected to do. It will deal with the mind upon true\nhygienic principles. There remains the more serious question how such\na moral atmosphere can be created as will incline the young to take a\nright view of knowledge and its uses. Knowledge, it is hardly\nnecessary to say, is power, just as money is power; and it is quite as\nneedful that the idea of social service should be associated with the\none as with the other. The best social service which, perhaps,\nany man can render is to give to the world the example of high\ndisinterestedness and general nobility of character; and knowledge\nshould be valued not as conferring individual distinction, but\naccording as it expands and liberalizes the mind. The poet Coleridge\nhas said with some truth that\n\n                   \"Fancy is the power\n      That first unsensualizes the dark mind,\n      Giving it new delights; and bids it swell\n      With wild activity; and peopling air,\n      By obscure fears of beings invisible,\n      Emancipates it from the grosser thrall\n      Of the present impulse, teaching self-control,\n      Till Superstition with unconscious hand\n      Seat Reason on her throne.\"\n\nThe mind having been \"unsensualized,\" the next step is to moralize\nand humanize it, otherwise Reason on her throne may act not much more\nwisely than other monarchs have done. The classic example of the\nworship of reason is not reassuring as to the infallibility of the\ngoddess. The question, then, as to how intellectual education and the\neducation of the moral sentiments may go hand in hand is one that\ncomes home to every member of the community. We all help to make the\nmoral atmosphere and create the moral ideals of our time; and there is\nno use in looking for high standards in our colleges and other\ninstitutions of learning if we have low standards in our homes. The\nyouth who hears nothing talked of at home but money is not likely to\ntake much interest in instruction that does not bear directly on the\nquestion of making money. The youth who hears money spoken of in the\nhome circle simply as a means of personal enjoyment and glorification\nwill need something more than a few lectures on political or social\neconomy to make him take a different view of it. We may employ\nexcellent men and women as teachers, but their success from a moral\npoint of view will always be limited by the general tone of the\ncommunity.\n\nIt is evident, then, that no very special directions can be given for\nsolving the problem with which we are concerned. Still, the posing of\nthe problem and the indication of the conditions on which its solution\ndepends may awaken in a few minds a new sense of their responsibility\nin the matter, and it is a gain for even one to go over to the right\nside. It would be quite as easy for _the whole_ of society to live on\na somewhat higher plane as it is for it to live on its present plane.\nIt would simply mean that the average man would treat the average man\na little better than he does now: whatever one gave he would thus get\nin return, and the burdens which are always associated with mutual\ndistrust would be proportionately lightened.\n\nThe philosopher whom we began by quoting has indicated ways in which\nthe craze for legislative shortcuts is working against the moral\nimprovement of society. He holds that parental responsibility has been\nseriously impaired by legislative encroachments in the matter of\neducation and otherwise. Book learning has become to the modern world\na kind of fetich; and minds that ought to be in contact with the facts\nof life are stupefied, and so far prevented from getting their normal\nmoral growth by being drilled in studies that bring no real profit. We\ncan not bear the idea that one of our human brethren should not be\nable to read and write; but, provided he possesses these\naccomplishments, we ask no questions as to what use he makes of them.\nWe have before us a police description of a criminal who graduated at\none of the most celebrated universities on the Continent, who studied\nafterward for the Church, who was for several years an elder, and who\npossesses--so we are distinctly informed--fine literary tastes. The\ngentleman with all these advantages is a fugitive from justice. With\nall his knowledge and accomplishments he got no hold of the principles\nof right conduct, and--there are not a few like him. We need not only\na science of education, but a science of government, the most valuable\npart of which will probably be that which shows us with demonstrative\nforce what things government ought to leave alone. It is quite\npossible we should find the moral atmosphere materially improving if\nonly the natural reactions between the individual and his environment\nwere not interfered with. The course of Nature, we may feel assured,\nprovides not less for moral than for mental growth, and if either\nprocess is defectively carried on we may safely attribute it to some\nill-advised attempt we are making to improve on natural institutions.\nScience has done much for the world in the past, but it has yet to do\nmuch more. It will yet give us a light to our feet in matters\neducational and political, and will liberate us from many of the yokes\nand trammels we have foolishly imposed upon ourselves. Mankind will\nthen look into the face of Nature and see in it a new beneficence and\nbrighter promises for the future of the race.\n\n\n_THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION AT COLUMBUS._\n\nA fairly good attendance, with an unusually large proportion of men\nprominent in science, and most cordial welcome and painstaking care of\nthe members by the Ohio State University and the citizens of Columbus,\ncombined to make the forty-eighth annual meeting of the American\nAssociation for the Advancement of Science a most enjoyable and\ninstructive one. The two features of the meeting which seem to deserve\nthe most attention are: First, the tendency which was shown in every\nsection to direct the papers and discussions to practical subjects, so\nthat all could participate in the proceedings and each member feel\njustified in having a word to say in them; and, secondly, the perfect\ncordiality with which the association was received and the assiduous\nattention with which it was taken care of by the local committee. The\nsmaller and apparently less important details, but at the same time\nthose which so largely determine one's comfort in a strange community,\nwere thoughtfully arranged, and to this alone much of the success of\nthe meeting was due. The numerous excursions were not only exceedingly\nenjoyable, but were arranged in every case primarily for their\ninstructive and scientific features, and an Easterner, at any rate,\ncould not take any of them without learning something. Another feature\nof the meeting that was especially satisfactory was the possibility it\nafforded for the younger workers in science to meet their elders, who\nhad hitherto led the way--who were present, as we have already said,\nin larger proportion than usual. The importance of this feature, as\nPresident Orton pointed out in these pages a few months ago, can not\nbe overestimated. The instruction and encouragement which a new worker\nin the scientific field gains from a personal acquaintance with the\nolder men who have already achieved success and reputation in his\nbranch of science are obvious enough. With the increasing\nspecialization which modern research is making absolutely unavoidable,\nthe social feature of the annual gathering of such a company of\nscientists is coming to be its most important function. A slight\nextension of it might very readily lead to the adoption of a specific\npolicy by the several sections of devoting at least a part of their\ntime to such a general statement of what has been accomplished in\ntheir department or to some especially important work of general\ninterest that some of the members have been engaged in as would be\nmost instructive to the members of the other sections. In the earlier\nmeetings of the association the sectional chairmen often made such\npresentations in their stated addresses, but as times and men have\nchanged, the idea has been departed from and this feature has become\nan exceptional one. If it could be restored, in a modified if not an\nidentical form, and made a regular part of the programme of at least\none of the sections at each meeting, the interest would be greatly\nenhanced, and in this way the chemist, the geologist, the botanist,\nand the others could be given regularly an authoritative account of\nwhat is being done in the other branches of science, and an important\nstep would be taken toward doing away with the unfortunate narrowing\ninfluence which special scientific work is too apt to exercise.\n\nThe fixing of the last week in June as the time for holding the next\nmeeting of the association, which is to be in New York, is a departure\nfrom recent practice as to date, but, aside from the special reason\nfor it in this particular case--the probability that many of the\nmembers will be at the Paris Exposition during the following\nAugust--the experiment seems a desirable one because of the almost\ninvariably excessive heat to which August meetings are exposed.\n\n\n\n\nScientific Literature.\n\n\nSPECIAL BOOKS.\n\nEvidences are apparent in many quarters of a reaction against the\nheadlong rush toward aggression and territorial aggrandizement in\nwhich the American people have allowed themselves to be carried away.\nFor a time the lovers of the Constitution of the United States as the\nfathers of the republic left it and Lincoln glorified it were\nbewildered, stunned by the revolution suddenly precipitated upon us\nfrom Washington, while the people at large seemed to be wild with\nenthusiasm for they knew not what, and men suffered themselves to be\nled--they knew not whither. Very slowly the true patriots recovered\ntheir voices, and signs appear that the people are at last getting\ninto a mood to listen to reason. President _David Starr Jordan's\nImperial Democracy_[49] comes very opportunely, therefore, to call to\nthe minds of those who can be induced to think some of the forgotten\nprinciples of American policy, and to depict, in the terse, incisive\nstyle of which the author is master, the true nature and bearing of\nthose iniquitous proceedings to which the American people, betrayed by\ntreacherous leaders, have allowed themselves to become a party.\nPresident Jordan was one of the first who dared, in this matter, to\nmake a public protest against this scheme of aggression. His first\naddress on the subject--Lest we Forget--delivered to the graduating\nclass of Leland Stanford University, May 25, 1898, was separated only\na few days in time from Prof. Charles Eliot Norton's exposure of the\nreversal of all our most cherished traditions and habits which the\nprecipitation of the war with Spain had brought about. The two men\nmust share the honor of leadership in the awakening movement. In this\naddress President Jordan gives a true definition of patriotism as \"the\nwill to serve one's country; to make one's country better worth\nsaving\"--not the shrilling of the mob, or trampling on the Spanish\nflag, or twisting the lion's tail. Even so early he foresaw the\ndarkness of the future we were bringing upon ourselves, and said: \"The\ncrisis comes when the war is over. What then? Our question is not what\nwe shall do with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. It is what\nthese prizes will do to us.\" This, with the wickedness of the whole\nbusiness, is the burden of most of the other papers in the volume. In\nthe paper on Imperial Expansion we are told of three \"world crises\"\nin our history when we were confronted with momentous questions. The\nfirst was after the Revolution. The second came through the growth of\nslavery. The third is upon us now. \"It is not the conquest of Spain,\nnot the disposition of the spoils of victory which first concerns us.\nIt is the spirit that lies behind it. Shall our armies go where our\ninstitutions can not? Shall territorial expansion take the place of\ndemocratic freedom? Shall our invasion of the Orient be merely an\nincident, an accident of a war of knight-errantry, temporary and\nexceptional? Or is it to mark a new policy--the reversion from America\nto Europe, from democracy to imperialism?\" President Jordan has an\nanswer to the question, What are we to do in the shape affairs have\nassumed? The right thing would be \"to recognize the independence of\nthe Philippines, under American protection, and to lend them our army\nand navy and our wisest counselors; not our politicians, but our\njurists, our teachers, with foresters, electricians, manufacturers,\nmining engineers, and experts in the various industries.... The only\nsensible thing to do would be to pull out some dark night and escape\nfrom the great problem of the Orient as suddenly and as dramatically\nas we got into it.\" Yet President Jordan recognizes that some great\nchanges in our system are inevitable, and belong to the course of\nnatural progress. They must not be shirked, but should be met\nmanfully, soberly, with open eyes. A paper on Colonial Lessons of\nAlaska presents as an object lesson the muss we have made with\ncolonial government in that Territory.\n\n     [Footnote 49: Imperial Democracy. A Study of the Relation of\n     Government by the People, Equality before the Law, and other\n     Tenets of Democracy, to the Demands of a Vigorous Foreign Policy,\n     and other Demands of Imperial Dominion. By David Starr Jordan.\n     New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 293. Price, $1.50.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMr. _A. H. Keane's Man Past and Present_[50] is a part fulfillment of\na promise held out in his Ethnology, the first volume of the Cambridge\nGeographical Series, that it might be followed by another dealing more\nsystematically with the primary divisions of mankind. In it the \"four\nvarietal divisions\" of man over the globe are treated more in detail,\nwith the primary view of establishing their independent specialization\nin their several geographical zones, and of elucidating the difficult\nquestions associated with the origins and interrelations of the chief\nsubgroups. The work consequently deals to a large extent with the\nprehistoric period, when the peoples had already been fully\nconstituted in their primeval homes and had begun their subsequent\ndevelopments and migratory movements. The author has further sought to\nelucidate those general principles which are concerned with the\npsychic unity, the social institutions, and religious ideas of\nprimitive and later peoples. The two principles, already insisted upon\nin the Ethnology, of the specific unity of all existing varieties of\nthe human family and the dispersion of their generalized precursors\nover the whole world in Pleistocene times are borne in view\nthroughout. Subsequent to this dispersion, the four primary divisions\nof man have each had its Pleistocene ancestor, from whom each has\nsprung independently and divergently by continuous adaptation to their\nseveral environments. Great light is believed to have been thrown on\nthe character of the earliest men by the discovery of the\n_Pithecanthropus erectus_, and this is supplemented as to the earliest\nacquirements by Dr. Noetling's discovery, in 1894, of the works of\nPliocene man in upper Burmah. The deductions made from these\ndiscoveries strengthen the view Mr. Keane has always advocated, that\nman began to spread over the globe after he had acquired the erect\nposture, but while in other physical and in mental respects he still\ndid not greatly differ from his nearest of kin. As to the age when\nthis development was taking place, agreement is expressed with Major\nPowell's remark that the natural history of early man becomes more and\nmore a geological and not merely an anthropological problem. The human\nvarieties are shown to be, like other species, the outcome of their\nenvironments, and all sudden changes of those environments are\ndisastrous. In both hemispheres the isocultural bands follow the\nisothermal lines in all their deflections--temperate regions being\nfavorable, and tropical and severe ones unfavorable, to development.\nOf the metal ages, the existence of a true copper age has been placed\nbeyond reasonable doubt. The passage from one metal to another was\nslow and progressive. In art the earliest drawings were natural and\nvital. The apparent inferiority of the drawings of the metal period to\nthose of the cave dwellers and of the present Bushmen is due to the\nlater art having been reduced to conventions. The development of\nalphabetical writing from pictographs is briefly sketched. Thus light\nis sought from all quarters in dealing with the questions of the book,\nand due weight is given to all available data--physical and mental\ncharacters, usages, religion, speech, cultural features, history, and\ngeographical range. The general discussion of these leading principles\nis brief but clear and comprehensive. The bulk of the volume,\nfollowing them, is occupied with the detailed and minute studies of\nthe four main groups of mankind--the Negro, Mongol, American Indian,\nand Caucasic--and their subgroups, the discussion of each being\npreceded by a conspectus showing its Primeval Home, Present Range,\nPhysical Characters, Mental Characters (Temperament, Speech, Religion,\nand Culture), and Main Divisions. The text is full, clear, good\nreading, instructive and suggestive, and in it the author has sought\nto make the volume a trustworthy book of reference on the multifarious\nsubjects dealt with.\n\n     [Footnote 50: Man Past and Present. By A. H. Keane, F. R. G. S.\n     (Cambridge Geographical Series). Cambridge, England: At the\n     University Press. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 584.\n     Price, $3.]\n\n\nGENERAL NOTICES.\n\nThe fact that Mr. _Charles A. Dana_ stood in close personal relations\nwith Secretary Stanton and was officially associated with him during a\nconsiderable period of the war for the Union, and was also\nincidentally brought near Mr. Lincoln, gives whatever he may relate\nconcerning the events of that period somewhat the air of a revelation\nfrom the inside. Accordingly, we naturally expect to find things\nnarrated in his _Recollections of the Civil War_[51] that could not be\ntold as well by any one else. The account given in the book relates to\nevents in which the author was personally concerned. Mr. Dana had been\nassociated with Horace Greeley in the editorial management of the New\nYork Tribune for fifteen years, when, in April, 1862, Mr. Greeley\ninvited him to resign. No reason was given or asked for the\nseparation, and no explicit statement of a reason was needed. Mr.\nGreeley, having expressed in the beginning his willingness to let the\nsecessionist \"wayward-sister\" States go in peace, was in favor of\npeace; Mr. Dana was for vigorous war. A correspondence was opened\nbetween him and Mr. Stanton in reference to public matters shortly\nafter Mr. Stanton went into the War Department. Then Mr. Dana was\nintrusted with special commissions that carried him to the front and\nbrought him in contact with the leaders of the army; and finally, in\n1863, was appointed Assistant Secretary of War, an office he filled\ntill the end of the contest. His narrative deals as the story of one\nhaving knowledge with questions of policy, with the critical phases of\nthe hard conflict, with the perplexities and anxieties of the men\ncharged with responsibilities, with stirring scenes in the councils\nat the Capitol and in battle at the front, and with personal incidents\nof the men whose names the nation loves and delights to honor. All is\nrelated in the straightforward, fluent style, touching only the facts,\nof a writer who has a story to tell and makes it his business to tell\nit. The result of the reading of the book is to arouse a new\nappreciation of the abilities and virtues of those great men in their\nvarious walks of civil, political, and military life, who took our\ncountry through its supreme trial.\n\n     [Footnote 51: Recollections of the Civil War. With the Leaders at\n     Washington and in the Field in the Sixties. By Charles A. Dana.\n     New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 296. Price, $2.]\n\nMrs. _Arabella B. Buckley's Fairy-Land of Science_ has stood the test\nof about thirty years' publication as one of the simplest, clearest,\nand best popular introductions to physical science. Originating in a\ncourse of lectures delivered to children and their friends, the\nthought of publishing the book was suggested by the interest taken in\nthe lectures by all the hearers. It was a happy thought, and the\ncarrying of it out is fully justified by the result. But thirty years\nis a long time in so rapidly advancing a pursuit as the study of\nscience, and makes changes necessary in all books treating of it. The\npublishers of this work,[52] therefore, with the assistance of the\nauthor, have considerably extended the original volume, adding to it\nnotices of the latest scientific discoveries in the departments\ntreated, and amplifying with fuller detail such parts as have grown in\nimportance and interest. A few changes have been made in the interest\nof American readers, such as the substitution, where it seemed proper,\nof words familiar here for terms almost exclusively used in England,\nand the introduction of American instead of English examples to\nillustrate great scientific truths. The book has also been largely\nreillustrated.\n\n     [Footnote 52: The Fairy-Land of Science. New York: D. Appleton\n     and Company. Pp. 252.]\n\nSome of the essays in Miss _Badenoch's True Tales of the Insects_[53]\nhave already appeared in serials--two of them in the Popular Science\nMonthly. The essays are not intended to present a view of entomology\nor of any department of it, but to describe, in an attractive and at\nthe same time an accurate manner, a few special features of insect\nlife and some of what we might call its remarkable curiosities. The\nauthor is well qualified for her undertaking, for, while being an\nentomologist of recognized position, she has those qualities of\nenthusiasm in her pursuit and literary training that enable her to\npresent her subject in its most attractive aspect. From the great\nvariety of insect forms she has selected only a few for this special\npresentation, including some of eccentric shape and some of genuine\nuniversal interest. She begins with the strange-looking creatures of\nthe family of the _Mantid\u00e6_, or praying insects, or, as the Brazilians\ncall the _Mantis_, more fitly, the author thinks, the devil's riding\nhorse, which is characterized as \"the tiger, not the saint, of the\ninsect world.\" The walking-stick and walking-leaf insects, of equally\nstrange appearance, but peaceful, naturally follow these. Then come\nthe locusts, and grasshoppers, which are more familiar, and the\nbutterflies and moths, which attract the most attention and present\nsuch remarkable forms as the case-moths and the hawk and death's-head\nmoths. The insects made subjects of treatment are described with\nfullness of detail, and the record of their life histories. The book\nis published in an attractive outer style, on thick paper, with\nthirty-four illustrations by Margaret J. D. Badenoch.\n\n     [Footnote 53: True Tales of the Insects. By L. N. Badenoch.\n     London: Chapman & Hall. Pp. 253.]\n\nProf. _Charles C. James_, now Deputy Minister of Agriculture for\nOntario, defines the purpose of his book, _Practical Agriculture_[54]\nto be to aid the reader and student in acquiring a knowledge of the\nscience as distinguished from the art of agriculture--\"that is, a\nknowledge of the 'why,' rather than a knowledge of the 'how.'\" The\nauthor believes, from his experience of several years' teaching at the\nOntario Agricultural College, that the rational teaching of\nagriculture in public and high schools is possible and would be\nexceedingly profitable, and that an intelligent knowledge of the\nscience underlying the art would add much interest to the work and\ngreatly increase the pleasure in it. The science of agriculture is\nunderstood by him to consist of a mingling of chemistry, geology,\nbotany, entomology, physiology, bacteriology, and other sciences in so\nfar as they have any bearing upon agriculture. He has aimed in this\nbook to include only the first principles of these various sciences,\nand to show their application to the art of agriculture. The subject\nis treated as it relates, consecutively, to the plant, the soil, the\ncrops of the field; the garden, orchard, and vineyard; live stock and\ndairying; and, under the heading of \"other subjects,\" bees and birds,\nforestry, roads, and the rural home. The appendix contains lists of\ntrees and of weeds, and an article on spraying mixtures. Questions to\nbe answered by the reader are attached to most of the chapters. The\nillustrations are well chosen and good.\n\n     [Footnote 54: Practical Agriculture. By Charles C. James.\n     American edition edited by John Craig. New York: D. Appleton and\n     Company. Pp. 203. Price, 80 cents.]\n\nConsiderable information about the Philippine Islands and their\ninhabitants is given by Dr. _D. G. Brinton_ in a pamphlet entitled\n_The Peoples of the Philippines_. Dr. Brinton's point of view is the\nanthropologist's, and accordingly, after a few paragraphs about the\ngeography, geology, and history of the islands, he takes up their\nethnology and describes their various peoples as they have been\nstudied by the masters of the science and by travelers. Much valuable\nas well as interesting information is given respecting their manners\nand customs, languages, and literature, for the Tagals have had a\nwritten language from the earliest known times, and though their old\nliterature does not amount to much they are to-day exceedingly facile\nversifiers.\n\nThe Open Court Publishing Company (Chicago) publishes _The Lectures on\nElementary Mathematics_ (_Le\u00e7ons \u00e9l\u00e9mentaires sur les math\u00e9matiques_)\nof _Joseph Louis Lagrange_, \"the greatest of modern analysts,\" in a\ntranslation from the new edition of the author's collected works by\nThomas J. McCormack. These lectures, which were delivered in 1765 at\nthe \u00c9cole Normale, have never before been published in separate form,\nexcept in the first printing in the Journal of the Polytechnic School\nand in the German. \"The originality, elegance, and symmetrical\ncharacter of these lectures have been pointed out by De Morgan, and\nnotably by D\u00fchring, who places them in the front rank of elementary\nexpositions as an example of their kind. They possess, we might say, a\nunique character as a reading book in mathematics, and are interwoven\nwith helpful historical and philosophical remarks.\" They present with\ngreat clearness the subjects of arithmetic and its operations,\nalgebra, equations of the third and fourth degrees, the evolution of\nnumerical equations, and the employment of curves in the solution of\nproblems. The translator has prefixed a short biographical sketch of\nLapouge, and an excellent portrait is given.\n\nA book of _Observation Blanks for Beginners in Mineralogy_ has been\nprepared by _Herbert E. Austin_, as an aid to the laboratory course,\nand is published by D. C. Heath & Co. (Boston, 30 cents). The\nlaboratory course is intended to make the pupil familiar with the\ncharacteristics of minerals and the terms used in describing them by\ndirecting him to observe typical specimens and describe what he sees,\nand to develop his faculties of observation, conception, reasoning,\njudgment, comparison, and memory. A description is given of apparatus\nthat may be home-made. The blanks follow, containing spaces for the\ninsertion of notes under the heads of Experiment, Observation,\nStatement, and Conclusion.\n\nIn Volume No. XXX of the International Education Series--Pedagogics of\nthe Kindergarten--a number of Froebel's essays relating more\nespecially to the plays and games were printed from the collection\nmade by Wichard Lange. A new volume of the series, _Friedrich\nFroebel's Education by Development_, includes another selection from\nLange's publication, in which the gifts are more thoroughly discussed.\n\"Again and again, in the various essays,\" the editor of the series\nsays, \"Froebel goes over his theory of the meaning of the ball, the\nsphere, the cube, and its various subdivisions. The student of Froebel\nhas great advantage, therefore, in reading this volume, inasmuch as\nFroebel has cast new light on his thought in each separate exposition\nthat he has made.... The essays on the training school for\nkindergartners and the method of introducing children's gardens into\nthe kindergarten are very suggestive and useful. In fact, there is no\nother kindergarten literature that is quite equal in value to the\ncontents of this volume.\" The few essays in Lange's volume that still\nremain untranslated are characterized as being mostly of an ephemeral\ncharacter. With the publication of the present volume, of which, as of\nthe Pedagogics, Miss Josephine Jarvis is the translator, a complete\nlist of the original works of Froebel in English translations has been\nprovided in the International Education Series of Messrs. D. Appleton\nand Company.\n\nA useful manual for students in chemistry is the _Chemical\nExperiments_ of Prof. _John F. Woodhull_ and _M. B. Van Arsdale_\n(Henry Holt & Co., New York). It embraces directions for making\nseventy-five experiments with different substances and chemical\nproperties, including oxygen and the air, hydrogen and water, chlorine\nand the chlorine family, acids, bases, salts, sulphur, nitrogen,\ncarbon, carbon dioxide and the carbonates, fermentation, potash, and\nproblems to illustrate the law of definite proportions. A title is\ngiven to each experiment, suggesting what is to be proved by it; the\ndetails of the process are given, and the pupil is left to do the\nrest, entering his particular observations and conclusions on the\nblank page opposite the text. Questions are appended, of a nature\nfurther to develop the thinking powers of the pupils, and tables or\nlists are added of the elements concerned in the experiments, weights\nand measures, apparatus, and chemicals.\n\nThe book _Defective Eyesight: the Principles of its Relief by\nGlasses_, of Dr. _D. B. St. John Roosa_, is the result of an attempt\nto revise The Determination of the Necessity for Wearing Glasses,\npublished by the same author in 1888. It was found, on undertaking the\nwork of revision, that the advance in our knowledge of the proper\nprescription of glasses, especially in the matter of simplicity in\nmethod, had been so great as to require a complete rewriting. In doing\nthis the book has been very much enlarged, and illustrations have been\nintroduced. The author hopes his manual may prove a reliable guide to\nthe student and practitioner in ophthalmology, and may also be of\ninterest to persons who wish to know the principles on which the\nprescription of glasses is based. The special subjects treated\nof are the measurement of visual power, presbyopia, myopia or\nshort-sightedness, hypermetropia, corneal astigmatism, asthenopia, and\nthe qualities of lenses. (Published by the Macmillan Company. Price,\n$1.)\n\n\nPUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.\n\nAgricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. North\nCarolina State Agricultural Society: Second Annual Report (1896) of\nthe Experimental Farm at Southern Pines. Pp. 90.--Ohio: Press Bulletin\nNo. 195. Stomach Worms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 196. Comparison of\nVarieties of Wheat. Pp. 2; No. 197. Successful Treatment of Stomach\nWorms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 198. Varieties of Wheat and Home-mixed\nFertilizers. Pp. 2.--United States Department of Agriculture: Monthly\nList of Publications (July, 1899). Pp. 4; Report on North American\nFauna. No. 14. Natural History of the Tres Marias Islands, Mexico. Pp.\n96; No. 15. Revision of the Jumping Mice of the Genus _Zaphus_. By\nEdward A. Preble. Pp. 34, with one plate; Report of the Puerto Rico\nSection of the Weather and Crop Service of the Weather Bureau, for\nMay, 1899. Pp. 8.\n\nBaker, M. N. Potable Water and Methods of Detecting Impurities. New\nYork: The Van Nostrand Company. (Van Nostrand Science Series.) Pp. 97.\n50 cents.\n\nBeman, W. W., and Smith, D. E. New Plane and Solid Geometry. Boston:\nGinn & Co. Pp. 382.\n\nBulletins, Proceedings, Reports, etc. Boston Society of Natural\nHistory: Vol. XXIX. No. 2. Variation and Sexual Selection in Man. By\nE. T. Brewster. Pp. 16; No. 3. Notes on the Reptiles and Amphibians of\nIntervale, New Hampshire. By Glover M. Allen. Pp. 16; No. 4. Studies\nin Diptera Cyclorhapha. By G. & N. Hough. Pp. 8; No. 5. Contributions\nfrom the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. New Series: No. 17. By\nB. L. Robinson and J. M. Greenman. Pp. 12.--Dominion of Canada:\nParliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization.\nImprovements In Crop Growing. By Prof. James W. Robertson. Pp.\n39.--International Correspondence Schools, Scranton, Pa.: General\nCircular. Pp. 32.--Liberal University, Silverton, Oregon:\nAnnouncements. Pp. 18.--Society of American Authors: Bulletin for\nJuly, 1899. Pp. 22.--University of Michigan, Department of Medicine\nand Surgery: Annual Announcement for 1899-1900. Pp. 91.--United States\nArtillery Journal: Index to Vol. X, 1898. Pp. 12.\n\nCarpenter, George H. Insects, their Structure and Life. A Primer of\nEntomology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 404. $1.75.\n\nDaniels, Winthrop Moore. The Elements of Public Finance, including the\nMonetary System of the United States. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp.\n383. $1.50.\n\nGrotius, Hugo. Proceedings at the Laying of a wreath on the Tomb of,\nJuly 4, 1899, by the Commission of the United States to the\nInternational Peace Conference. Pp. 48.\n\nHoward, John R., editor. Educational Nuggets. New York: Ford, Howard &\nHulbert. Pp. 215. 50 cents.\n\nMcIlvaine, Charles, and Macadam, R. K. Toadstools, Mushrooms, and\nFungi, Edible and Poisonous. (Specimen pages.) Indianapolis. Ind.: The\nBowen-Merrill Company. (Author's Edition.) $10.\n\nMassee, George. A Text-Book of Plant Diseases caused by Cryptogamic\nParasites. New York. The Macmillan Company. Pp. 458. $1.60.\n\nMellen, George E. New Pointers for Amateurs (Photography). Published\nby the author. Times Building, Chicago. Pp. 46, with blanks. 15 cents.\n\nMiller, Prof. Kelly. The Primary Needs of the Negro Race. Washington:\nHoward University. Pp. 18.\n\nOregon Short Line Railroad. Where Gush the Geysers. (Guide to\nYellowstone National Park.)\n\nPelley, W. H., Knoxville, Ill. Christian Government. Pp. 44. 10 cents.\n\nPfungst, Dr. Arthur. Ein Deutscher Buddhist. (A German Buddhist.)\nTheodor Schultze. Stuttgart. Pp. 51.\n\nRector, L. E., Translator and Editor. Montaigne on the Education of\nChildren. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (International Education\nSeries.) Pp. 191.\n\nReprints: Billings, S. A., and Englehardt, H. A. Observations on a New\nCoal-Tar Product. Pp. 7.--Goldmann, J. A. Prophylactic Treatment of\nthe Uric-acid Diathesis. Pp. 8.--Kingsley, Carl. Methods of\nDetermining the Frequency of Alternating Currents. Pp. 11.--Kunz,\nGeorge F. The Production of Precious Stones in 1897. Pp. 22.--Shimer,\nP. W. Carbon Combustions in a Platinum Crucible. Pp. 12.\n\nSumner, William G. The Conquest of the United States by Spain. Boston:\nDana, Estes & Co.\n\nSmithsonian Institution: Doan, Martha. Index to the Literature of\nThallium. Pp. 26; Proceedings of the United States National Museum.\nIndex to Vol. XXI.\n\nUnited States Commission of Labor: Thirteenth Annual Report. Hand and\nMachine Labor. Two volumes. Pp. 1604.\n\nUnited States Geological Survey: Nineteenth Annual Report. Part I.\nDirector's Report, including Triangulations and Spirit Levelings. Pp.\n422, with map; Part IV. Hydrography. Pp. 814; Part VI. Mineral\nResources of the United States. By David T. Day. Two volumes. Pp. 651\nand 706.--Monographs: Vol. XXIX. Geology of Old Hampshire County,\nMassachusetts. By B. K. Emerson. Pp. 790, with maps; Vol. XXXI.\nGeology of the Aspen Mining District, Colorado. By J. E. Spurr. Pp.\n260, with an Atlas of thirty sheets; Vol. XXXV. The Later Extinct\nFloras of North America. By J. S. Newberry. A posthumous work, edited\nby Arthur Hollick. Pp. 295, with 68 plates.--Maps and Descriptions of\nRoutes of Exploration in Alaska in 1898. Pp. 138, with envelope\ncontaining ten maps.\n\nYoung Men's Christian Association, Educational Department: Annual\nReport for 1899. Pp. 70; Prospectus for 1899 (July 1, 1899 to July 1,\n1900). Pp. 112; Fourth International and other Exhibits. Awards of\nMerit. Pp. 24; The Present Status of Our Educational Work. By Frederic\nB. Pratt. Pp. 5.\n\n\n\n\nFragments of Science.\n\n\n=Officers of the American Association for 1900.=--The American\nAssociation, at Columbus, Ohio, elected as president for the next\nmeeting, which is to be held in New York city, June 25 to\n30, 1900, Prof. R. S. Woodward, of Columbia University. The\nvice-presidents-elect are: Section A (Mathematics and Astronomy),\nAsaph Hall, Jr., of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Section B (Physics), Ernest\nMerritt, of Ithaca, N. Y.; Section C (Chemistry), James Lewis Howe, of\nLexington, Va.; Section D (Mechanical Science and Engineering), J. A.\nBrashear, of Pittsburg, Pa.; Section E (Geology and Geography), J. F.\nKemp, of New York city; Section F (Zo\u00f6logy), C. B. Davenport, of\nCambridge, Mass.; Section G (Botany), William Trelease, of St. Louis,\nMo.; Section H (Anthropology), A. W. Butler, of Indianapolis, Ind.;\nSection I (Economic Science and Statistics), C. M. Woodward, of St.\nLouis. The permanent secretary is L. O. Howard, United States\nEntomologist, Washington, D. C.; General Secretary, Charles\nBaskerville, of Chapel Hill, N. C.; Secretary of the Council, William\nH. Hallock, of New York city. The sectional secretaries are: Section\nA, W. M. Strong, of New Haven, Conn.; Section B, R. A. Fessenden, of\nAllegheny, Pa.; Section C, A. A. Noyes, of Boston, Mass.; Section D,\nW. T. Magruder, of Columbus, Ohio; Section E, J. A. Holmes, of Chapel\nHill, N. C.; Section F, C. H. Eigenmann, of Bloomington, Ind.; Section\nG, D. T. McDougal, of New York Botanical Garden; Section H, Frank\nRussell, of Cambridge, Mass.; Section I, H. T. Newcombe, of\nWashington, D. C. Treasurer, R. S. Woodward, of New York city.\n\n=Graphite.=--An interesting account of the history and manufacture of\ngraphite is given by E. G. Acheson in the June issue of the Journal\nof the Franklin Institute. In the year 1779 Karl Wilhelm Scheele, a\nyoung apothecary in the town of K\u00f6ping, Sweden, discovered that\ngraphite was an individual compound. It had up to this time been\nconfounded with molybdenum sulphide. In 1800 Mackenzie definitely\nadded graphite to the carbon group by showing that, on burning, it\nyielded the same amount of carbon dioxide as an equal amount of\ncharcoal and diamond. Graphite in a more or less pure state is quite\nfreely distributed over the earth, but only in a few places is it\nfound under conditions of purity, quantity, ease of mining, refining,\nand transportation to market that permit of a profitable business\nbeing made of it. Statistics for the last six years (1890-'95) show an\naverage yearly production of 56,994 short tons. The countries\ncontributing to the supply were Austria, Ceylon, Germany, Italy,\nUnited States, Canada, Japan, India, Russia, Great Britain, and Spain.\nGreat differences exist in the structure and purity of the graphites\nfurnished from the various mines. There are two general forms--the\ncrystalline and the amorphous. The product of the Ceylon mines is\ncrystalline of great purity, analyzing in some cases over ninety-nine\nper cent carbon, while that of the Barrowdale mines is amorphous and\nalso very pure. The chief impurity in graphite is iron. It is probable\nthat the first use made of graphite was as a writing substance. The\nfirst account we have of its employment for this purpose is contained\nin the writings of Conrad Gessner on Fossils, published in 1565. Its\npresent uses include the manufacture of pencils, crucibles,\nstove-polish, foundry-facing, paint, motor and dynamo brushes,\nanti-friction compounds, electrodes for electro-metallurgical work,\nconducting surfaces in electrotyping, and covering the surfaces of\npowder grains. For most of these purposes it is used in the natural\nimpure state. The mining and manufacture of graphite into articles of\ncommerce give employment to thousands of people. The mines of Ceylon\nalone, when working to their full capacity, employ about twenty-four\nthousand men, women, and children. The rapid increase in the use of\ngraphite has led to considerable discussion in recent years regarding\nthe possibility of its commercial manufacture. It has been made in a\nnumber of different ways in the laboratory, all, however, depending on\nthe same fundamental principle--viz., the liberation of the carbon\nfrom some one of its chemical compounds, under conditions which\nprevent its reassociation with the same or other elements. Mr.\nAcheson, who has been working for several years in an endeavor to\ndevise a commercially successful process of manufacture, found,\nsomewhere back in 1893, that graphite was formed in the carborundum\n(electric) furnaces of the Carborundum Company of Niagara Falls. Since\nthen he has been following up this clew, and now believes that \"the\nonly commercial way to make graphite is by breaking up a carbide by\nthe action of heat.\" A building for its manufacture in this way, by\nthe use of the electric furnace, is now in course of erection at\nNiagara Falls.\n\n=Commercial Education in England.=[55]--It is only of comparatively\nlate years that the Government has had anything to do with the\neducation of the people. For some centuries back all English education\nwas practically controlled by our two ancient universities--Oxford and\nCambridge. They decided what subjects were to be taught, and how they\nwere to be taught. The control they exercised over our English schools\nwas an indirect one, but it was none the less effectual. The schools\nthemselves were, like the universities, independent of Government, or,\nindeed, of any control. The principal of these are known as \"public\nschools,\" though the term \"public\" has of late years also been applied\nto the public elementary schools. These are nearly all developments of\nancient foundations. Winchester, founded in the fourteenth century,\nand Westminster, in the sixteenth, grew up under the shadows of great\nreligious houses; Eton was established in the fifteenth century by the\nmonarch, close to his own palace at Windsor; Harrow, which dates from\nthe sixteenth century, is the most important example of the most\nnumerous class of all privately founded local schools--grammar\nschools, as they were generally entitled--which have developed beyond\ntheir original founders' intention, and have eventually come to\nattract boys from all parts of the kingdom. The best boys from all of\nthem went to the universities, and the course of study which was most\nsuccessful at the university was naturally the course of study which\nwas preferred at the school. The _liter\u00e6 humaniores_, which were the\nsum total of university education, included only Greek and Latin\nlanguage and literature, mathematics, and logic. Science--I have now\nin my mind the education of but a single generation back--was ignored.\nThe teaching of modern languages was perfunctory in the extreme; the\nsame may be said of history and geography, while even English language\nand literature were almost entirely neglected. Now an education\nmodeled on these lines was not ill suited for professional men--men\nwho went from the university into law, the Church, or medicine. But it\nwas by no means suited, especially when cut short in its early stages,\nfor boys whose future destination was the counting-house or the shop.\nWe are not met to consider the training of scholars, but the sort of\neducation best adapted to the requirements of the ordinary man of\nbusiness, and given under the limitations inevitable in the conditions\nof the case--that is to say, in a very limited period and during the\nearly years of life--intended also not only to train the mind but to\nprovide a means of earning a living. Commercial education must in fact\nbe a compromise between real education and business training. The more\nit inclines to the former the better. With the growth of modern\nindustry and commerce the necessity for a training better suited for\nthe requirements of modern life became more and more evident, and the\nplace was supplied, or partially supplied, by private-adventure\nschools, which undertook to provide the essentials of a commercial\neducation. Of late years also some important middle-class schools have\nbeen founded by institutions like the Boys' Public Day Schools\nCompany, and the Girls' Public Day Schools Company, the teaching in\nwhich is of a modern if not of a commercial character. The growth also\nof science had its natural and obvious effects on educational methods.\nScientific teaching was introduced at the universities--it had been\npractically ignored at Oxford, and recognized at Cambridge only as a\ndepartment of mathematics. The more important of our public schools\nintroduced what was known as a \"modern side,\" that is to say, an\nalternative course which a boy might take, and in which science,\nmodern languages, and mathematics took the place, to a greater or less\nextent, of the classical languages. Other schools modified their whole\ncurriculum in a like direction; others again almost abandoned the\nancient knowledge in favor of the modern. Such, in briefest and\nbaldest summary, is the condition at which our system of secondary\neducation has now arrived. In the meantime, elementary education in\nEngland had been organized and systematized. At the beginning of the\ncentury elementary education was imparted to the children of the\npeasants and agricultural laborers in village schools, most of which\nwere sadly inefficient. In the towns there were various charitable\ninstitutions for educating the children of those who were unable to\nprovide education for themselves, and there were also what were known\nas ragged and parochial schools, which were more or less of the same\ncharacter as the elementary schools of to-day. Early in the century\nseveral important societies were established--they were mostly of a\nreligious character--for the improvement of elementary education. By\ntheir assistance schools were founded throughout the country. These\nwere maintained by voluntary effort, and so gained their name of\nvoluntary schools, though they received aid from the Government, an\nannual grant being allotted for the purpose. In 1839 a committee of\nthe Privy Council was created to regulate the administration of\nGovernment grants for education, and this committee still remains the\ngoverning body of our education department. The Elementary Education\nAct of 1870, with later acts of 1876 and 1880, laid down the principle\nthat sufficient elementary education should be provided for all\nchildren of school age, and established a system of school boards,\nwhich boards were to be and were formed in all districts where such\nsufficient provision for education did not exist. By a later act of\n1891 education was made gratuitous as well as compulsory. We have,\ntherefore, now two great classes of elementary schools--school-board\nschools, in which education is free, and voluntary schools, in which a\nfee may be charged. Both alike receive Government aid under certain\nconditions. As a rule the voluntary schools are connected with the\nChurch of England or with one or other of the nonconformist bodies.\nThe boards which control the board schools are elected bodies, and the\nteaching is undenominational.\n\n     [Footnote 55: From a paper read by Sir H. T. Wood, at the\n     International Congress, on Technical Education, at Venice, May,\n     1899.]\n\n=Genius and Habit.=--W. L. Bryan and N. Harter are the authors of an\ninteresting monograph in the Psychological Review for July, from which\nthe following paragraphs are taken: \"There is scarcely any difference\nbetween one man and another of greater practical importance than that\nof effective speed. In war, business, scientific work, manual labor,\nand what not, we have at the one extreme the man who defeats all\nordinary calculations by the vast quantity of work he gets done, and\nat the other extreme the man who no less defeats ordinary calculations\nby the little all his busyness achieves. The former is always arriving\nwith an unexpected victory, the latter with an unanswerable excuse for\nfailure. It has seemed to many psychologists strongly probable that\nthe swift man should be distinguishable from the slow by reaction time\ntests. For (_a_), granting that the performances demanded in practical\naffairs are far more complicated than those required in the laboratory\ntests, it seems likely that one who is tuned for a rapid rate in the\nlatter will be tuned for a rapid rate in the former, when he has\nmastered them. Moreover (_b_), a rapid rate in elementary processes is\nfavorable to their fusion into higher unitary processes, each\nincluding several of the lower. Finally (_c_), a rapid rate in\nelementary processes is favorable to prompt voluntary combinations in\npresence of new emergencies. In face of these _a priori_\nprobabilities, eleven years' experience in this laboratory (the first\nthree being spent mainly on reaction times) has brought the conviction\nthat no reaction time test will surely show whether a given individual\nhas or has not effective speed in his work. Very slow rates,\nespecially in complicated reactions, are strongly indicative of a mind\nslow and ineffective at all things. But experience proves that rapid\nrates by no means show that the subject has effective speed in the\nordinary, let alone extraordinary, tasks of life. How is this to be\nexplained? The following answer is proposed: The rate at which one\nmakes practical headway depends partly upon the rate of the mental and\nnervous processes involved; but far more upon how much is included in\neach process. If A, B, and C add the same columns of figures, one\nusing readily the method of the lightning adder, another the ordinary\naddition table, while the third makes each addition by counting on his\nfingers, the three are presently out of sight of one another, whatever\nthe rates at which the processes involved are performed. The lightning\nadder may proceed more leisurely than either of the others. He steps a\nleague while they are bustling over furlongs or inches. Now, the\nability to take league steps in receiving telegraphic messages, in\nreading, in addition, in mathematical reasoning, and in many other\nfields, plainly depends upon the acquisition of league-stepping\nhabits. No possible proficiency and rapidity in elementary processes\nwill serve. The learner must come to do with one stroke of attention\nwhat now requires half a dozen, and presently, in one still more\ninclusive stroke, what now requires thirty-six. He must systematize\nthe work to be done, and must acquire a system of automatic habits\ncorresponding to the system of tasks. When he has done this he is\nmaster of the situation in his field. He can, if he chooses, deal\naccurately with minute details. He can swiftly overlook great areas\nwith an accurate sense of what the details involved amount to--indeed,\nwith far greater justice to details than is possible for one who knows\nnothing else. Finally, his whole array of habits is swiftly obedient\nto serve in the solution of new problems. Automatism is not genius,\nbut it is the hands and feet of genius.\"\n\n\"=A vague Impression of Beauty.=\"--The following sentences occur in an\narticle on The Real purpose of Universities in a recent issue of the\nLondon Spectator. They give so strange a picture of the ideals of the\ntwo leading English universities as to seem worthy of reproduction:\n\"However, Dr. Hill made one statement for which we owe him a sincere\ngratitude. 'The excellence of the classics,' said he, 'lay chiefly in\ntheir complete uselessness.' ... In this simple statement is expressed\nthe true value of our old universities. They should be practically\nuseless. They should not teach you to be a good carpenter or a\nskillful diplomatist. You can not march out of Oxford or Cambridge\ninto any career which will return you an immediate and efficient\nincome.... The other universities of Europe are prepared to cut you to\na certain measure, or to render you technically competent. But our\nEnglish universities have hitherto declined to discharge this humble\nfunction, save in rare lapses, from a noble ideal. They at least\nprofess to accomplish a far greater task. There is a strange period\ndividing the man from the boy, which clamors aloud for intelligent\ndiscipline, and this discipline Oxford and Cambridge are anxious to\nsupply. The undergraduate is too young to specialize, and not too old\nto receive instruction. When his period of training is finished he is\nasked to assume the heavy burdens of life, to discharge tasks which\nmay be dull, and which are rarely concerned with what were once called\nthe humanities. As he passes through the university he may not have\nthe time nor the wit to become a sound scholar nor a profound\nmathematician. But he may, if he understand his privilege aright,\nlinger for a while in the groves of 'practically useless' knowledge.\nHe may learn what literature meant in an age when it was concerned\nonly with the essentials of simplicity; he may read the lessons of\nhistory when history was still separate from political intrigue. And\nthough he forgets his Greek grammar, though in middle life he can not\nconstrue a page of Virgil, yet he carries away from this irrational\ninterlude a vague impression of beauty which no other course of\neducation will ever give him.\" Even for the schoolmen \"a vague\nimpression of beauty,\" whatever that may mean, seems rather\nunpractical as an educational _ultima Thule_.\n\n=The Purple of Cassius.=--There are few substances in the field of\ninorganic chemistry on which so much speculation and actual work has\nbeen expended as the so-called purple of Cassius. A recent article by\nMr. C. L. Reese, in the Chemical News, contains some interesting\ninformation regarding this curious compound. Up to the present time\nthere have, it seems, been two views held as to its chemical\nnature--one that it is a mixture of stannic acid and metallic gold;\nthe other, that of Berzelius, that it is substantially a chemical\ncompound of purple gold oxide with the oxides of tin possibly mixed\nwith an excess of stannic acid. It has seemed very likely that the\nsubstance is a chemical compound of acid character, and that the\nsolubility in ammonia is due to the formation of a salt, but it has\nbeen found that by oxidation of stannous chloride and by allowing very\ndilute solutions of stannic chloride to stand, the \"hydrogel\" of\nstannic acid separated out, which, on the addition of a few drops of\nammonia, liquefied and so became soluble in water, just as the purple\nof Cassius does. There can therefore be no salt formation here. Some\ncomparatively recent work by Richard Zsigmondy, however, seems to have\nfinally cleared up the chemical nature of this curious substance. Its\nformation is explained by assuming that when stannous chloride is\nadded to a sufficiently dilute solution of gold chloride the latter is\nimmediately reduced to metallic gold while stannic chloride is formed.\nGenerally after a few seconds the liquid becomes red, but the purple\nis not precipitated for several days, unless it is heated. The gold is\nnot precipitated as a black powder because the stannic chloride formed\nis immediately hydrolized into hydrochloric acid and the hydrate of\nstannic acid. The latter prevents the aggregation of the gold\nparticles, and the stannic acid remains in solution as a colloid,\nwhich on standing gradually changes under the influence of the dilute\nhydrochloric acid to an insoluble form, the \"hydrogel\" of stannic\nacid. By heating, this change takes place immediately. The properties\nof the purple of Cassius depend on the properties and character of the\nstannic acid present, and the great variety in the properties of the\nstannic acids, the ortho, the meta, and the colloidal mixtures of the\ntwo explain the many contradictions in the literature with reference\nto the properties of the purple of Cassius. Zsigmondy says, \"I look\nupon the knowledge that a mixture of colloid bodies can behave, under\nsome conditions, as a chemical compound, and that the properties of\none body in such mixtures can be hidden by those in another as the\nmost important conclusion to be drawn from this work.\"\n\n=The Abuse of Unskilled Labor.=--The number of diseases directly or\nindirectly due to continued long standing is especially numerous among\nwomen. The London Lancet, which nearly twenty years ago attempted to\nimprove matters in this respect in the case of shopgirls, has again\ntaken up the subject, and recently published an editorial urging\ncustomers of the shops to boycott those establishments where no\nsitting accommodations are provided for the clerks. It says: \"We, as\nmedical men, maintain that sitting accommodations are absolutely\nnecessary for shopgirls. The only argument having even the semblance\nof legitimacy which we have heard put forward in defense of the\nnonprovision of seats is that sitting is conducive to idleness, but in\nthis connection such a premise can not be permitted, for an employee\nwould be bound to come forward when an intending purchaser entered the\nshop.... The very fact that in many shops she is not allowed to sit\ndown is conducive to idleness--idleness of the worst kind, the\nidleness of pretending to do something while in reality nothing is\nbeing done. Can nothing be done to stop this--as we once called it\nwithout the least exaggeration or sensationalism--'cruelty to women'?\nTo the true woman--the woman with feelings for her sisters, the woman\nof love and sympathy, the true woman in every sense of the word--we\nappeal for help in this matter. If such women would abstain from\npurchasing at shops where they see that the employees are compelled to\nwork from morning till night without permission to rest from their\nlabors even when opportunity occurs, we should soon see the end of a\npractice which ruins the health and shortens the lives of many of our\nshopgirls.\" That there is a certain amount of danger for women from\nlong-continued standing, to the point of exhaustion, there is no\ndoubt, and much can be done toward improving the present conditions in\nthis respect and in other hygienic ways in the shops. The large influx\nof women during recent years into the counting-room and the salesroom\ngives such questions an increasing importance, especially in the less\nskilled positions where labor combinations for mutual protection are\nnot possible. There has already been considerable agitation of the\nquestion in this country, and there still remains much to be done.\nBut, as Lord Salisbury pointed out in causing the rejection of a bill\nfor remedying present shop conditions in England, it is a question not\nsuitable for legislation, and can only be settled through the indirect\naction of public opinion on the shopkeeper himself.\n\n=The Occurrence of Gold Ores.=--The following paragraphs are from an\narticle by H. M. Chance in the Engineering Magazine for July, entitled\nThe Increasing Production of Gold: \"Another reason for anticipating\nfurther increase in the production of gold is found in our better\nknowledge of gold ores, and of the conditions under which gold occurs\nin Nature. Until the discovery of the Cripple Creek district the\noccurrence of gold as tellurid in deposits of large extent and value\nwas practically unknown. Gold was, of course, known to occur,\nsparingly in some ores, partially as a tellurid associated with other\nminerals; but such a mineralized belt as that at Cripple Creek was\nentirely unknown, and such deposits were not looked for by the\nprospector. Similarly, we now know of another class of gold ores in\nwhich the gold occurs apparently in some form chemically combined in a\nsiliceous matrix, often approaching a true jasper or hornstone, and\nshowing by analysis possibly ninety-five per cent of silica. Such ores\nshow no trace of 'free' or metallic gold, and the presence of gold can\nbe determined only by assay or analysis. A few such discoveries have\nrecently been made, accidentally, by inexperienced persons, who had\nrock assayed from curiosity. Similarly again, in the last few years\ngold has been found in most unpromising-looking porphyry dikes--the\nvery rocks prospectors the world over have regarded as necessarily\nbarren because they almost invariably fail to show any 'free' or\nmetallic gold by the miner's quick 'horn' or 'pan' test. But mining\nengineers and prospectors are learning that in a mineralized region\ngold may occur in any rock, and hundreds of prospectors are assaying\nall sorts of most unpromising-looking rock, satisfied that by assay\nalone can they determine whether a certain rock is gold-bearing or\nnot. This persistent and more or less systematic work now going on in\nevery mining district must result in the discovery of many valuable\ndeposits in unexpected localities, and ultimately promises to add\nlargely to the annual output of gold.\"\n\n\nMINOR PARAGRAPHS.\n\nThe investigations of F. E. L. Beal of the Food of Cuckoos and S. D.\nJudd of the Food of Shrikes in their relation to agriculture are\npublished in a single bulletin by the Department of Agriculture. Mr.\nBeal finds that the food of cuckoos consists almost wholly of insects,\nof which he has found sixty-five species in their stomachs, and\nconcludes that from an economical point of view they rank among our\nmost useful birds; and, in view of the caterpillars they eat, it seems\nhardly possible to overestimate the value of their work. Mr. Judd\nfinds, from a very extensive examination, that the food of butcher\nbirds and loggerhead shrikes consists of invertebrates (mainly\ngrasshoppers), birds, and mice. During the colder half of the year the\nbutcher bird eats birds and mice to the extent of sixty per cent, and\nekes out the rest of its food with insects. In the loggerhead's food,\nbirds and mice amount to only twenty-four per cent. Its beneficial\nqualities \"outweigh four to one its injurious ones. Instead of being\npersecuted, it should receive protection.\"\n\nThe Engineering Magazine is authority for the following: \"The wrecking\nof the steamship Paris on the coast of Cornwall and the difficulties\nencountered in attempting to save her while a number of her\ncompartments forward are filled with water, lead Mr. Richards, in the\nAmerican Machinist, to suggest the applicability of compressed air.\n'There is a means of expelling the water from the filled compartments\nso obvious, and so certainly effective, that it seems unaccountable\nthat some engineer has not suggested it before this. Close the hatches\nof the flooded compartments and drive the water out by forcing air in.\nIt would not make the slightest difference how big the holes might be\nin the bottom, as the water would be expelled and kept out on the same\nprinciple as in the old-fashioned diving bell.' This suggestion\ncarries with it a much larger and more important one--namely, the use\nof air pumps instead of water pumps to save a leaking ship while\nafloat. As Mr. Richards well remarks, the work of trying to pump out a\nleaky ship is not only enormously wasted while it is going on, but it\nis never finished. If, however, the water leaking into a compartment\nof a ship be expelled by pumping air into the space, the work is done\nso soon as the compartment is filled with air down to the level of the\nleak. After that point is reached the ship is safe, no matter how\nlarge the hole, and no further pumping is necessary.\"\n\nChlorate of potash has always been regarded by manufacturers and\nchemists as a nonexplosive, and hence there has been little care taken\nin handling and storing it. A recent explosion, however, at a large\nchemical works at St. Helens, in England, seems to disprove this view.\nA storehouse containing about one hundred and fifty tons of chlorate\nin the form of both powder and crystals took fire, and almost\nimmediately after the falling in of the roof an explosion of terrible\nviolence occurred, the shock being felt over a distance of twenty\nmiles. The chlorate works were entirely demolished. A large gas holder\nof the city gas works, containing two hundred and fifty thousand cubic\nfeet of gas, was burst and the gas ignited. Eight hundred tons of\nvitriol was poured into the streets of the town by the wrecking of ten\nvitriol chambers in a neighboring alkali works. Houses were unroofed,\nand in the main streets of the town, a quarter of a mile away, nearly\nevery plate-glass window was demolished. A theory accounting for the\nexplosion, advanced by Mr. J. B. C. Kershaw, in the Engineering and\nMining Journal, is that it was due to the sudden and practically\nsimultaneous liberation of all the oxygen from such a mass of\nchlorate, combined with the restraining influence of the kegs (the\nchlorate was packed in kegs of one hundredweight each), and possibly\nalso helped by the presence of much charred wood and the dense volume\nof smoke. Whatever is the true theory, however, it is evident that our\nbelief in the nonexplosiveness of potassium chlorate must be modified.\n\n\nNOTES.\n\nA piece of experimental glass pavement was laid in Lyons, in the Rue\nde la R\u00e9publique, last fall, and it is reported to have worn very well\nthus far. The silicate of which the pavement is composed is called by\nthe manufacturers ceramo-crystal or devitrified glass. It may be\nfinished in various colors and with a rough or smooth surface. The\nblocks are made by heating broken glass to a temperature of 1,250\u00b0 C.\nand then compressing it by hydraulic power. The resulting compound is\nsaid to have all the qualities of glass except its transparency.\n\nThe New York Agricultural Experiment Station reports of its analyses\nof sugar beets in 1898 that the average percentage of sugar in the\nsamples analyzed is 14.2, with a coefficient of purity of 85. In\ngeneral the yield of beets was between nine tons and twenty tons per\nacre.\n\nAn altitude of 12,440 feet, or 366 feet greater than any attained\nbefore, was reached in the kite-flying experiments at Blue Hill\nObservatory, Massachusetts, on February 21st. The flight was begun at\ntwenty minutes to four in the afternoon, with a temperature of 40\u00b0 and\na wind velocity of seventeen miles an hour at the surface. At the\nhighest point reached by the kite the temperature was 12\u00b0 and the wind\nvelocity fifty miles an hour. Four improved Hargreave kites with\ncurved surfaces, like soaring birds' wings, were used tandem, and the\nflying line was a steel wire.\n\nThe first to be unveiled of a series of tablets to be fixed by the\nMunicipal Council of Bath, England, to mark historical houses is on\nthe house where William Herschel lived in 1780, and was officially\nunveiled by Sir Robert Ball, April 22d. In a little workshop at the\nend of the back garden of this house Herschel made his Newtonian\nreflector, and here he discovered Uranus.\n\nAttention is called by Dr. Martin Ficker to the fact, brought out in\nhis experiments, that cultures of microbes are affected by the glass\nof the tubes in which they are made. By virtue of differences in\ncomposition, different sorts of glass give varying degrees of\nalkalinity to water in contact with them, and the activity of the\nbacteria they contain is correspondingly affected.\n\nWe have to add to our obituary list of persons in whom science is\ninterested the names of Professor Socin, late of the University of\nLeipsic, Orientalist, and author of Baedeker's Palestine and Syria and\nmany special works on the Arabic language and dialects; M. N.\nRieggenbach, correspondent of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Section\nof Mathematics, at Olten, Switzerland; Elizabeth Thompson, donor of\nliberal gifts for scientific purposes, at Stamford, Conn.; she\ncontributed toward the telescope for Vassar College, was a patron of\nthe American Association, and endowed the Elizabeth Thompson\nScientific Fund; George Averoff, who died at Alexandria, Egypt, July\n27th, leaving, among other bequests, \u00a320,000 to create an agricultural\nschool in Thessaly, and \u00a350,000 to the polytechnic schools at Athens;\nCharles J. Still\u00e9, ex-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, under\nwhose administration the institution took a great stride in its\ndevelopment; Mrs. Arvilla J. Ellis, an assiduous student of the fungi,\nwho assisted her husband, J. B. Ellis, in preparing and mounting the\nfive thousand specimens for the North American Fungi and the Fungi\nColumbiani, and more than two hundred thousand other specimens which\nwere distributed to the botanists of the world, at Newfield, N. J.,\nJuly 18th; M. Balbiani, Professor of Embryology at the Coll\u00e9ge de\nFrance; Prof. Pasquale Freda, Director of the Station for Agricultural\nChemistry at Rome; Dr. S. T. Jak[vc]i[vc], Professor of Botany and\nDirector of the Botanic Gardens, at Belgrade; Dr. Carl Kuschel,\nformerly Professor of Physics in the Polytechnic Institute at Dresden;\nM. A. de Marbaix, Professor of Zo\u00f6logy and Anatomy in the Agricultural\nInstitute at Louvain; Dr. N. Grote, Professor of Psychology and\nPhilosophy in the University of Moscow and editor of a journal devoted\nto those subjects; Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, the eminent German chemist,\nof whom a fuller notice will be given; and Sir Edward Frankland,\nanother eminent chemist (English), one of Bunsen's pupils, a member of\nthe Royal Commissions on Water Supply and River Pollution, and author\nof researches on the luminosity of flame and the effect of the density\nof a medium on the rate of combustion, died in Norway, aged\nseventy-four years.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\nARTICLES MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK ARE ILLUSTRATED.\n\n\n  Abbott, C. C. The Antiquity of Man in North America*, 326\n\n  Abuse of Unskilled Labor. (Frag.), 862\n\n  Acetylene, The Use of.* E. Renouf, 335\n\n  A Correction. (Corr.), 702\n\n  African Music in America, Survival of. J. R. Murphy*, 660\n\n     \"    Religious Ideas, Variations in. (Frag.), 281\n\n  Agriculture, Fungicides, Relative Power of. (Frag.), 717\n\n  Alleghanies, Folklore of the. F. A. Doughty, 390\n\n  Alloys, Metallic, of Rich Colors. (Frag.), 284\n\n  American Association for the Advancement of Science, Proper Objects\n      of. E. Orton, 466\n\n     \"         \"       Columbus Meeting of, 822\n\n     \"         \"       Meeting of. (Table), 850\n\n     \"         \"       Meeting, The. (Frag.), 568\n\n     \"         \"       Officers of, for 1900. (Frag.), 857\n\n     \"     Indians and Mongolians. (Frag.), 715\n\n  Andrews, E. A. Sketch of W. K. Brooks. (Portrait), 400\n\n  Animals Reason? Do. E. Thorndike*, 480\n\n     \"      \"      \"  (Corr.), 843\n\n  An Old-fashioned Moral. (Table), 703\n\n  Anthropology: American Indians and Mongolians. (Frag.), 715\n\n       \"        Antiquity of Man in North America. C. C. Abbott*, 326\n\n       \"        Aztec Pictorial Record, An. (Frag.), 716\n\n       \"        Bows and Arrows, The Teaching of. (Frag.), 715\n\n       \"        Brinton, D. G., Death of. (Frag.), 713\n\n       \"        European Culture, Origin of. W. Z. Ripley*, 16\n\n       \"        Folklore of the Alleghanies. F. A. Doughty, 390\n\n       \"        Gypsies and their Folk-Tales. (Frag.), 424\n\n       \"        Hopi Indians of Arizona. George A. Dorsey*, 732\n\n       \"        Jews? Are Jews. J. Jacobs, 502\n\n       \"        Origin of Ancient Hindu Astronomy. Count G.\n      D'Alviella, 396\n\n       \"        Primitive Man. (Table), 410\n\n       \"        Race Questions in the Philippine Islands. F.\n      Blumentritte, 472\n\n  Antiquity of Man in North America. C. C. Abbott*, 326\n\n  Astronomy, Origin of Ancient Hindu. Count G. D'Alviella, 396\n\n  Austen, W. Bookworms in Fact and Fancy, 240\n\n  Aztec Pictorial Record, An. (Frag.), 716\n\n\n  Bacon's Idols. W. H. Hudson, 788\n\n  Baker, Smith. Causes and Prevention of Insanity, 102\n\n  Baldwin, F. S. Present Position of Sociology, 811\n\n  Beautifying the Home Grounds. (Frag.), 430\n\n  Benjamin, M. American Industrial Expositions, 231\n\n  Bering Sea Controversy again. T. C. Mendenhall, 99\n\n  Bertillon, M. J. Remedies for the Depopulation of France, 672\n\n  Bible, Scientific Method and the. (Corr.), 701\n\n    \"    The Scientific method and its Application to the. Rev. D.\n      Sprague, 289\n\n  Bicknell, E. From Serfdom to Freedom, 84\n\n  Birds as Pest Destroyers. (Frag.), 571\n\n  Block Island, Geology of. (Frag.), 570\n\n  Blumentritte, F. Race Questions in the Philippine Islands, 472\n\n  Books Noticed, 126, 270, 415, 557, 705, 853\n    African Frontier, On the South. W. H. Brown, 708.\n    -- Studies, West. M. H. Kingsley, 418.\n    Agriculture. Fertilizers. E. B. Voorhees, 274.\n    -- Practical. C. C. James, 854.\n    -- The Principles and Practice of. L. H. Bailey, 421.\n    Algebra. Text-Book of. G. E. Fischer and I. J. Schwatt, 420.\n    Allen, A. H. Commercial Organic Analysis, 274.\n    American Indians. F. Starr, 421.\n    Amryc, C. Pantheism: the Light and Hope of Modern Reason, 421\n    Anatomy and Physiology, Laboratory Exercises in. J. E.\n        Peabody, 277.\n    Anglo-Saxon (Monthly), 562.\n    Animated Pictures. C. F. Jenkins, 132.\n    Anthropology. Australian Bush, In the. R. Semon, 417.\n    -- Australia, The Native Tribes of Central. B. Spencer and F. J.\n        Gillen, 417.\n    -- History of Mankind. F. Ratzel, 272.\n    -- Man, Past and Present. A. H. Keane, 852.\n    -- Philippines, People of the. D. G. Brinton, 855.\n    Arctic, A Thousand Days in the. F. G. Jackson, 705.\n    Arithmetic, Primary. A. R. Hornbrook, 420.\n    -- The American Elementary. M. A. Bailey, 422.\n    Armageddon. Stanley Waterloo, 133.\n    Aston, W. G. History of Japanese Literature, 131.\n    Astronomy, A Short History of. A. Berry, 710.\n    Atkinson, G. F. Elementary Botany, 131.\n    Austin, H. E. Observation Blanks for Beginners in Mineralogy, 855.\n    Australian Bush, In the. R. Semon, 417.\n    Australia, The Native Tribes of Central. G. Spencer and F. J.\n        Gillen, 417.\n    Badenoch, L. N. True Tales of the Insects, 854.\n    Bailey, L. H. The Principles of Agriculture, 421.\n    -- M. A. The American Elementary Arithmetic, 422.\n    Bardeen, C. W. Commissioner Hume, 562.\n    Bates, F. G. Rhode Island and the Formation of the Union, 421.\n    Bauer, L. A., and French, Thomas, Jr. Terrestrial Magnetism.\n        (Quarterly), 132.\n    Beddard, F. E. Structure and Classification of Birds, 128.\n    Bell, M. G. Story of the Rise of the Oral Method in America, 711.\n    Berry, A. A Short History of Astronomy, 710.\n    Bickerton, A. W. New Story of the Stars, 134.\n    Biology, Principles of. H. Spencer, 275.\n    Birds, Structure and Classification of. F. E. Beddard, 128.\n    Botany, Elementary. G. F. Atkinson, 131.\n    -- Elementary Text-Book of. S. H. Vines, 131.\n    -- Evolution of Plants, Lectures on the. D. H. Campbell, 561.\n    -- Ferns, How to Know the, 708.\n    Bradford, Gamaliel. The Lesson of Popular Government, 415.\n    Brinton, D. G. Peoples of the Philippines, 855.\n    Brooks, W. K. Foundations of Zo\u00f6logy, 270.\n    Brown, W. H. On the South African Frontier, 708.\n    Bryant, W. M. Life, Death, and Immortality, 130.\n    Buckley, A. B. The Fairy-Land of Science, 854.\n    Bush Fruits. F. W. Card, 129.\n    Call, R. E. Ichthyologia Ohioensis. (C. E. Rafinesque), 560.\n    Cajori, Florian. History of Elementary Physics, 419.\n    Campbell, D. H. Lectures on the Evolution of Plants, 561.\n    Card, F. W. Bush Fruits, 129.\n    Carpenter, F. G. Geographical Reader for North America, 561.\n    -- of Nazareth, The, or the Silver Cross, 278.\n    Catering for Two. A. L. James, 278.\n    Cave Regions of the Black Hills. L. A. Owen, 562.\n    Census, The Federal, 558.\n    Chemical Experiments. Woodhull and Van Arsdale, 856.\n    Cole, J. R. Miscellany, 134.\n    Commercial Organic Analysis. A. H. Allen, 274.\n    Cuba, Industrial. R. P. Porter, 560.\n    Cumulative Index for 1898, 712.\n    Dall, C. H. Memorial of W. W. Turner and Sisters, 563.\n    Dana, C. A. Recollections of the Civil War, 853.\n    Deaf and Dumb. Comparison of Methods of Instruction. Volta\n        Bureau, 712.\n    -- Oral Method of Instructing, Rise of, in America. M. G.\n        Bell, 711.\n    De Morgan, A. On the Study and Difficulty of Mathematics, 561.\n    Drinking Water, The Microscopy of. G. C. Whipple, 709.\n    Dr. Therne. H. R. Haggard, 711.\n    Dyers and Colorists, Year-Book of. H. Huntington, 563.\n    Economics. Census, The Federal, 558.\n    -- Strikes and Lockouts, Sympathetic, 563.\n    Education. Commissioner Hume. C. W. Bardeen, 562.\n    -- Froebel's, by Development, 855.\n    -- Ideals and Programmes. J. L. Gourdy, 421.\n    -- Nature Study In Elementary Schools. L. S. W. Wilson, 422.\n    -- Report of the Commissioner of, for 1896-'97, 562.\n    Elliott, A. G., and Graffigny, H. de. Gas and Petroleum\n        Engines, 277.\n    Ethnology. American Indians. F. Starr, 421.\n    Evolution, Footnotes to. D. S. Jordan, 559.\n    Evolution of Plants, Lectures on the. D. H. Campbell, 561\n    -- The Last Link. E. Haeckel, 126.\n    Eyesight, Defective: Its Relief by Glasses. D. B. St. John\n        Roosa, 856.\n    Faraday, Michael, His Life Work. S. P. Thompson, 421.\n    Farrington and Noll, E. H. and F. W. Testing Milk and its\n        Products, 278.\n    Ferns, How to Know the. F. T. Parsons, 708.\n    Fertilizers. E. B. Voorhees, 274.\n    Fischer, G. E., and Schwatt, I. J. Text-Book of Algebra, with\n        Exercises for Secondary Schools, 420.\n    Fitz, G. W. Revised Edition of H. N. Martin's The Human Body, 422.\n    Force, General M. F. General Sherman, 419.\n    Fossil Medus\u00e6. C. D. Walcott, 278.\n    Froebel's Education by Development, 855.\n    Gas and Petroleum Engines. A. G. Elliott, 277.\n    Geographical Nature Studies. F. O. Payne, 277.\n    -- Reader for North America. F. G. Carpenter, 561.\n    Geology. Cave Regions of the Black Hills. L. A. Owen, 562.\n    -- Rivers of North America. I. C. Russell, 127.\n    -- Stratigraphical, Principles of. J. E. Marr, 276.\n    Gourdy, J. L. Ideals and Programmes, 421.\n    Graffigny, H. de. (See Elliott, A. G.), 277.\n    Guerber, H. A. Story of the English, 133.\n    Haeckel, Ernst. The Last Link, 126.\n    Haggard, H. R. Dr. Therne, 711.\n    Hall, F. S. Sympathetic Strikes and Lockouts, 563.\n    Histology, An Epitome of Human. A. W. Weysse, 130.\n    History of Mankind. F. Ratzel, 272.\n    -- Civil War, Recollections of. C. A. Dana, 853.\n    -- of the World. E. Sanderson, 129.\n    -- Story of the English. H. A. Guerber, 133.\n    Holman, S. W. Matter, Energy, Force, and Work, 276.\n    Hornbrook, A. R. Primary Arithmetic, 420.\n    Horticulture. Bush Fruits. F. W. Card, 129.\n    Human Body, The. H. N. Martin. Revised edition by G. W. Fitz, 422.\n    Huntington, H. The Year-Book of Colorists and Dyers, 563.\n    Hygiene. Drinking Water, The Microscopy of. G. C. Whipple, 709.\n    Hypnotism: its Application to Medicine. O. G. Wetterstrand, 709.\n    Imperial Democracy. D. S. Jordan, 851.\n    Insects, True Tales of the. L. N. Badenoch, 854.\n    Instinct and Reason. H. R. Marshall, 710.\n    Jackman, W. S. Nature Study for Grammar Grades, 274.\n    Jackson, P. G. A Thousand Days in the Arctic, 705.\n    James, A. L. Catering for Two, 278.\n    -- C. C. Practical Agriculture, 854.\n    Japan-American Commercial Journal. (Monthly), 561.\n    Japanese Literature, History of. W. G. Aston, 131.\n    Jenkins, C. F. Animated Pictures, 132.\n    Jordan, D. S. Footnotes to Evolution, 559.\n    -- D. S. Imperial Democracy, 851.\n    Keane, A. H. Man, Past and Present, 852.\n    Kingsley, Mary H. West African Studies, 418.\n    Klondike, In the. F. Palmer, 418.\n    Labor, Bulletins Department of: Wages in the United States and\n        Europe. The Alaskan Gold Fields, and The Mutual Relief\n        Associations in the Printing Trade, 711.\n    -- Twelfth Annual Report of Commissioner of, 134.\n    Lagrange, J. L. Lectures on Elementary Mathematics, 855.\n    Lange, W. Froebel's Education by Development, 855.\n    Language Lessons. J. G. Park, 422.\n    Life, Death, and Immortality. W. M. Bryant, 130.\n    Loomis, Ernest. Occult Science Library, 562.\n    Marr, J. E. Principles of Stratigraphical Geology, 276.\n    Marshall, H. R. Instinct and Reason, 710.\n    Mathematics. Algebra, Introduction to Graphical. F. E.\n        Nipher, 133.\n    -- Elementary, Lectures on. J. L. Lagrange, 855.\n    -- On the Study and Difficulty of. A. De Morgan, 561.\n    Mechanics and Heat. Nichols and Francis, 278.\n    Merriman, M. Elements of Sanitary Engineering, 130.\n    Metric System of Weights and Measures. A. D. Risteen, 132.\n    Microscopy of Drinking Water, The. G. C. Whipple, 709.\n    Milk and its Products, The Testing of. Farrington and Noll, 278.\n    Miller, A. The Sun an Electric Light, 711.\n    Mineralogy, Observation Blanks for Beginners in. H. E.\n        Austin, 855.\n    Music, Short Course in. Ripley and Tappen, 276.\n    Natural History. Outdoor Studies. J. G. Needham, 562.\n    -- Rafinesque. Ichthyologia Ohioensis (by R E. Call), 560.\n    Nature Study for Grammar Grades. W. S. Jackman, 274.\n    -- in Elementary Schools. L. S. W. Wilson, 422.\n    Needham, J. G. Outdoor Studies, 562.\n    New Man, The. E. P. Oberholzer, 133.\n    New Story of the Stars. A. W. Bickerton, 134.\n    New York Academy of Sciences. Publications, 134.\n    Nichols and Francis, E. L. and W. S. Mechanics and Heat, 278.\n    Nipher, F. E. Introduction to Graphical Algebra, 133.\n    Ober, F. A. Puerto Rico and its Resources, 559.\n    Oberholzer, E. P. The New Man, 133.\n    Occult Science Library. E. Loomis, 562.\n    Owen, L. A. Cave Regions of the Black Hills, 562.\n    Palmer, F. In the Klondike, 418.\n    Pantheism: the Light and Hope of Modern Reason. C. Amryc, 421.\n    Park, J. G. Language Lessons, 422.\n    Parsons, F. T. How to Know the Ferns, 708.\n    Patten, S. N. The Development of English Thought, 273.\n    Payne, F. O. Geographical Nature Studies, 277.\n    Peabody, J. E. Laboratory Exercises in Anatomy and\n        Physiology, 277.\n    Perspective, Elements of. C. G. Sullivan, 277.\n    Philosophy. Development of English Thought. S. N. Patten, 273.\n    -- Life, Death, and Immortality. W. M. Bryant, 130.\n    Physics, History of, in its Elementary Branches. F. Cajori, 419.\n    -- Matter, Energy, Force, and Work. S. W. Holman, 276.\n    -- Philip's Experiments. J. Trowbridge, 132.\n    Popular Government, The Lessons of. G. Bradford, 415.\n    Porter, R. P. Industrial Cuba, 560.\n    Porto Rico of To-day. A. G. Robinson, 275.\n    Psychology. Reason and Instinct. H. R. Marshall, 710.\n    Puerto Rico and Its Resources. F. A. Ober, 559.\n    Rafinesque, C. S. Ichthyologia Ohioensis (by R. E. Call), 560.\n    Ratzal, F. History of Mankind, 272.\n    Rhode Island and the Formation of the Union. F. G. Bates, 420.\n    Ripley and Tappen, F. H. and T. Short Course in Music, 276.\n    Risteen, A. D. Metric System of Weights and Measures, 132.\n    Rivers of North America. I. C. Russell, 127.\n    Robinson, A. G. Porto Rico of To-day, 275.\n    Roosa, D. B. St. John. Defective Eyesight: Its Relief by\n        Glasses, 856.\n    Russell, I. C. Rivers of North America, 127.\n    Sanderson, E. History of the World, 129.\n    Sanitation. Elements of Sanitary Engineering. M. Merriman, 130.\n    Schimmel & Co. Semiannual Report, 423.\n    Science, The Fairy-Land of. A. B. Buckley, 854.\n    Semon, Richard. In the Australian Bush, 417.\n    Sherman, General. General M. F. Force, 419.\n    Socialist Almanac and Treasury of Facts, 563.\n    Sociology. Imperial Democracy. D. S. Jordan, 851.\n    -- Leisure Class, The Theory of the, 557.\n    -- Popular Government, The Lessons of. G. Bradford, 415.\n    Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J. The Native Tribes of Central\n        Australia, 417.\n    -- H. Principles of Biology, 275.\n    Starr, F. American Indians, 421.\n    St. John Roosa, D. B. Defective Eyesight: Its Relief by\n        Glasses, 856.\n    Sullivan, C. G. Elements of Perspective, 277.\n    Sun, The, an Electric Light. A. Miller, 711.\n    Terrestrial Magnetism. Bauer and French. (Quarterly), 132.\n    Thompson, S. P. Michael Faraday, His Life Work, 421.\n    Travel. African Studies, West. M. H. Kingsley, 418.\n    -- Arctic, A Thousand Days In the. F. G. Jackson, 705.\n    -- Klondike, In the. F. Palmer, 418.\n    -- On the South African Frontier. W. H. Brown, 708.\n    Trowbridge, John. Philip's Experiments, 132.\n    Turner, W. W., Memorial of, and Sisters. By C. H. Dall, 563.\n    Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class, 557.\n    Vines, S. H. Elementary Text-Book of Botany, 131.\n    Voorhees, E. B. Fertilizers, 274.\n    Walcott, C. D. Fossil Medus\u00e6, 278.\n    Waterloo, Stanley. Armageddon, 133.\n    Wetterstrand, O. G. Hypnotism and Its Application to\n        Medicine, 709.\n    Weysse, A. W. An Epitome of Human Histology, 130.\n    What is This? 564.\n    Whipple, G. C. The Microscopy of Drinking Water, 709.\n    Wilson, Lucy S. W. Nature Study in Elementary Schools, 422.\n    Woodhull and Van Arsdale. Chemical Experiments, 856.\n    Zo\u00f6logy. Australian Bush, In the. R. Semon, 417.\n    -- Birds, The Structure and Classification of. F. E. Beddard, 128.\n    -- Foundations of. W. K. Brooks, 270.\n\n  Bookworms in Fact and Fancy. W. Austen, 240\n\n  Boston Public Library and Science. (Table), 412\n\n  Botany: Colors of Northern Flowers. J. H. Lovell, 685\n\n    \"     Forms, Unusual, in Plants. B. D. Halsted*, 371\n\n    \"     of Shakespeare. T. H. MacBride, 219\n\n    \"     Poisonous Plants, Somewhat. (Frag.), 572\n\n  Bounties and Free Trade. (Frag.), 569\n\n  Bows and Arrows, The Teaching of. (Frag.), 715\n\n  Bracchi, M. A. The Sense of Color, 253\n\n  Brinton, D. G., Death of. (Frag.), 713\n\n  Brinton's Contributions to American Linguistics. (Frag.), 284\n\n  Brooks, William Keith. Sketch of. (With Portrait), 400\n\n    \"     William K. Thoughts about Universities, 348\n\n\n  Canada, Wheat Lands of. S. C. D. Roper, 766\n\n  Catskills, Forest and Animal Life in the. (Frag.), 569\n\n  Charity, Public and Private Vigilance. F. H. Giddings, 433\n\n  Chemistry Teaching in Grammar and High Schools. (Frag.), 574\n\n  Cherry Leaves, Poison in Wild. (Frag.), 283\n\n  Christian Science from a Physician's Point of View. J. B. Huber, 755\n\n  Climate and Acclimatization. (Frag.), 565\n\n  Climate, Is Freedom limited by. (Table), 124\n\n  Coler, B. S. Abuse of Public Charity, 155\n\n    \"    \"  \"  Reform of Public Charity, 750\n\n  Colonial Expansion and Foreign Trade. J. Schoenhof, 62\n\n  Colors of Flowers, The. Henri Coupin, 386\n\n    \"    \"  Northern Flowers. J. H. Lovell, 685\n\n  Color, The Sense of. M. A. Bracchi, 253\n\n  Commercial Education in England. (Frag.), 858\n\n  Conn, H. W. The Milk Supply of Cities, 627\n\n  Coolidge, D. Hydrophobia in Baja California, 249\n\n  Country Checks, The Charges on, an Economic Mistake. (Frag.), 567\n\n  Coupin, Henri. The Colors of Flowers, 386\n\n  Cram, W. E. Hawk Lures*, 623\n\n  Crime, Influence of the Weather upon. E. G. Dexter, 653\n\n  Criminology: Desire for Notoriety a Cause of Crime. (Frag.), 568\n\n       \"       Luccheni, Study of Luigi. C. Lombroso*, 199\n\n  Curry, J. L. M. The Negro Question, 177\n\n\n  D'Alviella, G. Origin of Ancient Hindu Astronomy, 396\n\n  Deaf and Dumb, Instruction of the. (Frag.), 573\n\n  Degeneration. (Frag.), 571\n\n  Desire for Notoriety a Cause of Crime. (Frag.), 568\n\n  Dexter, E. G. Influence of the Weather upon Crime, 653\n\n  Dorsey, George A. Hopi Indians of Arizona*, 732\n\n  Doughty, F. A. Folklore of the Alleghanies, 390\n\n\n  Economics: Colonial Expansion and Foreign Trade. J. Schoenhof, 62\n\n      \"      Country Checks, The Charges on, An Economic Mistake.\n      (Frag.), 667\n\n      \"      Free Trade and Bounties. (Frag.), 569\n\n      \"      Philippine Islands and American Capital. J. R. Smith, 186\n\n      \"      Unskilled Labor, The Abuse of. (Frag.), 862\n\n      \"      Wheat Lands of Canada. S. C. D. Roper, 766\n\n  Edgar, P. Tendencies in French Literature, 207\n\n  Education and Character Building. (Table), 847\n\n  Education: \"A Vague Impression of Beauty.\" (Frag.), 860\n\n      \"      Chemistry Teaching in Grammar and High Schools.\n      (Frag.), 574\n\n      \"      Commercial, in England. (Frag.), 858\n\n      \"      Deaf and Dumb, Instruction of the. (Frag.), 573\n\n      \"      High School, The Claims of. (Frag.), 570\n\n      \"      Kindergartenized Children (Table), 122\n\n      \"      Putting Life in the School. (Frag.), 429\n\n      \"      Sloyd in. (Frag.), 717\n\n      \"      Teaching the Teachers. (Frag.), 138\n\n      \"      Universities, Thoughts about. W. K. Brooks, 348\n\n  Educational Work of an Experiment Station. (Frag.), 425\n\n  Egleston, T., Sketch of.* D. S. Martin, 256\n\n  Enchanted Ravine, An. (Frag.), 428\n\n  European Culture, Origin of.* W. Z. Ripley, 16\n\n\n  Field Columbian Museum, The Work of the. (Frag.), 428\n\n  Firecrackers, Manufacture of, in China. (Frag.), 427\n\n  Fish Supply, Permanence of. (Frag.), 716\n\n  Fittest to Survive, Which is the. (Frag.), 137\n\n  Flies as Bearers of Disease. (Frag.), 425\n\n  Ford, R. C. Malay Literature, 379\n\n  Forest and Animal Life in the Catskills. (Frag.), 569\n\n    \"    Reserves, National. (Frag.), 717\n\n  France, Remedies for the Depopulation of. M. J. Bertillon, 672\n\n  Freedom limited by Climate. (Table), 124\n\n  French Literature, Tendencies in. P. Edgar, 207\n\n  Fungicides, Relative Power of. (Frag.), 717\n\n\n  Genius and Habit. (Frag.), 860\n\n  Geology: Niagara, New Method of Estimating the Age of. G. F.\n      Wright*, 145\n\n     \"     of Block Island. (Frag.), 570\n\n  Giddings, F. H. Public Charity and Private Vigilance, 433\n\n  Glacier Water. (Frag.), 282\n\n  Gold Ores, The Occurrence of. (Frag.), 862\n\n  Government Scientific Work. (Frag.), 714\n\n  Graphite. (Frag.), 857\n\n  Gypsies and their Folk Tales. (Frag.), 424\n\n\n  Halsted, B. D. Unusual Forms in Plants*, 371\n\n  Harley, L. R. Sketch of William Pepper. (With Portrait), 836\n\n  Harvard Observatory, A Year at. (Frag.), 429\n\n  Hawaiian Reptiles. (Frag.), 718\n\n  Hawk Lures. W. E. Cram*, 623\n\n  Heilprin, A. Alaska and the Klondike*, 1, 163, 300\n\n  Help that Harms, The. H. C. Potter, 721\n\n  High School, The Claims of the. (Frag.), 570\n\n  Hopi Indians of Arizona. George A. Dorsey*, 732\n\n  Huber, J. B. Christian Science from a Physician's Point of View, 755\n\n  Hudson, W. H. Bacon's Idols, 788\n\n  Hydrophobia in Baja California. D. Coolidge, 249\n\n  Hygiene: Milk Supply of Cities. H. W. Conn, 627\n\n     \"     Plague, Are We in Danger from the. V. C. Vaughan, 577\n\n  Hypnotism, The Dangers of. (Frag.), 572\n\n\n  Imagination, Power of the. (Frag.), 714\n\n  Indian Peoples and the Missionaries. (Frag.), 138\n\n  Industrial Expositions, American. M. Benjamin, 231\n\n  Insane Characters in Fiction and the Drama. C. Lombroso, 53\n\n  Insanity, Causes and Prevention of. S. Baker, 102\n\n  Interpretation of Nature. E. Noble, 72\n\n\n  Jacobs, Joseph. Are Jews Jews?, 502\n\n  Jews? Are Jews. J. Jacobs, 502\n\n  Jordan, D. S. In the Little Brook, 355\n\n\n  Keyser, L. S. A Feathered Parasite, 822\n\n  Kindergartenized Children. (Table), 122\n\n  Klondike, Alaska and the. A Heilprin*, 1, 163, 300\n\n\n  Laisant, M. Mathematics for Children*, 800\n\n  Lamps, Evolution in. (Frag.), 140\n\n  La Nature's Second Scientific Excursion. (Frag.), 568\n\n  Lead Poisoning and Pottery Making. (Frag.), 426\n\n  Life in the School, Putting. (Frag.), 429\n\n  Linguistics, Brinton's Contributions to American. (Frag.), 284\n\n  Liquid Air. I. Remsen*, 35\n\n  Locusts, Seventeen- and Thirteen-Year. (Frag.), 141\n\n  Lombroso, C. Insane Characters in Fiction and the Drama, 53\n\n     \"      \"  Study of Luigi Luccheni*, 199\n\n  Longevity of Animals, The. (Frag.), 426\n\n  Lovell, J. H. Colors of Northern Flowers, 685\n\n  Luccheni, Study of Luigi. C. Lombroso*, 199\n\n\n  MacBride, T. H. Botany of Shakespeare, 219\n\n  Malay Literature. R. C. Ford, 379\n\n  Marcy, Death of Prof. Oliver. (Frag.), 137\n\n  Marsh, Death of Professor. (Frag.), 136\n\n  Martin, D. S. Columbus Meeting of the American Association, 828\n\n    \"     \"  \"  Sketch of Thomas Egleston*, 256\n\n  Mathematics for Children. M. Laisant*, 800\n\n  Mather, Fred. White Whales in Confinement, 362\n\n  Meat Extracts. (Frag.), 286\n\n  Medicine: Flies as Bearers of Disease. (Frag.), 425\n\n  Mendenhall, T. C. The Bering Sea Controversy again, 99\n\n  Mental Fatigue. M. V. O'Shea, 511\n\n  Metric System, The. (Frag.), 280\n\n  Milk Supply of Cities, The. H. W. Conn, 627\n\n  Morgan, Appleton. Recent Legislation against the Drink\n      Evil, 438, 610\n\n  Murphy, J. R. Survival of African Music in America*, 660\n\n\n  National Museum, The United States. C. D. Walcott, 411\n\n  Natural History: A Feathered Parasite. L. S. Keyser, 822\n\n     \"       \"     Hawk Lures. W. E. Cram*, 623\n\n     \"       \"     In the Little Brook. D. S. Jordan, 355\n\n     \"       \"     Longevity of Animals. (Frag.), 426\n\n     \"       \"     Poisonous Fishes of the West Indies. J. M.\n      Rogers, 680\n\n     \"       \"     Reptiles of Hawaii. (Frag.), 718\n\n     \"       \"     Society as a School, A. (Frag.), 281\n\n     \"       \"     White Whales in Confinement. Fred Mather, 362\n\n  Nature Study, Experiments in. (Frag.), 573\n\n  Nebraska as a Home for Birds. (Frag.), 714\n\n  Negro Problem in the United States, The. B. T. Washington, 317\n\n    \"   Question, The. J. L. M. Curry, 177\n\n  New Zealand Experiment in Woman Suffrage. (Frag.), 279\n\n  Niagara, New Method of Estimating the Age of. G. F. Wright*, 145\n\n  Noble, E. The Interpretation of Nature, 72\n\n\n  Ornithology: Nebraska as a Home for Birds, 714\n\n  Orthodoxy, The Troubles of. (Table), 704\n\n  Orton, E. Proper Objects of the American Association for the\n      Advancement of Science, 466\n\n  O'Shea, M. V. Mental Fatigue, 511\n\n  Oswald, F. L. Physical Geography of West Indies*\n      (_continued_), 47, 193\n\n\n  Papuan Children, Photographing. (Frag.), 285\n\n  Pengelly, William. Sketch of (Portrait), 113\n\n  Pepper, William. Sketch. (With Portrait.) L. R. Harley, 836\n\n  Philippine Islands and American Capital. J. R. Smith, 186\n\n      \"        \"    Race Questions in. F. Blumentritte, 472\n\n  Philosophy: An Old-fashioned Moral. (Table), 703\n\n  Philozoists, Inconsistent. (Frag.), 140\n\n  Physics: Liquid Air. I. Remsen*, 35\n\n  Physiology: Color, The Sense of. M. A. Bracchi, 253\n\n  Picture Telegraphy. (Frag.), 566\n\n  Plague, Are We in Danger from the. V. C. Vaughan, 577\n\n  Poison in Wild Cherry Leaves. (Frag.), 283\n\n  Poisonous Fishes of the West Indies. J. M. Rogers, 680\n\n      \"    Plants, Somewhat. (Frag.), 572\n\n  Popular Co-operation in Health Work. (Frag.), 136\n\n  Population in Maine, The Trend of. (Corr.), 846\n\n  Potter, H. C. The Help that Harms, 721\n\n  Pottery Making and Lead Poisoning. (Frag.), 426\n\n  Practical Philanthropy. H. A. Townsend, 534\n\n  Primitive Man. (Table), 410\n\n  Protection of Plants and Birds in France and Italy. (Frag.), 282\n\n  Psychology: Animals Reason? Do. E. Thorndike*, 480\n\n      \"       Crime, Influence of the Weather upon. E. G. Dexter, 653\n\n      \"       Habit and Genius. (Frag.), 860\n\n      \"       Imagination, Power of the. (Frag.), 714\n\n      \"       Insane Characters in Fiction and the Drama. C.\n      Lombroso, 53\n\n      \"       Mental Fatigue. M. Y. O'Shea, 511\n\n  Public Charity, Abuse of. B. S. Coler, 155\n\n    \"        \"    Reform of. B. S. Coler, 750\n\n  Purple of Cassius, The. (Frag.), 861\n\n\n  Race Troubles, Our. (Table), 414\n\n  Racial Geography. (Table), 268\n\n  Recent Legislation against the Drink Evil. Appleton Morgan, 438, 610\n\n  Remsen, I. Liquid Air*, 35\n\n  Renouf, E. The Use of Acetylene*, 335\n\n  Ripley, W. Z. Origin of European Culture*, 16\n\n  Rogers, J. M. West Indian Poisonous Fishes, 680\n\n  Roper, S. C. D. Wheat Lands of Canada, 766\n\n\n  Sausages, Chemistry of. (Frag.), 285\n\n  Schmidt, Oscar. Sketch. (With Portrait), 693\n\n  Schoenhof, J. Colonial Expansion and Foreign Trade, 62\n\n  Science and the Boston Public Library. (Table), 412\n\n     \"    and the Ideal. (Table), 266\n\n     \"    Teachers' School of. F. Zirngiebel*, 451, 640\n\n  Scientific Method and its Application to the Bible. Rev. D.\n      Sprague, 289\n\n      \"        \"    and the Bible. (Corr.), 701\n\n  Serfdom to Freedom. E. Bicknell, 84\n\n  Shakespeare, Botany of. T. H. MacBride, 219\n\n  Sloyd as an Educational Factor. (Frag.), 717\n\n  Smith, J. R. Philippine Islands and American Capital, 186\n\n  Sociology: Charity, Abuse of Public, 155\n\n      \"      Depopulation of France, Remedies for the, 672\n\n      \"      Drink Evil, Recent Legislation against. A.\n      Morgan, 438, 610\n\n      \"      Help that Harms, The. H. C. Potter, 721\n\n      \"      Negro Question, The. J. L. M. Curry, 177\n\n      \"      Philanthropy, Practical. H. A. Townsend, 534\n\n      \"      Present Position of. F. S. Baldwin, 811\n\n      \"      Public Charity and Private Vigilance. F. H. Giddings, 433\n\n      \"      Race Problem in the United States. B. Washington, 317\n\n      \"      Race Troubles, Our. (Table), 414\n\n      \"      Reform of Public Charity. B. S. Coler, 750\n\n  Spencer, Herbert, at Seventy-nine. (Portrait), 542\n\n  Sprague, Rev. D. Scientific Method and its Application to the\n      Bible, 289\n\n\n  Taxation, Best Methods of. Part II. D. A. Wells 524, 778\n\n  Teachers' School of Science. F. Zirngiebel*, 451, 640\n\n  Teaching the Teachers. (Frag.), 138\n\n  Theology: Troubles of Orthodoxy. (Table), 704\n\n  Thorndike, E. Do Animals Reason?*, 480\n\n  Thrasher, M. B. Tuskegee Institute and its President*, 592\n\n  Tortoise Shell. (Frag.), 283\n\n  Townsend, H. A. Practical Philanthropy, 534\n\n  Travel: Klondike, Alaska and the. A Heilprin*, 1, 163, 300\n\n  Tuskegee Institute and its President. M. B. Thrasher*, 592\n\n\n  Universities, Thoughts about. W. K. Brooks, 348\n\n\n  \"Vague Impression of Beauty, A.\" (Frag.), 860\n\n  Vaughan, V. C. Are we in Danger from the Plague?, 577\n\n\n  Walcott, C. D. The United States National Museum, 491\n\n  Washington, B. T. The Race Problem in the United States, 317\n\n  Weather, Influence of the, on Crime. E. G. Dexter, 653\n\n  Weeds under Cultivation. (Frag.), 139\n\n  Wells, D. A. Best Methods of Taxation. Part II, 524, 778\n\n  West Indies, Physical Geography of. F. L. Oswald*\n      (_continued_), 47, 193\n\n  Wheat Lands of Canada. S. C. D. Roper, 766\n\n    \"   Question. A Correction. (Corr.), 702\n\n  White Whales in Confinement. Fred Mather, 362\n\n  Woman Suffrage, New Zealand Experiments in. (Frag.), 279\n\n  Woodchucks, Operations against. (Frag.), 139\n\n  Wright, G. F. New Method of Estimating the Age of Niagara*, 145\n\n\n  Xkichmook, Yucatan, Ruins of. (Frag.), 141\n\n\n  Yang-tse-Kiang, The. (Frag.), 571\n\n\n  Zirngiebel, Frances. The Teachers' School of Science*, 451, 640\n\n\nTHE END.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nWords surrounded by _ are italicized.\n\nWords surrounded by = are bold.\n\nDiacritical mark caron (v-shaped symbol) is represented as [vx] in\nthis e-text (x being the letter with the symbol caron above it).\n\nObvious printer's errors have been repaired, other inconsistent\nspellings have been kept, including inconsistent use of hyphen (e.g.\n\"far reaching\" and \"far-reaching\").\n\nIllustrations were relocated to correspond to their references in the\ntext.\n\nPg. 816, word \"of\" added to sentence \"...acceleration of social\nevolution.\"\n\nEntries in Index refer to all five issues of Popular Science Monthly Vol. LV:\n- May (pp. 1-136) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44880\n- June (pp. 137-288) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45115\n- July (pp. 289-432) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45361\n- August (pp. 433-576) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45938\n- September (pp. 577-720) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46383","title":"Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":73896}