methods. Any education is bad which leads to the formation of
habits of idleness, carelessness, failure, instead of habits of
industry, thoroughness and success. Any religious or social
institution is bad which leads to habits of pious make-believe,
insincerity, slavish regard for authority and disregard for
evidence, instead of habits of sincerity, open-mindedness and
independence....”
“All that man now is he has come to be without conscious human
guidance. If evolution has progressed from the am[oe]ba to man
without human interference, if the great progress from ape-like
men to the most highly civilized races has taken place without
conscious human control, the question may well be asked: Is it
possible to improve on the natural method of evolution? It may not
be possible to improve on the method of evolution and yet by
intelligent action it may be possible to facilitate that method.
_Man can not change a single law of nature but he can put himself
into such relations to natural laws that he can profit by them._”
Conklin.
This proves the great importance of KNOWING THE NATURAL LAWS for the human
class of life, and making natural time-binding impulses conscious, for
then only will the spiral give a logarithmical accumulation of the right
kind, otherwise the biolyte will be “animal” in substance as well as in
effect. Here it is immaterial how the first “time-binder” was produced;
the fact that he is of another dimension is of the greatest importance.
“From sands to stars, from the immensity of the universe to the
minuteness of the electron, in living things no less than in
lifeless ones, science recognizes everywhere the inevitable
sequence of cause and effect, the universality of natural
processes, the reign of natural law. _Man also is a part of
Nature, a part of the great mechanism of the_ universe, and all
that he is and _does is limited and prescribed by laws of nature_.
Every human being comes into existence by a process of
development, every step of which is determined by antecedent
causes.... Our anatomical, physiological, psychological
possibilities were predetermined in the _germ cells_ from which we
came....” Conklin.
This shows the importance of keeping the study of humans in their own
dimensionality, and also the importance of finding the IMPERSONAL NATURAL
LAWS for the human class of life. Now it can be realized that all the
so-called human ideals are none else than the ever growing fulfillment of
the NATURAL “TIME-BINDING” LAWS. This understanding will enable man to
discover new “time-binding” laws for their conduct, their business
relations, their state, which will not be a contradiction of the real,
NATURAL LAWS but will be in accord with them; then and only then human
progress will have a chance to develop peacefully.
“Adult characteristics are potential and not actual in the germ,
and their actual appearance depends upon many complicated
reactions of the germinal units with one another and with the
environment. In short, our actual personalities are not
predetermined in the germ cells, but our possible personalities
are.... The influence of environment upon the minds and morals of
men is especially great. To a large extent our habits, words,
thoughts; our aspirations, ideals, satisfactions; our
responsibility, morality, religion are the results of the
environment and education of our early years....”
“Owing to this vastly greater power of memory, reflection and
inhibition man is much freer than any other animal. Animals which
learn little from experience have little freedom and the more they
learn the freer they become....” Conklin.
It may be added here that the “spiral theory” explains how our reactions
can be accelerated and elaborated by ourselves, and how truly we are the
masters of our destinies.
“Because we can find no place in our philosophy and logic for self
determination shall we cease to be scientists and close our eyes
to the evidence? The first duty of science is to appeal to fact
and to settle later with logic and philosophy....” Conklin.
There will be no difficulty in the settlement of facts with the new
philosophy of “Human Engineering.”
“The analysis of instinct from a purely physiological point of
view ultimately furnishes the data for a scientific ethics. Human
happiness is based upon the possibility of a natural and
harmonious satisfaction of the instincts.... It is rather
remarkable that we should still be under the influence of an
ethics which considers the human instincts in themselves low and
their gratification vicious. That such an ethics must have had a
comforting effect upon the orientals, whose instincts were
inhibited or warped through the combined effects of an enervating
climate, despotism and miserable economic conditions is
intelligible, and it is perhaps due to a continuation of the
unsatisfactory economic conditions that this ethics still prevails
to some extent.... Lawyers, criminologists and philosophers
frequently imagine that only want makes man work. This is an
erroneous view. We are instinctively forced to be active in the
same way as ants or bees. The instinct of workmanship would be the
greatest source of happiness if it were not for the fact that our
present social and economic organization allows only a few to
satisfy this instinct. Robert Mayer has pointed out that any
successful display or setting free of energy is a source of
pleasure to us. This is the reason why the satisfaction of the
instinct of workmanship is of such importance in the economy of
life, for the play and learning of the child, as well as for the
scientists or commercial work of the man.... We can vary at will
the instincts of animals. A number of marine animals ... go away
from the light, can be forced to go to light in two ways, first by
lowering the temperature and second by increasing the
concentration of the sea water, whereby the cells of the animals
lose water. This instinct can be again reversed by raising the
temperature or by lowering the concentration of the sea water. I
have found repeatedly that by the same conditions by which
phenomena of growth and organization can be controlled the
instincts are controlled also. This indicates that there is a
common basis for both classes of life phenomena. This common base
is the physical and chemical character of the mixture of
substances which we call protoplasm.... _The greatest happiness in
life_ can be obtained only if _all instincts_, that of workmanship
included, can be maintained at a certain _optimal intensity_. But
while it is certain that the individual can ruin or diminish the
value of its life by a onesided development of its instincts,
e.g., dissipation, it is at the same time true that the _economic
and social conditions can ruin or diminish the value of life for a
great number of individuals_. It is no doubt true that in our
present social and economic conditions more than ninety per cent
of human beings lead an existence whose value is far below what it
should be. They are compelled by want to sacrifice a number of
instincts especially the most valuable among them, that of
workmanship, in order to save the lowest and most imperative, that
of eating. If those who amass immense fortunes could possibly
intensify their lives with their abundance, it might perhaps be
rational to let many suffer in order to have a few cases of true
happiness. But for an increase of happiness only that amount of
money is of service which can be used for the harmonious
development and satisfaction of inherited instincts. For this,
comparatively little is necessary. The rest is of no more use to a
man than the surplus of oxygen in the atmosphere. As a matter of
fact, the only true satisfaction a multimillionaire can possibly
get from increasing his fortunes, is the satisfaction of the
instinct of workmanship or the pleasure that is connected with a
successful display of energy. The scientist gets this satisfaction
without diminishing the value of life of his fellow being, and the
same should be true for the business man.... Although we recognize
no metaphysical free-will, we do not deny personal responsibility.
We can fill the memory of the young generation with such
associations as will prevent wrong doing or dissipation....
Cruelty in the penal code and the tendency to exaggerate
punishment are sure signs of a low civilization and of an
imperfect educational system.... It seems to me that we can no
more expect to unravel the mechanism of associative memory by
histological or morphological methods than we can expect to
unravel the dynamics of electrical phenomena by microscopic study
of cross-sections through a telegraph wire or by counting and
locating the telephone connections in a big city. If we are
anxious to develop a dynamic of the various life-phenomena, we
must remember that the colloidal substances are the machines which
produce the life phenomena, but the physics of these substances is
still a science of the future.... Physiology gives us no answer to
the latter question. The idea of specific energy has always been
regarded as the terminus for the investigation of the sense
organs. Mach expressed the opinion that chemical conditions lie at
the foundation of sensation in general....” _Comparative
Physiology of the Brain_, by Jacques Loeb.
Here it may be added that the “Instinct of Workmanship” in the animal
class, becomes in the time-binding class of life the instinct of
_creation_, and is nothing else than the expression of the natural impulse
of the “Time-binding” energy. In the present social and economic system
very few have a possibility to satisfy this instinct; scientific
management is or may be satisfying the animal instinct of workmanship, but
it is not satisfactory to the instinct of creation. “Time-binding” in its
last analysis is creation and only such a social and economic system as
will satisfy this want—this natural impulse—will satisfy Humans—the
“Time-binders”—and will bring about their fullest growth in work and
happiness.
“LAWS OF GROWTH” (from _Unified Mathematics_, by Louis C. Karpinski,
Ph.D.). “_Compound interest function_.—The function _S_ = _P_(1 + _i_)_n_
is of fundamental importance in other fields than in finance. Thus the
growth of timber of a large forest tract may be expressed as a function of
this kind, the assumption being that in a large tract the rate of growth
may be taken as uniform from year to year. In the case of bacteria growing
under ideal conditions in a culture, _i.e._ with unlimited food supplied,
the increase in the number of bacteria per second is proportional to the
number of bacteria present at the beginning of that second. Any function
in which the rate of change or rate of growth at any instant _t_ is
directly proportional to the value of the function at the instant _t_
obeys what has been termed the ‘law of organic growth,’ and may be
expressed by the equation,
_y = ce__kt_,
wherein _c_ and _k_ are constants determined by the physical facts
involved, and _e_ is a constant of nature analogous to π. The constant _k_
is the proportionality constant and is negative when the quantity in
question decreases; _c_ is commonly positive;
_e_ = 2.178....
“The values of the function of _x, ce__kx__, increase according to the
terms of a geometrical progression as the variable x increases in
arithmetical progression_....
“The most immediate application of a function in which the growth is
proportional to the function itself is to the air. The decrease in the
pressure of the air at the distance _h_ above the earth’s surface is
proportional to _h_.
“The expression _P = 760 e__-h/7990_ gives the numerical value of the
pressure in millimeters of mercury for _h_ measured in meters. The
negative exponent indicates that the pressure decreases as _h_ increases.
In inches as units of length of the mercury column, _h_ in feet,
_P = 29.92e__-h/26200_
This is known as Halley’s law.
“The growth of bean plants within limited intervals and the growth of
children, again between quite restricted limits, follow approximately the
law of organic growth. Radium in decomposing follows the same law; the
rate of decrease at any instant being proportional to the quantity. In the
case of vibrating bodies, like a pendulum, the rate of decrease of the
amplitude follows this law; similarly in the case of a noise dying down
and in certain electrical phenomena, the rate of decrease is proportional
at any instant to the value of the function at the instant....
“_The Curve of Healing of a Wound._—Closely allied to the formulas
expressing the law of organic growth, _y = e__kt_, and the law of ‘organic
decay,’ _y = e__-kt_, is a recently discovered law which connects
algebraically by an equation and graphically by a curve, the surface-area
of a wound, with time expressed in days, measured from the time when the
wound is aseptic or sterile. When this aseptic condition is reached, by
washing and flushing continually with antiseptic solutions, two
observations at an interval commonly of four days give the ‘index of the
individual,’ and this index, and the two measurements of area of the
wound-surface, enable the physician-scientist to determine the normal
progress of the wound-surface, the expected decrease in area, for this
wound-surface of this individual. The area of the wound is traced
carefully on transparent paper, and then computed by using a mathematical
machine, called a planimeter, which measures areas.
“The areas of the wound are plotted as ordinates with the respective times
of observation measured in days as abscissas. After each observation and
computation of area the point so obtained is plotted to the same axes as
the graph which gives the ideal or prophetic curve of healing.
“When the observed area is found markedly greater than that determined by
the ideal curve, the indication is that there is still infection in the
wound.... A rather surprising and unexplained situation occurs frequently
when the wound-surface heals more rapidly than the ideal curve would
indicate; in this event secondary ulcers develop which bring the curve
back to normal....
“This application of mathematics to medicine is largely due to Dr. Alexis
Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. He noted that the
larger the wound-surface, the more rapidly it healed, and that the rate of
healing seemed to be proportional to the area. This proportionality
constant is not the same for all values of the surface or we would have an
equation of the form,
_S = S__1__e__-kt_
in which _S_, is the area at the time that the wound is rendered sterile
and observations to be plotted really begin....
“The data given are taken from the Journal of Experimental Medicine,
reprints kindly furnished by Major George A. Stewart of the Rockefeller
Institute. The diagrams are reproduced from the issue of Feb. 1, 1918, pp.
171 and 172, article by Dr. T. Tuffier and R. Desmarres, Auxiliary
Hospital 75, Paris....
[ A graph, showing the progress of healing of a surface wound of the right
leg of a 31-year-old patient. It shows that as time passes, the wounded
area decreases. ]
Progress of healing of a surface wound of the right leg, patient’s age 31
years.
“WAVE MOTION. General.—In nature there are two types of recurrent motion,
somewhat closely connected mathematically, in which repetition of motion
occurs at regular intervals.
“One type of this motion, in cycles as we may say, repeats the motion in
one place, and is in a sense stationary. The tuning fork in motion moves
through the same space again and again; a similar movement is the motion
of a vibrating string. Of this stationary type may be mentioned the
heartbeats, the pulse, the respiration, the tides, and the rotation of a
wheel about its axis.
“The second type of recurrent motion transmits or carries the vibratory
impulse over an extent of space as well as time. The waves of the sea are
of this character. Sound waves, electrical vibrations or waves, and
radiant energy vibrations are transmitted by a process similar to that by
which the waves of the sea are carried.
“Both of these types of motion are representable mathematically by
equations involving a sequence of trigonometric functions. To the
fundamental and basic function involved, _y_ = sin _x_, we will direct our
attention in the next section and to simple applications in other sections
of this chapter....
“Sound Waves.—If a tuning fork for note lower C is set to vibrating, the
free bar makes 129 complete, back-and-forth, vibrations in one second. By
attaching a fine point to the end of the bar and moving under this bar at
a uniform rate, as it vibrates, a smoke-blackened paper, a sinusoidal
curve is traced on the paper. Our curve is traced by a bar vibrating 50
times in 1 second.
[ A graph, showing a wavy line. “Tuning fork vibrations recorded on smoked
paper.” ]
Tuning fork vibrations recorded on smoked paper.
“Corresponding to each movement of the vibrating rod there is a movement
of the air. As the bar moves to the right it compresses the layer of air
to its right and that _compression_ is immediately communicated to the
layer of air to the right; as the bar moves back and to the left, the
pressure on the adjacent air is released and a _rarefaction_ takes place.
In 1/50 of 1 second you have the air adjacent to the rod _compressed_,
back to normal, and _rarefied_; during this time the neighboring air is
affected and the compression is communicated a distance which is the _wave
length_ of this given sound wave. In 1 second this disturbance is
transmitted 1100 feet at 44° Fahrenheit. The wave length for this sound
wave then is 1100/50 = 22 feet.
“The wave length is commonly designated by λ. If _V_ is the velocity, and
_t_ the time of one vibration, λ = _Vt_.”
[ A graph, showing five wavy lines, labeled “a”, “ou”, “r”, “E”, and “a”.
“Vibration records produced by the voice: ‘a’ as in ‘ate’; ‘ou’ as in
‘about’; ‘r’ in ‘relay’; ‘e’ in ‘be’; and ‘a’ in ‘father’. The tuning fork
record, frequency 50 per second, gives the vibration frequencies.” ]
“Vibration records produced by the voice: ‘a’ as in ‘ate’; ‘ou’ as in
‘about’; ‘r’ in ‘relay’; ‘e’ in ‘be’; and ‘a’ in ‘father’. The tuning fork
record, frequency 50 per second, gives the vibration frequencies.”
This last drawing may help to visualize the fact in what manner wrong
expressions and untrue teachings hamper the true progress of humanity.
Every word has its energy and produces some physico-chemical effects in
the time-binding apparatus in accord with the idea which we associate with
the sound of the word. If we teach ideas which are untrue, then the
physico-chemical effects produced are not proper—in other words the human
mind does NOT WORK PROPERLY, that is, it does not work _naturally_ or
_normally_ or true to the human dimension. There is every reason why the
standards in our civilization are so low, because we have “poisoned,” in a
literal sense of the word, our minds with the physico-chemical effects of
wrong ideas. This correct NATURAL APPROACH to the “Time-binding” energies
will make it obvious how unmeasured is the importance of the manner in
which we handle this subtle mechanism, as the poisoning with wrong ideas
or with careless or incorrect words does not in any way differ in
consequences from poisoning with any other stupor-producing or wrongly
stimulating poison.
Monographs on Experimental Biology and Physiology
LOEB, J.: “Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative
Psychology.” New York, 1900.
LOEB, J.: “Studies in General Physiology.” Chicago, 1905.
LOEB, J.: “The Dynamics of Living Matter.” New York, 1906.
LOEB, J.: “The Mechanistic Conception of Life.” Chicago, 1912.
Selection from contents: I. The Mechanistic Conception of Life. II. The
Significance of Tropisms for Psychology. III. Some Fundamental Facts and
Conceptions concerning the Comparative Physiology of the Central Nervous
System. IV. Pattern Adaptation of Fishes and the Mechanism of Vision. V.
On Some Facts and Principles of Physiological Morphology. VI. On the
Nature of the Process of Fertilization. VII. On the Nature of Formative
Stipulation (Artificial Parthenogenesis). VIII. The Prevention of the
Death of the Egg through the Act of Fertilization. IX. The Rôle of Salts
in the Preservation of Life. X. Experimental Study of the Influence of
Environment on Animals.
LOEB, J.: The Organism as a Whole. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. New York, 1916.
Selection from contents: I. Introductory Remarks. II. The Specific
Difference between Living and Dead Matter and the Question of the Origin
of Life. III. The Chemical Basis of Genus and Species: 1. The
Incompatibility of Species not Closely Related. 2. The Chemical basis of
Genus and Species and of Species Specificity. IV. Specificity in
Fertilization. V. Artificial Parthenogenesis. VI. Determinism in the
Formation of an Organism from an Egg. VII. Regeneration. VIII.
Determination of Sex, Secondary Sexual Characters and Sexual Instincts: 1.
The Cytological Basis of Sex Determination. 2. The Physiological Basis of
Sex Determination. IX. Mendelian Heredity and its Mechanism. X. Animal
Instincts and Tropisms. XI. The Influence of Environment. XII. Adaptation
to Environment. XIII. Evolution. XIV. Death and Dissolution of the
Organism.
LOEB, J.: “Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct.” J. B.
Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1918.
Selection from contents: I. Introduction. II. The Symmetry Relations of
the Animal Body as the Starting Point for the Theory of Animal Conduct.
III. Forced Movements. IV. Galvanotropism. V. Heliotropism. The Influence
of One Source of Light. 1. General Facts. 2. Direct Proof of the Muscle
Tension Theory of Heliotropism in Motile Animals. 3. Heliotropism of
Unicellular Organisms. 4. Heliotropism of Sessile Animals. VI. An
Artificial Heliotropic Machine. VII. Asymmetrical Animals. VIII. Two
Sources of Light of Different Intensity. IX. The Validity of the
Bunsen-Roscoe Law for the Heliotropic Reactions of Animals and Plants. X.
The Effect of Rapid Changes in Intensity of Light. XI. The Relative
Heliotropic Efficiency of Light of Different Wave Lengths. XII. Change in
the Sense of Heliotropism. XIII. Geotropism. XIV. Forced Movements Caused
by Moving Retina Images: Rheotropism: Anemotropism. XV. Stereotropism.
XVI. Chemotropism. XVII. Thermotropism. XVIII. Instincts. XIX. Memory
Images and Tropisms.
A list of _554 books on this subject_, in which any reader interested will
find a vast storehouse of exact knowledge in this line. Author.
CONKLIN, EDWIN GRANT: “Heredity and Environment in the Development of
Men.” Princeton University Press, 1915.
Selection from contents: I. Facts and Factors of Development.
Introduction. A. Phenomena of Development. B. Factors of Development. II.
Cellular Basis of Heredity and Development. A. Introductory. B. The Germ
Cells. C. The Mechanism of Heredity. D. The Mechanism of Development. III.
Phenomena of Inheritance. A. Observations on Inheritance. B. Statistical
Study of Inheritance. C. Experimental Study of Inheritance. IV. Influence
of Environment. A. Relative Importance of Heredity and Environment. B.
Experimental Modifications of Development. C. Functional Activity as a
Factor of Development. D. Inheritance or Non-inheritance of Acquired
Characters. E. Applications to Human Development: Euthenics. V. Control of
Heredity: Eugenics. A. Domesticated Animals and Cultivated Plants. B.
Control of Human Heredity. VI. Genetics and Ethics.
Glossary of books on this subject; for those who desire to be more
fully acquainted with the subjects of heredity and development.
Author.
MORGAN, T. H., “Physical Basis of Heredity.”
EAST, E. M., and JONES, D. F., “Inbreeding and Outbreeding,” etc.
PARKER, G. H., “The Elementary Nervous System.”
HARVEY, E. N., “The Nature of Animal Light.”
Appendix III. Engineering And Time-Binding
The Arts of Engineering, by their very nature, are derived from the work
of dead men and destined to serve not only the present but the future.
They are freer than any other human activity from the errors of
intermixing dimensions and from the fallacy of belief in individualistic
accomplishment and pride. The simple steel structure of a bridge, familiar
to us in every day life, is a clear reminder to us all of the arts of
Hephæstus and the bound-up knowledge of countless generations of smiths
and mechanics, metallurgists and chemists, mathematicians and builders,
teachers and engineers who toiled for many thousands of years to make
possible the riveted steel beams which are the elements of modern
structure. These structures do not collapse unless the natural laws for
their construction are transgressed; which seldom happens—for no one is
entrusted with the work unless he has bound up in his knowledge the
accumulated experience of the past; yet the transgressors of these natural
laws are punished with all the severity of the common law. When a bridge
is opened and tested, the written laws in some countries and the unwritten
in others, and the pride and the sense of responsibility of the designer
and builder of the bridge demand that he, the creator of the bridge, be
the first to enter it and the last to leave it; and should the bridge
collapse, he has to take the immediate consequences of his neglect of the
time-binding laws.
Rarely are the affairs of engineering done with the entirely selfish
motive of merely acquiring immediate selfish gain, for even when this
could be traced—this unworthy thought disappears in the halo of the glory
of the accomplishment. Mr. Eiffel did not erect his tower to haunt Paris
with the sight of a steel skeleton towering over the city of daring
thoughts. His tower stands to-day as a mechanical proof of mathematical
formulas proving the possibility of erecting tall, self-supporting
structures and thereby serving future humanity. The Time-binding capacity
of humans creates and formulates new values for the service of mankind.
Again, no student of the Arts of Engineering could ever forget himself to
the point of claiming his accomplishments, no matter how marvelous, all to
himself. No wondrous discovery of modern electricity, not even the talking
from one hemisphere to another, is rightly the accomplishment of any one
man, for the origin of the discovery can be traced at least as far back as
the days of that barefooted shepherd boy Magnus, who first observed the
phenomena of magnetism.
In an attempt to trace and evaluate the time-binding faculties manifested
in the Arts of Engineering, one is at once astonished, and bewildered, at
the confusion and contradictions unrealized in the mass of evidence, and
how pathetic and deplorable is the sight of hundreds of thousands of
workers in the field of engineering toil and creation who unconsciously
submit to the degradation, in silent consent, of seeing their marvelous
collective achievements chained to space-binding aims.
Upon the completion of this book I was astonished that there are such a
small number of engineers who have the intuitive feeling of the greatness
of the assets at their command and of the gravity of their liabilities
concerning affairs of humanity. I was eager to have my book read and
analysed by a few leading engineers. The late H. L. Gantt being no more
with us, I then turned to Walter N. Polakov, Doctor of Engineering;
Industrial Counselor; Chairman of Committee on Service and Information,
Fuels Section, A.S.M.E., and Robert B. Wolf, Vice-President of A.S.M.E. In
them I found, to the full, a very sympathetic understanding and my esteem
grew as I became more intimately acquainted with the character of their
work and their accomplishments. Both have done a most remarkable work in
their respective lines. It will not be an exaggeration to say that their
work, together with the work of the late H. L. Gantt and Charles P.
Steinmetz, may be considered as the first—to my knowledge—corner-stones of
the science and art of Human Engineering, and form the first few volumes
and writings for the New Library of the Manhood of Humanity. These books
and pamphlets are based on facts analysed scientifically, marking the
parting of the way of engineering thought from the past subjection to
speculative fetishes.
Of all the pure and applied sciences, engineering alone has the
distinction of being the first to have the _correct_ insight into the
human problem. The task of engineers was to convert knowledge—brain
work—“bound-up time”—into daily bread by means of conserving time and
effort. This concept is naught else but the working out of the imperfect
formulation of the time-binding principle. It was inevitable, therefore,
that some engineers had already beaten the path in the right direction.
How straight and how far this sense of dimensionality has led some of them
in their practical work may be seen from the work of Walter N. Polakov, in
his _Mastering Power Production_, Engineering Magazine, N. Y., 1921.
“It was not my intention to compile a text book on power
engineering; it was rather my care to avoid the treatment of any
technical subject which could be found elsewhere in engineering
literature; but I could not avoid trespassing in the adjoining
fields of psychology and economics, for without familiarity with
these sciences the mastery of power production is a futile
attempt.
“I do not hold that the principles upon which the method is laid
out are subject to choice or opinions, for they are based on
facts. Yet work of this character cannot be complete, or examples
may be illy chosen, for it deals with living and constantly
reshaping relations and applies to things in process of
development.
“If this work and its underlying idea will facilitate the solving
of some of the problems now in the course of rapid evolution in
our industrial relations, I shall feel that my own and my readers’
time have not been altogether lost.”
Indeed the readers’ time will not be lost. This book gives an engineering,
scientific—in the meantime practical—analysis of all human problems. It is
a deep and practical treatise on all great questions concerning modern
industrialism and so-called economic problems and is a foundation for a
new scientific industrial philosophy. Another very clear outline of the
_Principles of Industrial Philosophy_ was given by Mr. Polakov in his
paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, December 7-10, 1920. Anyone who has anything to do
with industrial or economic problems cannot afford to overlook the
important and fundamental work in this book.
It is obvious that a scientific knowledge of facts, is of the greatest
importance for anyone who cares to approach any problem in a serious way.
Statistics which are up-to-date are therefore of primary importance. I had
the privilege of reading the manuscript of _Quo Vadis America_, the
forthcoming book of Mr. Polakov, where a most valuable statistical picture
of facts in modern America is given and the astonishing conclusions which
are to be drawn therefrom. I can only regret that in Europe we have not
such a knowledge written down concerning European conditions. If more such
books had been written and _read_ by the public, many crises and
catastrophes would have been avoided.
The outstanding contribution of Mr. Robert B. Wolf to engineering was made
in his study of physiology, biology, psychology and philosophy as applied
to engineering.
“If anyone wishes to inquire into the forces which have led up to
the individual development of mankind, he will find himself at
once plunged into the realm of psychology and mental philosophy. I
can heartily recommend such a course as immensely profitable and
of practical value.
“The five important facts, however, that have to do with the
subject in hand are:
“_1st._ That the human body is such a wonderful organization
because it is the product of the forces of creation, acting
through millions of years of evolution.
“_2nd._ That its capacity for progress depends upon the
maintenance of the unity resulting from this creative evolution
and upon a conscious recognition of this unity.
“_3d._ That this unity would not have been possible without the
development of the nervous system.
“_4th._ That the conscious intelligent progress made by mankind
could not have reached its present level until in the process of
evolution a mechanism had been built up in the nervous system
itself capable of recording the various impressions which the
senses are constantly receiving.
“_5th._ That the recording of past events, with the power of
consciously recalling them for the solution of problems
immediately confronting it, is absolutely essential to its
development.
“Now, what I want to point out is that inasmuch as man’s progress
depends upon the perfect co-ordination of his forces to produce
unity of action, we have no right to expect an industrial
organization to make progress which it must do as a unit without
the establishment of a conscious co-ordinating mechanism similar
to the nervous system in the human body.” _Individuality in
Industry._ By Robert B. Wolf.
Doctor Charles P. Steinmetz has given in his _America and the New Epoch_ a
most correct engineering picture of the political situation in the world,
with a fine characterization of the psychological peculiarities of the
different races. Although this book was written in 1916, that is, before
the end of the World War, it will be of permanent value; because of its
deep psychological analysis of the peoples and their institutions which
ultimately shape the development of any nation and which do not change
with victory or defeat.
“My tribute to the memory of Gantt will be, not only the homage of
a friend and admirer, but the proof that his philosophy is
scientifically true. A rigorous proof is necessary, because the
word ‘service’ belongs to that category of words, the meaning of
which can be completely reversed by the verb, be it ‘give’ or
‘take.’ Gantt took ‘rendering service’ as an axiom; my
observation, shared with many others, is that our civilization had
quite another axiom, ‘we preach give, we practice take.’ The
problem which interested me, was how to find a way out of this
contradiction that would be irrefutable. If one of them is true
and natural law for humans, then the other is not; if our words
are true, then our deeds are not true, or if our deeds are true
then the words are camouflage. I found the solution, by applying
mathematically rigorous thinking. Mathematics, with its exact
concept of dimensions, gave me the method. The method we use in
studying phenomena is analysis, or speaking mathematically,
differentiation. I soon found, that the methods of differentiation
are mostly correct, but our synthesis, or process of integration
made by the use of metaphysics was faulty. The differentiation
correctly lowered the dimensions, but our faulty integration did
not restore the original dimensions. The investigation had to be
made from the beginning, by defining the phenomena of life, in a
specific way, which would not permit of any blunders in
dimensions.
“I defined the classes of life by emphasizing their incontestable,
dimensional characteristics: plants are ‘Chemistry-binding,’
animals are ‘Space-binding,’ Humans are ‘Time-binding’ classes of
life.
“These definitions have the peculiarity that they make it obvious,
that: 1. The classes of life have different dimensions, and that
the intermixing of dimensions, as in mathematics it makes a
correct solution impossible, so in life, the results of such
elementary mistakes, produce tragic consequences.
“2. The old formula on which our civilization is built, HUMAN
equal ANIMAL plus or multiplied by SPARK OF DIVINITY is basically
and elementarily wrong, and is mathematical nonsense, which is
identical to such an absurdity as _x_ square inches equal _y_
linear inches plus or multiplied by _z_ cubic inches.
“3. A basically wrong formula on which our civilization rests, is
the cause of all the periodical collapses, wars and revolutions.
“4. The old system was built on animal ‘space-binding’ standards,
and human ‘time-binding’ impulses were, all the time, in
rebellion.
“5. As the theory of gravitation and the calculus made engineers
and mathematicians masters of inanimate nature, so these tangible
and incontestable definitions give them a positive base which will
enable them to approach and solve human living problems, by
establishing the mathematical fact that man is man, not an animal.
“6. All of those who are blinded by traditions and refuse to
investigate, or to know these mathematical truths, are a danger to
humanity in directly helping to obscure issues, and in helping to
maintain the faulty structure which, as in the past, is bound to
collapse again and again in the future.
“7. The duty of mathematically thinking people is to throw such
light on this problem as will stop the stupid, or willfully
destructive, and show whether they are working for, or against,
mankind.
“8. For the ‘time-binding’ class of life, it is obvious then that
in this dimension, ‘time-binding’ is the natural law, and, if
understood and analysed, it is the highest human aim.
“9. Such ‘natural laws’ as ‘survival of the fittest’ for animals,
which is the ‘survival of the fittest in space,’ result in fight,
or the survival of the strongest; whereas such a law to be a
NATURAL LAW FOR HUMANS, must be in the human dimension which
obviously would be the ‘Survival of the fittest in TIME,’
resulting in the survival of the best.
“10. All known facts must be brought to the light, to be summed
up, and correlated by mathematicians and engineers with the
strictest attention to dimensionality.
“11. All of our ideas have to be revised; the animal
‘space-binding’ standards must be rejected as dangerous and
destructive, must be replaced by ‘time-binding’ standards, which
will correspond to the natural impulses and NATURAL LAWS for
humans.
“12. The minds of mathematicians and engineers are by education
the first to see the far reaching importance of the facts
disclosed by these definitions, and just this realization will
bring about the readjustment of values in life to a human
dimension, wherein pending revolutions and wars could be turned
into evolution, destruction into construction, discord into accord
of a common aim.
“We are the masters of our own destinies, the responsibility is
ours to correct the mistakes of our ancestors and to establish a
scientific philosophy, scientifically true laws, scientifically
true ethics, and a scientific sociology, which will form one
unified science of man and his function in the universe, a science
which I propose to call ‘Human Engineering.’ Gantt’s methods would
be the first practical application toward this end.
“Gantt’s concept of rendering service is scientifically true
because it is ‘time-binding,’ and therefore true for the human
class of life and in human dimension. This is why Gantt’s concepts
have counted for so much and will survive ‘IN TIME.’ ” Discussion
by Alfred Korzybski of Mr. W. N. Polakov’s paper “Principles of
Industrial Philosophy” presented at the Annual Meeting of The
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, December 7-10,
1920.
LITERATURE
GANTT, H. L.:
“Work, Wages, and Profits.” The Engineering Magazine Co., 1913. N. Y.
“Industrial Leadership.” Yale University Press. 1916.
“Organizing for Work.” Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 1919. N. Y.
Selection from Contents: The Engineer as the Industrial Leader. Economics
and Democracy. Democracy in Production. Democracy in the Shop. Democracy
in Management. “The Religion of Democracy.”
POLAKOV, WALTER N.:
“Mastering Power Production.” The Engineering Magazine Co. 1921. N. Y.
Selection from Contents: The Descent of the Principle of Production for
Use. The Power Industry as an Economic Factor. Mastering Labor Problems.
(Conditions) Autonomous Co-operation. Aims of Labor. Right to be Lazy and
the Right to a Job. Qualification of Men. The Working Day. Fatigue.
UNIVERSAL LABOR (_Corresponding exactly to Time-binding—Author_). The
Position of an Engineer. Mastering Labor Problems. Compensation. The
Social Aspect. The Economic Aspect. The Basis of Wages. Incentive
Payments. Profit Sharing. Premium Places. Rewarding Individual Efforts.
Two-rate wages. Energy as a Commodity.
“Principles of Industrial Philosophy.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of
the A. S. of M. E., December, 1920.
“Equipment and Machinery.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.
“Organization and Management.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.
“Quo Vadis America?” In preparation.
STEINMETZ, CHARLES P.:
“America and the New Epoch.” Harper & Brothers. 1916. N. Y.
Selection from Contents: The Individualistic Era: From Competition to
Co-operation. England in the Individualistic Era. Germany in the
Individualistic Era. The Other European Nations in the Individualistic
Era. America in the Individualistic Era. Evolution: Industrial Government.
“Incentive and Initiative.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.
WOLF, ROBERT B.: Pamphlets.
“Individuality in Industry.” Bulletin of the Society to promote the
Science of Management. Vol. I. No. 4. August, 1915.
“The Creative Workman.” Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper
Industry. 1918. N. Y.
“Non-Financial Incentives.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the A. S.
of M. E. December, 1918. N. Y.
“Modern Industry and the Individual.” A. W. Shaw & Co. 1919. N. Y.
“Securing the Initiative of the Workman.” American Economic Association.
1919. N. Y.
“Creative Spirit in Industry.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.
MISCELLANEOUS LIST OF BOOKS
VON BERNHARDI, General F.: “Germany and the Next War.” E. Arnold, London.
1912.
BRANDEIS, LOUIS: “Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use it.” F. A.
Stokes, N. Y. 1914.
THOMAS FARROW and WALTER CROTCH: “The Coming Trade War.” Chapman & Hall,
London. 1916.
HUEFFER, FORD MADDOX: “When Blood is Their Argument.” Hodder & Stoughton.
1915. N. Y.
HAUSER, HENRY: “Germany’s Commercial Grip on the World, Her Business
Methods Explained.” E. Nash Co., London. 1917.
LAUGHLIN, J. L.: “Credit of the Nations.” Scribner’s Sons, N. Y. 1918.
MAETZU, RAMIRO DE: “Authority, Liberty and Function in the Light of War.”
Geo. Allen and Unwin.
DELAISI, FRANCIS: French Opinion, “The Inevitable War.” Small, Maynard &
Co., Boston. 1915.
NEILSON, FRANCIS: English Opinion, “How Diplomats Make War.” B. W.
Huebsch. 1916.
BY A GERMAN (German Opinion). “J’Accuse!” Hodder & Stoughton, London.
1915.
FOOTNOTES
1 To digress a bit, it may be interesting to add, that population and
the need of people increase in a geometrical progression; and also
that the growth of individuals is limited by the fact, that they
have to absorb their food through surfaces which as growth goes on
increase only as _squares_, while the bodies to be fed, being
volumes, increase in size as _cubes_ increase, as the cubes of the
same base grow faster than the squares,
22 = 4, 23 = 8, 32 = 9, 33 = 27, and so on,
it is obvious, that in the infancy of an organism only a part of the
food goes to maintain life, the larger part goes for growth; when
the organism becomes larger, the absorbing surfaces, growing
proportionally to the square, the food is spent to build the mass of
the volume of the body and is spent proportionally to the cube.
Suppose our organism has grown to a size twice as large, its
absorbing capacity has become four times larger, its volume eight
times larger. In case of 3 times, the difference will be 9 and 27.
It is obvious that at some point, all the absorbed food will be used
to maintain life and none will be left for growth, and this last
process will stop. This is another example which explains how the
theory of dimensions is vitally important in life and shows why it
is absolutely essential to take account of dimensions in the study
of life problems.
_ 2 An Outline of the History of the Western European Mind_, by James
Harvey Robinson. The New School for Social Research, New York, 1919.
This little volume gives condensed statements, as in a nutshell, of
the historical developments of the human mind and contains a long
list of the most substantial modern books on historical questions.
All the further historical quotations will be taken from this
exceptionally valuable little book, and for convenience they will
simply be marked by his initials—J. H. R.
3 (J. H. R.) “Late appearance of a definite theory of progress.
Excessive conservatism of primitive peoples. The Greeks speculated
on the origin of things, but they did not have a conception of the
possibility of indefinite progress ... Progress of man from the
earliest time till the opening of the 17th century almost altogether
unconscious.... Fundamental weakness of Hellenic learning. It was an
imposing collection of speculation, opinions, and guesses, which,
however brilliant and ingenious they might be, were based on a very
slight body of exact knowledge, and failed to recognize the
fundamental necessity of painful scientific research, aided by
apparatus. There was no steady accumulation of knowledge to offset
the growing emotional distrust of reason.... Unfulfilled promise of
Hellenistic science. Influence of slavery in checking the
development of science.... The deficiencies of Medieval culture. All
the weaknesses of the Hellenic reasoning, combined with those of the
Christian Fathers, underlay what appeared to be a most logically
elaborated and definitive system of thought. Defects of the
university education.... Little history of Natural science, in our
sense of the word, taught in the universities.... Copernicus, ‘De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.’ Libri VI, 1543.... Copernicus’
own introduction acknowledges his debt to ancient philosophers.
Still believed in fixed Starry Sphere. His discovery had little
immediate effect on prevailing notions. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)
made it his chief business to think out and set forth in Latin and
Italian the implications of the discovery of Copernicus.... Bruno
burned by the Inquisition at Rome.... Keppler (1571-1630) and his
discovery of the elliptical orbits of the planets. Galileo
(1564-1642). His telescope speedily improved so as to magnify 32
diameters. His attitude toward the Copernican theory, which was
condemned by Roman Inquisition 1616.... Galileo’s chief discoveries
were in physics and mechanics. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) proved that
the laws of falling bodies apply to the heavens. This made a deep
impression and finally the newer conceptions of the universe began
to be popularized.... Lord Bacon (1561-1626), the ‘Buccinator’ of
experimental and applied modern science.... His lively appreciation
of the existing obstacles to scientific advance; the idols of the
tribe, cave, market-place, and theatre.... Necessity of escaping
from the scholastic methods of ‘tumbling up and down in our reasons
and conceits,’ and studying the world about us. Undreamed of
achievements possible if only the right method of research be
followed ... the distrust of ancient authority.... Descartes
(1596-1650), ... he proposed to reach the truth through analysis and
clear ideas, on the assumption that God will not deceive.... His
fundamental interest in mathematics.... His claim to originality and
his rejection of all authority.... Obstacles to scientific advance;
the universities still dominated by Aristotle; the theological
faculties; the censorship of the press exercised by both church and
state; ...”
4 (J. H. R.) “Phases of religious complex. ‘Religious,’ a vague and
comprehensive term applied to: (1) certain classes of emotions (awe,
dependence, self-distrust, aspirations, etc.); (2) Conduct, which
may take the form of distinctive religious acts (ceremonies,
sacrifices, prayers, ‘good works’) or the observance of what in
primitive conditions are recognized as ‘taboos’; (3) Priestly, or
ecclesiastical organizations; (4) Beliefs about supernatural beings
and man’s relations to them: the latter may take the form of
revelation and be reduced to creeds and become the subject of
elaborate theological speculations.
“Association of religion with the supernatural; religion has always
had for its primary object the attainment of a satisfactory
adjustment to, or a successful control over, the supernatural....
The cultural mind viewed as the product of a long and hazardous
process of accumulation.... Spontaneous generation of superstitions.
Prevalence of symbolism, mana, animism, magic, fetishism, totemism;
the taboo (cf. our modern idea of ‘principle’), the sacred, clean
and unclean; ‘dream logic’—spontaneous rationalizing or ‘jumping at
conclusions’;... The 16th book of the Theodosian Code contains
edicts relating to the Church issued by the Roman Emperors during
the 4th and 5th centuries. They make it a crime to disagree with the
Church; they provide harsh penalties for heretical teaching and
writing, and grant privileges to the orthodox clergy (exemptions
from regular taxes and benefit of the clergy).... Christianity
becomes a monopoly defended by the state.... Psychological power and
attraction in the elaborate symbolism and ritual of the church....
Allegory put an end to all literary criticism.... Flourishing of the
miraculous; any unusual or startling occurrence attributed to the
intervention of either God or the Devil.... Older conceptions of
disease as caused by the Devil.... Our legal expression ‘act of God’
confined to unforseeable natural disasters. How with a growing
appreciation for natural law and a chastened taste in wonders,
miracles have tended to become a source of intellectual distress and
bewilderment.... Protestants shared with Roman Catholics the horror
of ‘rationalists’ and ‘free-thinkers.’ The leaders of both parties
agreed in hampering and denouncing scientific discoveries....
Witchcraft in its modern form emerges clearly in the 15th
century.... Great prevalence of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th
centuries in Protestant and Catholic countries, alike.... Trial of
those suspected of sorcery. Tortures to force confession. The
witches’ mark. Penalties, burning alive, strangling, hanging. Tens
of thousands of innocent persons perished.... Those who tried to
discredit witchcraft denounced as ‘Sadducees’ and atheists.... The
psychology of intolerance. Fear, vested interests, the comfortable
nature of the traditional and the habitual. The painful
appropriation of new ideas.... The intolerance of the Catholic
Church: a natural result of its state-like organization and
claims.... Its doctrine of exclusive salvation and its conception of
heresy both sanctioned by the state. Doubt and error regarded as
sinful.... Beginnings of censorship of the press after the invention
of printing, licensing of ecclesiastical and civil authorities....
Protestants of 16th century accept the theory of intolerance.”
5 (J. H. R.) “The Socio-psychological foundations of conservatism:
Primitive natural reverence for the familiar and habitual greatly
reenforced by religion and law. Natural conservatism of all
professions. Those who suffer most from existing institutions
commonly, helplessly accept the situation as inevitable. Position of
the conservative; he urges the impossibility of altering ‘human
nature’ and warns against the disasters of revolution. Conservatism
in the light of history: History would seem to discredit
conservatism completely as a working principle in view of the past
achievements of mankind in the recent past and the possibilities
which opened before us.... Futility of the appeal of the
conservative to human nature as an obstacle to progress.... Culture
can not be transmitted hereditarily but can be accumulated through
education and modified indefinitely.”
6 (J. H. R.) “Formulation and establishment of the evolutionary
hypothesis. Discovery of the great age of the earth; ... gradual
development of the evolutionary theory.... Darwin’s ‘Origin of the
Species,’ 1859. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903).... Haeckel (1834-1919)
and others clarify, defend and popularize the new doctrine.
Subsequent development of the evolutionary doctrine by Mendel,
Weisman, DeVries and others. Weakening of the special creation
theory by other evidence such as archeology and biblical criticism.
The significance of the doctrine for intellectual history. Character
of the opposition to the evolutionary theory. Popular confusion of
‘Darwinism’ with ‘evolution.’ Revolutionary effects of the new point
of view. Does away with conception of fixed species (Platonic ideas)
that had previously dominated speculation. The genetic method
adopted in all the organic sciences, including the newer social
sciences. Problem of adjusting history to the discoveries of the
past 50 years. Bearing of evolution on the theory of progress.
Organic evolution and social evolution.”
7 (J. H. R.) “The Deists and philosophers destroy the older
theological anthropology and reassert the dignity of man; the growth
of criticism and liberalism has made the analysis of social
institutions somewhat less dangerous; the general growth of
knowledge has reacted in a stimulating way upon the sciences of
society; the great increase in the number, complexity and intensity
of social problems has proved a strong incentive to social science;
The Darwinian hypothesis has rendered preposterous any conception of
a wholly static social system. However, the modern social sciences
in our capitalistic order meet much the same resistance from the
‘vested interests’ that theological radicalism encountered in the
Middle Ages, and social science has in no way approached the
objectivity and progressiveness of present day natural science....
Grave effects of vested rights in hampering experiments and
readjustments.... Obstacles to readjustment presented by consecrated
traditions.... Influence of modern commercialism in the inordinate
development of organization and regimentation in our present
educational system. Psychological disadvantages of our conventional
examination system. As yet our education has not been brought into
close relation with prevailing conditions of our ever increasing
knowledge.... Excellent aims and small achievements of sociology in
practical results. (_Because of absolute lack of any scientific
base._ Author.) General nature of the problem of social reform:
psychological problems involved in social reform movements: violent
resistance of the group to that criticism of the existing
institutions, which must precede any effective social reform....”
8 (J. H. R.) “During the past two centuries the application of the
scientific discoveries to daily life has revolutionized our methods
of supplying our economic needs, our social and intellectual life,
and the whole range of the relations of mankind. The impulse of
invention, iron, coal, and steam essential to the development of
machinery on a large scale; machinery has in turn begotten the
modern factory with its vast organized labor, the modern city and
finally, our well nigh perfect means of rapid human
inter-communication. The tremendous increase in the production of
wealth and the growing interdependence of nations has opened up a
vast range of speculation in regard to the betterment of mankind to
the abolition or reduction of poverty, ignorance, disease, and
war.... Man advances from a tool-using to a machine-controlling
animal. The rise of the factory system; the concentration and
localization of industry; increased division of labor and
specialization of industrial processes. The great increase in the
volume of capital and in the extent of investments; the separation
of capital and labor and the growth of impersonal economic
relationship. Problems of capital and labor; unemployment and the
labor of women and children; labor organizations. Increased
productivity and the expansion of commerce. Industrial processes
become dynamic and everchanging—a complete reversal of the old
stability, repetition and isolation.”
9 It may be contended by some that animals have been making “progress”
or some may say that animals also “bind-time.” This use of words
would again become mere verbalism, a mere talking about words—mere
speculation having nothing to do with _facts_ or with correct
thinking, in which there is no intermixing of dimensions. The
peculiar faculty belonging exclusively to humans which I designate
as “time-binding” I have clearly defined as an _exponential
function_ of _time_ in the following chapter. If people are pleased
to talk about the “progress” of animals, they can hardly fail to see
clearly that it differs both in function and in type or dimension
from what is rightly meant by human progress; human time-binding
capacity lies in an entirely different dimension from that of
animals. So, if any persons wish to talk of animal “progress” or
animal “time-binding,” they should invent a suitable word for it to
save them from the blunder of confusing types or mixing dimensions.
This mathematical discrimination between classes, types, dimensions
is of the utmost importance in the natural sciences, because of the
transmutation of species. To adjust the Darwin theory to
dimensionality is a somewhat more difficult problem; it involves the
concept of the “continuum”; but with the modern theory of de Vries,
these things are self evident. If animals really progress, which is
doubtful because they are an older form of life than humans and they
have not shown any noticeable progress to the knowledge of man,
their progress is so small in comparison with man’s that it may be
said, in mathematical terms, to be _negligible_ as an infinitesimal
of higher order.
10 It must be remembered here that our world is, first of all, a
dynamic conglomeration of matter and energy, which to-day, as well
as in the first period of primitive organic life, took and takes
different known and unknown forms. One of these forms of energy is
the chemical energy, with its tendency to combinations and
exchanges. Different elements act in different ways. The history of
the earth and its life is simply the history of different chemical
periods, with different transformations of energy. A strange fact is
to be noticed about nitrogen. Nitrogen chemically has an exceptional
inertness toward most other substances, but once it is a component
part of a substance, almost all of these combinations are a very
powerful source of energy, and all of them have a very strong effect
upon organic life. Nitric acid acts through oxidation, the
substances are burned up by the oxygen given off from the acid.
Nitric acid occurs in nature, in a combination called nitrates. From
the soil the nitrates pass into the plant. Nitrite of amyl acts upon
our organs in a most violent and spasmodic way. Nitrous oxide is the
so-called laughing gas.
Alkaloids are compounds of a vegetable origin, generally of complex
composition and capable of producing marked effects upon animals.
They all contain nitrogen. Explosives which are a chemical means of
storing tremendous amounts of energy, are mostly of some nitrogenous
compound. Albumen is an organic compound of great importance in
life, which, besides being the characteristic ingredient in the
white of an egg, abounds in the serum of the blood and forms an
important part of the muscles and brain. Albuminoids play the most
vital rôle in plant life and are an extensive class of organic
bodies found in plants and animals, as they are found to form the
chief constituents of blood, nerves. All albuminoids found in
animals are produced by the processes fulfilled in plants. Their
exact constitution is not known; analysis shows that they contain
approximately: Carbon 50-55%, Hydrogen 6.9-7.5%, Nitrogen 15-19%,
Oxygen 20-24%, Sulphur 0.3-2.0%. Venous blood contains in 100
volumes: Nitrogen, 13; Carbonic Acid, 71.6; Oxygen, 15.3. Arterial
blood: Nitrogen, 14.5; Carbonic Acid, 62.3; Oxygen, 23.2.
“Nitrogenous compounds in general, are extremely prone to
decomposition; their decomposition often involving a sudden and
great evolution of force. We see that substances classed as ferments
... are all nitrogenous ... and we see that even in organisms and
parts of organisms where the activities are least, such changes as
do take place are initiated by a substance containing nitrogen....
We see that organic matter is so constituted that small incidental
actions are capable of initiating great reaction and liberating
large quantities of power.... The seed of a plant contains
nitrogenous substances in a far higher ratio than the rest of the
plant; and the seed differs from the rest of the plant in its
ability to initiate ... extensive vital changes—the changes
constituting germination. Similarly in the bodies of animals ... in
every living vegetal cell there is a certain part that contains
nitrogen. This part initiates these changes which constitute the
development of the cell.... It is a curious and significant fact
that, in technology, we not only utilize the same principle of
initiating extensive changes among comparatively stable compounds by
the help of compounds much less stable, but we employ for the
purpose compounds of the same general class. Our modern method of
firing a gun is to place in close proximity with the gunpowder which
we choose to decompose or explode, a small portion of fulminating
powder, which is decomposed or exploded with extreme facility, and
which on decomposing, communicates the consequent molecular
disturbances to the less easily decomposed gunpowder. When we ask
what this fulminating powder is composed of, we find that it is a
nitrogenous salt.”—Spencer.
11 Of course, the geometric progression does not represent _precisely_
the law of human progression; it is here employed because it is
familiar and serves, better perhaps than any other simple
mathematical means, to show _roughly_ how human progress goes on.
The essential elements of a progression are the first term _P_ and
the ratio _R_ and the number of the terms _T_; in the human
progression _PR__1__, PR__2__, PR__3__, ... PR__T__, P_ is the
starting status of the first generation, _R_ is the peculiar
capacity of humans to bind time and is a _free gift_ and _law_ of
_nature_, which it would be folly not to recognize and accept as
such, _T_ is time, or number of generations. It is obvious that the
magnitude, _PR__T_, is entirely dependent on the magnitudes of _PR_,
and _T_. The existence of _R_ and _T_ is independent of humans, _R_
being a law of nature, _T_ a gift of nature, _P_ the starting status
of the initial generation. With _P = 0_ or _R = 0_ THERE WOULD BE NO
PROGRESS or progression at all; each term in the case of human
progression is mainly dependent upon the time and the work done by
the dead. The existence of _R_ and _T_ is entirely beyond human
control. Humans can control only the MAGNITUDE of those elements by
education. Here comes the tremendous responsibility of education. It
is not necessary to use much imagination to see that if humanity had
always been rightly educated, science would have long ago discovered
the natural forces and laws essential to human welfare, and human
misery would to-day be relatively small.
12 See Appendix III.