The Popular Science Monthly 1907-06: Vol 70

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a ~ a ae THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY JUNE, 1907 THE PROBLEM OF AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH.’ By CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT, LL.D., D.8c., JAMES STILLMAN PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN THE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL. I. Tue ConpitTIion or Otp AGE [HE subject of age has ever been one which has attracted human thought. It leads us so near to the great mysteries that all thinkers have contemplated it, and many are the writers who from the literary point of view have presented us, sometimes with profound thought, often with beautiful images connected with the change from youth to old age. We need but to think of two books familiar more or less to us all—that ancient classic, Cicero’s De Senectute, the great book on age, one might almost say, from the literary standpoint, and that of our own fellow-citizen, my former teacher and professor at the Medical School, Dr. Holmes, who in his delightful ‘ Autocrat’ offers to us some of his charming speculations upon age. From the time of Cicero to the time of Holmes numerous authors have written on old age, yet among them ‘all we shall scarcely find any one who had title to be considered as a scientific writer upon the subject. Longevity is indeed a strange and difficult problem. Many of you doubtless have had your attention directed recently to the republished translation of Connaro’s famous work and know how sensible that is, and as you read it you must have perceived how little in the practical aspect of the matter we have passed beyond the advice which old Connaro gave to us. And yet silently in the medical laboratories, end in the physiological and anatomical institutes of various univer- sities, we have been gathering more accurate information as to what is the condition of persons who are very old. 1Lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute, Boston, March, 1907. VOL. LXx.—3l.

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482 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY We know, first of all, from our common observation, that the very old grow shorter in stature. We see that they are not so tall as in the prime of life. The figures which have been compiled upon this sub- ject are instructive, for they show that at the age of some thirty years the average height of men—these figures refer to Germans—is 174 : 4 ; . ~, Wl s WPAS CLa0Re | ere pris teaede wer swe, pbutoss yRideset & ‘. ones ' “yee Cai ereesiets vast Ralcbrccmctn - ae bce cheat eo. ee ‘ Fig. 1. PHOTOGRAPH OF CHEVREUL, taken on his one hundredth birthday. He was asked to write in an album and replied ‘‘Que voulez vous que j’écrive sur votre album. Je vais écrire mon premier principe philosophique, ce n’est par moi, qui l’ai formulé, e’est Male- branche “On doit tendre avec effort A l’infallibilité, sans y prétendre.’’ Chevreul was born Aug. 31, 1786 and died Ang. 9, 1889. For the privilege of using this portrait I am indebted to Dr. Henry P. Bowditch, to whom the interesting original beiongs. centimeters. It remains at that, however, only for a short period; then it decreases and at forty it is already less; at fifty decidedly less; and at sixty the change has become more marked; until at seventy years we find that the height has shrunk from 174 to 161. There it

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AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH 483 remains, or thereabouts, through the remainder of life, though there may be a small further diminution. This decrease in stature is due largely to the changes in the vertebral column. First of all there is a stoop. The vertebral column is, to be sure, never straight, but in old age it becomes more curved, and the result is a falling of the total stature. But this is not the chief cause, for in addition to this the ==] Fig. 2. PHOTOGRAPH FROM A CHILD AT BIRTH. The original is owned by Dr. H. P. Bow- ditch, by whose courtesy the present reproduction is published. softer cartilages and elements of the spinal column become harder, change into bone, and as that change occurs they acquire a less extent and become smaller, and the result is that the vertebral column as a whole collapses somewhat and thus increases the diminution of height. We find, as we look at the old, a great change to have come over the face. The roundness of youth has departed; the cheeks are

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 484 sunken ; the eyes have fallen far back; the lips are drawn in. All of these changes indicate to us, when we think upon them, the fact that there has been a certain shrinkage and shrivelling of that which is within and beneath the skin. Expressed in technical terms, we should call this an atrophy, and to anatomists the mere sight of the face of a very old person reveals at once this fundamental fact of an atrophy of the parts, an actual loss of some of their bulk, which is one of the most characteristic and fundamental marks of old age. The gait becomes shuffling, the foot is no longer lifted free from the ground, as the old man walks along. He does not rise upon his toes, but the sole of the foot is kept nearly flat and as he drags it cumbrously for- ward it is apt to strike upon the sidewalk. This indicates to the physiologist a lessened power in the muscles, a lessened control over the action of these muscles, an inferior coordination of the movements, so that there has been in the old man, judged by his gait alone, a physio- logical deterioration as well as an anatomical atrophy. You notice too his slow speech, often difficult hearing, and imperfect sight. All of these qualities show a loss, and we commonly think of the old as those who have lost most, who have passed beyond the maximum of development and are now upon the path of decline, going down ever more rapidly. One of the chief objects at which I shall aim in this course of lectures will be to explain to you that that notion is erroneous, and that the period of old age, so far from being the period of true decline, is in reality essentially the period in which the actual decline going on in each of us will be least. Old age is the period of slowest decline—a strange, paradoxical statement, but one which I hope to justify fully by the facts I shall present to you in this course. In the old person you note that there is in the mind some failure and also loss of memory—less mental activity, greater difficulty in grasp- ing new thoughts, assimilating new ideas, and in adapting himself to unaccustomed situations. All this betokens again the characteristic loss of the old. And as we turn now from these outward investiga- tions to those which the anatomist opens-up to us, we learn that in the interior of the body, and in every organ thereof, the species of change which I have referred to as characteristic of the very old, is going on and has become in each part well marked. Let us first examine the skeleton. In youth many parts of the skeleton are soft and flexible, like the gristles and cartilages, which join the ribs to the breastbone, but in the old man they are replaced by bone. Bone represents an advance in organization, in structure, as we say, over the cartilage. The old man has in that respect progressed be- yond the youthful stage; but that progress represents not a favorable change; the alteration in structure from elastic cartilage to rigid bone is physiologically disadvantageous, so that though the man has progressed in the organization or anatomy of his body, he has really

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AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH 485 thereby rather lost than gained ground. Indeed in the skeleton this principle of loss is already revealing itself. In the interior of the bones of the arms, of the legs, we find a spongy structure, bits of bone bound together in many different directions, as are the spicules or fibers in a sponge, and by being bound so together they unite lightness with strength. As you know a column of metal, if hollow, is stronger than the same amount of metal in the form of a rod. So with the bones. If they have this spongy structure, if their interiors are full of little cavities with intervening spicules acting as braces in every direction, then they acquire great strength with little material. Now in the old the internal spongy structure is dissolved away and there is left only a hard external shell. Partly on this condition depends the greater liability of the bones in the old person to break. If we ex- ’ amine the muscles we see that they have become less in volume, and when we apply the microscope to them we see that the single fibers on which the strength of the muscles depends have become smaller in size and fewer in number.* The muscle has actually lost; it is in- ferior, physiologically speaking, to what it was before. You remember how melancholy Jacques reminded us of this fact in speaking of the hose ‘a world too wide for his shrunk shank.’ His saying is justified by the loss of the muscles in volume and strength. The same phe- nomenon of atrophy shows itself in the digestive organs. Those minute structures in the wall of the stomach by which the digestive juice is produced, undergo a partial atrophy, in consequence of which they are less able to act; they are not so well organized, therefore, not so efficient as in earlier stages. The lungs become stiffened; the walls which divide off an air cavity from the neighboring air cavities do not remain so thin as in youth, but become thickened and hardened, and the vital capacity of the lungs, that is to say the capacity of the lungs to take in and hold air, is by so much lessened. The heart— it seems curious at first—is in the old always enlarged; but this does not represent a gain in real power. On the contrary, if we study carefully the condition of the circulation of the blood in the old, we find that the walls of the large blood-vessels, which carry the blood from the heart and distribute it over all parts of the body—vessels which we call arteries—have lost the elastic quality which is proper to them and by which they respond favorably to the pumping action of the heart. Instead they have become hard and stiff. We call this by a Greek term for hardening, sclerosis, ‘and arterial sclerosis is one of the most marked and striking characteristics of old persons. Now when the arteries become thus stiffened, it requires a greater force * This statement is the one currently accepted—but I have found, as yet, no exact investigation upon the relative size and number of the muscle fibers in old persons.

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486 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY and greater effort of the heart to drive the blood through them, and in response to this new necessity, the heart becomes enlarged in an effort of the organism to adapt itself to the new unfavorable condition of the circulation established by age. But the power of the heart be- comes inferior along with this hypertrophy or enlargement, and we see that in the old, in order to make up for the feebleness of the enlarged heart, it beats more frequently. In other words, the pulse rate in the old person increases.* We find, for instance, that at the time of Mean Mean Mean Age Frequency Age Frequency Age Frequency le re 134 are 87 IE ins ihe ia el gale 72 NI du tte ishavin acetals 111 SERS eee 82 RE, Gt) bata cone 70 Sf are 108 aR ee 83 PD ititsecevewas 72 Ree 108 ars 80 eee 72 ere 103 ere 76 DE sslswas ceanlan 72 OS a eee 98 a rrr 77 eee 72 Oe 93 a eee 74 a Serer. 75 yk ductinn aan 94 a5 céwceteene 71 PN sh nie eae acwe 73 Serer 89 ey 71 eee 75 ee 91 er 70 DE tea wacae ee 75 ae 87 RS Sal a ve khan a 71 PI Ee oe 72 Ee 89 ee 72 80 and over ...... 79 a 88 birth the pulse rate is at the rate of 134 beats to a minute. It rises slightly during the first three months of infancy until at the end of the third month it reaches some 140 beats a minute; it soon falls off, however, and at the end of the first year it has sunk to 111; at five or six years it becomes 98, and at twenty-one years it has sunk to 71 or 72. There are thereafter certain minor fluctuations in the rate of the heart-beat with advancing age, but generally it may be said that this value of 72 beats a minute is characteristic of adult life. But when a person becomes eighty years old, it has been found that upon the average the rate of the heart-beat rises and becomes 79 a minute. Hence it is clear that though the heart is larger, it has to make a greater effort, that is to say a more frequent beat, in order to main- tain the necessary circulation of the blood. We see also, as we go back to the anatomical examination of the body, that those important structures which we call the germ cells, upon which the propagation of the race depends, which present under the microscope certain clearly recognized characteristics by which they can be distinguished from all other cells of the body, that these germ-cells cease their activity alto- gether in the very old, and one of the great functions of life is thus blotted out altogether from the history of the individual. Turning now to the yet nobler organs, especially the brain, we see * My friend, Professor W. T. Porter, has had the kindness to compile the following table for me, showing the pulse frequency from one to eighty years. For the first two months after birth, the rate is about 130, after the third month 140. The fetal rate is 135 to 140.

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AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH 487 a curious change going on, a change of which old age presents to us the culminating record. In order to study the weight of the brain, it is necessary to compare people of the same size, for the size and weight of the brain depend somewhat upon the size of the individual. Now it has been discovered by careful examination of persons of similar size that the brain begins relatively early to diminish its weight. Thus in persons of a height of 175 centimeters, and over, of the male sex, it is found that in a period of from twenty to forty years the brain weight is 1,409 grams. But from forty-one to seventy years it has sunk to 1,363, and in persons of from seventy-one to ninety it has shrunk to 1,330. Women of corresponding size are not easily found, and a more average height for women is 165 centimeters ; a woman of such a height is likely to have—among the white races, be it always understood—a weight of brain of 1,265 grams, at forty to seventy years a brain of 1,200, and at seventy-one to ninety years a brain of only 1,166 grams.* I give these figures because they show that there is no guessing, but a definite, positive knowledge, proving that soon after the maturity of life in the individual is reached, the shrinkage of the brain begins, and then continues almost steadily to the very end of life. It is not only the anatomist, but it is perhaps almost equally the physiologist who gives us insight into the changes, which go on in the old. I spoke a few moments ago of the pulse rate, and of the change which that offers. At first sight it seems as if a greater pulse rate indicated an improvement, but if you recall the explanation which I have given you, you will acknowledge that this is by no means an acceptable interpretation, but that on the contrary the change is a clear mark of enfeeblement. In the respiration, ‘also, we observe a like change. Here the comparison is not quite so easy as we should at first imagine, because there is a relation between the size of the individual and the respiration. The respiration, as you all know, frees the body from the products of combustion, particularly from ‘that product which we know as carbon dioxide. The result of the com- bustion going on in the body (which in its end term appears to us as carbon dioxide expelled from the lungs) is to produce heat, to de- velop the necessary warmth for the maintenance of the proper tem- *Ernst Handmann has recently published statistics on the growth of brain, based on measurements at the Leipzig Pathological Institute. See Archiv f. Anat. u. Entwickelungsges., 1906, p. 1. The following summarizes his results: Brain Weight in Grams Age Male Female Pe ere her ie cee 1215 1194 RUE ed ign th & Sta sehaanes ain gle aaa a 1376 1229 ik a ee ce Oe re pee 1372 124 eet eT er TT) y 1196

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POPULAR 488 SCIENCE MONTHLY perature of the body. Now in the very young the bulk of the body is not great, but the loss of heat is very great, and-this perhaps can be most readily explained to you if you imagine that you hold in one hand a very small potato and in the other a very large potato, both of which have come at the same moment from the same oven, and that you have just started out for a cold winter drive. You all know, of course, that in a little while the small potato, though it was as hot as the large one at first, will have lost its heat, will no longer serve to keep the hand warm, but the other hand, in which the bulkier potato is held, in which the volume of the heat—we might so express it, perhaps—is correspondingly great, benefits by the retained heat a long time. Es- sentially similar to this is the difference between the child and the adult. The child loses heat with comparatively great rapidity—the old person at a comparatively slow rate. Hence it is necessary for the child to produce more warmth in order to keep up the natural normal temperature of the body. When, therefore, we find that in the old person the respiration is diminished, and that the production of © carbon dioxide from the lungs is greatly lessened, we are not immedi- ately to jump at the conclusion that the quality of physiological action has been debased—that we see here a sign of decrepitude. On the contrary, the change is the result of physiological adaptation, of suit- ing the performance of the body to its needs. This is one of the great wonders, one of the mysteries of life, of which we here have a sample, the constant adaptation of the means to the end. That which the body needs is done by the body. A child needs more warmth, and its body produces more; the old person needs less warmth, and his body produces less. How this is accomplished we are unable to say, but constantly we see evidence of this purposeful accommodation on the part of the body—what is called by the physiologists the teleological principle, the adaptation of the reaction of the body to its needs. There are innumerable illustrations of this, many of which are of course perfectly familiar to us, although perhaps we do not think of them as illustrations of this great law of nature. As, for instance, when we eat a meal, and the presence of food in the stomach calls into action the glands in the wall of the stomach by which the digestive juice is secreted. The juice is produced exactly at the time when it is needed. Innumerable, indeed, are the illustrations of this fundamental principle. There is another class of phenomena characteristic of the very old which will perhaps seem a little surprising to you after the general tenor of my previous remarks. I refer to the power of repair. This, modern surgery especially has enabled us to recognize as being far greater in the old than we were wont to assume; and we know that there is a certain luxury, a certain excess reserve in the power of re- pair, and that we may go far beyond the ordinary necessities of our

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AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH 489 life in our demands upon our organism, and still find that our body, is capable of making the necessary response. Ordinarily the amount of blood which we require is moderate in amount—moderate in the sense that the destruction of the blood continually going on in the body is not a very rapid process ; but if, through some accident, a person loses a large quantity of blood then by one of these teleological reac- tions of which I have spoken, the production of new blood is increased, the loss is soon made up, and we discover that the blood, so to speak, has been repaired. Or when a little of the skin is lost, it quickly heals over. That again is due to the power of repair. Ordinarily so long as the skin remains whole that power is not called into action, but if a wound comes, then the regenerative force resident always in the skin, but inactive, comes into play and produces the mending which is such a comfort. So in old people, some of this luxury of reparative power persists, so that they can recover from wounds in a far better way than we should imagine if we judged them only by the general physiological and anatomical decline exhibited throughout all parts of the body. Some of the luxury of repair comes in usefully in old age. Now if we consider all these changes in the most general manner, we perceive that they are clearly of one general character; they imply an alteration in the anatomical condition of the parts; but it is an al- teration which does not differ fundamentally in kind from the alterations which have gone on before, but it does differ in the extent and in part in the degree to which these alterations have taken place. When the elastic cartilaginous rib becomes bony, nothing different is happening from that which happened before, for there was a stage of development when the entire rib consisted of cartilage, and in the progress of development toward the adult condition that cartilage was changed gradually into bone, thus producing the characteristic, normal, effi- cient bony rib of the adult. When old age intervenes, the change of the cartilage into bone goes yet further, but it progresses in such a way that it is no longer favorable, but unfavorable. We have then in this case a clear illustration of a principle of change in the very old which is, I take it, perhaps sufficiently well expressed by saying that the change which is natural in the younger stage is in the old carried to excess. But there is in addition to this, something more, of which I have already spoken, namely the atrophy of parts, and by atrophy we mean the diminution, the lessening of the volume of the part. There is a partial atrophy of the brain in consequence of which that organ becomes smaller; there is an extensive atrophy of the muscles in consequence of which their volume is diminished, and their efficiency decreased. Atrophy is preeminently characteristic of the very old, and we see in very old persons that it becomes each year more and more pronounced. Indeed, it has been said recently by Professor Metchnikoff, a distinguished Russian zoologist, now connected with the

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490 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY Pasteur Institute in Paris, some of whose publications many of you have doubtless read, that his conception of the nature of senility, of old age, could best be expressed in a single word, atrophy. “On résume la senilité par un seul mot: atrophie.”> That is his estimate of old age. But that is not the only estimate of old age which has been made up to the present time. We find one, which is much more prevalent, is that which connects it with the condition of the arteries. Indeed, Professor Osler has written this sentence—“ Longevity is a vascular question, and has been well expressed in the axiom that a man is only as old as his arteries.” Now these are medical views, not biological, and you will find that there is a very extensive literature dealing with old age in man based upon the conception that old age is a kind of disease, a chronic disease, an incurable disease. Medical writers have put forward various conceptions giving a medical interpretation of this disease. That to which I just referred is the favorite one, the one you are most likely to hear from physicians to-day—namely, the theory of arterial sclerosis, that the hardening of the walls of the arteries is the primary thing; it interferes with the circulation, the bad circulation interferes with the proper working of every part of the body, and as the circulation becomes impeded, various accessory results are produced in the body in consequence. It is brought to a lower or more diseased condition than before. And so they interpret sclerosis of the arteries as the primary thing, because they can trace so many alterations in the old which resemble diseased alterations, to these natural changes in the arteries by which they acquire hardened and inelastic walls, which prevent the proper response of the artery to the heart beat, upon which the normal healthy circulation largely depends. Another interpretation, very curious and interesting, is that which has been recently offered by the same Professor Metchnikoff whom I have just mentioned. He has written a book upon the ‘ Nature of Man,’ translated in 1903, and published in this country. It is an interesting book. It gives a most attractive picture, incidentally, of Metchnikoff himself, a man of pleasantly optimistic temperament, but a man thoroughly imbued with the spirit which has so often been attributed to contemporary scientific men, of cold, intellectual regard towards everything, towards life, towards man, towards mystery. For him mysteries of all sorts have little interest. Those things which are mysterious are beyond the sphere of what can hold his attention. He must reside in the clear atmosphere of definite, positive fact. This mental bias is shown in his book. He reviews in a happy way various past systems of philosophy; he describes various religions; and he points out his reasons for thinking that all of these are insufficient, that there is no satisfaction to be derived from any of the ancient * L’Année biologique, Tome III., p. 256, 1897.

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AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH 491 philosophies or from any of the great world religions. Nevertheless he is an optimist. He has noticed as a result of his meditations upon the arrangements within our bodies that we suffer very much from what he calls disharmonies, by which he means imperfect adaptations of structures within us to the performance of the body as a whole. He mentions: various instances of such disharmonious parts. They do not seem to me quite so imposing as apparently they do to him, for many of his disharmonies are based upon the fact that we do not know that a certain structure or part has any useful réle to play in the body. But I am inclined to suspect that in many cases it is only because we are ignorant; the list of useless structures in the human body was a few years ago very long; it has within recent years been greatly shortened, and we should learn from this experience a caution in regard to judging about these things, which, I think, Professor Metchnikoff has failed to exert duly in forming his opinions on these disharmonies. Now among the disharmonies which he recognizes is that of the great size of the large intestine, which is of such a caliber that a considerable quantity of partially digested food can be retained in it at one time. When such food is retaingd in the intestine, it may undergo a process of fermentation. There are many sorts of fermentation, and some of them produce chemical bodies which are injurious to the human organism. Bacteria, which will cause fer- mentation of this sort,.do actually occur in the human intestine. Metchnikoff thinks that, as we grow old, this tendency to fermentation increases. Now the bodies produced by fermentation, the chemical bodies, I mean, get into our system and poison us. The result of the poisoning is that the native capacities of the various tissues and organs of the body are lowered, as happens in a man ‘ intoxicated.’ All parts of a man may be poisoned, not necessarily always with alcohol, but with many other things as well, and such a poisoning Professor Metchnikoff assumes to result from intestinal fermentation. More- over, he has further observations, which lead him to the idea that certain cells go to work upon the poisoned parts and do further damage. The cells in question are minute microscopic structures, so small that we can not at all see them with the naked eye, but which have a habit of feeding in the body upon the various parts thereof whenever they get a chance. Cells of this sort go by the scientific name of phagocytes, which is merely a Greek term for ‘eating cells.’ The phagocytes, for instance, devour pigment in the hair, and in old per- sons the production of white hair has resulted from the activity of phagocytes which have eaten the pigment which should have remained in the hair and kept its color. But the pigment of the hair is not the only thing they will attack; they will make their aggressive inroads upon any part of the body; and Professor Metchnikoff has advanced the theory that old age consists chiefly in the damage which is done

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492 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY by phagocytes to poisoned parts of the body, the poisoning being due to the fermentation in the large intestine. Now it has been observed by some of the German investigators of these matters that the presence of lactic acid interferes with this fermentative process as it goes on in the intestine. Lactic acid, as its name implies, is the characteristic acid which occurs in milk when it becomes sour. An Italian friend of Professor Metchnikoff tried drinking some sour milk with the idea of stopping the fermentation in the intestine, and so putting an end to the deleterious change, and he believes in the short time that he tried it that it did him good—quite, you see, in the way of a patent medicine. Professor Metchnikoff, on this basis, has recommended, in his book on the ‘ Nature of Man,’ the regular drinking of sour milk, in the hope apparently that that will postpone senility, and will leave us our powers in maturity long beyond that period when we at present reach the fullness of our vigor, and advance the period of time when the changes of the years put us out of court. He regards this as an opti- mistic substitute for the various forms of philosophy and religion which many millions of people have found helpful in life, and cer- tainly it is the cheapest substitute which has ever been seriously proposed. There is another writer who, though having a German name, is in reality a Russian, Professor Miihlmann. He has another theory in regard to the fundamental nature of senility. He takes such in- stances as that which I spoke of, of respiration in connection with the production of warmth in the child’s body and in the body of the adult, and finds that the diminution of the surface in proportion to the bulk of the body is characteristic of the old, and he concludes that we become old because we do not have proportionately surface enough left. His view implies, apparently, that if we could keep ourselves more or less of the stature of pygmies we should be healthier _and better off. I confess these theories, and many others which I might enumerate to you, seem to me to be somewhat fantastic—odd rather than valuable. Yet they all spring from this one common feeling, which is, I believe, a sinister influence upon the thought of the day, in regard to the problem of age—they spring from the medi- cal conception that age is a kind of disease, and that the problem is to explain the condition as it exists in man. Now that is precisely what I wish to protest against. What I hope to accomplish in these lec- tures is to build up gradually in your minds some acquaintance with the fundamental and essential changes, which are characteristic of age and in regard to which we have been learning something during the last few years—-I might almost say only within recent years— and by means of this exposition to give you a broader view and a juster interpretation of the problem. I hope, before I finish, to convince you that we are already able to establish certain significant generaliza-

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AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH 493 tions as to what is essential in the change from youth to old age, and that in consequence of these generalizations, now possible to us, new problems present themselves to our minds, which we hope really to be able to solve, and that in the solving of them we shall gain a sort of knowledge, which is likely to be not only highly interesting to the scientific biologist, but also to prove, in the end, of great practical value. Surely we can not hope to obtain any power over age, any power over the changes which the years bring to each of us, unless we understand clearly, positively and certainly, what these changes really are. I think you will learn, if you do me the honor to follow the lectures further, that the changes are indeed very different from what we should expect when we start out on a study of age, and that the contributions of science in this direction are novel and to some degree startling. We can begin to approach this broader view of our subject if we pass beyond the consideration of man. If we turn from man to the animals which we are most familiar with, the common domestic quadrupeds, we see that they undergo a series of changes not very dissimilar to those which man himself must pass through. An old horse, an old dog, an old cat, shows pretty much the same sort of decrepitudes which characterize old men. But when we pass farther down in the scale to the fishes, or even to a frog, we dis- cover great differences. Do you think you could tell a frog when it is old by the way it walks—for it never walks—or a fish by the amount of hardening of the lungs, when it has none? Yet the lack of lungs is characteristic of the fish. And what becomes of the theory of arterial sclerosis when we go still lower in the animal kingdom, towards its lowermost members, and find creatures which live and thrive and have lived and thriven for countless generations, yet have no arteries at all? They, of course, do not grow old by any change of their arteries. But when we come to study these various animals more carefully, we learn that in them the anatomical and physiological features which I have indicated to you in my description of the changes in the human being, are paralleled, as it were, by similar changes; but only by similar, not by identical, changes. If we examine the insects, for instance, we see that in an old insect there is a hardening of the outer crust of the body which serves as a shell and a skeleton at once. That hardening increases with the age of the individual. We can see in the insect a lessening development of the digestive tract, and we can see—it has been demonstrated with particular nicety—a degradation of the brain. Insects have a very small brain, but when a bumblebee, or a honeybee, grows old, as he does in a few weeks after he acquires his wings, we see that the brain actually becomes smaller, and not only that, but as I shall be able to demonstrate to you with the lantern in the next lecture, the elements which build up the brain have each of them become smaller and the diminution in the size of

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494 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY the brain is due in part to the shrinkage of the single microscopic con- stituents. There is another point of resemblance. We find that when one of the better parts of the body undergoes an atrophy, it becomes not only smaller, but its place is to a certain extent taken by the in- ferior tissues—especially by those which we call comprehensively the connective tissues, which might perhaps be best described to a general audience as that which is the stuffing of the body and fills out all the gaps between the organs proper. In consequence of performing this general function, they are very properly called connective tissues, since they connect all the different organs and systems of organs in the body together. Now in every body there is a continual fighting of the parts. They battle together, they struggle, each one to get ahead, but the nobler organ, generally speaking, holds its own. There are early produced from the brain the fine bundles of fibers which we call the nerves, which run to the nose, to the tongue and to the various parts of the body. When these appear all the parts of the body are very soft. Afterwards comes in the hard, and, we should think, sturdy bone, but never, under normal conditions, does the bone grow where the nerve is. The nerve, soft and pulpy as it seems, resists absolutely the encroachment of the bone, and though the bone may grow else- where, and will grow elsewhere the moment it gets a free opportunity, it can not beat the soft delicate nerve.* Similarly we find that the substance which forms the liver is pulpy, very delicate. Those of you who have seen fresh liver in the butcher’s shop know what a flabby organ it is, and yet though it is surrounded by the elements of con- nective tissue, which with great zest and eagerness produce tough fibers, it never gives way to them. The connective tissue is held back by the soft liver and kept in place by it. The liver is, so to speak, a nobler organ than the connective tissue and holds sway ordinarily ; but in old age, when the nobler organs lose something of their power, then. the connective tissue gets its chance, grows forward and fills up the desired place, and acquires more and more a dominating posi- tion. We can see this alike in the brain of man and in the brain of the bee. That which is the nervous material proper, microscopic ex- amination shows us to be diminished everywhere in the old bee and in the old man, and the tissue which supports it, which is of a coarser nature and can not perform any of the nobler functions, filis up all the space thus left, so that the actual composition of the brain is by this means changed. There is, you see, therefore, during the atrophy * The nerve fibers of the olfactory membrane arise very early in the embryo and form numerous separate bundles. Later the bone arises between the bundles, for each of which a hole is left in the osseous tissue, so that the bone in the adult has a sieve-like structure, and hence is termed the cribriform plate. It offers a striking illustration of the inability of hard bone to disturb soft nerve fibers.

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AGE, GROWTH AND DEATH 495 of the brain, not only a diminution of the organ as a whole, but there is the further degradation which consists in the yielding of the nobler to the baser part, if I may so express myself. That, you recognize, necessarily implies a loss of function. The brain can not under senile conditions do the sort of fine and efficient work which it could do before. Now if we go on from insects to yet lower organisms, we see less and less appearing of an advance in organization, of correlated loss of parts, and when we get far enough down in the scale, senescence becomes very vague. The change from youth to old age in a coral or in a sponge is at best an indefinite matter. I should like, did the length of the course permit, to enlarge greatly upon this aspect of the question, and explain to you how it is that as the organism rises higher and higher in the scale, old age becomes more and more marked, and in no animal is old age perhaps so marked, certainly in no animal is it more marked, than in ourselves. The human species stands at the top of the scale and it also suffers most from old age. We shall learn, I hope, more clearly later on in the course of these lectures, that this fact has a deeper significance, that the connection between old age and advance in organization, ad- vance in anatomical structure, is indeed very close, and that they are related to one another somewhat in fashion of cause and effect; just how far each is a cause and how far each is an effect it would perhaps be premature to state very positively; but I shall show you, I think in a convincing way, that the development of the anatomical quality, or in other words of what we call organic structure, is the fundamental thing in the investigation of the processes of life in relation to age. We can see it illustrated again very clearly indeed when we turn to the study of plant life, for plants also grow old. Take a leaf in the spring. It is soft as the bud opens. The young leaf is delicate. It has a considerable power of growth. It expands freely, and soon becomes a leaf of full size. Then comes the further change by which the leaf gets a firmer texture; the production of anatomical quality in the leaf, so to speak, goes on through the summer, and the result of that advance in the anatomical quality is that the delicate, youthful softness and activity of the leaf is stopped. It can not grow any more; it can not function as a leaf properly any more. The develop- ment of its structure has gone too far and the leaf falls and is lost, and must be replaced by a new leaf the next year. When we examine the changes that go on in any flowering plant, we observe always that there is this production of structure, and then the decay, the end or death. At first structure comes as a helpful thing, increasing the usefulness of the part, and then it goes on too far and impairs the usefulness, and at last a stage is produced in which no use is possible any longer—the thing is worthless. It is cast away in the case of the plant life; and this casting away of the useless is a thing not by any

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496 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY means confined to plants; it occurs equally in ourselves all the time; at every period of our life we have been getting through with some por- tion of our body; that portion acquired a certain organization, it worked for us awhile, and then being done with it, we threw it away because it was dead. Very early in the history of every individual there was a production of blood, and then followed the destruction of some of the blood corpuscles and their remains were used for various purposes. The pigment which is in the liver comes from the destroyed blood corpuscles, and it is believed that the pigment which colors the hair is derived from the same source. The blood corpuscles contain a material which when chemically elaborated reappears as the deposit which imparts to the hairs their coloration. You, of course, are al! familiar with the loss of hair. It occurs to everybody, but did you ever think that it means that the hair which has lived has died, and that that hair which was a part of you has been cast off? That is what the loss of hair means to the biologist—the death of a part and the throwing away of it, and it is typical of what is going on through the body all the time. It occurs in the intestines, where the elements which serve for purposes of digestion are continually dying and being cast off. The outer skin is constantly falling off and being renewed, and that which goes is dead. In every part of the body we can find something which is dying. Death is an accompaniment of develop- ment; parts of us are passing off from the limbo of the living all the time, and the maintenance of the life of each individual of us depends partially upon the continual death going on in minute fragments of our body here and there. Our next step in this course of lectures will carry us into the micro- scopic world, and with the aid of the lantern at the next lecture I shall hope to demonstrate to you a little of the microscopic structure of the body and of the general nature of the change, which exhibits itself in the body from its earliest to its latest condition. With such knowl- ege in our minds, we shall be able next to study some of the laws of growth. We shall gain from our microscopic information a deeper insight into some of the secrets of the changes, which age produces in the human body.

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 497 THE PROGRESS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA By Prorgssor LUCIEN MARCUS UNDERWOOD COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY _ may be the avenue of approach to the subject of botany as a science, whether we work out the details of the development, maturation and division of the elements within the single cell, or seek to trace the race history through the detailed de- velopment of a single organism from egg to egg again, or whether we approach it through either the mutations or the variations of a single species, the last problem of investigation as well as the first will bear directly on the question: What are the relations of plants to each other in the natural system of classification? In this broader sense all botanists, whether they are only cytologists, whether they deal with the fascinating problems of embryological development, whether they are field ecologists, or finally whether they are just botanists pure and simple, because they love the things of nature and can not help being botanists if they are anything at all—all these are systematic botan- ists, even though some of them appear to others as unsystematic, when their wilder flights into the realm of the imagination cause them to become mere theorists with no stable foundation in real facts. So multifarious have become the problems that have entered into the study of botany in these latter days, that it is sometimes difficult for a layman, brought up in the ancient conception of botany as the mere study of flowers, to understand the breadth of scientific training in- volved in the development of a modern botanist; in fact, it is often a difficult problem for specialized botanists themselves to understand all the bearings of the highly specialized work of some of their fellows, and the research student of to-day soon finds himself pushing out into ground still unbroken, which his predecessors may have had glimpses of from afar, but never really entered to occupy and cause it to yield its fruits. I am speaking here of real students, not of those sutlers and train followers that swarm about the rear of every respectable army, and often try to pass themselves off for the real rank and file. Of that large array who pursue botany as far as light comedy, because somebody wrote ‘ How to know the dandelions in their lair’ and roll such polysyl- lables as Taraxacum and Leontopodium glibly from their tongues in order to impress the unwitting citizen of their accomplishments, we have VOL. LXx.—32

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#70 Toaw. Barristar Porta HAscx plantulas tibi proponimus animaliam linguasimitantes; cya noglofum canis linguamexprimst,jnmox {ublequenti, buglsiuns bouinam; poft, elaphogloffon cerninam; poftremo,ophioglojjon jers pentinam,jn{uper apparentibusunae regione animalium nomina- torum linguts: propofitum [pethacniuin intusor, 69 contemplator. plolin- was later taken up for a genus of ferns distinct from the hart’s-tongue of Europe. Fic. 1. Fac-simile of a page of Porta’s work (1591) showing similarities in plants to parts of animals, hound’s-tongue (Cynoglossum), bugloss (Anchusa), hart’s-tongue fern ( Phyllitis), and adder’s-tongue (Ophioglossum). It is interesting to note that two of Porta’s names are still in use in a scientific sense, a third in a popular sense, while the fourth (Mlaphoglossum)

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¥ Ben/Darsit haber die alten: Gewiiift mit Harn ver a xy barrel net Fig. 2. Fac-simile of an illustration of Bock (1587) showing the apple-tree, known varia- tions of its fruit including the ‘sheep’s nose (gilliflower), death’s head and the serpent,’ allu- ding of course to its supposed relation to the fall of man.

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500 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY little to say; they are of a class so foreign, that though often loud- spoken, as foreigners sometimes become, they are not botanists to the manor born and never will become anything but sutlers. Far back in the early centuries, men looked at plants largely from the standpoint of utility, and every plant not useful for food was sup- posed to have some virtues of the healing sort that made it useful medicinally. Doubtless many of these notions came from the real presence of some remedial virtues, for many plants of the pharmacopeia were known to the ancients; but in attributing so many virtues to so many harmless succulents, one wonders sometimes just how far the principle of dishonest graft entered into the dealings of the old sim- plers with their nostrums. At any rate, volume after volume of herbals was published, illustrating many common and often rare plants, and sometimes in a very realistic way their real or sup- posed effects on the human system. A few illustrations of these from among the works of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies may not be amiss. Porta in 1591 published page after page of illustrations showing fancied resemblances between plants and all sorts of human and animal parts, and often the discovery of such a similarity to some part of the human frame led to the unwarranted conclusion that the Almighty thus pointed out to mortals a definite specific in the plant thus possessing this resemblance. One of the favorites among these early medicinal frauds was the supposition that because the delicate stems and branches of the maidenhair fern were really hair-like, one had only to steep them in water to supply an effective hair tonic which, for growing copious and lustrous hair and preventing incipient baldness, would place the danderines and herpi- cides of these degenerate days sadly in the shade! Many of these early herbals were printed in Latin as the standard languageeof medicine and learning generally, but later they were printed in the vernacular of the country in which they were writ- ten, and often something symbolic of the particular plant they il- lustrated was added to appeal more strongly to the mind of the reader. We give an illustration from one of the larger herbals of the sixteenth century, that of Hieronymus Bock (1587) in old Ger- man, depicting with the apple the serpent and death that was supposed to have been brought into the world by eating this really delicious fruit. We also give a quotation from Parkinson (1640), whose Eng- lish herbal is perhaps the most complete compendium of the folk-lore of plants and all the other old dames’ fancies concerning the English flora that was ever written. Here every plant description and history is followed by an account of its ‘ virtues,’ often set forth in exaggerated terms. Concerning Salvinia natans, which he describes and figures as ‘ Lens palustris latifolia punctata, Parkinson says:

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 501 ‘The Vertues’ It is cold and moist as Galen saith in the second degree, and is effectuall to helpe inflammations, and Saint Anthonies fire, as also the Goute, either ap- plied by it selfe, or else in a pultis with barlie meale: it is also good for rup- tures in young children. Some saith Matthiolus do highly esteeme of the des- tilled water of the herbe against all inward inflammations and pestilent feavers, as also to helpe the rednesse of the eyes, the swellings of the cods, and of the brests before they be growen too much, for it doth not weakely repell the humours: the fresh herbe applied to the forehead, easeth the paines of the head- ache comming of heate. Duckes do greedilie devoure it, and so will Hens if it be given them mingled with branne. The progress of world exploration that followed the discovery and colonization of the East and West Indies and the mainland of the then dark continents of Asia and America brought to European gardens many unusual plants which later writers, particularly those of the eighteenth century, carefully described, often with elaborate illustra- tions, in publications emanating from these public and private gar- dens of the old world. We give a copy of the title-page of the first work of this kind which describes and figures American plants. JAC. CORNUTI DOCTORIS MEDICI PARISIENSIS CANADENSIUM PLANTARUM, aliarumque nondum editarum HISTORIA. * 7 * aol * PARISIIS, M. DC, XXXV. CUM PRIVILEGIO REGIS. It will be noted that this bears the date of 1635, only fifteen years after the landing of the Pilgrim fathers, and is primarily a his- tory of the plants of Canada which was then the synonym of North America. A sample illustration will give one of Cornut’s figures of one of our common spring plants, and its name, Asaron canadense, the same it still bears, will show at a glance that the binomial system of naming plants was not only not invented by Linneus, but was in common use almost a hundred years before he published a single line on botany, and more than seventy years before he was born! Our common maidenhair, the bulb-bearing fern (also illustrated here), the

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Canadenfium Plant. Hiftoria. 25 ASARON CANADENSE. - {i Nn WY \\y, Sa Sie ey Minne \ ZA y hae: ie Fig. 8. Fac-simile of illustration by Cornut (1635) of wild ginger (Asarum canadense). (Plate by courtesy otf The Plant World.)

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acobi Cornuti FILIX BACCIFERA. a ef 4 ¥ “en ie oly > . , ie TR ayy SSE 6 ¥ 3 i . N S / ” 4 ‘rT ay BESS SP" ¢ > e 4 Fig. 4. Fao-simile of illustration by Cornut (1635) of the bulb-bearing fern (Feliz bulbé. fera). This with a plate of the common maidenhair in the same work formed the first pub- lished illustrations of American ferns.

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504 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY false solomon’s seal, the yellow bellflower, the Dutchman’s Beinkleider and many other common American plants are similarly illustrated in this quaint old volume. The early days are famous for certain quaint and interesting collectors of curios brought in by sea-captains and other early sailors from the four corners of the earth. Among these old-time naturalists were Petiver and Plukenet, who filled huge folios with miscellaneous illustrations of plants and animals from all over the world. We reproduce here a single plate from the latter which is just now interesting because it figures a fern peculiar to the caves of Bermuda, and named from that circumstance (Polypodium spelunce L.), but one which jugglers of the past generation of botanists have placed outside its proper species, genus and even tribe, and have attributed to nearly all parts of the tropical world except, alas, the very island from which it originally came! We should mention in this connec- tion the ‘ Natural History of Jamaica, by Sir Hans Sloane, whose plates are typified by his Jamaica herbarium over two hundred years old, but still in a splendid state of preservation at the British Museum ; and also the work of Charles Plumier, who laid the foundations of West Indian botany as early as 1703, and whose works are of vital im- portance to-day in our study of the flora of our tropical islands. Later on Mark Catesby explored the Bahamas and Carolina and published with elaborate folio plates many of the characteristic plants and ani- mals of those little explored regions. The conception of a plant genus as a coherent group of species apparently became crystallized by Tournefort, who published his Jnsti- tutiones in 1700; in this work he gave many illustrations accompanied by descriptive text in this first genera plantarum. Tournefort, like many modern botanists, knew mainly the higher plants, and it was reserved for Micheli (1729) to open the eyes of his fellow students to the genera of fungi, hepatics and lichens, and to Dillen (1744) to give us a foundation for the study of the mosses and the lycopodiums. The plates of Dillen’s Historia Muscorum show what he knew about mosses with a hand lens a hundred and sixty-three years ago, and we give a sample plate from Micheli showing the symmetric rows of slime molds of the genera Stemonitis and Arcyria of modern botanical jargon. When the next generation, less hurried and temporizing than the present, comes to take up the question of plant nomenclature in a really rational fashion, these names of Tournefort and Micheli will be restored to their rightful place in a system that makes priority of publication its corner stone! All this vast array of early botanical literature, ranging from ponderous folios with plates, often colored by hand, down to miniature Elzevir editions, with typography that puts the modern imitations to #

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Ste we jaan? fatevine affinas Krgina wharrar dec sertate floread in Bort. vt, Comp tomas Falls ote bulge. aD. Raver an wig Fie. 5. Copy of a plate from Plukenet showing a medley of illustratiens. His Fig. 2 is the cited type of Polypodium spelunce L., a species of Dryopteris still growing inthe Bermuda caves. The name has wrongly descended to Davallia spelunce, a member of a genus and tribe of ferns never native to Bermuda. (Slightly reduced.)

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Clathroides (Lae are "22. 4 oes ER OSS CONS NAL AER OAL G = ae en MI edu ay | YAR YAH MAAANHHET Nt eee EAN Bt 1) Ny i \ Wied BAYAN RY KAY Aufpicis Francisce Lorenz yBaiulivi D- Stephane « Fie. 6. Copy of a plate from Micheli (1729) showing the earliest myeetozoa (myxomycetes) figured under a definite generic name. (Slightly,reduced.)

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 507 shame, finally became so voluminous and so lacking in a system that it must needs be put in order. This was accomplished by Linnzus, who proved in his ‘ Species Plantarum’ of 1753 that the indexer is some- times as important as the.real discoverer, and this may give encourage- ment to the often unthanked class of librarians and bibliographers without whose work our best efforts would often be squandered in fruitless searchings of the literature of the past. Since this work of Linneus has been fixed upon as the initial point of priority of names, it is well to pause long enough to see how a page of it really looks. Like many of the standard books even of recent de- scriptive botanical literature it is all in Latin, which goes to prove that in botany, at least, Latin is not a dead language. I venture the assertion that as much Latin is read daily within the walls of the museum of the New York Botanical Garden as in any building in New York city, not excepting the departments of Latin in its colleges. But space forbids us to follow farther the general development of our knowledge of the world’s flora as depicted in the various works emanating from the geniuses of the generations. We can only men- tion in passing a few of the landmarks that stand as beacons along the course of systematic botany. Here is an early one at Berlin where the brilliant Willdenow, though dying at forty-seven, gave us a rational ‘Species Plantarum,’ the fourth since Linnzus and the first that really described plants from their characters. Here stands another on Lake Geneva where Augustin, most brilliant of four generations of De Candolle botanists, commenced the * Prodromus,’ which was the next great attempt to set in order our increasing knowledge of the world’s vegetation. Here is a third at Kew, where George Bentham actually grappled with death and forced it back, that he might complete his masterly ‘Genera Plantarum.’ And here is a more recent, wide- reaching, and more useful if less brilliant beacon again set up at Berlin under the leadership of the Bismarck of German botany— who, though Regierungsrath, modestly and democratically subscribes himself, ‘ A. Engler.’ Turning now to the real subject in hand, let us take a glimpse at the progress of our knowledge of the American flora. It can be only the merest glance because of the natural complexity of the subject ; we must look at landmarks here and there, and note only the general trend of a few of its more salient features. Among the early observers of plants in the American provinces was John Clayton, of Virginia, for whom our little spring-beauty is named. He made collections of the plants noted in that province and sent them to Gronovius, who published a ‘ Flora Virginica’ in 1739— a work known to Linnzus and constantly cited as his authority for American plants. Gronovius’ plants are still preserved in the British

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Se Pe, par ee te A ee SE a A A TESTS ELLE ELTON te eta Na a ERE I ORI Gm w « os ee oe oe CRYPTOGAMIA ALG. aIs7 Chara cadlibus aculeatis. Hort. elif. 477. Roy. lagds. 214. Chact migjer, caulibus fpinofis. Vill. ad: 1719. p. 18. t. 2. -f. 2. Bguitien ¢ Hipparis mufcofus fab aqua repens, PJxk, alm. 135 _t. 193. f. 6. Habitat in Extopz matitimis. q CHARA canulium articulis inermibus diaphanis fuper- fexitit, ne latioribus. J+. gotl. 215. Fl. fuec. 995- Chara transfiuens minor flexilis. Raj. angi. 3. p. 33. Habitat in Eutope: maritimis. TREMELLA., z. TREMELLA feffilis membranacea autiformis fulva. juniperina, Fi. faec. 1017. wae Byffus gelatinofa fugax, junipero innafcéns. Fi. app. at a Habitat in Juniperetis primo vere, 2, TREMELLA plicata undulata, FY. fuee. 1018, Noftoe, Tremella er finuofa pinguis & fugax. Dill, maf. $2. #. 10. f. 14, Byffus gelatinofa digax terreltris. £7. Japp. $30. Linkia terrefttis ery membrauacea vulgatiffima. Mich. gen. 126. t. 67. f. 3. Noftoc paracelfi.. 44. parif, 1708. p. 228. Habitat in Pratis poft pluvias. 3. TREMELLA feffilis membranacea auriformis cinee Awricnlé. rea. Fi. fuec. ~y > Agaticum auricule forma. "ee *3 124. ¢.66. f. 1. Fungorum perniciorum genus 1. Cluf. bift. 2. p.-276s Habitas ad Arbores. putridas. 4. TREMELLA frondibus ereétis planis: marginé cri- zicpensider, {po lacinulato. Fi. fuec. 1020. _ . Lichenoides pellucidum, endivia foliis tenuibus crifpis. Dill. mufe. 143. #-29. f.:31. Lichen terreftris membranaceus mollior fufcus, Mich. en..26, t. 38. ufco furigus terrefiris minor fufcus, foliis e latitudi- ne Te mufco inuafcens. Morif. bift. 3. pe 632. f. Is. t. 7 f. 4 Habitat in Mulcis, locis umbrofis ad monies. Dddd3 s; TRE- Fic. 7. Fac-simile of a page of Linnzus’s ‘Species Plantarum’ (1753). It is interesting to note that none of Linnzus’s species of 7remelia belong either to the modern genus Tremella, or to the family 7remellacee,

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 509 Museum. A little later came John Bartram who brought to his garden near Philadelphia many plants from the wilds of the southern states, over which he collected extensively. His garden with its quaint old house has appropriately been reserved for a park in which some of the memorials of his labors are still growing. Peter Kalm, whose memory is embalmed in Kalmia, the mountain laurel, was sent on a mission from Sweden primarily te investigate the American mulberry in the vain hope that Sweden might have an opportunity to compete with France in the silk industry. Kalm traveled through Pennsylvania, New York and Canada in 1748-51 and took back many plants which served as the originals of some of Linnzus’ descriptions. Near the time of our revolution another acute observer lived in New York, Cadwallader Colden by name, and once lieutenant governor of the province. Colden was also one of the correspondents of Linnzus, and a list of his plants was published from Upsala. But the real com- mencement of our botanical exploration began with two foreign botan- ists, who came to this country near the close of the eighteenth century, and a third at a little later period. These were Frederick Pursh and André Michaux, and later Thomas Nuttall. Michaux was sent from France to collect living plants for ornamental purposes, and as the result of his exploration took back to his native country more than sixty thousand woody plants. In 1793 he crossed the then wilderness of the Alleghanies into Ohio, going down the river as far as Louisville. Two years later he went farther and pushed up the Wabash to old Vincennes, crossed Illinois to the Mississippi, which he descended as far as the mouth of the Ohio, and then up the Cumberland and across to Charleston; he also went into Florida, then wholly inhabited by Indians. Pursh traveled less widely, but his knowledge of the Amer- ican flora was more extensive because of his contact with other botanists who supplied him with plants from their own collections. Both Pursh and Michaux published Floras of North America so-called, although the North America of their day was practically limited by the boundaries of the thirteen original colonies, with mere excursions into the wilderness of Indiana on the west, and Florida on the south. Michaux’s Flora, edited after his death by Richard, is dated 1803, and Pursh’s Flora appeared eleven years later. After them came Thomas Nuttall, who, true to his English instincts, was an extensive traveler. He was in the vicinity of St. Louis in 1810, ascended the Missouri as far as Fort Mandan in 1816, and the Arkansaw as far as Fort Smith in 1818. In 1834~35 he crossed the Rockies to Oregon and California. The results of his travels were published in his ‘ Genera of North Amer- ican Plants’ and other papers. It was in the early days of the nineteenth century that botanical activity commenced in New York. Samuel L. Mitchill was one of

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gre POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY the first to give instruction in botany, in the intervals when he was not in congress or the senate of the United States. After some strug- gles David Hosack, his successor as professor in the Medical College, secured the establishment of the Elgin Botanical Gardens in this city by aid from the state of New York. These gardens were located on the square bounded by Madison and Fifth Avenues and Fifty-first and Fifty-second Streets, and although south of the lower end of what is now Central Park, they were too remote from the New York city of a century ago to be much visited by the public, and with the pressure of other duties that came to Hosack they soon went into a decline, and the state finally turned them over to Columbia College, first, to man- age as a botanical garden and, finally, as this proved a white elephant, to use for whatever purpose they chose. With strange prescience, the college authorities held to their trust, though at times it was a financial burden, and now this same Elgin Botanical Garden, once so worthless, has become one of the foundations of a university’s wealth. A fitting memorial to Hosack may be seen in the two ancient yew trees that once stood in the Elgin Gardens, but now flank the approaches to the library of Columbia University. But Hosack was more than a mere enthusiast over botanical gardens. He had the gift of enthusing others, and among these was a young lawyer with the large jaw so characteristic of the profession, who afterwards became a teacher and finally went to Williams College. Here he spread the contagion for botanical study, and his students became so enthusiastic over the subject that they volunteered to publish his lectures in a book which became the first of a series of eight editions of the manuals of botany that appeared as precursors of Gray’s series of a later period. Amos Eaton owed his success to his large jaw—what has sometimes been called the ‘ oratorical jaw ’"—that first impelled him to enter the law. Not alone in botany, but in geology, were his auditors most enthusiastic over his lectures, and one of the state legislatures in joint session invited him to repeat one course before their body. Eaton was perhaps saved from the law for a higher mission through the force of the law itself. For the supposed mismanagement of an estate in Columbia county, he was for a time placed in a debtor’s prison in New York city. During his confinement there he amused himself by interesting the bright twelve- year-old son of the prison warden in the study of plants. Here Eaton unconsciously did his greatest work in botany, for the seed, so fortui- tously planted, took hold of that twelve-year-old boy and in later years he was known as the Nestor of American botany—John Torrey. But in those early days botany had few emoluments and no endowed chairs. The time for botanical work must be stolen from his recrea- tion hours when not active in his profession, so that while Torrey was

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 511 first and foremost a botanist from choice, he was a chemist by pro- fession, and managed to work at his beloved plants in the hours not spent in an assaying office or in teaching chemistry to the students of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His work on the American flora was perhaps the most critical that has ever been done, and when we consider the meager materials known in his period, we are pro- foundly impressed with his wonderful breadth of mind and the accuracy of his knowledge. So well was Torrey known in 1831 that Asa Gray, just through with his medical studies in central New York, sought out Torrey at New York and commenced his apprenticeship in botany under a master mind. What Gray afterwards became in American botany he owed in large measure to the start given him by John Torrey, a fact Gray himself was not slow to admit, and the friendship of the two men never ceased. Torrey provided Gray a curator’s post in the old Lyceum of Natural History in order that he might have the means to carry on his studies; he gave him the encouragement of a father, as well as of an instructor; and he finally associated Gray with himself in the preparation of the first great Flora of North America, a fact that gave Gray at once a name and a stand- ing among botanists abroad. The study on the flora early brought to . light the necessity of examining the types of American plants pre- served in the collections of Europe, and Torrey, unable to make many visits himself, made it possible for Gray to do this and thus come into personal contact with the older generation of botanical spirits of the old world. The call from Harvard came to Gray in 1843 and closed the combined work of Torrey and Gray on the ‘Flora of North America.” Changes in our national history, to which I shall allude later, shifted for a time the studies on the American flora, and before the further publication of the work was possible, Torrey had passed to his last sleep. Gray built up at Cambridge the herbarium and garden that bear his name, and after Torrey’s death continued his publication of the ‘ Synoptical Flora,’ but the work was left unfinished when Gray died in 1888. Contemporary with Torrey in his early days were two botanists we need to mention. One was Stephen Elliott, who published a sketch of the botany of Georgia in 1816-1824 and who may be fairly con- sidered the father of southern botany. Elliott’s successor was Dr. A. W. Chapman, who published three editions of the Flora of the Southern States before his death, and Chapman’s successor has recently given us an enlarged Flora of the same region. The other contemporary of Dr. Torrey was French in ancestry, a Turk by birth, a Sicilian by adoption, and a vagabond by nature, gifted, versatile, wildly enthusi- astic, erratic, much maligned and never understood either by his con- temporaries or by his biographers. His name was Rafinesque, which

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512 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY lends itself in rhyme with picturesque and grotesque, and both these adjectives fit him closely as the unique character of American botanical history. So ardent was he in his desire for new descriptions, that when there were no further plants within his reach, he took flight to the clouds and deliberately classified the form of thunder and light- ning. He published voluminously and so miscellaneously that some of his papers are still coming to light. Much of his work is worthless, yet there are veins of good interlarded among the bad that it still remains the task of the future to sift and save. In his crazy notions regarding the multiplicity of species, Rafinesque has had no equals, a few weakling imitators, and only one real successor. While the study of the higher plants was in progress at various places, there were fortunately only a few to study the lower ones. Schweinitz, a Moravian minister, commenced the study of American fungi first in North Carolina and afterwards at Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania. He was followed in his study in the south by another clergy- man, Moses A. Curtis, who attended to the spiritual needs of his parish on Sunday, and on Monday started out in his old gig for mushrooms. Curtis sent most of his material to Berkeley in Eng- land for description, so that the types are at Kew. Later two thirds of all our new fungi were described by Ellis, whose enormous collection is now in the New York Botanical Garden, and by the veteran state botanist of New York, Charles H. Peck, who alone represents the old school of mycologists. The lichens were early studied by Tucker- man, whose collection is at Cambridge, and the mosses by Sullivant and Lesquereux and later by Austin. Harvey early studied our alge, and he was succeeded by Farlow in New England and by Anderson on the Pacific Coast. Few students of the present generation are able to understand the conditions that were the rule in the past. A generation ago, instead of well-equipped laboratories of botany, the college boy was fortunate if he could have either botany or zoology as an undergraduate elective at all, and, of course, resident graduate work was practically unknown ; if botany was given at all, it was only as a two-hour subject for a short term when the common spring flowers were attainable, for botany then was litegally a study of flowers. The whole course of instruction fostered by the text-books of Gray and Wood led only to a dilettante sort of study which in most colleges was taken to fill in a snap elective for an easy time at the close of the senior year. No one thought seriously of botany; it was a sort of fringe on the educational garment, pretty enough, but only adapted to girls to be taken as an accomplish- ment and classed with decorative daubery and other fancy work. There were only three colleges in the entire country where there was a distinctive professor of botany, and at the best of them there was not

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 513 enough of the subject in the course to make three points for a full year. Asa Gray was professor at Harvard from 1843 to 1875, and during those thirty-two years, with the large undergraduate body of Harvard to draw on, and with the best facilities at that time that were offered in this country, only a single Harvard man of that period ever became a botanist. In fact, it was not the policy of Asa Gray to develop botanists; he was an ambitious man and he thought to hold the higher flora of North America in his own keeping; if any people attempted to do independent work, they were immediately criticized so roundly that only the bravest ever dared show his hand in print again. But there came a revolt. Asa Gray was, to use his own expression, ‘a closet botanist.’ After his early days in New York he rarely went afield even in the vicinity of his own home. He knew his plants only as they were found in the hortus siccus. He never saw the Mississippi or set foot on a prairie until he was sixty-two, and then took a single hurried trip across the continent with Sir J. D. Hooker. But there were others who studied afield, who knew their plants from their living habits rather than from their fragmentary mummies, and one er two were bold enough to make their own statements in opposition to ‘authority’ and to stand by them. One of these, a son of New Eng- land, but broadened by residence in Illinois, Wisconsin, Colorado and California, raised a standard against the one-man policy that had obtained so long in American botany, and his work was the cause of such mental strain that Gray’s nervous tension could not bear it. This revolutionist, stalwart and vigorous, in figure a hybrid between the Farnese Hercules and the Apollo Belvedere, was Edward Lee Greene, and his revolt was the signal for other and younger botanists who soon followed him in the arena. After Gray’s death in 1888, the center of study on the North American flora shifted from Cam- bridge, and new centers sprang up in Washington, at St. Louis, where George Engelmann, one of our German-American botanists, had long been at work, and in California, where Professor Greene then held a university chair. At New York, where botany had been largely dor- mant since the death of Torrey in 1873, the subject was revived under the leadership of a young man whose modesty forbids my pronouncing a eulogy on him living. To know how well he has developed this center of botanical work one has only to visit the New York Botanical Garden, at once his magnum opus and his monument. The period just preceding the entrance of some of the older of the present generation of botanists to their college studies was a brilliant one in European botany, but all foreign researches ‘were carefully hidden away from us as youngsters. All the splendid work of Hof- meister, of Nigeli, of Von Mohl and of De Bary was unknown to that group of American college students, and the appearance of Sachs’s VOL. Lxx.—33

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cS SS i sc i eer che a OE AC SLL TCL CE AE TEN WA eA eh ea 514 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY Botany in 1875 in English was the first intimation to many of us that we had been grossly defrauded in our college course and fed on the gray husks of the subject. Following the death of Gray, there was also a concerted move- ment towards a rational system of nomenclature for American plants, following the practise of zoologists in certain points, and finally result- ing in more fundamental methods of fixing the types of genera. The first effort leading towards unification was expressed in the so-called ‘Rochester Rules’ evolved after practically an all-night session of a committee at the Rochester meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1892 and passed by a practically unanimous vote the following day. These were modified the follow- ing year at the Madison meeting and some unfortunate minor details were introduced that brought about considerable antagonism. This opposition naturally attracted to itself a considerable contingent of morphological and physiological botanists who knew practically noth- ing about the subject, and never took the trouble to learn, beyond the fact that it produced some change in the use of names with which they had become familiar. Subsequently the necessity for the fixation of generic types’ became apparent as more serious study of the whole subject advanced, and new features were introduced into what is now known as the ‘ American Code of Nomenclature.’ The mutual con- cessions at the Vienna Congress of 1905 resulted in removing the most objectionable features of the propositions of both parties in the con- troversy, and in bringing about practical unanimity on this side of the water. Old beliefs die hard, however, and the region beyond the River Charles appears to be an appropriate place for beliefs to die. The doctrine of fiat creation as opposed to the doctrine of evolution died there a royal death with Louis Agassiz in 1873; and after two vigorous antemortem utterances on the subject by the generations past, the Kew rule, the last vestige of personal as opposed to rational usage in plant nomenclature, has recently stalked off the platform, and is now, so far as America is concerned, a thing of the dead past. It is interesting to note the effects of political history on a sub- ject so seemingly remote as botany. Before the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, German was almost unknown in our college courses except as an unusual elective. French was then considered the one necessary modern language. The unification of Germany changed all this, and the German language at once took its proper place in our system of * At the present time the zoologists of America are struggling over this problem of generic types, and ideas of what the principle really means are actually penetrating the German mind, slower in grasping the real significance of this problem. When this principle once takes root among the botanical workers on the continent, not even the ‘ railroading’ methods of the Vienna Con- gress will be able to stem the tide of real progress.

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 515 education. The works of German scholars, previously buried to all but the select few, became more widely known, and many of them were translated into English and thus brought within the reach of all students. The German language has become a sine qua non of the botanist in whatever field of investigation he enters, and a prominent cause of the backwardness and decline of botany in England, during the generation just past, is largely attributable to the fact that until very recently few of their botanists have been able to read the German language. A few influences were prominent in bringing about better instruc- tion in botany. Foremost among these was the introduction of the labo- ratory method in biology, when an impetus was given by Huxley and his students to zoology which reacted on the cognate science of plant life. While the laboratory method has often been carried. to an extreme, especially in the exclusion of field work as a means of culture, it has, nevertheless, resulted in developing in America a laboratory technique that is the envy of even the astute Germans. It is a well- known fact that with all the prowess of the German, it took an Amer- ican botanist to introduce into the German laboratory the method of the microtome with its serial section. Another factor was the more general introduction of better text- books and works of reference, a condition difficult for the younger generation to realize. I have mentioned the first translation of Sachs’ Botany in 1875. This was soon followed by the later work of De Bary and others. But even Sachs was too advanced for the average student of the early days. Perhaps no single book did more to serve as a logical introduction to the more advanced literature of the sub- ject and to give to younger students their first broad outlook in botany, than that issued in 1878 by one of the most successful teachers of botany in America—as well as one of the most genial of men—Pro- fessor Charles E. Bessey. Thirty years ago there were, as we have said, only three professors of botany in all this country. Now the species has become so common that one is no longer a novelty ; in the colleges of America there are now nearly one hundred botanical laboratories manned with from one to ten botanists each. Thirty years ago there was a single botanist at Washing- ton, regularly employed by the government to report on some new weed that appeared, and to assist the congressmen in their annual gifts of seeds to their constituents ; now we have at least one hundred and fifty in the well-equipped laboratories of the Bureaus of Plant Industry and For- estry at Washington alone, and nearly as many more at the fifty agricul- tural experiment stations in every state of the union, where all phases of botany, physiological, pathological and economic, are being arduously pursuec. Thirty years ago botany was a subject thought to be fit only

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 516 for girls, but now it ceases to cause a smile when full-grown men take to it seriously, though some of our antiquated coworkers in other university lines still wonder how it is possible to teach the subject except when the spring sunshine favors the growth of the early flowers! Space forbids us more than the mere mention of some of the varied divisions of the subject that under the hands of modern masters have grown to be broad special sciences of themselves, though still branches of botany. We need only mention the growth of paleobotany from the days of Newberry to its modern phases, as carried on by Jeffrey and Hollick; of cytology, under Harper and Davis; of embryology, under Coulter, Johnson and Campbell; of ecology, under Cowles and Clem- ents; of plant breeding, under Bailey and Webber; of mycology under Arthur, Thaxter and Burt; of economic botany, under Fernow and Rusby; and there are still other fields into which our science has broadened. It is interesting to note how the study of the American flora has gone hand in hand with the political development of the country. When Torrey and Gray published their first great flora of North America in 1838-1843, the territory of the United States, which was all it attempted to cover, was very largely east of the Mississippi. Buffaloes and Indians held the great west from Arkansas to the Saskatchewan. Texas was just struggling for freedom from Mexico, as Mexico herself had recently struggled to secure her own liberation from Spain. Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and all California were quiet Mexican provinces undisturbed by the searcher either for ore or for plants, as peaceful as when the first missionaries of the cross opened up their missions among them, two centuries before. Soon politics entered and commerce, its ally, followed in its wake. The annexation of Texas in 1845 was followed by the Mexican war, through which the region from Texas to Oregon came over as the first great expansion of American territory since the Louisiana purchase. Then on the heels of annexation came the discovery of gold in Cali- fornia, and the wild rush towards that Eldorado changed that terri- tory in a twelvemonths from a quiet colony to a great bustling state clamoring for its full rights, and seeking to be joined to her sister states, not only by the bonds of fraternity, but by the practical iron bands of the Pacific railroad that made commerce possible with them. In the wake of all this war, annexation, settlement, exploration for railroads, came the botanical explorer, and the floral wealth of the great West was poured into Eastern collections with Torrey at New York, and Gray at Cambridge, and to a much less degree with Engel- mann at St. Louis. A word of mention is due to some of the early and later botanical explorers to whom we owe so much in those days when it was less

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THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 517 possible than now for botanists themselves to extend their studies afield and learn the flora in its native heath and study it in its asso- ciations and in its relations to soil, temperature, moisture and climate. Among these early field botanists was Charles Wright, who explored Texas, New Mexico and Nicaragua, and all through the period of our civil war and later spent his years in Cuba and made known the flora that its native and introduced Spanish inhabitants had ever been expecting to study themselves in their glorious mafiana, the never- appearing period when this race does its leading work. Wright with his boyish spirit was Dr. Gray’s ‘Carlo, a name given not only in | sport, but seriously embalmed among plant names in Gray’s genus Carlowrightia. Then there were Fendler and Lindheimer, both Ger- man-Americans, who collected in Texas and New Mexico, and Fendler later in Panama, Venezuela, and last of all in Trinidad, where he died in 1883. There was also the old Pathfinder, Fremont, who made collections in California and over the Oregon trail; and Parry, quiet, open-hearted, the type of the sincere botany man, who ranged over the great west from his home in Iowa to the Mexican boundary and the golden gate of the Pacific. Later, Lemmon explored the high Sierras and Arizona, and Brandegee, led on from his surveys of the Denver and Rio Grande, left enginering for botany and explored from the Great Basin to the lowest confines of Baja California.. Both of these were followed by the veteran collector, Pringle, who finding Arizona and California too small for his ambitions, traveled year after year through- out Mexico from Chihuahua to Tehuantepec. Time forbids the men- tion of the many others, even by name, who, in their untiring zeal for botanical exploration, not unlike those mentioned by the sacred writer, “subdued kingdoms . . . quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword . . . out of weakness were made strong . . . wandered about in sheep-skins and goat skins . . . of whom the world was not worthy.” To these botanical explorers we owe a debt of profound gratitude.

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SERVICE By FRED DELAND PITTSBURGH, PA, IX. TELEPHONE LINE CoNnsTRUCTION. ] N 1876 the wires used for telegraph circuits were usually of iron or steel, because the tensile strength permitted of long spans and comparatively long sag. At that period hard-drawn copper line wire was unknown, and it is problematical whether the volume of traffic passing over the average telegraph wire at that time, outside of the main trunk lines, would have justified the heavy initial investment required to string copper circuits. Thus it came about that iron and steel wires were naturally adopted for telephone lines. About that time George B. Prescott wrote that a very short experience with copper line wires both in this country and in Europe, proved that this metal was altogether unsuitable for the purpose, its sole recommendation consisting in its superior conductivity, and it was, there- fore, soon replaced by iron wire of large diameter. But T. B. Doolittle proved how fallacious that theory was, by producing a hard drawn copper wire in 1877, that, as stated in Chapter V., proved of inestimable value to telephone interests the world over. This failure on the part of soft drawn copper wire to satisfactorily serve as line wire was due to the unpleasant habit it had of not staying where it was placed; it lacked the physical stamina to support itself, and would break with its own weight. This fact was well known to telephone men. Yet few perceived the merit in Mr. Doolittle’s im- provement, or took kindly to it until forced to do so by later conditions. In 1880, three years after Mr. Doolittle’s experimental hard drawn copper line had been strung in Ansonia, Connecticut, a telephone line gang started to string a toll circuit between Hartford and New Britain, but completed less than five miles. This circuit consisted of one No. 18 soft drawn copper ‘ office’ wire, having a double braided cotton covering saturated with paraffine; but by reason of the long spans between the poles the sag was sufficient to cause the small soft wire to break with its own weight. Thus, after spending several days in rejoining broken ends, the circuit was abandoned, and iron wire strung in its place. In cities and wherever the iron circuits were subjected to the de- ‘structive effects of atmospheric action, especially where much bitu- minous coal was used, oxidization shortened the life of the circuits in

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SYSTEM 519 the pioneer telephone days, just as now happens thirty years later. The prevailing belief among the early telephone men was that iron wire would have an average life of from fifteen to twenty years. But it only required a brief experience to show that many iron circuits on city pole lines, even of extra best (E. B. B.), had an average life of less than four years, and that rapid rusting rendered some circuits worthless within three years. . For pole lines, chestnut was the principal wood used in 1876, though there were also many white and some red cedar poles used, and here and there a few locust and oak poles were occasionally utilized. The number of poles then placed to the mile varied according to the climate and the breadth of view of the owner. Ordinarily they ranged from fifteen to forty, the average in the northern states being from twenty-five to thirty, according to the downward range in tem- perature. As a rule, poles 25 feet in length answered every purpose, for there were no other lines to interfere, while 4-inch or 5-inch tops offered sufficient support to carry the few wires required in 1878-80. Now-a-days the approved practise in building telephone trunk lines is to require selected heavy chestnut or cedar poles, not less than eight inches in diameter at the top, and with a corresponding heavy butt, and in length ranging from thirty to fifty feet, depending on the contour of the country and the number of circuits to be carried. From forty-four to fifty of these poles are placed per mile, while the depth that they are set in the ground ranges from five feet to nine feet, depending on the length of the pole and the character of the soil or rock. It may be recalled that in the first circular issued by ‘the pro- prietors of the telephone,’ dated Cambridge, Mass., May, 1877, Gardiner G. Hubbard stated that telegraph lines will be constructed by the proprietors, if desired. The price will vary from $100 to $150 a mile; any good mechanic can construct a line; No. 9 wire costs 81% cents a pound, 320 pounds to the mile; 34 insulators at 25 cents each; the price of poles and setting varies in every locality; stringing wire $5 per mile; sundries, $10 per mile. At the first glance the amount of material shown in that estimate may appear somewhat inadequate, judged by modern methods of stan- dard pole line construction, calling for forty-four poles to the mile. Yet a moment’s study will show that the proposed line was substantially planned, was far stronger and would probably possess far better talking qualities than some present day private ‘lines. In an elaborate cata- logue issued by a manufacturing telephone company in 1906, twenty- nine years after Mr. Hubbard’s circular was issued, the following estimate appears : To give something of an idea of the expense of building one mile of line, grounded circuit (1 wire), we submit the following items. We do not estimate

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520 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY the cost of poles, which can usually be obtained in your own locality, using twenty-five 25-foot, 5-inch top poles to the mile: 165 Ibs. No, 12 galvanized B. B. iron wire ........ $6.80 i ccks ek ediesreerceeeeseneceenes .30 Ns on dein ae ce eseeeednne 37 25 60-penny and 25 40-penny nails ............... .25 $7.72 On February 1, 1878, the Bell Telephone Company of Boston, the second of the parent associations, issued circular No. 3, reading in part: When the (District telegraph) company does not desire (to introduce) the Bell telephone, a District telephone company should be organized, and metallic cir- cuits constructed, running from the central office to various parts of the city... . The stock to be issued for the cost, in any case, should not exceed one hundred dollars a mile of wire, including all fixtures. Evidently good telephone line construction was considered too ex- pensive to justify introducing the telephone in many places, for one year later, the parent company issued a circular bearing the caption ‘Telephonic Exchange System,’ and detailing a combination of the advantages of the different exchanges in operation. Therein it barely touched upon the construction of line circuits, but called attention to the now well-known fact ‘ that repairs on line’ are part of the current expense, an item that companies organized during late years have been prone to charge to construction and capitalize. But later, in 1879, the third parent company issued a pamphlet of instructions from which the following item is taken: The line wire generally used is the No. 12 galvanized iron, and a line built of this wire, if securely put up, will last for years without repairs. Where a cheaper line is desired, No. 14 or 16 iron wire, or a small copper or brass wire may be used, but smaller wires than No. 12 are very liable to be broken by storms and high winds, and it is always cheaper in the end to use wire at least as large as No. 12. In towns or cities the wire can be run over house-tops, using small glass pony insulators and wooden brackets. About thirty of these insulators and brackets are needed for a line one mile long. They can be nailed to the side of a chimney, to the ridge-pole or side of a house, or to a pole. When there are no houses to support the wire, poles must be used. These are generally about twenty feet long, four inches in diameter at the top, and are set four feet into the ground. Care should be taken to keep the wire from touching anything except the glass insulators. The line wire should terminate on the outside of the stations, and the connections be made to the instruments by No. 16 or No. 18 insulated office wire, which is wound tightly around the iron wire and soldered. Possibly construction of so cheap a character was too costly to meet the approval of many early operating companies, so to meet this uneconomical demand for cheapness regardless of permanency, a new set of instructions was issued by the parent company, which read, in part, as follows: Lines up to six miles in length can be built of No. 14 galvanized iron B. B. wire. Lines over six miles and not over 25 miles should be built either of No. 11 or No. 12 galvanized iron B. B. wire. Lines over 25 miles in length should be built of No. 11 galvanized iron B. B. wire. We recommend the use of porcelain in-

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SYSTEM _ 521 sulators, they being the best as well as the cheapest. Trees, house-tops and poles can be used in the construction of a line. When fastening a line to a tree, let your wire slack enough to swing to and fro with the tree, otherwise your line will be broken during a windstorm. Tree limbs or branches touching the wire have no bad effect on the telephone, but should be avoided if easily possible. A pole should be set no less than three feet in the earth and eighteen to thirty to the mile. Always try and keep your poles in a straight line. The flimsy character of such cheap and improper telephone line construction is readily apparent, and we now wonder why the local owners should have been led into such expensive errors. Yet the waste of thousands of dollars in construction of the cheapest character is readily explainable on the ground that few had any faith in the future of telephone service; .t was an experiment that might require years to demonstrate its value; thus capitalists refused to countenance the large initial expenditures required in constructing pole lines possessing qualities of permanency and stability. Again, this kind of line construction was just as good, and in some cases far superior, to that adopted by several telegraph companies dur- ing the decade preceding the invention of the telephone. This is shown in the report rendered in 1868, by C. F. Varley, a well-known _ electrician of the English telegraph companies, who made a thorough inspection of telegraph lines in the United States. Mr. Reid states that this report, which was very minute and exhaustive, was a startling revelation of the condi- tion of the American wires. The obstruction by imperfect joints, by relay magnets of all grades of resistance, by impure wire, by contact, by defective and neglected insulation was more or less universal. Many of the original wires were small, naked, full of joints made in all conceivable ways, into which the detained moisture ate a path of rust and ruin. Eight years later, that is, in 1875, David Brooks wrote: The rates of telegraphing in this country have always been high, yet but few of the stockholders or those who furnish the money to construct the lines have ever received any return for their investments. In most cases the Morse patent was sold to individuals who organized companies, received subscriptions to stock, and constructed the lines, deriving personally large profits thereby. Usually, about three times the amount of money necessary to build the lines was sub- scribed by the stockholders, and an equal amount of stock was issued for the patent; so that those organizing the companies not only derived large profits from the construction of the lines, but also held the controlling interest in the stock. By this mode of procedure a few individual speculators have each suc- ceeded in realizing far greater profits from the Morse patent than were ever realized by its inventor. In 1880, the parent Bell company issued further instructions that it believed would be of service to the operating telephone companies, stating: It is advisable, where there are numerous wires, to have a cupola erected on the roof of the building where the central office is located, and through it the line wires are conducted to the operating-room. . . . The cupola is about six feet

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522 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY square, eight feet high above the eaves, and about eighteen inches more at the ridge-pole. . . . It is better to have the cupola open into the operating room when the room is in the top story of a building, and cleats are fastened round the inside, bored with a number of holes, corresponding to the number of wires required. . : . The wires, after entering are led to the lightning arrester, then run through the holes in the cleats, which run round the base of the cupola, to the ceiling of the operating room, along which they are carried, on other hard wood cleats, to the switchboard. .., Where the main lines are not sufficiently numerous to render a cupola necessary, they may be brought through a window in the central office. ... (Fig. 37.) The line wires are strung on (pony) glass in- sulators, which are fitted to wooden pins, driven into crossarms. These crossarms are supported on poles or house-top fix- tures, which should be run in trunk-routes through the city or town, branch lines be- ing run to any desired point. It is advan- tageous to use poles wherever practicable, for the following reasons: Pole lines are not liable to interference from household- ers, being entirely out of their control; they are much more accessible at all times, and when they are out of order at all the trouble is more easily located and removed; the cost is generally about the same, where the number of wires to be carried does not exceed forty or fifty. Poles should be not less than twenty-five feet long, with a diam- eter of six inches at the top; and should be set five feet in the ground. Before being set up, poles should be carefully stripped of the bark, and, when used in cities, should be painted. It is the usual practise to place all the crossarms on one side of the pole, fastening them with bolts and nuts. It is sometimes, how- ever, absolutely necessary to run house-top lines. Trunk routes should then be selected, and along these routes structures must be erected at an average dis- tance of about three hundred feet apart. Fig. 38 represents a roof fixture, with four cross-bars, each bar having glass insulators on its upper side, and ‘hook’ insulators on its under side, thus doubling its capacity for carrying wires. Hooks being expensive, porcelain knobs may be substituted for them as an economical measure. (A foot note reads: It is much better to avoid adding hook or other fixtures to the lower edge of cross-bars. It is apt to bring the wires too near together, and cause trouble from ‘induction.’ It should be done only when new fixtures cannot possibly be erected.) A correct idea of a ‘ double wall fixture’ may be obtained from Fig. 39. It is in many cases desirable to use this style of fixture in preference to a roof fixture, as removing all danger of causing leaks in roofs; or in cases where flat roofs are not attainable, or where the point of support is necessarily a high party wall or the side wall of a building. . . . Bad construction, necessitating frequent clambering over roofs, while it may do no real harm to the premises, annoys owners and tenants, whose condemnations and complaints soon reach the ears of others, and this is apt to put stumbling-blocks in the way of securing permission for entering upon new Fig. 37.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SYSTEM 523 premises. Besides these reasons, it can readily be seen that work is the cheapest in the end that does not need extensive or frequent repairs. Only the old-timers can appreciate what endless trouble was caused by careless linemen climbing on the roofs of residences and attaching wires, without consulting owner or occupant. For a costly experience soon showed that many tin or asphaltum roofs that were in apparent good order, before trespassed upon, were punctured or broken by the negligent dropping of a hatchet or other tool, or by heavily walking over weak parts. Then shingles and boards were split by big nails improperly driven to fasten insulator or bracket, bricks were chipped | Fa Fr al Fig. 38. and paint knocked off. To the owner, the aggravating part was that this damage was not likely to be discovered until the next heavy rain, and then so long a time elapsed between the trespass and the injury that it was difficult to say just who was to blame. As the number of subscriber lines increased in the early days, the necessity of longer and heavier poles became apparent. Then the use of higher poles resulted in the attaching of more cross-arms to the main line, until finally the principal object of some companies ap- peared to be to determine how many open wires a pole line could safely carry. For there are records of pole lines in many cities carrying as high as a hundred open wires, while in a few cities from 150 to 200 wires were carried. What is said to have been the largest and highest telephone pole line in the world was erected on West Street in New York City. The poles forming this line were of Norway pine ranging from sixty to ninety feet in height and carrying from twenty-five to thirty crossarms each.

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY THE VALUE OF SCIENCE By M. H. POINCARE MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE 4. ‘Nominalism’ and ‘ the Unwersal Invariant’ F from facts we pass to laws, it is clear that the part of the free ac- tivity of the scientist will become much greater. But did not M. LeRoy make it still too great? This is what we are about to examine, Recall first the examples he has given. When I say: Phosphorus melts at 44°, I think I am enunciating a law; in reality it is just the definition of phosphorus; if one should discover a body which, pos- sessing otherwise all the properties of phosphorus, did not melt at 44°, we should give it another name, that is all, and the law would remain true. Just so when I say: Heavy bodies falling freely pass over spaces proportional to the squares of the times, I only give the definition of free fall. Whenever the condition shall not be fulfilled, I shall say that the fall is not free, so that the law will never be wrong. It is clear that if laws were reduced to that, they could not serve in prediction; then they would be good for nothing, either as means of knowledge, or as principle of action. When I say: Phosphorus melts at 44°, I mean by that: All bodies possessing such or such a property (to wit, all the properties of phos- phorus, save fusing-point) fuse at 44°. So understood, my proposi- tion is indeed a law, and this law may be useful to me, because if I meet a body possessing these properties I shall be able to predict that it will fuse at 44°. Doubtless the law may be found to be false. Then we shall read in the treatises on chemistry: “There are two bodies which chemists long confounded under the name of phosphorus; these two bodies differ only by their points of fusion.” That would evidently not be the first time for chemists io attain to the separation of two bodies they were at first not able to distinguish ; such, for example, are neodymium and praseodymium, long confounded under the name of didymium. I do not think the chemists much fear that a like mischance will ever happen to phosphorus. And if, to suppose the impossible, it ‘should happen, the two bodies would probably not have identically the same density, identically the same specific heat, etc., so that, after having determined with care the density, for instance, one could still foresee the fusion point.

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THE VALUE OF SCIENCE 525 It is, moreover, unimportant; it suffices to remark that there is a law, and that this law, true or false, does not reduce to a tautology. Will it be said that if we do not know on the earth a body which does not fuse at 44° while having all the other properties of phos- phorus, we can not know whether it does not exist on other planets? Doubtless that may be maintained, and it would then be inferred that the law in question, which may serve as a rule of action to us who inhabit the earth, has yet no general value from the point of view of knowledge, and owes its interest only to the chance which has placed us on this globe. This is possible, but, if it were so, the law would be - valueless, not because it reduced to a convention, but because it would be false. The same is true in what concerns the fall of bodies. It would do me no good to have given the name of free fall to falls which happen in conformity with Galileo’s law, if I did not know that else- where, in such circumstances, the fall will be probably free or approzi- mately free. That then is a law which may be true or false, but which does not reduce to a convention. Suppose the astronomers discover that the stars do not exactly obey Newton’s law. They will have the choice between two attitudes; they may say that gravitation does not vary exactly as the inverse of the square of the distance, or else they may say that gravitation is not the only force which acts on the stars and that there is in addition a different sort of force. In the second case, Newton’s law will be considered as the definition of gravitation. This will be the nominalist attitude. The choice between the two attitudes is free, and is made from considerations of convenience, though these considerations are most often so strong that there remains practically little of this freedom. We can break up this proposition: (1) The stars obey Newton’s law, into two others; (2) gravitation obeys Newton’s law; (3) gravitation is the only force acting on the stars. In this case proposition (2) is no longer anything but a definition and is beyond the test of experi- ment; but then it will be on proposition (3) that this check can be exercised. This is indeed necessary, since the resulting proposition (1) predicts verifiable facts in the rough. It is thanks to these artifices that by an unconscious nominalism the scientists have elevated above the laws what they call principles. When a law has received a sufficient confirmation from experiment, we may adopt two attitudes: either we may leave this law in the fray; it will then remain subjected to an incessant revision, which without any doubt will end by demonstrating that it is only approximative. Or else we may elevate it into a principle by adopting conventions such that the proposition may be certainly true. For that the pro-

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526 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY cedure is always the same. The primitive law enunciated a relation between two facts in the rough, A and B; between these two crude facts is introduced an abstract intermediary C, more or less fictitious (such was in the preceding example the impalpable entity, gravita- tion). And tlien we have a relation between A and C that we may suppose rigorous and which is the principle; and another between C and B which remains a Jaw subject to revision. The principle, henceforth crystallized, so to speak, is no longer subject to the test of experiment. It is not true or false, it is con- venient. Great advantages have often been found in proceeding in that way, but it is clear that if all the laws had been transformed into principles nothing would be left of science. Every law may be broken up into a principle and a law, but thereby it is very clear that, however far this partition be pushed, there will always remain laws. Nominalism has therefore limits, and this is what one might fail to recognize if one took to the very letter M. LeRoy’s assertions. A rapid review of the sciences will make us comprehend better what are these limits. The nominalist attitude is justified only. when it is convenient; when is it so? Experiment teaches ‘us relations between bodies; this is the fact in the rough; these relations are extremely complicated. Instead of envisaging directly the relation of the body A and the body B, we introduce between them an intermediary, which is space, and we envisage three distinct relations: that of the body A with the figure A’ of space, that of the body B with the figure B’ of space, that of the two figures A’ and B’ to each other. Why is this detour advantageous? Because the relation of A and B was complicated, but differed little from that of A’ and B’, which is simple; so that this complicated rela- tion may be replaced by the simple relation between A’ and B’ and by two other relations which tell us that the differences between A and A’, on the one hand, between B and B’, on the other hand, are very small. For example, if A and B are two natural solid bodies which are dis- placed with slight deformation, we envisage two movable rigid figures A’ and B’. The laws of the relative displacements of these figures A’ and B’ will be very simple; they will be those of geometry. And we shall afterwards add that the body A, which always differs very little from A’, dilates from the effect of heat and bends from the effect of elasticity. These dilatations and flexions, just because they are very small, will be for our mind relatively easy to study. Just imagine “ to what complexities of language it would have been necessary to be resigned if we had wished to comprehend in the same enunciation the displacement of the solid, its dilatation and its flexure? The relation between A and B was a rough law, and was broken up;

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THE VALUE OF SCIENCE 527 we now have two laws which express the relations of A and A’, of B and B’, and a principle which expresses that of A’ with B’. It is the aggre- gate of these principles that is called geometry. Two other remarks. We have a relation between two bodies A and B, which we have replaced by a ‘relation between two figures A’ and B’; but this same relation between the same two figures A’ and B’ could just as well have replaced advantageously a relation between two other bodies A” and B”, entirely different from A and B. And that in many ways. If the principles and geometry had not been invented, after having studied the relation of A and B, it would be necessary to begin again ab ovo the study of the relation of A” and B” That is why geometry is so precious. A geometrical relation can advantageously replace a relation which, considered in the rough state, should be regarded as mechanical, it can replace another which should be re- garded as optical, etc. Yet let no one say: But that proves geometry an experimental science; in separating its principles from laws whence they have been drawn, you artificially separate it itself from the sciences which have given birth to it. The other sciences have likewise principles, but that does not preclude our having to call them experimental. _ It must be recognized that it would have been difficult not to make this separation that is pretended to be artificial. We know the réle that the kinematics of solid bodies has played in the genesis of geometry; should it then be said that geometry is only a branch of experimental kinematics? But the laws of the rectilinear propagation of light have also contributed to the formation of its principles. Must geometry be regarded both as a branch of kinematics and as a branch ‘of optics? I recall besides that our Euclidean space which is the proper object of geometry has been chosen, for reasons of convenience, from among a certain number of types which preexist in our mind and which are czlled groups. ; If we pass to mechanics, we still see great principles whose origin is analogous, and, as their ‘ radius of action,’ so to speak, is smaller, there is no longer reason to separate them from mechanics proper and to regard this science as deductive. In physics, finally, the réle of the principles is still more diminished. And in fact they are only introduced when it is of advantage. Now they are advantageous precisely because they are few, since each of them very nearly replaces a great number of laws. Therefore it is not of interest to multiply them. Besides an outcome is necessary, and for that it is needful to end by leaving abstraction to take hold of reality. Such are the limits of nominalism, and they are narrow. M. LeRoy has insisted, however, and he has put the question under another form.

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528 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY Since the enunciation of our laws may vary with the conventions that we adopt, since these conventions may modify even the natural relations of these laws, is there in the manifold of these laws some- thing independent of these conventions and which may, so to speak, play the réle of universal invariant? For instance, the fiction has been introduced of beings who, having been educated in a world dif- ferent from ours, would have been led to create a non-Euclidean geometry. If these beings were afterward suddenly transported into our world, they would observe the same laws as we, but they would enunciate them in an entirely different way. In truth there would still be something in common between the two enunciations, but this is because these beings do not yet differ enough from us. Beings still more strange may be imagined, and the part common to the two sys- tems of enunciations will shrink more and more. Will it thus shrink in convergence toward zero, or will there remain an irreducible residue which will then be the universal invariant sought ? The question calls for precise statement. Is it desired that this common part of the enunciations be expressible in words? It is clear then that there are not words common to all languages, and we can not pretend to construct I know not what universal invariant which should be understood both by us and by the fictitious non-Euclidean geometers of whom I have just spoken; no more than we can construct a phrase which can be understood both by Germans who do not under- stand French and by French who do not understand German. But we have fixed rules which permit us to translate the French enuncia- tions into German, and inversely. It is for that that grammars and dictionaries have been made. ‘There are also fixed rules for translating the Euclidean language into the non-Euclidean language, or, if there are not, they could be made. And even if there were neither interpreter nor dictionary, if the Germans and the French, after having lived centuries in separate worlds, found themselves all at once in contact, do you think there would be nothing in common between the science of the German books and that of the French books? The French and the Germans would certainly end by understanding each other, as the American Indians ended by understanding the language of their omg after the arrival of the Spanish. But, it will be said, doubtless the French would be capable of understanding the Germans even without having learned German, but this is because there remains between the French and the Germans something in common, since both are men. We should still attain to an understanding with our hypothetical non-Euclideans, though they be not men, because they would still retain something human. But in any case a minimum of humanity is necessary.

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THE VALUE OF SCIENCE 529 This is possible, but I shall observe first that this little humanness which would remain in the non-Euclideans would suffice not only to make possible the translation of a little of their language, but to make possible the translation of all their language. Now, that there must be a minimum is what I concede; suppose there exists I know not what fluid which penetrates between the molecules of our matter, without having any action on it and without being subject to any action coming from it. Suppose beings sensible to the influence of this fluid and insensible to that of our matter. It is clear that the science of these beings would differ absolutely from ours and that it would be idle to seek an ‘ invariant’ common to these two sciences. Or again, if these beings rejected our logic and did not admit, for instance, the principle of contradiction. But truly I think it without interest to examine such hypotheses. And then, if we do not push whimsicality so far, if we introduce only fictitious beings having senses analogous to ours and sensible to the same impressions, and moreover admitting the principles of our logic, we shall then be able to conclude that their language, however different from ours it may be, would always be capable of translation. Now the possibility of translation implies the existence of an invariant. To translate is precisely to disengage this invariant. Thus, to decipher a cryptogram is to seek what in this document remains invariant, when the letters are permuted. What now is the nature of this invariant it is easy to understand, and a word will suffice us. The invariant laws are the relations between the crude facts, while the relations between the ‘ scientific facts’ remain always dependent on certain conventions. (To be concluded) VOL. Lxx.—34

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE AND ITS RELATION TO THOUGHT: By ALEX. HILL, M.A., M.D. MASTER OF DOWNING COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE _— a few years the great Samuel Johnson kept an academy for young gentlemen. It was not a success, despite the fact that he had the two Garricks as pupils. Johnson was not fitted for the work. Yet, little as Johnson succeeded as a teacher, he was himself a monument of mental training—his memory colossal, his style the classic for the English language, his wit so keen as to make Boswell’s six volumes of biography perennially good reading. If he could not teach others, he had succeeded in teaching himself. We are bound to give due weight to his views on his own education. To what did he attribute its success ? When Langton asked lfim how he had acquired so accurate a knowl- edge of Greek and Latin, ‘the Doctor’ replied: “ My master whipped me very well; without that, sir, I should have done nothing.” “TI would rather have the rod a general terror to all to make them learn than tell a child: ‘If you do thus or thus, you will be esteemed above your brothers and sisters.’ The rod produces an effect which termi- nates in itself, whereas by exciting emulation and comparisons of superiority you lay the foundations of lasting mischief.” The rod was Johnson’s instrument of education. What were his materials? What subject did he consider as the most suitable vehicles of education? A single illustration will reveal his whole mind. Writing to a young friend who had asked his advice as to the best subjects for him to study before entering the university—he must have been a lad of fifteen or sixteen years old—Johnson says: “I know not well what books to direct you to because you have not informed me what study you will apply yourself to. I think it will be best for you to apply yourself wholly to the languages until you go to the uni- versity. ‘The Greek authors I recommend you to read are these: Cebes, félian, Lucian, Xenophon, Homer, Theocritus, Euripides. Thus you will be tolerably skilled in the dialects, beginning with Attic, to which the rest must be referred.” ‘Then follows a still more appalling list of Latin writers. Johnson “does not know the study to which his young friend intends to apply himself.” But, whatever his destined 1 Presidential address to the Teachers’ Guild of Great Britain and Ireland, delivered at University College, London, May 22, 1906.

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THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE 531 profession—law, medicine, the Church or mercantile life—he has no doubt as to the course of preliminary training. So far as one can judge, his system was uniform and invariable for all kinds of mind, for all walks in life—Greek and Latin driven in with the rod. “ Boys, be pure in heart,” said Keate, the famous Eton Head Master; “ I'll flog you if you are not.” “ Boys acquire a tolerable knowledge of the dialects,” said Johnson; “take in your knowledge through the eye and ear if you can; but, if you fail to do this, I will undertake to insert it through some other part of your personality.” His recom- mendations to his young friend are pellucidly ingenuous. He is to apply himself to the languages and even to the dialects. There is no pretence in this. No false issue is raised. Johnson does not for a moment suggest that his young friend has anything to gain from the subject-matter of Alian’s or Xenophon’s or Theocritus’s works. The scholars of the Renaissance studied Latin and Greek for the sake of getting at the writer’s thought. They found that Greeks and Romans knew so much more than they did, and argued so keenly about what they knew, that it seemed futile to medieval students to obtain knowl- edge at first hand. Plato and Aristotle could teach them more than they could ever find out for themselves. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the wisdom of Plato and Aristotle had been ab- sorbed into modern thought. The reason for studying Greek and Latin had gone. Yet the languages had a firmer hold upon the schools and universities than they had ever had before. Their study molded the mind of Johnson, and has molded the minds of the greatest of our statesmen, lawyers, philosophers ever since. Why should the languages produce such admirable results? John- son does not recognize French, German, Italian as coming within the category of languages when thinking of education. They may be useful for business, or even for lighter employment; but they do not train the mind. Why should languages which have lost their purpose as means of communication possess virtues which living languages can not acquire? In a limited sense their uselessness is their chief merit. Amo, amas, amat. The boy who learns the meaning of j'aime or ich liebe might have an eye upon the possible application of this knowledge; but amo, amas—he would not be understood even by a modern Roman maiden! If attention is to be concentrated wholly upon language as a means, there must be no risk of distraction due to the contemplation of its possible end. “ Waiter, ’mroxgs!/” called the little boy in Punch. “Oh, Freddy, that isn’t the way to pronounce m-e-r-i-n-g-u-e-s |”— “ Tt’s the way to get em!” When we are working at a living language thought passes on ahead to the end to be gained. It is only when a dead language is being studied that attention can be wholly devoted to its form. A modern language is studied with a view to ‘ getting

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532 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY there,’ as an American would phrase it. Only a dead language can be looked at as a vehicle, with due regard to its carrying capacity and its power of going, but with no thought of either its particular cargo or its destination. For something like ten years a public-school boy is daily exercised in the analysis of sentences in Latin and Greek and in the construction of sentences in the same style. He is working at languages which are elaborately inflected, and articulated according to almost innumerable rules. It is a mental exercise which is not supplied in quite the same form by means of the analysis and synthesis of English. German, French, Italian are troublesome to learn; but it is not the rules, but their infraction, the perversities of the language, which tax the memory. Greek and Latin are far from being guiltless of ‘ exceptions’ ; yet their architecture, although more elaborate, adheres more closely to a type-form than does that of any modern European language. Each year the schoolboy becomes more expert in expressing, in Eng- lish, the meaning of his classic author. He recognizes the force, in the expression of thought, of case and mood and voice. He notes the effect upon sense of the position and juxtaposition of words, and of the substitution of one word for another which at first glance appears to mean the same thing. And, since, psychologically, it is impossible to distinguish between thought and the expression of thought, his power of thinking develops pari passu with his capacity of giving form to his thoughts. He acquires a feeling for style—the compromise between yielding to the gratification of the ear and the businesslike jerking out of words—the response to the music of language without forgetfulness of its meaning—style, a quality which all the adjectives in the dic- tionary leave undefined. A man who has had a classical education has a craftsman’s feeling for literature: he regards it as an artist regards a picture. The only questions which a layman asks are: ‘Is it beau- tiful?’ and ‘What does it mean?’ The artist can never quite dis- sociate his criticism of the result from his consideration of the means by which it was attained. The mind-making property of the study of the classics has been established beyond all doubt by innumerable experiments made upon juvenile minds of all types. It does not appear to me that, in the face of this mass of accumulated evidence, it can be regarded as a question open to dispute. It is not equally clear that the study of the classics stands alone in its potentiality of generating the power of thinking. Owing to the monopoly of the classics in the best class of schools, for the past three hundred years, other subjects have had no chance of showing what they can do. The teaching of the classics has, pace the reformers who are calling out for improved methods, been brought to perfection by generations of school masters, working under the guidance of daily experience;

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THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE 533 not aiming at the application of theories which might or might not hold true. The teaching of ‘modern’ subjects has not as yet settled into custom similarly guided by the observation of results. The essential difference between the classical and the modern system is the difference between training and teaching. A classical education is practically a training pure and simple: a modern education is a com- bination of training and teaching with mainly a teaching aim. In the pressure and struggle of life it is undoubtedly to the advantage of young people that they should, when they leave school, not only have the strength and agility which will enable them to use any weapon, but also skill in handling the particular weapons with which they will be called upon to fight. Like most other questions, there is no absolute distinction between the two systems—their difference is a matter of degree. The parent to whom money is of no consequence may allow his sons an indefinite—that is to say, a classical—training in the assurance that they will afterwards get a surer and more intel- ligent grasp of the subjects upon which will depend their success in the battle of life. He is wise in allowing them to continue their general mental training if he is quite sure that the delay thus caused will not prevent them from making their way to the first fighting rank when they come to the front. Such a delay is not, so far as I can judge, detrimental to success in preparing for the professions. Rather is the delay a good thing in itelf, for various more or less indirect reasons which we need not discuss. But in the case of com- mercial life the handicap is, I gather, heavily in favor of those who are early in the field. The luxury of a classical education may prove costly, either by delaying the acquisition of business methods, or by causing the novice to hurry over and consequently to scamp the inevitable routine of business training. Every business is based upon knowledge of a specialized kind. It may be little more than bookkeeping, or it may include a considerable acquaintance with vari- ous branches of geography, science, modern languages, or other sub- jects. The successful merchant who is fond of asserting that his sons must begin their work young by ‘ learning to lick stamps’ is thinking of the business machine which he has made, and which will continue to work so long as it is kept well oiled; he is not thinking of new developments, new competition, new needs for adaptation which will give fortunes to those who have brains and take them away from mere office machines. ‘ Licking stamps’ was not the basis and source of the business methods which he himself developed, although he is fond of vaunting it as the open sesame of an ever-swelling banking account. It is a perverse and paradoxical expression of a half-truth; but its enunciation indicates a stupid incapacity of recognizing the causes of success in the past, and a still more stupid inability to recognize the trend of the forces which will make for success in the future.

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534 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY Already innovations are being made in the training for commercial life. We shall probably see greater changes in the future. As a preparation for professional life—a ‘training’ in the athletic sense of the term—the classics hold the field. They develop the muscles of the mind, without attempting to give specialized skill in their use. The story of their attainment to this supreme position in education is a curious one. It is a story of blundering along the right road, reaching the right goal with the wrong end in view. During the Renaissance, men relearned the languages in which the. knowledge of the ancients was enshrined, in order that they might extract their treasures of science and thought. With this fresh growth of learning, scholars felt the need of a common language in which to acquire knowledge and to express the results of their investigations. It was a necessity in the days of oral teaching and itinerant study. Equipped with Latin, an English student was equally at home in Cambridge, Paris or Padua. Frenchmen, Germans, Italians and Spaniards spoke and wrote in the same language as his teachers at home. Erasmus might ‘learn in Oxford, teach in Cambridge,’ correspond with all the scholars in Europe. The first generous handfuls of classic wisdom snatched, scholars joined in a pedantic contest for the crumbs. This search required accurate knowledge of the languages which encased them. It was im- possible to pay too much attention to their form. National, or rather university, rivalry instigated the representatives of learning to acquire a correct and elegant latinity in which to express their thoughts. It became traditional that a Scholar (with a capital S) was a man able to write Ciceronian Latin without the aid of dictionary or books of accidence ; and this medieval tradition still holds in our public schools. When one reflects upon the purpose for which so much effort was originally spent, it is not a little humorous to find the effort continued for generations after the purpose has ceased to guide it. The results for which our ancestors strove have long been attained. The thought of the ancients has long been accessible to every one who can read English. Their science, which was living to the scholars of the Renaissance, is a historic curiosity, interesting merely as a stage in the progress of the human mind. We can attain all that the Renaissance sought for, and an infinity beside, without knowledge of either Greek or Latin. Yet in the epoch of Winchester rifles we still practise with flint locks. We stitch samplers in the days of sewing machines. A Runic inscription is scarcely more out of date than a Latin oration, since both are equally things of the past; both have equally fallen into disuse. Yet, with all the zeal of the Renaissance and with an equal appearance of seriousness, we spend years in preparing our boys to write Latin orations without the aid of books of reference. The cache of preserved fruits which the Renaissance discovered has long

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THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE 535 been consumed. Mental nutriment must now be sought for in the primal forest, with aid of axe and saw. I should be very sorry to be misunderstood. It is impossible to exaggerate the magnitude of the debt which Europe owes to the Italian scholars of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One needs to read the story of the rediscovery of the classics, as told by John Addington Symonds in ‘ The Renaissance in Italy,’ to understand it fully. Latin at the beginning of the fourteenth century was so de- based as to be almost forgotten; Greek was a lost tongue. Petrarch, Boccaccio and their successors restored Latin and rediscovered Greek. Dictionaries were compiled; codices compared; no effort was too great, no detail too petty if it helped to the comprehension of the meaning of the text or enabled the scholar to amend it when corrupt. It is— shall we say ?—three centuries since this work was substantially com- plete. It is dangerous to fix a date, seeing that able men at our various universities are still engaged upon the task; but it can not be gainsaid that by the beginning of the seventeenth century scholars were in a position to read Homer and Aristotle, Virgil and Cicero, and to understand what they read. The seam of gold was exhausted, the mine had yielded up its hidden wealth; though it may be that for years to come the ‘ tailings’ will repay the industrious work of those who are content with specks. Yet the pedagogic method of preparing boys for the search remains the same. And, looking at the matter fairly, we readily acknowledge that, however empirical, the method is justified by its results. In the presence of the indisputably satisfactory effects of the method, it ought not to be difficult to trace the true relation between effects and cause. How is the success of a classical education to be explained? Let us decline to admit reasons which, if not absolutely false, are at any rate half untrue. A boy does not learn Greek and Latin roots because they will help him to understand his own language. He does not acquire these languages in order that he may absorb the science and thought of the ancients direct from the original text. He does not study Cicero in the expectation of some day writing Latin letters. For school-boys Greek and Latin are exercises in grammatical ex- pression, and nothing more. Among the many disingenuous arguments which have recently been advanced in favor of the maintenance of the compulsory study of Greek is the contention that it would be of inestimable value if properly taught. Its advocates are ready to disown the accumulated evidence of success, to deny results upon which they might safely rely, and to advocate a new venture. Greek, they say shutting their eyes to the teaching of experience, has hitherto been badly taught. It will answer all expectations if teaching methods are reformed. Too much attention has been paid to accidence, to scansion, to niceties of gram-

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536 _ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY mar. The subject has been made arid and infertile. Give more generous treatment a fair chance! Limit, says one class of apologists, the work in Greek to Homer and Herodotus. Let the boys do their translations with open dictionary and grammar. Do not delay so long over the introduction ; hasten their acquaintance with the Hellenic heroes; let them come beneath their spell and experience their glamor. With equal vehemence another school contends, not for Homer and Herodotus, but for Plato’s ‘ Republic’ and the ‘ Memorabilia’; not for heroics, but for philosophy and art. The teaching of Greek is to have a new lease of life if it gives pledges that it will turn over a new leaf. These protestations of its advocates are pure cant. They known that neither legend, history, philosophy, nor art has influenced the vast majority of the boys who have thriven on a grammar-school training. Stultify the grammar, distract attention from accidence, syntax, prosody, and the value of the gymnastic is reduced to nil. Were it not for its humorous side, this change of front would be somewhat tragic. Boys are to be given the most sacred products of Greek thought as playthings. They are to be encouraged to express their opinion, in the vernacular of the dormitory, of Plato’s metaphysics. Because in the past such good results have been obtained by giving boys the shell without the kernel we are asked to believe that we shall do far better by giving them the kernel without the shell. We decline to recognize that it was not the nut which nourished them, but the ex- ercise of cracking it which prepared their jaws for an attack on more nutritious food. There is no question as to the nourishing properties of the Greek kernel, but it must take its place with the English kernel as an article of diet; and there are obvious reasons for serving the English kernel first. Do away with grammar—sheer, barren, jejune grammar—and you sacrifice the discipline which has caused our schools, for centuries after the purposes of the classical revival were accomplished, to cherish Greek and Latin as the most efficient instruments of education. We do not want a reformed teaching of Greek. Its reformation would be its destruction. Homer’s clash of shields may stir a martial spirit. Plato’s spiritualism may satisfy a yearning. But these emotions are not vehicles of education; they are its burdens. The valor, the phi- losophy, the poetry, the art of the Greeks contributed little to the making of the mind of the boy Johnson, the boy Macaulay, the boy Gladstone—however much these great scholars may have been inspired by Greek ideals in later life. We have Gladstone’s own emphatic testi- mony that when at Eton he cared nothing at all about the Homeric gods, nor yet for many a year after he had left. He was at Eton under the. famous flogger, Dr. Keate, at a time when Greek and Latin were the only subjects in the school curriculum, with “as much divinity as can be gained from constructing the Greek Testament, and reading

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THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE 537 a portion of Tomline on the Thirty-nine Articles, and a little ancient and modern geography.” A few months after leaving school, he told Arthur Stanley that “Eton was a very good place for those who liked boating and Latin verses.” It was the painful study of genders and cases, of dactyls and spondees, which contributed little by little to the building up of the logic-weaving machine in his brain. Let any one who can remember his school-boy days try honestly to recall the sentiments which accompanied the translation of a passage whether from the commonplace ‘ Anabasis’ or an incomprehensible chorus. Let him feel again the emotions which a struggle with the language- puzzle evoked, and he will, if he can remember those days, find that the real meaning of the passage interested him not a whit. He was engaged in the by no means unattractive task of disarticulating a puzzle covered on one side with Greek characters, and so rearranging the pieces that when he turned the whole thing over on to its back he would find that the other side was English. No argument could be more disingenuous than that of the would-be reformers who reply to those who, though they recognize the proved potency of the classics as educational instruments, nevertheless ask whether other subjects are not available, if not equally good as instru- ments, yet more prolific of practical results: “ Although the classical vehicles have produced such admirable results, you will be amazed to find how much more beneficent they are if you substitute for the vehicles their contents.” This is proposing a new venture. It is embarking upon a new scheme of education, which has neither experi- ence nor tradition to support it. No rational man doubts the human interest of Greek letters; none doubts their moral and esthetic in- fluence; yet it may be open to question whether boys would not find the Arthurian legends as inspiring as the ‘ Odyssey,’ and the plays of Shakspere as full of wit and precept as Sophocles, Alschylus and Euripides. However great the Greek example, there are reasons for endeavoring to form the character of English boys upon noble types from nearer home. Besides, the noblest masterpieces of the Greeks have been nobly translated. In English they will do more for a boy’s mind than the ‘ Anabasis’ will do in Greek. Boys, whatever their career, must have some literary training, say the apologists for the present system of teaching classics. This is my contention also, but I advance it with still greater emphasis. The literary training ob- tained whilst learning Latin and Greek is indirect, accidental. It is too serious a part of education to be thus left to chance. The gram- mar schools did not aim at giving to a boy the capacity of appreciating the literature of his own land. The old classical training was a drill, boys were taught to mark time, not to march. Generations of jurists and men of action have proved that when they left their grammar schools they were amongst the most vigorous of marchers. No one

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538 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY grudged the time spent in practising the goose-step, since there was no doubt as to the enhanced rate of progress when marching began. But times are changing. We will not say that competition is increas- ing—our fathers made the same assertion, and their fathers before them— but it is spreading. The public-school boy, notwithstanding the severe discipline of the classics, finds it hard work to hold his own against boys who have not had the benefit of this drill. Conditions have recently changed in a remarkable way. It is no longer a com- petition between boys all of whom have had either a grammar-school training or none at all. Public elementary schools, higher-grade schools, county schools, technical institutes are pouring their students into the upper ranks of the labor market. These students may be superlatively ignorant of classical grammar, but they have certain kinds of knowledge and certain forms of dexterity which make them hard to beat. A very large number of public-school boys are obliged to find a sphere for their more generalized attainments on the ranches of North America and the sheep runs of Australia and New Zealand. If, reluctantly, we abandon the classical drill which has secured our confidence by three centuries of undeniable success, we must be well assured that the tactics which we teach in its place are effective in the modern world. That the study of language ought to occupy a predominant position in school life is overwhelmingly proved by grammar-school experience. I think, too, we must also allow that the fact that the school-boy never contemplates the classical languages as possible means of communica- tion is in their favor. The conclusion which appears to me to be established beyond all possibility of doubt, both by the positive evidence of the value of a grammar-school training and by the negative evidence of the difficulty which attends the acquisition of foreign languages in adult or even adolescent life, is that training in language is of the essence of educa- tion in early years. It is of the essence of education in early years because it is only then that it is effective; and, further, because train- ing in expression means giving precision to thought. Thinking and expressing thought in words are so inseparably connected that widen- ing the range of expression is equivalent to expanding the field of thought. The benefit of a classical education depends to a large extent upon the fact that for years a boy’s finger is kept between the pages of a dictionary. He learns new words and comes to feel the importance of accurate definition. Words are the tessere of thought. Their arrangement in patterns is thinking. The mosaic of words shows by its richness or its poverty, its boldness or its uncertainty, its simplicity or its confusion and redundancy, the quality of thought. Expressing is thinking. The schoolmen of the Middle Ages attached so much importance to dialectic that they came at last to confuse success in the

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THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE 539 game of words with conviction: they looked upon the triumphant ap- plication of arbitrary rules of logic as proof. They apprehended the principles of thought; but failed because they mistook their own by- laws for natural law. The Popes of the Renaissance, who, like Eugenius IV., made the only test for high office in the Church an irreproachable Latin style, were not actuated merely by fashion or caprice: they mistook rhetorical ability for intellectual power, elo- quence for wisdom. ‘They were right in the idea, although too zealous in its application. Eloquence would be wisdom made manifest, if, in the multitudinous torrent of words, none were used in an ambiguous sense, none were superfluous, none were capable of replacement by others more congruous with the thought, none could be displaced from their position in the phrase without detriment to its sense. It is not natural to children to make nice distinctions between approximately equivalent words. It is hardly second nature with grown men, especially if they be Englishmen. A boy finds that it is ‘jolly beastly’ to have to go back to school, and ‘ beastly jolly’ to be coming home. He is always struggling back to barbarism—the use of gesture and stress in place of words. Even grown men have usually got to get somewhere. They have got to get their hair cut, or have ‘ got to get a book, have got a cold, or have got home. A very few tessere serve them to make the pattern of their thoughts, and their thoughts are in consequence crude and colorless. Children must learn words and must be drilled in their use. To attribute the proved suc- cess of classical education to its content appears to me a ludicrous and even wilful misreading of history; though I readily admit that even the average boy acquires something of valor, of patriotism, of esthetic sensibility, of emotional and intellectual sanity from contact with the mind of Greeks and Romans. My doubt is as to whether, considering the modern conditions of life, the time has not yet come to replace Greek and Latin by modern and functional languages; to trust to their masterpieces for material with which to influence character; and, in the case of children who will never need to speak or read any language but English, to rely upon our own Shakspere for words, grammar and emotional tone. If we but knew the most rudimentary principles of the psychology of speech! What form of language is best suited for the expression of thought? What form of language is most favorable to thinking? To ‘those of us who have been through the ordinary grammar-school train- ing the highly organized classical languages ‘appear to be indisputably superior to their maimed and curtailed successors. We feel that gun- powder has not done more harm to the temples of Athens and Rome than the barbarians have done to Greek and Latin. We can not resist the impression that modern Greek and Italian, as they are but the Tuins and vestiges of the languages in which Demosthenes and Cicéro

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540 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY spoke, afford by comparison but miserable accommodation for thought. From our extremely small experience of the speech of the world we judge that, in the case of the few languages which we know, evolution has proceeded backwards: the better organized, and therefore, from the evolutionary standpoint, i!:c uigher, language has given place to the lower. But we are not justified in this conclusion. Language is essentially labile. The solvent of thought changes as the quality of thought changes. Philologists can but speculate as to the stages through which Greek acquired its complexity. Demosthenes did not help to regularize a single inflexion. He used the instrument of expression as it came to his hand. His language is not more, but less, ornate than that of Homer. Greek and Latin were not made by cultured Greeks and Romans. The languages took form in the converse of their illiterate ancestors. Literature, upon which the beginnings of culture rest, closes language- building in the larger sense. Zulu is a more highly flexional language than Greek, with more elaborate endings, expressive of gender, number, case, mood, voice; with nicer laws of euphony. Probably the ancestors of the Greeks were, like the Zulus, a loquacious, quarrelsome, rhetorical race. The language of the Zulus is not great because it is complex in form. Every language becomes great when greatly used—Greek from Demosthenes’s mouth; English from Milton’s pen. The test of the elevation of a language, from the evolutionary point of view, is its simplicity, freedom from ambiguity, correspondence in the order in which words are used with the sequence in which ideas successively occupy the focus of consciousness. ‘“Amabo, love, future, I,’ is as swift an expression of thought as ‘I shall love’; although it does not place the constituents of the idea in the order in which they pass across the mirror of my mind; my personality, in the case of such a general proposition, takes the lead. ‘ Lucretiam amabo,’ no doubt, gives the order aright. But neither conglomerate allows of the inversion ‘ Shall I love?’ Picking up the school-book nearest to hand, I have essayed the ‘sors Virgiliana.’ This is the sentence which my finger touched: “ Relinquit animus Sextium gravibus acceptis vulneribus” (‘ De Bello Gallico,’ VI.). It seems to me incredible that this sentence expresses the thought as it formed itself in Cesar’s mind: “ Leaves it the soul Sextius by or to grave by or to received by or to wounds.” Surely the idea of the personality of Sextius preceded the idea of some one fainting? What purpose is served by three times explaining that it was by or to (leaving it at the end an open question which) wounds? ‘~ibus,’ if it does not impress the mind of the reader as the really important constituent of the phrase, is unduly heavy for a mere in- flexion. Cesar did his best with the language which his unlettered ancestors had bequeathed to him; but he was to be pitied in that his thoughts when they went abroad must walk in irons.

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THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE 541 The only evolutionary tendency in language which we can recog- nize is this tendency towards analysis, towards dismemberment. So great an authority as Sir Charles Eliot, vice-chancellor of Sheffield University, who perhaps knows a greater variety of languages than any other man, from Portuguese to Russian, from Turkish to Japanese, languages of Central Africa and of the Polynesian Islands, tells me that he considers that this progress favors thought. Gender, number, case hamper language, restrict its flexibility, impede thought. A mono- syllabic root-langnage, such as Chinese or Burmese, is a swifter and more precise solvent of thought than are the highly inflected Bantu tongues. If this be true—and it does not seem to me open to doubt— it is easier to think in English than in Latin. The drilling of boys in languages of lower type than their own must have some strange, mysterious sanction to justify its use. There must be an explanation of the undeniably good results which have followed this generalized, purposeless training—results which caused those who were best qualified to judge to cling to it with such tenacity. It is not of the schools of to-day that I am speaking. So many reservations and qualifications would be necessary that I could not hope that my thesis would be approved. The schoolmaster has for some -years been engaged in the process of sloughing his skin—a process which he seems very reluctant to see accomplished. The rattle at the end of his tail which so easily subdued the pupils under him has gone. Yet he still clutches at his gold and purple scales. The lineaments of Greek gods and Roman orators are still to be distinguished in the folds of the sadly crumpled case with which he is so unwilling to part. He feels strangely cold clad in nothing but his native wisdom. It is not of this half-accomplished rejuvenescence that I wish to speak. Let us go back to the golden days of grammar schools. It is not as long ago as Mr. Gladstone’s youth. Many of us of a younger generation experi- enced their heroic rule. Assuredly it was not the content of the classics which proved in our case of educative value. It could not, for the reasons I have stated, have been the languages, as such. I have but one explanation. It was the rebound on to English which the classical drill produced. We were ceaselessly searching the pages of the dic- tionary. We were learning new words. We were studying English syntax. In my opinion any foreign language would have served equally well to produce this rebound. Or it might have been brought about by the intelligent paraphrasing, construing, analysis of English authors. The last course would probably be the shortest road to the supreme goal—skill in the use of the language in which we think and with which we speak.

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY HYGIENIC REQUIREMENTS IN THE PRINTING OF BOOKS AND PAPERS By PRoFEssoR EDMUND B. HUEY WESTERN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA — cheapness and universal prevalence of printed matter, and the general enactment of compulsory education laws which fasten the reading habit upon all, give the problems of the hygiene of read- ing a universal and very great significance. This reading habit, when one thinks of it, has become perhaps the most striking and important artificial activity to which the human race has ever been molded. A very considerable part of most people’s waking time, whether in child- hood or in adult life, is taken up with the contemplation of printed or written symbols. One is seldom out of sight of some sort of printed or written matter, and the automatic functioning of the reading habit keeps one reading away at whatever appears, though it be but the silliest advertisement in a car or on a concert program. And yet this reading habit is an intensely artificial performance, involving for both mind and eye and nervous mechanism, most delicate of all products of evolution as these are, constant repetitions of func- tionings which were not foreseen in their evolutionary development. I discuss elsewhere the nature of these unusual functionings and the causes of the fatigue and degeneration which have resulted from read- ing, and which must continue more or less until the organs become adapted to these requirements of modern civilization. The dangers from the strain on mind and eye and nerves, in reading, will be ma- terially lessened if the schools, especially, will honestly enforce certain hygienic requirements that are now generally agreed upon, and state- ments of which are easily accessible in such recent books as Shaw’s ‘School Hygiene,’ or in the more comprehensive work of Burgerstein and Netolitzky. Probably the most important and most feasible means of lessening the fatigue and strain of reading is by bringing about, so far as pos- sible, that all books and papers shall be printed in such type and ar- rangement as shall fall within certain recognized limits of hygienic requirement. As to some of the requirements which should be made of the printer we are still uncertain, and further experimental investi- gation rather than the present excess of opinion is in order and is cryingly needed. Of some requirements we can now be certain, and

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HYGIENIC REQUIREMENTS IN PRINTING 543 these should be enforced rigorously, in the printing of school-books and government publications, at least. If enforced here, they will tend to extend to all printing. In studying the psychology and pedagogy of reading during some years past, the writer has been thrown in contact with the experimental work bearing upon the establishment of norms for printing. The present article is an attempt to sum up the results of investigations made thus far, and to state the requirements which they warrant us in making of the printer. The size of the type is perhaps the most important single factor. The experiments of Griffing and Franz showed that fatigue increases rapidly as the size of the type decreases, even for sizes above eleven point, or above a height of 1.5 millimeters for the short letters like v, s, etc. The various investigators are generally agreed that this should be made a minimum for the height of the short letters. Matter printed in this size of type is read faster, and individual words are recognized more quickly, than where the type is smaller. Besides, Griffing and Franz found that the effect of insufficient illumination is less marked with the larger type. Preferably the height of the small letter should be somewhat above the minimum stated, though when the height is -much above two millimeters Weber’s experiments indicated that the speed of reading is decreased. The thickness of the vertical strokes of the letters should not be less than .25 millimeter, according to Cohn, preferably .3 millimeters, according to Sack. This thickness of the letters has been found by Javal and others to be a very important factor in increasing legibility and thus in decreasing fatigue. Griffing and Franz found, however, that hair lines might form parts of the letter without decreasing the legibility provided the other parts were thick. They find it possible, however, that such hair lines may increase fatigue. The minimum of thickness stated above should be insisted on for the main lines. The space within the letters, between the vertical strokes, ‘should not be less than .3 millimeter, according to most investigators. Sack finds .5 millimeter to be preferable. There is probably little to be gained by increasing the distance between the letters beyond that which is usual in the better printed books of the present time. Burger- stein and Netolitsky would require that this distance should be greater than the distarce between two ‘neighboring ground strokes’ of a letter, and Sack would make the minimum distance .5 to .75 millimeter. Burgerstein and Netolitzky would not allow. more than six or seven letters per running centimeter, and would require as much as two millimeters between words. With these requirements Sack is in agreement. It should be remembered that any very unusual separation of the letters of a word is distracting and should be avoided.

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544 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY These minimal forms as stated by Burgerstein and Netolitzky should be made requirements, except that possibly the distance between letters is not so important as they urge. . The minimum of six or seven letters per running centimeter is a convenient approximate gauge which can be quickly applied and is not too stringent. Griffing and Franz found that legibility increased somewhat, though not greatly, with increase in the distance between the lines, with the leading, as it is called. Cohn thinks it important that there should be & minimum interlignage of 2.5 millimeters, and Sack requires the same. Javal does not find that interlignage increases legibility appreciably, and thinks that the space used for interlignage had far better be given to an increased size of letter without interlignage. The leading is doubtless a mistake when the size of type is below the requirements made above. The size of type should by all means be increased instead, as this is by far the most important of the factors conditioning fatigue. However, a certain amount of leading should be required in school books, at least, but hardly more than Cohn’s minimum of 2.5 milli- meters. As to length of lines there is a general consensus in favor of the shorter as against the longer lines, with a tendency to favor 90 milli- meters as a maximum, some placing the maximum at 100 millimeters. The latter is doubtless too high. Javal, who has studied the matter very carefully, insists that the maximum should be considerably below even 90 millimeters. He names as one of the principal causes of fatigue in reading, and as a cause tending to produce and aggravate myopia, the considerable amount of asymmetrical accommodation re- quired as the eye moves along a long line, the amount increasing always with the length of the line. Even with the page squarely before the reader, unless he makes constant and fatiguing movements of the head while reading, the reading matter is always farther from one eye than from the other, except at a middle point, and the reader strains to accommodate for both distances, especially for objects held so near as is the page in reading. Against the long lines is also to be urged the difficulty and dis- traction incident to finding the place at each turn to the next line, increasing always as the lines are longer. Besides, the longer lines require a greater extent of eye-movement for a given amount of read- ing. This comes from the fact, verified by various experimenters, that the eye does not traverse the whole line in reading, but begins within the line and usually makes its last pause still farther within, reading the first and last parts of the line in indirect vision. The amount of this indentation tends to be a constant amount irrespective of the line’s length, and is consequently a larger proportion of the line’s length in the shorter lines. There is thus an important lessening of

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HYGIENIC REQUIREMENTS IN PRINTING 545 eye-work in using the shorter lines. Indeed, I found that readers could read matter printed in lines of 25 millimeters in one downward sweep without any lateral movement of the eyes. With lines 30 millimeters long, the lateral movement was sometimes almost nil, and seemed to be due mainly to habit. In reading such lines in this way the eye’s extent of movement is hardly more than one fourth or one fifth the amount needed for the same matter when printed in long lines. When the shorter lines, generally, more words were read per fixation than with the longer ones. A magazine column having lines 60.5 millimeters long was in one case read at the rate of 3.63 words per fixation, while columns having lines 98 to 121 millimeters long required a fixation for every two words. Lines of a length approximating 60 millimeters are usual in newspapers and in my experiments were read with a minimum of eye-movement. The makers of the modern news- paper have felt the reaction of readers more, perhaps, than have the makers of books. Out of this experience has evolved the present prac- tise of printing newspapers in narrow columns, the line-lengths of which are perhaps as near the optimum as can be determined at present, when we consider that much shorter lines give great inconvenience to the printer. For books, also, the newspaper line-leugth is near an optimum so far as ease and speed of reading are the conditions to be considered. In the case of large books where the question becomes one of printing in one or in two columns per page the latter alternative should un- doubtedly be chosen. For books of ordinary sizes a somewhat longer line may be used where this will contribute to convenience or beauty ; but a book should not be used whose lines are more than 90 millimeters in length, and somewhat shorter lines are generally to be preferred. One of the great advantages of the shorter lines is that they con- stantly permit the reader to see in indirect vision what his eye has just passed as well as what is just coming. Though the words of this related matter may not be clearly perceived, they furnish visual clues which keep the reading range further extended at each moment, a most desirable condition for all reading and especially for fast reading or for skimming. With such lines a hurried reader may glance straight down a page with only an occasional short stop, and may yet be sure that he has gathered the gist of everything. Dr. Dearborn, in experiments made recently at Columbia Univer- sity, found that the eye makes its longest pause near the beginning of the line, thus permitting a general preliminary survey of the line. A secondary pause of more than average duration is made near the end of the line, perhaps partially in review. He finds that lines of only moderate length facilitate these general surveys better than the VOL. Lxx. — 35.

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 546 longer lines, and finds also that they facilitate a rhythmical regularity of eye-movement, both being conditions which contribute to speed and ease of reading. His tests showed that such lines (a little longer than newspaper lines) were read at greater speed and with shorter pauses than lines of twice the length. Dearborn argues, and correctly I think, in favor of uniformity in the length of lines, particularly in books for children. The reader drops quickly into a habit of making a regular number of movements and pauses per line, for a given passage, and broken lines confuse and prevent the formation of such habits. However, a slight indentation every other line may, he thinks, be of distinct advantage. Dearborn thinks that a line of 75-85 millimeters combines a good many advantages, and we are certainly safe in putting 90 millimeters as a maximum, with a preference for lines of 60 to 80 millimeters. The smaller books which can be easily held in the hand during the reading are to be preferred, and on the whole have grown in popular favor. The larger books usually have to lie on a support, which exposes the letters at an angle, greatly lessening their legibility and producing the equivalent of a material decrease in the size of type. As to the forms of particular letters, many changes are cryingly needed. However, further investigation is needed before we are war- ranted in requiring changes of the printer. We know that such letters as t, z, 0, 8, €, c, i, are comparatively illegible. C, e, and o are often confused with each other, and i with 1, h with k, ete. This confusion can be avoided by making certain changes in these letters, and their legibility can be increased. Certain excellent recommendations of changes in particular letters have been made by Javal, Cohn, Sanford, and others. However, there are many things to be considered in making such changes, and further thorough and mature investigation is needed before any letter is permanently changed. The whole matter should be placed in the hands of a competent specialist or committee of spe- cialist:, to be worked over experimentally and advised upon in the light of the psychology of reading, the history of typography, esthetic considerations, the convenience of printing, and the lessons of experi- ence generally. Changes should not be made on the single basis of experiments upon the comparative legibility of isolated letter-forms. A letter whose legibility in isolation is bad may sometimes contribute most to the legibility of the total word-form. Studies now being made of the comparative legibility of letters as seen in context will doubtless throw light on this point. The subject is too complex to permit the adoption of recommendations that are based on study, how- ever careful, of any single aspect, or on anything that does not include a careful study of all the factors. It is high time, however, that there

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HYGIENIC REQUIREMENTS IN PRINTING 547 should be a rationalization of these printed letter-forms that have come down to us in such a happy-go-lucky fashion, and it is to be hoped that either the Carnegie Institution or some department of research in.a well-equipped university may take hold of the matter and see that the work is thoroughly done. Among further printing requirements that are important and that should be insisted on, the letters should have sharp clear-cut outlines, and should be deep black. The paper should be pure white, but with- out gloss, the latter being especially trying to the eyes. According to Cohn and Sack the paper should have a minimum thickness of .075 millimeter. Paper of a slightly yellowish tinge is probably not in- jurious and is preferred by Javal. But in general the legibility de- pends on the contrast between the black of the printed forms and the white of their back-ground, and colored or gray papers lessen this difference and thus diminish legibility. Pure white light gives the greatest legibility. The print of one side must not show through from the other, and the printing must be so done that it will not affect the evenness of surface of the other side. . It is important that wall charts and maps should not contain more names than are absolutely necessary for purposes of instruction, and - that these should be in large clear type; or the most important names for reference at a distance and by classes may be in the large type, with the others in type fulfilling the requirements for school-books and for use by individuals at the ordinary reading distance from the chart or map. Burgerstein and Netolitzky advise that school maps should not present the physical and political features on the same map, in the interest of greater legibility. Names printed on colored map surfaces need to be in larger rather than in smaller type than that used in books, if legibility is to be maintained, as any other back-ground than white means diminished legibility. The writing upon slates is considerably less legible than that upon good white paper. In the case of blackboards the surface is apt to be gray after erasing, and this, of course, lessens the legibility very considerably. It is important that the blackboard surface be deep black, without gioss from reflection so far as this is possible; and that it be kept clean, avoiding the gray effect. Teachers and pupils should acquire the habit of writing on the blackboard in a large plain hand, as the greater distance at which the writing is read and the usually diminished legibility makes this of importance, and especially in the primary school grades. . In stating the requirements above, I have had in mind the needs of adult readers and of the older school children. The younger chil- dren must have a type much larger than the minima there stated. The reading of young children has not been sufficiently studied to

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SCIENCE MONTHLY POPULAR 548 warrant a final statement of what should be required in the printing of their books. As the most usable approximate statement of what may properly be insisted on, and for the sake of uniformity, I quote here the requirements made by Shaw in his ‘School Hygiene.’ These requirements are none too stringent, except that sometimes some of the leading may well be sacrificed in favor of a type that is a little larger, for the third and forth grades especially. “For the first year the size of the type should be at least 2.6 milli- meters and the width of leading 4.5 mm.” “ For the second and the third year, the letters should not be smaller than 2 mm. with a leading of 4 mm.” “For the fourth year the letters should be at least 1.8 mm. with leading 3.6 mm.” For some grades succeeding this the type should be kept well above the minimal requirements for adult readers. Examinations of the school books in use in Germany, Russia, and other European countries, made at various times and places, have shown that usually from fifty to eighty-five per cent. of the books came short of hygienic requirements. American books are somewhat better, but include very many that are very bad. Even when the principal part of the book is in good type, there will often be large sections printed in a type so small as to be very injurious. The dictionaries and other books of reference have notoriously small print, and those with the smaller and poorer types should be mercilessly discriminated against. As Shaw rightly says, “ Principals, teachers, and school superintendents should possess a millimeter measure and a magnifying glass and should subject every book presented for their examination to a test to deter- mine whether the size of the letters and the width of the leading are of such dimensions as will not prove injurious to the eyes of children. If every book, no matter what its merits, were rejected if its type were too small, the makers of such books would very quickly bring out new editions with a proper size of type.”

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THE WASTE OF CHILDREN THE WASTE OF CHILDREN By Dr. Gro. B. MANGOLD UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ESS than two hundred years ago not more than one fourth of the children born in London ever reached their fifth year of life. The rest were ruthlessly swept aside and died without adding a single iota to the sum of human service. It is a matter of utmost importance to know under what conditions an advance in population is secured. The beginnings of national life in Europe were accompanied by energetic efforts to augment the number of each national group. Neces- sarily the strength of a nation depended largely upon the size of its population. Despite these efforts, the practical results were lost in the many adverse circumstances which operated to neutralize their effects. A comparatively slow increase of the population of nearly every European country before the last quarter of the eighteenth cen- tury was the natural result. Every civilization, however, whether old or new, has purchased progress at considerable cost. Lives, property and happiness have been sacrificed to attain this coveted goal. Civil- ization spells economy. It means a fuller utilization of our powers, faculties, and our mental and physical equipment, no less than a more capable use of the productive forces of nature. The more primitive a society, the more immediate and absolute is its subjection to environ- ment. From this thraldom civilization is gradually releasing us, and to-day we stand partly above our environment and in a measure mold it by determining its character, and forcing its adaptation to our peculiarities in addition to our own increasing adaptability to its changing conditions. Probably in no other field of human activity has man’s former ignorance been more lamentable in its consequences than in that of rearing children—the future parents of the race. Even the slow in- crease of savage tribes is purchased at a tremendous expenditure of energy, and the number of infants and little children whose physical and economic cost is never compensated for by useful and productive lives has been appalling. A recent investigation of the Bontoc Igorrote in the Philippines indicates a mortality of 60 per cent. before the age of puberty is reached. Such people have risen but little above their natural environment and are quite subject to its rigors and destroying processes. Decreasing cost characterizes advancing civilization, yet throughout the eighteenth century the European population, being

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550 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY largely ignorant or indifferent, was blighted by the influence of a de- stroying environment. The progress of the industrial world for the last century has been un- paralleled and almost incredible. The organization of industry, the rise of combinations, the fuller utilization of the forces of nature, our marvelous inventions, the increasing division of labor and greater in- sistence upon bodily vigor are devices calculated to lessen the cost of production of goods. In certain industries, for example the oil and packing industries, such a state of perfection has been reached that little if any waste products remain, although twenty years ago a large residue was continually lost. The decrease of unnecessary cost and labor is the goal of industry. Apply this principle to the cost of propagating the human race and what do we find? Is not the tax and strain upon the expectant mother too great to permit even an apathetic society calmly to ignore the just claims of dying infants for the op- portunities which make for a life of usefulness and service? The eighteenth century began to answer this question, but even the twentieth has not yet given a satisfactory reply. The darkness and austerity of a civilization finds no mean measure in its infant death rate. In this respect great progress has indeed been made, but it is an advance far outstripped by the progress of industry. Social progress has proved the laggard, but may yet make amends for past neglect. The wholesome changes of the past one hundred and fifty years are indications of great possibilities. The conditions in London only reflected those existing throughout all England which lived beneath the pall of the blighting destroyer of babes. In recent years three fourths of the children in London have lived to the age of five. As late as 1761, however, 50 per cent. of London’s population perished before reaching the age of twenty. To-day half the people of England do not die until after the fifty-fourth year has been reached, and the infant mortality—the death rate for children under one year of age —had fallen in 1903 to the creditable figure of 144 per 1,000 births for the seventy-six great towns of England. Even this rate is somewhat above the average for the entire country. In Prussia during the decade 1751 to 1760 only 312 children out of every 1,000 births sur- vived to the age of ten. At this age the child is still an economic cost; it depends upon others and yields no surplus to society. Yet two thirds of the entire population failed to reach an age of social useful- ness, and perished after body, mind and resource had been spent to give it a proper place in human society. The record of a later decade, 1861-70, shines in comparison with the former, but is still fraught with fears for the future. Six hundred and thirty-three individuals were being saved out of every 1,000—a promising decline, but one not measuring up to the hopes of social amelioration. Is it any wonder that former mothers, full of grief and anguish at the sight of lifeless

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THE WASTE OF CHILDREN 551 babes, believed more largely in a Providence whose decree was in- exorable, who gave and who took away? From this morbid fatalism the medical advance of the past one hundred years and the strenuous efforts of men with human sympathies applying themselves to problems of social betterment have freed the majority of our kind, and the doctrine is properly relegated to the category of abandoned beliefs. The triumph over small-pox has been one of the results contributing to this end. Formerly it was a scourge carrying away large portions of the popula- tion. Two thirds of all new-born children are said to have been at- tacked, of whom one eighth or more regularly died. A frightful mortality thus obtained, and this was minimized only through the in- troduction of vaccination, which in some countries increased the average duration of life as much as three and one half years. Owing to this direful experience of the past, foreign countries are still more insistent than we are upon employing that method of preventing the disease. France has paralleled the record of England, and, when once inaugurated, improvements and reforms succeeded with astonishing rapidity. During the first seven years of the last century, the num- ber of male inhabitants reaching an age sufficient to subject them to ' conscription was but 45 per cent. of the total number born, yet by 1825 the percentage had risen to 61—a most healthful gain in the , proportion of those attaining adult life. Backward Russia has been equally a laggard in its attention to the moral and social require- ments which result in a low infantile death rate. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it permitted one third only of the children of its peasants to grow up to maturity and as few as 36 per cent. of its population reached the age of twenty years. Even here science has made advance. The great changes in the social and economic conditions of the European people have had a marked effect upon the growth of the population. As the power and ability of men to control the conditions of their environment were increasingly realized, beneficent effects were everywhere noticeable. To recuperate the strength lost in war and disaster, men urged the device of a decreased death rate instead of striving as formerly for a larger percentage of births. An observing demographer in the first half of the last century thus expressed himself, ‘Population does not so much increase because more are born as be- cause fewer die.” Yet the population of nearly every country has increased wonderfully during the past century, and in view of the new conditions of its expansion what a fine commentary upon the advance of modern civilization and the practical efficiency of govern- ment this tremendous fact has been! From this former dismal reality with its merciless slaughter of helpless babes we in America have made much progress. Accurate

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552 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY data for the earlier years of our history are wanting, and at present very few of our states keep a careful registration of births and deaths, although a large number of our cities are now recording their vital statistics with increasing care. The absence of city life with its bane- ful consequences somewhat relieves us from the charge of infanticide, but the exposure and the rigors of the Atlantic seaboard worked its many hardships. Data for New York before 1850 show that 27 per cent. of its infants died before reaching the age of one, but the rate for Boston was comparatively low, being recorded as less than 20 per cent.—a figure exceeded by many cities at the present time. Condi- tions in Massachusetts have been relatively favorable and its vital statistics indicate that the death-dealing influences of the close of the century were more fatal than those operating at the beginning of the Civil War. This observation, discouraging as it is, is somewhat soft- ened by the favorable changes in the death rate of children below the age of five. These records prove that a constantly growing percentage of children live to that age, and once having reached the fifth year the chance of a life of future usefulness is considerably increased. The expectation of life in Boston according to the reports of the Census Bureau was in 1900, 9.74 years greater for the child of five than for the infant at birth. This difference is, moreover, diminishing, as it certainly must if mortality is being checked. A similar difference in the English expectation of life argues for similar rates of mortality for children at these ages. The low death rate of children between the ages of five and fourteen insures the succession of a large majority to an adult age. Civilization demands that this be a constantly in- creasing proportion and that the fewest possible number of lives be wrecked in the adolescent stage. The energies of society must be expended in many various directions where the need is most urgent, and where reforms are clearly possible. That society should waste vast portions of its accumulating energies is not only deplorable and a hindrance to social advance, but is a mark of criminal neglect. Where waste of lives can be avoided, as the decreasing mortality of children shows, there inaction by society is unpardonable. In spite of the existence of many plague spots, where innocent infants are barbarously slain, the statistics set forth by the twelfth census furnish ground for a growing optimism. Although a large percentage of inaccuracy obtains, the figures are sufficiently reliable and comparable to indicate quite faithfully the hopeful tendency toward child saving. The tables for the registration area show that the infantile death rate fell from 205 per 1,000 births in 1890 to 165 in 1900. In the former year one out of every five infants died, although allowance should be made for unrecorded births. In the latter year one out of every six—a gain of approximately 20 per cent. For children under five the gain is even more favorable, thus demon-

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THE WASTE OF CHILDREN 553 strating an increasing success in bringing children through the most critical stages of life and in lessening the necessary waste. The thou- sands who die are not the victims of the law of natural selection. It is not largely an elimination of the unfit. More definitely than ever before is it being established that most children enter life with an endowment of native vitality sufficient to weather the ordinary condi- tions of adversity. The great variations in death rates after the first few months are due largely to postnatal influences, to the social and economic environment in which the child is caught, from which it has no appeal, and which make or mar its future. The wide range of infant mortality from the lowest rates of the healthful country districts to the fearful massacre of infants in the crowded and unsanitary portions of our larger cities indicates the magnitude of the task still before us. That eminent authority on vital statistics—Dr. Farr—estimated that the annual unnecessary deaths of infants in England during the decade 1851-60 numbered more than 64,000. The conditions in respect to food, water, cleanliness, mal- nutrition and midwifery, he regarded as the chief causes of this need- less loss of life. The proportion of loss suffered from these sources has since undoubtedly diminished, but the aggregate number is greater now than then. The effect of the various factors which influence the rate of our annual loss of children is marked in the difference between our urban and rural rates, and between those of white and colored children. The comparative healthfulness of rural life is attested to by ample evidence. It is indicated not only by the farmer’s long expectation of life, but also by the low death rate prevailing among his children. A comparison of the chances of the child in the country and in the city is a proof of the wholesome influence of a favorable environment. It suggests the need of increasing effort to raise the city to the high level of rural vitality. In the registration states the infant mortality for white children varied in 1900 from an average of 116 per 1,000 births in the rural districts to 180 in the cities. The urban rate seems to be more than 50 per cent. higher than that ob- served among the country population. For every two infants dying in the country, three are sacrificed in the city districts. Yet this is not everywhere the case, nor is it necessarily so. In parts of Germany the rural death rate is enormous. Especially is this true in the agri- cultural districts of southern Bavaria, where an almost hopeless infant mortality is recorded. The rural region of Prussia shows higher rates than do our American cities, but they still possess a slight advantage over Prussian urban centers. This heavy mortality indicates a social lethargy and backward conditions among the agricultural population, which in spite of many natural sanitary advantages remains handi- capped by unfavorable social and industrial surroundings; and these preclude proper attention to the wants of children. In England,

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554 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY again, the rural rate is generally below that of the cities and consider- ably below the infant mortality of the mining and industrial centers. Compared with Scotland, the entire country has a decided disadvantage. Yet the nature of the problem is somewhat simplified on reflection that the results of an earlier investigation of death rates disclosed the fact that the mortality of the sons of peers before the age of six was less than one third of that obtaining among the rest of the population. On the other hand, many English and American cities record rates lower than the average rate prevailing in the rural district—an eloquent argument for the possibilities of many of our cities. The statistics of 1881-90 for Massachusetts showed average variations dur- ing the decade from 111 to 239 deaths per 1,000 births. The former rate marked the healthfulness of a residential town, the latter portrays the conditions existing in an industrial center. Yet in some of the manufacturing towns where no tenement-house evil existed the infantile death rate was comparatively low. Other American cities show varia- tions equally wide, and even within the same city the most contrasting conditions continue to exist. The lowest rates for cities of considerable size are recorded for Seattle, St. Paul and Minneapolis. The pre- vailing rates are approximately 100 deaths per 1,000 births, according to their records, which some authorities have, however, pronounced as giving too favorable a showing. Many of the larger cities double the death rate for infants, while in numerous southern cities it rises to almost criminal proportions. John Spargo has pointed out the dif- ferences that may exist within a single city and exemplifies them by quoting a rate of 94.4 per 1,000 in the Back Bay district of Boston against a proportion of 252.1 for one of its poorer districts. Some of our own cities have clearly blazed the path of progress. Buffalo and Rochester, N. Y., have during the decade 1890-1900 made notable reductions in the percentage of loss from infant mortality. Better inspection of the milk supply and increased watchfulness of contagious diseases, especially those of children, have contributed to this end. In Buffalo compulsory vaccination of school children was instituted and circulars distributed which contained instructions concerning the care of children. Among cities which have done noble service during the same decade in reducing the mortality of children under five are Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill, Mass., Newark and Jersey City. All these had high rates of mortality and present rates still exceed those of many of our cities in which conditions are naturally more favorable. The many remarkable ameliorative changes of the past fifteen years only indicate the possibilities whose limits have not yet been reached, while much pioneer work still remains to be done. In view of the declining rates and the wide variations in them, the existing differences refuse to be explained away, and we can not assign them all to natural causes. Some cities, especially those of the Pacific coast and the moun-

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THE WASTE OF CHILDREN 555 tains, possess natural advantages, yet cities under similar conditions show most striking contrasts. Still worse, the same city may con- tain the extremes of progress and of neglect. Hence our efforts can not be abated until they have wrested from the destroyer every vestige of his ill-gotten power. It is the province of science and the duty of society to force from nature what she can not rightfully claim, and to leave her the remainder only. Serious changes in our methods and policies may be involved, but these must be molded according to this undying purpose. The miserable conditions still prevailing among the American negroes are evidence of this need. An infant mortality in Charleston where the majority are negroes, of 419 per 1,000, and in other southern cities of more than 300 is little better than barbarism. At first thought the racial factor might be assigned as the cause of this great difference between the vitality of white and colored infants, but this defence of social inaction is unworthy of our race. A closer investigation shows that the death rate in the rural portion of the registration area was 218.9 for colored infants, but that the city rate stood at 387. This difference roughly meas- ures the advantages of a more favorable social environment. Were the care of the children a more capable one and the conditions making ' for degradation and disordered birth rate ameliorated, this wide dif- ference would not exist, and the rates in the rural districts could be further reduced. Remembering the former pitiless slaughter of white infants, our hopes for the negro need not be abated. Indeed the colored infant mortality of the rural districts in 1900 was but little above that of white infants for the entire registration area in 1890. What hopes then might not knowledge and prosperity offer! Three eighths of the negro infants of the cities dying annually! To their mothers they are nothing but a curse, a cause of pain and sorrow. A cross-section of a darker age resides in our midst. Yet 150 years ago the children of our ancestors died with an equal facility. Climate and certain phases of nature have so far proved impregna- ble to the genius of our race. Their disadvantages may have to be borne for years and centuries, but for acclimated peoples an infant death rate of 307 per 1,000, as was recorded for the Philippines for 1903, is only an evidence of an inferior and brutal civilization. To: counteract such death rates and provide for a liberal increase of popu- lation a birth rate must be excessive if not inhuman. These facts disclose a cause of the rapid increase of population dur- ing the last century. The increased vitality of infants has made it possible. With their rate of mortality cut in two a new era might naturally arise. The English birth rate was higher in 1851 than in 1891, but the percentage of excess of births over deaths was greater in the latter year. The fluctuations between these two dates indicate the highest net increase as occurring during the decade 1871-80, but

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556 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY the significant lesson taught is seen in the possibilities which even a lower birth rate may yield. The continued triumph of knowledge and humaneness draws comfort from the recent history of other-Euro- pean nations. A comparison of birth rates, death rates and excess of births between the period 1861-80 and 1885-96 shows that in nearly every important European country birth rates have declined. Yet no alarming tendency to depopulation has manifested itself, because the decreasing death rates permit a greater net increase of lives. Con- sequently the rate of increase was augmented during this period in Hungary, Prussia, Austria, Italy, Holland and Belgium, but declined slightly in England, France and Scandinavia. Some of these nations have a mortality which is even now considered excessive and which, if proper measures are inaugurated, can be considerably reduced. Hun- gary with a birth rate in recent years of 40.4 had a smaller percentage of increase than Sweden whose rate was only 27.1, while the Russian mortality was higher than England’s birth rate and but little below that of Germany. Several observations may be made in respect to the foregoing facts: First and foremost: The physiological advantage of contributing to a growing population by means of lowering the death rate rather than by increasing the rate of birth. Mental anguish, physical and economic cost, would thus be reduced toa minimum. It is the method of enlightened civilization. The burden of our mothers is not lightly borne, let them enjoy the fruits of their suffering. Second: The marvelous reduction in the former rate of infant mortality indicates what social reform may accomplish, and what a saving of lives may follow. Third: The differences between rural and urban death rates sug- gest the character of the environment needed for the increased health- fulness of cities. Fourth: The contrasting conditions disclosed in single American cities and the gratifying results of sanitary measures, milk inspection, and advancing intelligence pave the way for a growing hopefulness. Realizing the importance of the principles which our vital statistics establish, society can insist more strenuously upon preventive reforms. It can reduce the waste of infant lives, and conserve our potential population. Let us ascertain whether our population is sufficiently fecund by giving every new-born babe a fair opportunity for life. Whether ‘ race suicide’ will then have a national aspect, society will be better able to judge. Certain classes are indeed chargeable with a low birth rate, but for the masses the more important problem is a diminishing infant mortality. When the best of society’s efforts in this direction have been realized, then a solid basis for subsequent reasoning concerning the probable future of our race will have been established. ee

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A BLAZING BEACH 557 A BLAZING BEACH By D. P. PENHALLOW, D.Sc., F.R.S.C. MACDONALD PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, MCGILL UNIVERSITY i” December, 1905, an account was given in Science of a remark- able phenomenon which was described as ‘A Blazing Beach’ as observed at Kittery Point, Maine, and an attempt was then made to bring forward an explanation which would satisfactorily account for all the observed facts. During the past summer an opportunity was offered for a reexamination of the locality, and it was then possible to obtain some additional facts which tend to strengthen the conclu- sions originally reached. It was also learned that a second but smaller conflagration had occurred in the same place at a somewhat later date. It is therefore felt that a further account of the facts will be of inter- est at this time. The accompanying photograph, taken during the past summer, shows the precise area within which the conflagration developed. The beach at the point where the fire occurred is composed of a barrier ridge at its upper margin, made up of pebbles of varying sizes. This ridge is thrown up and maintained under the action of southeast storms, at the angle of repose for the material of which it is composed, and about half-way down its outer face, the high water mark of spring tides is clearly indicated by patches of sea-weed. This high-water mark corresponds approximately to the level of the interior area where the trees are to be seen growing, and which is frequently flooded in times of severe southeasterly storms. The base of the barrier ridge is indicated by the line of sea-weed which defines the high-water mark of the ordinary neap tides. From this point the beach, consisting of pebbles, continues outward and downward at a somewhat sharp incline for a distance of about seventy-five feet, when the pebbles are replaced by sand, the first patch of which is seen just above the line of water. The photograph shows half-tide. The sand formation extends from the edge of the water outward with a very gentle slope, and thus makes shoal water for a considerable distance beyond the mass of loose rock seen on the extreme left. With the exception of the barrier ridge, the beach extends laterally for a distance of one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred feet between the solid ledges shown in the photograph. The general constitution of the shore along the river front is solid ledge, and this particu- lar locality may be described as a pocket which has become filled with *N. S., Vol. XXII, pp. 794-796. 1905.

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 558 sedimentary deposits consisting of clay, sand, sand and gravel, coarse gravel and finally large pebbles. Over the outer portion of the sandy bottom, also for great dis- tances beyond, as well as up and down the river wherever extensive silting has developed the formation of muddy bottoms, there is an abundant growth of eel grass (Zostera marina) which, together with other débris of a similar nature, is continually washed upon the beach, broken up by the combined action of the waves and sand and gradually buried in the latter, so that each year the deposit of organic matter is increased by definite though rather slight increments. From these data it will be observed that some special significance attaches to the fact that the fire, on two separate occasions, was strictly confined to the beach, and that it did not in any way extend over the limiting areas of rock. On the evening of Friday, September 1, 1905, the guests in the hotel, the piazza of which may be seen on the extreme right of the photograph, were startled by the appearance of flames rising from the beach and also from the surface of the water. The tide was about one hour lower than shown in the photograph, so that a very considerable portion of the sand was uncovered. The conflagration occurred be- tween seven and eight o’clock in the evening and lasted for upwards of forty-five minutes. It was accompanied by a loud and continuous crackling noise, which could be distinctly heard one hundred yards distant, due to the rapidly recurring explosion of bubbles of gas as they came to the surface of the sand or water. At the same time there was a very strong liberation of sulphurous acid gas, which penetrated the hotel, drove the proprietor and his staff from the office and filled the other rooms to such an extent as to cause great inconvenience to the guests. So great a heat was developed that the sand could not be held in the hands, while sand placed in a tumbler with water and then stirred, liberated bubbles of gas which ignited upon coming in contact with the air. On this occasion the fire developed over that portion of the sand which had been exposed by the falling tide, and it also ex- tended out over the water for a distance of thirty or forty feet. On the evening of Wednesday, October 4, 1905, as reported by a reliable observer, the phenomenon was repeated with identical features, except that instead of occupying the entire area between the rock for- mation on each side, it was restricted to the area where the two boats are lying. It therefore occupied probably less than one fourth the area of the first conflagration. It is difficult to estimate the height of the flames on these two occa- sions, since the conditions under which the fire occurred would tend to give an exaggerated value. It is probable that in general the flames were not more than three or four inches in height, and this would be a reasonable estimate when arising from small bubbles of gas. But, as stated in the original account, the flames attained a maximum

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A BLAZING BEACH 559 of about one foot, and this may readily be conceived of as possible in cases where there was an unusual discharge of gas. The explanation originally offered appears to fulfill all the observed conditions, and upon further study there seems to be no good reason for regarding it as other than valid. The flames are to be considered as resulting directly from the spontaneous combustion of light carbu- retted and phosphuretted hydrogen at the moment of their contact with the air, and these flaming gases in turn ignited the associated sulphur- etted hydrogen, which gas then gave rise to secondary features such as the bluish, luminous flame and the sulphurous acid fumes. Exam- ination showed that there was no adequate basis for any of the various attempts to explain the phenomenon as the result of volcanic action. the disruptive effects of a blast of fifty tons of dynamite two miles away, or the decomposition of fish, the phosphorescence of which was not clearly differentiated from the main features of the conflagration. While it is a comparatively simple matter to reach the conclusions thus far given, it is altogether a more serious problem to ascertain the origin of the gas, the greatest difficulty being to determine how gas could be produced in sufficient quantity to give rise to a conflagration of the extent and duration observed. It is perhaps justifiable to con- clude that the gas must have been accumulating at a slow rate for a long time, otherwise there would not have been such a large volume; and it is also reasonable to suppose that, unless liberated as fast as formed, smaller conflagrations should have been noted on previous occasions. But the local records, so far as the memory of ‘ the oldest inhabitant’ extends, can show no similar occurrence in the past. Such storage of gas would be quite possible in a deposit of coarse gravel, pebbles and coarse sand, overlaid by a layer of fine, wet and compact sand acting as a retaining layer. It is possible, also, that the accumulation of gas may have been brought about under slight pressure, so that the earthquake of the day before may have furnished just that shaking which was necessary to disturb the conditions of equilibrium and liberate the gas at a critical moment. The occurrence of a smaller conflagration one month later may or may not harmonize with this idea, but it does seem to emphasize the suggestion of the storage of large volumes of gas which were not wholly set free on the first occasion. In endeavoring to account for the source of the gases, three explanations have been found to be possible: 1. The area protected by the barrier beach is, as already noted, somewhat depressed. It extends from the beach to a stone wall which may be seen just beyond the two elm trees; and from the square house to an almost equal distance beyond the corner of the hotel piazza on the right. It was originally occupied by Sir William Pepperrell as a deer park, but later it was utilized as a tan-yard. Some years since two drains were laid through this area in such a way as to make sections of its entire extent. The ditches were car-

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560 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY ried down through the superficial deposits to a clay formation, which is presumably of Pleistocene age, and this clay formed the foundation for the tan vats located in the surface stratum. The excavations disclosed numerous, scattering fragments of leather and tan bark, suf- ficiently ample to make the former use of the locality quite manifest ; but nowhere were there any local accumulations of a nature or in such quantity as to explain the formation of gas in any appreciable volume. Moreover, had gases formed there they would most naturally have worked upward through the permeable soil and thus they would have escaped directly into the atmosphere rather than have taken a seem- ingly impossible course down a slope for a distance of some two hun- dred feet or more. It is, moreover, about eighty years since tanning operations were carried on in that locality, and the conditions of the soil render it unlikely that any very large amount of gas could be stored there for that length of time. The theory that the gases had their origin in the decomposing organic débris of a tan-yard must therefore be dismissed as untenable. 2. The Atlantic coast line, probably throughout its entire extent, is undergoing depression at the rate of about two feet per century. This leads to a variety of well-defined changes, among which may be mentioned the gradual silting up of protected areas, the submergence and final burial of forests and the formation of marsh lands. No- where are these changes better exemplified than in the neighborhood of Rye in New Hampshire, and Kittery and York in Maine, for the rea- son that they are developed within areas of such size, and within periods of such short duration, as to be brought well within the experi- ence of individual observers. Wherever silting occurs, and more particularly where marsh lands are formed, large volumes of gas are generated and may be readily observed rising to the surface of the water at more or less frequent intervals. In the case of the silted areas the gas is obviously the prod- uct of vast quantities of Zostera, supplemented by other forms of or- ganic remains, both plant and animal. In the marsh lands the gas is the normal end product in the decay of the lower portions of the marsh turf. This gas generally accumulates in the turf and in the silt below, sometimes being held in pockets in such large volume that when suddenly liberated its effects are overpowering. For one who is at all acquainted with such marsh lands it is not difficult to reach an explanation as to the production of gas in sufficient volume and of the proper kinds to produce all the phenomena under consideration. It was therefore felt that there might be a small, buried marsh beneath the beach at Kittery Point, and an attempt was made to solve the question by direct examination, with the following results: For a depth of about seven inches the beach consists of a fine and compact sand worked into a layer of great firmness. Below this, as far down as it was possible to go without the use of special methods,

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A BLAZING BEACH 561 the deposit consists of large beach pebbles mixed with coarse sand. So far as a buried marsh was concerned, the results were entirely of a negative character, but from the fact that there is a deposit of clay farther down, as well as from critical studies of the formation of marsh lands and of silted areas, prosecuted during the past summer, there seems to be great probability that one or both of such formations may lie beneath the beach at a horizon which could not be reached. In the absence of positive data, however, this source of gas must be A BEACH AT KITTERY POINT, MAINE; the scene of a conflagration, September, 1905. neglected, and the third alternative must be brought under consid- eration. 3. In making a section of the lower beach, as already recorded, it was observed that the superficial layer of sand, that which is directly acted upon by the: water, consists of about one inch of freshly washed, fine sand with which are mingled numerous fragments of marine plants and even fragments of land plants, most of them in a fresh state but broken into small pieces by the recent action of the water and sand. Below this is a deposit of sand about six inches thick. This layer rests directly upon a mixture of beach pebbles and coarse sand extending to an unknown depth. It is the six-inch, or second, layer in which interest chiefly centers, since we find it to contain all sorts of organic débris, including marine alge, fragments of drift wood and bones of land animals. It in fact constitutes the general receptacle for all those organic remains which have been ground up in and transferred to it by the surface layer. It is clear that while this second layer may remain of approximately equa! thickness, its organic content is con- VOL. LXx. — 36.

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562 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY stantly augmenting and at the same time undergoing decay. This ig finally expressed in the deep black color of the stratum, by the car- bonized fragments of marine alge, driftwood and even of bones, show- ing that within this zone there are developed precisely those conditions which would be productive of gases in considerable volume. It is this last explanation which affords the chief basis of a tenta- tive hypothesis respecting the origin of the gases producing the con- flagrations, though it is also highly probable that other volumes of gas originated at a greater depth in a buried marsh, or in silt deposits which were subsequently overlaid by a pebbly beach. This phenomenon, while peculiarly interesting in itself, serves as a means of explaining the possible origin of many obscure forest fires for which it has hitherto been impossible to find an adequate explana- tion, and in considering this important aspect of the question we are not to overlook the possibility of accounting for fires which have oc- curred in past geological ages, as well as those of recent date. In 1905, Arthur Hollick directed attention to the presence of charred wood in the Cretaceous deposits at Kreischerville, Staten Island, New York, and drew the inference that since man was not in existence at that time, the fire must have been due to some natural agency, probably lightning. This explanation, however, was not re- garded by him as wholly satisfactory, and it was adopted tentatively because of the absence of positive testimony in any other direction, and also because the occurrence of fires in widely separated localities of approximately the same geological age could not be accounted for through the medium of such an agency.* In a more recent communi- cation on this subject, the same author observes that some of the fragments of burned wood are charred on the outside only, while other smaller fragments are completely charred throughout. “These latter occur in greatest abundance in connection with layers or seams of yellowish, sandy clay. The prevailing colors of the Cretaceous sands and clays throughout this locality are white and gray, while the yellow layers are of quite limited extent and appear to have been burned or baked. It seems therefore reasonable to infer from this association of materials, that the charred wood was not deposited with the clay in the condition of charred wood, but that it was fresh material at the time of deposition and was subsequently burned in place, thus baking the enclosing clay.” “A careful study of the Kreischerville deposits indicates very clearly that the original conditions of deposition must have been strikingly similar to those described as existing at the Kittery Point Beach. The layers of vegetable débris and sand, intercalated in the clays are comparable to the sandy layer of black, organic débris * Proc. Nat. Sci. Assn. 8. I., Vol. TX., 1905, pp. 35, 36. * Proc. 8. I. Assn, Arts and Sciences, Vol. I., 1906, p. 21.

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A BLAZING BEACH 563 in the beach, and it is reasonable to infer that wherever such con- ditions prevail, similar phenomena of combustion may occur,” and he therefore finds that the explanation of the Kittery phenomenon is not only satisfactory in that case, but that it affords a satisfactory solution of the way in which fires originated in Cretaceous time. In 1900, Dr. G. F. Matthew of St. John, N. B., described a bog in the vicinity of that city which gave evidence of the occurrence of a forest fire about two thousand years ago, this estimate of age being based upon the age of growing trees, the thickness of individual layers of peat, and the relative density of different layers, together with the known rate of formation as determined by the age of trees in situ.* Evidences of ancient forest fires are to be met with in other bogs to which Dr. Matthews directs attention, and it is altogether probable that they had a similar origin. The agency of lightning is excluded as not tenable because of the thorough knowledge of the bogs in question for a period of from 6,000 to 9,000 years, and from the evidence at hand the conclusion is reached that they must have been due to the early inhabitants of the district who knew nothing as to precautions against the spread of fire, and who would have been but little likely to have adopted them had they been known. Upon a careful examination of the account given by Dr. Matthews, it would seem that the situation of the burned wood within the area of a bog is a distinct argument against man as the active agent, be- cause if he had been the cause of the fires, evidence of them should be found in the more elevated areas about the shores of the bog, but of this the account gives no information and we are left to infer that only the bog itself was involved. Furthermore, the features of deposition and the general character of the various strata, point with some force to the idea that we have here another example of a fire due to the spontaneous combustion of gases generated in the inferior strata where decomposition was evidently active. Apart from its more strictly scientific aspects, the occurrence of such a conflagration as that which developed at Kittery Point gives a most singularly striking manifestation of a phenomenon which, as developed upon a very limited scale, has been a matter of common knowledge for a very long time, and has been woven into the folk- lore of various countries, where it has often played an important part in the life of the common people. Among English-speaking people the well-known ‘ corpse-candle,’ ‘ Jack-o’-lantern,’ and ‘ ignis fatuus, take a most conspicuous place in the superstitions of the less educated portions of the community, both in Europe and in America, even to the present day, although the scientific explanation has long since been accepted and understood. **A Forest Fire at St. John, about 2,000 Years Ago,’ Can. Rec. Sc., VIILL., 1900; pp. 213-218.

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SCIENCE MONTHLY 564 POPULAR Occidentals, however, by no means enjoy a monopoly of the ro- mances and legends which may be gathered about the flickering flame of the elusive ignis fatuus. Very few countries have developed so rich a folk-lore as the Japanese, and the very fertile imaginations of her people have not failed to apply many weird explanations to an object capable of so many interpretations, sometimes investing their ‘ ghost-fire’ with the same attributes that attach to our ‘ corpse-candle’; again attributing to their ‘demon-light’ the possession of singularly baleful influences; or in the ‘ badger-blaze,’ ‘ fox-flame’ and ‘ dragon- torch’ finding a medium for the most varied witchery, sometimes comical, sometimes serious, and not always devoid of tragic results. According to accounts by Brinkley, it is related of the ‘ badger- blaze’ that it wanders in the Kawabe district of Settsu on rainy nights, and that uninitiated rustics, mistaking it for the glowing pipe of an ox-driver, hold commune with the badger, who is at all times a sociable fellow, and have even lit their own tobacco at his and puffed it in his company. Or again, at the base of the Katada hills, in the province of Omi, there lies a lake from whose margin on cloudy nights in early autumn a little ball of fire emerges. Creep- ing toward the foot of the mountains, it grows as it goes, sometimes swelling to a brilliant sphere three feet in diameter, sometimes not developing to more than a third of that size, but always when it rises to the height of a man’s stature above ground, showing within its glow two faces, to which gradually the bosses of two naked wrestlers, struggling fiercely, attach themselves. It takes its way slowly and harmlessly to the recesses of the hills, but resents, with superhuman | force, any attempt to interrupt its passage. Once a wrestler of un- conquered fame waited at midnight for its coming, and sprang to grasp it as it passed through the mists. He was hurled to a distance of ten or twelve yards and barely escaped with his life. The fox is an animal particularly addicted to assuming a great variety of shapes and disguises, often entering into and taking pos- session of people for evil purposes, or otherwise imitating various natural or artificial objects, thereby giving rise to great confusion or even distress, as witness the phantom train on the Tokaido railway some years since, which so terrified and confused an engineer as to nearly cause a disaster. Among other disguises of this animal is that of the so-called ‘fox-flame,’ which is assumed at night in dangerous and solitary pleces. The initiated, however, may readily overcome the spells of the ‘fox-flame,’ since all that is necessary is to join hands so as to leave a diamond-shaped opening between the crossed fingers. By blowing through this opening in the direction of the light, at the same time repeating a Buddhist formula, it is possible to extinguish the witch-fire at any distance.

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LORD LISTER LISTER was born on April 5, 1827, and his eightieth birthday has been the occasion for congratulations from all parts of the world. A large and influential international committee has THE PRUGRESS OF SCIENCE LORD LISTER. THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE resolved to commemorate the occasion by publishing in quarto form a collec- tion of his scientific works. A depu- tation waited on Lord Lister on April 5 to ask his approval of the plan, at which time he expressed his apprecia-

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566 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY tion and willingness that the plan should be carried into effect. The great discovery of the antiseptic method in surgery was first announced in 1867. In an address before the meeting of the British Medical Asso- ciation held in Dublin in that year, Lister said: “ When it had been shown by the researches of Pasteur that the septic property of the atmosphere de- pended, not on the oxygen or any gase- ous constituent, but on minute organ- isms suspended in it, which owed their me that decomposition in the injured part might be avoided without exclu- ding the air, by applying as a dressing some material capable of destroying the life of the floating particles.” Lister used carbolic acid as an anti- septic, and although the methods were at first imperfect, the results were re- markable. The wards of which he had charge in the Glasgow Infirmary were especially infected with gangrene, but in a short time became the healthiest in the world; while other wards, separated by a passageway, retained their infec- tion. Like all great discoveries, Lis- ter’s antiseptic methods have been ex- tended and improved, being now rather aseptic than antiseptic, the precautions being largely directed toward prevent- ing infection by sterilization. It must be remembered that in addition to the work for which Lister is famous, he has made important contributions to fessor of surgery in 1860, returning to Edinburgh in 1869. He then became professor of clinical surgery in King’s College, London, in 1877. Lord Lister has been honored by the government by being raised to the peer- age; by his fellow men of science by his election to the presidency of the British Association for the Advance- ment of Science and of the Royal So- ciety; by his colleagues in medicine and surgery by the naming in his honor of the Lister Institute, one of Sige em Fea the most important instituti i energy to their vitality, it occurred ae ee er mneene - ie the world for medical research. But his highest honor is the use in every hospital of the world of the antiseptic system of surgery that he discovered. This treatment has relieved endless suffering and saved innumerable lives, and has permitted the extension of surgery to operations which without it would have been impossible. It is indeed the foundation on which modern surgery is built. THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF LOUIS AGASSIZ On May 28, 1807, Jean Louis Rudolphe Agassiz was born in the Canton of Freiburg, Switzerland, his father being pastor of the protest- ant parish of Motier. The centenary of his birth is being celebrated at Har- vard University and at Cornell Uni- versity. At Harvard there is a gather- ing of his former pupils with addresses by President Eliot and Professor Niles. At Cornell, where Agassiz was non- surgery and the practise of medicine. | resident professor, a commemorative Lister’s father was a member of the | Society of Friends; a man of business,! Ryrt G. Wilder. but also engaged in scientific work. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, as are also his son, Arthur, and his grandson, J. J. Lister, the brother and nephew of Lord Lister. Lister mar- ried the daughter of the eminent sur- geon, Professor Syme, to whose chair at Edinburgh he succeeded. He has no heir. Lister became assistant sur- address is to be made by Professor Professor Niles and | Professor Wilder were among the group of eminent naturalists who were pupils of Agassiz, which includes, in addition to his son, Mr. Alexander Agassiz, Bickmore, Clark, Hartt, Hyatt, Lyman, Morse, Packard, Putnam, Seudder, Shaler, Stimpson, Tenney, Verrill and Ward. . A biographical sketch of Agassiz geon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary | will be found in the fourth volume of in 1856, and moved to Glasgow as pro-| Tue Porputar Sctence Montuty. In ne

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 567 LOUIS AGASSIZ. the thirty-second volume will be found an article on ‘ Agassiz and Evo- lution,’ by Professor Joseph Le Conte, and in the fortieth volume an article on ‘ Agassiz at Penikese,’ by President David Starr Jordan. As a tribute we print here his portrait and the fac- simile reproduction of a letter ad- dressed by him to Professor Joseph Le Conte, one of the members of a family distinguished for their contributions to natural science.

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57° PREVALENCE OF THE PLAGUE IN INDIA From January 1 to March 16, 1907, there have been 254,033 deaths from plague in India, a marked increase upon the returns for the 1906, when the deaths from plague for the whole year amounted to only 316,550. The number of deaths from plague in In- dia during the years 1904, 1905 and 1906 were respectively 1,023,815, 946,- 558 and 316,550. The number of deaths from plague in India from Jan- uary 1 to the middle of March during the years 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1907 amounted to 253,903, 316,801, 70,761 and 254,033, respectively. The num- her of deaths during the current year are therefore, to the middle of March, somewhat above the number in 1904 during the year, when over 1,000,000 died of plague; they are, however, con- siderably fewer than the deaths which occurred during the corresponding period of 1905, but this does not hold for the latter part of March. The out- look is, therefore, not hopeful. Since plague appeared in India in the au- tumn of 1896, the number of deaths from the disease in India to March 16, 1907, has been 4,767,141. These facts, for which The British Medical Journal is the authority, are appalling. Even in India, a human life may be assumed to be worth) $1,000, and it seems probable that the | expenditure of $4,767,141,000 by the) British government, partly spent on definite measures in India and partly on scientific investigation would for- ever abolish the plague and possibly control all epidemics. There is now much political unrest in India, and this might not be allayed even by the aboli- tion of the plague. But the present liberal government and its secretary of state for India should appreciate their responsibilities and their duty. POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY | oomming century. | maintained a constant increase, and it THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. THE Census Office issued some time ago a ‘ Statistical Atlas,’ prepared un- der the supervision of Mr. Henry Gan- nett, geographer of the twelfth census, which gives many interesting tables and plates, illustrating the progress of the United States in population, vital statistics, agriculture and manufac- tures. We reproduce here a diagram showing the increase of population dur- ing the last century in the United States and in the princi:~1 countries of Europe. The growth of population here, com- pared with that in European countries, is most striking. Only Russia has a curve at all comparable to that of the United States, although the German empire shows similar tendencies during the past decade. The vast population of European Russia, which has about doubled in sixty years, shows a very constant increase, and this will be ac- centuated should the death rate be reduced to the proportions normal in other countries. The results of the in- crease of the people of Russia will probably be the most important factor in the history of Europe during the Great Britain has | may be an unwarranted assumption to suppose that this will soon be checked by the decreasing birth rate and the | physical deterioration due to pre- dominant town life and factory employ- ment. The slow growth of the French population during the century and its present stationary condition, the birth rate being almost as low as the death rate, give much anxiety in that coun- try. There were in 1903 about 20,000 fewer births than in 1902, and 32,000 | fewer than in 1901. In some depart- |ments the birth rate is far below the | death rate; thus in 1903 there were in | Gers 3,333 births and 4,792 deaths; in Lot-et-Garonne, 3,946 births and 5,718 | deaths, ete. The curve showing the increase of | |

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 1800 101900 MILLIONS OF INHABITANTS YEAR ano ‘aso 4 INCREASE OF POPULATION In THE UNITED STATES ANDTHE PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES OF EUROPE FROM YEAR SANVAIGVHN! 40 SHOITITIAW THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. population in the United States during {are as follows: 35.1, 36.4, 33.1, 33.5, the past century seems to indicate a boundless growth. But a different in- terpretation appears to be possible. The percentage of increase for con- tinental United States was remarkably constant in each decade from that be- ginning in 1790 to that beginning in 1850. For each period the percentages 32.7, 35.9 and 35.6. But in the census of 1870 there was a sudden drop in the percentage to 22.6, which is attributed in part to the civil war and in part to defective enumeration. There was a rise in 1880 to 30.1, followed by a fall to 24.9 in 1890 and to 20.7 in 1900. The decrease in percentage from 1860

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572 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY to 1900 was at the rate of 3.45 per de- Dr. Francis Galton has been appointed cade. Should this decrease continue! to deliver the Herbert Spencer Lecture the percentage of increase would cease | for 1907, at Oxford, and proposes to in 1950 and thereafter a decrease in| lecture on ‘Probability, the Founda- population would ensue. The popula-| tion of Eugenics.’ tion of the country would then be | 88 millions in 1910, 101 millions in | 1920, 111 millions in 1930, 119 millions | in 1940 and 123 millions in 1950, at | which time the population of the coun- | try would have reached its maximum | and would thereafter decline. It is of | course unlikely that this will be the future of our population. The per-| centage of increase will almost cer- | tainly become smaller, but probably with increasing slowness. The data from 1860 to 1900, however, give indi- cations of these results, and they are more probable than the boundless in- | crease of population of the country and | of the world which has sometimes been predicted. SOIENTIFIC ITEMS Ar the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held in Washing- ton last week, President Ira Remsen, of the Johns Hopkins University, was elected president to succeed Mr. Alex- ander Agassiz. The vacancy in the vice-presidency thus created was filled by the election of Dr. Charles D. Wal- cott, secretary of the Smithsonian In- stitution——Members were elected as | follows: Joseph P. Iddings, professor | of petrology, University of Chicago; | Harmon N. Morse, professor of chem- | istry, Johns Hopkins University; | Franklin P. Mall, professor of anat- | omy, Johns Hopkins University, and Elihu Thomson, Thomson-Houston and | General Electrical Companies. Oxrorp University has conferred its doctorate of science on Dr. A. Graham Bell.—Dr. Franz Boas, professor of an- thropology in Columbia University, | was presented on April 16 with a vol- ume of researches by his colleagues and former students in honor of the twenty- fifth anniversary of his doctorate.—| Mr. Epwarp B. Moore, assistant commissioner of patents, has been ap- pointed commissioner to succeed Mr. | Frederick I. Allen, who has resigned.— Count de Montessus de Ballore, of Abbeville, France, one of the leading authorities on earthquakes, has ac- cepted a call from the government of | Chili to establish for them a seismolog- |jieal service of the first rank. This /action on the part of the Chilian gov- ernment is a direct result of the disastrous Valparaiso earthquake of last August. Amone gifts to educational institu- tions the following may be noted: Princeton University has received from , donors whose names are for the present withheld a gift of $1,200,000, for the erection and endowment of two scien- tific buildings—one for physical sci- ence and one for biology and geology. In each case the building will be erected as a cost of $400,000, and $200,000 is provided for equipment and maintenance.—By the will of Edward W. Currier Amherst College receives the sum of $500,000. Two legacies are released by Mr. Currier’s death; one of $180,000 to Williams College and one of $100,000 to Yale University— Mr. John D. Rockefeller has given to | the University land fronting the south | side of Midway Plaisance of the value | of $1,500,000.—Barnard College, Co- lumbia University, has been made the | residuary legatee of the estate of Miss | Emily O. Gibbes. It is estimated that | the college may receive $750,000—Miss | Anna T. Jeanes, of Philadelphia, has created an endowment fund of $1,000,- | 000, the income from which is to be applied toward the maintenance and |assistance of elementary schools for negroes in the southern states. -

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INDEX INDEX NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS ARE Agassiz, Louis, 566; Epwarp Everett HAte, 305 Age, Growth and Death, the Problem of, CHARLES SEDGWICK MInot, 481 Air, the Sanitation of, Konrap MEIER, 19 Alaska, Glacial Erosion in, Ratpu §&. TARR, 99 Alcohol, Denatured, S. LAWRENCE BIGELOw, 243 Arts, The Classification of, IRa HowEkTH, 429 Astronomy, Problems of, 383 Audubon, John James, C. Hart MEr- RIAM, 301 Automaton, Is Man StuarT FULLERTON, 149 an, GEORGE Baspitt, E. H., A Vocabulary Test, 378 Baird, Spencer Fullerton, Huen M. SMITH, 308 Beach, A Blazing, D. P. PENHALLow, 557 Berthelot and Moissan, 475 Bicetow, S. LAWRENCE, Alechol, 243 Blazing Beach, D. P. PENHALLOW, 557 Body, Is the Mind in the, GErorcE STUART FULLERTON, 452 Books and Papers, Hygfenic Require- ments in the Printing of, EoMuND B. Huey, 542 Britton, N. L., John Torrey, 297 Brooks, William Keith, JosrepH LeErpy, 311 Brown, CHARLES W., Earthquake, 385 Byers, CHartes Arma, The Possibil- ities of the Salton Sea, 5 Denatured The Jamaica Carnegie, Foundation for the Advance- ment of Teaching, 188; Institution, | Report of the President, 286; Re- search Departments of, 380 Century Plant and Some Other Plants | of the Dry Country, WrttraM TRE- | LEASE, 207 Children, the Waste of, G. GOLD, 549 Civology—a Suggestion, LINDLEY M. KEASBEY, 365 Classification of the Arts, Ira Ho- WERTH, 429 Comparative Psychology, C. JUDSON Herrick, 76 B. Man- PRINTED IN SMALL CAPITALS Conservation of Energy and Spelling Reform, W. Le Conte Stevens, 265 Convocation Week Meetings, 92, 183 Cope, Edward Drinker, Henry Fate- FIELD OSBORN, 314 Coutter, W. S., Reclamation of the North Platte River Valley, 372 Dana, James Dwight, Arrnur T. Hap- LEY, 306, 229, 317, 404 Death, Age, Growth and, the Problem of, CHARLES SEDGWICK MINoT, 481 DELAND, FRep, Development of the Telephone Service, 48, 229, 317, 404, 518 Denatured Alcohol, S. LAwRENCE BIGE- Low, 24 Destructive Tendencies of Modern Life, RICHARD CoLE NEwTON, 330 DovueLas and Wricut, Opsonic Index of, 95 Dovuetass, ANDREW ELLIcortT, Illusions of Vision and the Canals of Mars, 464 Drug Abuses and Their Effects on the People, J. Mapison Taytor, 459 Earthquake, Jamaica, 385; CHARLES W. Brown, 385 Economic Importance of Mosquitoes, Joun B. Smirn, 325 Education Board, General, Mr. Rocke- feller’s Gift to, 287 Environment and Race, a Study of the Jews, Maurice Fisuperc, 33 Erosion, Glacial, in Alaska, Ratpu 8. Tarr, 99 FISHBERG, MAuRICcE, The Jews, a Study of Race and Environment, 33 Flora of North America, the Progress of our Knowledge of, Lucren M. UnNpDERWOOD, 497 Fossil Insects and the Development of the Class Insecta, ANTON HAnp- LIRSCH, 55 Franklin, Benjamin, S. Wem Mrr- CHELL, 291 Futuerton, Grorce Stuart, Is_ the Mind in the Body?, 452; Is Man an Automaton?, 149 Geological Survey, the Directorship of the, 478 Glacial Erosion in Alaska, Ratpu §S. TARR, 99

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574 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY Growth, Age and Death, the Probiem | Magical Medical Practise in South of, CHARLES SEDGWICK MINoT, 481 | Carolina, Jonn Hawkins, 165 | Man, Is he an Automaton, GrorcE Hapiey, Artuur T., James Dwight! SruarT FULLERTON, 149 Dana, 306 |Mancorp, G. B., The Waste of Chil- Hate, Epwarp Everett, Louis Agassiz,| dren, 549 305 | MANWARING, WILFRED H., The Newer Hanpuirsow, ANTON, Fossil Insects Hygiene, and Development of the Class In-; Mars, [Illusions of Vision and the secta, 55 Canals of, ANDREW ELLIcorr Dovue- HAWKINS, JOHN, Magical Medical LASS, 464 Practise in. South Carolina, 165 | Medical, Department of the Johns Hop- Health, a National Department of,379| kins University, Founders of the, Henry, Joseph, Ropert S. Woopwarp,,| 477; Practise, Magical, in South 299 . Carolina, JoHN HAwkKINs, 165 Herrick, C. Jupson, Comparative Psy- | Meter, Konrap, The Sanitation of Air, chology, 76 | 19 Hi, Atex., The Acquisition of Lan-| Merriam, C. Hart, John James Audu- guage and its Relation to Thought, | bon, 301 530 |Mind, Is it in the Body?, Grorcr HowerTnu, Iga, The Classification of| Stuart FULLERTON, 452 the Arts, 429 | Minor, CHARLES SEDGWICK, The Prob- Huey, Epmunp B., Hygienic Require-| lem of Age, Growth and Death, 481 ments of the Printing of Books and, MitcHett, S. Werk, Benjamin Frank- Papers, 542 lin, 291 Humboldt, Alexander von, Baron| Modern Life, How shall the Destruc- Speck von STERNBURG, 292 tive Tendencies be Overcome?, Hygiene, the Newer, Wiurrrep H. Man-|_ RicHarp Cote NewrTon, 330 WARING, Moissan and Berthelot, 475 MontcoMery, Tuos. H., Fritz Schau- Illusions of Vision and the Canals of| dinn, 274 ; Mars, ANDREW ELLicorr, Dovarass, | Mosquitoes, the General Economic Im- 464 portance of, Jonn B. Smiru, 325 dia, The P lence of Plague in, : ‘ = icv meas 6 Nature Names in America, SPENCER . 1 t of the Class, and TROTTER, 63 ssp mee pone agg Aol u aaeaainen. Newton, RicHarp CoLe, How shall the 55 Destructive Tendencies of Modern 1 d-d f the Desert of, 189 __ Life be met and overcome?, 330 any, Samecanes of the Desert ¢ Nobel Prizes, 91 North Platté Valley, Reclamation of, JackMAN, Witpur S&., Relation of W. S. Courter, 372 School Organization to Institution, 120 : : Jamaica Earthquake, Cartes W. —— Index of Wright and Douglas, Brown, 385 Osporn, Henry FarrFiecp, Edward James, WILLIAM, Pragmatism, a De- : fense of 207, 351 suiemar Cupe, S06 Jews, A Study of Race and Environ-| Penuattow, D. P., A Blazing, Beach, ment, Maurice Fisuperc, 33 | 557 Johns —_ University, Founders | Pioneers of Science in America, 291 of the Medical Department of the, | Plague in India, 567 477 Plant, The Century, and Some Other Jorpan, Davip Srarr, In Search of! Plants of the Dry Country, WILLIAM Truth, 134 | TRELEASE, 207 | Porncaré&, H., Value of Science, 79, Keaspey, Linpiry M., Civology—a); 175, 279, 338, 437, 524 Suggestion, 365 Population of the United States, 570 KriexpaTrick, E. A., A Vocabulary | Pragmatism, a Defense of, WILLIAM Test, 157 | JAMES, 193, 351 | Printing of Books and Papers, Hygi- Language, the Acquisition of, and its; enic Requirements of, Epmunp B. Relation to Thought, Arex. Hm1, Huey, 542 530 Progress of Science, 90, 183, 285, 379, Leidy, Joseph, WrtL1AM Kerra Brooxs,, 475 311 | Psychology, Comparative, C. JUDSsSON Lister, Lord, 565 | HeEprick, 76

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Race and Environment, a Study of the | Jews, MAURICE FISHBERG, 33 Reclamation of the North Platte Val- ley, W. S. Coutrer, 372 Rockefeller Gift to the General Edu- cation Board, 287 Sage Foundation, 382 as Salton Sea, the Possibilities CHARLES ALMA BYERS, 5 Sand-dunes of the Desert of Islay, 189 Sanitation of Air, KonrRaD MEIER, 19 Schaudinn, Fritz, Tos. H. Monrt- GOMERY, 274 , School Organization, Relation to In- struction, WinpuR S. JACKMAN, 120 Science, Progress of, 90, 183, 285, 379, 475, 565; the Value of, H. Pornoaré, 79, 175, 279, 338, 437, 524; Pioneers of, in America, 291 Scientific, Items, 96, 191, 288, 384, 480, 572; Meetings of Convocation Week, 92, 183 Search of Truth, Davip Starr JORDAN, 134 Shorter Articles, 378 Sight and Seeing in Ancient Times, Cuas. W. Super, 413 Ssirn, Hueu M., Spencer Fullerton Baird, 308 SmitrH, JoHN B., The General Eco- nomic Importance of Mosquitoes, 325 Smithsonian ‘Institution and its Sec- retary, 285 Spelling Reform and the Conservation of Energy, W. Le Conte STEvENs, 265 STERNBURG, Baron Speck von, Alex- ander von Humboldt, 292 Srevens, W. Le Conte, Spelling Re- of, INDEX 575 form and the Conservation of Energy, 265 Super, Cuas. W., Sight and Seeing in Ancient Times, 413 Tage, Raupy §., Glacial Erosion in Alaska, 99 Tayior, J. Mavison, Drug Abuses and their Effects on the People, 459 Teaching, Advancement of, Carnegie Foundation for, 188 Telephone Service, Development of the, Frep DELAND, 48, 229, 317, 404, 518 Thought, the Acquisition of Lan; and its Relation to, Atex. Hix, 530 Torrey, John, N. L. Brarrron, 297 TRELEASE, WILLIAM, The Century Plant and Some Other Plants of the Dry Country, 207 Trotrer, SPENCER, Nature Names in America, 63 Truth, In Search of, Davip Starr Jor- DAN, 134 UnpDERWoop, Lucien M., The Progress of our Knowledge of the Flora of North America, 497 Value of Science, H. Porncarg, 79, 175, 279, 338, 437, 524 | Vision, Illusions of, and the Canals of Mars, ANDREW Etticotr DoveLass, 464 | Vocabulary Test, E. A. KimKPaTrick, | 157; E. H. Bassrrr, 378 Waste of Children, G. B. Maneorp, 549 Woodward, Robert S., Josepn Henry, 299 Wricut and Doveras, Opsonic Index of, 95

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- Pens a +, 3

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POPULAR SCIENCE ~ MONTHLY. seus EDITED BY J. McKEEN CATTELL 5 2 CONTENTS a nn nA OS VA ee - a 7 The Problem of Age, Growth and Death: Prorsssor Cartes S. Minor 481 The Progress of Our Knowledge of the Flora of North America: Pro- - Fesson Lucren Marcus UNDERWOOD. . . ». + « « «© « «© » 407 — Notes on the Development of Telephone Service. Frep DrLanp . . 618 The Value of Science, M. H. PorncarB ... . ¢ Se) bo 65a a The Acquisition of Language and its Relation to Thought. Dr. ALEX. . a Bae. a Se ; ; es . 530-58 Hygienic sidainendeiet for the Printing of Books oe Rigas, Sui: ke vesson Epuunp B. Hury ... «ss ee ee ee The Waste of Children. Dr. G. B. Mancotp 0 6 0 8 Opes See A Blazing Beach, Prowesson D. P. Pennattow.. . . . . . « . BOT The Progress of Science: = Lord Lister; The Centenary of the Birth of Louis Agassiz; Prevalence of the ae. Plague in India; The Population of the United States; ScientificItems . . . 565 Index t0 Volume LXXK-. 0 0 oS eae eee 817 - aby “f * wt cmegree a 3 t q THE SCIENCE PRESS ai) LANCASTER, PA. / GARRISON, X. ¥, a NEW YORK: Sus-Sramion 84 me ) Smvore Nomere, 30 Cexrs Yesriy Sunscriprion, $3.00 OorraicHt, 1907, BY THE SCIENCE PRESS

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"ON AGKICULTURE Mr. Harwood’s new book The New Earth a tS SAB WOOO, Author of “New Creations in Plant Life,” is a recital of tri modern in America, of which The Independent = ak “ Mr. Harwood ihe irtumpbe of Bh service... book should be put at once into all the count Suusiratea. C Cloth, $1.75 net; by mail $1.49 Professor L. H. Bailey’s Plant-Breeding fourth edition is entirely revised with the addition ak a new chapter on current practice, The New York Evening Post says: “We nave & ig oom with the very stron: maemesagee to our readers that verpria- ing nature-lover will find sensaly interesting an ee ere NOMY Htustrated. * Cloth, 886 pp., $1.00 net ; by mail $1.19 Dr.Newcomb’s A Compendium of Spherical Astronomy — With Its A lications to the Determination and Reduction of Positions of the Fixed Stara SIMON NEWCOMB 444 pp., Sv0, cloth, $3.00 net ; by mail Mr. Forest R. Moulton’s An Introduction to Astronomy y FOREST RAY MOULTON, Ph.D., Untresstty, of Chicago; Author of ‘‘ An Introduction to Celes- Mechanics.” ustrated, 18+6557 pp., 8vo, cloth, }1.25 net; by matl $1.87 ae Dr. Samuel J. Holmes’s ‘The Biology of the Frog : 2A is an easily followed, narrative discussion of the complete life-structure of the frog. rs Iliustrated, cloth, 12mo, $1.60 net; by mail, $1.74 Dr. Ernest Ingersoll’s The Life of Animals—Mammals __ By the author of “ Wild Neighbors,” “ An Island in the Air,” etc. The New York Sun says: “No better anes can a into the hands of a boy that is interested in animals.” with colored plates and many drawings. 5655 pp., $8.00 net ; by mail $2.24 __Dr. Jacques Loeb’s Dynamics of Living Matter J bas attracted widespread interest from the originality of his ideas and the importance of their subject. Cloth, 8vo, $3.00 net; by mail $3.23 Columbia University Biological Series Prof. H. S. Jennings’s Behavior of the Lower Organisms A new MS in the = University Biological Series, edited by HENRY F. OSBORN and EDMUND B. WILSON. 366 pages with about 150 in the text. $8.00 net; by mail, $520 — { ENGINEERING ~ Stevens & Hobart’s . Steam Turbine Engineering _ 1s written from the standpdint of buyer and the user; it deals with questions of economy in first” _ Cost, maintenance an eee, as well i with theory and design. 81, pp., 516 Ulustrations. $6.50 net; by mail $6.30 - ‘Tr; Parr’s Electrical Engineering in Theory and Practice” }-4 G. D. ASPINALL eaap haste” Wi MT. eS, Be Mech.E., Head of the Electrical Engineering — m ee Cloth, 8v0, &67 pp., $5.25 net ; by mail $3.60 HEE BOOKS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST ’ Professor Hallock’s Outlines of the Evolution of _ Weights and lleasures and the [etric System York, and WILLIAM HALLOCK, Ph. D., Professor of Physics in Columbia tang A in the City of New and HERBERT T. WADE, Editor for Physics and Applied Belence, The New International » 8v0, 308 pp., $2.25 net ; by mail $2.40 Petes Major’s First Steps in Mental Growth a Ba tet MAJOR, Ph.D., Professor of Education in Ohio State University, is & series of studies . ‘ ce al of Infancy. 14+360 pp., 1¢mo, ilustrated, $1.25 net ; by mail $1.87 Loe ‘THE MACMILLAN COMPANY “rm ve

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Fe “Summer Sension of Sout Tranter! Schoo MENOMONIE, WISCONSIN July 22, 1907 | oe ay inti . * « Wes +s ® Official Organ of the AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION | Have you a wood lot you want improved ; provision for the future? Have you a or swamp lands that may be reclaimed ? Are you interested in the conservation, by wise use, of the second a timber tract that you wish lumbered with rm or ranch that might be benefited by irrigation ? dsb | of our national resou ' the forests? Are you interested in the transformation of the deserts into fruitful fields? And do you dé * ae ee Ae : He | Ke e = £3 to know what the National Government is doing to effect these ends ? THEN JOIN THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION ~ and aid in the patriotic work of saving the nation’s forests. It is a fry Bis ¥ ae patriotic work, par gone if the forests greatness, destroyed the country cannot be prosperous, nor maintain its population, strength and Wise Forestry is a Public Necessity Our forests are wasting away and it behooves us to care for them. STRY AND IRRIGATION is sent regularly to all members of the / The magazine FORE: Dues for annual members, $2 per year. Address: 7 ot bate: * | Ret American Forestry Association 4 | THOMAS E. WILL, Secretary, - 1311 G Street, N. W., Washington, D.¢ :

Mechanism of Speech By ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL Fork & WaAGNALIs Co., New York and London. A series of Lectures in book form, originally delivered to the American Association to Promote the Teaching of 3 to the Deaf, and covering the following topics : Thorax and Larnyx; the Pharnyx and Mouth in r Relation to Speech ; The Functions of the Epi- ‘is and Soft Palate; « Visible Speech ” as t to aa Consonants; Vowels, Glides, and Combina- h Reading (Lip-Reading) ; Vowel Theories. Speech, ES Ae invention of the late Alexan- fy Meville Bell, is in its essence a universal alphabet 2 ; & physiological basis, by which any human yocal we may be exactly and instantly symbolized. $1.00 postpaid. Address: F. W. Boorn, General Sec- ceinen: Association to Promote the SR ng the Deaf, 1525 Thirty-fifth Street, N. W n City, D. C., U. 8. A.

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AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY EDITED BY J. McKEEN CATTELL, Professor of Psychology in Columbia University ; Editor of Science and of The Popular Science Monthly. [From THE Eprtor’s PREFACE] This biographical directory of AmMerIcAN MEN or ScrENcE was begun as @ mann- script reference list for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, which made ap appropriation of $1,000 toward the clerical and office expenses. It is hoped that the publication will be a contribution to the organization of science in America. There ig hére given for the first time a fairly complete survey of the scientific activity of a country ata given period. Asa reference book for the field it covers, it may be even more useful in academic circles than Minerva or WxHo’s Wuo In America. But the chief service it should render is to make men of science acquainted with one another and with one another’s work. There scarcely exists among scientific men the recognition of common interest and the spirit of cooperation which would help to give science the place it should have in the community. It is fully asimportant for the nation as for men of science that scientific work should be adequately recognized and supported. We are consequently in the fortunate position of knowing that whatever we do to promote our own interest is at the same time a service to the community and to the world. There are included in the directory the records of more than four thousand men of science, and it is believed that the entries are tolerably complete for those in North America who have carried on research work in the natural and exact sciences. A staris prefixed to the subject of research in the case of about a thousand of the biographical notes. These are the thousand students of the natural and exact sciences in United States whose work is supposed to be the most important. The blanks were sent in all to about ten thousand who might have contributed to the advancemcnt of science and from the replies the names included have been selected. As many as four requests were sent to those who it was believed should be included, when they did not reply to previousapplications. Proofs of all the biographies were submitted for correction —a second and a third copy having been sent when necessary —and revised proofs were sent after the corrections had been entered. It was intended that each entry should contain information, as follows : (1) The full name with title and mail address, the part of the name ordinarily omitted in correspondence being in parentheses. (2) The department of investigation given in italics, (8) The place and date of birth. (4) Education and degrees. (5) Positions with dates ; the present position being given in italics. (6) Temporary and minor positions. (7) Honorary degrees and other scientific honors. (8) Membership in scientific and learned societies. (9) Chief subjects of research, those accomplished being separated by a dash from those in progress. net. lm teen ee

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the e ig try 8 it one 100 he 1d _ American Men oF Science, which should be sent to AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE . A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY This directory should be in the hands of all those who are directly or indirectly interested in scientific work. (1) Men of science will find it indispensable. It gives not only the names, addresses, scientific records and the like of their fellow workers, but also an invaluable summary of the research work of the country, completed and in progress. (2) Those interested in science, even though they may not be profes- sionally engaged in research work, will find much of interest and value to them in the book. (3) Executives in institutions of learning and others brought into rela- tions with scientific men will use the book constantly. (4) Editors of newspapers and periodicals will find it to be one of the works of reference that they will need most frequently. (5) Libraries will find the book to be a necessary addition to their reference shelves. The work has been edited with great care and is believed to be as com- plete and accurate as any book of the character. It is well printed by The New Era Printing Company on all rag paper made expressly for the book by the Dill & Collins Company and is bound in buckram with leather label by the Trow Directory Printing and Bookbinding Company. Price: Five Dollars, net, postage paid. THE SCIENCE PRESS, Sub-Station 84, New York City. To THE SCIENCE PRESS, Sub-Station 84, New York City. Please find enclosed. for five dollars in payment for a copy of the BiocRapnHicaL Directory oF

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY The Graduate School of Applied Science and The Lawrence Scientific School offer ed and undergraduate courses in Civil, Mechan- ical ectrical, Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Forestry, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and —_ ~ For turther intormation, address W. C. SABINE, 14 University Hall, Cambridge, Mass. HARVARD UNIVERSITY SUMMER COURSES, 1907 July 2-August 9 For particulars address the Chairman. J. L. LOVE, Cambridge, Mass. New York University SUMMER SCHOOL University Heights, New York City 13th year, July 1-August 9, 1907 Ninety-seven courses are offered covering a wide field of a gy aoe subjects and all departments of collegiate work. Special attention will be given this year to collegiate and graduate work in chemistry. The work is planned for teachers desiring to secure col- legiate degrees, and for those wishing to obtain the highest professional training in some special department. For full information, address JAMES E. LOUGH, Director Washington Square, - - = = #£=™\New York City UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THE STATE UNIVERSITY SUMMER SESSION June 17 to August 16, 1907 Large Faculty. Better facilities than ever before. Courses in ali departments of Science and Liberal Arts. Also, practically the first two years of Engineering, Manual Training, Physical Training, and Domestic Science. Most beautiful campus in the world. Tuition for the session, $12. A free scholarship is offered to every high school teacherin Illinois, or to any teacher who can matriculate in the University. Circulars and full information on application to THOMAS ARKLE CLARK, Director, - Urbana, Illinois UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SUMMER TERM Pive weeks, beginning July 1, 1907 Total expense, including board and tuition, $30 to $35. Credit toward a degree given for all work of college grade. Delightful summer climate. For circulars address JAMES 8. STEVENS, Dean, University of Maine, Orono, Maine. Yale University Summer School Third Session, July 8 to August 16, 1997 Courses in Biology, Chemistry, Commer. cial Geography, Drawing, Education (History, Theory and Methods), English (Literature ang Rhetoric), French, Geology, German, Greek, History (American and European), Latin, Mathematics, Physical Education, Physics Psychology, School Administration. These courses are designed for teacher and students. Some are advanced courses, others are introductory. About one hundred suites of rooms in the dormitories are available for students. For circulars containing full informatiog address Yale Summer School, 135 Elm St., New Haven, Conn COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK Summer Session, 1907 Tuesday, July 9, to Saturday, August 17 145 courses are offered, parallel and equivalent to thoseol the academic year and leading to the degrees of A.B., B.S, A.M., and the various diplomas in Teachers College. Spe cial attention is given to Education, including Domest Science, Geography, Kindergarten, Manual Training ani Nature Study ; to the sciences—Civil Engineering, Chemir try, Geology, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, and Phys ology ; to the languages—English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. Physical Education is given & 9 courses. The following subjects are also offered: Drawing Economics, Fine Arts, History, Mathematics, Music, Phile ophy, and Psychology. All of these courses are open to properly qualified student without entrance examinations. Public lectures, concerts, and excursions add to the valu and attractiveness of the Summer Session. Inexpensive living offered at the Residence Halls (Hartley for men, Whittier for women). Reduced railroad rates are offered to students of the Sum mer Session. The Announcement may be obtained upon application to Secretary, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. ~~ @e 2 eee

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F TY t 17 nose of ., BS, g and hemis Greek, ven in a wing, e Sum SCIENTIFIC BOOKS VOICE PRODUCTION IN SINGING AND SPEAKING BASEO ON SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES By ProrEssor WESLEY MILLS, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, A book dealing with the voice from both scientific and artistic standpoints, combining theory and practise in a degree never befere accomplished, and indispensable for every teacher and advanced student. Illustrated. 282 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, K. G.. K. T., 1823-1900 Autobiography and Memoirs. Edited by the Dowager Duchess of Argyll, with Portraits and Illustrations. 2 Vols. Med. 8vo. Cloth, $10.00 net. E. P. Dutton & Co., 31 West 23rd St.. New York METHODS IN PLANT HISTOLOGY By CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN, Instructor in Botany in the University of Chicago. An indispensable book for students of Botany. It is based upon a course in botanical microtechnique, and is the first complete manual to be published on the subject. Second Edition, Revised, Illustrated. 272 pp., 8vo, cloth, net $2.25, postpaid $2.39. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and New York. A POPULAR GUIDE TO THE HEAVENS By Sir RoBpErT STAWELL Batt, D.D., F.R.R., Lowndean Pro- fessor of Astrnomy and Geometry at the University of Cambridge, A Series of Eighty-three Plates, with Explanatory Text and Index. Pp xii + 96. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY By EpwarpD L. THORNDIKE, Professor of Educational Psychology in Teachers College, Columbia University. I defy any teacher or student to go through this book as it is written, and net to carry away an absolutely first-hand ac- uaintance with the wor ings of the human mind and with the realities as distinguished from the pedantries and artifi- cialities of psychology.—Professor William James in the Intro- duction. A. G. Seiler, New York STUDIES IN GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY By Jaceves Lors, Professor of Physiology in the — University of California. In these volumes, which form part of the Decennial Publica- tions of the University of Chicago, Professor Loeb has collected his most important papers bearing on the control of life phenomena. Most of the papers were originally published in German and have been translated by Professor Morton H. Fisher. Two vols. Pp. xiv + 782. $7.50. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago EXPERIMENTAL ELECTRO- CHEMISTRY By Professor N. Monroe Hopkins, The George Wash- ington University. The book is so written that it may be read through as a history by the studen', presenting theory and practise together, with the introduction of an ample number of experiments to supply experimental evidence for the theories advanced.— The Author’s face. Pp. xiv+284 with 130 illustrations. D. Van Nostrand & Co., New York POETRY AND THE INDIVIDUAL By Hartty Burk ALEXANDER, Ph.D. An original analysis of the psychology of imagination and a riticism of some of the ethical implications of evolution. Crown 8vo, Net $1.50 G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York e*s Advertisements of new books of interest to readers of the MONTHLY will be inserted on this page for one dollar. MARS AND ITS MYSTERY By EDWARD S. Morse. A new popular and comprehensive study of the planet, with the conditions. thereon, ether wi answered as to its inhabitability. _ _ eeiens “He gives facts supported by the best scien the day.”"—New York Evening Sen. tific minds of With Illustrations. Cloth. Price $2.00 net. Postpaid $2.15 Published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston PLANT RESPONSE By JaGapis CHUNDER Bose, M.A., D.Sec., Professor at Presidency College, Calcutta. q - The author attempts to show that the plant may be regarded as a machine and that its movements in response to external stimuli, though apparently so various, are ultimately reducible to a fundamental unity of reaction. 8vo, pp., xxxviii + 781. Longmans, Green & Co. New York, London and Bombay CONGRESS OF ARTS AND SCIENCE Edited by Howakp J. RoGErs, Director of Congresses. Volume I: History of the Senge, by the Editor; Scientific Plan of the Congress by Professor Huco MUNSTERBERG ; Addresses on Philosophy and Mathematics. Pp. ix+626. $2.50. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York PHYSICS By Professor CHARLES RIBORG MANN, The wey Chicago and GEORGE Ransom TwiIss, the Central igh School, Cleveland. The aim has been to show the student that knowledge of physics enables him to answer om | of the questions over which he has puzzled long in vain.—The author's pre 8vo, x + 453 pp. Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago THE ELEMENTS OF ECONOMICS By Cu4RLEs JESSE BULLOCK, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Economy in Harvard University. This book aims to familiarize the pupil with the chief facts in the structure of modern industry to present in succinct form the leading principles of Economic Science and to dis- cuss the important public problems that to-day confront the American citizen. Silver, Burdett & Company THE LIFE OF REASON ON THE PHASES OF HUMAN PROGRESS By GeorGE SanTayaNa, Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University. Vol. I. Introduction and Reason in Commonsense. Vol. II. Reason in Society. Vol. III, Reason in Religion. Vol. IV, Reason in Art. Vol. V, Reason in Science. $1.25 each. New York: Charies Scribner's Sons FOREST UTILIZATION, MENSURATION AND SYLVICULTURE By C. A. ScHenck, Ph.D., Director of the Biltmore Forest School. Mailed upon receipt of $5.00. Biltmore Forest School, Biltmore, N. C. AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECTIVE GEOMETRY AND ITS APPLICATIONS By ARNOLD Emcu, Pu.D., Professor of hics and Mathematics in the University of . The exposition of the interesting connection between col- lineations and the surprisingly beautiful doctrine of linkages deserves special mention as do also the clearness. directness and swiftness of style in which the book is written.—Cassius J. Keyser in Science. Pp. viii + 267. John Wiley and Sons, New York

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LIBRARY OF PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS Edited by Prorzsson J. McKEEN CATTELL SCIENCE AND HYPOTHESIS By M. HENRI POINCARE Member of the Institute of France. Translated from the French by Professor George Bruce Halsted, with a preface by the author and an introduction by Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard University. Pages xxxii + 196. Large Octavo. $1.50 net. M. Poincaré, who is probably the most eminent mathematician now living, has here written one of the most important works that has appeared on the principles of science. The terminology is untechnical, and the style of the author and his thought are so clear that the work will prove of interest to those who have not hada technical training, while it is at the same time an important contribution to the philosophy of mathematics and the exact sciences. The French version has been praised in the highest possible terms and this translation, made with the cooperation of the author, should be in all libraries and in the hands of those who are interested in philosophy and the methods of _ science. It is an excellent text-book for classes in philosophy. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY OF MENTAL AND SOCIAL MEASUREMENTS By EDWARD L. THORNDIKE, Ph.D. Professor of Genetic Psychology in Teachers College, Columbia University Pages xii + 212. Large Octavo. $1.50 net. This book is valuable, in fact indispensable . . . written in an attractive style. —Proressor E. F. Bucuner, of the University of Alabama, in The Educational Review. The best introduction to statistical theory yet published, and a text-book that ought to mark an important departure in college training. If I had the making of the list of required studies in an American college course, I should put into it a term’s drill in this book of Professor Thorndike’s, whatever mathematical requirement I had to throw out to make place for it. Or, if necessary, I would substitute it for the required work in political economy ; for it is a book that opens up, as nothing else ever has opened, the whole realm of scientific ideas and scientific methods in the so-called, but not really, in- exact sciences.— Prorerssor FRANKLIN H. Gipp1N6s, of Columbia University, in the Journal of Philosophy. THE SCIENCE PRESS Sub-Station 84 NEW YORK

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SCIENCE A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCHENCE. ScrENCE was established in 1883, and was at once accepted as the organ of American men of science. The sum of eighty thousand dollars was spent in its establishment and support by Professor A. Graham Bell, and the late Hon. Gardiner G. Hubbard. Large as the sum may appear, it is small in —— with the value of the Journal to science in America. SCIENCE is now under the charge of an editorial committee, consisting of the leading men of science in America, with Professor J. McKeen Cattell, head of the Department of Phil yand Psy- chology of Columbia University, as the responsible editor. The Journal has adequately and fully reflected the progress of science, and has been an important factor in itsadvancement. Its contents have maintained a high and even standard, comparing favorably with a in the country. It has stimulated scientific activity and interest in America and led to a fuller recognition of American science abroad. The contributors to SCIENCE represent practically every scientific institution in America showing scientific activity. The articles, reviews, corre- spondence and notes cover completely the field of science. ScrENCE is published every Friday. Each number contains forty double-column pages of reading matter, and over 2000 such pages, making two large volumes, are published annually. The subscription price is $5.00 per year or $2.50 per volume. Single numbers are sold for 15 cents. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY °° FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK School Science and Mathematics A MONTHLY JOURNAL FOR SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS It is the only magazine of its kind published in the English language. It gives new ideas and methods of scientific and mathematical instruction, and acts as a clearing house for all that is advanced and good in Science and Mathematics instruction. It is the official organ of many Science and Mathe- matics Teachers Associations. EIGHT DEPARTMENTS—Botany, Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathematics, Metrology, Problems, Physics and Zoology. “ Almost a necessity.”—Bruce Fink, Professor of Botany, Iowa College. es 6 practical hints are valuable to teachers.”—H. C. Cooper, Ass’t. Professor of Chemistry, Syracuse Jniversity. os Pe gee the magazine highly. It is most excellently conducted,”—JNo. S. CoLLins, Asst Supt. Schools, St. is, Mo. “ The problem department is very interesting and adds greatly to the value of the magazine.”—H. E. Coxs, Professor of Mathematics, Lewis Institute, Chicago. “T do not intend to dispense with the magazine as long as it continues as helpful as it has proven to be in the past."—Etta M. BARDWELL, Biology Dept., High School, Ottumwa, Ia. “I feel that ‘School Science’ should be in every high school. I shall be glad to further the interests of the journal whenever possible.”"—W. M. CoBLEIGH, Dept. of Physics, Montana State College of Agriculture. “I wish to express my appreciation of your magazine. 1t is a most helpful and inspiring pastime to read the a. or articles it contains.”—W. T. HEILMAN, Instructor in Mathematics, Central High School, wolumbus, O. " “ Your paper is not in the usual class of school Pee. I wish to help along the kind of work you are doing.” — GEORGE B. BRisTOL, Director Summer Session, Cornell niversity. $2.0(,per year. 25 cents per copy. SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS 440 KENWOOD TERRACE, CHICAGO, ILL. SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS will be sent THREE months for 50 cents to new sub- scribers mentioning the PopuLAR SclENCE MONTHLY.

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: ey ta ae a , F REO ar eS - - . ; = + . ‘ te . Pipe ye meg Sek EGNS EE ds at ae Sie ¥ Si ees KF $c Bee ig tae A GI ice” RS a Me tapes ck a ee -) i > A cf 4 4 | i ; J j ‘ " e 0 R b d b u 0 g : ps ah . 5 ol eis ‘ ‘ t ‘ SCyl . a D D ‘ D ng ‘ 50 DLOR HG G r ; m i ' til i t Ps i i ® Bs Ner Ne ; DO 1 8 | bps I | eL . / a | ai i h Session D n Septemb 4) 0 ‘ nee cond on m b mo d ¢ ' D on month bic: DO d n to tho doin 0 0 r 7 01 } ei ‘ ’ D n om Ph 0 - D Dro mp Pp me ; Histolo p nolo n : 010 nd DO 0 0 he loc on 00 n facil ore C De ce ap 0 0 D ‘ pen on, $) or we ; C nd in h 4 Hosp co hing u ou 2 0 or more co Send ov or Pp ti ddre: n Dean REG ; DR. G OBER Syracuse, a7 t | ‘ + et y os 4 ‘ " - $ CHARLO i | 4 e bs om g hoo or young die on il} al > » the Sun " q . ; n b h m 0 ” OU 0 ae ue D : ‘ D D! D) Ci 0 d DOO U ocu on nd h t » t dv pa "Ne 9» Presid or Se open Septemb h D 2 D $35 or 7 ee 0 dd ee: mi EA EG r.OU OT) 3 ‘ * = . ® ¢ Py e ' ate U . ’ | ’ ' J ae Horological Dep nen : ee >» Ps ‘ United S ‘ ' ‘ AS * - “ Ws ' 4 7 | 0 A i y=" - “ 1 oh - tt | ; a ‘ t* n ‘ nd mm b L Optic: b 5 ns 0 : 0 ‘ 4 U speede sue = 2 Ee: a . i } nd 0 : 0 0 ' Ci rough A ards Tosi , n it n nd r y } ut cludin u nd d . CO iT . 5 ; 0 y D od = ® » i : JU af i J me . ' ' PLCC: + . ‘ nd i ‘ i i 0G oe Og » 2 +t ‘ wi a “i ' ‘ U ' u = “i ld 4 i ‘ i mevnogd ‘ ‘ i “ no DD mp 0 i ne & » ' pub DO ~~ * choc ' D o “~s ‘ , 0 ‘ Mm 0 ‘ anced co cto - i of nh @ ordin 1DD da o ’ Histo Fa : oy Sy m 0 D nu DO DOT) 19t ° 0 4 *) « ; ~~ a stic . } » to ogi r

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| The Popular Science Monthly Entered in the Post Ofice in Lancaster, Pa., as second-class matter. a or ti oe ang NUMBER lise Dr. & ‘S Weir Mitchell. : Baron Pioneers of Science in Alex. The General Economic Importance of Mosquitoes : PROFESSOR JOHN B. SMITH. mers shall the Destructive Tendencies of Modern Life met and overcome’: Dr. RIcHARD CoLE The Value flue of Science. Proressorn M. H. Pornoart. A Defence of Pragmatism: PROFESSOR WILLIAM JAMES. Civolony—& Suggestion: Prorzsson LINDLEY - M. dhe Renhomadion of the North Platte Valley: W. 8. tig ~ meen, -y Test: E. H. Bazprrr. A National Department of Health; The Research Departments of the Carnegie Institution; The CONTENTS OF MAY NUMBER The Jamaica Earthquake. CHARLEs W. Brown. Notes on the Development of Telephone Service. FRED DELAND. Sight and Seeing in Ancient Times. Professor Cas. W. SUPER. me ee oe ‘Professor Ina How- The carat of Science. M. H. Porncart, Is the Mind in the Body? Professor Gzorce STUART FULLERTON. ~ Drug Abuses and their Effects on the People. Dr. J. MADISON TAYLOR. Illusions-of Vision and the Canals of Mars, Professor ANDREW ELLIcoTT Douglass. The Progress of Science : Berthelot and Moissan; The Founders of the Medical Department of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity; The Directorship of the U.S. Geological Survey; Scientific Items. ee eee The Problems of Astronomy; ic Items : > s@- The MONTHLY will be sent to new subscribers for six months for One Dollar SUBSCRIPTION ORDER To THE SCIENCE PRESS, Publishers of THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, Sub-Station 84, New York City. | Please find enclosed check or money order for three dollars, swbhscrip- tion to THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY for one year, begin- ning June, 1907. Please find enclosed from a new subscriber one dollar (sent at your risk), subscription for six months te THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, beginning June, 1907. y Name Address Single Numbers 30 Cents Yearly Subscription, $3.00 THE SCIENCE PRESS GARRISON-ON-HUDSON, N. Y. 41 NORTH QUEEN ST., LANCASTER, PA. . Sus-STaTion 84: NEW YORK Preee OF THe Baw Ene Pairing Comrany

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