representatives of the papal hierarchy naturally disturbed the
equanimity of the most intelligent Catholics, especially in Germany,
and caused them to sound a note of alarm. How is it possible, they
asked themselves, for a large body of educated men, claiming to be
the spiritual guides of the people, to become the victims of so plump
an imposition? Is it not due to radical defects in the development
and discipline of the intellectual faculties? Nearly a century ago
Madame de Staël remarked that “since the Reformation the Protestant
universities stand unquestionably higher than the Catholic, and the
whole literary fame of Germany emanates from these institutions”;
and this opinion has been quoted and indorsed by the unimpeachable
authority of an eminent Catholic theologian, the late Professor
Döllinger.[J] Recently another Catholic, Dr. Hermann Schell, Professor
of Apologetics in the University of Würzburg, has called attention to
the latest statistics of religious denominations in Germany, showing
the inferiority of Catholics, as indicated by their comparative lack
of interest in higher education and the smaller percentage of them in
the learned professions.[K] In this connection he refers to Taxil’s
successful exposure of the intellectual deficiencies, which render
the hierophants of Roman Catholicism incapable of resisting the most
palpable delusions of superstition. His two “tracts for the times,”
as they might fitly be termed, _Der Katholicismus als Princip des
Fortschritts_ and _Die neue Zeit und der alte Glaube_, maintain that
Catholicism should be progressive, and that the old faith can remain
a living force in each new era only by adapting itself to every real
advance of mankind in knowledge and thus becoming reanimated by the
spirit of the age. Professor Schell expresses his sympathy with the
movement in favor of greater freedom of thought and independence of
research, known as “Americanism” in the Catholic Church, and regards
its extension to the Old World as a vital necessity.[L]
[J] _Cf._ Ignaz von Döllinger. Sein Leben auf Grund seines
schriftlichen Nachlasses dargestellt von J. Friedrich.
München: Beck, 1899, vol. i, p. 77.
[K] In confirmation of this statement we may cite the
statistical tables of Dr. Von Mayr for 1896, giving the
number in every ten thousand of the different denominations
attending the gymnasia or classical schools, the scientific
schools with Latin, and the scientific schools without
Latin:
Protestants 27.7 13.2 12.5
Catholics 21.4 3.8 6.7
Dissidents 17.7 13.2 18.7
Jews 173.7 65.8 92.7
The Catholic students in the gymnasia are mostly candidates
for the priesthood. “Dissidents” are members of free
religious associations. A noteworthy feature is the large
proportion of Jews, and curiously enough this laudable
characteristic is made by anti-Semitic agitators a ground
of crimination and used to prejudice the public mind. Not
long since a demagogue of that ilk in Berlin charged the
Jews with putting forth every effort for the education
of their sons, in order that they might more effectually
compete with Christians; “therefore down with the Jews!”
[L] Since these lines were written Professor Schell has been
disciplined and threatened with excommunication by the
See of Rome. We regret to be obliged to add that he did
not have the courage to maintain his opinions, but made a
public recantation of them. The cause of progress in the
Catholic Church has now found a new and apparently more
fearless advocate in a Bavarian priest, Dr. Müller, of
Munich, whose pamphlet on Reformkatholizismus can hardly
escape the interdict of the papal hierarchy.
It is creditable to the Catholic prelates in the United States that
they were not among the foolish birds caught with the lime laid by Leo
Taxil. Indeed, the Bishop of Charleston went to Rome for the express
purpose of warning Leo XIII against this trickster, but was sharply
reprehended and admonished to be silent. A similar rebuke was given to
the Apostolic Vicar of Gibraltar for denying the existence there of
Tubal-Cain’s subterranean laboratory for manufacturing microbes.
The _Breviarium Romanum_, the daily use of which, as a manual of
devotion and edification, is enjoined by the Pope on the clergy, is
full of legends which are recorded as historical facts, and quite equal
in absurdity to Taxil’s most extravagant and fantastic inventions. The
tales there told of the miracles wrought by saints, their communion
with angels, and their combats with devils may have easily suggested
many incidents narrated in The Devil in the Nineteenth Century and
the Memoirs of Diana Vaughan. It is no wonder that minds accustomed
to accept the marvels of hagiology as actual events should be readily
deceived by a clever caricature of them, especially when appealing to a
prejudice so absurd and yet so strong as that entertained by the papacy
against Freemasonry. It would seem from many indications that the
Romish Church, as an ecclesiastical organization, bears about the same
relation to contemporary culture that Roman paganism did to the best
thought of the period when Lucian wrote his sprightly dialogues and
Lucretius his genial and comprehensive didactic poem _De Rerum Natura_.
Is it doomed to the same fate, or has it, as Professor Schell and Dr.
Müller assert, a saving, recuperative power?
* * * * *
Of the geological age of the building stones used in the United
States, George P. Merrill observes, in his report to the Maryland
Geological Survey, that few stones are used to any extent that are
of later date than the Triassic, and few, if any, of our marbles
are younger than the Silurian, while nearly all our granites, as
now quarried, belong at least to Palæozoic or Archæan times. Stones
of later age than Triassic are, so far as relates to the eastern
United States, so friable or so poor in color as to have little
value.
GENUINE STARCH FACTORIES.
BY BYRON D. HALSTED, SC. D.,
RUTGERS COLLEGE.
Much in this world is neither upon first nor last analysis true to
name. From the corner grocery we buy a pound of starch in a rectangular
package highly decorated with lithograph and lettering, setting
forth the excellences of the product, “superior to all others,” and
manufactured, with the utmost care, by Messrs. So-and-So. The fact is
that the big seven-story establishment did not make a grain of the
starch, and the best that can be claimed is a satisfactory method
of bringing the product already formed into the present acceptable
condition.
But it is not the purpose of this paper to decry the refineries,
whether they be of starch, sugar, or this or that of a hundred natural
products, but to direct attention to the source of that very common
and, it may be safely said, indispensable substance known to the
English-speaking people as starch.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--STARCH GRANULES OF THE POTATO.]
It will be no new surprise to state, by way of introduction to the
subject, that starch is the ordinary everyday product of ordinary
everyday plants. So humble a vegetable as the potato has gained its way
into all lands of the more civilized peoples almost solely because it
has a habit of storing away, in large underground stems, a vast amount
of starch. Let this provident tendency disappear in this plant for a
single season, and the crop growers would discard it from their list of
remunerative plants, while millions of people would turn with dismay to
some other source of a daily supply of starch. What this change in the
nature of a single kind of plant would mean to the human race words can
not describe. If the famine in Ireland of 1845 and some later years,
induced by a rot in the potato, is any index, the misery would be
something worse than we should care to even dream of. When there is a
shortage of starch in India, a distress follows that is felt through
the bonds of sympathy, if in no other way, the whole world round. Let
rice fail to mature its grain, which means, in short, not to store its
starch in available form for man, and the dependent race is brought
to the ghostly condition of starvation and thrown upon the charity
of those people whose starch is in their grain elevators, sacks, and
barrels almost without number.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--STARCH GRANULES OF CORN.]
Starch, it would seem from this, is the prime food element of the
human family, the chief factor in the upbuilding of a race, because a
fundamental aliment of our bodies.
If the starch factories do not make, in the true sense, the product of
their mills, it may be to the point to consider how this all-important
substance comes into existence. The organic chemist tells us that
starch is a ternary compound, and this agrees closely with the
definition laid down by the dictionaries, only they add that it is
odorless, tasteless, and insoluble in water. It is one of the proximate
principles of plants, and is stored in the form of granules wonderfully
variable in size and shape, but each kind having a type that is adhered
to with much regularity. For example, the ordinary potato (_Solanum
tuberosum_ L.) produces a starch granule that is characterized by
a form resembling the shell of the oyster. Fig. 1 is from a camera
drawing of a cell from the center of a potato, with portions of
adjoining cells, all of which were packed full of starch, a few grains
only being represented.
Starch is acted upon differently by reagents, one of the leading tests
for it being a solution of iodine. A drop of a very weak solution will
determine the presence of starch in a cuff or shirt front by leaving
a blue spot or streak where the iodine has been applied. By means of
this reagent the student of plant tissues is readily able to locate
starch when present in any slice of tissue he may have made. He would,
for example, find much more starch in the tuber of the potato than in
any other portion of the plant, and there the grains will be found many
times larger than in the stem or the cells of the green leaves. Of the
relation of the starch in the leaves to that in the underground stem
something may be said later in this paper.
In the corn plant the starch is stored chiefly in the grain, and not in
the subterranean portions, as in the potato. The granules of the corn
starch are much smaller than those of the potato, as indicated by Fig.
2, which is from a camera drawing of a cell from a grain of corn and
made to the same scale as Fig. 1. The granules are oval and not much
marked with striæ or lines, but chemically the substance is the same in
both cases.
Another leading starch is that of wheat, the form of the grains of
which is shown in Fig. 3. While somewhat larger than the corn-starch
granules, they are not otherwise widely different.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--STARCH GRANULES OF WHEAT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--STARCH GRANULES OF RICE.]
One could scarcely overlook the starch produced by the rice plant, for
it feeds more people than the potato, corn, or wheat. The relative size
and form of the rice-starch granules are shown in Fig. 4. It is seen
that the grains are not large, and with a strong tendency to break up
into small angular pieces.
There are almost as many forms of starch as plants producing it,
some of them being very odd in shape. Thus the tapioca starch has a
characteristic form, as also the sago; but it is not the purpose here
to more than call attention to the form in which the substance under
consideration is laid down in plants. The student of food adulterations
is an expert in the detection of starches, and, with his microscope and
skill, is able to decide how much of one kind of starch and how much of
another is offered in the product under examination. It is a matter of
congratulation that Nature has set herself so strongly against fraud
in food stuffs as to record the origin of each grain of starch in the
grain itself.
And that brings us to a consideration of that origin. We must accord
to plants the exalted prerogative of being the exclusive and universal
starch-formers in the world. Whether we note the growth of the potato
tubers or the plumping out of the grains of corn, wheat, or rice, the
same fact remains that storehouses are being filled with the same
organic compound. There must be many preliminary steps before this
process of storing is complete, and for these we need to seek elsewhere
in the growing plant.
Even the most careless observer can not but be at home with the fact
that the whole port and bearing of ordinary plants is for sun exposure.
They rise from the ground as closely placed stems of grass or less
neighborly orchard or forest trees, and hang out their leaves to catch
the sun. The economy of substance is so well studied that there is a
very large exposure at a minimum of expenditure of tissue. In short,
the leaves are the organs for association with the sunlight. They
reach toward the sun where light is scanty, as in the window, and even
turn their faces to the orb of day, shifting the position hour by hour
from sunrise to nightfall. The rapidity with which we come to the
fundamental fact that leaves are for the sun almost surprises one. The
purpose is as easily inferred, but the steps in the process are not so
quickly taken. The facts that leaves are _par excellence_ the starch
factories and the sunlight the inobtrusive chemist are granted, and it
remains only to show something of the steps of proof that science may
have discovered.
We need, therefore, to consider starch from the standpoint of its
composition, and upon this the chemists are fairly well agreed. It
consists of three elements, with their atoms so arranged that the
molecule of starch has the composition of six parts of carbon, ten
of hydrogen, and five of oxygen, or, to express the formula in terse
chemical terms, it stands C₆H₁₀O₅. If we can account for the bringing
of these atoms together in the production of a single molecule of
starch the laboratory has been explored and the secret is ours, even if
we can not put it to practical use in our so-called “starch factories.”
The independent plant, beyond serious question, gets its food from
outside itself. There are two sources for these substances--namely, the
soil-water bathing the absorbing roots, and the atmosphere, with which
the aërial branches and their leaves are constantly surrounded. From
the soil come the water and all the salts, ash constituents, and the
like that may be dissolved therein, while the gases of the atmosphere
bring, among its chief contributions, a constant and, in an always
exceedingly diluted form, the carbon dioxide, or, sometimes called,
the carbonic-acid gas. This compound, familiar to us as a product of
combustion, fermentation, and decay, is composed of carbon and oxygen,
and has the symbol CO₂ associated with it by chemists.
In short, for the formation of our starch the water (H₂O) from the
soil and the CO₂ of the atmosphere, when brought together, may be made
to combine with the formation of starch. A single diagram, while not
perhaps an absolute statement of fact, may serve to represent the final
result:
{6CO₂
{ = C₆H₁₀O₅ + 12O.
{5H₂O
In other words, the six molecules of carbon dioxide and five of water
combine with the formation of one molecule of starch and the liberation
of twelve atoms of oxygen.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--DIAGRAMMATIC VIEW OF THE PROCESS OF
PHOTO-SYNTHESIS.]
This driving off of such a large amount of oxygen, entirely against the
whole tendency of that element, it is assumed, is at the expenditure
of much force. The only one adequate to this work is solar energy, and
this is abundantly at hand. That we need not seek further for this
power is proved by many and conclusive tests. Vegetable physiologists
to-day are able not only to locate the sun as the chemist, that
effects the changes necessary for the production of starch, but can
show in what cells and portions of those cells the forces effect
the synthesis. The chlorophyll granules in the living cell are the
microscopic laboratories in which a silent chemist, powerful beyond all
measurements, builds out of inorganic materials the food substance of
the whole world of animals and plants.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--PORTION OF LEAF MAGNIFIED, ILLUSTRATING
PHOTO-SYNTHESIS.]
Fig. 5 is an attempt to present the above statements as to
photo-synthesis in plants in such a form that it may appeal to the eye
of the reader. A bit of maple twig is shown with one leaf in position.
Passing up the stem in the young wood is the crude sap from the soil
to the leaf. There is a downward flow of elaborated sap in the inner
bark also represented. Solar energy is indicated by the wave lines as
playing upon the upper side of the leaf, while the direction of the
carbon dioxide is shown by the dotted lines entering from both above
and below the leaf. Water of transportation is indicated as being
given off, and upon a dry, hot day this is considerable, which, as it
vaporizes in the tissue, tends to keep the latter cool. Lastly, with
the formation of starch there is the escape of oxygen set free from the
broken molecule of carbon dioxide or water or both in the formation of
the starch.
Fig. 6 is a similar attempt to show the process of starch formation
with the use of a portion of the leaf in section as it might appear
under the microscope. The under portion of the leaf is seen as having
openings in the skin, through which the gases and vapors pass, and the
middle portion above shows the porous nature of that part that is most
active in synthesis. The small oval bodies in all the cells, except
those of the upper and under epidermis, represent the chlorophyll
granules, the special seat of the special activities which result in
the formation of the carbohydrate, familiar to all as starch. To the
right is a leaf vein, through which the crude sap (_c. s._) reaches the
synthetic cells, and the elaborated sap (_e. s._) descends to places
where it is needed for growth or for storage.
With the above facts in mind, there is no wonder at the activity that
may reside in a field of corn during a bright day in August. Starch is
being made almost by the ton daily, and, if the conditions favor, the
next month will find a rich harvest for the husbandman who has assisted
in supplying the conditions for the desired output of the leading
carbohydrate.
The genuine starch factories of the world are exceedingly small and
equally numerous, and, with the sunlight as the active force, each
green cell may contribute to the world’s gain in the food substances
that enable all creatures to live and move and enjoy a fairly
comfortable existence.
TRADE CORPORATIONS IN CHINA.
BY M. MAURICE COURANT.
The remarkable longevity of a large number of business houses in China
is not due solely to the general conditions of society or to those
which are peculiar to the commercial class, but their stability and
their fame rest upon a special organization, under which they are
united in groups. It is customary for all the houses possessing the
same specialty to form an association which I shall call a corporation,
reserving to myself the privilege of pointing out a few exceptions to
the rule. These corporations, which seem to date from at least three
centuries back, are difficult subjects to study. Various in type,
formed by the individuals interested, without the state having had
anything to do with their regulations or even perhaps authorized them,
they exist by force of custom and live conformably to their traditions,
while some, I have been told, have written regulations and even,
perhaps, archives--which they have not thought fit to communicate to
the public. What is to be learned of them has, therefore, to be deduced
from their visible transactions.
The corporation fixes the minimum price of articles of sale, and has
secret agents to watch that no house takes less, thereby setting bounds
to competition and preventing the injurious depreciation of goods.
Only the public suffers from the existence of the minimum, but it does
not seem to perceive it, and the Government never interferes except in
respect to the price of grain, for which it fixes a maximum, and in
times of great stress sells from its own granaries. The corporation,
too, as represented in the banks and loan offices, fixes the rates of
interest to be paid or received, and the kinds of securities and moneys
that shall be accepted. In short, it adjusts the general regulations
of business transactions, and defends the common interests of all
those associated in it. If one of them is implicated in a judicial
proceeding of general interest the corporation sustains him with
its credit and its funds. It further takes in hand injuries to the
interests of its associates. In 1883 the tea merchants’ corporation of
Hankow suspecting frauds by the agents of certain foreign houses, asked
those houses to designate themselves some foreigner to superintend
the weighings. Notwithstanding the good reputation of the corporation
and the moderation of its requests, the foreign houses refused. All
transactions were suspended, and the official in authority declared
that he could not compel the merchants to sell contrary to their wish,
and the foreign houses were eventually obliged to yield, one at a time.
The corporations likewise watch the transactions of their members,
oppose fraud which might harm the good name of the association so far
that the silversmiths will not permit one of their number to sell
alloyed jewelry, even when the purchaser knows it is such. Some see
that the taxes and duties on production are regularly and properly
paid. Others, in the interest of the stability of the houses, forbid
all fictitious sales and purchases, and most of the stock operations
and a large number of commercial transactions which seem very
simple to us would not be tolerated by them. The custom of selling
short having been introduced upon the silver exchange in Peking a
few years ago, a censor reported it as a kind of gambling, and the
Government interdicted the operation--a very rare example of official
intervention. Under a similar old-fashioned view, the corporation of
bankers inquires into the total amount of the notes issued by its
members. Every banker and every broker is free to issue notes, and
little attention is paid to the precautions required by the law. But
the corporation has an infallible means of restricting extravagance in
the emission of bills. If a house is going so fast as to be in danger
of compromising its credit and perhaps endangering the capital of
others associated with it, an order is given, all the notes are thrown
before the public, and the imprudent bank has to suspend its payments
and retire.
The corporation further maintains its reputation and keeps on good
terms with public powers by expenditures on ceremonials and charities.
Every year it appropriates a sum for the opening of the kitchens from
which rice and millet broths are distributed to the poor of Peking.
In case of famine or inundation, the quotas of the corporations do
not have to be waited for, while the more prominent commercial men
also contribute largely under their own names. They will subscribe
for a testimonial to a mandarin who has done good service, will help
prepare the road over which an imperial procession is to pass, and will
contribute to the pageantry of popular religious ceremonials.
Each corporation has its patron divinity, who is the object of a
special cult. With one it is the god of riches; with another Koan Yu,
god of war; with others a spirit of more limited competency, like
Lou Pan, a famous mechanician of the time of Confucius, now patron of
the carpenters. Adored in every shop by all the patrons and clerks,
the festivals of the protecting genius are celebrated by the whole
corporation at fixed dates. To some divinities a sacrifice of meats and
incense is offered in each warehouse, after which all the chiefs and
the men employed take part, while the spirit is supposed to be present.
To others, more rarely, a more bountiful sacrifice is made in a temple,
and the banquet, held in a large hall, is enlivened by dramatic
entertainments. The patron is also duly honored in the celebration of
the general feasts of the Chinese people.