Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, August 1899
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Title: Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, August 1899
Author: Various
Editor: William Jay Youmans
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPLETONS' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, AUGUST 1899 ***
Established by Edward L. Youmans
APPLETONS'
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY
EDITED BY
WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS
VOL. LV
MAY TO OCTOBER, 1899
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1899
COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
[Illustration: Herbert Spencer]
APPLETONS' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
AUGUST, 1899.
PUBLIC CHARITY AND PRIVATE VIGILANCE.
BY FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS, PH. D.,
PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.
The Comptroller of the City of New York deserves the thanks of all
good citizens for his serious indictment of the abuses of public
charity that have grown up in this city and State within the past ten
years. Probably very few of the more intelligent men and women of the
community were aware that three million dollars, raised by taxation,
are annually appropriated to the assistance of private charitable
institutions, over which the public has no real control and only the
most shadowy authority through the inspection of the State Board of
Charities. Of those who were informed of this fact, very few indeed
were acquainted with the specific abuses which the comptroller's
article exposes. To a few individuals, however, who have devoted time
and money unselfishly to the defense of public interests and to the
exposure of the evils of irresponsible relief, these facts have long
been familiar. Such can not fail to take satisfaction in the clear
presentation of the case by Mr. Coler. Especially to the men and women
who have been connected with the work of the State Charities Aid
Association and the Charity Organization Society will Mr. Coler's
article be welcome, as a strong re-enforcement of arguments which they
for years have been presenting to the people of New York, oftentimes,
it has seemed, to but unwilling hearers.
It is therefore in no spirit of fundamental disagreement, but rather
in the desire to further the reform which the comptroller demands,
that I venture to criticise in two particulars the statement as he has
left it.
It is an incomplete view of the enormously difficult problem of
charity which fails to set forth some of the reasons that have led to
the growth of an excessive faith in the excellence of private
institutions and in the wisdom of a co-operation between them and the
public, which is taken for granted when they receive appropriations of
public money.
Great as have been the abuses associated with private charity, they
are small when compared with the abuses that have existed in the
public administration of poor relief. As all familiar with the history
of this subject know, the old English poor law was so administered in
the rural parishes that paupers were in a more eligible position than
industrious farm laborers; that women with bastard children were
publicly rewarded for unchastity; and that, now and again, rent-paying
farmers were willing to surrender their lands to the paupers to work
them for what could be made, rather than to go on paying rates. The
exposure of the evils of the system, which was made in the report of
the famous Poor Law Commission appointed in 1832, and the attempt to
abolish them by the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834,
ought to be studied by every citizen who desires to perform his full
duty as a guardian of public interests, and especially by every
individual whose sympathies lead him to undertake any practical effort
for the amelioration of pauperism. In the United States, on account of
the extremely decentralized character of our poor-relief system
generally, we have no such impressive body of critical literature as
that which was brought out in England during the first half of the
present century. None the less, whenever special investigations of the
management of town and city relief administration and of the
management of almshouses have been made, deplorable abuses have almost
invariably been exposed, and individuals acquainted with the facts
have argued that any possible misdirection of either private or public
funds through private agencies could not equal the corruption and the
inhumanity for which officialism has been responsible.
Let us look at one noteworthy example. In 1891 a special committee
appointed to report on outdoor alms in the town of Hartford,
Connecticut, discovered a state of affairs with which nothing revealed
in Mr. Coler's statements can for a moment be compared. The general
situation, the committee said, was found to be as follows:
"In 1885 Hartford was paying $2.07 for each man, woman, and child of
its population in poor relief. New Haven was paying $1.30; Bridgeport,
$1.03; Waterbury, 81 cents; Norwich, $1.54; New Britain, $1.39, etc.;
for twelve Connecticut cities an average of $1.22 per capita against
our $2.07; and with Hartford far ahead of her nearest competitor. For
outdoor relief the figures were similar. Hartford, 90 cents per
capita; New Haven, 51 cents; Norwalk, 23 cents, etc.--an average for
the twelve of 61 cents per capita, with only one higher, Hartford in
the lead again by fifty per cent. Five Massachusetts cities, including
Boston, Worcester, and Lowell, average $1.16 for all relief, against
our $2.07; and 24 cents for outdoor relief against our 90 cents. Five
other New England cities, including Providence and Bangor, average 33
cents for all relief, against our $2.07; and 12 cents for outdoor,
against our 90 cents. Four New York cities--New York, Brooklyn,
Buffalo, and Albany--average 63 cents, against our $2.07; and 43
cents, against our 90 cents. Five cities in Pennsylvania and Maryland,
including Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and Baltimore, average 38 cents
against our $2.07; and 4 cents, against our 90 cents. Seven Western
and Southern cities, including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee,
and Charleston, average 62 cents for all relief, against our $2.07;
and 17 cents, against our 90 cents."
A similar comparison extended by the committee to the principal cities
of Europe, including Berlin, Dresden, and Stuttgart, showed that here
again Hartford led them all. In short, it appeared to be proved that
Hartford was spending on the poor more money per capita of population
than any other city in the United States, and more than any other in
the world, with certain exceptions in Italy, and the noteworthy
exceptions of London, $3.75 per capita, and Paris, $3.66 per capita.
Hartford, however, outranked even London in its percentage of pauper
population, which was 6.2 in Hartford, against 2.46 in London. While
in Hartford every sixteenth person was a recipient of municipal
bounty, in London the proportion was only one in forty. Paris led all,
with one in eight.
Investigation of the causes of this deplorable state of affairs
revealed an astonishing understanding between the paupers and the
officials. Tramps were given residence and support for the sake of
their votes on election day. Grocery stores were practically
subsidized. Families whose individual members could be made useful
politically were supported in outdoor relief.
That the showing was so much better for New York and other great
American cities was not a proof of greater honesty or wisdom of
administration on the part of municipal officials. The difference was
almost wholly due to the enormous extension of private as over against
public charity outside of typical New England Commonwealths like
Connecticut, where the town method of dealing with such matters still
holds its own against other forms of philanthropic enterprise. Proof
on this point would be overwhelming were we to take the necessary
space to present it. One has only to go through the annual reports of
the New York State Board of Charities and read the exposures that have
repeatedly been made of the state of affairs on the islands of the
East River and in the county almshouses of the State to satisfy
himself that were the whole burden of supporting the pauper population
of this Commonwealth, and especially of this city, thrown upon the
public, private enterprise withdrawing from the competition, the
appropriations mentioned by Mr. Coler would sink into ridiculous
insignificance by comparison. The appropriation of public money to
private institutions has become a scandalous abuse, but we shall never
understand its strength until we frankly face the fact that the public
has been experimenting with it, hoping thus to find a way of escape
from the greater abuses that attend the administration of public
relief by public agencies except when they are incessantly watched and
held up to the broadest light of publicity by the disinterested
efforts of private citizens.
The omission of this side of the matter from Mr. Coler's discussion
may perhaps be regarded as a mere failure to deal with the whole of a
very large and difficult problem. But it is more than a mere omission;
it is, I think, a positive error, and a serious one, into which the
comptroller falls when he lays as much stress as he does upon the
expenditure, for salaries and wages, of a large proportion of the sums
appropriated by the city for private institutions. The real question
here, as all sound experience has repeatedly demonstrated, is not
whether the expenditure is for salaries in general rather than for
relief. This Mr. Coler practically admits when he says that a great
deal of money spent for relief is worse than wasted, because it
fosters pauperism instead of repressing it, and when, at the close of
his article, he says that he found it necessary to create in his
department a bureau to investigate the character of institutions
asking aid. This is a frank confession that the expenditure of money
for salaries or for wages may be wiser than its expenditure in relief,
provided the salaries or wages are earned in actual investigation,
which results in exposing fraud and preventing expenditures on
improper applicants. This is the very kernel of the whole matter,
whether it is a private or a public administration of charity that we
are considering. The use of money, public or private, for the payment
of salaries that are mere sinecures is dishonesty pure and simple, and
neither the comptroller nor any of those private organizations that
make it their business to watch and criticise administration can have
a more imperative duty than that of putting an end to such corruption.
But, on the other hand, there could be no better index of positive
progress in solving the practical problems of charity than a steady
increase in the ratio of expenditures in salaries and wages on account
of investigation and prevention to the amount spent in actual relief.
That, in fact, would be an ideal administration of public and private
charities in which the efficiency of investigators and the practical
sagacity of relieving agents was so high that nearly the whole sum
expended had to be charged to their salary account.
This is precisely the principle which private organizations like the
State Charities Aid Association and the Charity Organization Society
have labored in season and out of season to make the public and the
officials comprehend. Innumerable exposures of the impostures
practiced upon a credulous public by the great class of professional
mendicants, tramps, and place seekers have furnished all the evidence
that sensible men need to satisfy themselves that large sums expended
by the public and by private individuals of charitable proclivities
have no other result than that of encouraging pauperism and misery. It
is largely due to the tireless efforts of the State Charities Aid
Association for many years past that the institutions receiving public
moneys in this State have been watched with such vigilance that there
is now a strict system of accounting in all of them, and that it has
become the duty of the State Board of Charities not only to insist
upon such accounting and to carry out a thorough inspection, but also
to frame and enforce rules for their government.
These criticisms I offer, however, only because, as I said at the
outset, I desire to see the fundamental proposition of Mr. Coler's
statement strengthened and made to bear practical fruit. It is indeed
a very serious question whether the appropriation of public money to
private institutions has not become so great an evil that it would be
better to put a stop to it once for all. And yet I must confess to a
doubt whether, upon a complete survey of all the facts, this would be
the judgment of the most practical and far-seeing men. The granting of
appropriations gives to the city and the State a reason and an excuse
for a strict inspection of organizations that otherwise might do
incalculable mischief by preying upon the credulity of a generous
public while concealing their actual operations. I therefore am
inclined to think that the path of practical wisdom lies through an
attempt to perfect the existing co-operation between public and
private agencies, and to bring it to a sounder business basis by
developing inspection, publicity, and accountability. If private
organizations are encouraged to do all in their own power under a
system wherein the State grants them aid under strict conditions, lays
down necessary rules for their government and guidance, and
remorselessly exposes all their transactions, the actual result may be
better in the long run than if State and private associations
proceeded independently of one another, often duplicating each other's
work, or, if not that, working at cross-purposes.
RECENT LEGISLATION AGAINST THE DRINK EVIL.
BY APPLETON MORGAN.
Five years ago it was sought in these pages[1] to discover the cause
or causes of the total failure in the United States of prohibitive
legislation.
[Footnote 1: The Popular Science Monthly for February, 1894.]
Our conclusion, so far as a conclusion could be said to have been
reached, was that the failure lay in the misapplication of ways to
means, rather than of means to ends--namely, that an attempt to
abolish the crime (or misdemeanor) of drunkenness by punishing, not
the criminal, but the community in which he committed the crime, and
to prevent law-breaking by legislating out of existence the neutral
instrument which happened to form the particular temptation to the
particular law-breaker (or with which he found it convenient to commit
the crime), was quite too logical to be practicable; as, for instance,
laws abolishing the use of spoons, as so many temptations to
housebreakers; or of railways, because trespassers on railway tracks
were often killed; or steamboats, because steamboat boilers sometimes
burst, would be quite too logical for public convenience. Whence it
followed that there was no demand for prohibitive liquor laws, and
therefore only failure had resulted from attempting to enforce them.
In the five years since that paper was printed almost every one of the
United States (in fact, all, with but one exception) have recognized
such failure and striven to so recast each its statutes as to plant
the responsibility for breach of public order upon the real offender
without hardship to the law-abiding classes. The results of these
attempts have evolved many novel and unusual contrivances and much
curious operation of statutory and statistical wisdom, and some
remarkable propositions--so much so that it is believed that an effort
to digest them (not by States, but by the principles, or rather by the
remedies, attempted) will be interesting consideration for readers of
the Popular Science Monthly. If the following summary shall develop
two apparent paradoxes--first, that the fewer the places where liquor
is sold the larger the consumption of liquor; and, second, that the
larger the consumption of liquor the less drunkenness--the present
writer can only submit that these paradoxes are not his own, but seem
to arise from the official statistics submitted under the oaths of the
authorities commissioned to collect them, as hereinafter will more
fully appear:
Of the forty-nine States and Territories in the United States, the
solitary exception above noted is the State of Maine. With a heroism
that is actual martyrdom of self-interest and convenience, the State
of Maine has clung with imperious tenacity to her policy of absolute
prohibition, and to the logic of the report of her citizen, who,
sixty-three years ago, carried her first prohibition law through her
Legislature. Said that report: "The objection will doubtless be made
that had we such a law it could not be enforced. Now, admit the
validity of this objection, and it proves the utter hopelessness of
the case; for no one, we presume, will venture the supposition that
you can accomplish, against law, that which you could not effect with
it."[2]
[Footnote 2: Report of General James Appleton to the Legislature
of Maine, July 15, 1837.]
Admitting, as all the world does admit, that the abolition of
drunkenness is desirable, against such pitiless, such iron, logic as
this, there is no appeal, and from it there is no escape even to-day.
But the trouble was, and is, that it is placing an entire Commonwealth
in time of peace under martial law. It was in the fitness of things
that General Appleton, a soldier, who had seen intoxication in a form
most likely to impress him with dangers to the public--i. e., in
soldiers to whom the safety of the State in time of war was
intrusted--should have brought in the first prohibition law on
record;[3] and that, in the teeth of more than two generations of
failure, the sovereign State of Maine should have adhered to his
martial logic, with the loss of her commerce and the reduction of her
census, is a tribute to both the logic of a soldier or the
self-insistence of the State which must compel admiration! In
sixty-three years Maine has seen her commerce disappear and her
population dwindle. She has seen not only her contemporary sister
States, but those admitted yesterday and the day before, pass her in
affluence and prosperity. But the only remedy for her failure she will
listen to the suggestion of is an increased severity of prohibition
statutes and an increased crucifixion of her law-abiding citizens,
lest one of her own or a single stranger within her gates should
obtain a glass of alcoholic compound within her borders.
[Footnote 3: General Appleton was commander of the First Brigade
of the Second Division of Massachusetts infantry in the War of
1812-1815, his resignation dating 1828.]
But, cling as the State of Maine may to the fierce logic of
prohibition, it appears that her forty-eight sisters have found its
unappealable rigor too rigid, and have modulated it in the diverse
ways now to be considered.
In these remaining forty-eight States and Territories of the Union the
statistics regulating liquor seem to divide themselves, as to the
remedies attempted, into ten heads, as follows:
I. Abolish all liquor laws except those for revenue.
II. Example.
III. Education.
IV. Government control of all warehousing and sales.
V. Regulation of hours for retailing liquors.
VI. Refusal of employment to drinkers. Change of pay-day.
VII. Personal damage law.
VIII. Encourage the use of light wines and beers; remove all duties or
imposts on food products; quality inspection.
IX. High revenue--national, interstate, or State.
X. Local option.
For No. I, pure and simple, we have but a single report, perhaps (as
of a frontier State) not exemplary, or safe to guide the more interior
States, but given exactly for what it may be worth. The Governor of
Montana (a State which boasts the bad eminence of having
proportionately more liquor-sellers paying license fees than any other
State in the Union--having, in fact, one licensed liquor-seller to
every fifty-five inhabitants) reports as follows:
"Saloons are run wide open night and day; while there is a great deal
of drinking there is very little drunkenness, and one in an
intoxicated condition is promptly arrested and fined." One other
State, however (Louisiana), has the continental idea that liquor laws
are for "revenue only." Louisiana, therefore, has an elaborate excise,
guiltless of any suggestion of reformative objects. So far as her
statistics go, she is the most temperate State in the Union.
II. EXAMPLE.--This may be called the apostolic cure--the one laid down
by the apostle St. Paul (I Corinthians, viii, 13)--though we find a
prominent English ecclesiastic, Dean Hole, on being asked if he was
not aware that people ought to abstain for the sake of their example
to others, replied: "I have never seen any one converted by example. I
have often challenged teetotalers to produce Mr. Jones converted by
the example of Mr. Brown, but I am waiting for him. I don't see why I
should make a fool of myself because others do." I should not deal
with the matter quite so summarily myself. Doubtless the example of a
thrifty, wholesome, prosperous laborer, if left (without exhortation
or impertinence of third parties) to work upon his dram-drinking,
wretched neighbor, might have its laudable effect: such example not
being deprived in advance of its value by the fetters of a written
pledge which a man's personal pride might force him to ostentatiously
observe--or if the exemplary person does not get his living by
denouncing liquor--or by the coercion of a Ladies' Temperance Union!
But as the person converted by the example would be certain not to
parade the fact, no statistics could even then be attainable. The case
or cases, if genuine, would be hidden in the consciences of the
converts and beyond any marshaling in figures. All we can do is to
hope and trust that our good examples may prevail, and that, like the
apostle St. Paul (whom our British ecclesiastic begs to differ with),
there may be some among us strong enough physically as well as
spiritually to say, "If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no
meat while the world standeth."
These considerations have not, however, deterred certain States from
ingrafting example upon the statute-book, as nearly as it could be
made a subject of legislation, by enacting that there shall be held
before the eye of the possible drinker the spectacle of his neighbors
drinking rum: trusting, doubtless, to the rum itself to work a
condition in the drinker to afford the example required, and so add to
the unestimated but hoped-for good example to bad example at hand.
Three States--i. e., Indiana, Michigan, and Utah--and the city of
Atlanta, Georgia, by municipal ordinance, provide that the premises on
which liquor is retailed by drinks shall have no screen or other
obstruction before its windows, so that passers-by may see the
drinking which goes on therein and its horrible accompanying
circumstances. The reports from these States, however, are not such as
to commend this policy of example to universal acceptance.
III. EDUCATION.--Within the past four years several States--Wisconsin,
Ohio, New Jersey, Nevada--have enacted statutes providing that pupils
in the public schools should be particularly instructed in so much at
least of the science of toxicology as relates to the uses and abuses
of alcohol, and of its effect upon the human system. Such instruction,
if honestly imparted by capable teachers and by honest text-books, can
not fail to be of the highest value. Capable teachers and honest
text-books could not possibly teach, for example, that alcoholic
liquors were an unmixed evil, could not deny their medicinal value, or
their stimulative aid in fortifying against disease or exposure, or in
supplying the waste of age; could not teach (as I gave instances of of
fanatical teachings) that it were better to die for the need of a
glass of whisky than to have one's life saved by the use of it, or
that the use of liquor "destroys both body and soul" (in the teeth of
the facts that only the most flagrant and protracted abuse of liquor
ever, and that after a long term of years, destroyed a human body, and
that statistics as to the soul are not attainable). Much is to be
hoped for under this benign instruction. It is not possible that our
youth will not miss to acquire much important information, such as
that "wine is a good servant if well used"; that total abstinence is
a regimen only to be pursued by advice of a physician; that the vast
majority of human beings can and do partake moderately of alcoholic
liquors, not only without injurious consequences, but with positive
benefit; and that, as it is a source of much enjoyment, and much
discomfort often springs from its discontinuance, it is difficult to
say why such use should be discontinued under ordinary circumstances.
Our youth will learn, too, that there are many nations that thrive
without alcoholic drinks--nations, for example, professing the
Mohammedan faith, to whom alcohol is forbidden by their religion; but
that among them the use of stronger narcotics, such as opium and
Indian hemp, is extremely common, and the exchange from alcohol to
these narcotics can hardly be looked upon as a gain. The result of
this State instruction may be confidently looked for, and can not
possibly do harm. It is too early as yet to procure data for
discussion of the amount of good accomplished by this legislation. We
must wait until the adolescent pupil has grown to man's estate, to
middle age, until his mortal change, and search his record, and the
record of the family he leaves behind him, for the benefits of the
paternal legislation. In short, it is exceedingly doubtful if data
upon this subject, in the nineteenth century at least, will ever be
collected at all. It is noticeable, however, that in the States'
scheme of education the peripatetic temperance lecturer, with his
lurid colored charts of the human stomach in the horrors of suffering
from what he calls "the flowin' bowl," have no place, and no salary is
provided for such "university extension" processes. A suggestion
lately made in these pages that temperance lecturers as well as liquor
dealers being obliged to take out licenses (at least as caterers to
the public amusement) is conspicuous by its absence from the
educational plan.
IV. GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF TRAFFIC.--The idea of a government monopoly
in liquor is from continental Europe, and, like most ideas from that
source, is paternal and monarchical pure and simple. The idea reached
perfection in what is known as the Gothenburg system, which,
attracting considerable attention from students of the liquor problem,
was introduced into the statutes of Georgia, where after a brief trial
it was discarded. The State of South Carolina, however, adopted its
principal features, calling it the "dispensary system," and is still
maintaining it.
The story of the Gothenburg system is as follows: Since the days of
Gustavus Adolphus III there had existed in Sweden and Norway a policy
making the distillation of a liquor called _bränxin_, or brandy, a
right running with the ownership of land first, afterward with a
tenancy of land, and ultimately a right secured to tavern-keepers.
This brandy being distilled from grain or potatoes, and containing
about fifty per cent of alcohol, was cheap, and in consequence of the
poor food supply grew into universal use, until not only men and women
but very young children drank it. Drunkenness became the rule, and
pauperism and crime prevailed in startling proportions, outrunning the
range of either charity or police to control them. In this state of
affairs a Dr. Wisselgren, Dean of Gothenburg, a Swedish city, arose,
and from his exertions grew the famous Gothenburg system.
Stripped of detail, this system provides that stock companies called
brandy companies shall receive from the crown a monopoly of liquor
sales, on condition of maintaining eating houses, reading rooms,
lodgings, and other conveniences for the community, and out of surplus
profits contribute to the police, the poor, and the educational, funds
of the community. The companies shall be under inspection of the royal
governor, with no appeal from his discretion, and also under
inspection of officers of the three funds entitled to the surplus
profits. The companies must close their places of sale on Sundays, can
sell only to persons over eighteen years of age, and in the rooms
devoted to drinking alone there must be no chairs or settees. After
drinking, the purchaser must depart. Such rooms must not be in
communication directly with the eating and lodging rooms. In these
latter cleanliness and cheapness must prevail, but the company may
raise the price and dilute the strength of the brandy sold.
With much amendment and revision, this system appears to be to-day
substantially in effect, with what good results opinions differ. It
was speedily rejected after brief trial in Georgia for a high-license
system pure and simple. In South Carolina its introduction from
Georgia provoked riot and even bloodshed on account of the right of
search which it involved. The main feature is, of course, that the
State becomes the real buyer, jobber, and retailer of all ardent
spirits. Here it has been found difficult of complete administration,
and, unless its success should be more distinguished than at present,
it probably is but a short-lived expedient.
V. REGULATION OF HOURS OF SALE.--All the liquor-licensing States and
Territories regulate the hours of opening and closing drinking places.
They all agree in closing them during the small hours (that is, from
midnight or one o'clock A. M. until about sunrise or an hour after).
It is difficult to all what effect for good or ill these statutes can
have upon either the decrease of drunkenness or the increase of
revenue. Doubtless they are convenient for the public force of cities
or the constabulary of the smaller towns, so that they may know when
to be prepared for possible breaking of the public peace. But in no
State, so far as we can discover, are they applied to Sunday, the day
when, in large cities especially, and in the heated season, the
inconvenience of hermetically closed ale and beer houses is most
exasperating to the wayfarer, and intolerable and even (from a
sanitary standpoint) dangerous to the wage-earning and poorer classes,
packed in torrid and fetid tenements on the figment of a danger of
"disturbing a public worship" (I say "figment" because no instance of
a disturbance of public worship by the sale of liquor can be found in
the history of this planet). Why in torrid weather the worthy poor man
and his family who can not afford ice-boxes can not quench a natural
and normal thirst, and so avoid contracting disease by drinking stale
and impure water in the superheated apartments of city tenement houses
where an average of three families to a window pane has been said to
be the rule, I for one have never been able to comprehend. A good
Sunday law, as in London, not allowing but compelling the opening of
beer houses on certain hours on Sundays, would be a most desirable
thing, especially in our great cities. The fact, too, that at present
the streets of our American cities are woefully lacking in other
sanitary conveniences, which are only supplied meagerly by an
occasional drinking place, would appear an additional reason why a
Sunday-opening law would be quite as convenient and quite as welcome
as a Sunday-closing law. Such a law would have the effect of at least
meeting public convenience, and might well be substituted for the
present ridiculous closing laws. Into what legislative intellect it
ever first entered to conceive that the cause of temperance would be
assisted by closing liquor saloons seven hours out of the twenty-four
(and those seven the hours when all Nature, drunk or sober, is asleep)
it passes imagination to conjecture. Most Legislatures have followed
the first one, however, and enacted such provisions.
VI. REFUSAL OF EMPLOYMENT TO PERSONS KNOWN TO BE HABITUAL USERS OF
LIQUOR.--In two States--viz., New York and Ohio--clauses have been
introduced forbidding the employment by railways and other common
carriers of passengers, of persons known to be addicted to the use of
intoxicants. In the latter State the common carrier must be notified
that such person has been known to be intoxicated while in said
carrier's "active" employment, in order to bind the carrier with
knowledge. Such a provision as this may be criticised as the Czar of
Russia's proposition for a universal disarmament is likely to be
criticised--as admirable and millennial, but of no value if gradually
adopted, and impossible of instant adoption. No public industry, not
even the liquor industry, could cease and disappear in a day without
throwing tens of thousands of wage-earners out of employment, and it
would be hardship indeed if the family of the drinking man, the
toiling wife, scheming to save a morsel of the weekly wages from the
dram shop, should be forced to accept the alternative of no wages at
all. The suggestion presents, again, a maze of presumption from which,
once entered into, no practical exit would present itself. Supposing
that no skilled laborer, no finisher, no engineer, no oiler, no
fireman, etc., could be found who was a total abstainer for any one
factory or railway service, let alone a hundred or a hundred thousand
cases? Clearly this discussion could only be pursued as a curiosity
(or, say, a fascinating speculation as to the effects of an industrial
chaos). The first item in the recipe for making hare stew was to catch
your hare. To run our commerce with totally abstaining employees we
must find our totally abstaining employees. To pause to create them
would bring commerce, and with it society, including the churches, the
schools, and the Temperance Unions themselves, to a standstill like
that of Joshua's moon in Ajalon! In connection with this employment
question, however, a practical suggestion has been made. It is
suggested that, as Saturday night is the workman's "night off" and the
ensuing Sunday is his holiday, it might work well to make the weekly
pay-day of a Monday instead of a Saturday. The experiment is worth a
trial. The change could be made abruptly, and the bad half an hour to
the workman would occur but once. Let him be handed his wages some
Monday morning when the Saturday night's spree and the long Sunday's
headache had been novel and conspicuous omissions. The necessity of
good shape for Tuesday's stint would prevent a Monday night at the bar
room, and the probability is that the wife and family might realize a
substantial instead of a marginal proportion of the weekly wage. At
any rate, compared with some of the suggestions made for remedying the
drink evil, this is superbly sensible. Indeed, one who has not had
occasion to examine these matters can have little idea of the
absurdity to which otherwise perfectly sane persons will go in
combating an evil with which they are very properly impressed, but to
the consequences of an abrupt removal of which it has not occurred to
them to pay any attention whatever; for example, the seriously
proposed law against "treating"--that is, against inviting a friend to
"take a drink" with him. Granted that the tippling habit is encouraged
by the social instinct, and that the great peril of drunkenness comes
(as an old New England farmer expressed it) "not from drinkin', but
from drinkin' agin," a law to prevent treating, like a law forbidding
a man from inviting his neighbor home to dinner, or his wife inviting
the other man's wife over to luncheon, would be obliged to first find
its lawgiver. But gentlemen who solve the liquor question are not apt
to be particular to find a jurisdiction and a source for the laws they
propose. It is interesting to note that in one State (Nevada) an
anti-treating law was once actually passed, but repealed, "having
proved impracticable" (at least, that is the official record of the
reason for its repeal, no particulars being given).
VII. THE PERSONAL DAMAGE LAW.--that is, the holding of a seller of
liquor to a person known to be dangerous when in drink responsible for
damage caused by his intoxication. This principle has now become
ingrafted in the laws of seventeen of the United States, sometimes
coupled with high license and local option and sometimes not. It is
really only an application of the principle of the common law that a
man must so use his own as not to injure his neighbor; that
communities had the same right to hold a supplier of intoxicants to a
violent drinker as a criminal as it had to punish the keeper of a
dangerous beast (of a biting dog, for example, knowing it to be
such--i. e., if the animal has once bitten a human being or killed a
domestic animal kept for revenue, as a cow or a sheep). This civil
damage law has been made statutory in many ways. In Ohio the seller is
held indefinitely for the "expenses of any one who takes charge of the
intoxicated person" after notice to the seller not to sell to that
person. In Michigan the damages may be exemplary. In Vermont, if the
drunkard is imprisoned the seller must pay two dollars per day to his
wife or minor children in addition to suffering an imprisonment. In
New Hampshire and Nebraska, and in several other States, a person
arrested for drunkenness is given his liberty if he will disclose the
name of the person who sold him the liquor on which he became
intoxicated. In most of the other States (as in New York) the damages
are not limited except by the facts of such case. In New York, too,
the preliminary notice is insisted on. In other States (as Idaho) the
seller's damage is the loss of his license, if notice not to sell has
been properly served upon him. In Arkansas the liquor seller as a
condition of his license must give a bond to pay all damages awarded.
In Nebraska the seller must give a bond to support all widows and
orphans, and pay all legal expenses of prosecution as well as all
damage resulting from any intoxication induced by or traceable to his
sales.
VIII. ENCOURAGE THE USE OF LIGHT WINES AND BEERS.--The suggestion has
often been made that this would undoubtedly solve at one swoop a
respectable proportion of the problem. The practical difficulty would
be to institute the reform in any but the cities and larger towns.
Everybody has remarked that, to see the true and distinguished squalor
of drunkenness, one must seek the villages, sparsely settled
communities, the rural districts whence come the "come-ons," the
willing victims of the green-goods men, anxious to cheat their
Government (and so, one might say, at least a shade less estimable
than the sharper who only proposes to cheat a fellow-citizen). It
seems to me that the reason for this difference lies distinctly in the
fact that the countryman, who will gratify his appetite for drink, has
no choice but the concoction of ardent spirits, high wines, or
whatever it is which the local publican sets before him. To him the
word "wine" suggests a luxury beyond his venture or his purse. And so
for the price at which, in a large city, he could obtain half a
bottle, or even a bottle, of wholesome red wine, the consumption of
which at a settling would do no possible harm, he throws into his
stomach a glass of biting poison, and, horrible to relate, another and
another; whereas the whole bottle, or at least the half bottle,
probably shared with a neighbor, would have satisfied his craving
without ruining his digestion or stealing away his brains. This clause
of our discussion runs largely into our IX. But meanwhile here are
some figures which may startle prohibitionists as completely as did
the figures given in these pages four years ago, which went to prove
that habitual drunkards lived longer than total abstainers. (These
figures have been strenuously denied in declamation and denouncement.
I have yet to learn that any attempt has been made by industry in
collection of counter-figures to demonstrate their fallacy.[4]) But
here are certain other figures: It appears by the official report of
Dr. Nagle to the Health Department of the city of New York for the
first thirty-one weeks of the year 1893 (the city then prior to the
consolidation or to the present "Raines" law) that in the community
(as it then was of 1,765,645 inhabitants) out of 29,080 deaths only
twenty-nine were directly traceable to the use of liquor. And this in
a community where 10,749 liquor saloons were in operation from sunrise
to midnight daily, not to mention the use of wines and liquors in
hundreds of hotels and clubs and of wines and malt liquors on tens of
thousands of private tables. These figures are startling, and read
quite as extravagantly as those quite to the reverse conclusion with
which the prohibitionists are wont to appall us. But they are from
the official sources, and, unlike the awful figures which show a
larger mortality from the use of liquor alone than the mortality from
all known causes (liquor included), can be verified by taking the
trouble to consult the files of the (New York) City Record. As for the
part which drinking wine has to do with this official summary, I may
mention the difficulty of approximating to the sales of what may be
properly called "light wines." But I have been able to ascertain (as
some indication of it, perhaps) that in the fifty-two weeks of this
same year (1893) there were consumed in the same city 265,414 cases of
champagne! So it would appear that even champagne is a mitigant,
rather than an aggravator, of at least the public horrors of
drunkenness.
[Footnote 4: Perhaps for convenience of reference the figures
heretofore found so startling may be repeated. Of 4,234 deaths
collected by the British Medical Association, divided for
reference into five classes--namely: _a_, total abstainers; _b_,
habitually temperate; _c_, careless drinkers; _d_, free drinkers;
_e_, habitual drunkards--the ages of death of those in each class
were registered, together with the causes of death; and the
average of death for each class computed with the following
result:
Total abstainers lived on an average 51.22 years;
Habitually temperate lived on an average 62.13 "
Careless drinkers lived on an average 59.67 "
Free drinkers lived on an average 57.59 "
Habitual drunkards lived on an average 52.03 "
To cancel such a statement as this, some industry is required on
the other side; at least a collection of 4,234 other cases.
Anybody can say that a laboriously tabulated statement is false.
But it requires patience to demonstrate it.]
I am not unconscious of the fluent answer to these figures. It will be
of course urged by the prohibitionist that they only show deaths the
"direct" cause of dram-drinking. But such answer is correspondingly
unsafe. For, since death, albeit normal to us all comes from some
cause (notably from old age, for example), a better formula would be
that, since many deaths are caused by old age, and as old age is
caused by living too long, we should be careful not to live too long.
Hence, as life is prolonged by eating, as well as shortened by
drinking (granting that contention), to abstain from the use of food
is the only course of wisdom!
This encouragement to the drinking of light wines has, so far, only
positively found its way into the statute-books of the one essentially
wine-growing State, California, though in other States it has made its
limited appearance. Nor does there seem to be any reason why every
State should not include in its laws such a provision, for example, as
that of Oregon (certainly not known as _per se_ a "wine-growing State"
at present), which provides that "owners of vineyards may sell their
products without license"; or of Utah, which, however, adds to a
similar provision that the sale must be in quantities not less than
five gallons. Even Kansas provides that wine or cider, grown by the
maker for his own use or to be sold for communion purposes, is not
within the prohibitions. However, as in most of the States, the price
of a license to sell only wines, or wines and beers, is less than the
price of a license to sell ardent spirits, it may fairly be said that
an encouragement to drinking wines in preference to distilled liquors
has become parcel of the public policy in most communities. In Georgia
the sellers of wines who are also manufacturers thereof are exempted
from paying any license. The State of Michigan is justly proud of its
Dairy and Food Commission, which provides for the examination and
secures the purity not only of fruits, butter, milk, cheese, but of
buckwheat flour, jellies, canned goods, lard, vinegar, coffee, sirups
and molasses, chocolate, cocoanuts, baking powder, flavoring
extracts, mustard, and other spices. And this same law (elsewhere
considered as to adulteration of liquors) seems to encourage light
wines by a distinct provision that "the blending of liquors will be
permitted if spirits or other ingredients are not added." In Rhode
Island, if manufactured from fruit or grain grown in the State, no
license is required for the manufacture of cider, wine, or malt
liquors; and (with a thrift not uncharacteristic) alcohol, while
subject to a heavy license for home consumption, may be produced for
exportation without any license at all.
IX. REMOVE ALL DUTIES, TAXES, IMPOSTS, OR BURDENS OF ANY SORT ON FOOD
PRODUCTS, SERIALS, OR MEATS, in order that the food supply may be
unfailing everywhere.
Ten years ago the Hon. Edwin Reed, of Boston, Massachusetts, published
a pamphlet[5] in which he had the courage to say that, if a man were
well fed, liquor could have no terrors for him. "Take care of the
eating and the drinking will take care of itself." Repeal all laws
that in any degree and on any pretext tend to enhance the market
prices, was Mr. Reed's thesis, and he nailed it boldly to the
Massachusetts State-House door! Mr. Reed proceeded with figures to
remind us that the countries where drunkenness existed to the most
alarming degrees were those countries where the masses of the people
eat the least, see meat perhaps once or twice a year, and perhaps
never; where the year's labor barely suffices to pay the year's
taxes!--in Italy, Russia, or Sweden, and parts of Germany, for
example, where life is a struggle for bread enough to keep life in the
body. The figures Mr. Reed gives are too appalling for an Anglo-Saxon
to read calmly. "If Russia," says Mr. Reed, "could reduce her infant
mortality to that of Great Britain she would save annually a million
of lives. Half the Russian mothers can not nurse their children. The
whip and spur of poverty drives them to labor in the fields, where
they follow the plow three days after confinement, and where the death
rate is forty-eight per thousand.... In France many a factory hand
lives on a slice of sour bread for a meal, over which he is fortunate
if he can rub an onion to give it flavor.... In Italy, where taxes are
imposed to twenty-five per cent of the laborer's income, the average
length of life is twenty-seven years, and the whole kingdom is
mortgaged to an average of seventeen per cent." In Würtemberg Mr. Reed
assures us that "in this garden of Germany the peasant lives on black
bread and potatoes with meat only once a year." And even in England
Mr. Reed (quoting his authority) declares that the collier breakfasts
on bread soaked in hot water and flavored with onion, dines on bread
and hard cheese, with sour, thin cider, and sups on potatoes or
cabbage greased with a bit of bacon rind. And precisely the identical
testimony, varying only the staples of starvation, comes from
Switzerland, Poland, and other countries. Now, all this requires
something, and that something usually takes the form of something
alcoholic. Poor Edgar Allan Poe produced his fascinating prose and
marvelous poetry on dinners of herbs, and the well-fed, fat, greasy
Honey-thunders and Podsnaps recognize the crime, not in the fact that
such a man was left to eat such dinners, but that he took a glass of
whisky to keep the life in his poor unnourished body while he wrote.
Therefore Mr. Reed would make food as plentiful as Nature has enabled
man to make it. In other words, a condition of unfedness requires the
human system to crave alcoholic stimulants, and what the human system
craves it must find, since the craving becomes functional, and
impossible to disregard, _malgre_ laws, systems, or statutes
whatsoever. Even the children in Switzerland, says Dr. Schuler (quoted
by Mr. Reed), are fed whisky between meals in order to sustain their
tiny lives, the low regimen of whose mothers has given them the
frailest possible hold on life to live at all. Mr. Reed believes also
that, on public grounds, other effort for amelioration should be made
by the State, such as shorter hours of labor, two holidays a week,
etc. But as to these we will not follow him here. He makes his point,
however, and his pamphlet is worth the consideration of
philanthropists. It can not be denied that, with the exception of the
shorter hours for labor and the general tendency to increase the
number of holidays ("Labor Day," Arbor Day, Memorial Day, Lincoln Day,
etc.), much of Mr. Reed's theories have got into our statute-books.
And the general tendency to ameliorate the condition of the laborer,
which is everywhere apparent in the United States, may fairly be
alluded to here as among statutory efforts to the universal
betterment.
[Footnote 5: A New View of the Temperance Question. By Edwin
Reed, Boston, 1889.]
[_To be concluded._]
* * * * *
Regarding changes in the language of science, as illustrated in
the English Historical Dictionary, C. L. Barnes pointed out, in
the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, England,
that the words "astronomy" and "astrology" have interchanged
meanings since they were first introduced, as is shown by
Evelyn's speaking, in his Memoirs, of having dined with "Mr.
Flamsteed, the learned astrologer and mathematician." Gaule, in
1652, spoke of chemistry as "a kind of præstigious, cheating,
covetous magick"; and even as late as 1812 Bentham spoke of the
"unexpressive appellation chemistry" as the single-worded synonym
for "idioscopic or crypto-dynamic anthropurgics." Atom originally
meant a small interval of time--the 22,564th part of an hour. The
word gas was suggested to Van Helmont by the Greek chaos. "I
called that vapor gas," he said, "an ancient mystery not long
from chaos." Algebra was a branch of mathematics and also the art
of bone-setting, and both meanings are still used in Spain.
TEACHERS' SCHOOL OF SCIENCE.
BY FRANCES ZIRNGIEBEL.
"He who would most effectually improve school tuition must find out
the most effectual way of improving the teachers. Hence he is the
greatest educational benefactor who does most to raise the character
and qualifications of the teachers," said John D. Philbrick, late
superintendent of the public schools of the city of Boston, in his
twenty-third semiannual report. By providing teachers with the best
instruction on subjects the teaching of which was at the time of
making this report, and is still, unsatisfactory, The Teachers' School
of Science of the Boston Society of Natural History has for nearly
three decades been a great educational benefactor. It stands unique as
an institution which, while doing a great work for many years, has
presented nothing of startling nature such as would attract the
attention of the general public, and is therefore not so widely known
as it deserves to be.
During a conversation held at the council room of the Boston Society
of Natural History, in 1870, between Prof. Alpheus Hyatt and the late
Mr. John C. Cummings, a Boston merchant interested in natural history
and curator of the plant collection of the society for twenty odd
years, the latter expressed regret that the Lowell lectures for
teachers had been discontinued. Professor Hyatt then suggested to him
a plan for lectures for teachers exclusively. That afternoon Mr.
Cummings gave five hundred dollars for the commencement of such a
course, and soon after the matter was brought before a committee
consisting of Mr. Cummings, Professor Hyatt, and Professor Niles.
[Illustration: ALPHEUS HYATT.]
[Illustration: JOHN CUMMINGS.]
Under the direction of the committee the courses of lessons were given
as follows: physical geography, by Prof. William H. Niles, of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; mineralogy, by Mr. W. C.
Greenough, of the Providence Normal School; zoölogy, by Prof. Alpheus
Hyatt, then custodian of the Boston Society of Natural History;
botany, by Dr. W. G. Farlow, of Cambridge--in all thirty-three
lessons. These courses were wholly tentative and experimental, but
attained success that was most encouraging.
[Illustration: WILLIAM H. NILES.]
Through the kindness of Professor Runkle, President of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Huntington Hall, in which so
many great scientists have spoken, was opened for the first lesson in
geography. Professor Niles here delivered six lectures. "He undertook
to give the more general features of the earth's surface, and then to
apply these general principles to the explanation of the physical
characteristics of Massachusetts." The success of this course may be
judged by the average attendance, which was about six hundred teachers
of all grades, and by the fact that the teaching of geography in some
of the public schools at once underwent a change in favor of the more
natural method introduced by him.
[Illustration: ON THE RIGHT, BUILDING OF THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL
HISTORY; ON THE LEFT, ROGERS'S BUILDING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY.]
"On account of the necessity of actually handling and dissecting
specimens, the tickets issued for the succeeding lessons were limited,
and at the six lessons on mineralogy and eleven on zoölogy there was
an average attendance of about fifty-five. The materials for the
course in zoölogy were gathered in sufficient abundance through the
extraordinary facilities for collecting marine animals afforded by
Prof. S. F. Baird, United States Commissioner of Fisheries; those for
the course in botany were furnished with equal readiness and
generosity by Prof. Asa Gray from his botanical garden at Cambridge."
The society's attempt to introduce natural history into the public
schools met with favor at the hands of the superintendent, Mr.
Philbrick, and a committee of school principals was appointed, with
Mr. James A. Page as chairman, who canvassed the teachers regarding
this matter. Accordingly, in October, 1871, a circular was sent to
teachers which said that lessons were to be given by "professors
familiar with the object methods of teaching and skillful in the use
of chalk." Seven hundred teachers signed this circular, and so
signified their pleasure at the prospect of receiving such
instruction.
While Mr. Cummings was generously providing these courses of lectures
exclusively for the benefit of teachers, Mr. John A. Lowell, trustee
of the Lowell Institute Fund, made liberal provision for free courses
on different branches of natural science, to which teachers were
specially invited and which were well adapted to their wants, although
not intended exclusively for them. During the winter of 1872-'73, on
account of the large fire in Boston and the absence of Professor Hyatt
in Europe, the lessons in The Teachers' School of Science were
necessarily suspended. In the autumn of 1874 they were resumed and
supported by renewed donations from Mr. Cummings. Mr. L. S. Burbank
gave thirty lessons on minerals, and distributed the specimens used at
the lectures among the teachers. These minerals were then used in the
schools for instruction. This was virtually the introduction of the
teaching of natural science in the public schools of Boston. The
following winter Mr. Burbank continued his teaching by giving fourteen
lessons in lithology to a class averaging ninety in attendance. One
hundred sets of seventy-five specimens each were distributed, and many
of these sets placed in collections of the city schools. "A
supplementary course of field lessons about Boston was voluntarily
conducted by Mr. Burbank, who had in his class this year seventy-five
per cent of the members of the class in mineralogy of the previous
year. This class included a large number of the busiest teachers of
Boston and vicinity, and each member of the class was provided with
tools, consisting of a small hammer, magnet, file, streak stone of
Arkansas quartzite, a bottle of dilute acid, a glass rod, and the
scale of hardness previously used in the mineralogical course."
In 1876 women were admitted to the Society of Natural History, and in
that way further privileges were granted to teachers. As in previous
years, through the liberality of Mr. Cummings, the lessons were
continued, and a course of twenty-one lessons in morphological,
physiological, and systematic botany was given by Prof. George L.
Goodale, of Harvard University. Each lesson was illustrated by
specimens which were distributed to the students. The analysis of the
flowers and the determination of the peculiarities of floral structure
were considered by Professor Goodale an important part of the course.
For this purpose blank forms were distributed to the teachers, which
enabled each one to pursue his examination of the flower in hand
independently, and made it possible for the instructor to cover more
ground than would have been practical by any other method. There was
an unusually large attendance at these lessons, averaging one hundred.
The following year Professor Goodale continued to teach in the school,
giving twenty lectures on the principles of systematic botany. Printed
synopses of the lectures were placed in the hands of the teachers, and
nearly all the large orders of plants were illustrated by specimens or
diagrams. The teachers were also provided with dried and named
specimens of native plants suitable for private herbaria. About one
hundred and fifty sets of these plants were distributed during the
course, at which the attendance was even greater than that of the
previous year.
[Illustration: GEORGE L. GOODALE.]
It was at this time that, through the efforts of Miss Lucretia
Crocker, the study of zoölogy was introduced into the high schools of
Boston, and the study of Nature in the public schools took a definite
form. At this time The Teachers' School of Science attained an
extraordinary size and importance, a development which was sudden and
unexpected. The supervisor of Nature study, Miss Crocker, assured the
directors of the school that their assistance would be of great
benefit, and in fact essential, to the success of the introduction of
this subject into the schools. It was therefore determined to
institute appropriate courses upon elementary botany, zoölogy, and
mineralogy, if the means of paying the expenses could be raised. Mrs.
S. T. Hooper and Miss Crocker undertook a considerable amount of the
necessary work, and fortunately their scheme met with substantial
appreciation from Mrs. Augustus Hemmenway, who subscribed most
liberally, and they were assured of further support and interest.
Obstacles arose on account of the number of applicants and the
necessity of providing identical specimens for all. The association
and sympathy of Mrs. Elizabeth Agassiz with the undertaking was
particularly gratifying, since Prof. Louis Agassiz was the first
naturalist who ever taught the popular audiences in this country with
the specimens in hand. Large sums of money were contributed by women,
many members of the Natural History Society, and the teachers
themselves joined in making up the necessary fund. The Institute of
Technology generously gave the use of Huntington Hall upon the payment
of a nominal sum for cleaning and heating. Count Pourtalés, Dr.
Hermann Hagan, and Mr. E. C. Hamlin, of the Museum of Comparative
Zoölogy, which was under the direction of Mr. Alexander Agassiz, at
various times assisted by donations from their respective departments.
Further assistance in various ways, such as the drawing of zoölogical
charts, preparations of models, and donations of specimens, was
received from other persons. There were six hundred and sixteen
applicants for this winter's course, and the number of specimens
distributed did not fall short of one hundred thousand. After an
introductory lecture, at which the Superintendent of Public Schools,
the President of the Society of Natural History, and the custodian,
delivered addresses appropriate to the occasion, Professor Goodale
completed a course of six lessons on botany, in which he instructed
the whole audience of five hundred. These lessons were followed the
same year by twelve on zoölogy by Professor Hyatt, and five on
mineralogy by Mr. Burbank, which ended with a geological excursion to
Marblehead. These lessons were given to very large classes, and were
supplemented by the issuing of pamphlets under the general title of
Science Guides. Three numbers--About Pebbles, by Professor Hyatt; A
Few Common Plants, by Dr. Goodale; and Commercial and Other Sponges,
by Professor Hyatt and others--were published by Messrs. Ginn and
Heath, who have since brought out many such helps.
After a winter of intense activity there came a period of repose, and
no lectures were given the next season. After lying quiet for a year
the school once more came into active operation. Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw
and Mrs. Augustus Hemmenway showed their sympathy with the efforts on
behalf of education by most generously assuming the whole expense of
the lessons given that year. Immediate measures were taken to carry
out the plan which had been arranged several years before, which
consisted in giving a series of lessons which would be a good
preparation for a course in physiography. Accordingly, Professor
Cross, of the Institute of Technology, was engaged to give eight
lessons in physics, Professor Hyatt following with eight on the
physical relations of animals to the earth; Professor Goodale gave
four treating of plants in the same way, and Mr. W. O. Crosby
concluded the course with four lectures on the relations of geological
agencies to physiography. The applications for tickets to these
lectures so far exceeded the expectations of the committee that they
were forced to duplicate them, each speaker repeating his lesson on
the same day before a different audience.
[Illustration: WILLIAM O. CROSBY.]
After this the work of The Teachers' School of Science was taken under
the protection of the Lowell Fund, Mr. Augustus Lowell sending word
that he would make an annual donation of fifteen hundred dollars. Mr.
Lowell allowed the Natural History Society to make engagements and
announce lectures one year beforehand, and also gave the use of
Huntington Hall. Eighteen lectures were given that winter, under the
title of the Lowell Free Lectures in The Teachers' School of Science.
Eight of these lectures were on physics, by Professor Cross; five on
geology, by Mr. Crosby; five on physiology, by Dr. H. P. Bowditch, of
the Harvard Medical School, and all were very successful and well
attended by the teachers. The Teachers' School of Science had another
branch in active operation, which was courses of laboratory lessons
paid for by the teachers themselves.
[Illustration: LABORATORY OF THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY
USED BY CLASSES OF THE TEACHERS' SCHOOL OF SCIENCE.]
Through the liberality and co-operation of the Woman's Education
Association the Society of Natural History was able to announce that a
seaside laboratory, under the direction of Professor Hyatt and capable
of accommodating a limited number of students, would be open at
Annisquam, Massachusetts, from June 5th to September 15th inclusive.
The purpose of this laboratory was to afford opportunities for study
and observation to the development, anatomy, and habits of common
types of marine animals under suitable direction and advice. It was
believed that such a laboratory would meet the wants of many teachers
who had attended practical lessons in The Teachers' School of Science.
Twenty-two persons--ten women and twelve men (nearly double the number
expected)--availed themselves of the privileges offered. The summer
work, which was very successful, was due to the ability and energy of
Mr. B. H. Van Vleck, who had the whole charge of the instruction and
work done in the laboratory. The seaside laboratory continued to be
used successfully in the same way during seven consecutive summers,
and the work of the laboratory materially influenced the future
science teaching in several colleges and in many public schools of
this country. In 1886 Professor Hyatt called the attention of the
Woman's Education Association and the society to the fact that the
laboratory had reached a stage when it could claim the support of
patrons of science and learning, and be placed on an independent and
permanent foundation. The two associations accordingly called a
meeting, made up largely of the representative teachers of biology,
who decided to make an effort to establish a permanent biological
laboratory and raise at least fifteen hundred dollars to carry it on
for five years. The result was the foundation of the Marine Biological
Laboratory, at Woods Holl, which now attracts to its general courses
teachers and other students from all over the land, and also maintains
a department for special research work.
In 1882 agents were obtained, by correspondence and through the
kindness of the Secretary of the State Board of Education, Mr.
Dickinson, in forty-four towns, who distributed tickets and filled out
blanks so that the benefits of The Teachers' School of Science were
extended beyond the limits of Boston. In this year there were two
courses, one of ten lessons, by Professor Niles, on physical
geography, and five on physiology, by Dr. H. P. Bowditch. These
courses began in November and continued throughout the whole year,
with a decrease in attendance after the Christmas and April holidays.
These lessons were followed by five on elementary chemistry, by Prof.
L. M. Norton, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His
subjects were as follows: First Principles of Chemistry; the next,
Chemistry of Air, Chemistry of Water, Chemistry of Combustion,
Chemistry of Metallic Elements. There were also five on Practical
Examination, with Simple Apparatus of the Physics and Chemistry of
Vegetable Physiology, by Professor Goodale, which were divided as
follows: (1) Vegetable Assimilation, the mode in which plants prepare
food for themselves and animals; (2) The Kinds of Food Stored in
Vegetable Organs, illustrations of the starches, sugars, oils, and
albuminoidal matters; (3) How Food is used by Plants and Animals in a
Formation of New Parts, mechanics of growth; (4) How Food is Used in
Work of all Kinds by Different Organisms; (5) Adaptations of Organisms
to Extremes of Heat and Light, chiefly with respect to geographical
distribution. This session was concluded with a series of five lessons
on Chemical Principles illustrated by Common Minerals, by Professor
Crosby.
At the beginning of this season there was the usual large attendance,
with teachers from thirty towns, but the number was slowly reduced. It
was evident to the curator that the decline in attendance was not due
to the subjects nor the mode in which they were treated, but from
fatigue on the part of the teachers, and this state of affairs caused
him to say in his annual report that "proper and wise forethought
should long ago have given teachers a portion of every week besides
the usual Saturday holiday for the pursuit of information needed for
teaching new subjects." He believed that the efficiency of the
individual teacher would be greatly increased by this expedient, and
that the pupils would gain more than they lost by the shortening of
the school hours.
At the request of the Superintendent of Schools the curator gave the
following year ten lessons, which were directed mainly to the subjects
put down in the course of study under the title of Elementary Science
Lessons. In his course in Elementary Mineralogy, Professor Crosby
followed the plan indicated by Mrs. E. H. Richards in one of the
science guides--First Lessons in Minerals. The curator, for his course
on Structure and Habits of Worms, Insects, and Vertebrates, used many
specimens which had been tanned by a process which was then in use.
Over twenty-eight thousand zoölogical specimens were given away in two
years. Professor Crosby, with a class of sixty, continued the course
of the previous year, giving lessons in the mineralogical laboratory
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the specimens there
studied were retained by the teachers.
In the winter of 1888-'89 Professor Crosby, using for his auditorium
Huntington Hall, gave a course of ten lessons on the geology of Boston
and vicinity. "The object of the lessons was to acquaint the teachers
of Boston and vicinity with natural opportunities by which they are
surrounded, and specially to show them how to use these opportunities
for their own culture and the benefit of their pupils. The subject was
treated in accordance with the following scheme: (1) A general study
of the physical features of the Boston basin and of the geological
changes now in progress in this region; (2) a systematic study of the
various minerals and rocks found in the Boston basin, together with
the more characteristic kinds of structure which they exhibit; (3) a
summary of the geological history of the district so far as that is
plainly recorded in the rocks. The course was freely illustrated by
maps and diagrams, also to a large extent by specimens, more than ten
thousand of which were distributed. Special pains were taken at every
step of the work to indicate the localities where phenomena such as
were described in the lessons might be most advantageously studied.
This comprehensive course formed suitable preparation for a second
series of lessons, the principal object of which was to apply the
principles taught by the first series to a thorough and detailed study
of the physical history of the Boston basin. Each important locality
in the section under consideration formed the subject of a separate
lesson, in which its structural features and the more important events
of its history were presented. Special attention was given to tracing
the relations of the existing surface features of each district to its
geological structure, thus connecting the physical geography and
geology of the region. These lectures were based on a large amount of
original investigation and results reached by Professor Crosby in his
studies of the Boston basin."
During the winter of 1886-'87 Prof. W. M. Davis delivered a course on
Problems in Physical Geographic Classification, treated of in two
lessons, and the Laws of the Evolution of the Principal Topographical
Types occupied the remainder of the course. Professor Davis gave the
class the benefit of the results of his investigations, which were
original contributions of importance to the progress of physical
geography. "The graphic manner of illustrating the lessons upon the
Glacial period and the effects of the great glacier upon the area of
the Great Lakes was very effective. This was shown by means of a
relief model whose surface was composed of an ingenious arrangement of
overlying and differently painted surfaces. By removing these in
succession the lecturer traced the whole history of changes following
upon the recession of a continental glacier and its effects upon the
surface waters.... These lessons were so novel and useful to teachers
that he was invited to give a course of ten lessons during the next
winter upon the physical geography of the United States. New matter,
new models, and more extended illustrations were used in this course.
The objects of the course were: To illustrate the value of systematic
classification in the study of physical geography in order that forms
of similar origin might be grouped together; to advocate the
importance of studying the evolution of geographic forms in time, so
that forms similar in origin but dissimilar in age (and consequently
in degree of development) might be regarded as their natural
relations; to apply these principles to the physical geography of our
own land; and, finally, to promote the use of models in geographic
teaching. The different parts of the country were considered in this
order: The mountains as constituting the framework of the continent,
the plains and plateaus flanking the mountains, the rivers carrying
the waste of the land into the ocean, the lakes temporarily
interrupting the transportation of waste to the ocean and retarding
the action of the rivers, the shore line where the land dips under the
sea."
Persons interested in the improvement of the teaching of geography in
the public schools suggested to the trustee of the Lowell Institute
the advisability of hearing again from Professor Davis, and the
curator was requested to invite him to give a course of eight lectures
on geography in the autumn and winter of 1897-'98. The subjects
treated of in these lessons were selected from among those presented
by Professor Davis in his course on geography in the Harvard Summer
School, as they afforded material most directly applicable to the work
of grammar-school teachers. At the end of each meeting opportunity was
given for individual conference on questions suggested by the
lectures. This course excited more interest among teachers than any
which had been given since the beginning of the school, and it was
consequently a serious disappointment to many teachers when it became
known that Mr. Lowell did not feel able to re-engage Professor Davis
and continue this kind of instruction.
The same winter that Professor Davis gave his first course on physical
geography Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, Curator of
Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Anthropology at Cambridge,
and now President of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, gave lessons on American archæology. The topics selected
covered the whole range of the remains of prehistoric man and his life
on this continent so far as these subjects could be presented in ten
lessons. The original methods of research elaborated by Professor
Putnam, which have placed his name among the first in his department
of archæological work, rendered this course remarkably interesting and
instructive. Specimens were studied and given away in sufficient
numbers to illustrate the modes of making stone implements and some of
the different kinds of pottery. Professor Putnam invited the teachers
to visit the Peabody Museum, and there gave them an opportunity to
inspect the larger objects which it had not been possible to bring
into the city. The audience became so interested in the famous serpent
mound in Ohio, which was then threatened with destruction, that a
subscription was started which finally made it possible to purchase
and preserve this ancient monument.
[Illustration: F. W. PUTNAM.]
The winter succeeding the lessons on archæology, Mr. B. H. Van Vleck,
who had spent a considerable portion of the previous summer in
preparing specimens for this work, gave fifteen lessons on zoölogy.
The study of the general morphology of animals was made under
advantages such as had never before been offered in this school, and
enabled teachers to see and study structures not usually within their
reach. The work was mainly directed to the observation and study of a
limited number of types, but general points in physiology and anatomy
were also taken up in a comparative way. The microscope was also used
in this work. This special course was continued during the next two
terms.
Dr. J. Walter Fewkes gave a series of ten lessons, during the winter
of 1890-'91, on Common Marine Animals from Massachusetts Bay. Special
attention was given to the mode of life, differences in external
forms, local distribution, habitats, methods and proper times to
collect the eggs, young, and adults. The anatomy, embryology, and
morphology of the species considered were dealt with incidentally.
[Illustration: J. WALTER FEWKES.]
"The relative abundance of species and individuals, local causes which
influenced distribution, the rocky or sandy nature of the shores and
their characteristic faunæ, and the influence of depth of water tides
and temperature, were also considered."
The relations and boundaries of the marine fauna of New England were
treated of under the following heads: Comparison of the Fauna of
Massachusetts Bay with that of Narragansett Bay and the Bay of Fundy,
and Causes of the Differences Observed; Pelagic Animals; Littoral and
Shallow-Water Genera; Introduced and Indigenous Marine Animals; and
Marine Animals which inhabit both Brackish and Fresh Water.
It having been found that for several years the audiences at the
general courses had been decreasing, it became evident that the giving
of general information had accomplished a mission, but that there was
a demand for more specialized courses of study and that a change of
policy was warranted. It was therefore determined to abandon the
general courses and continue the special prolonged laboratory courses.
Since 1891 all lessons have been given either in the form of
laboratory lessons or field work, and the school was organized and
conducted upon a new and more effective basis. The teachers have been
required to keep notebooks and attend examinations in order to be
candidates for the certificates which have been, and will continue to
be, granted to those who have completed a series of lessons.
In the fall of 1890 was begun a course of lessons on paleontology
which had been planned for some time but had not been previously
undertaken because the teachers lacked the knowledge of the elements
of zoölogy and geology which was a necessary preparation for those
taking up the study of the history of animals as found in the earth's
crust. The members of this class, which now began to make systematic
observations upon fossils, were found to be sufficiently prepared to
study certain groups which illustrated the laws of evolution. The
class was limited in number and was under the instruction of Professor
Hyatt, who for five years conducted the most advanced course of
lessons ever given in The Teachers' School of Science, and such as
have not elsewhere been offered to teachers nor to many classes of
college students.
The lessons began with general instruction in the use of the
microscope, the structure of cells and their union and differentiation
into tissues, and then a study of simplest organisms--_Protozoa_. The
work was continued through _Porifera_, _Hydrozoa_, and _Actinozoa_,
and the types of fossils compared with their living representatives.
The periods of occurrence of fossilized remains in the rocks were
noted, and the characteristics of the different periods mentioned, but
details of stratigraphic character were subordinated to the tracing
out of the relations of the animals and the laws which governed the
evolution of their forms. Special attention was given to those classes
whose history is most complete and which furnish the best specimens
for examination.
_Echinodermata_, represented by a large number of both living and
fossil forms, was made the subject of study the second winter. The
common starfish was examined in detail, and with it were compared
other members of its class--_Asteroidea_, living and fossil forms in
_Ophiuridea_ and _Echinoidea_, the modern _Holothuroidea_, the ancient
_Blastoids_ and _Cystoids_, and both extinct and modern _Crinoids_,
the last of which were illustrated by alcohol specimens of
_Comatula_. Professor Hyatt was assisted in giving these lessons by
Miss J. M. Arms, who, in conjunction with him, had previously written
the largest of the Science Guides--entitled Insecta--and by Dr. Robert
T. Jackson, who has done much work on this group of fossils. One
member of the class a few years ago, after receiving these lessons,
looked over and prepared a large number of fossils, principally
_Crinoids_, belonging to the Natural History Society, and discovered a
form of paleozoic _Echinoderm_, which proved to be an interesting new
species and was described by Dr. Jackson as _Lepidesthes Wortheni_.
The third year of this series consisted of lessons on _Brachiopoda_
exclusively. Professor Hyatt was at that time in correspondence with
Dr. C. E. Beecher, of Yale, the distinguished paleontologist, who has
made remarkable discoveries and was then investigating _Brachiopoda_,
and communications from him regarding this group were from time to
time read to the class. "The sudden expansion or the quick evolution
in the earlier periods of the earth's history and the slower evolution
of the same types in their progressive history, after a period of
sudden expansion had been passed through," were shown in several
series.
The ancestral form of this group, the phylembryo, has been found in
_Paterina_, whose adult represents the youngest stage, the beak of the
shell, of other _Brachiopods_. There was, therefore, unusual
opportunity to here illustrate theories of evolution, particularly the
theory of constitutional tendency involving a conception of the youth,
maturity, and senescence of species. In order to make the instruction
clearer, terms used for the different stages of development by
Professor Hyatt in his writings on bioplastology were explained to and
used by the class.
The many specimens used in this study were carefully figured in the
notebooks, and the teachers became so familiar with them that they
were able to pass at the end of the term a severe examination. The
final test of the season's work consisted of three parts: The passing
in of lecture notebooks, the naming and classifying of a dozen fossils
selected by the professor, and the answering of a set of difficult
questions.
On account of the amount of time required for this course, and because
the lessons were such as were not directly applicable to work in the
public schools, the attendance decreased. The number who continued,
however, were those who felt that a broad scientific education is
necessary to the best teaching of even elementary science.
The fourth year was devoted to _Mollusca_, _Cephalopoda_ in
particular, and the class was fortunate in having for its teacher one
whose investigations in this latter group have given him world-wide
fame.
The evolution of the group from its straight radical form, now named
and called _Diphragnoceros_, was traced through the bent, curved, and
coiled forms of the _Nautiloids_, _Ammonoids_, and _Belamites_. The
phylogeny of the _Ammonoids_ presented a complete cycle, late forms
entirely uncoiling and presenting the straight characters of their
ancestors.
The study of _Cephalopods_ amply illustrated the neo-Lamarckian theory
of evolution, including the inheritance of acquired characters which
is now believed by most paleontologists.
The fifth and last year of this course included the study of
_Arthropoda_ and _Vertebrata_. The insects presented many
illustrations for the theory of natural selection, which the
neo-Lamarckians consider an aid, but a subordinate factor, in the
origin of species.
About this time Poulton gave a series of twelve lectures on animal
coloration at the Lowell Institute, drawing his illustrations mainly
from insects. Many of the students of The Teachers' School of Science
in zoölogy and paleontology attended these lectures.
After working on fishes, batrachians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, in
which the structural development of some animals--man, for
example--was found to be retrogressive and the physiological
development progressive, the lessons closed with the study of man's
structure as compared with the anthropoid apes and the few remains of
prehistoric man, and finally with a discussion of the works of
paleolithic man.
The teachers who had attended this course throughout the five years
and had passed satisfactory examinations have been presented with
diplomas testifying to their proficiency.
[_To be continued._]
PROPER OBJECTS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
SCIENCE.
BY EDWARD ORTON,
PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY; PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.
The objects of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
are clearly expressed in the opening paragraph of its constitution,
which was adopted at its first meeting, held September 20, 1848, in
Philadelphia. From that day to this the paragraph referred to has not
been modified except by the replacement of three words, viz., "the
United States" by a single and more comprehensive word--"America."
As here defined, the objects of the association are "to promote
intercourse between those who are cultivating science in different
parts of America, to give a stronger and more general impulse and a
more systematic direction to scientific research in our country, and
to procure for the labors of scientific men increased facilities and a
wider usefulness."
Three distinct elements are included in this general statement, viz.:
(1) The cultivation of personal intercourse or acquaintance among the
workers in science in this country; (2) the encouragement, extension,
and proper direction of scientific research; (3) the gaining of
popular recognition and good will for the results of scientific work.
These objects may be conveniently summarized as (1) _social_, (2)
_scientific_, (3) _practical_.
There is nothing in the original paragraph to indicate whether the
elements of this threefold division were counted of equal value, or
whether they were arranged in either an ascending or descending scale
of importance, but from the fact that in the development and expansion
of the association during the last fifty years nothing has been added
to and nothing subtracted from this general statement, while in many
other divisions of the constitution large and sometimes radical
changes have been adopted, it seems safe to conclude that the present
members of the association see its work and office in very much the
same light as its founders did.
But, while sailing under the old colors and apparently by the old
charts, it is quite possible that the association is, insensibly to
itself, undergoing modification more or less important. Such an
experience is unavoidable in all human institutions, at least in those
that retain their vitality in state, society, or church.
The fifty years that cover the life of the association are
unquestionably the most important, so far as the growth of science is
concerned, in the history of the race. Within this period every
science has been recast and rewritten, and divisions and subdivisions
of the old units have gone forward and are still in progress. Of every
one of these sciences the boundaries have been so enormously extended
that even the _dream_ of universal knowledge on the part of any man
has gone by, never to return. Leibnitz, it has been said, was the last
of the intellectual giants of old who mastered all that was knowable
in his day. Alexander von Humboldt could almost claim the same for the
knowledge of Nature that was attainable in the first quarter of our
century. But since the application of the compound microscope to the
study of Nature and the subdivisions of the sciences that have
resulted therefrom, and especially since the extension of the method
of science to all the branches of anthropology, as language, history,
institutions, the task of mastering all that is known is seen to be
altogether too great for finite powers and span-long lives.
It might well be, therefore, in view of the amazing changes that have
taken place in the entire field covered by the association, that it
should have outgrown the aims and ambitions of its early days. The
fact that it continues to use the identical statement of its objects
with which it began its work, while it does not definitely settle the
question, affords at least presumptive evidence that no such change
has taken place.
How, then, do the objects originally recognized by the association as
its _raison d'être_ correspond to the needs of our own time?
1. Is the _social_ feature of the association, to which the first
place was assigned by the founders, whether by design or not, worthy
of preservation by us? In other words, is it as important "to promote
intercourse between those who are cultivating science in America" at
the close of the nineteenth century as it was at the middle of the
century--the need that was responded to by the formation of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science? While
revolutionary changes have taken place in the country at large during
this period in modes of travel, facilities for acquiring education,
and the diffusion of intelligence, it would be hard to show why the
need in this field should be in any respect less urgent. There is a
far larger number of people who are cultivating science, and there are
many more branches of science to be cultivated.
What particular service is to be expected from such intercourse as the
association seeks to provide? The gathering of the workers in the
diverse fields of science into a single organization has a tendency to
_unify_ them. They find that a common spirit animates them, that they
all make use of essentially the same method of research or inquiry,
and that the results which they reach all have a common note of
certainty, being herewith differentiated from other and older views on
the same subjects, as knowledge differs from opinion. They are thus
led to see more clearly than they could otherwise see the unity of the
universe, that knowledge is one, and that each science is but a facet
cut on the crystal sphere of natural truth, touching other facets at
many points, and by no means independent, but supported by the
integrity of the sphere.
Such a gathering tends to an increase of mutual respect and confidence
on the part of all engaged in scientific work. It tends to discourage
the narrow conceit of the specialist, who, if left entirely to his own
tastes, comes to think that his own facet is the only one that
deserves to be regarded, and practically to ignore its relation to the
sphere of which it constitutes an essential though a minor part.
Such an association tends toward making specialists intelligible to
each other. In other words, it puts a premium on the art of
popularizing science, for when the specialist makes himself
intelligible to his brethren in their widely separated fields he makes
himself intelligible to all educated men, whether especially trained
in science or not.
The specialist is under a strong temptation to limit himself to a
language of his own, which is an unknown tongue even to the rest of
the scientific world. Technical terms, carried out to minute
subdivisions, are indispensable in every branch of modern science, but
the student of any science is in an evil state who can not present his
results to the world without appealing to the technical jargon of the
branch which he cultivates.
There even seems a reluctance on the part of some to use plain
language in stating scientific conclusions, as if the cheapening of
science were feared by its being made intelligible. Such a fear is
certainly unworthy. The masters have never felt it. In lucidity and
directness of speech and in general intelligibility Tyndall, Huxley,
and Darwin were not surpassed by any men of their generation. To whom
are we as much indebted for the great advance of science in their day
as to these very men?
If the scientist neglects this popularizing of science, the sciolist
is sure to take it up, and his work in this field always makes the
judicious grieve. Is there not possible danger that this phase of
scientific work and the function of the association corresponding
thereto are losing consideration to some extent?
But instead of its being true that the scientific work of the country
has outgrown the need of the association, is it not rather true that
we are in far more urgent need of its unifying agency than even the
founders were fifty years ago? We have all the divisions of science
that were then recognized, and half as many more. Physics and
chemistry could then be classed in one section without offense, and
zoölogy and botany were assigned without protest to a single heading.
Now, not only does every science demand recognition by and of itself,
but all are represented by separate societies as well--as the
Mathematical Society, the Chemical Society, the Geological Society,
etc. These societies hold meetings, publish bulletins, reports, and
sometimes monthly journals, and, in short, aim to cover the entire
field for the branches which they represent. They are generally
affiliated with the association, and it is becoming usual for them to
hold joint summer meetings of society and section. Their annual
meetings are held in the winter, and, as their membership is more
select than that of the association, standing as it does in all cases
for published or recognized work already in evidence, these winter
meetings are coming to be preferred for the presentation of technical
papers. Those who read them feel sure of "fit audience, though few."
These societies are all vigorous and successful. They obviously meet a
"felt want" on the part of American science, but just what their
effect will be upon the association remains to be determined.
Certainly, with these centrifugal tendencies in growing activity, this
is not the time for the attraction of our one centripetal force to be
relaxed. More than ever do we need such a unifying agency as the
association was designed to supply.
Some _modus vivendi_ between section and society will doubtless be
found. Perhaps the more abstract and technical papers will be reserved
for the winter meetings, while those dealing with the larger phases,
and especially those pertaining to the philosophy of the subjects
discussed, will find their places in the joint meetings of the summer.
It would be well if the association meetings of whatever character
could be made memorable by the announcement of important discoveries
made during the preceding year. The custom of holding back such
announcements is said to obtain in the transatlantic national
associations, and notably in the British Association, which is the
mother of all the rest. Those who were present at the Boston meeting
of the American Association will remember the enthusiasm created there
by the announcement of the discovery of a new element--etherion. If
later discussions have thrown doubt upon the discovery of a new
element, the alternative explanation suggested of the facts proves
scarcely less interesting or important than the original claim.
Whether our eager American workers would be willing to hazard their
claims to priority by holding back the announcements of their
discoveries for months after they have been made is a question, but
the foreign practice in this regard has certainly much to commend it.
It would be a calamity of real magnitude to American science if the
sectional meetings of the association were abandoned to men who have
not done enough approved work to entitle them to places in the several
societies already named. The old title--The American Association for
the Advancement of Science--might still be retained, it is true, but
what a humiliating misnomer it would be if none of the men who _have_
advanced science in the past by their labors and none of those who are
prepared to advance it in the future by their training were now
included! It would be the omission of the part of Hamlet from the
play.
The foremost men in all the societies, our leaders in the branches
represented there, owe it to themselves, owe it much more to the great
name of American science, to maintain and magnify their connection
with, their service to, the American Association.
At the second meeting of the association it was the illustrious Joseph
Henry who called the attention of his brethren to the fact that the
organization was, by its very name, consecrated to the _advancement_
of science--to the discovery of new truth. He reminded them that the
association was not designed to furnish opportunity for the
restatement of what was already known. Its purpose was rather to add
to the existing body of knowledge in the world. Let not the hopes of
the founders be brought to naught by allowing the organization from
which they expected so much to be thus eviscerated!
We see, then, that the _social feature_, with what it legitimately
includes, deserves to hold as prominent a place among the objects of
the association at the end of the century as was given to it by its
founders when first established.
Two other objects which were deemed worthy of being incorporated into
the organic law of the association remain to be considered. To the
treatment of each a few words will be devoted. Neither of them
commands as high regard from us as they seem to have had at the
beginning.
2. The second object of the association as declared by the founders
was "to give a stronger and more general impulse and a more systematic
direction to scientific research in our country."
It is not easy for those who were born after the middle point of the
century to think themselves back into the conditions under which the
words above quoted were written. At that time there were but two or
three schools of science in the United States, and not one west of the
seaboard. The degrees of bachelor, master, and doctor of science were
unknown. There was but one journal of science published in the
country, and foreign scientific journals and reviews, comparatively
weak and few at the best, seldom found their way to the New World. The
men who cultivated science were widely separated, and for the most
part rarely met their peers. As a natural consequence, there must have
been more or less misdirected effort. Many a worker must have attacked
problems already solved, or have attacked them by inadequate or
obsolete methods.
How great the changes that fifty years have wrought in this country,
in the world indeed, in all these respects! Now there is not a State
in the Union that has not at least one fairly equipped school of
science, and in some of the older States such schools can be counted
by the dozen or the score. These schools are manned by teachers
trained at the foremost centers of science in this country and Europe,
familiar with all the great problems and with all the most improved
methods of research. Moreover, on the library table of every one of
these schools are the latest periodicals and special reports of the
two continents in which science is cultivated. The untrained and
isolated investigator can no longer justify his existence. There is no
occasion for the survival of such qualities as these terms imply.
This wonderful transformation in educational scope and methods effects
to a great degree just what the founders hoped to accomplish through
the agency of the association. The ground has thus been cut from under
the second of the objects of the association as avowed in its
constitution. In other words, while the result aimed at deserved the
prominence given to it fifty years ago, it no longer depends on the
association for its accomplishment.
3. The third of the objects which the association was organized to
accomplish was "to procure for the labors of scientific men increased
facilities and a wider usefulness." This clause evidently refers to
the endowment of science by founding and equipping institutions,
professorships, laboratories, museums, and the like, and to a more
cordial and general appreciation of the results of scientific work.
In this direction, also, such immense progress has been made in the
country at large that the need of special effort in this line no
longer exists. Munificent gifts to science from private fortunes are
now the order of the day. It is a poor year for science in America
when such contributions do not exceed a million dollars. This work was
begun in the large way under the elder Agassiz, and the Museum of
Comparative Zoölogy at Cambridge is its first important monument. It
has gone forward in the addition of scientific departments worthy of
the name to the older institutions of learning, and in the
establishment of new institutions wholly devoted to science.
Such beneficent use of private wealth, the unparalleled increase of
which during the last fifty years has become a matter of grave concern
to the whole body politic, does more than anything else can do to
reconcile the public to the conditions which make such accumulations
possible. Still more significant is the policy which the General
Government entered upon, forty years ago, of establishing, in
conjunction with the several States, schools of general and applied
science. The State colleges and universities thus founded have already
become potent factors in American education, and science lies at the
heart of them all. It would be hard to overrate their influence on the
development of science for time to come.
When the American Association was established, fifty years ago, a new
day was breaking on the world. The men who were cultivating science
then saw something of the conquests over Nature that the new
method--the method of science--rendered possible. They were wise in
demanding that all who use this method should recognize the common
bond. The association was the outcome of that demand.
At the end of the century we who have shared in the mighty advance and
who have been taught by our experience to discard limitations in the
possibilities of the future, feel the same and an even more urgent
need of some unifying and interpreting agency for the ever-widening
fields to which the method of science is now applied.
RACE QUESTIONS IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
BY FERDINAND BLUMENTRITTE.
When I published my article on the History of Separatism in the
Spanish colonies, in the _Deutsche Rundschau_ for July, 1898, I said
that the colored peoples of a colony would always be inclined to
struggle for the independence of their native country, because the
rule of the mother country of the colony makes their access to the
highest positions in the state impossible. I declared, further, that
in the Philippine Islands the contempt manifested toward the colored
tribes by the Spanish press had contributed very much toward making
the gulf between rulers and ruled progressively deeper and harder to
bridge. The natural conceit and sensitiveness of the colored races in
America could never weigh as heavy in the scale as those of the
colored Filipinos do, because in America the creoles and their
numerously represented crosses were the real upholders of separatist
ideas, so that when the idea ripened into an act they held the leading
of the movement in their hands. Indians and negroes have there never
been more than the _plebs contribuens_, or the tributary class, and
"food for cannon." Only in single exceptional cases have leading
spirits ever risen from out of these lower castes; and where the
separatist movement has been confined to these colored primitive
races, as in Haiti, it has led not only to cutting loose from the
mother country, but also to a more or less complete renunciation of
European civilization. In saying this I cast no condemnation upon the
negroes, for, whenever in our civilized states the proletariat and the
populace have struck down or cast out all the cultivated and
half-cultivated classes, the same sort of "nigger management," with
only differences corresponding with the environments, has gained place
among us as in the great islands of the Antilles.
Very different are the conditions in the Philippine Islands; and, in
view of the importance which the "skin question" plays in the conflict
raged by the Americans, I think it proper to deal further with this
fundamental question of Philippine politics, especially since the
journals and the politicians, at least those of America, have given
very little attention to the matter.
The small number of creoles, of whom, besides, the principal part live
in the city of Manila, which the Americans have in their power, would
not alone explain why the war of independence and the formation of the
Philippine republic must be spoken of as pre-eminently the work of
Christian, civilized Malays and mestizos. For there are in America
countries, like Paraguay, where the number of whites is even smaller
than in the Philippine Islands, and yet the separatist movement and
the foundation of the state were the exclusive work of the creoles.
Why has it been thus? Because the Indians and the negroes do not
possess that inclination toward civilization and that capacity for
assimilation that are evident in the colored populations of the
Philippine Islands. It is supposed that the Philippine Malays have
Japanese blood in their veins; but, all the same, whether the
supposition is founded or unfounded, it is certain that not only do
they resemble the Japanese more or less in features, but that also
many mental traits are common to them with these wide-awake Orientals,
and they even excel them in a moral respect. The school statistics
show them superior to their Spanish lords. The Filipinos have no
larger percentage of illiterates than Spain of those who can not read
and write. And, as a bishop exclaimed with astonishment, there are in
those islands villages where it would be hard to find a person unable
to read. The pressure of the colored people to the higher studies and
the special schools far exceeds the percentage which one would
anticipate from their proportion to the whole population. And if we
add to these those who seek their education in Spain and other foreign
countries we shall find Malays and mestizos in the first line, and the
creoles in the last. It should be remarked on this point that many
more natives would have gone to Europe for education if the Spaniards,
and especially the monks, had not perceived conspirators in all
Filipinos who studied away from home. The fear of persecution deterred
many fathers from sending their sons over the sea.
More than ten years ago a prominent monkish writer showed how the
professions of medicine and the law were crowded with Malays and
mestizos. But besides these two professions and that of the secular
clergy the colored Filipinos turned also to engineering and art. With
respect to art, I am not thinking of the skillful goldsmiths and
silversmiths of Manila, although these artificers are among the best,
but I refer to artists of divine gifts, among whom the mestizo F.
Resureccion Hidalgo, resident in Paris, and Don Juan Luna, of the
tribe of Ilokans of northwestern Luzon, brother of the Philippine
minister Antonio Luna, are most conspicuous. Luna is not unknown to us
Germans, for the Leipsic _Illustrirte Zeitung_ some time ago published
a wood engraving of his great prize-crowned picture Spoliarum. The
best testimony to his eminence is the fact that the Spanish Senate
honored this artist, who was then living in Paris, with the commission
to paint for its chamber a pendant to Padilla's famous picture Boabdil
Surrendering the Keys of Granada to the Catholic Queen, and he painted
The Battle of Lepanto. And among the Filipino poets the name of the
great Tagal, Dr. Rizal, has become known to the whole world through
his skill in tragedy.
There is no need of mentioning any other names, for those we have
given are enough to show that these Malays and mestizos are
susceptible of cultivation, and, as Bismarck used to say, "carry a
rocket-charge in their bodies."[6]
[Footnote 6: Einen Raketensatz im Leibe führen.]
As the Spaniards who came to the archipelago were for the most part
only monks or officers, trade, so far as it was not in the hands of
foreigners, was dependent on the participation of the colored
population, particularly of the mestizos. And what of large land
ownership the monkish orders had not absorbed likewise belonged for
the most part to the colored races. None but foreigners and colored
took part in all the great enterprises of the country. The Spaniards
only ruled.
This position of the colored population in the country was the more
perilous to the Spaniards, because the Spanish press, particularly the
monkish journals, systematically treated them with scorn, called them
anthropoids, and denied their capacity to attain European
civilization. The educated Filipinos foamed with rage when spoken to
about these attacks upon their race. "Besides," they said, "it makes
the color of our skin a stigma with the Spanish lords, and with all
Europe too; why thus insult us and in so cowardly a way, when the
censorship at Manila makes it impossible for us to defend ourselves?"
But all these noisy revilings of their race could only outwardly, not
inwardly, disturb the self-esteem of the Malays, because their leading
spirits had by critical psychological studies of the white race
confirmed the opinion of the simple Tagal peasants that the whites are
made out of the same earth as the colored, and that the latter could,
under equal conditions, have done as well as they. Only the whites
have adopted that lordly code of morals which, like the flag with
contraband goods, covers the grossest breaches of right and other
outrages, which a white gentleman would not venture, indeed, to commit
upon his peers, but which, in the treatment of colored men, belong, so
to speak, to good tone, to "European smartness."
The educated brown man generally feels in his intercourse with the
European that uneasiness, that poorly concealed embarrassment, which
the parvenue with us feels in the presence of one of the blue-blooded
aristocracy. He feels every instant that the white man's critical eye
is upon him, and knows that the criticism will be pitiless and harsh
to injustice. He knows, further, that this criticism in every case
does not apply only to him, the individual, but that conclusions are
drawn at once from his errors, even though they may be only presumed,
that are applied to his whole race or caste--conclusions which are
never flattering, but always culminate, in agreement with the scorn of
the superior, in a severe condemnation.
This consciousness of running the gantlet before the eyes of Europeans
often causes the brown man to commit mistakes in European society,
which refuses to pass him among people whose favor he would be sure to
enjoy.
The opinion which Europeans living in the tropics form of the brown
men is generally unfavorable and unjust to them. We Europeans, or
rather our nations and states, already judge one another harshly and
in a more than partisan manner, because we see first only the
weaknesses, often even only the fancied weaknesses, of our neighbors.
How, then, could we expect anything better when a European has to pass
an opinion on a brown man? We should not forget that only those
Europeans go to the tropics who display special energy and force of
will--a kind of chosen lot among our race--while the natives there
include all the levels of the people. If we add to this that all the
Europeans believe in their own superiority and in the inferiority of
the brown men, it will seem quite natural that when the Europeans
begin to make comparisons between themselves and the natives the
comparisons will always be flattering to those who make them.
In the Philippine Islands, on the other hand, the reaction of the
natives against this extreme self-conceit of the whites has been
making itself felt for more than twenty years. This has come to pass
since the philosophical heads among them have carefully studied the
whites in the various countries of Europe, and have in consequence
lost faith in the divine likeness of the Caucasians.
Single examples of the studies of these men have been published, such
as that of the war minister of the Philippine republic, Don Antonio
Luna, a pure-blooded Malay like his brother the painter. Luna studied
in Spain and in Paris (under Pasteur), and lived a little while in
England, so that he had opportunities to become acquainted with three
civilized nations at their home. His literary works are represented to
us in the garb of novels and _feuilletons_, the sarcasm of which,
while it certainly escapes the uninitiated European, will be all the
more effective and precious upon those who are acquainted with the
purpose of the brilliant author, which is to satirize the depreciatory
accounts by European travelers of the land and people of the
Philippine Islands. This he does by telling of his rummaging through
the critics' home and finding all the weaknesses and faults which are
accredited to the brown men as signs of their incapacity no less
prevalent in Europe than in the Philippine archipelago; and arguing
that therefore the whites and the browns differ only in the color of
their skin, in build, and in language, but not in mind.
If space allowed I should be glad to follow my inclination to repeat
some of Luna's descriptions, which are given in a style that reminds
one of Maupassant's. I shall only say that Luna has drawn within the
circle of his observations the movements of all classes in the
aristocratic saloon and in the workman's beerhouse, and remarks that
everything that has been charged against the brown man appears
likewise in the European. The first sketch is excellent. European
travelers speak in their works of the "stupid staring" at their
white-skinned, thoughtful faces by the "brown savages." Luna, whose
pen-name is Taga-ilog,[7] parodies these stories by simply relating
that on his arrival in Europe and during his earlier residence there
the people on the streets stared at him, and some of the boys threw
stones or stuck out their tongues at him. He did not, however, care
for that, while he expected that the better circles would convince him
of the superiority and the innate tact of the lordly race by their
more refined behavior. But it did not turn out so. He saw the ladies
in the saloons tittering behind their fans and making merry over "the
queer man." And then at the table! How plain was the expression of
astonishment among the gentlemen of the saloons that the brown man
behaved in his eating just as the whites did! They had apparently
anticipated that the "black" would act as if he were tearing live
pigeons to pieces and swallowing them. The indolence of the Europeans
is shown up no less amusingly. Luna finds it apparent in all
conditions, prevailing in the highest and the lowest social strata. He
asks what would become of the industry and activity of the European
peoples if they were suddenly given the climate and the fruitfulness
of his native land. These two examples are all we can give. Likewise
interesting are the studies of my Tagalog friends Don Marcelo H. del
Pilar and Don Mariano Ponce. The former, an advocate from the province
of Bulakan, in the island of Luzon, and a descendant of King
Lakandola, of Manila, was the leader of the Reformist party and the
chief editor of the journal _La Solidaridad_, published in Madrid,
which he directed with a remarkable skill that was recognized by his
opponents. He died in Barcelona in the summer of 1896. His compeer,
Ponce, is now living in Japan and is no less distinguished than Pilar
for his keen wit and his zeal in research.
[Footnote 7: From over the water; or it may be derived from
Ilokos, or Tagal.]
These two Malay jurists carefully examined the criminal records of
Europe. Why? Because, whenever an extraordinary or especially heinous
crime was committed in the Philippine Islands, the Spaniards were
accustomed to use it to confirm their conclusions as to the innate
inferiority of the Malay race. "That could occur only among a people
of inferior intelligence," was their standing phrase. Del Pilar and
Ponce gathered the accounts of trials from the European journals, and
were able to reply to the Spaniards quietly: "No, that is not so. All
these crimes occur among you Europeans, and relatively more frequently
than with us. Your conclusion is therefore false, or else you too have
a defective intelligence such as you ascribe to us." Del Pilar, from
his studies of the colonial enterprises of all peoples, came to the
conclusion that "the Europeans founded most of their colonies at a
time when the holding in vassalage of men of their own race by whites
and the slavery of negroes and Indians were not regarded as offenses.
If, now, we look at colonies in which, as in the Philippine Islands,
agricultural populations are living with a civilization of their own,
the development of the native races will depend on their religion. In
a colony where Islam or a dogmatized heathen religion prevails no
assimilation between Europeans and natives can take place. It is
otherwise in countries like the Philippines, where the natives
accepted Christianity at a time when religion had more importance
among Europeans than now; a common basis was formed for the
co-operation of both parts, the whites and the colored. But the
circumstance that rulers and ruled had the same religion and the same
official language may have led directly to another evil--that the
colors became marks of condition, the whites being the Spartans, the
mestizos the perioikoi, and the colored men the helots or servile
people. So long as no pressure toward higher ambitions occurred from
among those of the perioikoi and the helot grades, and so long as the
whites were able to keep their prestige freely recognized by their
dependents, the view of the whites, that the colored were both
socially and intellectually a lower caste, seemed to be justified. The
case has been different in the present century, especially in the
second half of it. People of our (Philippine) race attended the high
schools, appropriated to themselves the civilization and the knowledge
of the whites, and still the brand of inferiority stuck to them. And
this happened, too, when the quality of the whites had deteriorated.
They were no longer exclusively _señors_, but there came bankrupted
Spaniards or those of the lowest classes into the country, among them
persons who could not read and write, who should be rated as beneath
our school-trained people. And yet these illiterates claimed, by
virtue of their color, to be respected as lords of the land, an
absurdity which left the idea of 'European prestige' without
justification, for how could beggars, spongers, bummers, rowdies, and
illiterates impress anybody? The decent Spaniards committed the
mistake of avowing their solidarity with the sorry fellows of their
caste, instead of rejecting them and holding aloof from them and
sending them back to Spain. So the Spaniards have brought it to pass,
through a mistaken policy, that the Filipinos on their side, too,
throw the good elements of the Spanish population into the same pot
with the foul. Another reason why a Spanish prestige can not be
thought of among us is that, with the exception of the tobacco
companies, all the great enterprises in our country are carried on by
foreigners and Filipinos. We owe all that is called progress not to
the Spaniards, but to our own force or to foreigners."
When the painter Juan Luna attracted so much attention with his
picture Spoliarum it was not known that the artist was a Malay, and
the work was therefore regarded and criticised from a purely artistic
point of view. But as soon as the race of the painter became known,
European prejudice made itself manifest. It was said that the choice
of a tragic subject could unquestionably be traced back to the descent
of the artist from "savages." But when did artists of the white race
ever shrink from such subjects? Luna has had cause enough to complain
of European injustice. The natives are charged with not being
independent in art. "They can only imitate," it is said. But how many
European nations one would have to strike out of the list of the
civilized if that title is to belong only to those which have an art
of their own! It should not be forgotten that the Spaniards have,
during their three hundred years' rule, impressed a Spanish mark on
the native artistic tendencies. The ethnographer who is acquainted
with the woven and carved designs of the heathen tribes which have
remained free from the Spaniards and from Christian civilization will
certainly not be able to deny that the Malays of the Philippine
Islands have a great talent for ornamental art. But if the reproach is
cast against the Filipinos that they have tried to Europeanize
themselves in plastic art as well as in music, they have not done
differently from the Europeans--that is, they denationalize themselves
and come into the great international circle of civilization, a thing
that can hardly be charged as a sin against them. It is very
remarkable, they say, that Europeans condemn in the Filipinos, as a
mark of inferiority that which they regard in themselves as a sign of
progress.
Rizal also has spoken of the injustice of the judgments which
Europeans pass upon Philippine conditions. I have published his views
on this subject in the tenth volume of the _Internationalen Archivs
für Ethnographie_, and will therefore on the present occasion only
give a sketch of them, with a few additional observations to
complement them. Dr. Rizal says that most Europeans judge the natives
from their servants, which would be as false as if anybody should form
his conception of the German people from the complaints which German
housewives are always ready to make concerning their domestics. At one
time while he was visiting me we strolled out of town. He gathered
some wild flowers and asked me their names. I had to confess
respecting many of them that I knew neither their common nor their
botanical names. He laughed and said: "Well, you are a cit; let us ask
a countryman." We met a peasant, but he could not give us any
information about any of the flowers. "Why," Rizal said, "is this the
first time you ever saw the flowers?" The peasant replied that he knew
the flowers very well, but did not know what they were called. When
the countryman had gone, Rizal said to me: "How fortunate you
Europeans are as compared with us poor Tagals! If such an experience
as I have just gone through should happen to a European among us he
would write in his notebook that 'the stupidity of these people shows
itself in the fact that they do not know or have no names for many of
the flowers which they see every day and tread upon with their clumsy
feet. What can not be eaten or put to some immediate use has very
little value or interest to these fellows, and such dull-witted folk
as these want reform and autonomy!' And he would be only a modest
traveler. Another one would write a whole chapter over the incident,
as illustrating the inferiority of all our people."
I might continue at greater length on this theme, but I believe that
the reader will sufficiently apprehend from what I have said that the
European and American whites have not made a good impression on the
colored Filipinos, and that the Philippine creoles feel as one with
their colored brethren; that there is no spirit of caste in the matter
like that which existed in the old colonial times, but they all call
themselves simply Filipinos, and that the rule of the American
Anglo-Saxons, who regard even the creoles as a kind of "niggers,"
would be looked upon by educated Filipinos of all castes as a supreme
loss of civic rights.--_Translated for the Popular Science Monthly
from the Deutsche Rundschau._
DO ANIMALS REASON?
BY EDWARD THORNDIKE, PH. D.
Probably every reader who owns a dog or cat has already answered the
question which forms our title, and the chance is ten to one that he
has answered, "Yes." In spite of the declarations of the psychologists
from Descartes to Lloyd Morgan, the man who likes his dog and the
woman who pets a cat persist in the belief that their pets carry on
thinking processes similar, at least in kind, to our own. And if one
has nothing more to say for the opposite view than the stock arguments
of the psychologists, he will make few converts. A series of
experiments carried on for two years have, I hope, given me some
things more to say--some things which may interest the believer in
reason in animals, even if they do not convert him.
In trying to find out what sort of thinking animals were capable of I
adopted a novel but very simple method. Dogs and cats were shut up,
when hungry, in inclosures from which they could escape by performing
some simple act, such as pulling a wire loop, stepping on a platform
or lever, clawing down a string stretched across the inclosure,
turning a wooden button, etc. In each case the act set in play some
simple mechanism which opened the door. A piece of fish or meat
outside the inclosure furnished the motive for their attempts to
escape. The inclosures for the cats were wooden boxes, in shape and
appearance like the one pictured in Fig. 1, and were about 20 × 15 ×
12 inches in size. The boxes for the dogs (who were rather small,
weighing on the average about thirty pounds) were about 40 × 22 × 22.
By means of such experiments we put animals in situations seeming
almost sure to call forth any reasoning powers they possess. On the
days when the experiments were taking place they were practically
utterly hungry, and so had the best reasons for making every effort to
escape. As a fact, their conduct when shut up in these boxes showed
the utmost eagerness to get out and get at the much-needed food.
Moreover, the actions required and the thinking involved are such as
the stories told about intelligent animals credit them with, and, on
the other hand, are not far removed from the acts and feelings
required in the ordinary course of animal life. It would be foolish to
deny reason to an animal because he failed to do something (e. g., a
mathematical computation) which in the nature of his life he would
never be likely to think about, or which his bones and muscles were
not fitted to perform, or which, even by those who credit him with
reason, he is never supposed to do. So the experiments were arranged
with a view of giving reasoning every chance to display itself if it
existed.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
What, now, would we expect to observe if a _reasoning_ animal, who is
surely eager to get out, is put, for example, into a box with a door
arranged so as to fall open when a wooden button holding it at the top
(on the inside) is turned from its vertical to a horizontal position?
We should expect that he would first try to claw the whole box apart
or to crawl out between the bars. He would soon realize the futility
of this and stop to consider. He might then think of the button as
being the vital point, or of having seen doors open when buttons were
turned. He might then poke or claw it around. If after he had eaten
the bit of fish outside he was immediately put in the box again he
ought to remember what he had done before, and at once attack the
button, and so ever after. It might very well be that he would not,
when in the box for the first time, be able to reason out the way to
escape. But suppose that, in clawing, biting, trying to crawl through
holes, etc., he happened to turn the button and so escape. He ought,
then, if at once put in again, this time to perform deliberately the
act which he had in the first trial hit upon accidentally. This one
would expect to see if the animal _did_ reason. What do we really see?
To save time we may confine ourselves to a description of the twelve
cats experimented with, adding now that the dogs presented no
difference in behavior which would modify our conclusions. The
behavior of all but No. 11 and No. 13 was practically the same. When
put into the box the cat would show evident signs of discomfort and of
an impulse to escape from confinement. It tries to squeeze through any
opening; it claws and bites at the bars; it thrusts its paws out
through any opening, and claws at everything it reaches; it continues
its efforts when it strikes anything loose and shaky; it may claw at
things in the box. The vigor with which it struggles is extraordinary.
For eight or ten minutes it will claw and bite and squeeze
incessantly. With No. 13, an old cat, and No. 11, an uncommonly
sluggish cat, the behavior was different. They did not struggle
vigorously or continually. (In the experiments it was found that these
two would stay quietly in the box for hours, and I therefore let them
out myself a few times, so that they might associate the fact of being
outside with the fact of eating, and so desire to escape. When this
was done, they tried to get out like the rest.) In all cases the
instinctive struggle is likely to succeed in leading the cat
accidentally to turn the button and so escape, for the cat claws and
bites all over the box. These general clawings, bitings, and
squeezings are of course instinctive, not premeditated. The cats will
do the same if in a box with absolutely no chance for escape, or in a
basket without even an opening--will do them, that is, when they are
the foolishest things to do. The cats do these acts for just the same
reason that they suck when young, propagate when older, or eat meat
when they smell it.
Each of the twelve cats was tried in a number of different boxes, and
in no case did I see anything that even looked like thoughtful
contemplation of the situation or deliberation over possible ways of
winning freedom. Furthermore, in every case any cat who had thus
accidentally hit upon the proper act was, after he had eaten the bit
of fish outside, immediately put back into the box. Did he then think
of how he had got out before, and at once or after a time of thinking
repeat the act? By no means. He bursts out into the same instinctive
activities as before, and may even fail this time to get out at all,
or until a much _longer_ period of miscellaneous scrabbling at last
happens to include the particular clawing or poking which works the
mechanism. If one repeats the process, keeps putting the cat back into
the box after each success, the amount of the useless action gradually
decreases, the right movement is made sooner and sooner, until finally
it is done as soon as the cat is put in.
This sort of a history is not the history of a reasoning animal. It is
the history of an animal who meets a certain situation with a lot of
instinctive acts. Included without design among these acts is one
which brings freedom and food. The pleasurable result of this one
gradually stamps it in in connection with the situation "confinement
in that box," while their failure to result in any pleasure gradually
stamps out all the useless bitings, clawings, and squeezings. Thus,
little by little, the one act becomes more and more likely to be done
in that situation, while the others slowly vanish. This history
represents the wearing smooth of a path in the brain, not the
decisions of a rational consciousness.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
We can express graphically the difference between the conduct of a
reasoning animal and that of these dogs and cats by means of a
time-curve. If, for instance, we let perpendiculars to a horizontal
line represent each one trial in the box, and let their heights
represent in each trial the time it took the animal to escape (each
three millimetres equaling ten seconds), the accompanying figure (Fig.
2) will tell the story of a cat which, when first put in, took sixty
seconds to get out; in the second trial, eighty; in the third, fifty;
in the fourth, sixty; in the fifth, fifty; in the sixth, forty, etc.
This figure represents what did actually happen with one cat in
learning a very easy act. Suppose the cat had, after the third
accidental success, been able to reason. She would then have the next
time and in all succeeding times performed the act as soon as put in,
and the figure would have been such as we see in Fig. 3. The thing is
still clearer if, instead of drawing in the perpendiculars, we draw
only a line joining their tops. Fig. 4 shows, then, the curve for the
real history, and Fig. 5 shows the abrupt descent, due to a rational
comprehension of the situation. I kept an accurate record of the time,
in seconds, taken in every trial by every cat in every box, and in
them all there appears no evidence for the presence of even the little
reasoning that "what let me out of this box three seconds ago will let
me out now." Surely, if an animal could reason he would, after ten or
eleven accidental successes, think what he had been doing, and at the
eleventh or twelfth trial would at once perform the act. But no! The
slope of the curves, as one may see in the specimens shown in Fig. 6,
is always gradual. So, in saying that the behavior of the animals
throughout the experiments gave no sign of the presence of reasoning I
am not giving a personal opinion, but the impartial evidence of an
unprejudiced watch. The curves given in Fig. 6 are for cats learning
to escape from the box already described, whose door was held by a
wooden button on the inside.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
Some one may object that, true as all this may be, the intelligent
acts reported of animals are in many cases such as could not have
happened in this way by accident. These anecdotes of apparent
comprehension and inference are really the only argument which the
believers in reason have presented. Its whole substance vanishes if,
as a matter of fact, animals can do these supposed intelligent acts in
the course of instinctive struggling. They certainly can and do. I
purposely chose, for experiments, two of the most intelligent
performances described by Romanes in his Animal Intelligence--namely,
the act of opening a door by depressing the thumb-piece of an ordinary
thumb-latch and the opening of a window by turning a swivel (see pp.
420-422 and p. 425 of Animal Intelligence, by G. J. Romanes). Here I
may quote from the detailed report of my experiments (Monograph
Supplement to the Psychological Review, No. 8):
"G was a box 29 × 20-1/2 × 22-1/2, with a door 29 × 12 hinged on the
left side of the box (looking from within), and kept closed by an
ordinary thumb-latch placed fifteen inches from the floor. The
remainder of the front of the box was closed in by wooden bars. The
door was a wooden frame covered with screening. It was _not_ arranged
so as to open as soon as the latch was lifted, but required a force of
four hundred grammes, even when applied to the best advantage. The bar
of the thumb-latch, moreover, would fall back into place again unless
the door were pushed out at least a little. Eight cats (Nos. 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, and 13) were, one at a time, left in this thumb-latch box.
All exhibited the customary instinctive clawings and squeezings and
bitings. Out of the eight, _all succeeded, in the course of their
vigorous struggles, in pressing down the thumb-piece_, so that if the
door had been free to swing open they could have escaped. Six
succeeded in pushing both thumb-piece down and door out, so that the
bar did not fall back into its place. Of these, _five succeeded in
also later pushing the door open, so that they escaped and got the
fish outside_. Of these, three, after about fifty trials, associated
the complicated movements required with the sight of the interior of
the box so firmly that they attacked the thumb-latch the moment they
were put in."
In the cases of No. 1 and No. 6 the combination of accidents required
was enough to make their successes somewhat rare. Consequently
weariness and failure offset the occasional pleasure of getting food,
and after succeeding four and ten times respectively they never again
succeeded, though given numerous opportunities. Their cases are almost
a perfect proof of the claim that accident, not inference, makes
animals open doors. For they hit upon the thing several times, but did
not know enough to profit even by these experiences, and so failed to
open the door the fifth and eleventh times.
Accident is equally capable of helping a cat escape from an inclosure
whose door is held by a swivel.
"Out of six cats who were put in the box whose door opened by a
button, _not one failed_, in the course of its impulsive activity, to
push the button around. Sometimes it was clawed one side from below;
sometimes vigorous pressure on the top turned it around; sometimes it
was pushed up by the nose. No cat who was given repeated trials failed
to form a perfect association between the sight of the interior of
that box and the proper movements."
If, then, three cats out of eight can escape from a small box by
accidentally operating a thumb-latch, one cat in a hundred may easily
escape from a room by accident. If one hundred per cent of all cats
are sure to sooner or later turn a button around when in a small box,
one cat in a thousand may well escape from a room by accidentally
turning a swivel around.
So far we have seen that when put in situations calculated to call
forth any thinking powers which they possess, the animal's conduct
still shows no signs of anything beyond the accidental formation of an
association between the sight of the interior of the box and the
impulse to a certain act, and the subsequent complete establishment of
this association because of the power of pleasure to stamp in any
process which leads to it. We have also seen that samples of the acts
which have been supposed by advocates of the reason theory to require
reasoning for their accomplishment turn out to be readily accomplished
by the accidental success of instinctive impulses. The decision that
animals do not possess the higher mental processes is re-enforced by
several other lines of experiment--for example, by some experiments on
imitation.
The details of these experiments I will not take the time to describe.
Suffice it to say that cats and dogs were given a chance to see one of
their fellows free himself from confinement and gain food by
performing some simple act. In each case they were where they could
see him do this from fifty to one hundred and fifty times, and did
actually watch his actions closely from ten to forty times. After
every ten chances to learn from seeing him, they were put into the
same inclosure and observed carefully, in order to see whether they
would, from having so often seen the act done, know enough to do it
themselves, or at least to try to do it. In this they signally failed.
Those who had failed previously to hit upon the thing accidentally
never learned it later from seeing it done. Those who were given a
chance to imitate acts which accident would sooner or later have
taught them learned the acts no more quickly than if they had never
seen the other animal do it the score or more of times. The animals,
that is, could not master the simple inference that if, in a certain
situation, that fellow-cat of mine performs a certain act and gets
fish, I, in the same situation, may get fish by performing that act.
They did not think enough to profit by the observation of their
fellows, no matter how many chances for such observation were given
them.
Equally corroborative of our first position are the results of still
another set of experiments. Here the dogs and cats were put through
the proper movement from twenty-five to one hundred times, being left
in the box after every five or ten trials and watched to see if they
would not be able at least to realize that the act which they had just
been made to do and which had resulted in liberation and food was the
proper act to be done. For instance, a dog would be put in a box the
door of which would fall open when a loop of string hanging outside
the box was clawed down an inch or so. Animals were taken who had,
when left to themselves, failed to be led to this particular act by
their general instinctive activities. After two minutes I would put in
my arm, take the dog's paw, hold it out between the bars, and,
inserting it in the loop, pull the loop down. The dog would of course
then go out and eat the bit of meat. After repeating this ten times
(in some cases five) I would put the dog in and leave him to his own
devices. If, as was always the case, he failed in ten or twenty
minutes to profit by my teaching I would take him out, but would not
feed him. After a half hour or so I would recommence my attempts to
show the dog what needed to be done. This would be kept up for two or
three days, until he had shown his utter inability to get the notion
of doing for himself what he had been made to do a hundred or more
times. The mental process required here need not be so high a one as
inference or reasoning, but surely any animal possessing those would,
after seeing and feeling his paw pull a loop down a hundred times with
such good results, have known enough to do it himself. None of my
animals did know enough. Those who did not in ten or twelve trials hit
upon an act by accident could never be taught that act by being put
through it. And, as in the case of imitation, acts of such a sort as
would be surely learned by virtue of accidental success were not
learned a whit sooner or more easily when I thus showed them to the
animal.
An interesting supplement to these facts is found in the following
answers to some questions which I sent to the trainer of one of the
most remarkable trick-performing horses now exhibited on the stage.
The counting tricks done by this horse had been quoted to me by a
friend as impossible of explanation unless the horse could be educated
by being put through the right number of movements in connection with
the different signals.
_Question 1._--If you wished to teach a horse to tap seven times with
his hoof when you asked him "How many days are there in a week?" would
you teach him by taking his leg and making him go through the motions?
_Answer._--"No!"
_Question 2._--Do you think you _could_ teach him that way, even if
naturally you would take some other way?
_Answer._--"I do not think I could."
_Question 3._--How would you teach him?
_Answer._--"You put figure 2 on the blackboard and _touch him, on the
leg_ twice with a cane, and so on."
The counting tricks of trained horses seem to us marvelous because we
are not acquainted with the simple but important fact that a horse
instinctively raises his hoof when one pricks or taps his leg in a
certain place. Just as once given, the cat's instinct to claw,
squeeze, etc., you can readily get a cat to open doors by working
latches or turning buttons, so, once given this simple reflex of
raising the hoof, you can, by ingenuity and patience, get a horse to
do almost any number of counting tricks.
Probably any one who still feels confident that animals reason will
not be shaken by any further evidence. Still, it will pay any one who
cares to make scientific his notions about animal consciousness to
notice the results of two sets of experiments not yet mentioned. The
first set was concerned with the way animals learn to perform a
compound act. Boxes were arranged so that two or three different
things had to be done before the door would fall open. For instance,
in one case the cat or dog had to step on a platform, reach up between
the bars over the top of the box and claw down a string running across
them, and finally push its paw out beside the door to claw down a bar
which held it.
The animal's instinctive impulses do often lead it to accidentally
perform these several acts one after another, and repeated accidental
successes do in some of these cases cause the acts to be done at last
in fairly quick succession. But we see clearly that the acts are not
thought about or done with anything like a rational comprehension of
the situation, for the time taken to learn the thing is much longer
than all three elements would take if tackled separately; and even
after the animal has reached a minimum time in doing the acts, he does
not do the things in the same order, and often repeats one of the acts
over and over again, though it has already attained its end.
The second set comprised experiments on the so-called "memory" of
animals. I will describe only one out of many which agree with it. A
kitten had been trained to the habit of climbing the wire-netting
front of its cage whenever I approached. I then trained her to climb
up at the words "I must feed those cats." This was done by uttering
them and then in ten seconds going up to the cage and holding a bit of
fish to her at its top. After this had been done about forty times she
reached a point where she would climb up at the signal about fifty per
cent of the times. I then introduced a new element by sometimes
saying, "I must feed those cats," as before, and feeding her, and at
other times saying, "I will not feed them," and remaining still in my
chair. At first the kitten felt no difference, and would climb up just
as often at the wrong signal as at the right. But gradually (it took
about four hundred and fifty trials) the failure to get any pleasure
from the act of climbing up at the wrong signal stamped out the
impulse to do so, while the pleasure sequent upon the act of climbing
up at the other signal made that her invariable response to it. Here,
as elsewhere, the absence of reason was shown by the cat's failure at
any point in these hundreds of trials to think about the matter, and
make the easy inference that one set of sounds meant food, while the
other did not. But still better proof appears in what is to follow.
After an interval of eighty days I tried her again to see how
permanent the association between the signal and act was. It was
permanent to the extent that what took three hundred and eighty trials
before took only fifty this time, for after fifty trials with the "I
will not feed them" signal, mixed up with a lot of the other, the cat
once more attained perfect discrimination. But it was not permanent in
the sense that the cat at the first or tenth or twentieth trial felt,
as a remembering, reasoning consciousness surely ought to feel, "Why,
that lot of sounds means that he won't come up with fish." For instead
of at first forgetting and for a while climbing up at the _I will not
feed them_, and then remembering its previous experience and at once
stopping the performance it had before learned was useless, the cat
simply went through the same gradual decreasing of the percentage of
wrong responses until finally it always responded rightly.
What has so far been said is true regardless of any prejudice or
incompetence on my part, for the proof in all cases rests not on my
observation, but on impartial time records or such matters of fact as
the escape or nonescape, the climbing or not-climbing of the animals.
I may add that in a life among these animals of six months for from
four to eight hours a day I never saw any acts which even _seemed_ to
show reasoning powers, and did see numerous acts unmentioned here
which pointed clearly to their absence.
All that is left for the fond owner of a supposedly rational animal to
say is that though the average animal, the typical dog or cat, is by
these experiments shown to be devoid of reasoning power, yet _his_ dog
or _her_ cat is far above the average level, and is therefore to be
judged by itself. He may claim that just because my average animals
failed to infer, we have no right to deny inference to all,
particularly to his. Is it not fair to ask such a one to repeat my
experiments with his supposedly superior animal? Until he does and
systematically tries to find out how its mind works and what it is
capable of, has he any right to bear witness? It may also be said that
of the number of people who witnessed the performances of my animals
after they had fully learned a lot of these acts, but had not seen the
method of acquisition, all unanimously wondered at their wonderful
intellectual powers. "How _do_ you teach them?" "Where did you get
such bright animals?" "I always thought animals could think," and such
like were common expressions of my visitors. The fact was that the
dogs and cats were picked up in the street at random, and that no one
of them had thought out one jot or tittle of the things he had learned
to do. The specious appearance of reasoning in a completely formed
habit does not involve the presence or assistance of reasoning in the
formation of the habit.
Here, at the close of this account, I may signify my willingness to
reply, so far as is possible, to any letters from readers of the
Popular Science Monthly who may care to ask questions about any
feature of animal intelligence.
* * * * *
In a discussion of the question "How Education fails," Dr. J. T.
Searcy, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, speaks of the tendency of too
much education as being to make the pupil too machine-cut. "The
successful, the progressive, the aggressive men, families, and
races are not the manufactured ones, but the self-made ones." In
the conditions and complexities of human society, the
accumulating data of knowledge change so rapidly that educators
can not anticipate the future in the elements and curricula of
prescribed education. The advancing man, who is able to keep up
in his day and generation, shows his excellence in his ability to
readjust to his changing environment. The schools can not give
this faculty, but rather have a tendency to weaken it; yet on it,
more than anything else, rests the success of the man and the
race. "Too much ought not to be demanded of the schools, nor
ought they to assume too much to themselves."
THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.
BY HON. CHARLES D. WALCOTT,
DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
A national museum should be the center of scientific activity in the
country in which it is located. In England the British Museum is the
Mecca of scientific men. In Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna, Berlin, and
other capitals of Europe the national museum stands in similar
relations to the scientific work of its own country. Such a relation
our National Museum should hold to scientific men and affairs in
America. It should receive and take care of all material that has been
or may be valuable for investigation or for the illustration of the
ethnology, natural history, geology, products, and resources of our
own country, or for comparison with the material of other countries.
It should furnish material for all kinds of scientific investigations
which deal with specimens or types, and give aid to such researches
and publish their results. It should present by illustration such of
the results of the scientific investigations of its corps of officers
as are susceptible of such representation. It should co-operate with
all the higher educational institutions of learning in the country,
and assist in the promotion and diffusion of knowledge in all lines of
investigation carried on by it. It should provide library facilities,
and aid all post-graduate students who may wish to take advantage of
the provisions made by the Government for scientific research.
HISTORY AND PRESENT ORGANIZATION.--Beginning in a small way in the
Patent-Office building early in the century, the "Government"
collections of "natural products" were transferred to the custody of
the Smithsonian Institution in 1858, where they were installed along
with the larger and more valuable collections of the institution.
Twenty-three years later, in 1881, the present National Museum
building was ready for the great mass of material that had accumulated
in the Smithsonian building, and had been transferred from the
Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. Out of these heterogeneous
collections Dr. G. Brown Goode, under the direction of Secretary
Baird, of the Smithsonian, organized a museum of broad scope, based on
all that had proved best in museum experience to that time. Faithfully
he carried forward the work until September, 1896, when his health
broke under the strain of too many duties, and one of the best museum
administrators the world has yet produced, if not the very best one,
passed from us. In January, 1897, I was placed in temporary charge of
the administration of the museum as an acting Assistant Secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution, and remained in charge until July 1,
1898.
On July 1, 1897, in order to meet changed conditions, a new plan of
organization went into effect. The various divisions and sections of
anthropology, biology, and geology, which had previously been
conducted independently of one another, the curators and custodians
reporting directly to the assistant secretary in charge of the museum,
were united under three head curators--one of anthropology, another of
biology, and a third of geology. This secured direct expert
supervision, and correlated the work of each department. Before this
such correlation had been impossible, owing to the large number of
independent heads of sections and divisions in each department, who
planned and executed the work more or less independently of one
another.
In the department of anthropology the system of installation
inaugurated by Prof. W. H. Holmes is somewhat elaborate. The primary
arrangement is founded, first, on the geographical or ethnographical
assemblage, and, second, on the developmental or genetic assemblage.
Other methods may be classed as special; they are the chronologic, the
comparative, the individual, etc. The primary methods are adapted to
the presentation of the general truths of anthropology, and the
special methods are available for limited portions of the field.
In many ways the department of biology, under the charge of Dr. F. W.
True, was, at the date named, in much better condition than either of
the other two departments. Many of the zoölogical divisions had been
in existence since the reorganization of the museum in 1883, and
several of them for a much longer period, and as the biological
specimens had been in charge of curators and assistants who followed
well-defined and long-established methods, the reorganization of the
department was a relatively simple matter, no radical changes in the
scientific methods or in the business administration being required.
To the organization and administration of the department of geology,
Dr. George P. Merrill brought the results of a recent study of various
European museums. He found it necessary to make a systematic
examination of the written and printed records of the various
Government exploring expeditions and surveys, with a view to
ascertaining what geological material had been collected which could
properly be considered the property of the Government, and what
disposition had been made of the same. The law[8] provides that
collections made for the Government shall, when no longer needed for
investigations in progress, be deposited in the National Museum. It
was found that this law had not in all cases been strictly enforced,
and that several important collections had not been transferred to the
museum, although some of the earlier exploring expeditions had passed
out of existence, and in several instances the individuals making the
collections had likewise passed away. This investigation has resulted
in the transfer to the museum of several car loads of specimens no
longer needed elsewhere.
[Footnote 8: "And all collections of rocks, minerals, soils,
fossils, and objects of natural history, archæology, and
ethnology, made by the Coast and Interior Survey, the Geological
Survey, or by any other parties for the Government of the United
States, when no longer needed for investigations in progress,
shall be deposited in the National Museum...."--_Supplement to
the Revised Statutes of the United States_, vol. i, second
edition, 1874-1891, p. 252.]
The National Museum is unique among permanent museums in having large
sections of its collections almost constantly away from it. It made
displays at London in 1883, at Louisville in 1884, at Minneapolis in
1887, at Cincinnati and Marietta in 1888, at Madrid in 1892, at
Chicago in 1893, at Atlanta in 1895, at Nashville in 1896, and at
Omaha in 1898. The injury to the museum resulting from the packing and
transportation of specimens and from the interruption of systematic
work and development has been keenly felt at times by the scientific
staff. The advantages have consisted in showing to the people of many
sections of the country what the museum is doing, in securing
collections that otherwise would not have been obtained, and in
extending the educational sphere of influence.
RELATIONS TO THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.--The museum is a child that
has by its vigorous growth already overshadowed the parent institution
in the extent of its buildings, its expenditures, and its direct
influence upon the people of the United States. In the larger fields
for which the Smithsonian Institution was organized, for the purpose
of increasing and diffusing knowledge among men throughout the world,
the museum is subordinate to the institution, and if the latter is
administered in the future as it has been in the past, it will
continue to hold a unique place among all institutions for the
increase and diffusion of knowledge.
In 1877 Prof. Asa Gray, as chairman of a special committee of the
Regents of the Smithsonian, submitted a report which recommended that
a distinction between the institution itself and the museum under its
charge should be made as prominent as possible. The fear was expressed
that if the museum was developed to its full extent and importance
within the Smithsonian Institution it would absorb the working
energies of the institution, and it was thought that such a
differentiation would pave the way to entire separation of
administration or to some other adjustment, as the Board of Regents
might think best or be able to accomplish. Professor Baird, in 1878,
in his report to the regents, called attention to the frequent mention
in the reports of his predecessor of the relations existing between
the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum, and remarked that
"it is only necessary to mention briefly that the museum constitutes
no organic part of the institution, and that, whenever Congress so
directs, it may be transferred to any designated supervision without
affecting the general plans and operations connected with the
'increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.'"
During the administration of the museum by Dr. Goode, under the
direction of Professor Baird, and later Professor Langley, no movement
was made toward the separation of the museum from the Smithsonian. On
the contrary, Dr. Goode was strongly opposed to any such action, and
in this he was heartily supported by Secretary Langley. He felt that
the result of placing the museum under the control of one of the great
departments of the Government, or leaving it to be buffeted about in
the sea of politics as an independent organization, would be the
destruction of its scientific character.
I have been intimately acquainted with the administration of the
museum since 1886, and less so with the administration of other
scientific bureaus of the Government, one of which, the Fish
Commission, is independent of departmental control. After a careful
reconsideration of the subject of the relations of the National Museum
to the Smithsonian Institution, I have come to the conclusion that the
present welfare and the future development of the museum will be best
served by administrative connection with the Smithsonian Institution.
Under the present organization there is no necessity for large demand
upon the time and energies of the secretary by the affairs of the
museum. If in the future it should become otherwise, relief could
readily be secured by action of the Board of Regents, requiring the
officer in charge of the museum to report to them through the
secretary, much as the various bureaus of the departments report
through their respective secretaries to Congress. It is not probable,
however, that this will become necessary, for at any time an assistant
secretary could be appointed to take sole charge of the museum, thus
relieving the secretary of all but the most general administrative
supervision.
RELATIONS TO A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.--A national museum should radiate
an educational influence to the remotest portions of the country. It
should set the standard for all other museums, whether in public
school, academy, college, university, or the larger museums under
municipal and State control. Its influence should be exercised largely
through its publications and through those who come to study its
collections and the methods of work of the investigators connected
directly or indirectly with its scientific staff. In its library
system the student should have access to the literature bearing upon
the subjects with which the museum is concerned. In its exhibition
halls each object should be labeled and arranged with the view of
presenting, by graphic illustration and concise description, all that
it is capable of teaching, either as a discrete object or as one of a
series of objects telling the story of the evolution of the group to
which it belongs. Such a museum is not a place where the uninformed
student may obtain the elements of a university training; it is an
institution where the post-graduate student can secure access to
material for study and research in connection with men who are
carrying forward scientific work of the highest type. Dr. D. C. Gilman
would go further than this. He says:[9]
[Footnote 9: Century Magazine, vol. lv, 1897, p. 156.]
"Any person of either sex, from any place, of whatever age, without
any question as to his previous academic degree, should be admissible;
provided, however, that he demonstrate his fitness to the satisfaction
of the leader in the subject of his predilection."
Dr. Gilman thinks that such an organization "may be developed more
readily around the Smithsonian Institution, with less friction, less
expense, less peril, and with the prospect of more permanent and
widespread advantages to the country, than by a dozen denominational
seminaries or one colossal university of the United States.
"To the special opportunities that the Smithsonian and its
affiliations could offer, every university, at a distance or near by,
might be glad to send its most promising students for a residence of
weeks, months, or years, never losing control of them. Many other
persons, disconnected with universities, but proficient to a
considerable degree in one study or another, would also resort with
pleasure and gratitude, and with prospect of great advantages, to the
rare opportunities which Washington affords for study and
investigation in history, political science, literature, ethnology,
anthropology, medicine, agriculture, meteorology, geology, geodesy,
and astronomy."
I fully agree with him, but would make the National Museum the center
of activity, rather than the Smithsonian Institution. It would then be
under the control of the Board of Regents, through the secretary or
the assistant secretary, who could have direct charge. It seems to me
that the function of the Smithsonian Institution is to aid at the
beginning of such a movement, and then place the administration in
charge of one of its bureaus or transfer it to some other suitable
organization.
With the National Museum as a center or base, the student in
Washington may avail himself of the Library of Congress and of the
facilities offered for study and investigation by the various
scientific bureaus of the Government, such as the Fish Commission, the
Zoölogical Park, the Geological and Coast and Geodetic Surveys, the
Naval Observatory, and the Weather, Botanical, Biological, and
Entomological Bureaus of the Department of Agriculture, and systematic
courses of lectures will place before him the most advanced ideas and
conclusions of the largest body of scientific investigators in the
world.
A single well-trained man, with a few assistants, could render
invaluable aid to hundreds of post-graduate and special students,
whose only need is direction as to the best means of pursuing studies
and investigations. Such an organization could be located in the
administrative building that it has been proposed to erect as a
nucleus of the National University. From this beginning a national
university of the broadest type could be developed with as much
rapidity as the educational interests of the country might demand.
The National Museum can not at present give facilities to more than a
score of students, but with the erection of a modern museum building,
well equipped with laboratory space and a suitable staff to conduct
the necessary work of installation and investigation, the scientific
side of the National University would be established. It should be
remembered that many of the officers of the scientific bureaus of the
Government are directly connected with the museum staff as honorary
curators and custodians, and that a number of them have laboratories
within the museum building.
NEED OF A NEW BUILDING.--The growth of the United States National
Museum was rapid under the successful administration of Dr. Goode.
When the character of the building and the funds available for the
maintenance of the museum are considered, it compares favorably with
any modern museum. It has received large collections from the
scientific departments of the Government, by private contribution, by
purchase, and by exchange, which have been accommodated as well as
possible in the inadequate laboratories, storerooms, and exhibition
spaces. During the fiscal year 1897-'98, accessions to the number of
1,441 were received, containing upward of 450,000 specimens--the
largest number for any one year since the museum was opened. The total
number of specimens recorded to July 1, 1898, exceeds four million.
The galleries just completed have added sixteen thousand square feet
of floor space, which is available for the spreading out and proper
exhibition of material that has previously been crowded in the
exhibition halls and courts on the floor; but, as an illustration of
the present congested conditions, it may be stated that the
anthropological collections now in the possession of the Government,
illustrating the development and progress of man and his works, if
properly placed on exhibition, would occupy the entire space in the
present museum building. The great collections in biology, botany,
economic geology, general geology, and paleontology should be placed
in a building properly constructed for their study and exhibition. A
considerable portion of the collections are still in the Smithsonian
building, where the crowding is scarcely less than in the museum
building.
Moreover, in the present building there is great deficiency in
laboratory facilities. Curators and assistants are hampered for want
of room in which to lay out, arrange, classify, mount, and label
specimens. There should also be rooms in which students could bring
together and compare various series of objects, and have at hand books
and scientific apparatus. The present museum building contains a few
rooms suitable for the purposes mentioned, but the majority have to be
used as storerooms, laboratories, and offices, and are therefore too
much crowded to serve in any one of these capacities. Owing to the
pressure for space, courts, halls, and galleries intended for
exhibition purposes, both in the Smithsonian building and in the
museum building, are unavoidably occupied to a considerable extent as
laboratories and storerooms. There is also need of storage room, an
increase of the scientific staff, and a purchasing and collecting
fund. The American Museum of Natural History expends annually $60,000
for the increase of its collections; the National Museum has from
$3,000 to $4,000 for the purpose.
The immediate and greatest need, however, is a suitable museum
building. The present building is 375 feet square. The space on the
ground floor is 140,625 square feet, and that in the galleries 16,000
square feet; exhibition space, 96,000 square feet. The entire cost is
$315,400.
For comparison with the above figures, the following statistics
relating to the American Museum of Natural History in New York are
given: Total floor space, 294,000 square feet, divided as follows:
Exhibition space, 196,000 square feet; laboratories, library, etc.,
42,500 square feet; workrooms, storage, etc., 42,000 square feet;
lecture hall, 13,500 square feet. These figures include the portions
of the building now being completed. The total cost of the museum to
date, including the completion of the new wings, is $3,559,470.15. The
buildings, and the care of them, are provided for by the city of New
York. The expenses of the scientific staff, increase of collections,
etc. (the income for which for the present year is approximately
$185,000), are defrayed from endowments, membership fees, and
contributions. In the capitals of Europe, museum buildings are
generously provided for.
The National Museum building was erected with the view of covering the
largest amount of space with the least outlay of money. In this
respect it may be considered a success. It is, in fact, scarcely more
than the shadow of such a massive, dignified, and well-finished
building as should be the home of the great national collections.
There is needed at once a spacious, absolutely fireproof building of
several stories, constructed of durable materials, well lighted,
modern in equipment, and on such a plan that it can be added to as
occasion arises in the future. The site for such a building is already
owned by the Government; only the building needs to be provided for.
What the Capitol building is to the nation, the library building to
the National Library, the Smithsonian building to the Smithsonian
Institution, the new museum building should be to the National Museum.
There should be available:
Sq. ft.
Department of biology 190,000
Department of geology 83,000
Special laboratories for students 5,000
Rough storage, workshops, etc. 20,000
Lecture hall 6,000
-------
Total 304,000
Present museum space to be devoted
to the department of anthropology 96,000
-------
Grand total 400,000
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT.--With suitable buildings provided, the immediate
development of the National Museum naturally lies in four directions:
(1) The occupation of the present building by the anthropological
collections; (2) the housing, developing, and installing of the large
biological collections; (3) the development of a great museum of
practical geology; and (4) the development of the scientific side of a
National University.
1. The collections in anthropology, as they stand to-day, cover a wide
field in a broken and disconnected way. It is difficult to use them
effectively to illustrate the great features of this branch of
science. They do not present a connected story of the peoples and
cultures of the world. This arises from the gaps in the collections
and the absence of suitable laboratory and exhibition space. This
department should have adequate representations of the American
peoples and their culture, not only of our own country, but of the
whole American continent. Our nation is the only one in America that
can reasonably be expected to do anything of importance toward the
preservation of the materials necessary for the illustration of this
vast field; and as the American race is a unit, of which the tribes in
our own territory constitute a considerable part, it appears to be our
duty to take up this work in a comprehensive way. Thus would be built
up not only a National Museum, but an American Museum in the widest
sense. This applies not only to anthropology, but to the other great
departments of the museum. It will be impossible to carry on such a
work without turning over to the Department of Anthropology the entire
present building, with all its laboratory and exhibition space.
2. The Department of Biology now occupies a large exhibition space in
the Smithsonian building and 55,000 square feet in the museum
building. Large collections are stored in laboratories and inclosed
spaces in the exhibition halls which would be placed on exhibition if
space were available. As has already been explained, in a new building
there should be available for the Department of Biology 190,000 square
feet of exhibition, laboratory, and storage space.
The present exhibit is more complete than that of the other
departments of the museum. Of birds there is a large mounted series,
one of the finest in existence, but it is so indifferently housed that
it fails to make the impression it should. Of mammals there is a good
North American series, and there are some excellent examples of exotic
species. There is a good and rather large exhibit of the various
groups of the lower forms of animals, including an especially fine
series of corals and sponges. These are the only series at present
exhibited which can be considered at all comprehensive. Of the great
groups of fishes, reptiles, and amphibians there is room only for an
outline representation. The wonderful variety of form among insects
can be scarcely more than suggested in the space available. Of plants
there has hitherto been no exhibit worthy of the name, and the space
which it has now been possible to set aside is entirely out of
proportion to the vast extent and importance of this great kingdom of
Nature.
Every natural-history museum of the first class should have at least
two comprehensive exhibition series. The first, the _Systematic
Series_, is a series representing the natural groups, among which all
animals and plants, from the highest to the lowest, are divided. The
second, the _Faunal and Floral Series_, is a series showing the
animals and plants characteristic of each of the grand divisions of
the earth's surface, which naturalists have established as a result of
their study of these two kingdoms of Nature. These two great
comprehensive exhibits should be supplemented by a number of _Special
Series_, illustrating the more interesting phenomena and phases of
life, such as the macroscopic and microscopic structure of animals
and plants and their development from the germ to the fully adult
individual, and special modifications of form and color by which
animals are protected from their enemies; the adaptations for peculiar
environments and modes of life; the characteristics of youth,
maturity, and old age; the variation in form, size, and color among
individuals of the same species; the domiciles and other works
constructed by birds, mammals, insects, and the like. To these series
should be added another of great importance, the _Economic Series_,
representing the animals and plants as related to the activities and
needs of man. Any one of these principal series in its full
development would more than fill the entire space now available.
3. There should be developed a museum of practical geology in the
broadest sense, which will be of service to every producer and
consumer of American mineral products, and to all students of geology
who are engaged in either economic or purely scientific
investigations.
In addition to the series of rocks and fossils illustrating the
stratigraphy and succession of the sedimentary rocks and the
systematic collection of minerals and ores, an exhibit showing how
geologic work benefits the daily life of the people should be
developed. An illustration of this would be a representation of the
artesian-water supply of the semi-arid region, showing the
stratification and structure of the sedimentary rocks, and how
hydrographic and geologic investigations clearly indicate the regions
in which artesian-water development may be carried on successfully.
Mining and areal geology could also be illustrated in such manner as
to place before the student and intelligent observer the import and
value of such work.
In most museums the principal effort has been to make a collection of
useful mineral products. This is desirable, but, from the broad view
of illustrating the practical in addition to the scientific side of
geology, it should be secondary. The best basis for classification on
the practical side of the museum exhibit appears to be the finished
mineral product. For instance, if pig iron be taken as a key material
in classification, the iron ores from which it has been obtained
should be arranged so as to show the various kinds whose combination
has resulted in the pig iron. In connection with this should be
grouped the geologic phenomena, which should include any geologic
conditions connected with the original deposition and the occurrence
of iron ores. This might include the conditions which have led to the
oxidation of pyrite and other sulphur compounds of iron, and to the
development of hydrous oxides of iron; also an illustration of what
has been demonstrated in regard to the solution of widely distributed
minerals in certain rocks, and their subsequent concentration in ore
bodies by metasomatic action. All the metals could be arranged under
such a classification, as also the nonmetallic products. The
preparation of such an exhibit would require many years of work, the
details of which would be considered as each mineral product was taken
in hand.
4. The fourth direction of development is toward the requirements of a
National University, which has already been sufficiently dwelt upon in
this connection.
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM.--The children gain a fair amount of information
from the general exhibit in any well-arranged museum, but it is
desirable that their interest should be aroused by having certain
exhibits made expressly for them. I would have a space set aside in
each of the three departments in which nothing should be exhibited
except for the children. It might be called a Museum Kindergarten.
Some of the preceding suggestions have been adopted by the museum
authorities and partially put into execution, and the carrying of them
out is dependent upon enlarged facilities for laboratory work and
exhibition space. During the administration of Dr. Goode the museum
developed as far as possible under the conditions surrounding it. No
one knew better than he that only by securing new buildings and
expanding the museum could it take the place in America that the
several national museums of Europe have taken in their respective
countries. It is well recognized that a public museum is a necessity
in every highly civilized community, and that, as has been so well
stated by Dr. Goode, "the degree of civilization which any nation,
city, or province has attained is best shown by the character of its
public museums and the liberality with which they are maintained." At
present New York city is, in this respect, in advance of all other
American cities and of the national Government. Whether the latter
will take its proper place by developing the National Museum as it has
developed the National Library remains to be seen. The question
whether they are willing to be represented by the museum as it is
to-day is one that the American people should consider and decide at
an early date; meantime, it is the duty of all interested in the
advancement of science and education to aid by every means in their
power the development of a National Museum that will be truly national
and American.
ARE JEWS JEWS?
BY JOSEPH JACOBS,
PRESIDENT OF THE JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In the December (1898) and January (1899) numbers of Appletons'
Popular Science Monthly Prof. William Z. Ripley concludes the
remarkable series of articles on the Racial Geography of Europe,
originally delivered as Lowell Institute lectures, by a couple of
articles on the Jews. Strictly speaking, the articles might seem to
have no right in the particular series in which Professor Ripley has
included them, since their main object is to show that the Jews are
not a race but a people, and have therefore no claim to be considered
in the racial geography of any continent. But one can not regret that
a daring disregard for logic has caused Professor Ripley to conclude
his interesting series with the somewhat startling paradox that Jews
are not Jews, in the sense of the word in which both their friends and
their enemies have hitherto taken it. As Professor Ripley has been
good enough to refer to me as having written with some authority on
the subject, and as I have not been convinced by his arguments against
the comparative racial purity of the Jews, I am glad of an opportunity
to discuss the question, which is of equal theoretic and practical
interest.
The theoretic interest, with which alone we need concern ourselves
here, seems to me of two kinds. Professor Ripley, as a student of
anthropology, declares, as the result of his inquiries, that there has
been so large an admixture of round skulls with the (hypothetically
assumed) original long skulls of the Hebrews that all signs of racial
unity have disappeared. I, on the other hand, who have approached the
subject as a student of history,[10] see no evidence of any such large
admixture of alien elements in the race since its dispersion from
Palestine, and have come, therefore, to the opposite conclusion--that
the Jews now living are, to all intents and purposes, exclusively the
direct descendants of the Diaspora. Here, then, anthropology and
history--if Professor Ripley and I have respectively interpreted their
verdicts aright--appear to speak in two opposite senses, and no
conference at La Hague or elsewhere can appoint a court of appeal
which can decide between contrary propositions by two different
sciences.
[Footnote 10: To prevent misunderstanding, I should perhaps add
that I have not neglected the anthropological aspects of the
question. My paper on The Racial Characteristics of Modern Jews,
which appeared in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute
for 1885, contained, I believe Professor Ripley would allow, the
fullest account of Jewish anthropometry collected up to that
date.]
But the point in discussion seems to me to raise also a problem of
exceeding interest within the anthropological sphere itself. Professor
Ripley assumes that round heads beget round heads, and long heads
descend from long heads for all time unchanged. That appears to carry
with it the assumption that no amount of brain activity can increase
the mass of brain, that skull capacity has no relation to mental
capacity, and that alone among the organs of the body the brain and
skull are incapable of growth, change, or development. The _crux_ of
Jewish anthropology raises this problem, as I shall proceed to show,
and, if I have interpreted history aright, offers valuable material
toward its solution.
I might have met Professor Ripley's arguments on narrower grounds,
which would have enabled me to evade this larger question. His main, I
might say his solitary, argument is that contemporary Jews are
predominantly brachycephalic, or round-headed, whereas contemporary
Arabs, whom he takes as the type of the Semites, are as predominantly
dolichocephalic, or long-headed. Accepting Professor Ripley's own
criterion of purity of race, I might point to the almost universal
round-headedness of the Jew as a proof of their racial unity. The fact
that Arabs do not share that quality really does not affect the
question. Linguistically and geographically the Hebrews of history
were associated with the Aramæans and Assyrians of Asia Minor, and
Professor Ripley himself allows that Asia Minor was mainly
brachycephalic. Till Professor Ripley brings forward craniological
evidence that the cephalic index of the ancient Hebrews was below
77.8, his reference to the contemporary Arab must be ruled out of
court. But, quite apart from this, the Arabic evidence would be of
little significance, since the chief characteristic of Moslem
civilization has been the predominance of marriage by capture and
descent from slave concubines. Every caravan that has entered Arabia
for the last twelve hundred years has had its contingent of female
slaves of alien race, mainly from dolichocephalic Africa. I must
confess my surprise that Professor Ripley has based his main argument
on the shifting sands of Arabic racial purity.
The only attempt Professor Ripley makes toward a proof that the pure
Hebrew is dolichocephalic is a half-hearted endeavor to claim that
quality for the Sephardim, or Spanish and Portuguese Jews, descended
in the main from Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal in 1492. As a
matter of fact, the largest number of measurements of Sephardic heads
has been made by Mr. Spielman and myself,[11] and of the fifty-one
heads examined by us only eight were long-headed. Professor Ripley
gives a portrait of a Tunisian Jew, with index 75, who is also
probably of Sephardic origin, like most of the Jews of the
Mediterranean littoral. But, curiously enough, there is far more
evidence for the mixture of race among contemporary Sephardim than of
any other branch of Jews. Even while they were living in Spain as
avowed Jews they were persistently accused of intermarriage, chiefly
with the Moors, while a large number of contemporary Sephardim are
descended not from refugees of 1492, but from the so-called
Marranos--Jews who remained in Spain, professing Christianity and
marrying tolerably freely among the surrounding population. If one
wished to be hypercritical, one could trace the long-headedness of a
minority of Jews to this admixture of race from Spain.
[Footnote 11: On the Comparative Anthropometry of English Jews,
in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for 1889.]
After all, I must insist that it is to history one must go to
determine a question of this sort. Jews have shown such marked
individuality throughout their career for the last two thousand years
among the nations--they have been so much in the world's eye
throughout that time--that any appreciable degree of intermarriage
would not have escaped notice, both by themselves and by their
enemies. Now there is practically no evidence of this kind during the
Christian era. Religious antipathy has been so strong throughout that
period as to form an almost insurmountable barrier to intermarriage
and the consequent proselytism to Judaism which is necessary for a
valid Jewish marriage. Sporadic cases doubtless occur, but their very
infrequency drew attention to them, and all that historical research
can discover is under one hundred cases throughout the middle ages,
scattered through Europe. Jewish nomenclature has special formulæ to
name the proselyte, and yet, though we have hundreds of the mediæval
lists of Jewish communities and martyrologies, it is the rarest thing
in the world to find one of these names referred to as "sons (or
daughters) of Abraham our father." In earlier days, doctors of the
Talmud, when discussing hypothetical cases, dismissed that of the
proselyte as being so rare.[12] In my Memoir in the Journal of the
Anthropological Institute for 1885 I have taken the marriage
statistics of modern Algeria as most nearly representing the most
favorable conditions that one could imagine at any time during the
middle ages, and have found that during nearly half a century
(1830-'77) there were only thirty mixed marriages out of an average
population of twenty-five thousand Jews--not one a year. The only
instances of proselytism on a large scale are those of the Chozars in
southern Russia, converted to Judaism in the eighth century, and the
Falashas of Abyssinia, about the same time. Yet these are an indirect
proof, by the method of difference, of the comparatively pure descent
of the rest of the Jews, for neither the Karaites, who are the
descendants of the Chozars, nor the Falashas show any of the
characteristic Jewish features or expression.
[Footnote 12: Babylonian Talmud, Gittin, 85a.]
Those who contest the purity of the Jewish race lay great stress upon
the Chozars as forming the nucleus of the Russian Polish Jews, who
are, as is well known, a predominant majority among present-day Jews,
probably ninety per cent of whom either dwell in the Russian dominions
or are descended from former inhabitants of old Poland. Yet against
this is the absence of any reference to Jews in Poland during the time
the Chozars flourished (eighth to eleventh centuries), while the very
speech of the Polish Jews--the so-called "Yiddish," really archaic
German mixed with Hebrew--indicates their true source, the German
kingdoms and principalities. Professor Ripley throws some doubt upon
the possibility of such large numbers as those of the Polish Jews
having been derived from Germany. Nowadays there are probably five
millions of Jews in the regions once possessed by Poland, but the
remarkable fertility of Jews is one of the most striking
characteristics of their vital statistics, to which, indeed, Professor
Ripley has called attention in his remarks upon their vitality. The
development of a generation depends, as is well known, upon the
relative number of deaths under five years of age, and it is just at
this period that Jewish mortality presents so favorable an aspect,
owing to the care of Jewish mothers and the absence of alcoholism
among the fathers. I have estimated that the Jewish population of the
world in 1730 (six generations ago) was only 1,300,000, whereas at the
present moment it is at least nine times as much. If one could assume
the same rate of progress to have existed through the middle ages the
Jewish population in the fourteenth century would have been not much
more than 25,000. Such a rate of progress is, however, extremely
unlikely, considering the large losses by persecution, which in Poland
alone, during the disastrous Cossack inroads between 1648 and 1656, is
said to have removed no less than 180,000 Jews. But, making every
allowance for this disturbance in the rate of progress, it would have
been quite possible for 50,000 Jews who had migrated to Poland in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to increase to over half a million
at the beginning of the eighteenth. Americans, who have seen nearly
half a million Russian Jews land upon their shores within the last
twenty years after crossing nearly half the world, need not be
incredulous as to the possibility of one tenth of that number passing
over the borders between Germany and Poland in a couple of centuries
during the middle ages, when, if means of transit were less numerous,
intensity of persecution and motives for emigration were ten times as
strong as even under the iron rule of the Russian Czar.
History, then, as I read it, has nothing to say against the purity of
descent of contemporary Jews from those of the Bible. What has
anthropology, as interpreted by Professor Ripley, to produce against
this negative evidence of history? Mainly, it would appear, the fact
that Jews of the present day are predominantly brachycephalic. Of the
fact there can be little doubt. The list given by Professor Ripley in
the Popular Science Monthly (vol. liv, page 340), of over twenty-five
hundred heads, would be sufficient to establish this. But the very
uniformity of the index is almost sufficient by itself to refute the
deduction Professor Ripley draws from it. If there had been any
general amount of admixture, that would have tended rather to produce
variety than uniformity. Surely Professor Ripley does not contend that
the Jewish young men and maidens, who, on his theory, so freely
welcomed outsiders into the family circle, have never fallen in love
with long-headed persons of the opposite sex. His argument requires
that the original Jews of the Diaspora were long-headed, and that they
have uniformly intermarried with the broad-headed varieties of the
genus _homo_. Now, he adduces no evidence whatever that Jews
originally were dolichocephalic, and even if he succeeded in proving
this he would have the further difficulty of finding a European race
with skulls so broad as to raise the average index of the race
considerably over 80. If we assume that the original index of the
Jewish skull was 75, Professor Ripley would have to find some race
with an average index of nearly 90 before the mixture would raise the
contemporary Jewish skull to its present broad-headedness. Dr. Ammon
has shown[13] that there are only two small regions in Europe where
such abnormally broad skulls exist, neither of them centers of Jewish
population.
[Footnote 13: Die Natürliche Auslese beim Menschen, Jena, 1883.]
But Dr. Ammon has shown more. By comparison with the skulls found in
the long barrows in Germany, he shows that the index of German skulls
has risen from 77 to no less than 83 during the last thousand years or
so; and he further shows, by reasoning similar to that which I have
just given, that this rise in index can not be due to any admixture of
race. Now, to what is this rise in head index due? Dr. Ammon, who is a
professed disciple of Weismann, does not go into the question of
causation, but the simplest and most obvious explanation is that
cranial capacity has followed brain development, and that, roughly
speaking, brachycephalism implies intellectual development. A few
instances may be given, confirming this impression of the superior
intellectual capacity of the broad-headed. Prof. Karl Pearson, in his
Chances of Death (vol. i, page 205), has given the following sexual
ratios of the superiority of English, German, and French men over the
opposite sex:
------------------+----------+---------+---------
| English. | German. | French.
------------------+----------+---------+---------
| | |
Brain weight | 1.120 | 1.117 | 1.125
Skull capacity | 1.179 | 1.126 | 1.164
Stature | 1.081 | 1.078 | 1.069
------------------+----------+---------+---------
In other words, men's skulls contain about eight per cent more and
their brains weigh four per cent more than women's, even allowing for
the difference in height. So, too, there is a uniform increase of
cubic capacity from the skulls of the Australians (75 cubic
centimetres) up to the Teutons (93.5 cubic centimetres).[14] The same
authority gives the average weight of brain in a number of
brachycephalic individuals as 1,314 grammes, as against 1,287 grammes
for dolichocephalic cases.[15] Professor Pearson points out that the
higher the caste in India the broader the skull, the Brahmans being
highest, with an index of 78.86, according to the measurements of
Risley. The same writer gives a long list (page 290) of the indexes of
skulls of some thirty-seven races, ranging from Australians at the
bottom of the list, with 70.34, and headed by mediæval Jews (only
twelve skulls), with an index of 84.74. Every indication seems to
point out that in races where progress depends upon brain rather than
muscle the brain-box broadens out as a natural consequence. Little
investigation has as yet been made as to the influence of brain
development on the form of the skull, but what little has been done
all points in the same direction. Dr. Giulio Chiarugi[16] has made
some careful measurements of twenty-one brains, and has shown that in
every instance there is much greater complexity of the cerebral
convolutions in the brachycephalic as compared with the
dolichocephalic skulls, in which the brains were contained. From the
nature of the sutures of the skull it is tolerably obvious that if
brain capacity produces an enlargement of brain, the consequent
internal pressure on the skull will be lateral and tend to produce
brachycephalism. The application of all this to the case of Jews seems
obvious. If they had been forced by persecution to become mainly
blacksmiths, one would not have been surprised to find their biceps
larger than those of other folk; and similarly, as they have been
forced to live by the exercise of their brains, one should not be
surprised to find the cubic capacity of their skulls larger than that
of their neighbors. When it is remembered that they are, owing to
their persecutions, the shortest of all European folk, their relative
superiority in brain comes out even more strikingly.
[Footnote 14: Topinard, Éléments d'Anthropologie, 1885, p. 612.]
[Footnote 15: Ibid., p. 568.]
[Footnote 16: La Forma del Cervello umano e le variazioni
correlative del Cranio, Siena, 1886.]
The conclusion I have thus drawn from anthropological data receives
remarkable confirmation from the results of an inquiry I made on the
Comparative Distribution of Jewish Ability, and contributed to the
Anthropological Institute in 1886. Applying the methods of Galton, I
compared the celebrities produced by the Jewish race during the last
hundred years with those of Englishmen and Scotchmen, and came to the
conclusion that the race, as a whole, took rank between Scotchmen and
Englishmen in intellectual capacity, while if the comparison had been
confined to western Jews, who alone have had an opportunity of
displaying their talents, they would have come out superior to both.
From the anthropological side we should expect that the
brachycephalism of Jews would show itself in superior mental capacity,
and this is confirmed by the number of distinguished persons of Jewish
blood recorded in the European dictionaries of biography.
The anthropological and sociological importance of this result, if
confirmed by further inquiry, seems to me of very great significance
for the science of anthropology, and for this reason I have insisted
so much upon it. Skull capacity and cephalic index are not so much
indications of race as of intellect. If it is found that, as a rule,
each race, and even each people, tends to have a uniform cephalic
index, that would merely imply that the sociological c
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